NFL Preseason Preview 8/25/2011

Three preseason games in store for tonight. I'll have fantasy thoughts on all 3 late tonight or tomorrow. Here's a few things I'll be watching.

Carolina-Cincinnati
If Andy Dalton doesn't look any better in the Bengals 3rd preseason game then they seriously have to consider going with Bruce Gradkowski to start the season.
Certainly watching Cam Newton as well. As long as he avoids injury tonight and in the 4th preseason game, then he's the week 1 starter. More importantly though, can he get in a rythm with guys like Steve Smith and Greg Olsen.

Cleveland-Philadelphia
I'll go out on a limb and say that Vick plays a little better against Cleveland D than he did against Pitt D (crazy right lol). Whatever tonights outcome, I think he's still going a little high in most fantasy drafts.
Browns have a number of guys I have late round interest in. Colt McCoy has been fantastic so far in the preseason. We usually see the starters the longest in the 3rd preseason game, so we should see quite a bit of McCoy against that highly publicized Eagles secondary. Also watching Greg Little, who sounds like the real deal, and running back Montario Hardesty. Right now Little's definitely worth a late round flier. Hardesty was on many sleeper lists so we'll see what he can do.
Watch the Browns TE's as well for possible midseason pickups. Ben Watson was a favorite of McCoys last year and Evan Moore reminds many of Jermichael Finley.

Washington-Baltimore
Looks the Redskins will start John Beck but we should see plenty of Rex Grossman as well. Both guys have looked good in the preseason but it sounds like the staff really wants Beck under center week 1.
Ryan Torain's still out which should give Roy Helu the chance to backup Tim Hightower early in the season. Keeping an eye on him tonight.
Like what I saw between Joe Flacco and Lee Evans last week against the Chiefs. A similar performance tonight and Evans becomes a legit WR3.

Few Fantasy Thoughts from Saturday 8/13/2011 Preseason Games

Here are a few thinks I noticed in Saturday's preseason action that may have some impact on your fantasy season.

 

Colt McCoy and the Cleveland offense has looked great so far scoring on 2 of their first 3 drives. McCoy is 9/10 for 135 yards and 1 TD. Hillis finished off the other drive with a 3 yard TD but it was McCoy that got them down the field with 2 passes to TE Ben Watson for 56 yards. McCoy also did a nice job of spreading the ball around, completing passes to 6 different receivers in this short time. I'll definitely be watching this Browns offense the rest of the preseason.

 

The Packers have announced Ryan Grant as the starter, but it was clear on their first few series that James Starks will be fairly involved as well.

 

Sam Bradford was looking towards rookie TE Lance Kendricks quite a bit tonight. 4 targets, 3 grabs, 29 yards, and TD. And it looks like Feely just hit him with a 9 yard reception. Kendricks could add even more depth to the TE position.

In Carolina, Greg Olsen is having an even better night than Kendricks. Between Clausen & Newton he's been targeted 4 times for 3 receptions, 58 yards, and a score.

 

We've now seen 30 of 32 teams in action. The New York Jets and Houston Texans play Monday.

Some Preseason Thoughts from Games on 8/12/2011

Few things I noticed last night.

Matt Ryan made it a point to find Julio Jones. 4 catches, 2 targets for 43 yards, and 1 carry for 12 yards. He should be a major factor in the Falcons offense.
Michael Turner looked better than I expected. I'll bump him up a couple spots in my rankings and will keep an eye on him the rest of the preseason.

Matthew Stafford looked really good going 6 for 7 for 71 yards and 2 TDs. One to Megatron and the other a great catch by Burleson in the endzone. He could easily be a top 10 fantasy QB if healthy.

Tim Hightower looked decent against Pitt D. He managed 4 carries for 30 yards and 1 reception for 8 yards on his first 5 touches. He did struggle after that only gaining 14 yards on his next 6 carries, but positive things overall.

5 more preseason games going tonight. Packers/Browns starts on NFL Network in about an hour. Will have some fantasy thoughts on these games tonight/tomorrow.

Updated Fantasy QB, RB, & WR Top 25

Here's my updated fantasy rankings for the QB, RB, & WR positions. This is through preseason games on Thursday, August, 11th.

