Fantasy Nation NFL Season

[eagle eye]

The regular season is down to hours away, 31 to be exact, and the 2015 campaign will officially be under way. Thank God because I really need something to distract me from the total meltdown the Astros are going through.

Don't forget to set your fantasy lineups because time is getting short.

This whole deflate-gate affair has affected Roger Goodell. On Mike and Mike yesterday Goodell said he was very open to changing the commissioner's role in disciplinary processes going forward. It's also something the owners felt was in Goodell's best interest as well all the problems his regime has faced this past year or so. It doesn't mean he is giving up appealing the appeal that the NFL lost to Brady last week. Goodell also said he didn't see any connection between deflate-gate and spy-gate and the other "gates" the Patriots have gone through in recent years. (But I'm thinking that is a bit of a lie.)

Jason Pierre-Paul was in the same boat as Dez Bryant in that he was franchised by the Giants just like Bryant hoping to get a long term deal done. Unlike Bryant who did get a deal done Pierre-Paul was not as fortunate. Part of the reason JPP didn't get a new deal was because he severely injured his hand on the 4th of July in a fireworks accident. Actually JPP is lucky as heck the Giants didn't pull the franchise tag off him and give him his outright release. A lot of teams would have done that. Now that the season is about to start he is running into the same dilemma Bryant would have if not for the deal that was struck. That dilemma is JPP is under the franchise tender and the deadline for signing his tender offer has come and gone so technically he's franchised and he is no longer able to negotiate a deal until the end of the regular season. JPP doesn't care apparently because he is not healthy enough to play as yet. JPP went to the Giants facility for the first time since his accident and he met with team officials and took a physical. JPP will miss his salary for the weeks he misses so he is not losing his job just a big chunk of his pay. If JPP had signed his tender offer he could be placed on Injured Reserve/Scheduled for return and not missed any money. That ship has sailed and that is the chance both Bryant and JPP took by not signing their tender offers. Bryant's situation worked out well for him but it has definitely cost JPP a lot in salary and in his relationship with the NY Giants.

If you need a starter for this week's game between St Louis and Seattle you won't have Rams RB Todd Gurley available. NFL.com is reporting Gurley will not be available for at least 3 weeks into the season as he recovers from a torn ACL suffered at the end of his last season at Georgia. Tre Mason is likely the starter for the Rams in the first month of the season. Mason had started to come on for the Rams in the second half of last season which was his rookie campaign. This week's matchup with Seattle doesn't bode well for Mason but he may be worth at least a flex spot in fantasy lineups.

Giants WR Victor Cruz will likely miss this week's opener vs Dallas as he is still dealing with a calf injury that has plagued him all summer.

The Bills report that LeSean McCoy is "ready to roll" for Monday night's Week 1 matchup with Atlanta.


The Falcons have indicated that rookie RB Tevin Coleman will start on MNF ahead of 2nd year man DeVonte Adams.

WR Roddy White returned to practice yesterday along with Jake Long and both should be available on Monday night.

[eagle eye]

How's this for being dissed by your coach? RGIII has gone from 1st round draft pick to 3rd string QB under the Jay Gruden regime. NFL.com has reported that Colt McCoy will be the #2 man for Gruden as the Redskins face the Dolphins at home tomorrow.

Fantasy Alert! This week Rams head coach Jeff Fisher announced that RB Todd Gurley will not play this week. The status of former #1 RB Tre Mason missed practice this week with a bad hammy so that leaves Benny Cunningham as the like starter. Ding-ding-ding-ding.

The Raiders actually signed troubled LB Aldon Smith. Smith has a litany of off field issues including a terroristic threat at an airport in the off season but the Oakland Raiders actually signed this dude. I guess it's true, if you are good somebody will want you. BTW, Smith was arrested under several misdemeanor charges this past week. KNUCKLEHEAD!

If you need a starter I rather doubt you will turn to the Cleveland Browns but if you do know that Isaiah Peed will likely be the starter with rookie Duke Johnson his backup. The Browns signed practice squad RB Shaun Draughn to give the Browns a third option at RB. The more notable signing is former Seahawks backup Robert Turbin. Turbin sustained an ankle injury during Seahawks training camp and he ended up getting waived/injured on Sept 5. The Browns signed him on Sept 10 and even though he is thought to have to miss the first month of the season but he was a really good backup for Seattle and he could factor into the Browns offense pretty predominantly down the road.

Former Patriots RB Jonas Gray was signed to the active roster of the Miami Dolphins who picked up the RB and signed him to their practice squad this past Tuesday after he was cut last Saturday by the Patriots. Gray is the fourth stringer for the Dolphins with Lamar Miller, Damien Williams and LaMichael James ahead of him on the depth chart.

The Patriots wasted no time signing LeGarrette Blount to the active roster after his one game suspension for substance abuse. To make room for Blount the Patriots released LB Eric Martin who was nursing an injury suffered late in training camp. I wouldn't give up on RB Dion Lewis who was the breakout fantasy performer Thursday night against Pittsburgh. Lewis gained 69 yds on 15 totes and added another 51 yds on 4 catches. I could see Lewis having a big role as a change of pace back when Blount returns.

[eagle eye]

It took but one possession in the 2015 season for Johnny Football to take the field in Cleveland. Starter Josh McCown was knocked out of the game after receiving a hit trying to scramble for a TD at the end of the Browns initial possession of the game. it's ironic that McCown lost a fumble on the play just about 18 inches from the goal line because that is just kind of how the game went for the Browns. Manziel was the story and really he looked pretty good at times. But, on the road vs the Jets in New Jersey, the Browns just did more bad than good. The Browns suffered 5 turnovers, 3 INTs and 2 fumbles, and that was just too much to overcome. Manziel did show something though. If McCown misses much time you don't dread Manziel coming into a game. Manziel didn't look lost and he was actually directing traffic as the Browns came out of the huddle which show he actually has opened and read his playbook. I hope McCown comes back next week because this new dedicated Manziel could use some time to develop but he didn't leave you with the feeling that he was not meant to be an NFL QB.

Adam "Pac-Man" Jones can't help being an idiot. Yesterday in the Bengals game with Oakland rookie WR Amari Cooper caught a ball and Jones took Cooper down tore off his helmet and picked Cooper up by the lapels and bashed his head on his helmet. The refs through flags and penalized the Bengals 15 yards for unsportsmanlike conduct but given Jones' past I can see the NFL giving Jones a suspension. Jones tried to hurt Cooper for whatever reason and he deserves to be suspended if, for no other reason, than being a total dick.

Marcus Mariota and Kendall Wright look like the next big thing in the NFL. At least after one game anyway. Mariota looked like a veteran the way he picked apart the Tampa Bay defense and the 42 points Tennessee hung on the Bucs looked easy. Of the 2 QBs who went 1 and 2 in this year's draft it was #2 pick Mariota who was #1 yesterday. Jameis Winston was not nearly as good as Mariota which is exactly the opposite the "experts" said would be. They all said Winston was the most NFL ready between himself and Mariota and all the other QB prospects in this year's draft. At least yesterday the "experts" were wrong. People better watch out for these Titans.

How sweet was it to see the Rams beat Seattle? I know I'm pissing off all the Earl Thomas fans out there but I'm just no fan of the 'Hawks or Pete Carroll. Nick Foles made a huge difference for the Rams. Don't say I didn't tell you about Bennie Cunningham because I did on Friday. Cunningham has a pretty damn good game with 16 carries for 45 yards and 4 catches for 77 yards. He led the Rams in rushing and the plays he made in the passing game were big. Cunningham may be a player you can ride for the next week or two or longer if Todd Gurley or Tre Mason remain on the injured list. Need a tight end? It looks like Foles, just like Brent Celek in Philly, likes his tight end. Yesterday Jared Cook was the Rams leading receiver for the Rams with 5 catches for 85 yards.

In what universe would you actually predict that Andrew Luck would be outplayed by Tyrod Taylor? I know, right? Well it happened yesterday as the Bills dominated the Colts at home in upstate New York. Rookie RB Karlos Williams from Fla State actually out performed LeSean McCoy on fewer touches. Looks like the Bills have a nice 1-2 punch here. Forgot about Percy Harvin? It's okay, most people have but he looks healthy again and he was the Bills leading receiver yesterday with 5 catches for 79 yds and a TD. The TD came on a 51 yd pass from Taylor as the first half expired that had to totally piss off the Colts. Harvin was in man coverage and he got behind the corner for an easy score on a well thrown ball from Taylor.

The story in Chicago yesterday was the return to the Packers by WR James Jones who took up right where he left off 2 years ago. Jones caught 4 passes for 51 yards and 2 TDs yesterday as the Pack outlasted the Bears by a score of 31-23. Jones went undrafted in many fantasy drafts and may still be available if you need a good WR.

[eagle eye]

The injury report so far this week is pretty deep from a fantasy football point of view.
> WR Dez Bryant out 4-6 weeks minimum (broken bone in foot)
> LB Luke Kuekly status unknown (concussion)
> QB Josh McCown status unknown (concussion) Johnny Manziel taking 1st team reps for Cleveland.
> TE Julius Thomas practiced but still had cast on his hand.


I can't believe Pac-Man Jones only fined $35K for the crap he pulled on Raiders WR Amari Cooper. Jones is lucky because IMO it could've and should've been much worse. Jones indicated that he will appeal the fine and he was a little apologetic about the incident but wouldn't promise it won't happen again. "I'm a very emotional player." Blah-blah-blah. You rip off a guys helmet and bash his head against said helmet is a little beyond emotional, don't you think? Said NFL.com's Dan Hanzus about Pac-Man appealing the fine, "Jones will have a hard time winning his appeal. He's fortunate he didn't get kicked out of the game.".

I was looking at the QB rankings for Week 2 on SBNation and guess who I didn't see? Phillip Rivers. The guy passes for 404 yds and 2 TDs and doesn't make your top ten? Seriously? Talk about overrated, Russell Wilson was ranked the #6 after a Seahawks loss Wilson threw for 251 yds on 41 attempts and 32 completions with 1 TD and ! INT. Not sure what SBNation is thinking here and I'm going to quit now before I look at the WR and RB line.

[eagle eye]

OMG! This is so hilarious. The 19th season premiere of South Park was on last night and Matt Stone and Trey Parker absolutely NAILED a spoof of the deflate-gate debacle. I'm still laughing as I write this post. Check it out for yourself.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2568389-south-park-takes-on-the-deflategate-scandal-and-absolutely-nails-it

Arian Foster returned to practice today on a limited basis. That is huge news for Texans fans even though the Texans ran the ball pretty well against a stout Chiefs defense. The trio of Alfred Blue, Chris Polk and Jonathan Grimes combined to rush for 98 yards and averaged 4.7 YPC. Foster is a game changing back and will be sorely missed as long as his out of the lineup.

RB CJ Anderson is expected to play for the Broncos tonight. It is still likely that Ronnie Hillman will get a lot of work in and may be the preferred play in fantasy tonight.

Victor Cruz did not practice for the Giants again today and it's looking less likely he will be back for Sunday's game against the Falcons.

Here's an update on injuries around the NFL including the status of WR Mike Evans, RB CJ Spiller and WR T Y Hilton.

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000000532465/article/sean-payton-on-cj-spillers-week-2-status-well-see

[eagle eye]

Josh McCown is out as this week's starter for Cleveland and Johnny Manziel is in. In a spotty performance last week Manziel gave Cleveland fans hope that he could be that exciting player who won the Heisman and take the Browns to the next level. Even a little boost will be welcome for a franchise that has been on rock bottom for a while now. We'll see but do you think there's any QB envy over how well Marcus Mariota did last week for Tennessee? As an addendum to this story this past week ESPN's Merrill Hoge said that Johnny Manziel will never be even a decent QB in the NFL. Hoge said Manziel has poor habits including depending too much on his scrambling ability. In a word Hoge said Manziel stinks as an NFL QB. Manziel responded to Hoge's remarks this week and it is detailed in the article linked below. I'll tell you, when guys like Hoge start in on a player like the way Hoge has on Manziel going all the way back to last year I makes me root for the guy even more.

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000000533470/article/manziel-hoge-needs-to-worry-about-his-big-neck-ties

The Giants will be without Victor Cruz again this week as he continues to try to recover from a calf injury suffered in training camp.

I could use a little advice. Should I go with Green Bay and take the points at home against the Seahawks? The 'Hawks still have no Kam Chancellor who is the boom in the Seattle 'Legion of Boom' defense. I'm leaning toward taking the Packers at home despite the fact that the Pack is missing some defensive help.

I really have a good feeling about this one. I thinking of taking Houston and the 3-1/2 points and the under (40 pts) in this week's game against Carolina. I think Mallett will be okay and Luke Kuechly is officially rule out of the game due to a concussion suffered in last week's game. It will be Kuechly's first missed game of his career.

The Bears could be without Alshon Jeffrey this week due to a pulled hamstring. Since Brandon Marshall left last year in free agency Jeffrey has been the #1 receiver for the Bears and it is a big blow to be without him. Keep an eye on this situation for your fantasy team.

The Redskins tight end Jordan Reed is listed as questionable for tomorrow's game against the Rams. Ask Reed and he'll tell you he is playing, no doubt. That is what he told the Washington Post on Friday as he is dealing with a quad injury. In Week 1 Reed was Kirk Cousins #1 target in their loss to Miami catching 7 ball for 63 yards and a TD. To make matters worse DeSean Jackson will also miss tomorrow's game.

Tampa Bay is being coy about committing to whether or not their star WR Mike Evans will play this week. I'm mad at the Bucs because Evans was a late scratch in last week's game and I didn't catch it until it was too late and it contributed to a loss for me in one of my leagues. Zero points from a star WR is hard to overcome. It sounds, for all the world, like Lovie Smith was inferring Smith will be out again this week but with coaches you never know if they are telling the truth about their game day rosters.

[eagle eye]

Giants and Redskins tonight. If NY wins they and the Skins will be 1.5 games behind Dallas. If Washington wins they win be .5 game behind Dallas while the Giants will be 2.5 back. It's a little early to talk standings but we've seen it out of the NFC East before. A team, or teams, start slow and come on strong at the end. It's happened to every team in the division. Even the 0-2 Eagles could find a spark and come back into the picture.
For fantasy players keep an eye out because WR Victor Cruz may be back soon but it won't be tonight. Cruz is still rehabbing a calf that has been giving him trouble. Likewise DeSean Jackson who miss again this week with a bad hammy.

Seattle will get Safety Kam Chancellor back this week, at least he swears he will play, we'll see. Seattle could be looking for a spark to get them off that 0-2 start they're on. Chancellor isn't going ignite a mediocre offense that has stumbled out of the gate so far. I know they scored 31 on the Rams in Week 1 but a depleted Packers team held them to 17 last Sunday.

You guys will have to keep an eye on the Drew Brees situation in New Orleans. The Saints are saying that Brees bruised his rotator cuff in last Sunday's game vs Tampa Bay. Brees says he feels confident he's playing but when a player says something it is usually based more on a desire to play rather than a realistic chance of actually playing. Brees or not Brees, New Orleans hasn't looked good at all this season as they have limped out to an 0-2 start to the season. The Saints offense is scoring 19 pts a game while the defense is allowing 28.5 a game. There were already sideline rifts between head coach Sean Peyton and defensive coordinator Rob Ryan on the field last season and this isn't going to make things all warm and fuzzy in the Saints locker room. The Saints are playing the 2-0 Carolina Panthers Sunday and with the Panthers defense dominating their opponents the last two weeks you'd have to say that NO is in danger of falling to 0-3.

I heard an interesting comment the other day. A guy said that maybe the problem with the Colts isn't their awful O-line or Andrew Luck's propensity for giving up turnovers it head coach Chuck Pagano. I think Pagano gets a bit of a pass because he survived cancer a couple of years ago and the Colts used Pagano as a rallying point, inspiration if you will, for a good season. But, as the guy went on he said Pagano's successful fight against cancer was the feel good story it was actually Bruce Arians, who the interim head coach during Pagano's absence, that was the difference. The proof seems to be in the pudding as Ariens has built a really good football team in Arizona while the Colts struggle on defense and now their O-line is more sieve-like than barrier-like. It would be interesting to discuss because just last season didn't the Colts face off against the Patriots in the NFC Championship game? Oh yeah, it was them because it was the Colts who blew the whistle on the Patriots that started this whole deflate-gate mess.

I mentioned earlier about the trouble the Saints are in trying to avoid an 0-3 start to their season but the Eagles are probably even more likely to fall into that 0-3 hole as they play the suddenly very formidable NY Jets. New head coach Todd Boles has the Jets playing well and now with Ryan Fitzpatrick at QB with some pretty good skill players in Brandon Marshall, Eric Decker, Chris Ivory, etc. This team is no joke. To make matters worse for Philly you are playing in the Jets house. Philly is in deep doo-doo and Chip Kelly is looking like anything but a genius right now.

Note: The Steelers, who have been doing pretty darn good so far is going to get La'Veon Bell back this week. Of all the 2-0 teams in the NFL Pittsburgh looks like the most formidable right now and with Bell back look out. The Steelers are on the road this week in St Louis and the only question is will this be the Directtv Rams that beat Seattle in Week 1 or will the Rams with cable that got smoked in Washington last week be the ones to show up? Does it matter that it's their home stadium that makes the Rams play better? Who knows but they will have their hands full with the Steelers. The Steelers will be without Ryan Shazier so the Rams have that going for them.

[eagle eye]

The biggest news might be the absence of Drew Brees this week if not for the fact that New Orleans has not been very good this season limping out to an 0-2 start. Backup Luke McCown will get the nod this week for the Saints. I really don't have any confidence in McCown especially facing a very tough Carolina Panthers defense in Carolina no less. The Saints will go 0-3 this week and long time Saints fans may go into the closet to find their old "Aints" paper bags they used to wear when NO wasn't so good.

Another team about to go 0-3 is the Eagles. The Eagles are also on the road facing the badass defense of the Jets. The Jets have also found an offense as well. This game could get ugly in a hurry for Philly and it makes my heart sing with joy to see the hated Eagles suck. This week could be the week that Sam Bradford loses his job to Marc Sanchez and the love affair with Chip Kelly starts losing it's luster.

As for the Panthers it looks like LB Luke Keuchly will miss another game with a concussion. Also, for fantasy owners, Jonathan Stewart is listed a questionable. It may be wise to invest in backup Fozzy Whitaker but also rookie Cameron Artis-Payne out of Auburn could be in play as well.

It may be wise to weigh the chances that the Saints Mark Ingram will have a sub par game because of the Panthers defense. Ingram is the bell cow of the stable of running backs the Saints use and it's hard to bench a guy like that but it does bear consideration.

Mathew Stafford will start this week against the Broncos but as good as the Broncos defense has been you wonder it that's a good thing or not. Of course it's a good thing especially since the Lions are at home but Detroit hasn't exactly been tearing up opponents with their 0-2 record.

Need to keep an eye out for the status of Marshawn Lynch as he is listed questionable for Sunday's game against Seattle. Pete Carroll said Lynch will be a game time decision as he has been nursing a calf injury.

Not only does Chicago have to travel to Seattle to face a rejuvenated defense with the return of Kam Chancellor but the Bears will have to do it without Jay Cutler and Alshon Jeffrey. This also means that Matt Forte may be in for a long day as well.

There is a chance the Rams first round pick RB Todd Gurley could be in the lineup this week despite the fact he's officially listed as questionable. Gurley has participated in practice all week. If he plays it will hurt the fantasy value of Tre Mason and Bennie Cunningham.

So, if you haven't already picked up the Patriots Dion Lewis you are probably too late but if he's available you may just give him a try as normal fantasy starters Mark Ingram, Jonathan Stewart and Chris Ivory may not be available due to injury or by matchup. The Pats go to Jax this week and even though the Jags are better they are still the Jags and Lewis could be in line for a big day Sunday. (Was that me recommending a Patriot running back? Strange days indeed.)

[eagle eye]

Contrary to my belief that the Eagles and Saints would roll over and play dead this week didn't happen. The Saints made the Panther work for their 27-22 win while the Jets tried and succeeded in fumbling the game away to the Eagles who posted their first win of the season. However, it was more on the Jets failures that it was the Eagles successes. The Jets turned the ball over 4 times (3 INT's and 1 fumble) and allowed Daren Sproles to take a punt 89 yards for a TD. It was an ugly game for the Jets who allowed the Eagles to score 24 unanswered points before they got on the scoreboard. With DeMarco Murray on the sidelines yesterday with a bad hammy Ryan Mathews was the bell cow leading the Eagle offense with 25 carries for 108 yards. The main man for the Jets was WR Brandon Marshall who caught 10 balls for 109 yds and a score but he committed one of the turnovers by fumbling after a catch.

Pittsburgh vs St Louis in St Louis. Pitt won the game 12-6 after a delay of about half an hour to put out a fire on the field turf caused by the pregame fireworks display. Unfortunately for the Rams that was the only fire they showed, on offense anyway. Pitt may have won the game but they lost Big Ben to a sprained MCL. He is thought to be out for at least 6 weeks. La'Veon Bell came back off his suspension and was the bulk of the Steeler's offense gaining 62 yds rushing with a TD and he added 70 receiving yards. Antonio Brown had his usual day, 108 yards on 11 catches as the Steelers did just enough to win the game. Michael Vick came in to relieve Roethlisberger and he was a good bus driver. He didn't really add anything but he didn't lose the game for his team either. We'll see how Vick does over the next 6 weeks with Big Ben out.

Seattle lost RB's Marshawn Lynch and Brandon Mebane to injuries yesterday as Thomas Rawls led the 'Hawks with 16 carries for 104 yards. The Lynch situation bears watching because he has a bad hammy and sometimes those injuries linger. The Bears looked every bit the part of the sacrificial lambs they were especially without Jay Cutler and Alshon Jeffrey in the game as they were shut out by Seattle 26-0. Seattle is no longer among the winless but Chicago is sitting at 0-3 with few prospects to get better. I hope the folks in Chi-town are patient with new head coach John Fox because this team is bad. The only player resembling a fantasy player was Matt Forte but his 20 carries for 74 yds didn't excite too many people in fantasy land.

