The Lions might be good this year? and other thoughts

I'll be honest, I like what the Lions have done this offseason.  They have actually acquired some talent and addressed some glaring needs...like every position.  I think Matt Stafford will be fine as long as he can not get sandwiched between the ground and some beast of a man more than twice per game.  They have made great strides to shore up their D line especially, and I think Suh will be one of the best players in the NFL within a few years.  One thing's for sure, I am not pleased that Adrian Peterson will have to see this beast twice per year.  Let's hope he never sees this side of Suh. I love the acquisition of Burleson and Scheffler.  And I think the move to get Jahvid Best was one of the "Best" in the draft.  Whereas Kevin Smith might be one of the NFL's most boring running backs, Best will provide some excitement.  I do expect Smith to still see plenty of action, but there might be something more like a White/Johnson split of two years ago.  It's a pity they play in one of the hardest divisions in the NFL, but I must say that I am impressed with their obvious desire to improve.  I will be cheering for them next year, save when Peterson is on the other side of the ball (not that I'm keeping him or anything).
I also like what the Redskins have done, but that backfield is going to be typical Shanahan when it comes to fantasy.  And who is McNabb going to throw to?  At any rate, this team will be useless from a fantasy perspective. 
What were the Bills thinking drafting Spiller?  It just seems to me that they have many more pressing needs than another running back.  How about a pass rush?  How about a better O-line?  How about a wide receiver?  What was once an exciting rookie prospect just became much less exciting.
And finally, what in the hell was Al Davis thinking when he made the decision to draft Rolando McClain?  Did he not see this guy's 40 time?  This is actually a good pick, and an outrage! Maybe Davis has become so senile that he couldn't remember where the war room was, and they made the pick without him.

My Keeper Debate Just Got a Little More Intense

Now that Drew Brees is a potential victim for the Madden curse, I really need to start evaluating my priorities for potential keepers. Couldn't they just put Big Ben on the cover this year and take the guessing element out of it?

I'm glad I didn't keep Chris Johnson after all

I can't have my players driving around in things like this. It's insulting to the rest of my squad.

Goings On in the League

Gents,
It seems like it was so long ago that I (make that Jamaal Charles) thoroughly beat Taylor's ass in the championship game.  And yet, it was nary even 3 months ago.  I know most of you jerks are distracted by basketball for some reason right now, but since I don't have that handicap, I thought I would write a little note about some interesting developments in the past few months/weeks.

1. Thomas Jones WILL BE RELEASED sometime this week.  Sources say this will happen March 5. It looks like Tyler might have at least one keeper (Shonn Greene) on his team now.  As for Jones, this is interesting.  It's kind of hard to tell if he still has it or if the Jets' O-line was just that good.  Either way, I see a couple of teams who might be interested in picking him up: the Lions and perhaps the Patriots.  I would say Seattle but I doubt they would want both of the Joneses in their backfield.

2. LT was released.  This is no surprise.  I don't think he's got it anymore, and I think you would be wise to stay away from him, but, again, I could see the Lions and maybe the Hawks making him an offer.  Obviously, LT wouldn't want to play for the classless Bill Belichik.

3. Along those lines, Sproles wasn't offered a deal by the Chargers.  This is kind of surprising to me because the Chargers totally lack any depth if Sproles gets away. Now that I think about it, they might want to bring Thomas Jones aboard for some experience in the backfield.  They can probably get him for a fair price and they must have some confidence in Michael Bennett since he'll be all that's left.  I wasn't particularly impressed during the limited action he saw last season.

4. T.O. is out of Buffalo and headed...?  Sources seem to think that the Ravens are pretty interested.  Maybe they can bring back Jerry Rice and round out their receiving corps with Michael Irvin to complete the oldest bunch of wideouts ever to suit up.

5. Westbrook is gone.  This isn't really a surprise either.  Will McCoy be able to replace him?  It sure didn't seem that way, but Brandon's hoping he will.

Those are actual happenings, but I am pretty excited about this draft.  It is supposedly running-back heavy, but I'm not buying it.  This class might be one of the hardest to project into fantasy production, although that picture may clear once the draft actually happens.  I heard Best and Spiller both ran sub 4.4 40's, so Al Davis is probably going to try to make a move.  The Raiders definitely need more speed and another RB.

It will also be interesting to see what happens in the Cowboys' and Giants' backfields.  It seems oddly crowded, yet somehow necessary with how injury-prone they all are.  Alas, there aren't many really difficult keeper decisions to be made this off-season as I see it.  Taylor definitely has the toughest decision, especially if that Carolina backfield gets separated.  I rank Jason second in the decision-making dilemma.  I'm hoping there is a little more aggressiveness in the trade market from the perennial Loser's Bracket contenders.

