NFL News, Rumors, Scores, Predictions, and Stats

The NFL Preseason is rolling. That means that depth charts are changing and injuries are happening. We have updated our Wide Receiver Redraft Rankings and Average Draft Position (ADP) this week to help you get current on your fantasy football draft board.

Here are some thoughts on some rankings movement and some possible sleepers to watch in preseason:

Santana Moss (#25 to #17) Things have been really quiet on the Santana Moss front other than the whole HGH thing. Here is the the thing; Donovan McNabb is looking good.

Santana Moss is still the No. 1 WR in Washington. This is a hook up waiting to happen. Moss has historically been up and down during fantasy seasons, but things are looking up with having the most talented QB he has ever played with tossing him the ball.

Johnny Knox (#40 to #36) Johnny Knox is often ignored while fantasy owners look at Devin Aromashodu as the possible breakout star at WR for the Bears. This is largely based on Aromashodu’s targets at the end of last season by Jay Cutler. There is a different offense in town now and Johnny Knox may just be the best suited for it.

Wide receivers coach Darryl Drake is calling all three of the WRs at the top of the depth chart starters. When it comes time for someone to separate himself from the pack, watch for Knox. He may be a steal at his current ADP.

Sleeper Alert! More late round guys that could pay off.

Laurent Robinson (#44) Aside from Steven Jackson, you are not likely to find any fantasy football superstars on the Rams. We could however, see a WR step up with all that attention given to Jackson. He should land as one fo the starting WRs for the Rams and might be worth a late pick for a team trying to play catch up a lot. Keep a close eye on his camp.

Harry Douglas (#50) With Michael Jenkins out with a shoulder injury, Douglas can make a case for the starting spot opposite Roddy White. Keep an eye on the depth chart, he may be worth throwing one of those last two picks at.

Here is how the Top 5 shake out with ADP. The highest and lowest pick used on them in mock drafts are included as well. Check out our Wide Receiver Redraft Rankings to view the Top 50 with ADP.

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This shouldn’t even be a question after the way he ripped through opposing defenses for 1,126 total yards (968 rushing) and eight touchdowns over the final eight games last year. You’re talking about 20 fantasy points per game—that puts him in the conversation with Chris Johnson, Adrian Peterson, and Maurice Jones-Drew territory.

However, his ADP according to Mock Draft Central, is 25 (15th running back). I actually have him a few notches lower on my RB totem pole (click to see my rankings). I know he’s just 23 (24 in December) without a lot of wear on the tires, but that’s just it. He has 257 career carries. He doesn’t have a track record to show he can handle 250-plus carries. With Thomas Jones in town, who knows if he’ll get that opportunity.

Thomas Jones just keeps producing. The Bears drafted Cedric Benson and Thomas Jones responded with 1,335 yards. In Benson’s second year with Chicago TJ ran for 1,210 yards. He then went to the Jets and ran for 1,119 yards. He had just one touchdown for the Jets and approaching 30. Surely he’s on the decline.

Guess again.

He ran for 1,312 yards and 13 touchdowns as he turned 30. Fluke year. No more, right? Wrong. He had 1,402 yards and 14 touchdowns last year. He didn’t go to the Chiefs to quietly wind out his NFL career. The Chiefs didn’t bring him in to cheer on Jamaal Charles. Jones will get his carries.

Currently, Jones is listed as the Chiefs’ starting running back. I know that it’s a ploy to motivate Charles, but if Charles has fumbling issues persists (Charles fumbles every 51 carries, Jones every 175) don’t think that Todd Haley won’t sit Charles to get his message across.

Plus, while Jamaal’s numbers were impressive, you have to consider the fact that he had fresh legs when taking over the starting job in Week 10. The same cannot be said for the opposing defenses he faced. Speaking of the opposing defenses he faced, they weren’t exactly the who’s who of 2009 NFL run defenses. He picked apart the Raiders (29th ranked run defense), the Chargers (20th), the Bills (30th), the Browns (28th), and the Broncos (26th) twice.

He only faced two stout run defenses, the Steelers (third) and the Bengals (seventh). Pittsburgh kept him in check while he ran for 102 yards against Cincinnati. I don’t mean to diminish his accomplishments, but 75 percent of his games came against run defenses that ranked 20th or lower (62.5 percent against 26th or lower) that had a lot more wear and tear than he had.

I still think he will have a good year, with some major offensive explosions mixed in, but I don’t see him going on a run like he went on last year. A lot of things were aligned just right for Charles to do a Chris Johnson impersonation. I would take Charles as my RB1 if I went with a quarterback (Aaron Rodgers or Drew Brees) or receiver (Andre Johnson) with my first pick. Otherwise, I would wait and hope to get him as an RB2.