The Cardinals, the Arizona version, are just as badass as the Lamar version as they improved to 3-0 and two full games ahead of the rest of the NFC West. The Cards just bitch-slapped the San Francisco 49ers 47-7. With Carson Palmer at the helm this team looks like the best team in the NFL. Of 5 teams 3-0 and the Packers who are 2-0 heading into tonight's game Arizona looks like the most complete team in the whole dang NFL. All 3 phases of the team are playing at a high level. After 3 weeks Arizona looks like they are going to the Super Bowl. Fantasy owners feasted on the Cardinals this week. Carson Palmer threw for 311 yds 2 TD's and 1 INT, Chris Johnson (yeah, that CJ2K) rushed 22 times for 110 yds and 2 TD's, Larry Fitzgerald caught 9 passes for 134 yds and 2 TD's.
The defense scored on 2 pick sixes and they recorded a safety tackling the 49ers Carlos Hyde in his own end zone to account for another 14 points. Special teams didn't contribute any scores but they were solid and allowed the 49ers little.
The niners lost Vernon Davis went out during the game and didn't return with a knee issue.

In Detroit you have to wonder what the heck happened to Detroit as they fell to 0-3 last night to the now 3-0 Broncos. Matthew Stafford has been a Detroit and fantasy dud so far this season. The Detroit running game was non existent as the running backs accounted for just 28 yards on 19 carries for the game. Stafford threw for over 300 yards in the game with a TD but his 2 INTs elicited boos from a very impatient Motor City crowd. Peyton Manning can't throw the ball down field the way he used to but with Demaryius Thomas and Emmanuel Sanders making circus catches for him it doesn't really matter. That WR duo combined for 179 yds and a TD as Peyton threw for 314 yards and 2 TDs and 1 INT. I'd hate to put money on a game between the 3-0 Broncos and the 3-0 Patriots who absolutely demolished the Jaguars 51-17 in Jacksonville yesterday.

Speaking of New England, LeGarrette Blount made an appearance yesterday and walked away the leading rusher in the game for his trouble. He ran 18 times for 78 yds and 3 big TD's. Dion Lewis also contributed by running 8 times for 37 yds and a TD and catching 5 balls for 30 yards for a decent flex player day. Tom Brady was Tom Brady meaning he threw for 358 yards and 2 TD's with no picks. Gronk had 101 yds receiving on 4 grabs while Julian Edelman had 8 catches for 85 yds. In all Brady hit 9 different receivers including former Texan Keshawn Martin who caught 3 balls for 33 yds and a TD. Blake Bortles didn't do badly for the Jags it's just that Jacksonville brought a knife to this gun fight and lost badly. What a week and it ain't over yet as Green Bay and Kansas City square off tonight. As for the Patriots? They have their bye week next week and I hope they cool off considerably because when they come back in Week 5 they play my Cowboys and if they are still as hot as they are now it could get ugly for the guys from Dallas.

[eagle eye]

Among the good things that happened this week a few bad things happened too. In the MNF game between the Packers and Chiefs the Packers took some hits injury-wise. WR Davante Adams re-aggravated his high ankle sprain in the first series and did not return. TE Andrew Quarless sprained his MCL and is expected to be out 4-6 weeks. Eddie Lacy played last night and he was somewhat effective but he was limited to 10 totes for 46 yds. James Starks was far less effective rushing 17 times for a mere 32 yards. The Packers lost right? You can't run the ball that bad and win can you? Yep, when your QB throws for 333 yds and 5 TDs. Damn that Aaron Rodgers. (He was the last player to play for my opponent in one of my fantasy leagues this week. Needless to say I got slammed.) To add insult to injury I didn't play James Jones but the Packers sure did. He caught 7 passes for 139 yds and a TD. The Chiefs had their own trifecta of fantasy hits last night. Alex Smith threw for 290 yds and 1 TD, Jamaal Charles didn't rush for many yards (47) but he scored 3 TDs and WR Jeremy Maclin had 8 catches for 141 yds and a score. I'll wager a lot of fantasy games were highly effected by last night's game. (DUH)

Fantasy Alert! The Bills report that RB LeSean McCoy will miss this week's game with the NY Giants due to a nagging hamstring injury.

The Eagles placed K Cody Parkey on season ending injured reserve because of a groin injury suffered in the Eagles win over the Jets last Sunday. The Eagles have signed Caleb Sturgis, formerly of the Dolphins, to replace him.

I guess this is worthwhile news, the Patriots have worked out former Broncos RB Montee Ball. It's not like the Pats need a back right now, not with Dion Lewis and Legarrette Blount doing just fine thank you very much. The Patriots are just keeping their options open because, of all the teams in the NFL, the Patriots seem to go through a lot of RBs in a season.

With 1st round pick RB Todd Gurley working into the Rams rotation the team seems a little RB heavy. I guess that's what the Rams front office felt anyway because today they waived former 2012 2nd round pick Isaiah Pead today. Pead came to the Rams as a residual effect of the draft day trade Washington made with the Rams in which St Louis got 3 first round picks from the 'Skins in 2012, 2013 and 2014. A by product of the deal was that the Rams traded down from No 6 to No 14 plus a 2nd round pick with Dallas so the Cowboys could draft DB Morris Claiborne. It's taken into the 4th year of the deal for Claiborne to start paying dividends for the Cowboys but so far Claiborne has looked pretty darn good. In the same draft the Rams traded the second rounder they got from Dallas to move up in the 1st round with Chicago and they selected Pead. As a result the Bears got --- wait for it --- Alshon Jeffrey. Gee, I wonder who came out on top in that deal?

Golden Tate is crying now because he says opponents know their plays. Wah. It couldn't be because the Lions are 0-3 and have looked like crap. It also can't be because Tate has been a non-factor in the Lions offense with 15 catches on 25 targets for 161 yards on 0 TD's through 3 games. Wah!

[eagle eye]

For those of you who thought they were going to finally get to use NY Giants WR Victor Cruz hold that thought. In practice yesterday Cruz re-aggravated his calf injury and he has been ruled out for this week.

In a related item, WR Wes Welker worked out for the Giants and it was reported that head coach Tom Coughlin was impressed. Since Week 1 the Giants cut WR James Jones who went back to Green Bay and has been tearing it up. Cruz hasn't played a down yet in 2015 and Reuben Randall has pretty much sucked. Despite being impressed with Welker the Giants didn't sign him--yet. I think a lot depends on Victor Cruz' health. Also, the fact that Welker suffered a lot of lost time the past couple of years with concussion issues could be a 'buyer beware' sign.

Hurricane Joaquin is travelling north after hammering the Bahamas and that northward track could affect the game between the Eagles and Redskins at FedEx Field in Washington. The game may need to be relocated for the safety of the fans and the players.

Drew Brees practiced yesterday for the Saints and his status for Sunday night's game with Dallas has improved. If he plays he had better be healthy or Dallas will be looking to put him out again. They will be pulling, tugging, banging and slamming that shoulder at every opportunity.

With the Steelers and Ravens playing tonight the question is will you still get the same production fantasy wise from Antonio Brown and La'Veon Bell? My first guess is yes, or close to it. They are lock #1's and you can't sit them. I hate the Ravens so I wouldn't recommend anyone of their roster in fantasy especially Joe "Bowser" Flacco but Pittsburgh does give up points and yards so maybe Steve Smith Jr and Justin Forsette may not be terrible picks. Smith, especially, has been having a great season so far. You may also want to give Michael Vick a fantasy shot.

With the bye weeks beginning this week you won't have players from the Patriots and the Titans available this week. Need a QB? How about rolling the dice on Buffalo's Tyrod Taylor. I bashed Buffalo for choosing this guy back in Week 1 but I have had to eat my words since as Taylor has been one of the top fantasy QBs so far. How good? Good enough that I picked him up and played him after Tony Romo went down in Week 2. I won my game with Taylor last week. I'm not ashamed to admit when I make a mistake and I made a doozy here.

If you need a running back I would suggest that Tennessee Titans Antonio Andrews. Last week Andrews got more than twice the touches of any other RB on the Titans roster including Bishop Sankey. Andrews rushed 12 times for 49 yds and a TD. Andrews is a 2nd year player out of Western Kentucky who is a powerfully built back with some speed. At 5'10" and 225 lbs he brings a load to the game.

[eagle eye]

Here's what I know about today's games.

1. If you wanted to put any Dolphins or Jets in your fantasy lineup today it's too late. The game began at 9:30 and with :33 left in the 1st half the Jets are up 20-7. As you might expect QB Ryan Fitzpatrick, RB Chris Ivory and WR Brandon Marshall have all been fantasy friendly this morning for the Jets. The Dolphins may be in the market for a new coach if this keeps up.

2. Drew Brees is playing tonight against the Cowboys.

3. Andrew Luck (shoulder) is not playing today against Jacksonville. You may want to adjust your lineups accordingly. Matt Hasselbeck is the backup and he's actually pretty good and he may not turn the ball over the way Luck has been doing.

4. Arien Foster is going to play today vs Atlanta. How much he will be used is anyone's guess but, I have him in one of my leagues and I'm putting him in.

5. Tampa Bay RB Doug Martin will play today despite being listed as questionable on Friday. The Bucs will play Carolina at home.

6. The Eagles will have RB DeMarco Murray and OT Jason Peters back in the lineup today against the Redskins in Washington. The field conditions at FedEx Field are sloppy after heavy rains from Hurricane Juaquin saturated the area with rain. The hurricane is tracking away from the US toward the NE but the storm surge and the heavy rains have, and will impact people on the east coast today. A lot of devastation in the Carolinas because of flooding rains and the storm surge has been reported. Hopefully, the worst of the damage and lives lost has been seen. In South Carolina there are 4 deaths reported and catastrophic damage with many people still in need of being rescued. Our prayers should go out to these people because we know how awful this situation is around here.

7. Marshawn Lynch is questionable for the Seahawks game on Monday night vs Detroit. The word is Lynch's hammy is a big problem. If, or probably, Lynch can't go then the guy likely to take his spot will be Thomas Rawls as a two down back with Freddie Jackson coming in on 3rd downs.

8. One last thing before I go, Jay Cutler is expected to play today for the Bears. Despite not being 100% because of a hamstring injury suffered two weeks ago he is going to play. He will not have his best receiver, Alshon Jeffery, because of his own hammy issue. The Bears hope Cutler can take advantage of the Raiders banged up and suspect secondary as they attempt to avoid an 0-4 start to the season.

It's time for me to get may fantasy lineups set and settle in for some pro football action. Good luck to all except, of course, if you are playing me in which case "It's on, baby!".

[eagle eye]

Stuff going on so let's go.

1. Miami fired head coach Joe Philbin because of the lousy start to the season when the hopes for a good season in which they finally make the playoffs and maybe even give the New England Patriots a run for their division money but after a lackluster 1-3 start Philbin had to go. Former NFL TE Dan Campbell who was the TE coach for the Dolphins was named the interim head coach. Campbell played for several different NFL teams including the Cowboys during his career. Campbell came in and pretty much laid down the law and said things were going to change and the team would become tougher and more accountable. Under Philbin the most notable things in his tenure in Miami was the bullying scandal last season and his dealings with former NFL WR Chad "OchoCinco" Johnson that was played out on HBO's Hard Knocks. Otherwise the Dolphins have been a very mediocre team and they needed a change. Already Campbell has instituted the "Oklahoma drill" in practice in which an offensive lineman squares off against a defensive lineman and a running back in a gauntlet in which the RB tries to get pass the defender. The drill is meant to develop toughness in the players, if it doesn't kill them first.

2. The Colts could be without Andrew Luck AND backup Matt Hasselbeck on Thursday night against the Texans. Luck is dealing with a shoulder issue while Hasselbeck is dealing with an illness. As bad as the Texans have looked even without Luck and Hasselbeck the Colts may still be favored.

3. Former Broncos and current Jaguars TE Julius Thomas is now catching passes as he rehabs a hand injury suffered in training camp. Thomas had surgery on Sept 1 and the original time table for his return was one month. So far there have been no setbacks and he could be back on the field soon. That would make him happy, the Jags happy and the people in fantasy who drafted him happy.

4. Bills WR Sammy Watkins say out practice today. Bills head man Rex Ryan is still hopeful Watkins can still play this week against Tennessee.

5. DeSean Jackson returned to practice with the Redskins today. Jackson has been out since pulling a hamstring in Week 1.

[eagle eye]

This week's fantasy outlook is clouded with the usual injuries so let's get the grim news out of the way.

> Marshawn Lynch will be out of this week's game against the Bengals on Sunday. I guess those of you who picked up Thomas Rawls will get another week out of him. Freddie Jackson is also questionable so Rawls looks like the main man for Seattle this week.

> Can you say, "Boobie Dixon"? You'd better because Dixon will be the featured back this week for Buffalo. Dixon has experience and he's run well for Buffalo in the past. News came in that both LeSean McCoy and Karlos Williams missed practice on Friday and both are questionable at best for the Bills game against Tennessee in Tennessee.

> The Redskins will be without TE Jordan Reed and they will still be without DeSean Jackson in Sunday's game against Atlanta. From the Falcon side of the ball they may be without Julio Jones who has a foot injury. He is listed as questionable so I'd keep an eye on the last minute announcement tomorrow. Another benefit for fantasy owners will be the return of RB Tevin Coleman who has missed the last 3 weeks with a rib injury. He should be back and he should at least leach some carries away from Devonta Freeman.

> The 49ers will be without TE Vernon Davis when they play the Giants on Sunday night. I sure hope the 49ers find a way to beat the Gints. One guy the Niners won't have to worry about is WR Victor Cruz who continues to miss with a nagging calf injury.

> Can New Orleans do to Philly that they did to Dallas last week? Gawd I hope so and if they do then rookie wide receiver Willie Snead could be an important cog in the Saints wheel. Marques Colston is barely an after thought in the Saints offense but Snead and Brandon Coleman are the new studs in the receiver corps. Don't go to sleep on CJ Spiller. He made his first real impression on the Saints attack against Dallas including that 80 yard TD reception in overtime that sank the Cowboys. Saints on the road in Philly, not a good thing but for Cowboys fans you hope Brees finds the magic again.

> The Ravens will have to do without WR Steve Smith Sr this week. He is officially listed as doubtful as he injured his back last Thursday night against the Steelers. It bears keeping an eye on because he has had 11 days to get better but doubtful doesn't look good.

> Speaking of the Steelers, Big Ben will miss another week which likely means that Le'veon Bell will be big for the Steelers on the field and in fantasy but Antonio Brown may be another fantasy bust again this week with Michael Vick under center. They travel to San Diego where the Steelers will likely need to score a lot to keep up with the Chargers.

> Did you notice that Todd Gurley for the Rams and Duke Johnson for Cleveland had breakout games this past week? I'm just saying. One disappointment has been San Diego RB Melvin Gordon who is still getting the most carries but he's not producing yards for his efforts. Or TDs. Much like Darren Sproles did when he was in San Diego, Danny Woodhead has been the most effective back the Chargers have. As for Duke Johnson, Isaiah Crowell is still getting the most carries but Johnson has cut into that a lot and he has been, by far, much more involved in the passing game. Josh McCown has given the Brownies a bit of a spark and if Johnson and Travis Benjamin continue to show up who knows what's going to happen.

> Let's see what, if anything, will come of the tenure of new interim Miami Dolphins coach Dan Campbell. Since he took over he has ramped up the practices and vowed to bring a toughness previously lacking from the Joe Philbin regime to the team. We'll see how this new tough approach has on his team but we should see an immediate impact. That means that the offensive skill players for the Dolphins like Ryan Tannehill, Lamar Miller, Jarvis Landry and Jordan Cameron could all be sleeper picks but you'll have to wait until next week because the Dolphins, along with the Panthers, Vikings and Jets, are all on their bye week. Seriously though, with two weeks to prepare before their next game the Dolphins, if they are going to improve over the next two weeks, should be a very different look team when they come back in Week 6.

[eagle eye]

Yesterday's game had the usual bad news but for Port Arthur's own Jamaal Charles it was likely THE WORST news ever. For the second time in his career Charles will have to bounce back from a torn ACL. Yeah, that really sucks. The first ACL was a bit of a fluke as Charles stepped on the yard marker on the field and it gave out and his knee went with it. Yesterday there wasn't a stray piece of nylon on the field he just tried to cut to his left and his knee buckled and his season is over. Too bad because Charles is such a good guy, he doesn't deserve this. There are plenty of douche bags who probably do but it never seems to happen to them.
For fantasy purposes it looks like Knile Davis won't be the first option to step in for Charles. The Chiefs have used Charcandrick West the 2nd year player from the SLC, Abilene Christian.

Andrew Luck was back at practice today for the Colts.

One guy fantasy players may be surprised to see as a nice option at QB is Jacksonville's Blake Bortles. So far Bortles is right up there in fantasy points for the season and now, about the time we sort of realize his value and bye weeks in full swing he has a Grade 1 AC joint sprain in the Jags loss to Tampa Bay. Not sure when it occurred but he played through the injury and still threw for over 300 yards and 4 TDs and 1 pick. Hopefully, Bortles will not miss any time as he and WR Allen Hurns had big days. It wasn't just Hurns who had 5 catches for 116 yds and one TD but Allen Robinson had 7 catches for 72 yds and 2 TDs.

Another guy who is starting to make some noise as a fantasy player is Washington QB Kirk Cousins. Cousins and the Redskins scared the bejesus out of Atlanta forcing the Falcons into overtime before a bad pass from Cousins resulted in a pick six for the Falcons. Cousins wasn't great but solid with 215 yds passing with a TD and 2 picks.

More to come.

[eagle eye]

Ben Roethlisberger participated in 7 on 7 drills as the Steelers opened practice Wednesday for the game against Arizona this week. This is a positive sign for his return but it will depend on how he feels after yesterday's work.

The Patriots did lose on Sunday vs the Cowboys. How? They lost starting left tackle Nate Solder for the rest of the season with a torn biceps muscle. The Pats line gave up 5 sacks to the Cowboys who had their first game with DE Greg Hardy and MLB Rolando McClain who definitely had a major impact on the Cowboys pass rush.

Blake Bortles looks like he will be playing this week after all. He practiced yesterday and he said the Grade 1 A/C joint he injured last week against Tampa is "feeling fine". Fantasy owners take note because...........................

Buffalo could be without their starting QB Tyrod Taylor because of a reported MCL sprain suffered last Sunday. Taylor did some work with the team yesterday but it was reported yesterday by NFL.com that Taylor would miss this week's game. Apparently the reports of his status was a little premature. The Bills got some good news. LeSean McCoy returned to practice yesterday and looked to be participating in all the drills. McCoy has missed the past two games with a nagging hamstring injury. Also back at practice was Sammy Watkins who has been out since Week 3 with a calf strain. Now, the question becomes will it be Taylor or EJ Manual. Wonder if Rex Ryan regrets trading Matt Cassel to the Cowboys right about now?

The Colts had Andrew Luck back as a full participant in Wednesday's practice.

The Cowboys made if official this morning in Jason Garrett's press conference, Matt Cassel will start next week against the Giants. The Cowboys are on their bye week and do not play this week. The Cowboys also announced that they have a new starting left guard as La'el Collins replaces a recently struggling Ron Leary. One last Cowboys note. RB Christine Michael who was acquired three weeks ago, the week before 3rd down back Lance Dunbar was injured, got first team snaps in practice with Garrett saying that his work load will increase going forward. The Cowboys are looking for playmakers on offense and Michael has a world of unrealized talent that the Cowboys are hoping to tap into during this bye week.

As I posted earlier in the week the Chiefs will have to do some fancy tap dancing to replace the 39.1% of the offense they lost when Jamaal Charles tore his ACL last weekend. Andy Reid said in his presser today that Nile Davis and Charcandrick West will try to fill Charles very big shoes. West was used more than Davis in the Chiefs loss to the suddenly very tough Chicago Bears team. Just saying.

[eagle eye]

Just an aside here but I've got pretty sick of the "Who Dat's" out there probably in the same way people got sick of "How 'bout them Cowboys!". Even I got sick of that. It's still sad to see the Saints struggling because of the class way Drew Brees has gone about his business. Bounty-gate killed this team and they haven't been the same since Sean Payton got suspended for whole season as a result. A tag line on NFL.com said, "Rob Ryan: Blame me for Saints' poor defensive play (http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000000557258/article/rob-ryan-blame-me-for-saints-poor-defensive-play)" I just had to laugh because, hey Rob, most people do. The defense isn't the whole problem in New Orleans but it's a big part of it. This isn't 4 years ago when the Saints scored 30+ points per game and could make up for defensive deficiencies. Nowadays the Saints offense needs a little help from the defense and they are just not getting it. Rob Ryan, like all the Ryan family, talks a great game but he doesn't have the chops to back it up. On several occasions last season cameras caught Sean Payton and Ryan yelling at one another. All is not bliss in Saint-land. Payton needs a different guy to coach the defense or figure out a way to get Brees healthy enough to throw the ball better so they can score a lot of points. Losing Jimmy Graham to the Seahawks was not a good move for either the Saints or Graham. Neither is doing any good without the other.

Brandon Weeden is pissed he got benched. Wah. You should have played better.

All seemed to go well with Big Ben at Steelers practice yesterday but it still remains to be seen if he will be back this week against the Cardinals. Also, on NFL.com there is an article about how Antonio Brown pleading with Michael Vick to throw him the ball. In the first 3 games of the season Brown was targeted by Big Ben 35 times. In the 2 games Vick has been a QB Brown has only been targeted 15 times and Brown streak of 35 games with at least 5 catches for 50 came to a screeching halt when Vick took over. This week may not be the best time for Brown and Vick's coming out party because Brown will likely be covered by the Cardinals Patrick Peterson. Now, Marcus Wheaton may be a good play this week in fantasy. If Big Ben plays then all bets are off and everyone of the Steelers playmakers are likely to be in play. If not, Le'Veon Bell is the only sure bet for fantasy owners.

Looks like Beast Mode will be back on the field for Seattle this week against Carolina. Pete Carroll said the Marshawn Lynch was good to go for this week's game. That means that his backup, Thomas Rawls, will get a reduced work load. Rawls had his own Beast Mode last week against the Bengals by rushing for 169 yards and a TD for the Seahawks last Sunday. You would figure Rawls would come in and get a series or two per game or maybe per half which could make Rawls a decent flex player in fantasy.

The Giants will go into their Monday night game with Philly without their best CB. Prince Amukamara has a partially torn pec muscle and will miss 2-4 weeks. To make matters worse the Giants will possibly be without their two top WRs. Victor Cruz continues to miss practice with a strained calf and Odell Beckham Jr missed yesterday as he nurses a hamstring he injured in a TD celebration last Sunday night. Beckham is being listed as day-to-day.

Tonight the Saints and Falcons go at it in New Orleans. The usual suspects need to be in fantasy lineups like Julio Jones, DeVonta Freeman and Matt Ryan while you could probably not forget about Drew Brees, Mark Ingram and newcomer WR Willie Snead. Falcons should win because Rob Ryan is to blame for the defense (see above).

