TOP 5 BUSTS

Here is a list of who i predict will have less than a good season coming up.

5. DeAngelo Williams, rb, panthers. This is only a hunch, but I look for Williams to get hurt and once he does Jonathan Stewart will take over as the starting back. Williams has only had a good half a year really so i refuse to draft him as high as everyone is putting him.

4. Jamal Lewis, rb, browns. Jamal is done and playing the Vikings, Steelers, Bears, Packers & Ravens who all have great run defenses all within the first 8 games will see them playing from behind and airing it out.

3. Matt Cassell, qb, chiefs. Matt won 11 games and still didn’t make the playoffs and if he didn’t have the worst red zone percentage in the league then maybe they would have been able to win the division. His success is merely a sign that BB is the best coach; regardless of what he is dealt he makes a winner out of it

2. Chad Pennington, qb, dolphins. Chad had a charmed year last year and was his only injury free season since who knows when. Injuries, the wild cat, Pat White, the worst schedule imaginable and the rest of the defences in the division improving are all reasons he will bust.

1. Antonio Bryant, wr, bucs. Lightning will not strike twice and he will not be worth the value he brought himself to late last night.

TOP 5 SLEEPERS

Here are my top 5 sleepers and a little reason why i think they will be a player to look for this year.

Visanthe Shiancoe, te, vikings. Had a great year and will continue to get better especially with Brett finding him in the middle. (written in July as NFP never once thought Bret wouldn't be the qb)

Chris Henry, wr, bengals. If Palmer is healthy Chris will prove he is a stud as he has done a good job of staying out of trouble as he had his first off-season without police trouble so he should become a target of value for Palmer.

Jonathan Stewart, rb, panthers. I look for Jonathan to prove that he deserves to be the starter in Carolina, and yes, in front of Williams who has only been healthy for one year and only had a good half a year.

Anthony Gonzalez, wr, colts. Third year guy ready to fill in for the lose of Harrison and is becoming a favorite target of Peyton Manning.

NEW ADDITION TO THE LIST SINCE IT DEBUTED ON FANTASYFOOTBALLSEARCH.COM

1. CHAD JOHNSON, wr, bengals. Chad embarrassed himself last year and non of us thought that was possible. But he is going to put up numbers worth where he is getting drafted and will be a good #2 receiver even though you will already have 2 by the time you draft him.

TOP 5 COACHING CHANGES

Here are the top 5 coaching changes made by teams that I think that can turn some players around and find them some fantasy success.

5. KANSAS CITY CHIEFS - New Coach,. Quarterback, Tight End and lots more. Looks to be what many say a long season.

4. CLEVELAND BROWNS - New coach has brought over many of his Jets and moved stars out. Will it work? Only time will tell.

3. OAKLAND RAIDERS - Cable had the silver and black to 3 -3 in the last six games and won the last 2 of the season. Can he keep them winning is the question.

2. SAN FRANCISCO 49ers - Coach Singletary instilled many new thoughts and discipline principals last year and now the 49ers look as ready as they have been in years to make a play at the division.

1. SEATTLE SEAHAWKS - No Holmgren for the first time in years. Will the fresh blood bring them back to the glory land? A healthy Hasselbeck is a start.

TOP 5 RECEIVING TANDEMS

Today i am going to go over the top 5 receiving tandums in the NFL according to the potenital for fantasy numbers. Actually i couldn't keep it to 5 and i had to step it up to six

6. BENGALS - Ochocinco, Coles, Henry and Simpson. Chad 85 will see a spike in targets and Henry who has been good for 12 months now should become a fantasy target. Coles will also see a lot of targets. Look for the Bengals to score points.

5. TEXANS - Johnson, Walter, Davis and Anderson. Andre Johnson is my number 1 receiver and Walter will continue to see more fantasy value. Davis and Anderson can go to the waste side. Owen Daniels is the deciding factor of making this list.

4. COLTS - Wayne, Gonzalez, Hall and Garcon. Reggie is still a stud and Gonalez is a 3rd year receiver ready to age and will see lots of catches with the departure of Harrison. Hall and Garcon have not value as we wait to see where they play into the new offence. Clark is a stud at tight end.

3. SAINTS - Colston, Henderson, Moore and Meachem. Colston is back to health and should be a top receiver again. Moore should have some value as the number 2 receiver. When Shockey is effective they could go off no matter who is catching the ball.

2. PATRIOTS - Moss, Welker, Galloway and Lewis. Moss and Welker will and rightfully so get drafted early but if you are looking for late round value look at Galloway who is an ageless wonder and will see minimal coverage thanks to the other two big shots. Greg Lewis has no value. Add Watson in the mix and this could be the second strongest in the league.

1. CARDINALS - Fitzgerald, Boldin, Breston and Urban. Best receiver group without a single team coming close to them. Breaston is a flex play at best due to Boldin and Fitz both being tier one receivers.

Coming up next, Top 5 coaching changes that could produce fantasy numbers.

