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Against all odds, the Pittsburgh Steelers went from Wild Card to Trump Card in a matter of a few weeks. One of the last teams given a playoff spot last season, the Steelers went on the road against the Cincinnati Bengals, Denver Broncos, and Indianapolis Colts coming away with a victory in each contest. The season finished up in Detroit, Michigan where the Steel Curtain hoisted up the Vince Lombardi Trophy after beating the Seattle Seahawks in the Super Bowl.
A storybook ending for all involved; including Jerome Bettis who had never won a Super Bowl, and got to do so in his hometown. Well, I think that storybook did end last season, as this year’s Steelers might find their work cut out for them to even make the playoffs, let alone win it all again.
Click to continue reading AFC North Preview: Pittsburgh Steelers
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As a football fan born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio, trust me when I tell you that it pains me to write about the successes that the Bengals will incur for the upcoming 2006 football season.
A prolific offense that was one knee injury (or lack thereof) away from going further in the AFC playoffs only a year ago, this Cincinnati club is back with a vengeance, and will more than likely take all of its pent up frustrations out on the rest of the division.
Click to continue reading AFC North Preview: Cincinnati Bengals
Order Of Finish:
1. New England Patriots
2. Miami Dolphins
3. New York Jets
4. Buffalo Bills
Best Offensive Player: Tom Brady, QB, New England Patriots
Best Defensive Player: Richard Seymour, DL, New England Patriots
Best Offensive Rookie: Laurence Maroney, RB, New England Patriots
Best Defensive Rookie: John McCargo, DT, Buffalo Bills
Comeback Player: Daunte Culpepper, QB, Miami Dolphins
Breakout Player: Jerricho Cotchery, WR, New York Jets
Will Be A Bust Player: Chad Pennington, QB, New York Jets
As bad as the New York Jets QB situation is, the Bills situation isn’t much better. In fact, it might even be worse. QB J.P. Losman got a shot to be the starting QB last season and there was much hope that he’d pull through, but he didn’t. He would split starts with QB Kelly Holcomb, who wasn’t much better. This is a position in disarray and with a bad offensive line, the situation could get worse.
It’s too bad about the QB deficiency because the Bills have a young talented WR in Lee Evans, who managed to catch seven touchdowns. With Eric Moulds gone to the Houston Texans, Evans could be the number one WR on the Bills depth chart. Unless, of course, returning WR Peerless Price regains his former glory as a Bill. However, Price is past his prime and Evans really is just starting to touch on it. Now, if they only had someone good throwing to them.
Click to continue reading AFC East Preview: Buffalo Bills
Last season for the Jets was a disaster to say the least. The team was in such disarray, they were heavy competition for most disappointing franchise with the New York Knicks… now, that’s pretty bad. So, with QB Chad Pennington hurt and lost for most of the season, perennial All Pro C Kevin Mawae injured, and RB Curtis Martin showing his age, drastically performing the complete opposite way he’s had previously in his career, it all added up to a very sorry offense.
So, how did the Jets improve offensively? They drafted QB Matt Leinart… umm, oops. No they didn’t. Instead, with the fourth overall pick, the Jets drafted OL D’Brickashaw Ferguson, passing up on Leinart who could have stepped in as the QB of the future for the Jets, if not the present.
Click to continue reading AFC East Preview: New York Jets
The biggest news for the Dolphins have to do with the QB and RB positions. Out with the old QBs (Gus Frerotte and Sage Rosenfels) and in with the new (Daunte Culpepper and Joey Harrington). Culpepper is coming off a serious knee injury, but has a multitude of talent, definitely qualifying as high risk/high reward for the Dolphins. Harrington also has talent if you believe his performance when he played with the Oregon Ducks because as of yet, everyone’s still waiting for him to shine.
Someone who won’t be shining for the Dolphins is Ricky Williams, who was suspended for the whole NFL season, thanks to yet another failed drug test. No worries though for Fin fans as Ronnie Brown will get a chance to really show his ability as the dreaded running back-by-committee won’t be in effect. I’d look for Brown to make it so that there will be no need for Williams to ever come back and have him stay up in Canada.