[eagle eye]

Big Ben isn't playing this week. The Steelers will have to rely on Michael Vick for one more week. Sorry Antonio Brown owners but Brown may not have been a good pick anyway because he was likely to be shadowed by Arizona's Patrick Peterson the whole game. As was the case last week the main guy receiver-wise was Marcus Wheaton or maybe Martavus Bryant will be the guy. The real star of the Steelers offense no matter who is under center is Le'Veon Bell but even his output will be put to the test against that tough Cardinals D.

Johnny Manziel got into a tiff with his girlfriend. Who cares, it's the Josh McCown show anyway. Did anyone notice that there is a new #1 target in Cleveland? Ever hear of Gary Barnidge the 8th year man out of Louisville who has been putting up Gronk-like numbers the last few weeks? Looks like McCown-Barnidge is a partnership that could be explored in fantasy. Duke Johnson Jr has been making noise too. Not so much for running the ball but for his contributions to the passing game. Cleveland is quietly putting up some nice fantasy numbers at QB, RB (with Isaiah Crowell and Johnson), TE and don't sell WR Travis Benjamin short either. The Browns overtime win against Baltimore last week was pretty impressive especially with the Browns being on the road.

I've said in an earlier post but with Jamaal Charles out look for Charcandrick West to be the lead back for the Chiefs. He is the #1 sleeper for the this week in my book. He will undoubtedly share carries with RB Knile Davis but he looks like he has more juice than Davis. It will, in all likelihood, take both guys to fill Charles huge shoes considering Jamaal was 38% of the Chiefs offense through the first 5 weeks of the season.

Speaking of the Ravens, Justin Forsett is going to be a game time decision as he has missed practice this week with an ankle injury the Ravens will have to turn to rookie RB Javorius Allen. With Lorenzo Taliafaro placed on injured reserve this past week Allen is the next man up. He's really the only man up as the alternatives will be a couple of UFAs that are both on the practice squad. Well, up until last week Raheem Mostert out of Purdue was on the practice squad but he was signed to the active roster when Taliafaro was injured. The other guy is Terrence McGee out of LSU who is currently on the practice squad could be called up for depth purposes if Forsett is a scratch. He did not practice on Wednesday or Thursday and was limited yesterday. He is officially listed as questionable and a game time decision.

The Bills will get LeSean McCoy back this week so all you Boobie Dixon owners feel free to look elsewhere.

Another Browns note, they could finally get Robert Turbin back this week. He may find the going tough with Isaiah Crowell and Duke Johnson working together nicely he may find carries a little scarce. Or he may cut into the carries the others see. I think Duke Johnson's value as a 3rd down back is pretty safe but who will get the benefit of the 1st and 2nd downs is the question being asked. Still, both Crowell and Turbin are listed as questionable this week against the Broncos this week. At least the Browns get the Broncos at home.

You think Sammy Watkins bitching about not being targeted enough will be enough to get either Tyrod Turner or EJ Manuel to throw to him more? That is the question fantasy owners will be wondering about. Squeaky wheel gets the grease as they say so maybe this week Watkins will get greased as the Bills face the undefeated Bengals at home on Sunday. It won't hurt that Cincy will have McCoy worry about this week too.

The Giants may going into it's divisional game on Monday night without both Victor Cruz who is still nursing a strained calf AND 2nd year phenom Odell Beckham Jr. OBJ hurt his hamstring in an end zone celebration last Sunday night and was nothing more than a decoy on the last game winning series for the Giants. Beckham has not practiced at all this week but Tom Coughlin is maintaining hope he will be able to play against Philly hoping against hope that one extra day will make all the difference. The Giants will be limping into Philadelphia on both sides of the ball and will undoubtedly be underdogs in the game. Even more so if Bechham can't play.

More later....................................

[eagle eye]

JJ Watt magically appeared on the Texans injury report as questionable with an undisclosed illness. It's probably the same crap that has had me and a hundred other people I know sick lately. I like a good north wind to get rid of the humidity but the crap that wind blows in sucks for my allergies. Anyway, enough of my whining, Watt was listed as a full go so apparently he got some good drugs and some sleep.

After some speculation to the contrary, Andrew Luck will play tonight vs the Patriots.

After some doubt about whether Tyrod Taylor would be able to play today has been cleared up--he is not playing. E J Manuel will get his first start since September of last year for the Bills.

Also for the Bills, LeSean McCoy is a go as is Sammy Watkins. On the other side of the scale Percy Harvin will be a game time decision with a hip injury. If Harvin can't go then Watkins may get his wish and see more targets.

A big loss for Jacksonville will be that RB TJ Yeldon will miss today's game against the Texans. According to the Jags depth chart Denard Robinson is the next man up. In limited work for the Jags over the last two seasons Robinson has rushed for an APC of 4.5 yards. Houston will still have to work to shut down the Jags run game.

RBs Isaiah Crowell, Dion Lewis and Marshawn Lynch will play today.

Players who will not play: RB Matt Jones and WR Davante Adams

Just an item of note here. Remember all the deflate-gate rig-a-ma-role? Sure you do. It was in all the papers and even got a casual mention on TV. The thing stemmed from a whistle blown by the Indianapolis Colts and the NFL's attempt at a sting operation to catch the Patriots red handed deflating their footballs. After all the months of hoo-hah over this only the NFL league office got their balls deflated in the end. But, now the Patriots and Colts play for the first time since that playoff game this past January. Don't think Tom Brady remembers? Don't think Bill Belichick remembers? Don't think Pats owner Robert Kraft remembers? Darn tootin' they do and I wouldn't be surprised, if given the chance, NE will hang 50 on the Colts. And, to do it in Indy? Priceless. Andrew Luck or no Andrew Luck if it's at all possible the Patriots will take out 8 months of frustration on the franchise that brought all that grief down on them. People, this game could get ugly. The fact it will be played on Sunday night it could be the NFL equivalent of a public execution. You know that the Pats have no problem hanging 50 on any opponent but one they are pissed off at? OMG!!! Take the over and the Pats if you're a betting person unless the O/U is like 75 points. I think I will.

[eagle eye]

The Chargers confirmed that they will file a request to the NFL league office to relocate to LA. I'm sure the fans in San Diego are thrilled at the news.

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000000564185/article/chargers-counsel-confirms-team-will-file-for-relocation

The Bills and Jaguars kick off the Sunday games at a very early start time of 9:30 AM EDT tomorrow. Why? Because they are in jolly old England for the second NFL game in London this season. For fantasy owners who have Tyrod Taylor you'll need to go to your backup or pick up someone off the waiver wire because Taylor is a scratch this week. The Bills will go with E J Manual.

After just two games played this season because of a suspension for PED use the Chargers may be without TE Antonio Gates because of a sprained MCL. Gates suffered the injury in the 4th quarter of the Packers game last week. The Charges also may be without WR Keenan Allen who had 14 catches for 148 yds last week before a hip injury sidelined him. RB Melvin Gordon may also miss due to a bad ankle. The Chargers lost more than a game last week as several players including the ones listed above to injuries vs the Packers making the Chargers a beaten and beat up team.

NFL.com has a 'cheat sheet' for players that might play and might not play this week. Fantasy owners will want to take a look at this article because the names on the list are pretty high profile.

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000000563924/article/week-7-cheat-sheet-can-cam-keep-winning

One hint, the Steelers will have Landry Jones at QB this week against the Chiefs in Kansas City. With the Royals closing out the ALCS last night against the Blue Jays that crowd is likely to be jacked up something fierce tomorrow. With Jones under center then Antonio Brown is back in play in fantasy. Martavius Bryant and Marcus Wheaton are players that bear taking a chance on. Of course you just don't sit Le'Veon Bell either. Despite the fan support in KC the fact is the Chiefs are not good and this game could get ugly early. I believe it will be Pitt in a blowout. I'd sit Charcandrick West for KC, this is not the week he will do much good for the struggling Chiefs. Also, Jeremy Maclin has not yet been cleared to play because of the NFL concussion protocol. Keep an eye on this situation tomorrow as it gets close to game time.

[eagle eye]

I'm watching the Bills-Jaguars game on the live internet broadcast on Yahoo and I'm seeing a coach that needs to be fired. When I started watching it was 27-13 Jaguars and they had the ball inside the 5 and they had about 6 plays to score a TD. They ended up going for it on 4th down and getting stuffed. So, a 9 minute plus drive that results in nada. The rest of the series the Jags have run resulted in a 3 and out until the last series when Blake Bortles threw up a prayer and Buffalo turned it into a pick six. Oh, by the way, that gave Buffalo their first lead of the game 31-27. Buffalo has scored 28 unanswered points in the second half. Most of that is coaching. Between too conservative calls and poor decisions Jacksonville was trying to not lose the game instead of continuing to be aggressive and it has cost the Jags the lead. Now, on the ensuing series after the pick six the Jags started pushing the ball up the field and they have scored a TD on a pass from Bortles to Allen Hurns. Now, the Jags are up 34-31 with a little over 2 minutes left. If Jacksonville ends up winning the game it still will be on the coaching that cost them a big league in the first place.

For fantasy owners if you have EJ Manual you are happy because he's at 289 yds and will likely top 300 with the Bills trying to come back at the 2 minute warning. Manual also added 6 carries for 33 yds. Nice day including 2 TDs and 2 picks. Shady McCoy has been decent fantasy wise and Robert Woods added 9 catches for 89 yds to lead Buffalo. The Jags only real fantasy hits are RB TJ Yeldon who has 20 carries for 115 yds and a TD and Allen Robinson has 6 carries for 98 yds and a TD. Bortles has 182 yds passing with 2 TDs and 1 pick.

EJ Manual screwed the pooch again. He only managed 9 yards passing to miss a 300 yard game by 2 yards and in doing so turned the ball over on downs and Jacksonville is in victory formation. I wonder if Rex Ryan wishes he hadn't traded Matt Cassel to Dallas right now. Manual sucked despite his numbers.

[eagle eye]

Games about to start.

Roethlisberger out
Dez Bryant out.
Dion Lewis is out.

Sorry making gumbo that's all I've got anyway.

[eagle eye]

Since my last post I've avoided the NFL news like crazy mostly because Dallas AND Houston lost and I just didn't want to hear about as I perused the various NFL websites. The Greg Hardy outburst at special teams coach has been dissected ad nauseum just as you would expect and crap like is almost too much for a die hard fan to bear. I almost need Val Kilmer from the movie Tombstone to narrate, "Poor fellah. So high strung, I'm afraid the excitement was more than he could bey-ah." All spoken in that thick Georgia southern drawl. Yep. That was me up until today. It all was more than I could bey-ah.

I'm better now and me skin has calloused over. After all, it's just a game right? But for goodness sake, having to put up with the Aggies, Cardinals, Texans and Cowboys losing in the same weekend I needed a decompression time. Now it is time to move on and discuss player news especially the news that affects our fantasy teams.

As you know Arian Foster is done after tearing his Achilles tendon in that embarrassing loss to Miami on Sunday. Who do you grab? Who in the Texans lineup do you turn to? Well, I looked back at the last 3 games when Foster was back in the lineup and what I found was a little surprising. Chris Polk has been more involved in the Houston attack than Blue. While Blue got more touches than Polk in Foster's Week 5 debut that wasn't the case the past two weeks. Polk was clearly the next man up behind Foster against the Jaguars and the Dolphins. Although after Foster went out Blue did seem some carries but he only had 3 carries and no passes caught against the Dolphins compared to Polk's 4 carries and 2 catches. Not earth shattering fantasy numbers but it seems to make the choice between Blue and Polk more difficult. So, I turned to the Texans website for the unofficial depth chart. That was no help. Blue is the starter, Jonathan Grimes is the backup and Chris Polk was 3rd in the RB pecking order. Grimes hasn't even had a target the last few weeks. I am going on a hunch here and I am going to pick up Chris Polk. He's a flex option at very least and if he's clawed his way up the depth chart then I'm going to have a decent RB3 at least. Of course, a lot depends on the Houston O-line getting their heads out of their collective asses because even Foster couldn't manage a 100 yard game behind this lot.

Big Ben Roethlisberger looks to be back. He took first team reps after being medically cleared and it looks likely he will be in the lineup against Cincinnati this week. The way Cincy has been playing so far this season and their 6-0 record I look for Big Ben to air it out. In fantasy that brings Antonio Brown, Martavus Bennett and Markus Wheaton all into fantasy play. Don't forget Big Ben was chucking the rock for almost 400 YPG before spraining his MCL and he only had the benefit of Le'Veon Bell for one game before he was injured. The Cincy defense had better put on their big boy pants when Pittsburgh comes to town this Sunday.

I hate Thursday games. I just do. You barely have time to catch your fantasy breath from Monday night and you have to set a lineup for that Thursday night game. It's unfair I tell you. You are almost forced into putting a fantasy player in your lineup if he plays on Thursday because you don't want to be kicking your own ass if he goes off. Then, if he has a crap game your kicking yourself for losing a roster spot you might have used if that player wasn't playing on Thursday to somebody else on Sunday or Monday. It's a conspiracy by the NFL to drive fantasy football/NFL fans totally insane! How many of you have Lamar Miller? If Miami wasn't playing New England tomorrow night would you like the matchup? Maybe not but considering the whoopin Miami and Miller in particular put on Houston how could you bench him? I know, right? Since Dion Lewis did not play on Sunday against the Jets do you take a chance on him after only 3 extra days of rest? Well news out of NE is Lewis is officially questionable to play against the Dolphins. Then you think maybe this is one of those nasty, down in the dirt games Legarrette Blount would excel at. Sheesh. I hate Thursday games.

More news and less soap opera to come. Can you believe Jets WR Brandon Marshall would spends the week as commentator on the NFL Network criticized Greg Hardy saying, "Hardy doesn't 'get it'.", when Marshall has altercation of his own with a rookie team mate on the side line of their game against New England? Well, yes I can. It's ironic that Hardy's incident and Marshall's were not even in the same ballpark coverage wise. Why? Because 1) It's the Cowboys who are way more popular than the Jets and 2) because it's the freaking Cowboys, bro! Even when they sucked Dallas stayed in the news because NFL fans want to hear about the Cowboys. Some to gloat over them when their down and others to praise them when they are up. It's like the NY Yankees, you either love 'em or you hate 'em. Either way you can't ignore them.

[eagle eye]

It's Thursday and you know what that means, there is an NFL football game tonight. It's between the Patriots and the Jets and so if you have any players on either team on your fantasy team you need to make sure they are in the lineup if you want them to be. For those of you stressing over whether or not Pats RB Dion Lewis will play tonight, stress no more. Lewis will play so if you need a RB he could be your man. He will split carries with LeGarrette Blount but his biggest contributions are in the passing game. So, if you are in a PPR league you just may want to plug this guy in, even if it's as a flex player.

Among all the fantasy sites there seems to be a consensus that if he's available Green Bay RB James Starks is a guy you should add to your fantasy roster. The last game I saw was the Packers vs the Chargers and I saw a Eddie Lacy leaving the field and he looked like Fat Albert he was so huge. Linked below is an article from NFL.com in which Packers coach Mike McCarthy talks about Lacy being heavier now than when he was a rookie. Duh!

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000000568253/article/mccarthy-eddie-lacy-bigger-than-he-was-as-a-rookie

[eagle eye]

If you have Marcus Mariota on your roster I hope you have Zack Mettenberger too because Mariota is not playing this week because of a knee injury suffered two games ago against Miami. In fact Mariota has missed the last two games because of the injury. Against the Falcons last week Mettenberger put some pretty average numbers in a 10-7 defensive struggle in Tennessee. The Texans aren't the Falcons and they have given up some pretty big first halves to Atlanta and Miami but I'm not sure we can say Mettenberger is in the class of Matt Ryan or even Ryan Tannehill but the Texans better watch their asses this week.

Carlos Hyde will be out this week against the Rams this week in St Louis. That's not a good thing if you are a 49ers fan. The Rams are tough enough on defense and they are especially tough at home. I sort of feel sorry for San Fran and Reggie Bush and rookie RB Mike Davis. Fantasy wise, Bush may be good as a flex option because I think the Niners will have to throw the ball a lot to stay with the Rams.

The Cincinnati-Pittsburgh game will feature a couple of players returning to the lineup for both teams. Ben Roethlisberger will be back for Pitt and super linebacker Vontaze Burfict will be back for Cincy. Burfict is the wild card here because he has been out since Week 5 of the 2014 season and he has had 10 months to recover from microfracture surgery on his knee. It is the same surgery that the Texans Jadeveon Clowney had and he has been able to come back and play pretty well so far this season. That said, microfracture surgery is a career threatening injury and you would hope that a top tier player like Burfict can beat the odds and make it back.

With Roethlisberger back it will be a good thing for RB Le'Veon Bell, WRs Antonio Brown, Martavis Bennett and Marcus Wheaton. It was a good thing for these players when backup QB Landry Jones took over for the Steelers other backup, Michael Vick, after Vick was injured because Vicks numbers, especially passing sucked. Jones, who was a standout QB at Oklahoma before coming to the NFL brought a Big Ben-like spark to the Steelers offense. Could be Landry Jones has carved out a future in Pittsburgh.

Andre Ellington has had little to do the past couple of weeks because Chris Johnson has been doing so well after coming in Week 2 after Ellington was hurt. Arizona Cardinals head coach Bruce Arians has said the Ellington's role will increase this week against the Cleveland Browns. It could be Ellington will resume his role as lead back and Johnson will go back to being a 3rd down back or change of pace back. Then again, the Cards may just want to give Ellington a few more carries while still leaning on CJ2K to carry the bulk of the load. I would be hard pressed to sit Johnson after he had been more like his old 2000 yard self the past few weeks. At least for this week, if I had Johnson on my fantasy team, I'd have him in my lineup.

The Colts will get a gift from Carolina this Monday night in the form of not having to deal with two major players in the Panthers lineup. C Ryan Kahlil and Shaq Thompson are both listed as doubtful and will likely be out of the lineup this week. Carolina is just a better team than Indy so it shouldn't make any difference. Carolina beat Seattle on the road two weeks ago and they topped the Eagles last week at home. Carolina is one of the unbeaten teams so far in 2015 and it really doesn't look like they will be beaten this week either.

The Giants got Jason Pierre-Paul back this week and they came to agreement on a one year deal and he should be able to play soon which will help bolster a bit of the anemic pass rush the Giants have.

San Diego TE Antonio Gates has been listed as questionable this week with a knee. I really don't think Gates will play but I have been wrong before. Questionable is what it says it is and there have been a lot of guys classified this way and have played anyway. This will bear watching.

The Browns QB Josh McCown is listed as questionable with a shoulder injury. Browns head man Mike Pettine says he is prepared to use either McCown or backup Johnny Manziel this week against Arizona.

It looks like Falcons WR Leonard Hankerson will be out this week against Tampa Bay. As for the Bucs they will be missing WR Vincent Jackson and TE Austin Sefarian-Jenkins. Both big loses for the Bucs offense. Mike Evens may be hard pressed to have a good day without Jackson to take some of the heat off in coverage. I believe Tampa will lean on WR Louis Murphy and TE Luke Stocker but as he did against Washington last Jameis Winston will really rely on RB Doug Martin and WR Mike Evans.

[eagle eye]

If you wanted to put somebody from the Lions or the Chiefs in your fantasy lineup you are out of luck because they are playing in London for the NFL's 3rd, or is it 4th, trip across the pond.

For KC the fantasy leaders are QB Alex Smith (14-22 for 117 yds and 1 TD, plus 5 carries for 78 yds and a TD), RB Charcandrick West (15-58 yds and a TD rushing and 4 receptions for 25 yds) and TE Travis Kelce (6-49, TD receiving)
For Detroit the leader is Joique Bell with 7 rushes for 56 yds. Matthew Stafford has been a disaster with 72 yds passing and 2 picks.
As you might guess from the stats above the Chiefs have opened up a can of whup ass on Detroit. Half way through the 3rd quarter the Chiefs lead 31-3. Think Detroit fans miss former head coach Jim Schwartz?

[eagle eye]

In the last two weeks I've lost 2 main cogs in my fantasy rosters. Last week Arian Foster went down for the season with a torn ACL and this week Le'Veon Bell went down with a bad MCL, bad enough he'll miss the rest of the season. For a bunch of players around the NFL yesterday could be considered Black Sunday because a lot of season ending injuries occurred that could change the fortunes of several NFL seasons. Linked below is an article by Bleacher Reports Mike Tanier about the whos and consequences of a day of injury in the NFL yesterday.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2585099-monday-morning-hangover-scary-sad-season-changing-week-8-injuries

In the Cowboys game yesterday during a kick return backup Cowboys safety Jeff Heath put a hit on Seahawks receiver/special teams player Ricardo Lockett that knocked Lockett out, out of the game and out for the rest of the season. It looked like a clean hit, nothing dirty about the hit, it just had a brutal effect. Lockett lay motionless on the field and people were rushing to his aid immediately. Fortunately, after Lockett was strapped down to a stretcher board and put on cart to take him off the field he gave a big thumbs up to the crowd. That was the good news. The bad news is Lockett suffered a neck injury and will need season ending surgery. This injury was addressed in the previous link but a lot of people at the time said Heath gave Lockett a cheap shot. He didn't but I'm sure nobody feels worse than Heath about the whole matter except, of course, Lockett.

Anybody remember when Wade Phillips was head coach of the Cowboys? Remember what was the impetus of his firing. In case you don't remember, about half way through the 2010 season Dallas, who had been on a losing streak to begin the season, went up to Green Bay and the Packers handed the Cowboys an ass whooping that was so bad that owner Jerry Jones fired Phillips. Last night Phillips got a little revenge when his defense held the Packers to a mere 77 yds passing and 10 points as Denver simply undressed the previously unbeaten Packers. Peyton Manning got a little payback too after people had been saying that Manning's skills were gone and he couldn't make deep throws any more. Manning threw for 340 yards on just 21 completions. Case closed on both counts. Phillips couldn't resist tweeting about it after the game. Who would have thought that Phillips, who looks like somebody's sweet old uncle, would have a bit of a vicious streak in him.

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000000571179/article/wade-phillips-throws-some-twitter-shade-at-packers-after-win

[eagle eye]

Man, I thought things were bad in Dallas losing 5 games in a row and all but for goodness sake we Cowboys fans have way more to be thankful for than 49ers fans. This was brought home to me this morning when a coworker came in my office this morning and there was despair in his voice over his 49ers. It's been bad enough that San Fran had to endure all the retirements and injuries and in the case of DE Aldon Smith he lost his job because he was just too big of a pain in the ass off the field for the 49ers to put up with but now the 49ers are in a turmoil at QB and they are sitting Collin Kaepernick in favor of Blaine Gabbert. Add to that the Niners have traded their best offensive player in TE Vernon Davis to Denver for basically a late round draft pick in 2016. The 49ers have guaranteed that their offense is going to stink for several years to come and pretty much made new head coach Jim Tomsala a lame duck because as San Fran keeps racking up loses his job security is swirling down the drain.