QB

Elite Tier:

1) Rodgers

2) Vick

2^nd Tier:

3) Brady

4) Manning: fantastic schedule the last 4 weeks

5) Brees

6) Romo

7) Rivers: think people are overrating him a little

3rd Tier:

8) Big Ben: amazing passing schedule; targeting him

9) Ryan

10) Schaub

4^th Tier:

11) Freeman

12) Eli

13) Bradford

14) Stafford

5^th Tier:

15) Flacco: could move to 4^th tier but his lack of WRs hurts him

16) Cutler: really tough passing schedule; not very high on him at all

17) Kolb 

6^th Tier:

18) Orton

19) Fitzpatrick

20) Sanchez

21) Cassel

 

7^th Tier:

22) Campbell

23) McNabb

24) McCoy

25) Hasselbeck

RB

Elite Tier:

1) C. Johnson

2) Peterson

3) Foster

4) Rice: either #2 or #1 in PPR leagues

2^nd Tier:

5) McCoy: couple spots higher in PPR league

6) Charles

7) McFadden

8) Mendenhall

3^rd Tier:

9) Gore

10) MJD

11) S. Jackson

12) Forte: probably top 10 in PPR leagues

4^th Tier: having a tough time separating 4^th & 5^th Tiers

13) Blount: probably a little lower in PPR leagues

14) Bradshaw

15) Turner

16) Greene: little lower in PPR leagues; could be a touch high

17) Hillis: could move up spot or 2 w/ Hardesty’s knee still injured

18) Best: could still move up a spot or 2: maybe 16

5^th Tier: lots of quality in this tier

19) D. Williams

20) Grant

21) Ingram: could flip w/ Grant

22) F. Jones: little higher in PPR leagues

23) Moreno

24) Thomas: have dropped a couple spots because of this Bush nonsense

25) Wells

WR

Elite Tier:

1) A. Johnson

2) Megatron

3) R. White

4) Fitzgerald

2^nd Tier:

5) Nicks

6) Wallace

7) Jennings

8) V. Jackson: maybe a little lower in PPR leagues

3^rd Tier:

9) Austin

10) Wayne: maybe a little higher in PPR leagues

11) Marshall: maybe a little higher in PPR leagues

12) D. Jackson: definitely lower in PPR leagues

4^th Tier:

13) Bryant

14) M. Williams

15) Bowe

16) S. Johnson

5^th Tier:

17) Holmes

18) Maclin: likely to plummet in my rankings soon because of this mystery illness

19) Manningham

20) Welker: little higher in PPR leagues

6^th Tier:

21) Harvin: couple spots higher if he returns kicks but not much; lots of touchbacks this year

22) Lloyd

23) Britt

24) Colston

25) Collie

26) Ochocinco

Please feel free to leave a comment or you can email me at blakes.posting.email@gmail.com

NFL Preseason Thoughts from 8/11/2011

A few fantasy football things of note from Thursday nights preseason action:

Tolbert and Matthews each got 2 carries on the 1 drive they played, but Tolbert with the short receiving TD. Looks like carries will be about even and as expected Tolbert will get passing down work. He should be drafted higher than Matthews.

Dallas got the ball in Felix Jones' hands on 4 of 8 plays on their opening drive. He responded well with 39 total yards (23 rushing & 16 receiving). Looks like the Cowboys plan to get him heavily involved. We'll see if he can hold up with that many touches.

Vick looks good even without his top 2 WRs. And it looks like Jason Avant and Riley Cooper can be capable fill ins at WR. With Maclin's mystery illness, both are worth targeting late in fantasy drafts.

Someone to keep an eye on for the rest of the preseason is Steven Ridley. The LSU rookie had a big debut last night with 16 carries for 64 yards and 2 TDs plus 7 receptions for 47 yards and another score.
Of course it all came against 2nd and 3rd stringers but still worth noting.

Haven't check the exact numbers yet, but it seems like there were quite a few touchbacks last night. I imagine with the league moving kickoffs up this will become the norm. If anyone's in a return yards league then don't expect return numbers similar to years past. Return men simply won't be getting the same number of opportunities this season.