Would you trust Jamaal Charles as your No. 1 fantasy running back?

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Here are some takeaways after the first week of preseason games:

Anthony Dixon/Brian Westbrook - Well, Anthony Dixon lit it up only to have San Fran sign Brian Westbrook.  Westbrook will be a must own hand-cuff for Frank Gore owners.

Joe Flacco - The preseason should confirm that Flacco is an amazing fifth round QB target for all of you fifth round QB drafters. I know,  I am in that boat.

Randy Moss - Moss is going to be a beast as long as Tom Brady is on the field. He is without a doubt one of my favorite WR targets for 2010.

Dexter McCluster - A clone of Percy Harvin; he will be used in the KC offense as a gadget player for 2010. Keep an eye on this youngster and dynasty leaguers should snag him in the later rounds.

Josh Freeman - He really isn’t as bad as people think; I would be fine to have him as a back-up QB, if I wanted to take a back-up QB late in the draft.

Jahvid Best - Um, yes, he is solid. I like this kid in PPR formats and he will be able to post some solid yardage.  But don’t expect too many TD’s with him in 2010.

Andre Johnson - A man among boys; he is without a doubt the No. 1 WR target for 2010.

Aaron Rodgers/Greg Jennings/Jermichael Finley - All of these gents are going to have a very solid 2010. Each one of these players is worth reaching for as you can’t make a bad decision by drafting any one of these players.

Ben Tate/Arian Foster/Steve Slaton - Later Mr. Tate… Arian Foster is the clear front runner with Slaton backing him up.  Move Foster up your draft guides in all formats.

CJ Spiller - Lynch and Jackson are nursing their wounds so CJ will pull the start at the beginning of the season. The Bills are already interviewing some RB’s, as Jackson will be out 5-6 weeks and Lynch will be out 4 weeks.

Devin Aromashodu/Johnny Knox - So I admit it, Knox is the favorite target and then Aromashodu; Aromashodu is  very strong but he won’t unseat Knox this year. Knox is a Miles Austin type player and he has rocketed up my draft board while Aromashodu as taken a step back.  I can’t say I am not a little bit disappointed.  But don’t sleep too much on Aromashodu.

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St. Louis Rams Running Back Steven Jackson is a poster boy of a feature back in fantasy football. You never have to be concerned of him losing time in a running back by committee.

His touches in the passing game gained steam each year since falling after his 90 catch season in 2006, topping 50 in 2009. He would rather try and run through guys than around them and sometimes you would miss him for a couple games a season because of it.

More of the same in 2010? Let’s have a look at some things to take into consideration.

Let’s throw this out there right away before someone jumps on that second sentence. The Rams are rumored to be bringing in another back because of the shallow depth behind Jackson. If it is someone like Brian Westbrook, people are concerned that he will lose touches.

Let’s look at it from this perspective—those are touches he may have lost anyway from being out with an injury. Another back could keep Jackson out of the trainers room by spelling him a bit.

The last two years, Jackson averaged 21 rushes per game, mostly while the Rams were trailing. Consider the attempts lost in 2008 and that is 84 attempts he could give away and still have 250 rushes and 40 catches. That is still starting back material and more productive touches if he is healthy. Considering his back surgery in April and that he plans to continue his bruising ways, he can use a spell here and there. Bring on someone to help this man!

We can stick with the downside for now. He plays for the St. Louis Rams. They appear to be handing over the team to rookie QB, Sam Bradford.

While some may have a glossed over view of recent rookie QB success in Joe Flacco, Matt Ryan, and Mark Sanchez, this still isn’t the norm for rookie quarterbacks. The supporting cast in St. Louis is not is not on par with those other teams either. One of the biggest, and most important concerns that the Rams have is that they just do not score enough points and it isn’t looking good that they will start in 2010.

How about some upside?

In Jackson you have the team’s best football player. They know they have to give him the ball and he still gets it even when the Rams are trailing. You can’t really expect that teams are going to focus on the run because of a rookie QB any more than they already did.

The upside of having Bradford starting could mean even more dump off passes and a jump in leagues that reward points per reception. As mentioned, if they bring in a back to spell Jackson, we could see him make it a 16 game season.

The lost touches could make up for the missed games (over the last three years, one game in 2007, four games a year in 2008, 2009). Jackson says that his back is 100% and the team is not taking any chances in the preseason with him. Jackson also packed on another eight pounds of muscle over the offseason which should help with the pounding he puts on himself and others.

