Three for Thursday

1. Somebody in my “most expensive” league just traded Maurice Jones Drew to get the powerful entity known as Antwaan Randel El. Like any other college football fan of the 90’s, I have a certain appreciation for Mr. Randel El that, upon further review, trumps his actual value – so sure, I always see the former Hoosier, the former Steeler, on a fantasy roster. What I don’t see is, in a league where you keep two players, trading a guy as talented as Drew away for a possession receiver that has never been big enough to catch more than a couple touchdown passes. The reasoning behind this whacky trade, you ask: “I didn’t have a third receiver for Week 4.” Oh sweet mother of God. And, “I wasn’t using Jones Drew anyway.” – With Antonio Bryant, Jordy Nelson, Michael Clayton, Donnie Avery, Roscoe Parrish (AR-El 2), and others just playing dominoes on the free agent list, it seems like a ridiculous thing to trade a guy you picked in the first non-keeper round for a receiver that had one decent (not great) week. These kind of trades should be punishable. I see them every year, and they are frustrating. Especially when I don’t get in on them! Damn the man! 

2. Chris Perry’s value. I love what this kid is doing. He really looks good running the ball in Cincinnati – nobody has done that since Rudi was healthy. Perry has speed, vision, and he can catch passes. He hasn’t really played in three years, so you have to believe that he can only get better from here, plus he hasn’t been playing the easiest of defenses either (Baltimore, New York Giants, Tennessee). He plays Dallas next week, then Pittsburgh two weeks after that, but he won’t have a three game schedule tougher than the one he started the season with. If you can get Perry for cheap, and could use some running back help, go for the roses, sir. If he stays healthy, he’ll be a surprise Top 15 running back this season. That’s starter material. 

3. Old Quarterback Show: What do Kurt Warner, Brett Favre, Trent Green, Gus Frerotte, Jake Delhomme, Kerry Collins, Damon Huard, and Brian Griese have in common? Besides the fact that every one of their old asses is starting in Week 4, they are all very close to being grandpas. Okay, maybe not Grandpas, but closer to 40 than 30 usually isn’t the best thing in this league. But this is why they are all semi-successful at the very least, and starting over younger talents. Unlike the young quarterbacks that enter the league nowadays, these guys all got a chance to learn the game over time. They weren’t rushed into anything, hell, some didn’t even start their pro-careers in the National Football League. But they were taught the right way. They weren’t thrown into a sack-happy-frenzy like David Carr, and they weren’t dumbed down right off the bat like Kyle Boller, Tarvaris Jackson, or Matt Leinart. These guys learned their respective offenses, put in work on the sidelines, saw how it was supposed to be done, and now they’ve been doing it for a long, long time. Gotta love it.