TOP 5 QUARTERBACKS DUO YOU NEED TO HANDCUFF

Here is my top 5 qb duos you want to handcuff yourself with in case of injury or lose of job. All these back ups have shown starting promise in the NFL from one time or another. Don't rush to handcuff, but always be ready to replace your starter if a bad situations happens. To get the full TOP 10 list go to http://www.fantasyfootballsearch.com/playbook/playbook_81.asp where you will get the top 10 plus another 70 pages of information. Check back daily as i will be giving you more top 5 need to know lists.

5. BROWNS - Quinn and Anderson. Quinn will win the job and will have a top end tier three value.

4. BENGALS - Palmer and O`Sullivan. Palmer is a steal right now and should score points now that he is healthy. This duo was even a surprise to me making this list, but O'Sullivan proved he can start in this league.

3. CHARGERS - Rivers and Volek. Rivers is also playing out a contract and will have a great year thanks to a weak AFC West. Volek is a great back up.

2. CARDINALS - Warner and Leinart. Warner is a stud and will have huge numbers again. Leinart will see good numbers as well if needed at all.

1. COWBOYS - Romo and Kitna. Romo is a lower end tier 1 qb with a good qb behind him if he gets hurt. always be ready to get Kitna if Romo goes down.

TOP 5 QUARTERBACKS DUO YOU NEED TO HANDCUFF

Here is my top 5 qb duos you want to handcuff yourself with in case of injury or lose of job. All these back ups have shown starting promise in the NFL from one time or another. Don't rush to handcuff, but always be ready to replace your starter if a bad situations happens. To get the full TOP 10 list go to http://www.fantasyfootballsearch.com/playbook/playbook_81.asp where you will get the top 10 plus another 70 pages of information. Check back daily as i will be giving you more top 5 need to know lists.

5. BROWNS - Quinn and Anderson. Quinn will win the job and will have a top end tier three value.

4. BENGALS - Palmer and O`Sullivan. Palmer is a steal right now and should score points now that he is healthy. This duo was even a surprise to me making this list, but O'Sullivan proved he can start in this league.

3. CHARGERS - Rivers and Volek. Rivers is also playing out a contract and will have a great year thanks to a weak AFC West. Volek is a great back up.

2. CARDINALS - Warner and Leinart. Warner is a stud and will have huge numbers again. Leinart will see good numbers as well if needed at all.

1. COWBOYS - Romo and Kitna. Romo is a lower end tier 1 qb with a good qb behind him if he gets hurt. always be ready to get Kitna if Romo goes down.

GREEN BAY PACKERS 2009 PREVIEW

GREEN BAY PACKERS 2009 PREVIEW
By Andy Benoit, www.NFLTouchdown.com

Got a question for ya. Why is no one acknowledging the Green Bay Packers as serious contenders in 2009? Not talking about contenders in the mediocre NFC North––talking about Super Bowl contenders. This is where you predictably roll your eyes. Go ahead. After all, the Packers were 6-10 last season. And if the NFL has taught us anything, it’s that bad teams don’t make instant turnarounds….right?
Sarcasm aside, Green Bay really doesn’t have to make a turnaround. People don’t seem to realize that this is virtually the same team that hosted the NFC Championship game two years ago. There are just two major differences between the ’07 Packers and the ’09 Packers. You can probably guess the first one (something to do with the man under center). The second difference is experience: this young Packers team is two years wiser.
Mike McCarthy has twice as much experience as a head coach. Workhorse running back Ryan Grant, who averaged 5.1 yards per carry as a de facto rookie in ’07, is 26 years old and in the heart of his prime. He’s eager to prove that a hamstring injury was to blame for his subpar ’08 campaign (in which he actually rushed for 1,203 yards but averaged just 3.9 per attempt). The depth behind Grant is better too, as agile Brandon Jackson and plodding DeShawn Wynn are no longer callow rookies but emerging third-year contributors.
The passing game is even more lethal. Sagacious 11th-year veteran Donald Driver is coming off a 1,000-yard season, and bourgeoning speedster Greg Jennings just raked in $16 million in guarantees in a well-deserved contract extension. Granted, the Pack’s pass protection may not be where it was in 2007 when they had bookend veteran tackles Chad Clifton and Mark Tauscher, but the interior blockers like Daryn Colledge and Jason Spitz are better. And, with an assortment of young talents vying for other starting positions, the line as a whole is relatively promising.
Of course, this offense wasn’t the problem last season anyway. It ranked eighth in yards and fifth in total points. The defense, on the other hand, ranked 20th in yards and 22nd in total points. To rectify this, McCarthy fired defensive coordinator Bob Sanders and brought in Dom Capers. The 3-4 aficionado is aiming to add to his legacy of overhauling mundane units by installing an aggressive, byzantine system.
The thought of the time-honored Packers abandoning the traditional 4-3 has left fans across the Midwest somewhat befuddled. But it’s the right move. General manager Ted Thompson, as usual, did a shrewd job of stocking the roster over the offseason. Per his modus operandi, Thompson, despite some $30 million in salary cap space, eschewed the free agent market and focused on developing current players and investing in new ones via the draft.
He found 325-pound defensive lineman B.J. Raji at Pick Nine, giving Capers a versatile cornerstone to build around. Shocked that USC outside linebacker Clay Matthews was still available at Pick 26, Thompson shipped a second-rounder and a pair of third-rounders to New England to snatch the son of former Browns Pro Bowl linebacker Clay Matthews and nephew of Houston Oilers/Tennessee Titans Hall of Fame blocker Bruce Matthews.
The additions of the prized rookies––and, more directly, the new scheme––pushed some incumbent players into better-fitting positions. Cullen Jenkins is now a 3-4 end. And A.J. Hawk becomes an inside linebacker. The secondary, featuring three Pro Bowlers in Charles Woodson, Al Harris and Nick Collins, and a glistening breakout prospect in Atari Bigby, should be good enough to adjust to the new zone assignments.
With solid depth on both sides of the ball, decent special teams (assuming both kicking games shape up) and a coaching staff boasting many well-regarded assistants, it’s hard, maybe even illogical, to argue that this isn’t a better group than the one that finished 13-5 in 2007.
That is, of course, unless you doubt the guy under center. But few people do. The popular thing to say about Aaron Rodgers is that not only did he win-over the locker room and Lambeau Field by handling the Brett Favre drama with utmost class, but he also played darn well as a first-year starter. Rodgers threw for 4,038 yards and 28 touchdowns (both good for fourth in the NFL) while completing 63.6 percent of his passes.
Yet, one can argue that the Packers would have never finished 0-7 in games decided by four points or less if You Know Who had been orchestrating the offense. Whether this criticism is fair or unfair could determine this team’s Super Bowl chances.
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CHICAGO BEARS 2009 PREVIEW

