slamNJ

Travis Henry Girl with a good history and in a good situation. Asking her out was a match made in heaven. Then you find out she has been around the block a million times, a drug addict, and has nine kids at home.

RB Sleepers Michael Turner - His 1-year deal is up. If he decides to go to another team, he could be a good feature back. Justin Fargas - The Raiders will most likely have Russell under center and he may provide the spark that the Raiders offense has been missing. Selvin Young - Possibly the next Denver back? I probably wouldn't touch a Denver back with a 1st round pick, but Henry is most likely done and Young can provide great value in the second round. QB Sleepers So many injuries and sophomore QBs not living up to potential, it's hard to pick a sleeper here. Alex Smith, Leinart, Young have not been great due to ineffective play or injury (or both) however the one that has the biggest question mark may be Leinart. The new coaching staff wasn't the same staff that drafted him and came in with a new run-oriented offense. There was also that bizarre Warner-Leinart platoon situation that didn't seem to trust the ball in his hands. It will be very interesting this off-season to see how many QBs will shuffled around. Lots of starters (T. Jackson, Delhomme/Carr, Harrington/Leftwich, McNabb, Griese/Grossman) might be in new uniforms or on the bench. WR Sleepers Santonio Holmes - seems to be benefiting the most from the new pass-oriented offense. Ward isn't getting any younger and injuries are starting to hit him. Dwayne Bowe - Not really a sleeper since he's having a decent rookie year, but the Chiefs WRs desperately need young legs. He'll probably be the #1 receiver on the Chiefs next year.

Grossman and Olsen haven't really had much time on the field together. Olsen was injured the first 2 weeks of the season and Grossman was pulled after week 3. That means they've been on the same field for really 1 game total. I don't know if I would start Olsen this week, but I would have to imagine that it Olsen will get into the mix sooner or later.

I feel your pain brother. Start of the week my ass.

Agreed. If you were to remove the aspect of luck, then you also remove excitement from the game. Teams tear through the regular season all the time only to lose in the playoffs, just ask the '05 Colts or the '06 Mavericks. An upset every now and things keeps things interesting and makes it fun.

Steven Jackson's 2007 is similar fantasy-wise to that of Shaun Alexander in 2006. Alexander didn't do a whole lot in the beginning of 06, then got hurt. He then came back and was productive, but nowhere near his previous numbers. This year Alexander was still drafted in the beginning to middle of the first round. I don't see Jackson falling out of the first round in 08. He has a lot of talent, he didn't suffer a catastrophic injury, and he's still the main man on his team. Unless the Rams decide to go committee next season, I don't see Jackson's value slipping too far.

IMO Benson's value took another hit Sunday night. That's the second time this season he's been benched due to fumblitis. From what I've seen in the three games this season, he's been average so far at best. Granted the passing game is doing him NO favors. Grossman has just been awful, and I think that Benson is good enough to put up productive numbers (not *great* numbers though) in a balanced offense. Right now, the Bears have been unable to get any type of drive going and I think it's hard to get anything going rushing once on a three-and-out series. Hopefully the QB change (you know it's coming) will turn things around...until then, Benson is on my bench.

They didn't do this last year?

Warrick Dunn is 32 years old and had back surgery 2-3 weeks before the start of the season, yet Dunn was still named the starter. There is obviously something the coaching staff does not like about this kid's game as an every down back. Maybe I'm giving the coaching staff too much credit, but I would imagine Petrino and Co. see something we don't.

The fact of the matter is that people are always going to have something to say about your performance in a game. There are legions upon legions of journalists, broadcasters, analysts and plain old know-it-alls that are going to ride your butt into the ground because that's what they get paid to do. The whole idea of the "Monday Morning QB" was coined for that very reason. There are 31 quarterbacks at the end of each season that get dissected by the media because there can only be one winner. That being said, it is all about how you handle it. Peyton has done his share of finger-pointing ("Let's just say we had protection issues") but in the end, you are ultimately judged by the number in the win column. As the face of the organization, McNabb needs to realize that comes with the job. You take the good with the bad. If McNabb won the Super Bowl, he would be labeled a hero and be a media darling. Race has nothing to do with it.