Ten for Tuesday: Week 4

  1. Aint no business like upset business: Just when the NFL was getting nice and predictable, I get home from my city league flag football game and the Giants, Patriots, and Bills are all losing to the Bengals, Dolphins, and Raiders. The Dolphins are the only team that ended up winning, but boy o boy, this weekend has shown me that anything is possible in the NFL. That being said, I still like the Pats to play well, the Dolphins to win less than 6 games, and the Raiders to do the stupidest thing ever next time they lose by a big margin, fire the only sane guy making decisions in Oakland.
  2. On that note, Al Davis is a freak, idiot, moron, team killer, cheap, useless, wretch of a man that needs someone to fire his own ass. There it is, I said it. The guy is lost in his hair gel and I’m sick of his ridiculous antics. He wants to fire Lane Kiffin. Unfortunately for him, Lane is a good coach. Hmmm…. Tough deal for Al. So what will he do? I know, he’ll wait for the Raiders to play like crap and then try to fire him. And his stubborn ass will try not to pay Lane, too, like Kiffin’s cheap NFL coach salary is a tough hit for this dope. I officially hate the Raiders, and it’s all because of the moron calling the shots from his stupid box seats. Hate.
  3. Michael Turner is still a beast. He may have not gone off for 220 yards, but who cares right, The Burner busted off three touchdowns and is showing everyone why I “reached” for him in almost every league I play in. I just hope he can do work against decent defenses – we’ll see.
  4. Speaking of going off, how about this Ronnie Brown guy? Ronnie is way too talented to be a back-up for long, just ask that Dolphin staff. Last week the Fins had Ronnie basically run their offense – and he didn’t do too bad either. Brown accounted for 5 touchdowns, rushing in four times and tossing one just to even things out a bit. That’s not even the most impressive part, he did everything left handed – amazing. Ronnie showed last season that he can be a special player. His offensive line is better, and if he keeps getting 20 carries he’s a steal for all of those guys that just traded Antwaan Randel El to get him. (that’s me – and by the way, Ronnie is left handed)
  5. Lost in the mucky muck – if you waited this long to pick up Deion Branch and Bobby Engram it might be too late. However, there’s a chance that everyone is lost in the seasonal muck and Branch and Engram have slipped through some muddy fingers. If that’s the case you might want to turn in your “sleepers” and get some proven guys that are coming back to an offense that desperately needs them. Run!
  6. Thank Goodness for meaningless fantasy points: Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers – who knew it would be these two former teammates cashing in for fantasy owners everywhere with nothing on the line. Rodgers turned some late game passing into 290 yards and a rushing touchdown for a pretty solid day, while Brett threw 2 of his 3 touchdowns in the 4th quarter of a game they had very little chance to succeed. Does that make a players numbers skewed? I don’t know – tough call. I know that a bunch of points is better than a little, no matter how you look at it. Bad fantasy teams can have good fantasy air attacks, that’s for sure, ask the Cardinals of yesteryear.
  7. Maurice Jones Drew is awesome. That’s right, if you’ve ever listened to an interview, watched him do all that he does during a game, paid any attention to this little mighty mouse whatsoever, you have to love the kid. The Jaguars were 0-2. They went to the film, went to their roster, and said, “We should probably get the best player on the field the ball a little more, it might open up some things for us.” Uh, yeah. Fred Taylor is legit, but Jones Drew’s effort and rushing style is infectious. All of a sudden the Jaguars believed in their chances and they got it done on the road in Indy. Lets hope, for JD’s sake and his owners’ fantasy hopes, that they don’t forget who gives them the best chance to get Ws.
  8. Carson Palmer is back? I don’t know for sure, but I’m going with yes. He sure looked loss over the past few weeks, counting the pre-season. But his confidence was back against a very good pass rush from New York. He didn’t get Ocho Cinco the ball very often, but he did throw some nice passes and seemed to have figured himself out a bit yesterday. Good stuff. I recently got a trade offer giving me Santana Moss and Palmer for Tony Romo. I turned it down, but I might be regretting that. I still think Romo is in line for one of the best fantasy seasons among all quarterbacks, but that combo might have been good for me. If you trust that Carson turned the corner, go for the gusto, if you are still weary, hold off on his value.
  9. Vikings/Titans = Frerote/Collins? Crazy. The Titans are 3-0 and Collins is doing enough to keep defenses at least a little bit honest. The Vikings won their first game this last week, and that was Frerote’s first game action this year. Do these guys really give their teams a better chance to win than Tarvaris Jackson and Vince Young? Right now it looks like yes is the answer. It should be interesting to see if either quarterback does well this coming Sunday. Neither defense allows much on the ground, so if the Titans or Vikes want to win, the pressure will be on the back-ups shoulders.
  10. Chris Collinsworth: Okay, I played Madden ’09. Why, of all freaking annoying terrible people would the Madden group put Chris Collinsworth’s stupid voice all over a pretty good game? I have to play the thing on mute – I’m dead serious. Chris has passed up even the horrendous Bill Walton as the worst announcer this side of that dumb broad that gabbed on and on during diving in the olympics. I don’t care if he was a receiver with some talent, he’s a brutal football announcer and I’d rather listen to crickets chirp.

One for Wednesday

In-Vince-is-able: It’s starting to get weird for the former star Texas Longhorn. This summer there was some stuff that surfaced about how Vince didn’t want to play ball at one point during his second season, about how he couldn’t handle all the criticism and just didn’t want to deal with the pressure. He talked about how he felt that way a while back, but now things were different. Maybe they are not so different after all. Vince is supposedly considering hanging it up, and the Titans look to be making the moves to accommodate the big fella. Tennessee Titans added Chris Simms to back-up Kerry Collins, and some have said that Vince won’t get the starting gig if and when he returns to the team healthy. I personally hope he gets back and proves his critics wrong, but he won’t be able to do it solely on his talent. Vince really has to study and give his heart to this game or he’ll always deal with these problems. Right now, if I’m a Vince Young owner, I’m worried. I’m scrounging the waiver wire and doing my best to pick up a viable 2nd option. Kerry Collins, in my opinion, hurts the rushing attack but helps make the receivers, tight-ends, and pass catching backs more relevant. Against tough pass rushing opponents, I just don’t see the Titans doing much on the ground. I could be wrong, and we’ll see early, but things just got interesting in Tennessee.