CHICAGO BEARS 2009 PREVIEW
By Andy Benoit, www.NFLTouchdown.com

So the Chicago Bears finally did it. They finally broke down and got a franchise quarterback. After starting 37 different signalcallers over the last 171 games, and sending just one of them in the last 44 years to the Pro Bowl, the Bears shipped a bounty of goods to Denver in exchange for 26-year-old Jay Cutler. The price was steep, no doubt (quarterback Kyle Orton, two first-round picks and a third-rounder). But no one will remember the price in five years.
The Windy City is understandably buzzing about its new sports icon. And Bears head coach Lovie Smith and GM Jerry Angelo are looking a lot smarter. Indeed, Cutler has special talent. His arm is an absolute rifle. He shows strength and valor in the pocket. His athleticism easily exceeds NFL requirements. And, unlike Chicago’s last two future franchise quarterbacks, first-rounders Cade McNown (’99) and Rex Grossman (’03), Cutler arrives with an NFL track record.
Of course, it’s a track record marked with one huge blemish: attitude. Ask yourself two questions: (A) why was a budding young superstar quarterback with a favorable contract so readily traded from Denver in the first place? and (B) when Cutler was quarrelling with new Broncos head coach Josh McDaniels, why did not one single player, Bronco or non-Bronco, lend an inkling of public support to the star passer? Gifted as Cutler is, his arrogance has been a much-talked about issue in NFL circles. At this point, he bears an unsettling resemblance to Jeff George.
Perhaps even more troubling is what Cutler so willingly gave up to come here. In Denver, he had a quarterback-minded head coach who had just helped guide Tom Brady to a perfect regular season and groomed Matt Cassel into a star. He also had two first-rate offensive tackles (Ryan Clady and Ryan Harris) who were both under 25 and had given up a combined 3.5 sacks in 2008. Plus, his top targets, Brandon Marshall and Eddie Royal, formed the best young receiving tandem in the game. Would a quarterback who was really concerned with winning turn his back so impetuously on a club that offered even just one of these three factors?
At least Cutler now has a golden opportunity to stroke his ego. His head coach is defensive-minded. His tackles are Orlando Pace and Chris Williams, a respective future Hall of Famer and ’08 first-round pick in the eyes of optimists. Realists, however, see these tackles as injury magnets, one in the form of a declining 33-year-old and the other as an untested question mark. Cutler’s top two receivers are Devin Hester and Earl Bennett, both of whom are just learning how to be NFL wideouts. (And investors aren’t exactly lining up.) Thus, any success Chicago has offensively will be credited to the new quarterback.
Cutler does have the kind of talent that can mask an entire offense’s limitations. Plus, scintillating young running back Matt Forte gives the Bears a better running game than the one that helped this team reach the Super Bowl just three years ago.
The ’06 Super Bowl team, of course, was all about defense. This ’09 defense is essentially that same Cover 2 group, except now it’s coming off a season in which it ranked 21st in yards allowed. As hyped as Cutler is, defense is where Chicago’s playoff fate truly rests. Lovie Smith’s favorite unit must recapture its bite if this organization is going to break out of its two-year malaise.
With no major defensive personnel changes, how does that happen? For starters, the addition of perhaps the league’s most respected defensive line coach, Rod Marinelli, should invigorate a front four that produced just 23.5 sacks last season (the Bears as a whole ranked 29th in the league in sacks per play). Smith’s scheme––which stems directly from his Tampa 2 days with Tony Dungy––only works if the front four can get pressure.
From there, Brian Urlacher must bounce back from an overwhelmingly average ’08 season that prompted a din of whispers about whether back and neck injuries had taken a toll on the six-time Pro Bowler (Urlacher has not made it to Hawaii the past two years). Tailing off at a rate commensurate with Urlacher has been a secondary that enters 2009 somewhat discombobulated.
But none of these obstacles are insurmountable. And the difference between this Bears team and those of the past six decades is that, even if some of the defensive problems aren’t solved, there’s at least hope. That’s what a star quarterback will give you.
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OAKLAND RAIDERS 2009 PREVIEW