Somebody whose job security has disappeared is Tennessee head coach Ken Whisenhunt. He was fired today after leading his team to a 3-20 record over the last 2 and a half years. The move was pretty surprising considering the injuries the Titans have had up to and including 1st round pick Marcus Mariota. It hasn't helped that last year's 6th round pick Zack Mettenberger has only led his team to 13 points over the last two weeks starting in place of Mariota. Former Falcons head coach and current offensive coordinator assumes the position as interim head coach. Mularky had a bad record as a head coach in Atlanta but he is a well respected OC in the NFL. So, will he be able to do more than Whisenhunt was during his tenure? Who knows but, from the Titans front office standpoint he can't do any worse. Whisenhunt becomes the 2nd coach to be fired prior to the half way point of the season. The Dolphins fired head coach Joe Philbin 3 weeks ago after a very strange and tumultuous tenure in Miami. His replacement, interim HC Dan Campbell, has gone 2-1 since he assumed the reins of the team. It will remain to be seen if Mularky has a positive or negative impact on the Titans fortunes.

The NFL is determined to increase its foothold in England and they made another step in that pursuit by signing a deal to play 3 games at Twickenham Stadium in London with an option for others. Where that leaves the games at Wembly Stadium remains to be seen. Personally, I wonder why the NFL is working so hard for this because the most logical choices for NFL expansion outside of the United States would be either Mexico, where the NFL has a huge fan base, or Canada. The nine hour flight from the east coast to England is something that is handled now by giving the teams involved in games in England a bye week the next week. It also robs one of the teams of a home game in their home city. There seems to be a groundswell of support in England for American football but is it worth all this? From a dollars and cents perspective maybe it is but how is it on the players? It almost seems to be another case of the bottom line being more important than the players who play the games. So far there have already been 3 games played in London this season. Games have to start there at 9:30 am central time because of the time difference and televising the games has been dicey. The 2nd game between Jaguars and the Bills wasn't even televised on network TV, it was broadcast on the internet on Yahoo. Who knows where this going to end up going but I am not really sure I like it. Games at 9:30? I have a problem with Thursday games for crying out loud!

[eagle eye]

The knee injury, as yet unclear about the severity of it, suffered by the Bears RB Matt Forte last week will keep him out of the lineup this week so if you are looking for a replacement you may want to try Bears rookie Jeremy Langford. Langford has gotten some work at times this season but this will be his first start in his NFL career. Langford is used to being on the big stage as he comes from Michigan State so the workload should not be a problem for him. Can he be as effective as Matt Forte? Time will tell but at this time of year the free agent pool is getting mighty thin and, if he's even still available, you know he's going to start and that makes him worth a try.

Another guy lost for the season is Baltimore WR Steve Smith Sr who tore his Achilles tendon last Sunday. The Ravens have filled Smith's spot with WR Josh Morgan. Morgan is a veteran guy who, for the most part, has been a disappointment in his NFL career and he's floated around the NFL for several years now. I wouldn't rush to pick him up as I believe it will take a little time for him to get acclimated to the Ravens offense. Kamar Aiken and Marlon Brown with a little Chris Givens thrown in will be the guys the Ravens will lean on going forward.

There are six teams off this week. The Texans, Lions, Cardinals, Ravens, Chiefs and Seahawks will be off which will test the depth of fantasy rosters this week.

The Browns and Bengals square off in Cincy on Thursday night but Cleveland will not have starter Josh McCown at QB because he injured his shoulder last week against the Cardinals. This will be a Johnny Manziel week as the Browns have announced that Mr Football will be taking first team reps this week in practice because it is a short week and McCown will not have a chance to get back to health in time for the game. Manziel has looked much better this season and despite an off field issue or two he has been a much better team mate and player this season. The Browns jumped out to a 20-7 lead against the Cards last week and they had a 20-10 halftime lead but the Cards outscored the Browns 24-0 in the second half securing a 34-20 win. The Browns have jumped up and surprised teams this year but it was with McCown was the QB. Manziel can put up good fantasy numbers though if you are hurting for a bye week QB.

Looks like Ronnie Hillman has replaced CJ Anderson as the starter in Denver but both guys were effective against the Packers in last week's Bronco bullying win over the Packers. But after Anderson exploded for 101 yds on just 14 carries he may have wrestled the starter's role back. Hillman had more carries than Anderson but he was less effective than Anderson running against Green Bay. Hillman had 19 totes for just 60 yds but he scored 2 TDs to 1 for Anderson. I don't think it would matter too much who you play and I believe both will be good against the Colts defense this week so I would feel comfortable playing either one if I have him on my fantasy roster. If I have both, I think I would play both. The Colts have the 3rd worst defense against the run in the NFL so both guys should have a field day as it looks like the symbiosis between Gary Kubiak's offense and Peyton Manning's execution of that offense it looking like it is finally starting to gel should mean some damn good stats for all Broncos players. With the struggles that Indianapolis has had to deal with this season this game could get ugly in a hurry. Don't think Peyton doesn't remember his last trip to Indy when the Colts honored Manning before the game and kicked his, and the Broncos, asses in the game.

Another reason to be concerned if you are a Colts fan is the fact that the team has fired offensive coordinator Pep Hamilton. Associate head coach Rob Chudzinski will assume the OC duties going forward.

Did anyone notice that the only move at the NFL trading deadline seems to have been the Broncos signing TE Vernon Davis on Tuesday? Way different situation than baseball when trades and money go flying around like confetti.

[eagle eye]

There is a whole lotta shakin going on in the NFL this week. Coaches are dropping like flies and now front office people are joining the ranks of the unemployed. The latest and not-so-greatest is the sacking of Detroit Lions GM and Club President Tom Lewand by team owner Martha Ford. This comes a week after offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi was fired and interim OC Jim Bob Cooter (no kidding, that's his name) was his replacement. Stepping in as interim GM will be Sheldon White and a lady named Allison Maki will be the new COO. White was the President of Player Personnel before getting kicked up to GM and Maki was the Lions Senior Vice President of Administration and Chief Financial Officer. As we noted last week it's unusual just 8 games into a season under a new head coach but the Lions were a playoff team with a high powered offense and this season they are 1-7 and the offense is pretty anemic. Surprisingly enough new head coach Jim Caldwell survived this employee purge but rumors are that there may not have been a guy the new Lions front office either saw as an alternative or trusted as interim head coach. The whole organizational structure of the Lions front office is in serious reboot mode so things may not get any better for the team on the field any time soon.

Brown vs Bengals for the bragging rights to the state of Ohio will take place tonight. Actually, this is just Round 1 in the battle of Ohio as these teams meet again in Cleveland on December 6th. It will feature a start by Johnny Manziel and regardless of who sucks in any given year this is a bitter rivalry which could mean some interesting television tonight. So, if you have any Browns or Bengals on your fantasy roster don't forget to plug them in before 7 o'clock tonight.

Because this is a very busy bye week with 6 teams not playing this week are you desperate enough to have to plug in San Francisco's Blaine Gabbert as a bye week QB? The one thing I will tell you is that in preseason when Gabbert played he didn't look like the same inept buffoon that he looked like in Jacksonville. He actually looked pretty good in the limited opportunities he was given. Now considering the state of the Niners offense so far that may not be a ringing endorsement but let's not forget that San Fran does have weapons if a decent QB can get them the ball. Colin Kaepernick wasn't a drop back passer even though current head coach Jim Tomsala has tried to make him one. When Kap was good he played under Jim Harbaugh and they ran a variation of the read option offense. Kap never was a drop back style of QB. Gabbert is. When you consider that the 49ers have Anquan Bolden, Torrey Smith and Jerome Simpson to lead the WR corps. They don't have Vernon Davis any more but have 3 young guys who would love to show what they have. Carlos Hyde and Mike Davis are nursing injuries but one or the other should be available on Sunday against the Falcons. San Fran also signed former Saints RB Pierre Thomas to replace Reggis Bush who had to be placed on IR. Thomas is taylor made for a west coast style of offense and will be a good addition to the 49ers attack. He could actually see some action this week. The only question is Thomas hasn't played a down in 2015 and his conditioning could be an issue. One thing is for sure, he should have some fresh legs.

[eagle eye]

Tennessee will have Marcus Mariota back on the field today when they play the Saints in New Orleans.

Jason Pierre-Paul will be active for the Giants for the first time this season because of the accident involving fireworks on the 4th of July cost him part of his thumb and index finger. The Giants face the Tampa Bay Bucs this afternoon.

Sammy Watkins is expected to be active for this week's game between the Bills and the Dolphins.

The Redskins will have WR DeSean Jackson back for the first time since injuring his hamstring in the season opener.

The Broncos will face the Colts in a big game for both teams today. The Colts will be without WR T Y Hilton because of a foot injury. There is a chance he will play but it's being classified as a longshot. On the Broncos side RB Ronnie Hillman has been questionable all week because of a thigh bruise but he will be playing today.

Saints backup Luke McCown will miss today's game and he's in danger of missing the rest of the season because of a lower back issue. He is scheduled to see Dr Drew Dorsett, the same guy who did Tony Romo's surgery last year, to determine what will need to be done for his back.

Back to the Giants-Bucs game for a sec. The Bucs will be without TE Austin Seferian-Jenkins yet again and they are already missing WR Vincent Jackson. Seferian-Jenkins has a bad shoulder while Jackson injured his knee and he has not been practicing.

Matt Forte is out and the load seems to be headed backup RB Jeremy Langford looks to be the guy until Forte comes back.

The big question is what the heck will the Lions be like after a major shake up in the organization this past week. Also, how will the Tennessee Titans fare after having head coach Ken Whisenhunt fired this past week. Lots of uncertainty in the Colts organization because of the firing of offensive coordinator Pep Hamilton who just happened to be Andrew Luck's QB coach at Stanford. By all accounts Hamilton was a popular guy in the Colts locker room and some players were not happy about his firing.

Good luck, you will need it this week in fantasy with six teams on bye week.

[eagle eye]

Jeremy Langford is going to be just fine. At least based on his work last night against the Chargers. He had 18 carries for 72 yards and he added 3 catches for another 70 yards in a very Matt Forte-like performance as the Bears came back and beat the Bolts 22-19 last night. If you don't have him and he's available (he's probably not) snatch him up quick!

If you thought that Malcolm Floyd was going to be the guy who stepped up and took up the slack after San Diego lost Keenan Allen forget it. Floyd was lost in the 2nd quarter of last night's game with a shoulder injury and this may hasten his retirement from the NFL which was supposed to be at the end of this season anyway. Last night it was Danny Woodhead and Antonio Gates, a RB and TE, who led the team in yards on the night. The next man up was Stevie Johnson who had 7 catches for 68 yards. He also had a cripplingly stupid delay of game penalty which turned 1st and goal at the 4 into 1st and goal at the 11. The Chargers couldn't help but shoot themselves in the foot last night and it continued a trend, similar to the trend the Cowboys are in right now of finding ways to cost themselves wins with stupid mistakes. As well as the offense has played and the number Phillip Rivers is posting San Diego can't buy a win right now. Last night could have been the last prime time game for Chargers in San Diego and they went out like thud instead of a bang. The Chargers are looking to relocate to Los Angeles and their prime time swan song in San Diego was less than memorable.

The 49ers seemingly have pulled a rabbit out of their hat by signing Sean Draughn an undrafted free agent out of North Carolina in 2011 that was originally was with Washington but he had been in 6 other rosters over the last 4-1/2 years. The Forty-Niners is his 8th team since 2011 but based on his performance on Sunday in the win over Atlanta, which was big surprise as well, in which he gained 58 yards on 16 carries and another 32 yards on 4 passes caught led the Niners ground attack. It was committee approach as Kendall Gaskins had 7 carries and newly signed Pierre Thomas had 4 carries. Draughn's value is only as good as how long Carlos Hyde is out but he proved he is a good handcuff for Hyde.

The biggest surprise for the 49ers was the performance of QB Blaine Gabbert. Gabbert didn't put up a lot of points but he led the Niners to their first win in a while passing for 185 yards with 2 TDs and 2 picks. He also was the 2nd leading rusher on the team behind Draughn with 8 carries for 32 yards. Gabbert also showed a lot of toughness that was something that has been in question since he played at Jacksonville. He got plowed by a blitzing linebacker in the 2nd half of the game Sunday and got up and was prepared to play on but he was forced to leave the field for a short time to go through the NFL concussion protocol on the sideline by an independent doctor before he was allowed to return to the field. You could see him mouth the words to the official as he left the field, "Wow, this is f*cking bullsh*t." It was obvious he was okay as he was examined by the doctor on the sideline. He had to sit out several plays which, I'm sure he hated because he's trying to lose that "soft" label about him. I hate to toot my own horn but I posted last week to keep and eye on Gabbert this week because of the way he played in the preseason. He played well enough that head coach Mike Tomsula has named Gabbert the starter this week against Seattle. (Gee thanks)

The Bills may be without RB LeSean McCoy this week because of a shoulder injury suffered last week against Miami. It was determined that McCoy would not have to get an MRI but his status is questionable going into the Thursday night game against the Jets. McCoy is sure he's playing and he probably will. It's pretty clear that this is a two back system because Karlos Williams has shown to be more than just a handcuff to McCoy. Both backs gained 100+ yards against Miami. The fact is Williams scored 2 TDs to McCoy's 1 so his value as a red zone back may make him more valuable than McCoy except for the fact that McCoy was involved in the Bills passing game and Williams was not. It's not really a surprise that Buffalo returned to the win column this week but they did and it's mainly because of the return of QB Tyrod Taylor to the lineup. EJ Manual could not do much in relieve of Taylor as he missed a couple of games with an injury. Besides passing for 181 yards and a TD Taylor rushed 10 times for 44 yards making fantasy owner happy. It also didn't hurt that Sammy Watkins finally returned to the lineup and he was the star of the receiving corp catching 8 passes for 168 yards and a TD. Remember that Taylor only threw for 181 and that lets you know Watkins value to Taylor and the Bills.

Since the Browns have two RBs that they can depend on, especially with the development of rookie Duke Johnson Jr, the Browns have released former Seahawk Robert Turbin who Cleveland picked up several weeks ago after he was given his release by Seattle.

The Steelers had Big Ben back for exactly 7-1/2 quarters before a foot injury sidelined him again. It is expected that he will be out several weeks with the injury but he refuses to admit that he won't be back against the Browns this week. Either way the Steelers will be in good hands considering the nice job backup Landry Jones has done. Jones is actually a reliever to the reliever since he was backing up Michael Vick until Vick was injured. Vick struggled especially in the passing game and when Jones came in the Steelers passing game was reignited. Even if Vick is healthy I believe Jones has earned the right to play ahead of Vick. The Steelers will be without Le'Veon Bell for the rest of the season and I'm not too sure they can hang their hopes on DeAngelo Williams and Vick who averaged about 40 yards passing in the games he played in for Pitt until he was hurt. Okay, he was better than that but not much.

I don't know if it's the QB or the receivers but nobody on the Rams roster scares you except for RB Todd Gurley. Nick Foles will now have a proven target as the Rams have signed WR Wes Welker to a deal. Welker has been out of football for the first half of the season because teams seemed to be leary of his recent concussion issues. The Rams obviously checked him out and it will just be a question of how fast he can get up to speed in the Rams offense. Welker may have been signed because Stedman Bailey is being suspended for 4 games because he violated the NFL substance abuse policy.

The Patriots, and fantasy owners who thought they had finally found a New England RB they could depend on, found out that Dion Lewis was lost for the season after tearing his ACL on Sunday in a non-contact injury when Lewis may a cut to avoid tacklers. The Patriots turned to little used RB Brandon Bolden after Lewis went out and he produced for the Pats running once for 12 yards and catching 3 passes for 27 yards and a TD. Certainly these aren't Lewis-like numbers but given a full game those numbers could be a lot better. Why is it that the Patriots lose a man to injury and the next man up seems to be as good as the guy who went down? Unbelievable.

[eagle eye]

I am really suffering in all my fantasy leagues because of all these season ending injuries. So far I have lost Le'Veon Bell, Arian Foster, Dion Lewis, Lance Dunbar. I have been a little more lucky with my WRs but even they have missed time so far. The latest loss was a biggie though as San Diego officially put Keenan Allen on season ending IR with a lacerated kidney. It isn't life threatening thank goodness but he won't be allowed to play until it is completely healed. When you think about the other major fantasy players that have gone out like Jamaal Charles, Steve Smith Sr, Percy Harvin, Khiry Robinson among the players that are out for the season. You add in players who have missed chunks of time like Ben Roethlisberger, Tony Romo, LeSean McCoy and DeSean Jackson and it's a wonder we can field a fantasy team.

The latest short, sort of long term, players to miss time is the Colts Andrew Luck who is said to be out for 2-6 weeks with a lacerated kidney. His kidney obviously isn't as serious as Keenan Allen's but there you go. Tim Hasselbeck, who started two games already when Luck missed because of a shoulder problem, will step back into the roll. It will undoubtedly affect guys like T J Hilton so you will have to make your own judgments about your fantasy rosters maybe paying more attention to matchups.

PLAYER ALERT: The Tennessee Titans have activated RB David Cobb, the rookie out of Minnesota, to the active roster. To make room for Cobb the Titans have released veteran QB David Whitehurst. Cobb is a 5'11" 229 lbs back who has some speed and also power enough to run through some tackles. The Titans have been rather ineffective in the run game this season but they should do much better with 1st round pick QB Marcus Mariota back Tennessee finally won a game last week and there is no doubt that the Titans are better on offense with him in the lineup. Cobb has been practicing for the past four weeks and he could see significant snaps right from the start.

James Starks has supplanted Eddie Lacy as the #1 back in Green Bay. Lacy has been totally ineffective so far this season and I'm not the only person that has noticed that Lacy is overweight to the point that he looks like an O-lineman instead of a running back. James Starks has just plain been more productive than Lacy has been. Hopefully, this will be the wakeup call Lacy needs to lose some weight and get back into shape. He looks slow and he has lost some of the burst that made him a dangerous back. It doesn't mean Lacy won't get touches but it does mean he won't get as many as he did.

Don't get fooled by headlines but the Greg Hardy controversy continues to rage. NFL.com interviewed HOF QB Roger Staubach as part of the Veteran's Day celebration and the headline on NFL.com was Roger Staubach: I wouldn't want Greg Hardy as teammate. If you actually read the article Staubach does say that but he qualifies it by saying he is not in the Cowboys locker room and he hasn't spoken to Hardy to see how his life is going. Staubach went on to say that people deserve a 2nd chance if they make a mistake but he says that domestic violence is a very serious issue and he hopes Hardy is getting help. It was Roger's feeling that something like DV can be dealt with without help. NFL Channel interviewer said as a precursor to a question that Staubach had been very outspoken in his criticism of Hardy and Staubach corrected him by saying he has been outspoken about the issue of domestic violence. It is a case of media bias to try to get a respected man like Staubach to diss Hardy personally as part of a campaign to paint Hardy as a Hannibal Lector-like crazed animal. Hardy obviously has issues but if you are a Christian you believe in forgiveness and 2nd chances. Hardy is certainly no angel but if the Cowboys are requiring him to get help and he's doing what the Cowboys expect of him off the field then I don't see a reason for this persecution. Am I just being a homer for the Cowboys? I honestly don't know for sure. Would I feel differently if Hardy was on another team? I certainly hope I wouldn't.

Consider this article from Bleacher Report by former NBA HOF'er Charles Barcley who seems to be a voice of reason (Charles? Yep, in this he is.). It's a long article but one worth a look.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2587885-charles-barkley-greg-hardy-was-wrong-but-he-needs-help-not-more-punishment

[eagle eye]

Wow, talk about a miraculous recovery. Ben Roethlisberger left last Sunday's game with a sprained foot that was speculated would keep him off the field for several weeks. Big Ben actually practiced today and he has hopes for playing this week! Big Ben is a tough guy and he's able to deal with a lot of pain and play well so I would not count him out from playing on Sunday.

Tonight's game between the Bills and Jets has not been one to cause a lot of excitement in the world of fantasy football but there are several players who are big components on fantasy rosters these days. On the Bills side of the ball they field QB Tyrod Taylor, RB Karlos Williams and WR Sammy Watkins not to mention a pretty good fantasy defense/special teams group. The Jets have a borderline QB in Ryan Fitzpatrick, WR Brandon Marshall, RB Chris Ivory and a good defense of their own. You might have yawned when you saw this game was on tonight but this may be a pretty good football game worth a look. I still hate Thursday games.

If recent history tells us anything then the Detroit Lions should be an offensive monster this week when they play the Green Bay Packers in Green Bay. There are a couple of things that make me say this. 1. So far after a coaching shake up this season the team has responded by playing far and away their best football of the season. Look at what happened with Miami after Joe Philbin was sacked--2 straight wins including a virtual beat down of the Texans. What just happened to Tennessee? They fire Ken Whisenhunt and go down to New Orleans and beat the Saints 34-28 in overtime! The Titans hadn't scored more than 6 points in a game for 2 week prior to the change. Neither the Dolphins or the Titans have the talent the Lions do. The Lions are also facing a struggling Packers team that has lost their last two games and were in danger of losing 3 if they hadn't persevered over San Diego 3 weeks ago. This ain't the same old Pack. 2.) The Mike and Mike jinx. This morning on Mike and Mike, Mike Greenberg gave a stat that said that Detroit has not won a game at Lambeau Field since 1991. The Lions and Packers are in the same division and play a home and home every single year. So that is 25 years since Detroit won in Green Bay. Think about that for a minute. That is almost unbelievable. The Mike and Mike jinx is similar to the jinx a broadcaster put on a player who is about to do something and can't or couldn't do something and does. You put it out there and it never fails to go the opposite way. Put money on it, Lions win and their anemic fantasy numbers are taking a big 180 this week.

[eagle eye]

Head coaches around the NFL continue to confound opponents and fantasy footballers with their propensity to be vague or just down right uninformative.

Pittsburgh is saying that Ben Roethlisberger is questionable. Fortunately Michael Vick seems to have spilled the beans saying today that backup Landry Jones will start this week. As bad a Big Ben's foot injury looked, according to all reports, pretty bad early in the week. Roethlisberger has a habit of playing when most people need to sit. Jones has done a much better job of leading the Steelers, especially from a fantasy perspective, than Michael Vick. Not just for QB numbers but he gets the rest of the offensive weapons at the Steelers disposal involved as well. Speaking of involved, how about the offensive resurgence of DeAngelo Williams who has had to fill in for Le'Veon Bell both at the beginning of the season when Bell was suspended the first two games and now since Bell was lost to an ACL injury.

