Berner

Championship clinched! Thanks Kirk Cousins, who replaced Andy Dalton, who replaced Andrew Luck. Thanks Allen Robinson (drafted 9th round) and Eric Decker (dratted 12th round). Thanks Greg Olsen. And thanks Cam Newton for choosing this week to have a bad game.

The title of this thread (and the post I responded to) wasn't "The new #1 TE in the NFL for 2010" it was "The new #1 TE in FF for 2010. Fantasy football is about statistical performance and consistency. The simple fact is that the Packers have too many receiving options for Finley to be the top TE pick next year. Take V. Davis, on the other hand, great stats and the only truly reliable pass-catcher on the Niners. Barring off-season changes in the 49'ers offense, I would undoubtedly peg Davis as the #1 TE next year. Even Gates competes for stats with VJax, and Clark competes with the whole Indy receiving core. Davis competes for stats with who? Crabtree? Puh-leese.

Wish you were in all my leagues, assuming you pay up front. Season TDs: Finley 5 Gates 8 Clark 10 Davis 13 Gonzo 6 Notice who's trailing the pack? (Not to mention Shiancoe, Celek, and a half-dozen other TE with more TDs, yards, or both.) The kid had a good game; let's not crown him quite yet.

In this thread: Patriots hate Patriots denial Patriots self-loathing Patriots fail Patriots cheat I love this thread.

Dude, you just lost your Pro Bowl wide receiver. You can't honestly think some second-string scrub is going to fill his shoes. And for the Patsies fans with short memories who think that Brady can beat elite teams with shittay receivers, I have two words for you. Jabar Gaffney.

Its amazing how one week changes things: Colts now look like geniuses for resting starters in the Jets game. Colts avoided any major injuries last week and this week, and will head into the playoffs as healthy and rested as they have been all year. With the weather conditions in Buffalo, there was no chance the Colts starters play a full, meaningless game even if the Colts were 15-0. That field was an ice rink. The risk of injury was way too high, and thus Polian and Caldwell would have pulled the starters early no matter what. Now any controversy is moot, and the team can focus on the task at hand. Patriots look like fools for (once again) bucking conventional wisdom. Instead of resting their starters, Bellichick decides to tempt fate. Fate wins, big time, and the Patriots lose their Pro Bowl wide-receiver. And for what? Zilcho, because Bellichick benches Brady with two minutes to play, depriving the Patriots of any chance of winning a competitive football game. Classless, clueless, and cowardly. The players and fans were not only robbed of a chance to win the game, but paid for their coach's unmitigated hubris with the loss of the team's best offensive weapon heading into the playoffs. Of course, I only make these comparisons because it was the Patriots fans who made such a big deal about the Colt's decisions to rest their players last week. Meanwhile, the Patriots go from contender to cautionary tale in the blink of an eye. The irony is almost palpable.

I cannot imagine a worse set of coaching/management decisions by this formerly highly-regarding franchise: play your starters for 58 minutes, losing the best possession receiver in the league in the process, and then quit with under two minutes to play. Bench Brady, the greatest 2-minute quarterback eva!?! Unbelieveable! This will undoubtedly destroy any momentum the Patriots had, and divide the locker room. What is the possible upside of going so far, and then showing your true colors by giving the game to the other team? I expect that any true Patriots fan will be absolutely inconsolable over this epic failure. I suppose if the the Patriots win the Super Bowl, these decisions will be vindicated, but anything less than a Lombardi trophy and its clearly time to shake things up with this once-proud franchise.

Froth some more, silly Patsies fan. It seems like you've got 16 weeks of anti-Colts bile built up in your colon, and now that Colts finally lost a game, you and your New England friends are splashing the forum with your mass diarrhea. Its gross, but expected of your kind. Sorry kids, nothing you say about Caldwell's decision is going to change, alter, or redirect the fact that Bellichick made the single-worst coaching decision of the 2009 season. Fourth-and-two. For the next decade, I'll be able to simply say "fourth and two" to any football fan, and they will instantly recall the stupidity of that decision and your so-called genius of a coach. The stink of that failure will never wash away. Ever. So feel free to continue your silly tirade; your motives are obvious to all. Fourth-and-two, my deluded friend, fourth-and-two.

The only difference between being "injured and active" and "injured and inactive" is some sheet of paper submitted by the team to the league office some time before kickoff. That's very different than a player being on a bye week.

Sound point. If your FF draft is late enough in the year, you might get word out of training camp as to how healthy he is next year. But yeah, its a big question mark.

Which is why, as commissioner, I have a rule that any phone call, voicemail or email received before kickoff requesting a roster change will be honored. But c'mon man ... changing a lineup after the game starts? You just can't do it. The slope is too slippery once you go down that path.

The reason I said "undoubtedly" is because the Rams offense is so pathetic that SJax is guaranteed to shoulder the workload. And when he's healthy, he's really really good. He gets yards and TDs even when defenses focus on him. In fantasy football, that's a rare commodity. That said, your basic point is still valid. Anyone who forgets his late-season breakdown and looks solely at the 2009 aggregate stats is likely to draft him too high next year.

Its the manager's job to set his lineup. Inactive, injured, tardy, suspended, or dead (sorry Chris Henry) ... it really doesn't matter why they're not playing. OP: I think you are trying to go out of your way to help the aggrieved party here. This really isn't a close question.

I laugh at the bitter Jags fan trying to throw mud on the Colts season. Its like a little kid jealous of his big brother... Anyway, if the Colts get eliminated in the playoffs this year, let wait to see why they lost. Then we can have an intelligent conversation about the merits of Polian's decision (and by "we" I mean "me and other people"; not you).

I think "avoid" is a bit strong. You have to recognize that with the Rams as bad as they are, SJax is going to get run into the ground. He's probably not going to be around for your fantasy playoffs, just like this year. But if he drops in your draft, you'd be foolish to pass on the points that he'll undoubtedly give you for the first two-thirds of the season.