Chicago Sun-Times September 18, 2007: Are winds of change blowing? QB WATCH | Smith asks for patience, but Grossman may be on thin ice September 18, 2007 BY BRAD BIGGS bbiggs@suntimes.com The head coach with the defensive background was grilled about his offense Monday. Instead of taking to the defensive, Bears coach Lovie Smith preached patience. How much longer he will cling to that virtue remains to be seen, but one got the distinct impression quarterback Rex Grossman has been put on notice. Smith never is going to come out and say so, but he also isn't going to wait an entire season for things to turn around. In two games, Grossman has been picked off three times, has completed 56.1 percent of his passes, has been sacked six times and has a passer rating of 55.1. That rating ranked Grossman 32nd in the NFL entering play Monday. It's hardly the improvement that was promised in his second full season as a starter, and Smith didn't try to sell it as such. ''The turnovers on the offensive side are something that we have to eliminate,'' he said. ''It's as simple as that. Passing-game-wise, we didn't get a lot done [sunday].'' Smith divides the season into quarters and said it's too early to rush to judgment about Grossman and an ailing offense that ranks 30th in yardage. It might be that Brian Griese is only a few games away from getting his opportunity because the organization is running out of ways to rationalize what is happening. It's the same 11 starters with the exception of running back Cedric Benson, who was supposed to be an upgrade over Thomas Jones. It's the third season for coordinator Ron Turner, who spent the postgame talking about the good calls the Kansas City Chiefs made in the second half of the Bears' 20-10 victory Sunday. And Wade Wilson, the quarterbacks coach who supposedly wouldn't work on the things that needed work, has been replaced by Pep Hamilton. ''If you're doing well pass-wise, it's a combination of things,'' Smith said. ''It's protection, it's the quarterback throwing the ball to the receivers, pitch and catch. Right now, I'm going to say the entire operation, we're just not there. ''We made progress offensively as I saw it this past week [by] getting our running game going. The next phase of it will be to bring the passing game along with it, too.'' Did the Bears make progress? The explanation handed out by Turner, Grossman and the receivers was that the Chiefs were in a deep zone and were doing everything in their power to prevent giving up the big play. Fine. In trading the deep stuff -- Grossman had exactly one completion go for more than 11 yards -- for the short stuff, the Bears also should have shredded the Chiefs on the ground. Benson rolled to 101 yards on 24 carries, a workmanlike effort but hardly the kind of outing that left the Chiefs dazed and wounded. The Bears conceded the Chiefs took away their big-play capability, but they couldn't make the Chiefs pay where they were then vulnerable. You can't have it both ways in the aftermath of a rushing attack that produced only 107 yards with a 3.7-yard average. ''Their philosophy defensively is they are not going to give up the big play,'' Turner said. ''We knew that going in, and we said going in that to move the ball against these guys, you had to be very efficient.'' The mistakes Grossman has been making aren't the gunslinging errors that have been discussed in the past. He's not getting picked off trying to force a ball into a tiny hole 30 yards downfield. He lobbed a screen pass to linebacker Napoleon Harris and said he never saw linebacker Donnie Edwards on a short throw to Rashied Davis. ''I just don't think we're playing as well consistently,'' Grossman said. You've seen this happen here before. Rarely does it end happily. The coach is asking for your patience. He will need to ask his offense for points Sunday against the Dallas Cowboys, who have rolled up 82 points in their first 2-0 start since 1999. ''I don't think you make any calls based on what you've done after two games,'' Smith said. ''You need to go into the first quarter [of the season] a little bit. ''We are taking steps. We just haven't been able to see it all in our play right now. It's still a little early to say, 'This happened last year.' Give us a little bit more time. We're not where we want to be as a football team. I can't give you reasons why.''

IMO, the problem with Taylor was that he can't physically handle being an every-down back. The arrival of Jones-Drew last year enabled Taylor to take less carries, therefore he wouldn't break down as much. Therefore I don't think Taylor will break down while Jones-Drew is around. Same with Julius Jones in Dallas, he could never stay healthy as an every-down back. Since they went with a RBBC there he's been healthy.

There was an article about this in the Tribune. I'm willing to give Benson a mulligan against the Chargers, but from the sound of Lovie Smith's comments, Benson has been put on notice. Hopefully that lights a fire under him. http://chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/sp...-home-headlines

The divorce rate in this country would quadruple halfway through the season.

For those waiting to see something official: http://www.nfl.com/gamecenter/live/NFL_20061112_WAS@PHI McNabb has 2 TDs on his statline with receiving TDs by Buckhalter and Stallworth.