Cleveland's Mike Pettine is being coy about who will start for the Browns this week. Will it be Johnny Manziel or will it be Josh McCown? McCown who has missed a game because of a shoulder injury is listed as questionable on the official injury report. There might be a bit of a tug-of-war between Pettine and Browns GM Ray Farmer with Pettine wanting to go with McCown to give the Browns the best chance of winning and Farmer want to see what they have in Manziel with the prevailing feeling by the GM that at 2-7 the Browns chances of making the playoffs are pretty slim so it is a prime time to evaluate players, including Manziel, to see what they have from a long term standpoint. Ian Rappaport of NFL.com has reported that Cleveland will start Manziel according to a source inside the Browns organization. It must drive coaches crazy to get stabbed in the back with the "unnamed source" crap.

Chicago RB Jeremy Langford may get a longer look than first expected because it turns out that Matt Forte's knee injury is an MCL sprain. Even a minor one would keep Forte on the sideline for several weeks at best. It seems that the Bears have found a nice player in Langford and his first start last Monday night in a Bears win over the Chargers in San Diego this past Monday night. He looks like a good fantasy play going forward as he took up right where Forte left off as a good runner and an equally good receiver out of the backfield which is huge in PPR leagues. Langford will have a stern test this week as the Bears are on the road again. This time they face a really tough St Louis Rams defense. The Bears defense has no picnic having to stop Rookie of the Year candidate Todd Gurley. The Rams also signed WR Wes Welker this week so that is just that much more for the Bears to worry about. Should be a good game. Jay Cutler seems to have finally gotten a coach in John Fox that can get the best out of him.

Seattle might be without the services of RB Marshawn Lynch who is listed on the infamous "questionable" designation on the Seahawks injury report. Lynch has an abdominal injury but there is still a chance he could play. Thomas Rawls would be the next man up if Lynch can't go.

Cardinals WR Larry Fitzgerald joked today that the Seahawks CB Richard Sherman shouldn't concern himself with covering a "old, grizzly, washed up veteran" (speaking of himself) in this week's game between the Cards and 'Hawks in Seattle on Sunday night. Fitz has been enjoying a revitalization of his career with a healthy Carson Palmer at QB but the Seahawks do have a dilemma. Should they put Sherman on the veteran Fitz or the young and recently fuel injected WR Michael Floyd? In the last 3 games Floyd has been targeted 16 times catching 12 balls. More importantly he's scored a TD in each of the last 3 games.

Can you seriously believe that the Lions are considering a future without QB Matthew Stafford and WR Calvin Johnson? Unfreaking believable!

[eagle eye]

You had to know this was coming, didn't you? The Saints have fired defensive coordinator Rob Ryan. Ryan has been the DC for 4 teams, the Raiders, the Browns, the Cowboys and the Saints. His longest tenure was his first in Oakland where he spent 5 years from 2004 through 2008. These were years when the Raiders were in the middle of an extended slump that just now seems to finally be lifting. He spent 2 years in Cleveland, 2 in Dallas and now 3 in New Orleans. I thought maybe he might have been fired after last season but the Saints stuck with him but his defenses are high risk and he doesn't have the talent to do what he wants to do. There were a couple of games last year when Ryan and Sean Peyton were seen arguing on the sideline and there seemed to be a disconnect there for sure. I know he wore out his welcome in Dallas after two seasons of poor defensive play. Ryan and Jason Garrett seemed like oil and water and you had to wonder if they were ever on the same page. Rob has that Ryan braggadocio, in other words he talks a good game but his defenses can't seem to stop anyone. Last week the Redskins easily had their best offensive showing of the season with Kirk Cousins throwing for over 300 yards IN THE FIRST HALF!
Ryan's defense could not stop Cousins from just picking the Saints defense apart and apparently Sean Peyton had had enough. The Saints have named long time assistant Dennis Allen as the interim DC. Allen has been with the Saints for a long time on two different stints. In between tenures with NO Allen was the DC at Denver and the head coach at Oakland for 2-1/2 seasons before returning to NO. I would venture a guess that the Saints defense will show marked improvement as the second half of the season unfolds.

The Browns have announced that Johnny Football will be the starting QB for the rest of the 2015 season. With the Browns sitting at 2-8 the odds of their making a playoff run is slim and none. So, the rest of the season will be an extended job interview for 2016. Manziel and a bunch of other players will extended looks going forward as Cleveland will evaluate their roster for moves that will need to be made in free agency and the NFL draft next year.

I know the Steelers were hoping that Landry Jones could play QB for a week or two to let Ben Roethlisberger's mid-foot sprain heal. Didn't happen that way. Jones suffered a low ankle sprain in the first quarter forcing Big Ben into the game. Despite the pain in his foot he threw for 379 yards and 3 TDs as Pittsburgh tore through the Cleveland Browns for 30-9 win. Martavis Bryant and Antonio Brown combined for 311 yards receiving and all 3 TD pass catches. This Steelers offense is a juggernaut with or without RB Le'Veon Bell because their passing game is virtually unstoppable. For fantasy owners this is music to their ears.

Word out of Denver is that QB Peyton Manning has plantar fasciitis in his foot and he also has a slight tear which is making his effectiveness less than optimal to say the least. It has affected him enough that the Broncos will be starting backup QB Brock Osweiler this coming week and maybe more depending on how Manning's foot responds to the rest and, let's be honest here, how well Osweiler performs. Osweiler replaced Manning in the 3rd quarter of last Sunday's game after Manning completed just 5 passes to his teammates and 4 to the Chiefs for maybe the worst performance of his career. Osweiler came in and gave some spark to a team that was already down 22 zip. Osweiler led his team to 2 4th quarter TDs to make the game seem a little more respectable. Osweiler was a 2nd round pick out of Arizona State in 2012 and he has been Manning's understudy now for 3+ seasons. He should be ready to step in without much problem. He seemed to be able to handle the offense pretty well so we'll see going forward if we are looking at the 6'8" 240 pound future of the Broncos.

[eagle eye]

Injury reports for todays games pertaining to fantasy owners.

> Indy will be without Andrew Luck. Matt Hasselbeck will start. It has been speculated that Frank Gore will be the biggest beneficiary as a result.
> Atlanta will be without Roddy White but Leonard Hankerson will be returning to the field.
> Alshon Jeffrey is out against the Broncos as is Emmanuel Sanders for Denver.
> Matt Forte is out and that gives Jeremy Langford another start.
> San Fran has placed QB Colin Kaepernick on season ending IR meaning Blaine Gabbert will start going forward.
> Tampa will be without WR Vincent Jackson and TE Austin Sefarian-Jenkins for another week.
> The Eagles will start Marc Sanchez over Sam Bradford who has a should injury and is dealing with a concussion. RB Ryan Matthews is out as well.
> The Broncos will be without Emmanuel Sanders and DE DeMarcus Ware are among the Broncos inactives.
> The Broncos will have RB Ronnie Hillman and it is speculated that he will see a heavy load. BTW Peyton Manning is inactive so for the foreseeable future it is the Brock Osweiler show in Denver.
> The Jets will be without DE Sheldon Richardson and WR Kenbrell Tompkins today in Houston.
> Houston is without Brian Hoyer, TJ Yates gets the start today.
> The Panthers Corey Brown is out and Kevin Funchess will get his first start today.
> Detroit will have Joique Bell and Calvin Johnson active today against the Raiders.
> The Cowboys will be without CB Mo Claiborne giving rookie Byron Jones the start. Darren McFadden will be playing but Robert Turbin may to worth a flex player option if you are hurting because of the bye week. Note: the Dolphins give up a lot of yards rushing so Run-DMC and/or Robert Turbin could have a big day in the Miami rain.

Good Luck.

I have noticed that teams are wearing the new "color rush" uniforms lately. I liked the unis that Tennessee and Jacksonville wore on Thursday night. I posted a preview of the Cowboys color rush unis on the Cowboys thread earlier in the week and I like them. Dallas and Carolina, Detroit and Philly and the Bears and Packers should all be wearing their color rush unis on Thanksgiving.

[eagle eye]

Thoughts on yesterday's games.
> It was nice to see James Jones woke up after six weeks of being a no-show fantasy wise.
> Ravens RB Justin Forsette is done for the season with a broken forearm. Javorius Allen looks like the next man up for Baltimore.
> Eddie Lacy woke up or something else lit a fire under him. He came back against the Vikings off the Packers bye week and gained over 100 yards for the first time this season. The Packers won but it wasn't pretty but if Lacy is going to start producing the Packers are going to start getting tough to beat.
> I almost forgot, Joe (Bowzer) Flacco is done for 2015 too. Flacco tore his ACL and maybe his MCL. MRIs will be done today. Matt Schaub will step in for him for the foreseeable future.
> Atlanta RB Devonta Freeman will likely be out this week at least due to a concussion suffered in the game against the Colts yesterday. Rookie Tevin Coleman will likely get the start if Freeman can't go.
> The Rams lost QB Case Keenum late in the 4th quarter to a concussion. The question now is, will Jeff Fisher go back to Nick Foles or will he give Oregon State rookie Sean Mannion if Keenum can't pass the concussion protocols this week?
> Marshawn Lynch is going to see a specialist to see if surgery will be required. Lynch has been dealing with an abdominal injury and the fear is he has a hernia. If Lynch can't go, as he wasn't able to yesterday, Thomas Rawls will step up. Rawls has been very good in relief of Lynch this season and he looks to be a very nice replacement for Beast Mode.
> Redskins RB Alfred Morris left the game early with a rib injury. Nothing known right now how serious it is. You would think that if Morris can't go then the next guy up would be Matt Jones with Chris Thompson as the 3rd down guy. It's hard to say because the Redskins sucked across the board yesterday in getting pounded by the Carolina Panthers. The Skins managed a pitiful 14 yards rushing on 12 carries as they were totally dominated by Carolina in a 44-16 rout.
> The Eagles Zack Ertz left yesterdays beat down by Tampa Bay with a concussion. With only 3 days until Thanksgiving it's a sure bet Ertz will not play against the Lions.
> The Chiefs (and fantasy owners) got bad news when RBs Charcandrick West and De'Anthony Thomas were both knocked out the game against San Diego. The Chiefs running game was, for all intents and purposes, non-existent except for backup Spencer Ware who gained 98 yards on 11 carries and scored two TDs. West has a bad hamstring and Thomas has a concussion so in all likelihood it's Ware's show for a week or two.

[eagle eye]

More news from the NFL and how it could affect fantasy rosters.
> The Eagles are saying that QB Sam Bradford has passed the concussion protocol but the Eagles are not saying he will start Thursday against Detroit. Marc Sanchez didn't do all that well considering he threw 3 picks that heavily contributed to the 40 point route by Tampa. Bradford does have a shoulder issue but he threw yesterday but even so Philly isn't committing to anyone as yet.
> Carolina Panthers head coach is touting rookie WR Devin Funchess as Kelvin-esque referring to Kelvin Benjamin who was lost for the season in Panthers training camp. If you are hurting at WR in fantasy because of injury or buy weeks maybe Funchess is worth a shot. Funchess caught 4 balls for 65 yards and a TD in the Panthers pummeling of the Redskins. The Panthers were constantly being gifted short fields because of the 4 fumbles and 1 INT committed by the Redskins. Cam Newton had 5 TD passes on the day but he only threw for 246 yards because of the short fields. Then again, 246 is about average yardage for a game in the NFL so it's to say "just 245 yds" is unfair to Cam. Funchess was tied for 2nd most catches and he led the team in receiving yards. So, maybe Funchess is well worth a look. I hate say it but the Panthers are facing a Cowboys secondary that is hurting with Mo Claiborne probably out because of a hamstring injury and moving Byron Jones to his spot. Jones may be a 1st round pick but he's still a rookie and he gave up 2 big plays against the Dolphins on Sunday.

> Don't go overboard on Patriots RB James White, the 2nd year player out of Wisconsin, who stepped in for the injured Dion Lewis. His contribution last night against the Pats was just 15 yards rushing on 4 carries and 32 yards receiving on 2 catches with a TD. Weak flex player numbers to be sure especially if he doesn't get the TD. His value may grow as the season enters the final month. Tom Brady develops trust in White and he could end up being a factor. All I'm saying is, if you have a weak player on your roster it can't hurt to give him a spot on the roster with an eye on the starting lineup if he pans out.

> Brock Osweiler will start again this week as Peyton Manning is going to a foot specialist in North Carolina. Brock will face a sterner test than he did this week against the Bears because the New England Patriots will be the next team up. The Broncos will have one advantage and that is they are playing in Denver. Also, Emmanuel Sanders may not be back this week because he revealed that the ankle issue he's been dealing with is the dreaded high ankle sprain. He played a couple of weeks ago when he convinced coaches he was good to go but he was inactive last Sunday against the Bears. For the high ankle to heal it often takes 4-6 weeks depending on the severity. So, keep and eye out for the injury reports today and the rest of the week if you need Sanders in your lineup. If you think you can pick up a backup WR from the Broncos roster you might want to think twice because the top 2 receivers last Sunday were tight ends Owen Daniels and Vernon Davis. If you are desperate you may give Cody Latimer a shot.

> The Browns coach Mike Pettine says they are considering benching Johnny Manziel for at least one game. Why? Yet another headline in the media along with a photo of him parting in Austin, Tx showing Mr Football holding up a champagne bottle. Pettine did not want to name Manziel the starter for the rest of the season a week ago for whatever reason but he did. This probably at the urging of the Browns GM who is trying to see what the Browns have roster-wise going forward. Manziel's lifestyle has been a constant problem for him and it included a stint in rehab in the offseason. A few weeks ago he had an altercation with his girlfriend in traffic and now this. It's embarrassing to the Browns and shows a total lack of maturity by Manziel. It Pettine has his way Manziel will sit on Monday night instead of starting against the Ravens. One day Manziel may "get it" and appreciate his obligation to Cleveland to set a good example and be a steady leader for the Browns. Hopefully, when he wises up it will be before the Browns and the NFL turn their backs on him.

> Is this deal with the refs never going to get better? Last night an inadvertent whistle likely cost the Patriots a TD. Tom Brady was rolling out and he lofted a pass to Danny Amendola that was completed and had nothing but open space in front of him an just a single defender to beat. Didn't matter because the ref blew his whistle while the BALL WAS IN THE AIR for goodness sake! Amendola was given a 14 yard gain as the refs ended up spotting the ball where he caught it. The refereeing this season has been just horrible. I know of at least 5 plays the refs have blown in Cowboys games alone. It's not as if it's a conspiracy against Dallas because it's happening all over the NFL it's just a general incompetence by the refs. Dean Blandino and the leaders of the referees in the NFL league office need to devise a penalty system which should include full time paid officials. If a guy is worried about losing his job for incompetence he might actually do a better job. Maybe not losing his job but losing pay for being suspended for incompetence may be the ticket. Right now there isn't a lot that can be done other than being given crappy games and no playoff games as a consequence of doing a lousy job. Something has got to give--soon.

[eagle eye]

It hasn't been a good fall for Rams WR Stedman Bailey. First he gets himself suspended by the NFL for violating their substance abuse policy and last night in a car with other adults and children Bailey and another passenger were wounded. Bailey and adults and two minors were sitting in a car outside a residence in Miami, Fla. Bailey was said to be in critical but stable condition waiting to go into surgery. Bailey was two games into a 4 game suspension when the incident occurred. Bailey has been in the NFL for 3 years and he's been suspended twice. In 2014 Bailey was suspended two games for PED use. All the people in Bailey's car were family members. Bailey was shot in the head and hip. The other adult in the car was Antwan Reeves who sustained life threatening wounds as he covered up the minors in the car. He was rushed into surgery as soon as the ambulance arrived at the hospital. No details of why the person or persons in the other car opened fire on Bailey's car and as yet no suspects have been detained.

It's official now, the Seahawks will be without Marshawn Lynch for at least a month because he had surgery this morning for a sports hernia. Thomas Rawls will be the man now for the 5-5 Seahawks as they make a push to make the playoffs. The 'Hawks are currently 3 full games behind the division leading Arizona Cardinals.

As I was looking at the NFL standings for the Seahawks item above it struck me how many lousy records there are 10 games into the season. So I decided to count how many teams with greater than .500 records there are in the NFL and I was sort of shocked at what I found. Out of 32 NFL teams only 9 are over .500. Nine. There are 8 teams with 5-5 records and the rest of the league, 15 teams in all, with a 4-6 or worse record. There are two divisions, the AFC South and the NFC East, with the division leader sitting at 5-5. At 3-7 the Dallas Cowboys have a shot, albeit a slim shot, to win the NFC East. The Texans and Colts are tied at 5-5 for the AFC South lead. Weird year going on here. Or maybe the correct adjective would be "mediocre" year.

It's official, Mike Pettine announced that Josh McCown will start on Monday night. Whether or not Manziel will start after that is up to Manziel. He is being benched because of the photo of him with a champagne bottle in Austin, Tx last week has called his commitment to the Browns and his rehab from alcohol an substance abuse into question. I'll admit it was chickensh*t of the so-called friend to posted the picture but make no mistake, this is all on Manziel. NFL teams do not want their franchise QB to be a party boy constantly in the media, both social and traditional, for BS. Teams do not want the face of their franchise to be a loose cannon, period, and so far that's pretty much is what John Football has been.

This doesn't help fantasy owners at all but the Broncos have signed Christian Ponder to backup Brock Osweiler as the Big O will take Peyton Manning's place for at least a couple of weeks while he tries to get his mid foot injury back healthy. For now the Broncos have the AFC West under control at 8-2 but the 2nd place 5-5 Chiefs have won 4 in a row and seem to be coming on strong despite having trouble keeping a starting RB on the field. Jamaal Charles was lost for the season with a torn ACL and now Charcandrick West has missed a big chunk of last week's game with a pulled hammy. Spencer Ware came off the bench Sunday and performed really well for KC and if West can't go against the Bills this week the load will fall on Ware. Right now Andy Reid is classifying West's status as day to day and probably the infamous game time decision.

Tyrod Taylor has been a good fantasy option at QB this season when healthy but it was obvious he was slowed by a lingering shoulder injury in the Bills loss to New England on Monday night. Taylor will need to be healthy to give even a slight chance to the Bills in their game against a badass KC defense. The Chiefs held the Chargers Phillip Rivers to less than 200 yards passing as the Chiefs defense smothered the Bolts offense. Last Sunday was the 4th game in a row KC has held the opposing team to less than 200 yards passing.

Looks like Sam Bradford is more than likely out tomorrow against the Lions meaning Marc Sanchez will be at QB for the Eagles. As a Cowboys fan I say that's good. The Lions are at home and the Eagles just got whitewashed by Tampa. The Lions seem to be playing much better since the front office for the Lions got cleaned out as well as the offensive coordinator getting fired. The Lions are not a factor for the playoffs but they can darn sure be a spoiler to those who are.

The 49ers RB Carlos Hyde did not practice because of a foot injury. It could be Shaun Draughn will get another start this week unless something changes.

The Bears will add Martellus Bennett to the list of players who will not play this week for Chicago against the Packers. He joins Matt Forte and Alshon Jeffrey as key offensive weapon who are out of action, or maybe not. Both Forte and Jeffrey are listed as questionable and you know a lot can change in just a couple of days.

[eagle eye]

I have been busy so I wasn't able to chase the injury reports. By now you know KC won't have Charcandrick West at RB today so it will be left up to Spencer Ware and Nile Davis. Going by the carries last week after West left the game Ware should be the next man up.

Karlos Williams is out with a shoulder injury possibly leaving you without a backup to LeSean McCoy. Or maybe a good flex player in your fantasy lineups.



Good luck to you guys. Right now I'm getting killed but it's early in the day. In one of my leagues my opponent had Matthew Stafford who finally had a good day at the office on Thanksgiving when the Lions kicked the stuffing out of Philly. The late games offer some fantasy upside with the Broncos and Pats going tonight and Cleveland and Baltimore going on Monday night. In the late games today I have some interest with Big Ben and Antonio Brown the lynch pins of one of my leagues. If you have some Arizona Cardinals in your lineup say, Carson Palmer, Chris Johnson, Michael Floyd, Larry Fitzgerald, you have something to look forward to this afternoon as well.

[eagle eye]

Just couple of quick shots.
1. The Patriots will be without Rob Gronkowski for at least one week because of a knee strain suffered in the 4th quarter of the Pats loss to the Broncos last night. It could have been much worse. Both Gronk and Pats lucked out.
2. You know the guy who fumbled the punt by the Broncos at the beginning of the 4th quarter last night? It doesn't matter if you do or not because he was cut today.
3. Arizona's Chris Johnson is out indefinitely with a cracked tibia (leg bone). Andre Ellington left the game against San Francisco as well with a toe problem and he is being listed as day to day. Rookie David Johnson got most of the snaps after CJ2K and Ellington left the game.
4. Big Ben Roethlisberger is day to day as he goes through the NFL concussion protocol after getting clocked in the game against Seattle.
5. Ahmad Bradshaw is out for the rest of the season after breaking his wrist Sunday. A headline on NFL.com said that Frank Gore is "beat to crap". What that means is Gore is feeling the pounding his body has taken in the NFL and it's starting to show in his lack of production lately. It was hoped Bradshaw would be the guy to take the load off but that is not going happen now. The Colts have signed former RB Dan Herron off waivers and they have also brought in Zurlon Tipton (who?) to replace Bradshaw. Tipton was an undrafted free agent signed by the Colts out of Central Michigan last year and has been on the Colts practice squad. (Just thought you might like to know.) Herron has been productive in the past for Indy so he is probably a nice handcuff or even flex player for fantasy owners.

[eagle eye]

Just a random thought or two....

Why is everyone so enamored with Jeff Fisher? He has never won squat. His teams haven't even made the playoffs since his Tennessee Titans did it in 2002. That's 14 seasons ago. IMO Fisher and Chip Kelly are the two most over rated coaches in the NFL.

What happens when the Carolina Panthers run up against a team who can get the best of their defense? So far the Panthers have a sort of formula for winning that consists of the defense dominates the other team, gets turnovers and either scores or gives the offense a short field and all the offense has to do is not screw it up and they have score a TD or two. Easy-peasy and the formula has worked 11 times this season. Sometimes you have to be lucky AND good and with the remaining games on the Panthers schedule there isn't one single team I can see capable of beating them. The Saints suck so they won't beat Carolina. They play the Giants and that defense will rip Eli and company a new one. They play Atlanta twice in a home and home division series but the Falcons have lost 5 of their last 6 games and don't seem to have a clue how to end the string. Matty Ice has turned into Matty Slush and the only offensive weapon worth mentioning in Julio Jones. Last but not least on their schedule is Tampa at home. Will good Jameis or bad Jameis show up. It's funny how the Panthers defense seems to make the bad in every QB come out to play. I can't speak for the playoffs but there doesn't look like much to prevent the Panthers from recording an undefeated regular season. I sure hope they beat the crap out of the Giants the same they beat the crap out of Dallas, Philly and Washington.