Miami/Atlanta; Cincinnati/Denver; Pittsburgh/Washington; San Francisco/New Orleans; & Tampa Bay/Kansas City are all tonight. Check back on Saturday and I'll have some fantasy thoughts from those games.

Few thoughts on initial 2011 NFL depth charts

Kansas City Chiefs RB:
Just like 2010, washed up Thomas Jones will likely start the season as #1 on the Chiefs depth chart. Don't get me wrong, it's nice to have Jones around to give Charles a breather, but this equal carry crap is for the birds. You'd think after Charles averaged about 7 yards a carry and Jones averaged about 3 yards this would be a no brainer. But unfortunately, nothing's a no brainer when Todd Haley's involved.  The Chiefs winning in 2010 was in spite of the clueless Haley, not because of him.

Washington Redskins QB:
Rex Grossman (emphasis on the Gross part) is at the top of the initial Redskins depth chart. Most reports have Mike Shanahan leaning towards John Beck as the starter, but he hasn't been practicing so Grossman atop the depth chart comes as no surprise. Regardless how this works out, Washington might have the worst starting QB in the NFL.

Miami Dolphins RB:
When the Dolphins acquired Reggie Bush, head coach Tony Sparano claimed the team was getting a 12-15 carry a game back. It sounded crazy at the time, but I think most people blew it off as a coach just going on about a new player the team had acquired. Well, I guess the Dolphins are still having those same dilusional thoughts because they've placed Reggie Bush at the top of their RB depth chart. I'm not dropping Daniel Thomas in my rankings because there's 2 simple outcomes here and both benefit him. The first is that Miami comes to its senses and makes Bush the complimentary back that he is. The second would be that the Dolphins actually keep Bush as the starter. They give him starter's touches and he lasts all of two games.

Carolina Panthers QB:
Jimmy Clausen has been named the starter for now but both QBs will get opportunities to start preseason games. I'd expect Cam Newton to open the season as the starter. He's the far more exciting player and the team drafted him 1st overall to put fans in the seats.

Fantasy Thoughts for 8/8/2011

Have a few fantasy thoughts from today.

Lions rookie RB Mikel Leshoure blew out his ACL today and his year's over. As a result I'll be moving Jahvid Best up in my RB rankings. I think he has to be considered a top 20 back now.

In an incident from the Twilight Zone, the Dolphins have announced Reggie Bush their starting running back. It's tough to name a guy your starter who can't run between the tackles. I don't think I'll worry too much about this right now since I still expect Thomas to wind up getting most the work.

The Ravens signed Ricky Williams as the clear backup to Ray Rice. He could be worth a late round stash but without an injury to Rice he has little to no value.

Review of ESPN's 2011 Mock Fantasy Football Draft 2.0

I don’t know if anyone has checked out the ESPN 2011 Mock Fantasy Draft 2.0, but considering these people do this for a living it’s pretty pathetic.  Only about half the league is able to produce respectable teams.  Not to mention the fact that it’s a standard league and only 10 teams.

As I said, not everyone’s team is terrible, just at least half of them.

Christopher Harris

I feel like he was able to put together a very solid draft from top to bottom and according to my rankings appears to have the best team. Chris Johnson, Run DMC, & Jahvid Best form one of the 2 best RB trios in this league.  Beanie Wells is a low end RB2 that somehow falls to Harris in the 9^th round.  He also gets great value in all 3 of his WRs in Wallace, Holmes, & Collie.

Plus he’s able to pair an underrated Big Ben (many terrible secondaries on that sched.) with Wallace.

Eric Karabell & Jim McCormick

For the most part I like both of these teams and think they’re probably the 2^nd & 3^rd best squads.

Karabell has a great backfield with his first 3 picks in Mendenhall, Gore, & Forte.  I like his Schaub & Ryan strategy.  He probably winds up with a top 6 or 7 QB option every week.  Good luck picking which one though.  The group of Bowe, Lloyd, S. Rice, & Ochocinco lacks a star but he should be alright only having to choose 2.

My one concern with McCormick’s team is Hillis in the 3^rd round, but if he works out then a team of Peyton Manning, Ray Rice, Shonn Greene, Calvin Johnson, Jeremy Maclin, & Brandon Marshall looks very strong.