OAKLAND RAIDERS 2009 PREVIEW
By Andy Benoit, www.NFLTouchdown.com

When previewing teams looking to make that jump from bottom-dweller to playoff contender, the process generally whittles down to identifying one or two key factors that will ultimately decide the immediate fate of said team. For example, the San Francisco 49ers will become a playoff team if they find a solid quarterback to lead their offense. The New York Jets will become a playoff team if their passing game can evolve just enough to take pressure off their defense. The Buffalo Bills will become a playoff team if their pass-rush blossoms.
But it’s not so simple with the Oakland Raiders. The stunning turmoil of this once-proud franchise leaves any postseason hope trapped behind a litany of complex factors and virtually unconquerable obstacles. It’s been like this since the Super Bowl loss to Tampa Bay. That said, it’s summer, which means Raider fans are looking at their team’s raw talent––which is always as good as any in football––and formulating anticipation for a sudden revival. It’s no use trying to explain to a Raider fan that their joke of a team––which is 24-72 since that Super Bowl loss––is destined for another four-or five-win season. The logic falls on ears that remain deaf until late October, by when all hope is usually lost for the Silver and Black.
So, just for fun, we’ll play along with the Raider fans this year. We’ll approach this intro with the question, What must Oakland do to become a playoff team? Here it goes…
The Raiders will become a playoff team if…
**Quarterback JaMarcus Russell suddenly becomes accurate, intelligent and accountable.
**Running back Darren McFadden learns to read NFL defenses and maintain balance when moving laterally. (In other words, if McFadden starts playing well.)
**Rookie wide receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey disproves doubters and justifies his No. 7 overall draft status, and if one of the host of other young pass-catching options steps up. (At this point, not one of Oakland’s wide receivers would be any more than a No. 4 for most clubs.)
The Raiders will become a playoff team if….
**They can coax talented but unreliable offensive tackles Mario Henderson and Khalif Barnes into playing fundamentally sound football.
**Defensive tackles Gerard Warren and Terdell Sands can regularly play like the blocker-eating forces they’re supposed to be––and if linebackers Thomas Howard and Kirk Morrison can become playmakers against the run.
The Raiders will become a playoff team if…
**Two quality safeties can emerge from the hodgepodge of injury magnets and underachievers currently filling the position (this group includes Michael Huff, Hiram Eugene, Tyvon Branch and second-round rookie Mike Mitchell).
**De facto first-year head coach Tom Cable can command a hint of authority. For that to happen, owner Al Davis must remove himself from the day-to-day operations.
And herein lies the problem. The odds of all the above mentioned what-if scenarios actually coming to fruition are just a tick above nil. With Davis meddling in affairs, those odds fall to zero. It’s sad to see the 80-year-old pro football pioneer tarnish what might be the league’s most impressive legacy. But that’s exactly what Davis, with his archaic management style, is doing. His influence over the gameplan renders the Raiders offense embarrassingly predictable on Sundays. His insistence on traditional man-to-man defense makes for a reactionary unit. At times, Davis’s management of the salary cap can be downright absurd; his draft moves are often even more bizarre. (Davis could have traded down and still snatched Heyward-Bey in Round One, and many expected his second-round pick, Mike Mitchell, to be available in Round Six or Seven.)
You’re naïve if you believe that Cable––whom Davis hastily hired after firing Lane Kiffin, even though the owner “(didn’t) know much about him”––has an ounce of political capital in the locker room. Cable talks a brave game and might classify as a “no nonsense” guy, but bullets trump words when it comes to curtailing anarchy. The only man in Oakland who is truly armed is Davis. And he’s shown that he’ll fire at coaches well before he ever fires at players.
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SAN DIEGO CHARGERS 2009 PREVIEW