The Browns will likely have a decision to make this week because it appears QB Josh McCown has Tony Romo disease--a broken collar bone. So, with Johnny Manziel in the doghouse because he not only partied in Austin while he's supposed to be practicing sobriety since his stint in rehab this spring he lied to the Browns about it until it went public a couple of weeks ago. It was the lies he told that got him benched as a punishment. Can't really blame the Browns front office for that--Johnny effed up. The question remains, will Cleveland be satisfied with a one game benching or will they keep Manziel on the bench as a backup and let Austin Davis start. It was Davis who came in after McCown was injured. Davis and head coach Mike Pettine totally blew the last drive of the game. With the Browns at mid field with 30 something seconds left Davis scrambled out of the pocket and got down to the Ravens 32 but instead of running out of bounds he slid in the field of play keeping the clock running. Now the Browns had all 3 of their time outs but the didn't call one after Davis slid down. Instead they ran off 20 seconds of clock until there was only 9 seconds left when they ran a meaningless run play to get the football between the hash marks THEN they called timeout with 3 seconds left to play. With all 3 TOs Cleveland could have moved the ball down deep into Ravens territory instead of having to attempt a 51 yard FG which was blocked and run back by the Ravens for the winning score. Totally stupid clock management. I would have the QB, head coach and OC drug tested because one or more of those guys had to be high on something. As a side note to the Browns QB situation, they have signed Terrelle Pryor. Pryor hasn't been able to make an NFL team as either a QB or WR. Nice.

The refs sucked yet again this week. One of the crews' incompetence actually cost the Tennessee Titans a win. When is something going to be done. Even Fox's Mike Pereira who tries to explain the calls made by the refs on Sundays was unable to explain the defensive holding call on 4th down that allowed the Raiders to get a first down and ultimately the winning score.

I reference the movie "The Replacements" a lot because, while it's a little over the top to be really good there are some nice moments in the film. The main WR in the film in Clifford Franklin played by Orlando Jones and the story on Clifford Franklin is that he has world class speed and bricks for hands. It strikes me that there is a real life Clifford Franklin in the NFL, Davante Adams of the Green Bay Packers. The second year, 2nd round draft pick out of Fresno State has good, not great, speed (4.51 at the scouting combine) but he can drop a pass with the best of them. He's been targeted 64 times so far in 2015 catching 32 balls and dropping 5 officially. If it's not Adams playing the real life Clifford Franklin then it's got to be Tampa's Mike Evans. He's been targeted 103 times with only 49 receptions and 8 official drops. The Packers need some positive production out of Adams especially with Jordy Nelson out all season but the Packers have lost 4 of their last 5 games and obviously have more problems than a WR with a case of the dropsies.

The Eagles Sam Bradford has returned to practice, like that will matter for an Eagles team that looks like they have thrown in the towel on the season.

[eagle eye]

The Browns are not caving in on the benching of Johnny Manziel. Today they announced that Austin Davis would start this week against the Bengals this week. You have to respect the Browns head coach and front office people for sticking to their guns on this because Johnny deserves to be punished. Now, the hope would be that Davis can somehow lead the Browns to a win over Cincy which would give the Browns the option to elevate Manziel to starter status without the press saying it was done out of desperation. The Browns need to know about Manziel from a talent perspective but that may be secondary, all other things being equal, to his battle as a substance abuser. Just because he went to rehab doesn't mean all is well with him. If fact this recent episode is proof he hasn't got a handle on his partying ways. To all you Aggie fans who want Jerry Jones to pick him up if he gets released by Cleveland please get a grip. Don't the Cowboys have enough problems without taking on a PR nightmare like Manziel?

Peyton manning is out of his cast but it doesn't mean he's back. It only means he can begin rehab of his foot. The other side of the story is Brock Osweiler will get another start and judging by the 2-1/2 games he's played so far, that isn't a bad deal at all. As for the fantasy value of the other weapons in Denver's arsenal they show a lot of promise. Osweiler has been the perfect driver for Gary Kubiak's offense. The biggest beneficiaries so far have been the tight ends, Owen Daniels and Vernon Davis. But last week, as Osweiler starts to be more comfortable in his starting role, he expanded his to spread the ball around. The return this past week of Emmanuel Sanders didn't help one bit as he hauled in 6 balls for 113 yards in his first real action in 2 weeks. Demaryius Thomas had but one catch but that isn't the whole story as he dropped at least 3 others. The Broncos travel to San Diego this week to face the defensively challenged Chargers. Fantasy numbers should be favorable for Bronco player owners. The only mystery is whether the main RB will be Ronnie Hillman or CJ Anderson. Last game it was Anderson who was the bell cow. Either way if you have both play 'em because one will put up good RB numbers and the other will most assuredly put up good flex numbers.

Ben Roethlisberger passed his concussion protocols and he was back at practice today. The loss to the Seahawks was painful but you wonder how they will bounce back. The Seahawks successfully took WR Antonio Brown out the picture but the Steelers are deeper than just Brown as evidenced the huge game by Marcus Wheaton who hauled in 9 balls for 201 yards and a TD. The key to Big Ben's value is his ability to use all of the weapons at his disposal. The Steelers will face the Indianapolis Colts Sunday night. It is likely that Andrew Luck will be back this week too. Reports are that he is throwing pretty well without any pain in his injured shoulder. It remains to be seen what will happen there.

The Patriots will be without Gronk this week and the hope is it will be only for this week. The Patriots got good news as they got Danny Amendola back after he passed the concussion protocols that kept him out of action against Denver Sunday night.

[eagle eye]

Is there an NFL franchise more sad sack than Cleveland? Geez they suck as an organization. Since Cleveland got their franchise back in 1999 the Browns have used a first round draft pick on quarterbacks 4 different times. 1999 Tim Couch (bust), 2007 Brady Quinn (Bust), 2012 Brandon Weeden (bust) and 2014 Johnny Manziel and so far he's a bust too. Cleveland is the only team to draft an Alabama RB and miss since 2000. Trent Richardson was an unqualified bust but the Browns actually got something for him in a trade with Indianapolis. The Browns used to be good, I swear they were. In the late forties in the AAFC they won 4 straight championships. When they joined the NFL in 1950 they continued their winning ways by winning championships in '50, '54 and '55. They won their last NFL championship in 1955 under head coach Paul Brown, the man the Browns were named for and they had Jim Brown as their running back. The last championship was won in 1964 and that is the last time Cleveland won an NFL championship. They are currently one of only 4 teams in the Super Bowl era to never appear in the big game along with Jacksonville, Houston and Detroit. They came close in the 80s with Bernie Kosar at QB but they just couldn't get past the John Elway led Denver Broncos. Since Kosar left Cleveland the Browns have only made the playoffs twice, in 1994 and 2002. Otherwise it has been a barren wasteland in Cleveland. Even the great Bill Belichick couldn't win in Cleveland where he was head coach from 1991 to 1995. In 2012 Pilot Flying J Truck Stop chain owner Jimmy Haslam bought the team and you thought maybe things could turn around. Instead the Browns have been through 2 GMs and 3 head coaches just since 2012. The Browns recent draft history is atrocious and the only reason the Browns drafted Johnny Manziel was because Haslam likes him. Ironically, when the Browns were looking for a new head coach to replace Pat Shurmur the Eagles Chip Kelly interviewed for the job. That was 2013 and Browns ended up going with Rob Chudzinski. Chud was fired at the end of the season and Mike Pettine was hired in 2014. The Browns currently have the worst record in the NFL and I have no confidence that Pettine will be back for 2016. This is a franchise who needs something to go right for it. It just doesn't look like it will be anytime soon.

[eagle eye]

The Week 13 odyssey begins tonight with the Thursday night matchup between The Packers and Lions. At first glance, or rather, first assumption is that the Packers are going kick the Lions back to the jungle except for a couple of facts. 1) The Packers are playing like crap and 2) Detriot isn't. In their last 5 games Green Bay has lost 4 of those games with the win coming on the road against NFC North division leading Minnesota. By contrast the Lions have won 3 in a row and Matthew Stafford seems to have remembered how to throw TD passes. The first win in the Lions current streak was against these same Packers in Green Bay, a place the Lions hadn't won at in 24 years. The Lions and Packers are in the same division which means they play each other 2 times a year so that 24 year dry spell means they lost 24 times. It could very well be that Detroits main men, Stafford, Megatron, Ameer Abdulah, Golden Tate may be worth more fantasy bucks than Aaron Rodgers, Eddie Lacy and whoever the hell it is Rodgers is throwing to these days. Potentially a good game tonight but I still hate Thursday games.

[eagle eye]

Man, I missed out yesterday. Christmas goings on hampering my attention on fantasy news but things seem to need some mention, so here goes.

The Steelers had Big Ben on the field after he passed all of his concussion protocols this past week and were fantasy owners ever happy about that! Nearly 400 yards passing and 4 TDs I'd say, "Well, I guess!" Are the Steelers fans saying Le'Veon who? DeAngelo Williams has been running his 32 year old ass off. Last night he ran for 134 yards against the Colts. Is there a team more schizo than Pittsburgh? Losing last week to Seattle who really hasn't shown much offense this year and beating the Colts who have shown the ability to score. What isn't in question is the explosive nature of the Steelers offense. Just about every skill player for the Steelers is fantasy worthy and that offense as a whole is just scary.

On the flip side, with reports that Andrew Luck throwing last week in practice there were hopes he'd be back in the lineup but according to last night's TV broadcast Matt Hasselbeck may be the guy for another week or two if not more. That is good news for the Houston Texans especially if it's two weeks because they play Indy in two weeks. Frank Gore seems like he's on the downhill side of his career. Either that or the Colts O-line just stinks. Either way, you cannot depend on Gore as a fantasy option the way you used to.

After the Bengals kicked the stuffing out of Cleveland yesterday the Browns have announced just this morning that Johnny Manziel has served his penance and will start this coming Sunday for the Browns. I hate to say it because the Browns may have had a 2 game benching on their minds anyway but after the Bengals whitewashed the Browns 37-3 yesterday it sort of looks fishy. The fact is, last time out Manziel looked decent, like a guy who was making progress learning the NFL way to play QB, The Browns really need to find out what they have in Manziel so they can make appropriate plans for the draft this coming spring. For me, I'd like to see what he's got too. One thing for sure the Browns starter yesterday, Austin Davis, doesn't seem to have a clue about clock management and he could be seen as a liability on the field that further justifies this move by the Browns. Regardless of the reason Johnny Football will get his 4 game audition beginning this Sunday against the 49ers.

Anyone notice that the Chiefs are one of the hottest teams in the NFL. And just about every phase of the team is fantasy worthy. QB - Alex Smith, solid but not spectacular but he doesn't turn the ball over. He's also found out he's got some good receivers in Travis Kelce (TE) and Jeremy Maclin (WR) to throw to. The RB situation is in good hands with Charcandrick West or Spencer Ware. The defense/ST can hang with anyone in fantasy and their kicker is pretty solid. It's weird to think the Chiefs could actually miss out on the playoffs. They have won 6 games in a row making them the hottest team this side of the Carolina Panthers in the whole NFL. Their schedule in December is pretty patty cake with the Ravens and Raiders the only teams realistically with a chance to beat them.

Is there another player you can think of who chased a big contract and turned out to be a bigger bust than DeMarco Murray? It's hard to imagine one. The guy rushed for over 1800 yards last season and he has only 569 yards in 12 games of work this year. Murray's style of running isn't really compatible to the offense the Eagles run but that's not a Murray problem it's more of a problem of the Eagle's GM who misread Murray's fit in the scheme. The Eagles had the ideal fit in LeSean McCoy but evidently there was a personality conflict between him and the head coach because it wasn't about money considering what the Eagles are paying Murray. It's a shame because Murray was a big part of the chemistry of the 2014 Cowboys and both the Eagles and the Cowboys both have suffered as a result of Murray's defection to Philadelphia. Too bad and the real shame is if Philly cuts Murray at the end of the year it may be too late to resign him in Dallas. The damage has already been done because Murray is another year older and closer to that point in every RB career when the skills just slip away. Good riddance to the Eagles, who I hate anyway but I still feel sad at the loss of Murray both for him and a Cowboys team that is far removed from that 12-4 season of last year.

I have a question, or two. Why is Jeff Fisher considered to such a great coach? He hasn't done squat in his career as a coach except for the one year his Titans went to the Super Bowl and lost by inches on the last play of the game. What is it that makes him so freaking great? His teams miss the playoffs way more than they make it. Why is Fisher everyone's Golden Child? The other question is, Chip Kelly isn't the genius everyone made him out to be is he? The Eagles haven't really done squat. He has made the playoffs a couple of times but when he plays playoff caliber teams they get smoked. He seems to be even less of a genius as a GM. How do you quantify shipping out talent like LeSean McCoy, DeSean Jackson and Jeremy Maclin not to mention Pro Bowl caliber linemen on both sides of the ball? Not just that but ending up with a team that can barely compete in the NFL. Yesterday was more of an aberration than the rule beating the Pats. Take away 21 points scored by the defense and special teams the offense managed only 14 points and the offense is Kelly's claim to fame. Like I said, an aberration. IMHO I would have to classify Jeff Fisher and Chip Kelly to two most overrated people in the NFL.

[eagle eye]

There a lot of leagues where the fantasy playoffs begin---TONIGHT!. It wasn't good news to find out yesterday that New Orleans RB Mark Ingram was lost for the rest of the season because of a shoulder injury. I know it hurt me because he was as solid as a rock in fantasy. Rarely spectacular but you could count on solid numbers and that means a lot. I was scrambling to find a replacement because in this league I have already lost Dion Lewis and Le'Veon Bell. I was lucky to have picked up KC's Charcandrick West and subsequently Spencer Ware and they were enough to help propel me into that league's playoffs. My other two leagues I haven't been as lucky and I am out in the cold in those leagues. Also, for those who need to replace Ingram the next logical choice is CJ Spiller but he is not likely to be available because he was chosen in a lot of drafts to begin the season. In my case in my league I was lucky that Patriots RB James White who had a breakout game last week against Philly. I am really hoping he will continue to be a major contributor for the Pats now that he has shown the ability to do it.

In other injury news,
> Rob Gronkowski returned to practice today which is great news for the Patriots and Gronk fantasy owners.

> This isn't an injury to report but Green Bay RB Eddie Lacy only had 19 snaps in Green Bay's surprise win over Detroit on Sunday night. Why? Lacy pulled a bonehead move and missed curfew the night before the game. Lacy said he was in the lobby of the Packers hotel and he lost track of the time. With he again have to watch James Starks from the sideline take his snaps? Who knows and for a fantasy owner it makes it difficult to set a lineup with such things up in the air.

After yet another disappointing offensive performance by the Rams last week they fired their offensive coordinator. Rob Boras was promoted after Frank Cignetti was kicked out the door because of his vanilla offensive schemes. The Rams have the worst 3rd down conversion rate in the NFL and when the Rams get down in the score they tend to go away from the run game. One change under Boras will be to feature rookie phenom RB Todd Gurley a lot more regardless of score. Boras stated that the Rams have special players in Todd and Tev (Tavon Austin) and they need to be more involved in the offense. We'll see. One thing for sure fantasy owners will be happy to see Gurley more involved and the Rams need him because they have had terrible QB play. It didn't matter if it was Nick Foles or Case Keenum it's been a sad situation.

JJ Watt broke his hand in practice yesterday but it is being reported that Watt will definitely play this Sunday night against the Patriots.

[eagle eye]

The start of the fantasy playoffs is having endure a few unpleasant surprises at just the wrong time of the year.

> Julian Edelman will not play this week against the Texans. He could be back in a week or two as he began practicing this week making him ahead of his rehab schedule.

> The 49ers will be without Carlos Hyde for the rest of the season because of a foot injury. Shaun Draughn will be your man going forward.

> Is James White the next Dion Lewis? We'll find out going forward after his breakout performance last week. His value will be similar to Lewis' as a pass receiver, not a runner. Trusting him with a fantasy playoff spot is risky because he's only had one game of any great success but, with Julian Edelman out again this week White could be in position for another big day. This time it will have to be against the Texans. That would have been shaky considering how well Houston played defense during their 4 game winning streak but last week against Buffalo the Texans defense was part of the problem in their loss.

Unlike Todd Gurley who has shown he is an impact player with the St Louis Rams Melvin Gordan, the 2nd RB taken in this year's draft, has not lived up to the expectations of a first round choice. I doubt that Gordon will make an impact this year because the Chargers O-line is just awful.

Who is playing the Cleveland Browns this week? The answer is San Francisco. What does it matter? The Browns have given up 30+ points in 5 straight games. That is likely not to change this week either despite the Browns starting Johnny Manziel for the first time in a month.

With Arizona losing their RBs left and right the Cardinals turned to rookie David Johnson and he hasn't been a disappointment. If you didn't pick him up two weeks ago it won't be available now. His game on Thursday night showcased his versatility. 19 carries for 92 yds and 5 catches for 31 was just what fantasy owners were hoping for when Chris Johnson and Andre Ellington went down. He is a late season burst of offense for both the Cards and fantasy owners.

Anyone notice Javorius Allen blow up for Ravens last week? Allen gained a combined 170 yards with a TD in the Ravens 15-13 loss to Miami. I'm just saying.

[eagle eye]

Rob Gronkowski is still not certain to play tonight in Houston. He practiced on a limited basis on Thursday and Friday. You are taking a chance on having him in your fantasy lineup but if he plays he is liable to bring dividends.

Jimmy Clausen is going to get the start for Baltimore in Seattle today instead of Matt Schaub. Schaub is suffering from a back problem. I really don't like either team so can they just tie? No, that could be a good thing for both in the long run. Damn, I wish there was a way for both to lose.

The Broncos RB situation is a little shaky with Ronnie Hillman (foot) and CJ Anderson (ankle) both listed as questionable. Hillman is expected to start while Anderson is less certain. It's a benefit for Denver being at home this afternoon against the Raiders. If Brad Osweiler's proficiency getting better each week a win over a division opponent will be a good thing for the Broncos who need to maintain their 2 game lead over Kansas City. The Chiefs play the Chargers in San Diego today and unless strange things happen the Chiefs should beat the Bolts rather easily. The Chargers are just plain bad right now. So bad I would not recommend Phillip Rivers for anyone's fantasy team.

The Browns will have some weapons on the field today when they roll out Johnny Football this afternoon against the 49ers. As I posted yesterday the Niners will not have RB Carlos Hyde because he has been put on season ending IR. Shaun Draughn will be the guy they will depend upon and he hasn't been too bad the past 3 weeks subbing for Hyde.

Fantasy Alert! For those among you who are wondering if the Saints will go to Tim Hightower or CJ Spiller to sub for the injured Mark Ingram, Ian Rappaport of NFL.com is reporting that it will be Hightower carrying the load against the Tampa Bay Bucs. As he did last week when Ingram injured his shoulder and Hightower came in and carried the load the rest of the way for New Orleans in their wild and wooly loss to Carolina last week.

One last item. Philly is rumored to be benching RB DeMarco Murray or at least use him sparingly with Darren Sproles carrying the load for the Eagles. There is an article on NFL.com that says that the whole NFC East should thank Chip Kelly for signing Murray. I haven't read the article but I'm guessing it's because it weakened the Cowboys and the Eagles making it possible for the Giants and Redskins to get into the division hunt. It's too bad the Cowboys and Murray couldn't find a compromise. At any rate it has been the loss of Tony Romo that has really affected the Cowboys fortunes in 2015. We'll see what happens here in December. The NFC East features some pretty good games. Washington travels to Chicago. The Redskins have been horrible on the road and Chicago has surprised some this season. I hope Washington continues to stink on the road and the Bears get the win. The Giants travel to Miami who is coming off a close win over Baltimore last week. The Giants have a better QB than the Ravens but overall the Ravens have a better team. The Dolphins didn't show much offense last week but the scored enough to beat the Ravens. Let's hope they don't lose their home mojo and beat the Giants who are reeling and looking pretty darn bad. This could be the season that costs Tom Coughlin his job. Last, but not least, Philadelphia hosts the Buffalo Bills who are coming off an emotional win over Houston last week. The Eagles also had a big win over the Patriots which was done with smoke and mirrors more than skill. The Bills LeSean McCoy has been spewing venom this week in reference to his former head coach in Philly Chip Kelly. Kelly has let McCoy, Desean Jackson and Jeremy Maclin go and the he has replaced them with broken or ill fitting parts like Miles Austin, who was released this week, and DeMarco Murray. The Bills will be without backup RB Karlos Williams again this week but this was going to be McCoy's show all along anyway. Go Bills!

[eagle eye]

More players were lost for multiple games and likely the rest of the season yesterday forcing people to juggle fantasy lineups yet again.

> Cincy lost Andy Dalton for what is expected to be the rest of the regular season with a broken thumb he broke making a tackle after he threw a pick. The Bengals had selected former Alabama QB AJ McCarron last year and he came on yesterday and he showed some promise. He threw a couple of picks that help the Steelers beat the Bengals but he also did some things that showed promise as Cincy tries to close out the division title. Currently they are 2 games up on Pitt with 3 to play. Fantasy wise it shouldn't hurt the production of the surrounding players. AJ Green had a real nice fantasy day yesterday as did a couple of other players too.

> Cincy also lost TE Tyler Eifort to a concussion. There is no word on his availability this coming week but if it was enough to get him pulled out of the game yesterday in the first half it's likely bad enough for him to miss the next game as well. More on his status as it becomes available.

> Seattle will need a new RB because Thomas Rawls was lost for the rest of the season due to a broken ankle that included some significant ligament damage.

> Texans QB Brian Hoyer left the game last night with the Patriots because he had to go through the NFL concussion protocol. No word on his availability yet either. T J Yates will step in if needed.

> Carolina TE Greg Olsen left the game early yesterday with an apparent knee injury and it's not thought to be an issue. The Panthers just didn't knee to risk him because they were kicking the stuffing out of Atlanta actually shutting them out 38-0. Reports are Olsen will be fine.

> The Panthers were sort of struck with the injury bug as several players left the game with injuries. CB Bene Benwikere was the worst of the rash of injuries as he was carted off the field with a broken leg. RB Jonathan Stewart left with a foot injury and the Panthers kicker Graham Gano was checked for a concussion in the 3rd quarter.