Random Thoughts

I encourage all of you to take a look at the player rankings in our league for each position.  For those of you that don't know how to do this, you go to our league, select the players tab, sort by "status" (all offense), and then pick the position.  Finally, click Fan Pts to arrange them in order.  There are some really interesting observations to be made.
1) Chris Johnson was 98 points ahead of the next closest running back Adrian Peterson. 
2) In hindsight, the Johnson success makes sense with the reduced role of White that no one believed would happen.  That being the case, in my mind, Thomas Jones was the running back surprise of the season as the 4th best running back.  Cedric Benson and Ricky Williams both had great years, but TJ was simply consistently great and I thought for sure he was about to lose his job coming into the season.  I don't count Ray Rice as a surprise.
3) Jamaal Charles was ridiculous down the stretch, and I give him the "DeAngelo Williams' 2008" award. He finished ahead of Steven Jackson, DeAngelo, Forte, and Turner on the season even though he didn't really get going until Week 10.  Even so, he still ended up as the 9th highest scoring running back.  
4) The most disappointing running back of the year had to be Steve Slaton.  That's a no-brainer.
5) A-Rod (353 pts) blew away all other QB's this season. He was followed by Brees (319), Schaub (312), Manning (305), Big Ben (300), Romo (298), Brady (296), and Favre (293).  Although Brees and Manning did get rested at the end.
6) I'd say Warner was the most disappointing QB this season with 232 points.  This fell in between Eli Manning and Kyle Orton.
7) Andre Johnson is the man, but the WR surprise of the season has to be Miles Austin.  Austin finished #2 in the league, with only 9 points behind Johnson, yet he didn't really get a chance until his coming out party in Week 5. Even as great as they were though, they still didn't outscore the top 6 RBs.
8) Larry Fitzgerald and Carolina's Steve Smith are tied for the biggest disappointments.  They performed adequately, but the bar was pretty high for both of them coming into the season, and they didn't measure up.
9) As for tight-ends, I don't think Vernon Davis will go undrafted next year. He finally realized his potential this season as the #1 TE, although Dallas Clark was right there if Indy didn't rest their starters. 
10) Finally, the Defenses...I had the Jets (181), Niners (181), Packers (174), and Eagles (175) rated pretty highly before the season started, but not as high as the Steelers (129), Ravens (161), or Giants (110).  In my mind, New Orleans' D (173) was the biggest surprise and the Giants and Steelers are tied for the biggest disappointments.

I don't give a shit about kickers and I think we should remove them from the team next year.   

Championship

First:
I'm glad I didn't play McNabb after all, because that was the single most exciting fantasy football comeback I have ever had the pleasure of taking part.

Second:
I want to point out that someone living in my house has been in the Championship game since this league's inception.  I'm just going to throw it out there that 3267 Jasper Park is a Mecca of fantasy football.

Third:
I am eagerly looking forward to destroying Taylor next week and improving the trophy while it is in my possession for the next few years.

Another Instant Classic

If any of you were watching last night, and I suspect that every single one of you were, you were witness to another instant classic between Jason and myself. For the past three years I've wondered why our rivalry sparks such epic and remembered games. Honestly, it could be a combination of many reasons. Here is what we know:

1. We are both, literally, willing to die in pursuit of victory.
2. Neither of us is concerned with individual stats, pretty wins, or highlight reels.
3. We both deeply care about our personal legacy and how history will remember us.
4. Because we have received so much from the game, we are both committed to giving even more back to it, especially to the children and handicaps.

When you have two men who turn a blind eye to the amount of blood shed, who care so deeply about the game that their penises get hard just thinking about it, and who blatantly disregard all personal responsibilities that lie outside of the game then you have something special. We need each other. We push one another to strive for an even greater greatness. Without Jason, these three straight championship games would mean much, much less to me. Without me, Jason would have left this league after year one to find some real competition.

So after reaching my third championship game in three years how do I feel? Well, pretty fucking good. I do have to admit that Jason's team, by the end of the year, was much better than mine. As Jason surely knows, and any of you who were watching would know, Jason should have beaten me last night. We were tied 86-86 with about a half to play. I had Braylon Edwards and Maurice Morris doing nothing. There was no indication either of them could do anything as well. Sure, Morris could have busted a 64 yarder like last week, but the 49ers were bottling him up, and the Lions were forced to throw most downs due to the score and lack of time. Jason had Anquan Boldin at 116 yards receiving before the first half was over, and was stopped on the one yard line. He also had Brandon Marshall on a Broncos team that was having a lot of trouble running the ball and only moving effectively when throwing. He also had touchdown maching Vernon Davis against the Lions for an entire half. I end up winning 89-85. That's right - in that entire second half Jason lost a point. Marshall lost seven yards receiving that were actually rushing yards and it took a point away. I got ten yards from Morris and an Edwards two point conversion to win. I really had a pretty bad week besides Jonathan Stewart running for over 200 and a score and Antonio Gates catching 70 yards and a score. We both had some misplays that would have won it for us, but overall Jason was the better team. I just got extremely lucky.