SAN DIEGO CHARGERS 2009 PREVIEW
By Andy Benoit, www.NFLTouchdown.com

So often an NFL player will claim that his team’s season isn’t successful unless it ends with a Lombardi Trophy. The rigidity of this notion––a season’s value being measured only in the variable of victories, and true value not being recognized unless one of those victories happened to be of the rarest, most difficult form––would make a Buddhist shudder. Yet even the Dali Lama would admit that for the 2009 San Diego Chargers, it’s Super Bowl or bust.
The members of this organization aren’t going to find true peace or happiness with anything less than an AFC Championship victory. The Chargers have maxed out all other forms of success. They’ve won three straight AFC West titles: they went 14-2 and lost to the Patriots in the Divisional Round of the playoffs in 2006; they reached the AFC Title Game the following season but again fell to New England; last year, San Diego extracted a subtle revenge on its Massachusetts foe by winning the final four games to finish 8-8 and, thanks to a technicality, snatch the last playoff spot from the 11-win Pats (who were not lucky enough to earn an automatic bid from the laughable AFC West). But the season still ended with a Divisional Round loss at Pittsburgh.
The only thing left for the Spanos Family’s team to do is reach a Super Bowl. Amazingly, for a fourth-straight year, San Diego’s window is wide open. (In today’s NFL, this is not unlike leaving your wallet on a park bench and finding it, still full, three days later.)
The Chargers have all the pieces and seem to have moved past the snags of previous years. It was once believed that this club’s shortcoming was at head coach. But after the way Norv Turner’s men have rallied down the stretch the past two seasons, it’s apparent that the venerable offensive playcaller can indeed sail his crew through turbulent waters.
Before Turner arrived, San Diego’s stigma was callow quarterbacking. That’s no longer the case, however, as Philip Rivers turns 28 in December and is coming off a season in which he led the league with a 105.5 passer rating. Rivers is also fully healthy for the first time since 2006. The fiery quarterback has weapons at his disposal. There is far and away the AFC’s best tight end, Antonio Gates. And there’s a budding star wide receiver, Vincent Jackson, who headlines a trio of athletic deep threats that includes Chris Chamber and Malcom Floyd. This, along with a stellar pass-blocking front five, gives the Chargers a more dangerous aerial assault than the one that ranked seventh in the league last season.
Of course, in an almost cruel twist of irony, the eruption of the passing game coincides with the waning of the once-hallowed rushing attack. LaDainian Tomlinson is 30 and coming off the worst season of his Hall of Fame career. Tomlinson’s decline is very real, though not yet paralyzing. That’s why general manager A.J. Smith––who identified the ground game as one of San Diego’s two major needs for improvement––opted to sign the ninth-year veteran to a renegotiated contract, rather than release him outright. Smith also slapped lightning-rod big-play extraordinaire Darren Sproles with a $6.62 million franchise tag.
Smith has acknowledged that San Diego’s other major need for improvement is in pass defense (the Chargers ranked 31st in this department a year ago). The hope is that a healthy Shawne Merriman, playing in a contract year, can revitalize the pass-rush and indirectly implore Luis Castillo, Shaun Phillips, Quentin Jammer and Antonio Cromartie to play like the stars that they are. In case Merriman falters, Smith––always with one eye on the future––spent a first-round pick on hybrid end Larry English.
Unlike a year ago, just about every Charger enters the season fully healthy. Aside from Tomlinson and nose tackle Jamal Williams, the key veterans are all in the early stages of their prime. There’s familiarity with Norv Turner’s system and confidence in new defensive coordinator Ron Rivera, who invigorated the D with a more aggressive scheme after passive Ted Cottrell was fired last October. The special teams are solid, the depth is good and San Diego plays in what might be the most pathetic division in the history of pro football.
In short, this team, which is without major flaws, is embarking on what should be the smoothest of paths to the postseason. Of course, this same team has traveled this path before and never reached the end.
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KANSAS CITY CHIEFS 2009 PREVIEW