> Seahawks S Kam Chancellor left in the 2nd half of the game against Baltimore with a tailbone injury and he did not return.

> Colts QB Matt Hasselbeck left in the 4th qtr of the Colts game with Jacksonville yesterday with a rib injury. Charlie Whitehurst is the next man up for Indy if Hasselbeck or Andrew Luck isn't available.

> Patriots RB LeGarrette Blount left the Texans game in the second half last night with a hip injury and he did not return. Brandon Bolden and James White combined to fill in for Blount.

> Buffalo TE Charles Clay left their game with Philly yesterday in the first half and did not return.

Is this the time we cue up U2's "Sunday, Bloody Sunday"?

[eagle eye]

More great news for fantasy owners.

> The Patriots can't buy a break at RB. LeGarrette Blount is on season ending IR because of a hip injury. Look for Brandon Bolden and James White to see more of a load going forward. This is not the time to see rosters depleted by injury.

> The Seahawks officially put RB Thomas Rawls on season ending IR and they added Bryce Brown to the active roster. As listed by the Seahawks depth chart Brown will be the starter with Freddie Jackson as the 3rd down back and backup to Brown.

> Panthers leading receiver, TE Greg Olsen, who came out of the shutout win over Atlanta last Sunday is okay and good to go. The Panthers just held him out of the game because they were blowing out the Falcons and saw no reason to expose Olsen to any more punishment. He should be good to go this week in New York against the Giants. (No offense but I don't want Carolina to go undefeated but I hope they beat the crap out of the Giants this week. Not so much for Dallas sake, I stuck a fork in them last Sunday about 6:30 PM, but I want to Eli's pouty face when Carolina puts a beat down on him and the rest of the Giants. BTW, I hope that Carolina goes for the undefeated season unlike the Colts a few years ago when they sat their starters in the season's last game. I thought that was a gutless move by Tony Dungy. Peyton Manning played some in that Week 17 game against Buffalo but he came out of the game with the chance still on the table to go undefeated. That was 2009 two years after the Patriots went 16-0 in 2007. Both teams lost in their respective Super Bowls ironically enough.)

> The Browns got Johnny Manziel back last week but they lost their 2nd leading receiver, Brian Hartline, to Tony Romo disease (broken collar bone) and has been placed on IR ending his season. Travis Benjamin seems to be the next man up to fill Hartline's shoes. Regardless of who takes Hartline's place the Browns task is not going to be easy as they travel to Seattle to face a red hot Seahawks team. Johnny Manziel is 2-2 as a starter in 2015 but I'm not giving him much of a chance to be anything other than 2-3 Sunday evening.

> Speaking of the Browns receivers, one huge disappointment has had to be Dwayne Bowe. For the last two seasons prior to this season Bowe played football like a man who was NOT on a mission. He was part of a WR corps that did not catch one single TD pass in 2014. This year Bowe has snagged only 3 passes this season and those all came in one game. Mostly Bowe has been a healthy scratch on game days. He's blaming a hamstring injury during training camp for his lack of production this season but the fact is he hasn't done squat in the NFL since 2012.

[eagle eye]

From the "That was a stupid thing to say." files; Cleveland head coach Mike Pettine saying that Russell Wilson of the Seattle Seahawks, a guy who led the 'Hawks to back-to-back Super Bowls, is not an elite quarterback. This coming from a team tied for the worst record in the NFL and likely going to get their collective asses handed to them by a resurgent Seahawks team. Why would you screw your team over like this by providing bulletin board material for that other team to fire them up even more than they would have been? Maybe Pettine knows he's going to be fired and he's trying to hurry up the process by getting his team killed by a pissed off Seahawks team. Who knows.

Ryan Mallett was signed by the Baltimore Ravens this week. In an interview he said that being cut by the Texans was probably the best thing that could happen to him. It was a wake up call, he said, because he had issues where he was late for meetings and after he missed a flight to a game he was cut. He was also seen pouting on the sidelines in a game when he was benched in favor of Brian Hoyer. You wonder if he learned anything at but is giving lip service to being a different person because he is trying to show his regret at past behavior. In the interview he qualified his pouting on the sideline by saying there were reasons why he was pouting that he wouldn't go into. Sounds like he's making excuses for being a tool bag to me. Maybe he has changed but I sincerely doubt it. Anyway, I hope he is just his lousy QB self for a team I don't like anyway. Not really in the Christmas spirit here am I?

With a depleted WR corps because of injuries and bad play by the backups the Patriots have signed WR Leonard Hankerson to help the Patriots out until Julian Edelman comes back from a broken foot. Hankerson has been with the Redskins and he had been on the IR/Scheduled for return list when Washington cut him loose. Hankerson, if healthy, is a more dependable receiver than the current deep threat of the Patriots, Brandon LaFell, who can't seem to hold on to passes at times.

After losing Thomas Rawls for the season last week after he broke his ankle the Seahawks have signed a familiar face to their roster. Christine Michael, who spent most of the season in Dallas was signed yesterday. His familiarity with the system should make him a plug and play player and he could actually be the #1 guy when Seattle faces Cleveland at home this week.

Finally, NFL.com has announced an adjustment in the officiating procedures in the playoffs this season. From what I read (and linked below) the article just says the refs on the field will be able to talk to Dean Blandino, VP of Officiating at the NFL league office, but Blandino can't really do anything that is not reviewable by the instant replay rules so really it's just Blandino making gesture of oversight to the piss poor officiating that has been done this season. To me, Blandino is more a part of the problem than a solution. What I got out of the article was pretty much nothing will be different.

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000000603051/article/adjustment-to-officiating-procedures-for-playoffs

[eagle eye]

It's hard to believe it's Saturday. It's harder to believe it's only 6 days until Christmas (I am so not ready!). It's even harder to believe that the one league I made the playoffs in I was bounced by a collective sub par performance by at least 4 players on my roster. For a change it wasn't that I played the wrong guys on my roster, I just had a handful of players who under performed. It was a bad year for me in fantasy and it was mainly because I was slashed to pieces by injuries and the backups on my rosters just didn't perform. But, for those of you still in your playoff hunt here goes.

Tom Brady is listed as questionable with an illness but the NFL channel said that Brady will play against the Tennessee Titans at home. That goes for Gronk too, who missed Friday's practice for personal reasons. Both players will be playing Sunday. BTW, the Patriots and Broncos are duking it out for the #1 seed in the AFC so if you think anyone is sitting on their laurels forget it. That is great news for fantasy owners.

Speaking of the Broncos, it will be Brock Osweiler yet again under center. Peyton was at practice on Wednesday but he missed the rest of the week with a sore foot. The Broncos will be playing the Steelers in Pittsburgh which is another epic matchup of a high octane offense (Steelers) vs the #1 defense (Broncos). The last time Denver was in this sort of showdown game was against the Patriots just a few short weeks ago. The Broncos prevailed in that game winning 30-24 in overtime. That game also saw Gronk gone for a week because of a severe bone bruise in his leg. Denver was at home in that game but this time they have to travel to Pittsburgh which is not an easy place to play. CJ Anderson is questionable for the game meaning Ronnie Hillman is likely the main guy for Denver.

Is Cincinnati going to hold on to the AFC North with Andy Dalton out? That's the question as Cincy travels to San Francisco to play the 49ers. The Bengals are also without TE Tyler Eifort who is out with a concussion. Those are two big pieces of the puzzle for the Bengals and it still remains to be seen if AJ McCarron can keep the Bengals train rolling. He had a good game last week even though it was in a loss to hated rival Pittsburgh. Two picks thrown by McCarron were his undoing in that game. If you need a tight end to replace Eifort Jermaine Gresham could be your man.

The most important ho-hum game this week is between the Texans and Colts in Indy. At 6-7 neither team really strikes fear into anyone's heart. The Colts may or may not have primary backup Matt Hasselbeck which means the load could fall on Charlie Whitehurst. The Texans will depend on their primary backup TJ Yates. Houston is trying to break a losing streak of 13 games in Indy that stretches back to 2002. Tall order for a Houston team who is shaky at QB to begin with and with the best defensive player in the NFL in JJ Watt playing with a broken left hand. This game is for the right to get their record to .500 and take sole possession of the AFC South division lead. So, pretty good game here.

The Jacksonville Jaguars will be without RB TJ Yeldon this week because of a knee. Denard Robinson will fill in for Yates with Bernard Pierce getting some carries.

Carolina is still chasing a perfect season as they carry a 13-0 record into this week's game against the NY Giants. They will have to do it without RB Jonathan Stewart who suffered a sprained foot. Expectations are the Panthers will rely on a RB by committee approach with Mike Tolbert, Cameron Artis-Payne and Fozzy Whitaker splitting the load. It is not expected that any of these 3 will have any fantasy value.

Dallas will be without LB Rolando McClain this week due to a concussion and CB Mo Claiborne is doubtful tonight against the Jets. The loss of Claiborne is likely more impactful as it forces Dallas to rearrange their secondary which weakens the Cowboys at safety where rookie Byron Jones has been one of the bright spots in this season for Dallas. The Cowboys have a very slim hope for making the playoff so they need to win this game. The Jets have a big stake in getting a win too as they are currently the 6th seed, the 2nd wild card team, in the AFC playoff race. The Jets got good news as WR Jeremy Kerley with has been upgraded to probable for the game.

[eagle eye]

The blood has started to spill. Eagles "genius" head coach and director of player personnel has been fired. You knew that already. What is in question is whether or not it was because he pretty much dismantled a team with dynamic players and replaced them with questionable talent that certainly didn't perform up to the standards of the previous rosters. DeSean Jackson gone. LeSean McCoy gone. Jeremy Maclin gone. Trent Cole gone. And a host of other players assembled by the previous regime headed by Andy Reid. In was Ryan Mathews, hurt most of the time. In was DeMarco Murray who hasn't done squat. In was draft pick Nelson Aguilor who is 50-50 whether he'll drop a pass thrown to him and Miles Austin who isn't even on the team any more. Gone was QB Nick Foles in a trade for Sam Bradford that will cost the Eagles their 2nd round pick in 2016 (This year! BTW, Happy New Year!). Chip Kelly successfully dismantled the Eagles franchise in one season to the extent it will cripple the Eagles for the next 4-5 years. Kids, say, "Thank you Mr Kelly." Thank you Mr Kelly. For people like me who loathe the Eagles this is like the best belated Christmas present ever! Thank you Mr Kelly! Kelly is not the first head coach fired during the 2015 season. Way back on October 5th after beginning the season 1-3 Miami head man Joe Philbin was shown the door. Unfortunately, the interim coach, Dan Campbell, couldn't rally the troops and he will be done as head coach after Sunday. Down in Nashville the Titans fired head coach Ken Whisenhunt after the Titans began the season 1-6. Mike Mularkey was named interim coach and he will likely end up going 2-7 after the Titans get beat by Indianapolis on Sunday. This means he hasn't done enough to warrant being named head coach going forward so as it stands, from my point of view, is there are already 3 head coaching vacancies to be filled beginning around Monday afternoon.

For all of you wanting Jason Garrett's head on a platter, don't hold your breath because he ain't going anywhere despite the either 4-12 or 5-11 season the Cowboys suffered through this season. In fact the top 3 guys are probably safe with Garrett, OC Scott Linehan and DC Rod Marinelli coming back next season. I am no big fan of special teams coach Rich Bisaccia and I wouldn't be surprised to see him go.

As for on the field stuff....................
> Johnny Manziel will be out this week because of a concussion. I'm not sure he's shown enough to warrant the Browns belief he can be the QB of the future. The Browns have a lot more problems than who their 2016 QB will be. Either head coach Mike Pettine or GM Ray Farmer have been at odds over Manziel's behavior and you get the feeling one of these guys will have to go. One of the biggest problems in the Browns organization in the last 10 years has been the instability of the organization. It's almost become a joke and the Browns need to get a system in place and build from there because unless a miracle happens the Browns will stink for at least the next 5 years. Sorry Browns fans but that's what it looks like to me.

> The Seahawks were hoping Marshawn Lynch would be back for this week's finale against Arizona but that ain't happening. The 'Hawks are left with a RB by committee of Christine Michael, Bryce Brown and Fred Jackson. It's no secret why Seattle lost to the Rams last week--lack of a stud run game which is what the Seahawks offense is built around. Seattle may have a playoff spot wrapped up but I don't see them going very deep unless Lynch comes back and comes back strong.

> If you are in you fantasy league championship I'm sorry to have to tell you that Rams RB Todd Gurley is listed as doubtful this week against the 49ers. Now, doubtful is not out and he could still play but it's not likely the Rams will risk their future for one meaningless game.

> The Colts need a win Sunday over Tennessee and a loss by Houston to win the AFC South but that task has been made harder with the news that Matt Hasselbeck will be out because of a bad shoulder. Colts head coach Chuck Pagano is not sure who will start for Indy because Andrew Luck is still out and will not play and Charlie Whitehurst was put on IR after injuring his hamstring. So, Pagano has to decide between Stephen Morris, Ryan Lindley or Josh Freeman to start Sunday. Maybe the Titan can win. Oh, BTW, reports are that Chuck Pagano will be fired after the season. There is apparently a huge rift between him and the Colts GM.

> The Bengals will have TE Tyler Eifort back but the Falcons will be without Tevin Coleman.

[eagle eye]

I was prepared to assert that the Carolina Panthers weren't as good as their 14-1 record would suggest and given a look at both the Panthers and their closest rival in total wins, Arizona, I have to go with my original thinking. Carolina has scratched and clawed their way through a patty cake schedule to get where they are. The Panthers have only faced 5 opponents this year with a winning record and that could be reduced depe9-6nding on the outcomes of a couple of games. They have played three teams who are definitely going to the playoffs, the Packers, the Redskins and the Seahawks. They will have played a 4th in a division winner in either Houston or Indianapolis depending of the outcomes of their games today. The other +.500 team is Atlanta who ended the Panthers unbeaten streak last Sunday. BTW, Atlanta is not going to the playoffs. The Panthers will close out the season at home against Tampa Bay today with a record of 6-9. The Cardinals have played only 5 teams with winning records this season as well. By contrast however the teams they have played are better than the 5 Carolina has played. Panthers +.500 opponents are Seattle, Green Bay, Washington, Houston and Atlanta with records of 9-6, 10-5, 8-7, 8-7 and 8-7 respectively. As you can see the amount of +.500's could end up being just 2 by the end of the day. On the other hand the Cardinals +.500's are Pittsburgh, Seattle, Cincinnati, Minnesota and Green Bay with records of 9-6, 9-6, 11-4, 10-5 and 10-5 respectively. What's more Carolina is without starting RB Jonathan Stewart while Arizona has been riding rookie David Johnson and they just got Andre Ellington back a week or so ago. Carolinas receivers can't hold a candle to Arizona's and Carson Palmer is, overall, playing better than Cam Newton who is everyone's MVP so far. Both have really good defenses but Arizona's special teams is much better than Carolina's. If Arizona beats Seattle in the season finale today they will have beaten the 3 best NFC teams not named Carolina in 3 out of the last 4 weeks. The Cardinals have beaten every +.500 team on their schedule except Pittsburgh way back on October 18th in Week 6. That was the Cardinals last loss to date. I said that Arizona was far and away the most impressive team after their Week 3 smack down of the 49ers and just to prove me wrong they lost in Week 4 to the Rams. That was Todd Gurley's breakout performance as he gained 146 yds on only 19 totes. The Cardinals are a damn good team who have the talent and the team to go deep in the playoffs whereas Carolina is deficient at WR and missing their starting RB. I just don't believe Carolina is built to survive January football. Carolina will get a first round bye and they could win the divisional round game but I don't believe they are a Super Bowl team. I could be wrong but I don't think so.

Miami is one team who will get a new head coach but they added the general manager's job as a vacancy that needs to be filled. The Dolphins have fired Dennis Hickey and Dolphins Vice President of Football Operations, Mike Tannenbaum, will oversee the reorganization of the Dolphins front office and coaching staff. There is almost as much bleeder of staff members as there was in Detroit earlier this season when just about everyone but head coach Jim Caldwell was fired.

NFL.com is reporting that the Browns will fire both head coach Mike Pettine and GM Ray Farmer. The Browns have had 5 different head coaches since 2008 and almost as many GMs. It was thought that when Jimmy Haslam bought the Browns in 2012 but since he took over there have been 3 different head coaches. This franchise is a mess. To create stability Haslam will need to hire a coach and GM who get along or hire a guy to be head coach and GM so that, unless the guy goes all Jim Carrey and kicks his own ass, there should be some harmony in the front office. I sort of like the Browns and I wish they could return to some respectability before the fans in the Dog Pound lose interest in them.

All it takes is one bad season and you lose your job. The old Jerry Glanville statement, "You what NFL means don't, you? Not For Long...." Glanville said it to a ref after a bad call way back when he coached the Houston Oilers. The end of the quote is, "....when you make calls like that." But, the "not for long" is a perfect description of the job security of an NFL coach. My point here is that Indianapolis head coach, Chuck Pagano, is rumored to be getting fired. The guy survived cancer and inspired that team to go to the playoffs and he led the Colts to the AFC title game against the Patriots last season. This year he's had to deal with a plethora of injuries, including Andrew Luck, and has stumbled to a 7-8 record. The Colts could still make the playoffs by beating Tennessee coupled with a Houston loss to Jacksonville but he is said to be gone daddy by next week. Sheesh.

The Eagles have already interviewed a candidate to replace Chip Kelly. The candidate was current Eagles RB coach and former Eagles player Duce Staley. This is pretty much out of the blue and it may only be a way to satisfy the Rooney Rule of NFL teams having to at least interview minority candidates for the job.

Here's the injury list for Week 17 and I feel sorry for you if you are in your fantasy league championship because there seems to be slim pickings for NFL fantasy rosters.
Good luck -- you'll need it!
http://espn.go.com/blog/stephania-bell/post/_/id/3384/key-injury-updates-for-fantasy-football-week-17

[eagle eye]

The coaching/executive hammer has started to fall.

Tom Coughlin HC NY Giants stepped down after 12 season and two Super Bowls. Eli wept.

Jim Tomsala HC San Francisco 49ers was fired one year after Jim Harbaugh was fired and went to coach at Michigan. Tomasala lost his QB, half of the Super Bowl team under Harbaugh to injury, free agency and stupidity (yes, I'm talking to you Aldon Smith). After the firing Harbaugh tweeted "You reap what you sow." an obvious dig at the 49er front office.

Before the sun set in Cleveland yesterday both HC Mike Pettine and GM Ray Farmer were canned. Anybody want to be the HC in Cleveland. Pays well but the job security is crap.

As improbable as it may seem Saints coach Sean Payton may be traded for as little as a 2nd round draft pick. Despite being under contract until 2018 for a reported $24MM the Saints seem ready to listen to offers but a 2nd round draft pick seems to be the stalling point of these conversations with other teams. What is this world coming to when a guy who has inured himself as a favorite son of the Crescent City can be put on the trading block like that?

The Miami Dolphins already have a new GM. That man is Chris Grier who was the Dolphin Director of College Scouting prior to his hire as GM. It seems that interim head coach Dan Campbell will at least get an interview.

Cowboys fans should thank their luck stars today. Not just because the Cowboys 4-12 season of torture is over with but that the guy who is, at very least, the Cowboys Director of Player Personnel in every sense of the word except the title (the official title belongs to Jerrah's son Stephen Jones). That guy is Will McClay. You may not have heard of him unless you listen to Cowboys website podcasts and to Bryan Broaddus in particular but McClay has been the guy primarily responsible for the increase of talent of the Cowboys roster over the last several years. McClay was offered an opportunity to interview for the position of General Manager of the Detroit Lions and McClay turned the Lions down preferring to stay in Dallas. This is a good thing going forward. Being Assistant Director of Player Personnel is good enough for him---for now. There is no salary cap on coaches and staff so Jerrah has likely made sure that McClay has plenty of money and a bucket load of say-so as he works his magic with Stephen Jones and Director of Scouting Tom Ciskowski. McClay's first job in this 2016 offseason is to find a QB of the future to groom to take Tony Romo's place in a couple of years as well as bolstering the D-line and getting a top notch cornerback. A stud linebacker and a guy to take over for Jason Witten wouldn't hurt. Maybe you prefer a running back. Hmmm. thought a player personnel guy was as easy as being a fantasy football owner didn't you? Not hardly.

[eagle eye]

The Colts came to their senses and did not fire head coach Chuck Pagano. On the contrary, they gave him an extension! Pagano got a four year extension to his contract. The other part of this deal is a bit of a head scratcher. It is being reported that Pagano encouraged the Colts owner Jim Irsay to extend GM Ryan Grigson's deal thereby making the two a package deal. The thing that makes this an odd situation is that when describing the relationship between Grigson and Pagano as toxic. Others say that their relationship is just a case of two men passionate about their jobs. There is no question that the Colts suffered through a year that was played, for the most part, without star QB Andrew Luck. Despite this Pagano was able to lead his team to an 8-8 record with back up QBs including wins in the last two games of the season when the division was still up for grabs. This is certainly a better job than Jason Garrett did with Cowboys this season without Tony Romo.

[eagle eye]

The theme music for January in the NFL should be "Tumblin' Dice" by the Rolling Stones. The biggest news isn't necessarily coming out in the playoffs, it's coming from all head coaching and GM jobs that are being tossed around like a pair of Vegas dice.
Here's one I bet you didn't see coming. The Tampa Bay Bucs have fired head coach Lovie Smith after one year on the job. Yep, that's right. The same Lovie who led the Chicago Bears to the Super Bowl which they eventually lost to Peyton Manning's Indianapolis Colts. The thinking here is being reported as that Tampa wants to keep OC Dirk Koetter because he has developed a good relationship with the #1 pick in the 2014 draft Jameis Winston. There seems to have been some interest in Koetter in NFL circles so the Bucs management looked at the situation and deemed Koetter more valuable than Smith. In all likelihood the Bucs will go through the interview process to satisfy the "Rooney Rule" but Koetter looks like he could be the next head coach in Tampa.

Here's one you probably did see coming. The Saints front office announced that Sean Payton will be back on the sidelines for NOLA next season. This is no surprise and he and Drew Brees are still trying to get one more Super Bowl under their belts. Brees had better get some off season surgery done on his throwing shoulder because something is wrong in there and he was not able to throw like Drew Brees can throw.

The Brock Osweiler era in Denver is now on hold as the Broncos have announced that upstart QB Peyton Manning will be the starter when Denver plays again during the Divisional round of the playoffs. Also, Osweiler is out with a knee sprain. Yeah, right.

