xenophobe

I expect a strong day. The kid is good and the Giants O has been playing well. I think people will take notice of him tonight. Expect around 100 total yards and a score.

"He definitely doesn't have a good Oline now..." Yes and the results were?

Who was being critical? I only said I need to see more, that much of his success had come under some pretty good conditions. I never said anything about winning a SB. I am just not ready to anoint a player as all world until I see more. How is that a critic? Because I won't put him up there with Brady on a limited sample?

Hell yes I would pick up Moreno. Are you kidding me? Once he returns to full action he'll be top 10 there on out.

Great protection, huge running game, and lots of good targets, fantastic scheme. Do we get all of that with him, or just the player?

In a fantasy sense, I never had any doubts. In a football sense, we have to see. It is much more meaningful to see how a player responds to adversity, and he has not had to deal with enough of that yet. The comebacks are the closest he has had to face, which is a good sign for him, but it is too early to tell. He has one playoff home loss. He has very good OLine help of a great running game and lots of weapons.

I'm torn between Brown and Bradshaw. Bradshaw is safer, but Brown may have more upside short term.

Does anybody see this week as the start of a big year for Gates, or just one of those fluky things? He had pretty good yardage last year, but does he have enough in the tank to produce like a top FF TE? I haven't seen him play this year so curious to hear opinions.

I do. Eli looked good this past week. I think he will come around.

We have Bradshaw also available in my league. I am leaning towards him over Davis, K Robinson, and D Brown, but I am not sure. I would go with K Davis, but I have a feeling Charles won't be out very long. It is a close call between D Brown and Bradshaw.

Some good backs that may be available, but who is best? K Davis, K Robinson, D Brown, Bradshaw?

Eli played a very good game. What the hell are people watching?

It is not Eli or the system that are the problem. Their Oline, WRs outside of Cruz who is not a true #1, and TEs are a bunch of nobodies who play like nobodies.

I've been more impressed with Forsett, but seems like the staff is going to stick with Pierce. I'm not sure what they see in Pierce but looks like they are sticking with him regardless.

I'm going to give him a shot over Hyde and have both of these guys competing for playing time on my roster. The people asking why has he not been a starter before are looking at this wrong. I don't think anyone is suggesting he is the kind of talent who will lock up a team's starting RB for years. But outside of the few guys who are true talents, the league is loaded with backs are capable of getting the job done and having fantasy value for a season if provided the right opportunity. Forsett has averaged 4.9 YPC over his career. Now we all know that YPC as a backup/3rd down back doesn't translate into starting, but it is a good sign. He also has shown to be effective as a receiver and this can be a nice source of production for backs. At this point, unless they bring in somebody, which hasn't happened yet and may take time, if it happens at all, all he needs to do to have some fantasy value is beat out Pierce for reps --and he's off to a good start. Pierce is a guy you have to be skeptical if he would live up to the hype as he has not delivered so far with his chances. You can chose to believe the comments that the fumble was the reason he was benched, and undoubtedly it was the catalyst, but let's face it, if they were happy enough with Pierce to begin with he would not have been one fumble away from taking a seat. The door was already somewhat open for Forsett, and so far so good.

I would take Jennings over Matthews. A few points on Jennings. For starters, the rookie A Williams is legitimate and will be a part of the offense, probably goal line as well. They have given him reps in games with the starters which is something you rarely see from young players on the Giants, and Coughlin seems to really like him. That said, Jennings will be a huge part of the offense. The only thing that has looked good for the Giants offense this preseason is the running game. It was a point of emphasis for them and despite how poor their oline is overall (very bad) blocking for the run seems like one area that might be significantly improved over the past two seasons. Additionally, despite all the talk about the Giants new offense this year, we really have not gotten a chance to see it. They have not gotten into a rhythm in any games and seem to have been working on things more than showing what the final product will look like. Why do I say this? Because one of the things Jennings was brought in to do is to catch passes out of the backfield and they haven't shown this. Williams may be a threat to vulture carries, but he is zero threat to Jennings on 3rd downs. The Giants have a weak group of WRs overall and TEs are abysmal. In the West Coast offense they need Jennings to be a major factor for them in the passing game, not just as a check down, but with designed plays to get it to him. So overall I am not high on the Giants offense, but it will run through the backs and Jennings in particular will be a major part of it.

I'm not sure what to expect, but if you have options worth considering benching Rodgers, Nelson, Cobb or Lacy, you are either in a very small or very weak league. They will probably not blow up but not an option to sit for most.

They are reporting it is Shayne Graham

Thanks cuse.

Any word? Is Dimke it?

Agreed. Here are the backs I have over Ball: SM, JC, MF, EL, DM, AP. If those guys are taken (and only if), I do have a drop off in tier but Ball does come into the conversation along with D Thomas. Then look for a WR or someone like D Martin in round 2.

DrG -Agreed. The problem though is that everyone realizes this so most drafts start out with a run on running backs, hence the guys at the top of the draft are in much better position to go this route. So the corollary is that people drafting at the top of the draft are in best position (because they can take advantage) and everyone else has to settle (over draft a RB or go some other route).

UCT -Makes Sense.

I have several issues with this type of analysis. It makes no account for scoring system, # teams, roster restrictions, etc. That aside, a statement like "The numbers are overwhelming for taking a running back to start your draft" can be a bit misleading. I have played in a lot of 12 team leagues with systems that favor RBs over QBs and WRs. In fact, this represents a very high percentage of the leagues out there. In almost every one of them every draft starts out with a huge run on RBs and remains heavily RB focused even after WRs start trickling off the board. But this statement about the numbers being overwhelming treat all RBs taken in the 1st round as equal, where we know this is completely untrue. The fact is a large number of the 31 % are simply fortunate enough to have a draft position that lands them a stud RB in round 1 and follow that up with a stud WR and not miss out on a quality QB because one can easily be had much later. If you're drafting at the end of the round you are often starting out way behind and have a lot of catching up to do in the mid rounds. I have never understood why these leagues are so popular. My favorite league has 6 pts for all TDs (passing also) which makes the top QBs extremely viable alternatives once the stud RBs are off the board, starts 3 WRs instead of 2 which increases the value of WR, and has 14 teams which helps dilute the talent available by the end of round 2 so that the teams with the first couple picks aren't always following up their stud RB with 2 more studs and the guys picking later desperately trying to play catch up. The point is, some leagues (many) have the system stacked from the start to favor early RB, but more specifically have it stacked to favor the top of the draft order because "starting your draft with a running back" means a whole different thing for the guy picking McCoy as it does the guy staring down Bell or Stacy or somebody.

I am high on TY this year. Look for Luck to take that leap into the elite QBs this year. IMO, Nicks will be the top WR on the team this year but TY will have a mini break out also.