KANSAS CITY CHIEFS 2009 PREVIEW
By Andy Benoit, www.NFLTouchdown.com

For the past few years, it’s almost like the Kansas City Chiefs have been on a road trip. Their exceptionally-passionate fans have been riding along, bellowing a cacophony of gripes and complaints from the backseat. The fans viewed the road trip not as an adventure but as a means for reaching a destination. They looked up to the front seat and saw GM Carl Peterson riding shotgun as the navigator and refusing to pull out a map. Peterson insisted that he knew exactly where they were going.
Perhaps he did. But what really drove fans nuts was that head coach Herman Edwards was in the driver’s seat, married to the right-hand lane and petering along 15 miles per hour under the speed limit. When fans told Edwards to pick it up, he smiled and told them to be patient. When fans suggested a short cut, Edwards again smiled and preached patience. But patience doesn’t fly in today’s NFL. Especially when your taxpaying fan base recently helped foot part of your $375 million stadium renovation bill. At the clip they were traveling, the Chiefs would have reached their destination sometime around the debut of hover cars.
There was expected jubilation when team chairman Clark Hunt finally sided with the fans and relieved Peterson––who served this franchise admirably for 20 years––of his duties. Longtime Patriots front office bulldog Scott Pioli was given Peterson’s shotgun seat. Pioli immediately changed drivers, dropping Edwards off at a truck stop and tapping Cardinals offensive coordinator Todd Haley. Using a familiar New England map that showed myriad routes to prosperity, Pioli instructed Haley to pull a U-turn and make a sharp left. In the process, key veterans Donnie Edwards, Patrick Surtain and Tony Gonzalez were dismissed.
From there, the road trip became a cross-country race. The Patriot map told Pioli to instill a system––in this case, a spread offense and 3-4 defense––before acquiring personnel. Haley, erudite in the spread offense, was tasked with filling out a coaching staff. For offensive coordinator he chose Chan Gailey, a throwback with a predilection for power-running that will have to be tweaked to favor the pass. Haley also lured respected longtime NFL assistant Bill Muir to handle the offensive line. Defensively, Haley hired his coaches before even knowing who exactly would coordinate things. He eventually chose his fellow Cardinals assistant Clancy Pendergast over former Saints defensive coordinator Gary Gibbs (Gibbs will now coach the linebackers). At first blush, this appears to be an eclectic but well-constructed staff.
Kansas City’s next move was filling out the roster. Instead of gambling on the development of Brodie Croyle or Tyler Thigpen, Pioli went out and traded for a quarterback who was of that exact same mold (i.e. young) only had broken his NFL seal and proven to be the real deal: Matt Cassel. In uncharacteristic munificence, the Patriots surrendered Cassel, as well as linebacker Mike Vrabel, for a mere second-round pick (No. 34 overall). With an abundance of salary cap space (perhaps the only perk to inheriting a team with very few quality players), Pioli soon gave Cassel a six-year, $63 million contract ($28 million guaranteed).
By finding a franchise quarterback to commandeer a shotgun-heavy system practically tailored to Cassel’s skills, the other issues on offense––shoddy front line, weak receiving corps, unhappy star running back––became a little less bleak. Thus, most of the rebuilding efforts were then directed towards the defense.
Needing to fill a 3-4 and upgrade what was statistically and ostensibly the worst pass-rush in NFL history last year (10 sacks total), Pioli took a surprising––and perhaps brilliant––route: he built the defensive line. Instead of reaching on first-round pass-rushing prospects like Aaron Maybin, Brian Orakpo or Robert Ayers, the Chiefs selected LSU defensive end Tyson Jackson. This despite already having defensive lineman Glenn Dorsey––Jackson’s LSU teammate and last year’s No. 5 overall pick. For good measure, Kansas City’s third-round pick was spent on another space-eating end: Alex Magee. The theory is that a domineering front line will control the trenches against the run, backing opposing offenses into an even tougher corner on passing downs. This, in turn, makes life easier for pass-rushers. It’s an unusual approach but one that Pioli thought worked well when his former Patriots team won three Super Bowls after drafting Richard Seymour.
But aside from signing sagacious veteran linebacker Zach Thomas, Kansas City’s offseason activity stopped there. Gaping holes at nose tackle, outside linebacker and safety all but ensure that the defense, like the offense, will experience some speed bumps in 2009. But at least fans know the Chiefs are on the right track. And at least the car is moving fast enough for the speed bumps to no longer feel like road blocks.
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DENVER BRONCOS 2009 PREVIEW

DENVER BRONCOS 2009 PREVIEW
By Andy Benoit, www.NFLTouchdown.com

It’s sad to look at the Denver Broncos and no longer see Mike Shanahan. The relationship between the two-time Super Bowl champion head coach and Pat Bowlen’s franchise was an iconic portrait of NFL stability. It was like your grandparents’ marriage. Bowlen had once declared Shanahan the Broncos’ “head coach for life.” When that bond was severed this past January, the entire football world paused in shock.
But really, it shouldn’t have been shocking. Remove the names and faces and what you had was a fairly straightforward situation: Football Team X had only one playoff victory in the last 10 years and had just become the first club in NFL history to blow a three-game division lead in the final three weeks of the season. That is justification for a head coach firing.
Still, logic rarely trumps raw emotion. Tears were shed when Bowlen and Shanahan parted ways, and not a hint of acrimony leaked from the former head coach at his farewell press conference. After 14 years, the magic had run out.
Anyone who has ever gone through a serious breakup knows that the toughest part often plays out afterwards, during the transition back to life without your partner. The breakneck pace of the pro football calendar doesn’t allow for solitude and personal reflection, which is why Bowlen is excused for dumping Shanahan and immediately finding someone else. But Bowlen may have unintentionally sprinkled a little salt in the wounds by hiring Josh McDaniels, a passing-game minded offensive coach who, on the surface, seems like Shanahan only 20 years younger. If this really were a marriage, people might see McDaniels as the new bimbo trophy wife.
McDaniels’s brash temperament has only tightened the knots in the stomachs of Bronco fans. You may have heard that the former Patriots offensive coordinator arrived in the Mile High City and immediately butted heads with franchise quarterback Jay Cutler. McDaniels’s interest in acquiring Matt Cassel set the coach and quarterback’s relationship off on a foot so wrong that Bowlen, McDaniels and new GM Brian Xanders (who heads a largely remade front office) eventually chose to trade the 26-year-old cannon-armed star. Trading Cutler was almost like losing the house in the Shanahan divorce. It was upsetting, costly and demoralizing. But in the long haul, it was probably wiser to just endure the temporary misery and move on.
And move on Denver has. With McDaniels calling the shots and Xanders overseeing the personnel, the Broncos have remade their entire approach. Gone is the famed zone-blocking scheme that once produced 1,000-yard rushers like Great Plains wheat. In it’s place is a power-centric run game designed to balance a shotgun-heavy spread offense. If Daniels hadn’t been so resoundingly successful in New England, Broncos fans would be waving their arms and screaming from the Rocky Mountain tops “Stop! Stop! Don’t change the offense! The offense was never the problem!”
Indeed, this offense last season ranked second in total yards, third in third-down percentage and first in sacks allowed (a franchise record-low 12). With bookend tackles Ryan Clady and Ryan Harris (who will have a combined 47 years of age on opening day) and young star receivers Brandon Marshall and Eddie Royal (combined 195 catches last season), this is an offense that was poised for a decade of dominance.
But McDaniels only knows one system. He’s so confident in his approach that he’s given the keys to Kyle Orton, the epitome of a caretaker quarterback. Even with the oodles of young talent, McDaniels still invested heavily in the offense, spending the 12th overall draft pick on running back Knowshon Moreno and a second-rounder on tight end Richard Quinn.
Drastic as this all is, the changes on defense are what’s really jarring. McDaniels hired defensive coordinator Mike Nolan to install a 3-4 scheme. Those who remember the days of the Orange Crush might find this appealing, but a glimpse at this current Broncos roster reveals perhaps the most ill-fitting personnel for a particular system in the history of professional football. Career backup Ronald Fields is slated to start at nose tackle. Some guy named Ryan McBean will line up at end. Darrell Reid, a former Cover 2 defensive tackle, is penciled in as the starting outside linebacker––Outside linebacker! Three of the starting defensive backs are new to the team, and all four are over 30.
This is merely one of the many painful residual effects from the Shanahan breakup. While you never say never in the NFL, it’s reasonable to say that McDaniels will never win a playoff game with this particular defensive lineup. But someday he might win a playoff game––or even several playoff games––with his overall system. This is why people are willing to fight through the heartache.

