One Thought

~~I must apologize. My last blog included some thoughts that were about three weeks old, specifically the two thoughts on the Lions. I was so anxious to publish that blog (finally) that I didn't get a chance to thoroughly proofread it. I will recant my comments on essentially the entire Lions RB situation. Jahvid Best is no longer a viable fantasy starter with multiple turf toe injuries, and his workload is now being drastically reduced to help him heal. Once the Lions are mathematically eliminated from the playoffs, expect Best to be an IR candidate. Also, Kevin Smith was back and is now back on the IR after thumb surgery. Look for Maurice Morris to get the "Lions share" (ha...ha...ha) of the carries for the rest of the season, or until Best is able to run his cuts properly. Morris is actually a solid flex option.

Bye Week

I am currently on my bye week. Since I am doing this blog just for fun, I have taken a week off for some extra free time and to take care of other business. I will post a special "double edition" following this weekend, and make some predictions regarding the NFL playoffs and Superbowl. We are at the halfway point in the NFL season, and I typically like to make Superbowl predictions and playoff speculations at this time.

However, I will leave you with one thought...

~~It's time to start thinking outside the box this season. There are very few must-start-no-matter-the-matchup players in the league. In fact, there seems to be even less compared to previous seasons. They include Philip Rivers, Peyton Manning, Aaron Rodgers, Drew Brees (even though I predict second half disappointment from him), Kyle Orton (doesn't feel right saying that), Chris Johnson, Adrian Peterson, Arian Foster (even with his tough schedule looming), Darren McFadden, Frank Gore, Steven Jackson, Roddy White, Hakeem Nicks, Brandon Lloyd (doesn't feel right saying that either), Calvin Johnson, Andre Johnson, Reggie Wayne, Greg Jennings, Antonio Gates, and Vernon Davis. More than ever, don't be afraid to play matchups if one of your regular starters not mentioned above has a tough matchup, and you have a solid replacement option with a very favorable matchup.

Check back early next week. I will attempt (as usual) to post my blog earlier than what I have been each week.

Just a Thought ~ Vincent Jackson's Destination

After observing the sputtering Vikings passing offense today with a hobbled Percy Harvin and a lack of Sidney Rice, is there any doubt in anyone's mind that they will trade for Vincent Jackson? Granted Brett Favre completed 22 of 36 passes (with 3 interceptions), but they were mostly short and intermediate passes. Visanthe Shaincoe was his leading receiver for the second consecutive week in both catches and yards, and that is not a good sign for any team, even if it's Philip Rivers to Antonio Gates. Rice is expected to return to the field somewhere around week 8 to week 10, and there has already been some inside information saying his recovery is not proceeding as quickly as it was expected to.

It is very obvious the Vikings are in a "win now" mode. Their entire Super Bowl hopes rely on Favre being their QB (they haven't bothered to draft a quality QB prospect in the last few years), and Brad Childress has been on the hot seat since before he originally convinced Favre to join the Packers' division rival. Jackson has been asking for an extremely high salary--too high for the Chargers and too high for any team to vehemently pursue him--and the Vikings may suddenly be desperate enough to pony up the cash after a dismal 0-2 start. They need a big deep threat WR.

As a Jackson owner in my money keeper league (drafted him in the seventh round and have the option to keep him next year), I have heard all the rumors of the Vikings, Seahawks, Brown, Redskins, and Rams being in the V-Jax sweepstakes and have been strongly pulling for the WR1-less Redskins to pay for his services. From a fantasy perspective, joining the Vikings right now would return Jackson to WR1 status with the ultimate gun-slinger as his QB, but the inevitable return of Rice would cloud that status. Joining the Redskins would assure Jackson owners of owning a top fantasy WR into the fantasy playoffs, since the Redskins don't currently have a true WR1 for Donovan McNabb.

Given the recent Vikings loss, helped along by the paltry passing offense, it seems inevitable that Jackson will be a Minnesota Viking before Wednesday afternoon, which is the deadline for his suspension to be reduced to four games instead of six if traded. If that happens, it is scary to think of what kind of noise the Vikings will make in the NFL once Rice is fully healthy.

Just a Thought ~ Hello McCoy

So Westbrook has officially gone "under the knife" once again. This time, it is to remove bone spurs from his right ankle. He is not expected to return before preseason starts, and probably won't be back until the start of the season. This is great news for L McCoy and his value in any fantasy league format. Watch how McCoy performs throughout the OTAs, training camp, and preseason and see if there is a threat of L Booker cutting into any of his time with the first team. So far, the first-team reps have been split between McCoy and Booker with Westbrook sidelined, but I don't think Booker has a chance of being anything more than a 3rd down RB and a role player. It is safe to say that barring any freak occurrences, McCoy is the primary backup to Westbrook.

Westbrook will now be looking directly at the end of his career. If McCoy does really well this season, it appears that this season will be the last opportunity for Westbrook to be a featured RB, and after having this surgery, Westbrook will be giving up a lot of his reps for at least the first half of the season.

McCoy is certainly a sleeper now, but by the time preseason rolls around, everyone who pays attention to the NFL news before their drafts will have heard about him. Given Westbrook's injury history, his age of 30, and also this surgery, Westbrook will fall on draft boards everywhere and McCoy's value will sky-rocket everywhere. It's tough to say how everything will pan out up until the season starts, but I can see McCoy being as high as a sixth or seventh round pick in 12-team redraft leagues, if Westbrook does indeed get back into the starting lineup early season. If Westbrook is to miss games during the beginning of the season, McCoy could be drafted as high as the forth round.

Just a Thought ~ Vince Young

If you had very high expectations of your worth, make bad decisions, have bad accuracy, and no poise in the pocket, either you are a rich man who is frantically and unsuccessfully trying to play pocket pool in a public place, or you are V Young. Furthermore, if you have bad throwing mechanics and tend to run before passing, albeit fast but not M Vick fast, does simply being a winner at Texas justify being the third overall pick in the NFL draft? This is one draft pick that J Fisher and the Titans completely bombed on in the 2006 NFL draft. The worst part is if V Young was not their selection, yet another bust in the making, M Leinart "the most NFL ready QB of the 2006 class," would've been their selection instead.

Now the news comes out that he recently suggested he wants to start somewhere, whether it is with the Titans or another team. However today, his agent said there are no trade requests on the table. The fact that he is now publicizing his apparent bad decision making, this time off the field, shows a substantial amount of immaturity. That is a quality which is inappropriate for an NFL QB. It seems more and more likely that Young is not the future for the Titans, especially at his price. I wouldn't be surprised if the Titans do trade or cut him eventually.

V Young has already proved that he has a long way to go to become a relevant starter in the NFL. 58 year old K Collins was easily able to fend him off and retain the starting job, and will more than likely be the starter the entire 2009 season. It is safe to say that owners in dynasty circles can sleep easy if they decide to cut him. Granted, Young could become some kind of a Wildcat specialist, but I have a good feeling that the Wildcat will drop down to the realm of the occasional trick play after this season. I will therefore say that V Young is droppable on a dynasty team of 26 roster spots or less if there is a valuable prospect in free agency.