Week 11 has concluded and the headlines are as follows:

First tie in the NFL since 2002 … first 11-10 final score in league history … Tampa Bay beats Minnesota 19-13 … Miami edges Oakland 17-15 … Dallas beats Washington 14-10 in Romo’s return.

With games like these, how is someone supposed to get excited about heading into playoff football? Weeks like this make me plead with the NFL to abolish the field goal. Seriously, what a boring week of NFL “action”. Read more »

The Thursday night game between the Patriots and Jets was a quarterback-friendly, overtime shootout. The kind of game fantasy owners dream of, unless of course they were part of the faction that watched New England quarterback Matt Cassel’s 400 yards and three touchdowns waste away on their bench. Brett Favre, meanwhile, had the far better game in reality, efficiently completing 26-of-33 passes for 258 yards and two touchdowns in a 34-31 overtime win.

For football fans and Bill Belichick bashers, there was more joy in reality than in fantasy Thursday night. For fantasy owners with enough reason to put Cassel in their starting lineups, there was plenty of joy in a breakout performance that went into the NFL record books. In addition to monster passing numbers, Cassel rushed for 62 yards and became the first quarterback in league history to accumulate 400 passing yards and 60 rushing yards in a game. Read more »

Patriots fans and many fantasy owners saw their hopes and dreams for 2008 quickly erased as Tom Brady went down for the season in the first quarter of Week 1. Now, over two months later, those same Pats fans and the collective fantasy world are looking at the sincere possibility of having to limp through another season without New England’s golden boy.

Since having his knee repaired after the injury, it is speculated that Brady has undergone more surgeries due to the knee becoming infected. The Boston Herald reported that, “the fear is the patellar tendon graft used to replace Brady’s anterior cruciate ligament is in danger of becoming compromised.” If this does indeed become reality, the process of repairing his knee would go back to square one and his ‘09 season would be in serious jeopardy. Read more »

Time to shake it up.

No more standing by and watching top dogs Adrian Peterson and LaDainian Tomlinson get out-produced by the likes of Clinton Portis, Frank Gore and Marion Barber. That trio is no doubt a placeholder until A.P. and L.T. break out of their funks, but the body of work still deserves the recognition.

Philosophically, we’ll be treating this poll just like an AP Top 25 in college football. Just because a team keeps winning, it doesn’t mean it has chance after chance to retain the No. 1 ranking. Peterson was the equivalent of, say, Georgia eking past Alabama-Birmingham, Jacksonville State and Troy: while he technically didn’t lose a ton of ground, he didn’t gain any of it, either. Read more »

This year’s trade deadline came and went Tuesday afternoon, supplying several familiar faces in much newer places. Easily, the major deal included sending Detroit WR Roy Williams and a few draft picks to Dallas for a slew of similar draft picks, including a first rounder in next year’s draft.

Elsewhere, former MVP Shaun Alexander signed as a free agent with the Washington Redskins, joining a club that already boasts the league’s leader in rushing yards, Clinton Portis.

The headline deal that wasn’t made was Chiefs TE Tony Gonzalez. The disgruntled future Hall-of-Famer will now finish out the season with Kansas City, for better or worse. Read more »

Last week we told you to expect big things from RBs Steve Slaton, Michael Turner and Matt Forte. They all delivered. We also told you not to start RBs Julius Jones, Rudi Johnson, WR Anthony Gonzalez and QB Matt Hasselbeck. You guessed it, they all floundered in Week 5. How did we know this? Playing the matchups.

Here is a look at some of the most intriguing Week 6 matchups. It’s all about starting quality players when they have a favorable matchup, and the most savvy owners know when it’s time to take a chance on lesser players facing softer defenses. Take the first step here – in the fifth edition of The Good, Bad and Ugly.
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Youth movement has been a good theme for 2008, with an influx of rookie running backs, dominant performances by young quarterbacks Jay Cutler and Philip Rivers, and lost confidence in some of the game’s best veterans LaDainian Tomlinson, Randy Moss and Peyton Manning. There are no signs of halting the movement, so youth have continued their invasion of our pre-Week 4 edition of the Fantasy NFL 101.

Second-year back Adrian Peterson narrowly fended off a healthy-looking Tomlinson for No. 1 honors, while Frank Gore and Marion Barber jumped Brian Westbrook, who is questionable this week with an ankle strain. Two more young backs are waiting in the wings in Marshawn Lynch (No. 6) and Joseph Addai (No. 8). Read more »

Last week we told you to expect big days from players like RB Julius Jones, RB Fred Taylor, RB Frank Gore and TE Jeremy Shockey and they all rewarded their owners. We also told you to lessen your expectations or sit players like RB Earnest Graham, RB Ryan Grant, RB Jonathan Stewart, WR DeSean Jackson and the Packers defense and all these players had below average games. How did we know this you ask? Playing the matchups.

Here is a look at some of the most intriguing Week 3 matchups. It’s all about starting quality players when they have favorable matchups, and the most savvy owners know when it’s time to take a chance on lesser players facing softer defenses. Take the first step here – in the third edition of The Good, Bad and Ugly.
Read more »

With their first win of the year, the San Diego Chargers can finally build towards a promising season. Brett Favre and the New York Jets may be heading in the opposite direction.

Philip Rivers stole the show with three touchdown passes on a beautiful Monday Night in southern California, as the Chargers defeated the Jets 48-29. Although these teams put up only one less point (77) than the Eagles and Cowboys (78) last Monday Night, this game felt over long before the final seconds expired. Read more »

Three weeks is plenty of time to see monumental changes in the ever-evolving National Football League. Of course, Tom Brady’s injury was a huge blow, in fantasy and reality alike, but a multitude of other changes can and will take place for the remainder of the year. Gus Frerotte, Ronnie Brown and Rudi Johnson were some of the biggest beneficiaries of Sunday’s changes, as all three saw their fantasy stocks soar.

Injuries open doors immediately for opportunities in fantasy, but ineffecitiveness can do the same, albeit at a much slower pace. With a little projection, one can see backup Brady Quinn taking the reins of Cleveland’s offense by the end of September, Drew Stanton doing the same in Detroit, or New York’s Steve Smith emerging in the face of constant double teams on star wideout Plaxico Burress. Read more »