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Injury Blog

Hello Football Fans

Not only will I write other blogs but check every Tuesday for my INJURY BUG BLOG. I will discuss all the injuries from the past weekend and give you advice to help you replace them. This injury bug blog will be found on two sites. Right here at FFS and our sister site NFL Fantasy Playbook.com

ST. LOUIS RAMS 2009 PREVIEW

ST. LOUIS RAMS 2009 PREVIEW
By Andy Benoit, www.NFLTouchdown.com

A few years ago, the theme of the St. Louis Rams preview was Recapturing Glory: How can this still-gifted group rediscover its Super Bowl swagger? Soon, the theme slid into Fulfilling Expectations: What must this talented club do in order to live up to its potential? Not long after that, the theme turned into Bouncing Back: How does this once-proud organization recover from its latest disappointing season? The erosion of the Rams franchise has continued right on to today, where the theme for 2009 is simply Being Competitive: How does a bad NFL team become good?
That’s what the Rams, winners of five total games over the past two seasons, are asking. Or at least we think that’s what they’re asking. It’s hard to tell these days with new owners Chip Rosenbloom and Lucia Rodriguez, who inherited the club after their mother, Georgia Frontiere, died in January 2008. Rosenbloom and Rodriguez––good people with minimal interest in football––recently put the organization up for sale.
But the disinterest of the owners, fortunately, hasn’t curtailed the Rams’ rebuilding efforts. To Rosenbloom and Rodriguez’s credit, at the end of last season, they hired Falcons former assistant GM Billy Devaney as essentially the new supreme consul, ending the turmoil that had for years riddled this front office. The responsibility of answering the multifaceted question about how a bad NFL team becomes good fell on the new GM’s shoulders.
Devaney’s first idea was a prudent one: find a quality head coach (something the Rams really haven’t had since Dick Vermeil). He did that by hiring renowned Giants defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo. Devaney and Spagnuolo have a working relationship that dates back to the late 80s. So far, they’ve been on the same wavelength.
There were issues to address on both sides of the ball, as the Rams offense ranked 30th in point scored and the defense 31st in points allowed last season. With a decent veteran quarterback in Marc Bulger, superstar running back in Steven Jackson and handful of young receivers who are still too green to judge, the focus on offense was renovating the putrid front line. Future Hall of Fame left tackle Orlando Pace was released in a wise cost-cutting move. This allowed for the signing of Ravens center Jason Brown, who, with $20 million in guarantees, is now the highest paid player at his position. Also, Baylor tackle Jason Smith was selected with the second overall pick in the draft. Though one could argue that these moves were at least mild financial risks, no one will say the Rams aren’t all but guaranteed to improve up front. Serviceable blocking makes this offense––which is now a West Coast system under first-time coordinator Pat Shurmur––a whole different animal.
Defensively, the arrival of Spagnuolo alone will pay dividends. His attacking 46-oriented scheme, which derives largely from his former tutor, the late Eagles defensive coordinator Jim Johnson, has been known to generate overachievers. Overall, the World Champion ’07 Giants had a good but not great defense in terms of raw talent. Of course, aside from his former New York safety James Butler (who signed with the Rams as a free agent), Spagnuolo doesn’t begin to have the same quality of players here.
Even if last year’s No. 2 overall pick, Chris Long, evolves into one of the premiere all-around defensive ends in football (which is not unlikely), and highly-touted second-round rookie James Laurinaitis becomes as impactful a middle linebacker as Antonio Pierce, Spagnuolo will still have a defense in need of significant upgrades after this season. There are disconcerting soft spots along the starting front line and throughout the second string at linebacker and defensive back.
Fortunately for Spagnuolo and Devaney, anyone with half a brain can see that this rebuilding effort will take time. No one in the organization would ever admit this, but 2009 will be a successful season for the Rams if they can improve their win total to around six or seven (with preferably a strong record in November and December), sort out the space-wasting youngsters from the ones worth developing and shape the roster in a fashion that makes it easy to amend once the 2010 offseason rolls around.
Obviously, this doesn’t sound too inspiring in the short term. But this is how a bad team becomes good.
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SEATTLE SEAHAWKS 2009 PREVIEW