Click to continue reading AFC East Preview: Miami Dolphins
It’s hard for me to not put the Patriots at the top every season as there’s just something about them that you can’t underestimate. Sure they got there butts handed to them by the Denver Broncos in the playoffs, losing 27-13, but injuries and Father Time got the best of them.
This season the Patriots add youth to the skill positions in RB Laurence Maroney and WR Chad Jackson (who is thus far injured) through the draft and these rookies will need to step up with RB Corey Dillon, who missed five games last season, potentially continuing to decline and a possible departure of WR Deion Branch.
Click to continue reading AFC East Preview: New England Patriots
Fantasy Football Drafts are in full swing now with only two weeks remaining until the season kicks off.
Here are my top 10 fantasy football recievers for 2006:
- Chad Johnson: You know he is going to have yet another big year as this offense will get better and better with Carson Palmer’s maturity.
- Steve Smith: He was huge last year, and is bound to catch more balls with a servicable number 2 reciever lining up on the other side.
- Larry Fitzgerald: He’s young and as long as Kurt Warner can stay upright, he is sure to get in the end zone upwards of 10 times.
- Marvin Harrison: I dont care if he’s getting up there in years, no one is more consistent. The Colts are going to be throwing even more this year.
- Tory Holt: The other Mr. Consistency. He’ll put up good to great numbers year in and year out.
- Terell Owens: He’d be worth the risk at this point in time. Drew Bledsoe is bound to have a career year with all of his options and if Terell gets fully healthy he is as good as anyone.
- Reggie Wayne: Another Colt? Peyton is going to spread it to both of these guys again this year.
- Randy Moss: He was the best once up a time. Now he is just above average.
- Chris Chambers: Again, this guys stats depend on his quarterback. It remains to be seen how much partying Dante will be doing on South Beach this fall.
- Santana Moss: he is flat out dangerous and should get plenty of single coverage this year.
On Monday, Junior Seau went back to the team that drafted him fifth overall in the 1990 NFL Draft out of USC, the San Diego Chargers, whom he played 13 seasons for. No, Seau was not going to be playing for them after being released by the Miami Dolphins, whom he played with for three seasons. He was back to party and celebrate his retirement. About 300 people were there to celebrate with him. But, guess what?
Seau may be back between the lines making opposing offensive players say his name - SAY-OW!
Click to continue reading Junior Seau UN-Retiring?
Sporting News Fantasy Football Magazine Review
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Editorial, Fantasy, NFL,
Sporting News Fantasy Football
Sporting News Fantasy Games
Edited by Bob Hille, Dale Bye, Bill Marx, Mike Nahrstedt
$7.99 US, 152 pages, no sexy ads. Cover features Larry Johnson and Shaun Alexander.
This magazine loves the athletes – every picture is a shot of player, usually in action. It kicks off with an odds and end collection of draft day tips, then jumps right into a long expert’s mock draft section. Every pick gets a write-up, but the length of the comments vary greatly depending of how controversial they are (several paragraphs devoted to Matthew Berry’s choice of Thomas Jones late in round one, for example.)
Then Sporting News gets a little schizophrenic – it turns out that the opening article is a preview for what’s to come. Good advice, backed with numbers, but dispensed in chicken nugget-sized snippets. It’s very basic too, covering fundamentals of play – probably written to appeal to beginners. The Overall Rankings list 204 players divided into “tiers” of 12 (for a seventeen-round, twelve-owner draft.)
The position intros are very good – lots of information in a concise package. Players are listed alphabetically (within their position) in an extremely abbreviated format. Their rank, according to Sporting News’ Cheat Sheet, is included. Notes and Q&A are sprinkled through these sections. Coaching and player changes are covered, briefly, as is strength of schedule.
Team analysis and stats round out the issue and are (as you would expect) bare bones. This magazine covers everything but does so without a lot of depth. A great choice for someone whose pressed for time, and would work well as an introduction for beginners. For them, it’s recommended. More experienced (or obsessive) players might be disappointed with the brevity.
That’s it for now. Check back soon for the next installment, and remember to always take two Running Backs in the first three rounds. Always.
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