Tag Archive for Free Agency

Fantasy Football Stock Up/Down August 12th

August 12, 2011 No comments

Time for some more updates from camp and the first batch of pre-season games.

Stock Up

Ray Rice

But, the Ravens added Ricky Williams? Doesn’t matter. This is still Ray’s team and his coach just said he will get a ton of opportunities in short yardage situations. 10+ TD’s? It’s looking more and more likely.

LeGarrette Blount

The Bucs don’t really have a 3rd down back right now so they want to get Blount more involved in the passing game. This is great news since his PPR production was similar to that of Michael Turners.

Mario Manningham

I liked Manningham even before Steve Smith left. Now, it’s a no-brainer.

Tim Hightower

It looks like Hightower will be the Redskins #1 back. He’s gotten a lot of praise recently and followed it up with a nice pre-season game against the Steelers. He’s the back you want to own from the Redskins. Read more

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Fantasy Football Stock Up/Down August 7th

August 7, 2011 No comments

More updates. Rankings being updated soon as well!

Stock Up

Kevin Boss

I like the Boss signing by the Raiders. He can instantly fill the void left by Zach Miller and have similar production.

Brandon Jacobs

I talked about Jacobs being a bit of a sleeper this year after he averaged 5.6 YPC last season. It looks like Jacobs will receive more touches this year and with Bradshaw being very injury prone, Jacobs could end up starting a few games.

Ryan Grant

Well, the Packers kept their word and Grant is running exclusively with the first team. Expect Grant to produce like he used to before the injury.

Legedu Naanee

Naanee hasn’t won a starting spot yet but I expect him to beat LaFell and Gettis by the time the season starts. Monitor this situation because Naanee might be worth a late round flier.

Roy Williams

It looks like Roy Williams will be the #1 in Chicago and could see a lot of targets, especially in the redzone. He looks like a very enticing sleeper right now.

Tarvis Beckum

The talented pass catching TE from Wisconsin will now get his chance to start for the Giants. He’ll be the most targeted TE on the team so he could have a pretty solid year.

Stock Down

Montario Hardesty

Hardesty is still not recovered from his knee injury and hasn’t been practicing. He might even end up missing some games. So much for him cutting into Hillis’ workload.

James Starks

Grant is running with the first team so I expect Starks to be nothing more than a short yardage back with a couple of carries sprinkled in here and there. Not someone you want to draft.

Johnny Knox

It looks like Knox will be a little bit of a let down this year. The addition of Roy Williams has crowded things a bit at the WR position and Williams was running with the 1st team at practices while Knox was with the 2nd team. On top of that the Bears announced that Knox will be the primary kick returner which usually means a smaller role on offense. It’s a puzzling situation because Knox has been their best receiver the past 2 years.

Darrius Heyward-Bey

If you’re one of the 5 people that thought DHB would be a sleeper this year and was ready to break out, I’m very sorry to tell you he won’t. He doesn’t even practice with the team right now and there’s no signs of him being hurt. Things are looking real bad for him and wouldn’t even be surprised if he gets released.

Dustin Keller

The Jets wanted to get Keller more involved this year but with the signing of Derrick Mason he’ll surely lose some targets. Keller can still be a solid TE, but he’s still more of a #2 than a #1 TE.

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Fantasy Football Stock Up/Down August 4th

August 4, 2011 No comments

More updates. Expect a big rankings update this weekend.

Stock Up

Ray Rice

Ok, so I already loved Rice heading into this season and now McGahee and McClain are out of the picture. Looks like it will be the Ray Rice show in Baltimore. He may be my #2 back this year.

Mike Tolbert

Looks like Tolbert will become the Chargers 3rd down back with Sproles gone and should be pretty heavily utilized in the offense. Good for Tolbert, bad for Matthews.

Kyle Orton

Orton was named the Broncos starter. I doubt he holds onto the job for long but he’s an average fantasy starter thats capable of being your #2 QB.

Roy Helu/Tim Hightower

Torain is hurt so that really hurts him in the 3 RB race for the starting role. Torain won’t be completely eliminated but right now the slight edge has to go to Helu or Hightower.

Patrick Crayton

Patrick Crayton is the Chargers #2 WR at the moment but I expect him to be unseated by my favorite rookies, Vincent Brown, soon. As of now, Crayton is the guy you want, but keep a close eye on this situation.

Stock Down

LeSean McCoy

Why sign Ronnie Brown? Doesn’t make sense to me. All they’re going to do is take away touches from a talented RB and give them to an inconsistent, injury prone one.

Ryan Matthews

Copy, paste. Looks like Tolbert will become the Chargers 3rd down back with Sproles gone and should be pretty heavily utilized in the offense. Good for Tolbert, bad for Matthews.

Zach Miller

Miller was consistent in Oakland with some shoddy QB play but now he’s moving to an unfamiliar situation with more bad QB play. His numbers should dip.

Matt Forte

Another RB I really liked just lost some value. The Bears plan to use Marion Barber as the goal line back. While Forte still has a lot of value, especially in PPR leagues, his TD totals will be limited.

John Carlson

Carlson didn’t have much fantasy value to begin with but it’s virtually non-existent now with Zach Miller in town.

Tim Tebow

Kyle Orton named the starter. It won’t be for long in my opinion but this robs Tebow of playing time. I’d probably still draft him in deep leagues as a potential break out player.

Ryan Torain

Torain hurt… again? Shocking! He’ll still be involved but he may be slipping behind in the race to be the starter.

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Fantasy Football Stock Up/Down July 31st

July 31, 2011 No comments

More updates. The rankings will be getting updated once free agency slows down. Then updates will be made from what I gather from training camp news and then eventually pre-season. There will be a lot of changes, and additions, to the rankings soon.