SEATTLE SEAHAWKS 2009 PREVIEW
By Andy Benoit, www.NFLTouchdown.com

Forget the term “bouncing back”. It doesn’t apply here. For, to talk about this Seattle Seahawks team “bouncing back” is to give relevance to last season’s 4-12 disaster. And last season really isn’t relevant. An epidemic of injuries ruined everything. Last season, Seattle’s quarterback battled a bulging disc in his lower back. The receiving corps was more depleted than Michael Richards’s fan base; at one point, the top six wideouts were all hurt. By the time the leaves had fallen, Seattle’s offensive line was without its starting left tackle and both guards. And the defense had lost its top pass-rusher.
The only bright spot about 2008 for head coach Mike Holmgren was that it validated the wisdom behind his decision to take a sabbatical. Now, per owner Paul Allen and GM Tim Ruskell’s original plan, secondary coach Jim Mora, Jr. assumes Holmgren’s top position. Mora has been in this position before. In 2004, he took over a talented Falcons team that had fallen flat on its face the previous year due to a rash of injuries (most notably a broken leg to quarterback Michael Vick). Mora led those Falcons to an 11-5 record and the NFC Title Game. Of course, he also limped to a 15-17 record over the following two seasons and was fired.
There are plenty of critics who foresee that same kind of mediocrity happening here. They might question the creativeness of Mora’s top assistants. Offensive coordinator Greg Knapp is installing a West Coast system that was productive in San Francisco but, more recently, yielded middling results in Atlanta and Oakland. Defensive coordinator Gus Bradley is implementing a fairly straightforward Cover 2. Then there are those who look at Mora himself and note that, under his direction, Seattle’s secondary last season gave up the most passing yards in all of football. That’s tough to do when your team’s offense almost never forced opponents to play from behind.
But most schemes, especially traditional ones like those found here, are as effective as the players executing them. And, unlike last season, Seattle actually has respectable players this year. Quarterback Matt Hasselbeck once again has a strong lower back. At 34 (in September), he remains in his prime. Hasselbeck has receiving options, too. Nate Burleson is back from a torn ACL, and Deion Branch’s Achilles heel problems are a thing of the past. On top of those two, Ruskell shelled out $15 million in guarantees to lure accomplished possession receiver T.J. Houshmandzadeh. Plus, he spent a third-round pick on Penn State receiver Deon Butler, who is expected to fill the slot as Bobby Engram 2.0 (Engram, Hasselbeck’s favorite target, went to Kansas City to finish out his career).
The health of the offensive line is less certain. All-World left tackle Walter Jones is 35 and coming off December microfracture surgery. But the interior of the line is healthy and stabilized with the addition of second-round rookie Max Unger.
All-in-all, the Seahawks have an offense respectable enough to take the stress off a defense that, with the return of end Patrick Kerney, plus the additions of Cory Redding and Colin Cole, should be better on the front line. Also augmenting the front seven is the ostensible development of young defensive linemen Brandon Mebane, Baraka Atkins and Lawrence Jackson, and the arrival of No. 4 overall pick Aaron Curry (strongside linebacker).
In short, this Seahawks team is no less talented than the ones that made up the franchise’s five-year playoff streak (’03-’07). (And that might even include the NFC Champion ’05 squad.) But no one seems to recognize this. Preseason prognosticators are drinking the Cardinal Kool-Aid. League and television executives scheduled zero primetime games for Seattle––something that hasn’t happened since 1983. Fans in the Pacific Northwest are showing cautious optimism––almost as if the Twelfth Man has become the Eleventh-and-a-Half Man.
That’s understandable. After all, this club is talented, but it’s also capable of laying another egg in ’09. If injuries persist or key players fail to regain their edge––or if Mora simply can’t maintain Holmgren’s level of excellence––the organization will find itself neck-deep in a rebuilding effort it wasn’t prepared for. This means the future remains Now for the Seahawks.

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