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NFC Training Camp NotesBy Brandon Anderson We’ve passed the midway point of August, and you’re probably making your final draft preparations and getting ready to go. Hopefully you’ve already had a chance to check out some of the other pieces of work here at Sports Outlaw: the Close Calls between similar players, the WESTern Perspective on each position, some sleepers, a few buy lows and sell highs, and of course my favorite, the Anatomy of a Top 10 player at each position. Alas, about 2 minutes after something is posted or published, at least during August training camps, it is at least a little bit out of date. So it’s time to take a quick tour through the NFL and tweak your rankings. We’ll start with the NFC and then run through the AFC. Note that there is not time, space, or necessity to look at every single team. Hold onto your hat, here we go! NFC East In Washington, you may be wondering which of all those rookie targets is the best sleeper: Malcolm Kelly, Devin Thomas, or Fred Davis? The answer right now is probably none of the above. Each of the three has been dealing with a lot of injuries and has yet to make much of an impact, and they may be buried behind the Redskin veterans for the time being. Jason Campbell, though, has looked good in Jim Zorn’s system and could be a solid late QB pickup. A few of the receivers in the East have been dealing with their usual injuries. Plaxico Burress has been slow to practice and is banged up like usual, but this is the norm for him and you know the risk you’re taking there. The Eagles’ Reggie Brown is a bit more of a concern. After already dealing with an Achilles injury a week ago, he left the most recent preseason game on the first play with a hamstring strain. Both of these injuries are very bad news for a receiver. Brown goes from being a nice sleeper to completely off of my draft radar. And the winner here may be Kevin Curtis. McNabb likes to lock onto one target, and Curtis may be the only option like he was early last season. With an ADP of about 7.09, he could be a good WR2 or great WR3 for your squad. NFC North Calvin Johnson is getting raving reviews out of Detroit, but what else is new? An interesting little tidbit to store away, from the ESPN fantasy draft special that featured 8 sport celebs making draft choices. When Calvin was the first Detroit player off the board, the camera panned to one of those 8 for his reaction – none other than the Lions’ Roy Williams. Roy’s reaction? He actually pulled out a Transformers Megatron toy he had ready, and he started talking up Calvin as the next Randy Moss. This from a guy who probably should’ve been arguing that he was the #1 target in town. For those of you trying to decide which Detroit receiver to snag, store that bit away. In Minnesota, the biggest news may be that Brett Favre is not in town. But a bit under the radar may be the fact that LT Bryant McKinnie has been suspended for the first four games of the season. McKinnie’s main job is to protect Tarvaris Jackson’s backside, and now the Vikings will have to use a backup to try to block Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila, Dwight Freeney, Julius Peppers, and Kyle Vanden Bosch to start the year. Ouch. Expect Jackson to be saying ouch as well – a QB with a history of frequent injuries. It looks like he’ll almost certainly be banged up after these games. Defenses should stack the box against the run game early to stop Adrian Peterson, and with no pass blocking, they’ll probably be able to. One player who may be helped by this is Bernard Berrian, whose stock goes up if Gus Frerotte gets any extended playing time. You’re probably wondering about the Brett Favre fallout in Green Bay. Actually we never expected him to be in play there, so nothing in the rankings and articles should be much different there. We’ll see just how much this affects Aaron Rodgers’ confidence though. The only real news out of Chicago was the signing of RB Kevin Jones, who might dent just enough value away from Matt Forte to cost you. NFC South The news in Atlanta is that Matt Ryan appears to be pushing Chris Redman for the starting role already and could be starting in game #1 of the season. Neither of these guys should be on your fantasy radar, but this may hurt the value of Roddy White, who really came on at the close of last season when Redman was under center. Not much to report out of Tampa Bay, just another team dealing with a bit of Brett Favre fallout and maybe some false expectations. In Carolina, the big news is Steve Smith’s suspension for the first two games of the season. Smith is still a top 10 receiver though as long as he’s healthy, and now he’s pissed and should come back with a vengeance. The only difference now is you may get him much cheaper than he ought to be – you can always play another receiver for the first two weeks. In the meantime, Muhsin Muhammad could be a solid late sleeper. Everyone remembers the huge season he had a few years back, and he could get a chance to develop some great rapport with Delhomme early on with Smith on the bench. In New Orleans, Drew Brees has looked awesome thus far. This may not be much news unless you remember how rusty and awful he looked in the first few games last season. If he had been even average in those games, he could likely have been the #2 QB in fantasy football last season. This year it looks like he’s got yet another weapon in young WR Robert Meachem. Meachem was a rookie last season that was injured most of the year, but he appears healthy now and seems to have his top end-to-end speed. He could be a new Devery Henderson type target, sure to explode for a few long catches and huge games. NFC West The story of the NFC West is in a pair of holdout players, Anquan Boldin and Steven Jackson. The bet here is that both of them will be signed and ready to go once the season starts, so I wouldn’t bump them down too far just yet. But the longer the holdouts last, the more it will affect the teams. Give a slight bump up to Larry Fitzgerald, Marc Bulger, and Torry Holt, the three players whose value would rise the most if Boldin or SJax missed any real time. You may want to give Bulger a real boost up your rankings. He looks healthy and has thrived so far in Al Saunders’ offense. He should be set for another 4000+ yard season and is a strong bounceback sleeper candidate at QB. In Seattle, the news is more serious with Bobby Engram’s shoulder injury putting him out for at least the first month or two of the season. With Hackett gone now and Deion Branch still not healthy (is he ever?), there’s not much left at receiver in Seattle. In fact, Nate Burleson is the only healthy receiver with more than 12 receptions under his belt. This news may actually hurt his sleeper stock though. His ADP should rise as people are aware of him, but with no one else to cover, teams should be able to shut down Burleson much of the time. If you’re looking for a long shot, try Courtney Taylor on for size, and many Outlaws prefer rookie John Carlson as their sleeper de jour at tight end. In the meantime, Julius Jones has been a disappointment so far, and now it looks like he may not even be getting the bulk of the carries, splitting time and certainly losing 3rd downs to Maurice Morris and possibly short yardage situations to TJ Duckett. What you have in Seattle is a fantasy mess. You’d be wise to avoid this team completely on draft day, at least early. In San Francisco, it looks like J.T. O’Sullivan may have a great shot of starting the season out at QB ahead of Alex Smith and Shaun Hill. Don’t go running to snag him, but in that Mike Martz system, it’s at least a name you may want to store away and keep an eye on in the early weeks. | |
