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AFC Training Camp NotesBy Brandon Anderson It’s August, and preseason football is underway. It’s time for those last few tweaks to your rankings before your draft. If you haven’t yet, be sure to take a look at the NFC Training Camp Notes. And now without further ado, let’s get to the busy AFC! AFC East The Brett Favre fallout here is… well, significant. Let’s start with the New York Jets and with Brett Favre himself. Favre has been the surest bet in fantasy football for the last decade other than Peyton Manning. How will that change now that he is on a new team? Well, can you imagine a better situation for him to walk into? He’ll have a veteran pass-catching RB and two strong veteran WRs, a good rookie TE, and a very strong offensive line. Add to that an amazingly soft schedule, and Favre is going to have another great fantasy year – pencil him right into your top 10 QBs. Thomas Jones has been a favorite sleeper at RB and his value should increase even further now. He’ll have more chances to catch the ball, and he should see more redzone opportunities as well. If you’re wondering which receiver is helped the most, the answer may be both, but especially Jerricho Cotchery. Favre loves to throw to steady sure-handed receivers with great ability to run after the catch. Cotchery should become his new Donald Driver and will be a very consistent good WR, likely having a shot to sneak into the top 10 like Driver has so many times. The Favre fallout also heads south to Miami, where the Dolphins now have a new quarterback in Chad Pennington. You may not want to get too excited about Pennington’s prospects as a fantasy QB with a pretty lackluster receiving crew around him and a history of health concerns. But the reverse may not necessarily be true, since Pennington has produced some quality fantasy WRs in his time. If you want a good sleeper, try WR Derek Hagan on for size. He’s in his magical third year and is the steady good-handed type that Pennington has done well with in the past. If you remember in the Anatomy of a Top 10 WR piece, about one receiver every year comes from out of the top 50 to be ranked in the top 10. It’s usually someone on a lesser team who is the only target on the team, and Hagan could fit that to a T if he gets going early. Snag him late, thank us later. Keep Lamont Jordan on your radar in New England. You probably saw that he signed with the team but figured he’s old, injured, and washed up. Let me guess. You thought the same thing when they signed Corey Dillon a few years back and Randy Moss last year too, right? Not that Jordan is going to put up Moss numbers this year, but don’t count out the talented but disgruntled player type that New England has done so well with. Jordan has a great nose for the goal line and terrific receiving skills, and he could shine if he gets a chance. At the very least, you should probably dump Laurence Maroney even further down your rankings as he’s got yet another player to lose touches to. AFC North Ray Rice is a guy you’ll learn to love in Baltimore. The guy is a bowling ball of a back with a great nose for the endzone and fantastic receiving skills. Going into the draft, he was my favorite RB in the whole draft, sans McFadden of course, but he seemed to move into a difficult situation behind Pro Bowler Willis McGahee. But now McGahee’s injuries are piling up quickly and that knee is bothering him yet again. He’s getting fluid drained and missing on practices. The team says he’s going to be ready for week one, but we’re not so sure. Rice at the very least should be seeing steady part time carries, and he could be the full starter before too long. Rice should have Maurice Jones-Drew potential and is worth the pick wherever you have to take him. As for McGahee, I’ll go so far as to say you ought to avoid him completely and let someone else blow their 2nd or 3rd round pick on this huge question mark. Braylon Edwards made a brilliant touchdown grab in his first preseason game but has since dealt with a foot injury, a bare foot that was stepped on by a teammate. Most around Sports Outlaw seem to be discounting the injury, instead preferring to think of him as the next big thing a la Moss or TO. I beg to differ. This is a guy with a history of all sorts of injuries, and he’s also a guy that fits the criteria from the Anatomy of a Top 10 WR article to take a real hit out of the top 10 this year. Be very wary of this guy on draft day. AFC South In Indianapolis, keep tracking Peyton Manning and Marvin Harrison. Both of them remain limited so far in practice and games, but if any duo in the history of the NFL can handle the time away and pick up right where they’ve left off, it should be both of these two guys. Jacksonville is an absolute mess at wide receiver. Matt Jones is done unless you’re running a prison fantasy league, and Troy Williamson got hurt before he got started. Jerry Porter is dealing with a hamstring injury yet again, a terrible way for an unmotivated guy trying to acquaint himself to a new team. The team’s best fantasy WR last year, Reggie Williams, just had knee surgery and is still recovering. If you’re looking for a sleeper here, Dennis Northcutt is the only one that’s even healthy right now, but the Jags haven’t produced good fantasy WRs since the days of Jimmy Smith and Keenan McCardell. David Garrard is a favorite sleeper around these parts, but he’s running quickly out of targets and that could spell trouble at least early on. AFC West The evil genius Mike Shanahan is up to no good yet again in Denver. Ryan Torain’s injury has left the team shorthanded at RB again, as he looked set to be the starter or at least the short yardage back. Now the job appears to fall on Selvin Young, who may be a solid sleeper where he’s being taken in the 5th or 6th round. But don’t forget that Denver hasn’t had any back lead the team in rushing in back to back years since the days of Clinton Portis. Don’t be too shocked if Shanny turns to last year’s one week flavor Andre Hall or undrafted speedy rookie Anthony Aldridge, both solid sleepers late in your draft. Don’t be too surprised if each of them ends up starting at least a game or two at some point this year, and they may blossom into great trade bait if you can act quickly. In San Diego, Antonio Gates says his toe is still bothering him, and that is a bad sign. He’s been practicing but is clearly not healthy, and he says that he’s probably in worse shape even than he looks. Gates’ only real value is in being a big increase in points at the TE spot. If he’s even average or slightly above average all season, he is a bust of a pick for you in the 4th round. You’d probably do well to completely stay away at this point. | |
