Some things I know I know

With all apologies to Peter King, who merely just thinks:

• Don't buy heavily into Deshaun Foster's 5 for 62 against the Giants. The Giants have a new defensive coordinator and they're also converting Mathias Kiwanuka from DE to LB. And say what you want about Michael Strahan. Sure, he may get himself into bad marriages, which result in a bad divorce and Michael begging Subway's Jarrod for 'more meat', but he was good against the run. Besides, Foster's a threat to injure himself any day now. Doesn't look like DeAngelo Williams got any reps, though; anyone know what's up?


• Brandon Jackson went 16 for 57 yds against PIT? Can anyone tell me what string of PIT's D he did this against? I'm not being snide; I really want to know!


• Ronnie Brown's 8 rushes for 8 yards is a symptom, not the disease. Trent Green looked awful, too, and I bet it all comes down to MIA's O-line.


• Jamal Lewis had 4 rushes for 20 yards. I may have been wrong; I need to see more before passing 2nd judgment.


• Regarding the Texans, some interesting quotes here. Did anyone actually see the game? I'd like to believe in Schaub, I really do, but I can't just yet. And the quote about Ahman Green (3 for 7 yds) just needing a little more blocking reminds me of baseball people saying that a pitcher 'just needs to harness his stuff'. In other words, the guy's going to annoy the living crap out of you.


• I tried watching Sunday night's game but it didn't hold my interest the way Friday's did. Neither team had any rookies I was curious about going into the game, but I guess I should've been curious about SD rookie WR Craig "Call me Buster" Davis, who looked good with the first team (my guess he was subbing for an injured Eric Parker). Did Vincent Jackson even have a catch? DJ Hackett, not Nate Burleson, got the reps when Hasselbeck was under center. Oh and Deion Branch's 30 yard TD catch merely reinforces the lofty expectations I have for him this year; I can't wait to grab this guy with a 'value pick'!

Thoughts on Bills vs. Saints (and the other games, too)

It's a good thing the Mets have started to suck (I'm looking at YOU, Billy Wagner) because now I don't feel guilty devoting more and more time to the NFL. This game had enough subplots that FFB players should've stuck around for the whole game. It was good to see the Saints' high-powered offense return to their form of last year. I paid special attention to the WR corp. Devery Henderson was given the first crack at the #2 job, taking all the reps with Brees under center and catching a bunch of balls. Colston, however, was mainly a decoy (why risk an injury at this point, right?). Once Brees exitted, it was Terrence Copper's turn, with "Pootsteps" Palko trying to cement his position as the #3 QB. He did little to distinguish himself; his chief 'highlight' was allowing a Bills defender to run a better route and interecept a ball intended for him. Finally, if you were still tuned in towards the end of the 3rd quarter and into the 4th, you saw the potential of #1 draft pick Robert Meachem, as he caught a beautiful fade pass for a 2 yard TD. Eric Johnson was in the mix as well out of the TE spot. Of course, he still has plenty of chances ahead to injure himself (I wouldn't draft him, nope, no way).

On the Bills' side, no one on O really stood out (probably because this was the Saints' 2nd game but only the Bills' first). Neither Anthony Thomas nor Marshawn Lynch did anything of note on the ground (although I think it's too early to downgrade Lynch). JP Losman looked merely okay (he was better running the ball than passing). Roscoe Parrish didn't get reps until Craig Nall took over the QB duties and I don't think Lee Evans caught a single ball. So, the bottom line is it's too early to tell with Buffalo. Now, if I were getting paid, I could probably make up something to justify my salary, but I don't so I won't ;).

Around the rest of the league
After quickly perusing the game recaps over on Yahoo, I have the following thoughts:

• Don't buy into Justin McCareins just yet. He did his damage towards the end of the first half and Atlanta's first team D isn't that good anymore so Lord only knows what their second team D is like. And yes, I got burnt by Justin a couple of years ago when he came to the Jets from TEN and have never forgiven him.


• Thomas Jones, however, was everything I expected him to be tonight.


• Take away Jerious Norwoods 10 yard TD scamper and he only had 7 rushes for 19 yards.


• At least if you take away Rudi Johnsons 20 yard dash, you've still got 4 rushes for 12 yards (3 yds/rush).


• If you draft Steven Jackson, you could do a LOT worse than handcuffing him to his backup, Rutgers' Brian Leonard.

Another poor post, but this time the comments kinda suck too.

FOXSports seems to have cornered the market on bad FFB 'experts'. This article pretty much updates an old Bill Simmons article for 2007. Sadly, the comments aren't nearly as good as before. Seems that FOXSports.com mainly attracts those who got rejected by the Deadspin commenting sheriff.

Minor RB ranking change

I'm desperate for content, so I thought I'd explain why I moved Marion Barber III down a bit and Julius Jones up a bit. I caught the first quarter of tonight's pre-season game against Indy and Jones looked decent and while Barber did get the reps when DAL marched inside the Colts' 20 and the entire 2nd series, he only looked good, no great (and certainly not like a RB who deserves to be a feature back).

Poor article, better comments

If I got paid to do this for a living, I'd write a better article than this. Make sure you scroll down to the comments.

Good old fashioned nightmare fuel

Had a dream last night that I drafted way too many running backs (Laurence Maroney, Cedric Benson and Brandon Jackson among them), the only WR I had was Steve Smith and I had no TE nor defense. This ever happen to any of you?

Deconstructing an Expert: Yahoo's Brad Evans

Michael Harmon's been quiet lately over at FoxSports, but Brad Evans has graciously stepped up as my new victim. His article here has two main inconsistencies.

• His statement "the disparity between (Peyton) Manning, the second-ranked fantasy QB in FPPG, and brother Eli Manning, the 15th best producer, was a meager 28.2 percent" makes no sense because of his use of the word 'meager'. Look, I'm a Giants fan; I know what Eli's all about. 28.2 percent is a BIG difference regardless of who the other QB is, but with Eli, you pretty much know he's useless after about week 8. So really, he's about 50% of what Peyton is, not 28%.


• Brad goes on to state that you shouldn't take Peyton in the first round (and take a RB instead) because the drop-off from the best RB to #15 is 52.4 percent. Okay, well, that's all well and good, but Brad totally forgot his fact from earlier in the article that Peyton is going between 6th and 7th in most drafts. HE'S NOT GOING #1 AND THUS SHOULD NOT BE COMPARED WITH TOMLINSON. Rather, he should be compared with the RBs he has ranked 6 and 7, which are Frank Gore and Willie Parker. Factor in Gore's injury problems and the change in O-coordinators in SF along with Parker's inability to run on the road last year AND the new spread O in PIT this year and, yeah, I think I'd take Manning (or Brady, or Palmer) there.

Of course, this all depends on your draft. If you start 2 QBs in an 8 team league where passing TDs are 6 points, you HAVE to get a stud QB with one of your first 3 picks (I'm assuming someone like Bulger will slip to early in the third round). In larger leagues where passing TDs are 3 or 4 points, yeah, you can wait a bit. If you've got the 6th or 7th pick in a large league (10-12 teams) where passing TDs are still 6 points, well, then you'll have some quick decisions to make based on where your first pick is and what you think will be left when round 2 snakes back to you.

Oh, the final nail in Brad's coffin: he's still got Vick ranked #11. 'Nuff said.