At this time, Jackson has an Average Draft Position ninth overall. He is being taken anywhere from the mid first to mid second round.

I recently selected Jackson myself at #8 in an experts draft. It was a hard decision as Larry Fitzgerald was still on the board, but the first round was so running back happy that there would have been nothing left in the second round for me.

This is a decision you may find yourself having to make. Now myself, I was happy with it. If you are in the later half of the first round, do you take Jackson or go WR there, considering Andre Johnson is probably already gone? Steven Jackson may be one of the last backs on the draft board available that is the “feature back” on his team and isn’t in a RBBC situation.

Currently Steven Jackson is ranked #7 in our Running Back Redraft Rankings.

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    All that matters is the final score right? If you believe that, then you were pleased that the Cardinals came from a 16-0 deficit in the fourth quarter to win 19-16 in their first preseason game at University of Phoenix Stadium against the Houston Texans.

    But if you looked deeper in the microscope, you wondered if this was a precursor to the season.  A sloppy game on most counts made this a little hard to watch, but the Cardinals managed to pull it out. And 1-0 looks better than 0-1 in the standings. Even in the preseason.

    Matt Leinart was 6-7 for 49 yards, but those stats are a bit misleading. His throws were short with the exception of the one that almost got Fitzgerald killed.  He mishandled a hand-off to Tim Hightower that lead to a fumble, and he was sacked twice. Whisenhunt said that it’s “hard to really judge Matt because we didn’t do a whole lot to help him.” That’s mostly true but Matt never looked comfortable. The starting offense was slow and sporadic. The errors were all over the field from wrong routes to wrong positions. And Brandon Keith maybe the future at right tackle but Mario Williams ate him for breakfast, lunch, brunch and dinner. Maybe, you wasted that cash on that trip to Hawaii, Matt.

    Beanie Wells looked good. He finished with 11 carries for 36 yards, but what the numbers don’t tell is that he’s turned into a smarter runner. All night he was patient with his runs. He followed his blockers and got the smart yards. Look for big things from him this year.

   The starting defense played one series but held the potent Houston offense to just a field goal. It looked like the same bend but don’t break attitude that has been there for the last two years. The defense as whole played decent. Houston was in the red zone 4 times and came out with 3 field goals. However, second team defense really had issues. Andre Johnson was so alone in the Cardinals secondary for the touchdown, you might have thought he was a cornerback for the Cardinals. Justin Miller was left cold on that play and a couple of other plays on defense although, to his credit, he did look good on special teams.

   But one of the main concerns I had watching this game was the play of Derek Anderson. His line was 13/22 for 88 yards, 1 TD and 2 INT. He looks like he never left Cleveland. If Matt goes down, Derek will be no savior. He was shaky in his play, and his accuracy was so pretty errant. He did have a nice throw to Beanie Wells for the Cardinals first touchdown in the 4th quarter. Jim Dray, rookie tight end, made two nice catches for an impressive debut. Third round pick Andre Roberts wasn’t so impressive in his first start. He dropped a couple of passes and tipped one that should have been caught, but instead led to an interception.

    John Skelton, a fifth round pick from Fordham, looked pretty good. Ok, it was against 3 string talent but that was a 3rd string offensive line that was blocking for him. He looked like calm, cool and collected like he lived for this moment. His throws were accurate and players like Stephen Williams and Max Komar made big catches to cap off the rally. I’m not saying that Skelton is the second coming of Kurt Warner by any means, but if you are like me, you want to see more of this kid in the next couple of games. Plus, we haven’t seen Max Hall yet whom I picked to edge out Skelton for third string. After Skelton’s performance last night, I may have been hasty in the prediction. But I hear he took his offense line to Golden Corral.

   Another standout rookie was Darryl Washington, second round pick from TCU. He was impressive all night. He led the team in tackles with 13 and was always around the ball. The Cardinals need that with the departure of Dansby, and this kid has the potential to be a starter in this league. And quickly.  Coach Whisenhunt noted, “When you have the speed that he has and can make plays like you know he can make, it’s all about getting him reps.” That shouldn’t be a problem coach.

   All in all, we still have questions about Matt Leinart and the cohesiveness of the first team offense, but that will work itself out in the coming weeks. Oh and Larry’s injury? He said he was fine. “I feel great,” Fitzgerald said. “How else can you feel after a win?” The problem is that he wouldn’t tell you if he was hurt. We will keep an eye on him this week.

   I don’t know who called this game for the NFL Network, and it’s probably better that I don’t know. They made so many mistakes, I often wondered if they were watching the same game. Oh well. I guess they need a preseason too. On to Tennessee and a date with the Titans next Monday night.

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