Stock Up

Joseph Addai

Looks like Addai will remain a Colt and should continue to be the lead back. We’ll have to see how Donald Brown is utilized but it’s already looking bad if they brought back Addai instead of handing the reigns to the 1st rounder from a few years ago.

Lance Kendricks

Daniel Fells has left the Rams and he caught 41 passes for them last year. Kendricks should step into the pass-catching role while Michael Hoomanawanui will probably be more of the blocker.

Denario Alexander

Alexander opened up training camp running with the 1st team. It’s pretty clear the Rams see him as an important piece of the offense moving forward.

Ryan Williams

Tim Hightower just got traded to the Redskins. If there aren’t alarms going off in your head right now about the sleeper potential of Ryan Williams, you’re not a hardcore fantasy football player! Watch out for this guy this year.

Stock Down

Arian Foster

Foster just lost his fullback. You could argue that Leach is the best FB in the league so this is a pretty big loss. Things sure look like they’re going to get worse for Foster in Houston and he will definitely not repeat his performance from a year ago.

Donald Brown

Is it safe to call him a bust yet? He’s been unspectacular and many thought this would be his year to finally take over but instead the Colts opted to bring back Addai.

Ryan Torain/Roy Helu

Tim Hightower will get touches. Whether or not he starts is a different story but it’s never good to deal with a RBBC fantasy owners. We really have to wait and see how carries will be divided in camp and pre-season.

Jordy Nelson

Well, James Jones got re-signed and it looks like he will retain his spot above Nelson on the depth chart. Unless, Driver retires or injuries hit the Packers WR corp, Nelson isn’t really worth drafting anymore.

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Is Kevin Kolb A Franchise QB?

July 28, 2011 No comments

If you’re a hardcore football fan like me, chances are you’ve spent the past few days on twitter, Rotoworld, NFL.com and ESPN to get updates on the latest free agency buzz. Of course the headliner on Thursday was the “blockbuster” trade between the Eagles and the Cardinals. In case you didn’t hear, the Cardinals shipped cornerback Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie and a 2nd round pick to the Eagles for quarterback Kevin Kolb. There’s some mixed feelings regarding this trade and I feel strongly one way about this trade so I figured I’d write an article about it.

Is Kevin Kolb a franchise QB? I doubt it.

Is Kevin Kolb worth it? Not even close. First, let’s get a bit of a background check on Kevin Kolb to see just what type of player he is.

Entering the draft out of Houston, Kolb was rated as a mid round pick in what might ultimately be the worst QB class of all time. Seriously, the top QB’s in that class we’re JaMarcus Russell, Brady Quinn, Drew Stanton, Trent Edwards and John Beck. He wasn’t regarded as a top prospect and really only had 1 great year at Houston.

Flash forward the draft where the Eagles reached for him in the early 2nd round. I remember the pick was quite shocking and Eagles fans, who we’re getting tired of Donovan McNabb, we’re quick to hop on the Kolb bandwagon. After all, the back-up in Philly is always the savior, so it seems.

Now to the important stuff, his NFL resume. Here is a guy who the Cardinals traded for hoping to be a franchise QB. You’d expect to see some great numbers, right? Well, you’d be wrong. In his career, Kolb has made a whopping total of 7 starts in 4 years. His career stat line of 2,082 passing yards, 6.5 avg, 11 TD, 14 INT leaves a lot to be desired. His best starts last year we’re against the Falcons and the Titans. The Titans had the 4th worst pass defense while the Falcons had the 11th worst. Not exactly great competition. I guess he “burst onto the scene” in 2009 when he made two starts against the Saints and the Chiefs. The Eagles promptly got blown out by the Saints and Kolb tossed 3 picks. The next game he faced a poor Chiefs squad and lit them up. The Chiefs we’re horrible in 2009 though, so it’s not much of an accomplishment to play well against a 4-12 team.

It should be noted that Andy Reid’s offense is widely regarded as very QB friendly. After all, even an aging Jeff Garcia was able to step in and post some great numbers. On top of that, the Eagles have a lot of talent on offense, certainly one of the most lethal offenses in the league. Yet, Kolb was still not able to put up good numbers.

Alright, so we established that his numbers are quite poor playing in a QB friendly offense on a good team, and that his best games came against weak competition meanwhile he’s struggled when playing better defenses. Maybe it’s not all in the stats though, so let’s take a deeper look.

Kolb was regarded as a bit of a field general coming out of Houston. He was smart and could pick apart defenses. Unfortunately, this has not translated into the NFL. After 4 years in the league, Kolb still routinely checks down and has earned the infamous “Captain Checkdown” nickname, which isn’t exactly flattering. This is backed up by his very poor career yards per attempt average of just 6.5. That would have placed him tied for 26th in the league amongst starters last year ahead of only Derek Anderson, Sam Bradford and Jimmy Clausen. Ouch.

On top of that, his accuracy is inconsistent at best, especially down field. He struggles to lead open receivers. He is prone to making bad decisions under pressure and he’ll be seeing a lot of pressure behind Arizona’s offensive line. He doesn’t have a rocket arm, although it’s not necessary and he tends to stare down a lot of his receivers. Basically, after 4 years in the league Kolb still plays very much like a rookie.

The Eagles won this trade by a landslide. Kolb probably wasn’t even worth the 2nd rounder alone but on top of it they also got a young corner who still has a lot of upside. I know Cardinals, and Cougars fans (wouldn’t be the first time), might flame me for this article but I’m calling it like I see it. I don’t see Kolb being a franchise QB. He’s not a winner. He might put up some great passing numbers which I’m sure will make him gold in the mind of fantasy football fans, but it won’t make the Cardinals contenders. I didn’t even mention how grossly overpaid he’s going to be which will make this trade sting just a little bit more for Cardinals fans.

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