James Quintong

Not amazed by anything and nothings too terrible.  Tomlinson in the 10^th kind of seems like a wasted pick and he needs a stronger 3^rd RB than Addai in a 10 team league, but I guess he did okay.

Dave Hunter

The drafting’s starting to get a little iffy now. Benjarvus Green Ellis in the 5^th round and as the 22^nd RB is terrible.  If New England has such confidence in him then why did they draft 2 backs in the first 3 rounds?  And even though he got him late, I’m not at all a fan of his TE Chris Cooley.  He’s been limping around training camp and that offense is going to be so terrible.  Maybe you can start him in a PPR but no way in a standard league.  I wouldn’t have wasted a 9^th round pick on Spiller in a standard league either.  Otherwise I guess his team is alright.

Keith Lipscomb

And then our drafters take a full on turn for the worse.  After putting together a respectable core, Lipscomb begins his reach campaign.  The 8^th round is high for an aging WR in Plaxico Burress who hasn’t played in a couple seasons.  Then in the 10^th he takes Ronnie Brown who is nothing more than a McCoy handcuff, only Lipscomb doesn’t have McCoy.  His draft highlight comes in the 11th though where he becomes the first person to pick a defense, 2 full rounds higher than the next D selected.

Tristan Crockcroft

Crockcroft grabs DeAngelo Williams in the 4^th round and then takes Jonathan Stewart in the 6^th round as his flex/3^rd RB.  No way that Carolina offense is good enough to warrant playing both backs so this puts Crockcroft in a tough situation depending on the split.  The drop to his 4^th RB isn’t much better as he reaches for the clear #2 in Green Bay, James Starks in the 8^th rounds.  Then Crockcroft feels it necessary to take 2 tight ends with Zach Miller in the 9^th and Mercedes Lewis in the 13^th.  Taking 2 tight ends is like taking a defense in the 11^th round.  It’s something that professional fantasy writers should know not to do.

Nate Ravitz

No way I could take Vick as the 1^st QB in the 1^st round of a 10 team draft, but Nate Ravitz disagrees.  For his 2^nd round pick and top RB, he grabs Michael Turner, who has many people worried about the number high number of carries he’s got the last few years.  But I doubt Ravitz worries about trivial things like that.  Then, I’m sure he’s thrilled to get one of Vick’s targets, DeSean Jackson, for his #1 WR. The problem here is that Jackson had all of 47 receptions last year, and even in a standard league, I’m just not sure a guy with that low of a reception total can be your #1 WR.

A number of rounds later, Ravitz starts seeing visions of Mike Martz dancing in his head.  He grabs Johnny Knox in the 10^th which I think is an all alright pick, but then follows it up with Roy Williams in the 11^th (back to back Bears WRs?).  With his 12^th pick he takes the broken down and finished Marion Barber.

Brendan Roberts

If it wasn’t for good ole Stephania Bell this team would probably be the worst.  Like an amateur, Roberts decides to pull slot machine after slot machine at RB.  He ignores all Maurice Jones Drew warning signs and takes him 7^th overall.  Then for his 2^nd back he takes San Diego’s Ryan Matthews, who reported to camp out of shape and is losing GL, short yardage, and passing downs to Tolbert.  Because Roberts hadn’t quite gambled enough on his RBs yet, he took one more chance in the 5^th round on lazy bum Cedric Benson.  He did manage a nice find with Mark Ingram in the 7^th, but inexplicably followed it up with his worthless teammate Pierre Thomas the very next round.  Unfortunately for Roberts, he’ll have to start 3 of those RBs every week because his 2^nd & 3^rd WRs are Michael Crabtree (drafted 5 days after his foot injury) and Braylon Edwards (when he didn’t have a team).

Stephania Bell

I still have an open spot in one of my fantasy league and I’m thinking I’ll invite Stephania Bell.  It’s always nice to have a little bit of dead money in there.

I’ve always been a Steven Jackson fan but in a 10 team league you have to do better than that for your #1 running back.  After the Jackson pick, and already having Andre Johnson, a RB pick in the 3^rd round should’ve been a no brainer.  But, we should never assume anything.  Instead she takes another WR, a possible overrated Miles Austin, and then waits till the 4^th to gamble on injury prone Knowshon Moreno for her 2nd RB.  It’s okay though because she wasted an 11^th round pick on Willis McGahee to make sure she had that incredible Broncos RB situation on lockdown.  Josh Freeman as her starting QB isn’t a bad pick at all, but it’s appropriate that in a 10 team league her starting QB is the 11^th ranked QB in my rankings.

I really wanted to find something to give Stephania credit for.  The pick of Jermichael Finley looked like just that.  He appears to be fully healthy and is in line for a huge season.  Then I saw that she took Finley ahead of Gates so I give up.  ESPN! Please! Fire her now!

Like I said, all and all this mock draft is pretty sad.  ESPN should be ashamed these clueless fools represent them.

2011 Fantasy Wide Receivers: Top 26/Top 6 Tiers

Elite Tier:

1) A. Johnson

2) Megatron

3) R. White

4) Fitzgerald

2^nd Tier:

5) Nicks

6) Jennings: could flip w/ Wallace

7) Wallace

8) V. Jackson: little lower in PPR leagues

3^rd Tier:

9) Austin

10) Wayne: maybe a little higher in PPR leagues

11) Marshall: little higher in PPR leagues

12) D. Jackson: definitely a tier lower in PPR leagues

4^th Tier:

13) Bryant: could easily be the best Cowboys receiver this year

14) M. Williams

15) Bowe

16) S. Johnson

5^th Tier:

17) Holmes

18) Maclin

19) Manningham

20) Colston

21) Welker: probably top of tier in PPR leagues

6^th Tier:

22) Harvin

23) Lloyd

24) Britt

25) Collie

26) Ochocinco

Good luck in your fantasy drafts.
Feedback appreciated.

Fantasy 2011 Running Back Top 26/Top 5 Tiers

Elite Tier:

1) Foster: Leach going to Baltimore & an early hammy injury isn't a good start; could move to #2

2) C. Johnson

3) Peterson

4) Rice: top 2 in PPR leagues

2^nd Tier:

5) McCoy

6) Charles

7) Mendenhall: couple spots lower in PPR leagues

8) McFadden

3^rd Tier:

9) Gore

10) MJD

11) S. Jackson

12) Forte: probably top 10 in PPR leagues

4^th Tier:

13) Blount: probably few spots lower in PPR leagues

14) Bradshaw

15) Turner: too many carries last few years

16) Greene: little lower in PPR leagues; should get 300+ touches; LT won't be a factor

17) Hillis: could move up spot or 2 w/ Hardesty’s knee still injured

18) D. Williams

5^th Tier:

19) Grant

20) Ingram: could flip w/ Grant

21) Thomas

22) Best: little higher in PPR league

23) Wells: could still move up a spot or 2; maybe ahead of Best

24) Moreno

25) F. Jones: little higher in PPR league

26) F. Jackson

Opinions welcome.

Fantasy Football 2011 Rankings by Position

I've spent the better part of the last month putting together my 2011 Fantasy Football Rankings and think I'm well on my way to more fantasy glory. Of course there's still lots of training camp and  the entire preseason left so my rankings can/will change plenty. I'll post daily rankings and camp updates, plus there'll be plenty of talk about sleepers.
So here is my QB Top 25 as of August 7th. I will do seperate post for my RBs & WRs. Comments are and thoughtful discussion are greatly appreciated.

QB:

Elite Tier

1) Rodgers

2) Vick

2^nd Tier:

3) Brady

4) Manning: fantastic schedule the last 4 weeks

5) Brees

6) Romo

7) Rivers: think people are overrating him a little

3rd Tier:

8) Big Ben

9) Ryan

10) Schaub

4^th Tier:

11) Freeman

12) Eli

13) Bradford

14) Stafford

5^th Tier:

15) Flacco: could move to 4^th tier but his lack of WRs hurts him

16) Cutler: really tough passing schedule; not very high on him at all

17) Kolb

6^th Tier:

18) Orton

19) Fitzpatrick

20) Sanchez

21) Cassel

7^th Tier:

22) Campbell

23) McNabb

24) McCoy

25) Hasselbeck