It's going to be old school cold in Minnesota this weekend. The high temperature Sunday is supposed to be 30F. For the 60s and 70s Vikings that was normal but how is this new millennium bunch of norsemen going to act? Three frickin' degrees. I have to put on a sweater just thinking about that.

What is in the water when HOF caliber players just want to up and retire before they are past their prime. Barry Sanders did it and now Calvin Johnson is thinking about it. Or is it maybe Megatron want to sweeten his contract a little?

[eagle eye]

I have to make a slight correction to the post yesterday. Lovie Smith was coach of the Tampa Bay Bucs for the past two years instead of the just one year which I posted. Sorry. The main point was, Smith's firing was not seen coming even by NFL insiders. It didn't matter it Smith coached one or two years the fact that he got canned was the story. Who knows what the Bucs front office was thinking and we won't know because they didn't face the media to answer questions about the firing. They made their GM Jason Licht face the media with some lame excuses and there has been a revelation that Smith was fired by phone instead of face to face. The owner of the Bucs showed the class of college playa who breaks up with a girl on twitter. If you need some clarification, breaking up with a girl on twitter as is firing your head coach on the phone is totally classless. Man-up and face the unpleasant side of your life like you've got a pair.

Andy Dalton is being ruled out of this week's AFC wild card game between his Bengals and the Steelers because his thumb is just not ready to go. That means that Cincy will again rely on the arm of AJ McCarron to carry the team. The Steelers will be without RB DeAngelo Williams because of a foot injury. Taking Williams' place with be Fitzgerald Toussant (who?) with Jordan Todman backing him up. Fitzgerald Toussant is a 25 year guy out of Michigan who is in his 2nd season in the NFL. Todman is a 4th year pro out of UConn. He is more of a scat back type who is really a prototypical 3rd down back.

The 15 finalists for this years class for the Pro Football Hall of Fame have been announced with 3 new players added to the list of candidates Terrell Owens, Bret Favre and Alan Fanica. Here's the whole list from NFL.com.

http://www.nfl.com/halloffame/story/0ap3000000618896/article/brett-favre-terrell-owens-highlight-2016-hall-of-fame-finalists

[eagle eye]

Last night's game between the Steelers and Bengals was nasty which was how it was expected to be. Lots hard hits and a lot of bad blood. It was a surprisingly clean game despite all of this that is until a 2nd half hit on Bengals RB Giovanni Bernard by Steelers LB Ryan Shazier. Shazier speared Bernard with his helmet in the head knocking Bernard unconscious. If it was college Shazier would have been ejected for targeting Bernard's head. Instead, Shazier got credit for causing a fumble. The ball was on the Steelers 23 at the time ending the Bengals scoring threat. IMO opinion Shazier should have been flagged for helmet to helmet contact but they didn't and it may have led to an incident late in the game. On what turned out to be the game winning drive for the Steelers Big Ben threw a pass to Antonio Brown that was high.and catchable. Just as he came down from his jump Bengals LD Vontaze Burfect laid a shoulder to Brown's head knocking him unconscious. The refs flagged Burfect for a personal foul moving the ball into field goal range of about 51 yards with 22 seconds left in the game. In the ensuing discussion there were players and coaches from both sides on the field. Bengals CB Pacman Jones pushed Steelers coach Joey Porter getting a 2nd personal foul penalty giving the Steelers 15 more yards. After the 30 yards in penalties Pitt had the ball on Cincy's 17. Pitt didn't run another play. They kicked a 35 yard field goal with 18 seconds left in the game. That was it, ball game. Cincy failed to break their playoff 0 for 7 drought under Marvin Lewis causing some speculation his job could be in jeopardy.
You have to feel bad for AJ McCarron who engineered that drive that gave Cincy a 16-15 lead with just 1:38 left in the game. He did a nice job under a lot of pressure by the Steelers D all day. You have to feel even worse for Bengals RB Jeremy Hill. After the Bengals scored the go ahead TD Cincy' D got a pick off Big Ben by Vontaze Burfect and they had the ball at the Pitt 26. On the first play from scrimmage Hill ran for 6 yards but as he was going down Ryan Shazier stripped the ball and Pitt recovered at their own 9 where they began their game winning drive. The emotional meltdown by the Bengals likely cost Cincy the win but you know Jeremy Hill blames himself for the loss.

In today's NFC wild card game. Between Seattle and Minnesota the Seahawks will be without RB Marshawn Lynch who suffered a setback and was a last minute scratch before the 'Hawks left for frozen Minneapolis. Btw, did I mention the high temp for that game will be 1 degree? O-N-E. Holy crap!

[eagle eye]

I was listening to Collin Cowherd yesterday and he sort of pissed me off. His whole deal was that the wild card round of the playoffs ended up the way they should have. The teams with the best quarterback won, period. To support his argument he cited the game stats and even though the Steelers and the Seahawks really should have lost the line scores were better for them than they were for the Bengals and the Vikings. I heard Vikings callers come on and try to argue for their team but Cowherd leaned on his stat-line argument and, frankly, ripped the callers a new one because they didn't argue their point right. One caller came close saying that sometimes stats don't tell the who story but then he blew it by saying Minnesota dominated the Seahawks and led Cowherd right back to his stat-line argument. The caller was on the verge of a breakthrough then the homer came out in him and that was all she wrote. If I would have had any desire to jump in AND I was lucky enough to get through I would have turned Collin's stat argument against him. I would have said, "Hey Collin, let's turn the argument around a little bit. Despite the Seahawks dominating the Vikings stat wise and in time of possession they were only able to score one TD and that came on a busted play which was a combination of luck and Russell Wilson's athleticism and the defense having a slight breakdown because of the bad snap the Vikings were ideal position to win the game. For some reason, Blair Walsh yanked a chip shot field goal from the 26 yard line left of the goal posts as time ran out to lose the damn game. The previous caller was absolutely right, the Seahawks were damn lucky and Blair Walsh is probably the most hated man in Minnesota right now." I can't Cowherd arguing against that. It's a proven way to argue a point by using a guy's own stats against him. That same argument holds true in the Steeler-Bengals game. The Bengals did not go 12-4 this season and win the AFC North by being "built to lose" as Cowherd suggested yesterday. It is true that when Cincy plays in prime time or the playoffs they have not had success. It is a befuddling conundrum that most people could not explain. If it could be explained don't you think Marvin Lewis would have corrected that way before now? Darn tootin' he would. When that "loser" Vontaze Burfict intercepted the Ben Roethlisberger pass giving the Bengals the ball on the Pittsburgh 26 yard line with a mere 1:36 left in the game it should have been a forgone conclusion, Cincy was going to win the game. Even though Pittsburgh has all 3 time outs Cincinnati could have knelt on the ball 3 times and then run another 40 seconds off the clock. This would have left Pittsburgh with about 45 or 50 seconds left with no time outs and almost 75 yards to go. Or Cincy could have ran out the clock and kicked a field goal giving them a 4 point lead meaning the Steelers would have had to score a TD with that same 45-50 seconds left and probably about the same yardage to go for a TD. But, Cincy had their own Blair Walsh in RB Jeremy Hill. On first down after Burfict's INT Hill gained 6 yards but at the end he allowed Pittsburgh's Ryan Shazier to strip him of the ball. I don't care what everyone is saying about how stupid Burfict and Pacman Jones are for giving the Steelers 30 yards of field position (and they are) it would never have come about if Hill hung onto the ball. It may be that Walsh and Hill get together after the season and have a drink together followed by them kicking each other's ass over their failures in their respective games. Cowherd is wrong the best teams didn't all win this past weekend. In half the games the luckiest teams won.

Speaking of the Steelers, they will be going into the divisional round this week likely without WR Antonio Brown who suffered a concussion on the cheap shot delivered by Vontaze Burfict at the end of the game. Pacman said that Brown was faking the injury and should have "...won a Grammy for his performance.". Hey Pacman, a Grammy is an award for musicians and singers, actors win Oscars or Emmys. I'm just saying. Also, we still don't know the extent of the shoulder injury Big Ben suffered. He was back in the game for that last minute drive but his shoulder was not full go. So far no word on Big Ben's status and if you are a Steelers fan you would have to subscribe to the "no news is good news" line of thinking.

One last thing, Vontaze Burfict will be suspended 3 games for his hit on Antonio Brown. This is being reported by NFL.com's Chris Wesseling that Burfict will miss the first 3 games of the 2016 for the hit on Brown. Burfict's coach, Marvin Lewis, that Burfict didn't "go over the line" on Saturday night but he has to learn what the NFL is now and learn that he can't do those things. Lewis also said the both Burfict and Pacman Jones who had a personal foul on a ref he bumped trying to get to Steelers coach Joey Porter were remorseful to the point of tears because they knew they did wrong and understood how it cost their team. Now, Burfict is a dirty player and he's not likely to change but this may make him a little more mindful of situations. As for Pacman, he's a knucklehead and has been for a long time. That leopard is not changing his spots at this point in his career. What is disturbing is I have heard no noise about a fine or a suspension for Ryan Shazier who targeted Bengals RB Giovani Bernard on a helmet to helmet hit in the 4th quarter. The argument on the field was that Bernard had turned and had become a runner instead of a defenseless receiver but there have been too many flags thrown for helmet to helmet hits not to have one thrown on Shazier who blatantly lead with the crown of his helmet right into Bernard's ear hole. That's one reason I have always hated the Steelers. It seems they never get called on the crap they do but nobody can do that to them without a load of laundry being tossed on the ground. Eff the Steelers.

[eagle eye]

I sort of ignored the Divisional Round of the playoffs last week. I guess it was because the Texans were absolutely humbled in their playoff loss to Kansas City the week before. My heart just wasn't in it. As it turns out the games were all pretty good. Each one was decided by 7 points except the Green Bay-Arizona game which was decided by 6 in overtime. That game had the most exciting 2 minutes of the weekend as Green Bay trailed Arizona 20-13 when they began what turned out to be a game saving drive. At one point facing a 4th and 20 at their own 4, Aaron Rodgers made a nice play to pick up the first down on a pass to WR Jeff Janis for 60 yards getting the Packers all the way to the Arizona 36. 3 plays later with only 5 seconds left in regulation Aaron Rodgers put up a Hail Mary not so different than the one he put up against Detroit in Week 13 and danged if it didn't have the same end. This time Rodgers lofted a ball down the field and that same guy who made the 60 yard catch and run on 4th and 20, Jeff Janis, caught the ball between two defenders and hung on for the touchdown. Mason Crosby added the extra point and the game was headed to overtime with the Packers seeming with all the momentum. Even the coin flip for overtime was an event. The referee tossed up the coin and for some reason the coin never did flip. It stayed as flat as a pizza in flight. Aaron Rodgers noticed it and the ref had to flip the coin again. This time he didn't wait to ask Rodgers what he was going to call. He took the original call and flipped the coin. After the game Rodgers pointed out that when the ref showed everyone the coin prior to the flip it was heads up so Rodgers called tails. On the reflip the coin was tails up and Rodgers was prepared to call heads but he was never given the chance. Arizona took the ball and on the first play after the kickoff on 1st and ten from their own 20 Arizona's Carson Palmer went back to pass. The Packers were bringing pressure forcing Palmer to step up in the pocket and dodge to his right. At first Palmer ran into his own lineman followed by him drifting more to his right. Palmer spotted Larry Fitzgerald wide open on the left side of the field. Palmer hit Fitz and he took the ball down to the Packers 5 yard line weaving in and out of would be tacklers until he was finally downed by Casey Heywood. On first and goal Palmer tried to hit Fitz on a fade to the right corner of the end zone that Palmer probably just threw away because Fitz was well covered. On 2nd down with all movement going to the offenses right Palmer made a shovel pass to Fitz who was trailing the play and he scored easily giving the Cardinals the win with just 1:05 elapsed in overtime.
At the other end of the spectrum Carolina jumped out to a 31 zip halftime lead. Then they had to recover an on-side kick attempt by Seattle to preserve a 31-24 win. It was like Seattle came to life at halftime while Carolina fell plumb asleep. As such it was truly a tale of two halves. New England was better than KC as they usually are against any opponent in Foxborough with the Chiefs closing the score to 27-20 in the fourth but their comeback was not to be. The other game was a cold weather affair in Denver between the Broncos and Steelers. It was a hard fought game with Big Ben's shoulder not as bad as advertised the week prior and Martavis Bryant stepping up with Antonio Brown sidelined because of a concussion. (Faking, eh Pacman?) A lot of people felt as though if Brown had been able to play he would have been the difference in a Pittsburgh win. As it was, it was a late 4th quarter drive with Denver trailing 13-12 engineered by Peyton Manning that became the true difference in the game. The Broncos scored with only 3:00 minutes left in the game to make it 18-13 on a 1 yard TD run by CJ Anderson. After the 2-point conversion was good Denver led 20-13. The two teams traded field goals to make the score 23-16 when Pittsburgh closed to within 7 on a 2nd and 10 from the Steelers 29 with only 24 seconds left in the game. The thinking here was to get the field goal with time left on the clock in case the Steelers actually recovered the on-side kick. Unfortunately, for the Steelers they didn't even though they almost did. Denver ran the clock out to set up matchups to warm the NFL league office's heart. How's that, you ask? Both the AFC and NFC Championship games will feature the #1 and #2 seeds in each conference. Unlike the wild card weekend games where all the home teams lost, last weekend saw all 4 home teams win. Who knows what this week will bring.
In the NFC the Carolina Panthers host Arizona while the NFC will see Brady vs Manning XVII. That's right, these two men and their teams will face each other for the 17th time in their storied careers. It will be the 6 sixth time in the AFC Championship game. Brady holds the edge in the previous 5 meetings with a 4-1 record. Should be a good game. Both should be really good.
Looks like I'm interested again, doesn't it?

[eagle eye]

The conference championships are today but you already knew that. Both games will be similar in that both will be played outdoors and it will be cold. Let's take a quick look at both games weather wise.

Denver CO - Current conditions - Partly cloudy and 46o. There is a chance of rain, turning to snow around 5 o'clock. Fortunately, the game starts at 1 PM MST (2 PM locally) so weather shouldn't be a big factor. The wind is out of the NNW at 10 mph making it feel like 39o. It's really a pretty good day for football in the Mile High City. Both Denver and New England have seen much worse, in fact, the game between these two team in Week 12 when it was just a couple of days removed from a major snow storm in Colorado and at game time on Sunday Night Football the temp was 21o with snow falling. This will seem like spring time compared to that.

Charlotte NC - The NFL threw a curve at this game because instead of being the late game in the afternoon it will begin at 6:30 EST that will make the game even colder than it would be in the afternoon. Current conditions in Charlotte are sunny and 45o and precipitation in the forecast. You'd think that would be better than Denver but, again, the game starts after the sun goes down and the temp is going to drop line a turd in a well. The game time temp is forecast to be 36o and the temp will be below freezing by game's end. There will be no wind to speak of so it will just be the cold and a determined opponent to worry about.

What about the matchups?

AFC - Denver has the advantage of being the home team and the advantage of having the stronger defense. Denver's offense is healthy and ready to go. The only fly in the ointment is whether or not Peyton Manning can get the job done. Everybody and their brother talking about this game gives New England the edge because they feel Manning is over the hill. The Patriots are healthy but they had trouble against the Chiefs last week and the Chiefs have a pretty good defense too. Still, it's Brady and he holds the head to head advantage over Manning in their previous 16 meetings. Denver fans will point out that Brandy is 2-5 in Denver. Pats fans will point out they are finally healthy on offense with their big three of Gronk, Edelman and Amendola all being available. They will also point out that when Denver beat NE in Week 12 the Pats didn't have either Edelman or Amendola and they lost Gronk during the game and it still took overtime for Denver to win. Denver will point out that the Broncos won with Brock Osweiler under center. This time they have Manning and then the conversation come full circle with the question of if Manning is, in fact, over the hill. The bottom line is, this game is against the #1 and #2 seeds in the AFC with the #1 seed hosting the game. It's just what the NFL would want to happen. 1 v 2 promises the distinct possibility of a heavy weight title fight. I was born in Colorado so my heart is with the Broncos plus, as a Cowboys fan, I'm jealous of the success the Pats have had over the last 15 years. So, GO BRONCOS!!! I hope Peyton has one more great game left in that arm.

NFC - Just like the AFC it's 1 v 2. It is a rarity for 1 v 2 to be featured in both conference championship games. If I take off on the heavy weight title fight analogy mentioned above I would say that the AFC game was a matchup of Evander Holyfield against himself. Belichick vs Kubiak, Brady vs Manning and teams incredibly similar. It's the offensive finesse with an occasional right to the jaw. In the NFC game I see it as two Mike Tysons against each other. Teams that don't trick you or finesse you so much as they want to just beat the living hell out of you. Arizona has more weapons than Carolina with Fitzgerald, Floyd and Brown easily topping the WRs for Carolina Funchess, Cotchery and Ginn Jr. Carolina has the edge at TE with Greg Olsen who is Cam Newton's go-to guy but I give the RB edge to Arizona and their new not-so-secret weapon David Johnson. If he stays healthy, that kid will be a star. It's not as far removed as you might think because the Panthers have Jonathan Stewart back and he rushed for 106 yards on just 19 carries in last week's win over Seattle. As for the defense, both teams owe a lot of their success to active, tough and physical defenses. This is the smash mouth part of the game. Which Tyson can land the more blows, or the one blow, that will be the difference in the game. I change my mind, this isn't Tyson v Tyson this is Ali vs Frazier and everything that entails. The Panthers are Ali because of Cam Newton. Newton will be the X-factor in the game. Arizona will need to stop him from running and keep him in the pocket while still getting pressure on him like Frazier wading into Ali trying to land that big left hook. Cam will be Ali, playing rope-a-dope, taunting the Cardinals when he makes a big play and still delivering enough blows that hurt to keep the peudo-Frazier Cardianls off balance. I think that Carolina is going to win. I don't know why, but I do. On the other hand I will be rooting for Arizona, I don't know why, but I will.

Both games will be pretty good games and will be a hoot to watch. If I go with my heart it will be Arizona vs Denver in Super Bowl 50 but it's just impossible not to believe it will be Carolina vs New England. Or some combination of the four. That is why this weekend is so special. A real like Top Gun with Maverick against Iceman in both conferences. Of course, Goose won't die and Mav and Ice won't end up on the same team against a bunch of MIGs so somebody will lose. Could be this afternoon and evening will be a case of "it's a shame all the teams can't win." scenario.

Denver and New England are about to begin. Enjoy the games and I'll see ya at the Super Bowl!

[eagle eye]

Manning showed 'em. He's not as over the hill as people thought and he's still got the arm strength to get the ball down the field. Last Sunday could very well have been the last meaningful game in the long standing rivalry of the Manning-Brady era. It might have been the second to last hurrah for Manning as rumors of his retirement following the Super Bowl fly all over the place. If the Broncos beat Carolina maybe Manning should go out a la John Elway with a Super Bowl ring. If he does win Peyton will tie his little brother Eli for SB wins and Peyton will have doubled Eli's appearances. Actually, just making the SB doubles Eli's appearances but the win would make the family bragging rights tip in Peyton's favor. As for the Broncos-Patriots showdown? The Denver defense, ranked #1 in the NFL reared his head and put its thumb on Brady and the Pats offense. Now, the Broncos have the ultimate challenge of stopping the #1 offense in the NFL. The immovable object against the irresistible force. Don't forget the Broncos have a better than average offense and Carolina has a better than average defense so this game is lining up to be the same type of war Arizona-Carolina was supposed to be.

The Carolina-Arizona game turned out about like these games often do, in a blowout. When it looks like the matchup is primed for a battle royal games often times in real life turn into a rout. That's what happened in Charlotte on Sunday evening. It was one of those games where everything Carolina did was right and everything Arizona did was wrong. 4 first half turnovers killed the Cardinals who ended up down by 17 by halftime. A total of 7 turnovers, 6 of which belonged to Carson Palmer, was way too much for the Cardinals to overcome. It was a totally uncharacteristic performance by Palmer who has been better than what he showed last Sunday in 2015. There was plenty of blame to go around though. The defense couldn't figure out how to play their own schemes and Carolina took advantage of almost every missed assignment the Cards made. Larry Fitzgerald, whose light generally shines brightest in the playoffs, suffered several dropped passes on critical downs that cost Arizona first downs and big plays. It just wasn't Arizona's day. Part of the blame was on the Carolina defense because they played an attacking, smothering defense and the Cards had no answers for the Carolina pressure.

This is the deal. Two evenly matched teams facing each other in SB 50 much like it was in Super Bowl 48 when SeattleC destroyed Denver on a night when Denver had no answer for the Seahawks D or an answer for the Seahawks O. You can bet your bottom dollar the Broncos remember THAT ass whoopin' and they don't want that to happen yet again. The wild card is Cam Newton. If Denver can't stop Cam Denver won't win, period. The Panthers went 15-1 because teams couldn't figure out how to stop the guy. The one game the Panthers lost was because the team had a day like Arizona did last Sunday. Stuff happens. Denver has to figure out a way to stop Newton, make him one dimensional, force him to be just a passer and they will have a chance. If not Carolina wins, maybe in a rout. Denver fans (I'm one) don't want to hear it but it's true. Cam is the X-factor.

Check out the Super Bowl 50 prediction thread and post your own prediction of how the game will play out.

[eagle eye]

It's hard to make predictions on things especially when the game seems such a clear cut slam dunk for one side, in this case Carolina. Heavy favorites seem to win more often than not in the bowl then again upsets do happen. In the previous 49 SB's the underdog has won 19 times with the favorite winning 26 times and according to the odds there have been 3 pushes (ties) and one pick 'em. So, it's not even unusual for the underdog to win as one might have expected. (Info from vegasinsider.com) If you are going to place a bet on something other than the outcome then the "over" bet has won 26 times while the under has prevailed 22 times and SB 1 did not bet the over/under or it was a push.
In the SB's since 2000 the favorite has only won 4 of the 16 games. In 2001 Baltimore (F) beat the Giants, 2006 Pittsburgh (F) beat Seattle, 2007 Indianapolis (F) beat Chicago and 2011 Green Bay (F) beat Pittsburgh. In 2000 the game between St Louis and Tennessee was a push.
Now, if by "favorite" you aren't necessarily talking about odds and your local bookie the 3 games that were pushes were all won by the favorite, they just didn't cover the spread. So, technically the last 49 SBs were won by the favorite 29 times with the 'dogs winning the same 19 games. You might interested to know that last year's SB 49 was the pick 'em game which came right down to the very last second before the controversial ending in which the New England Patriots prevailed over Seattle. As a matter of fact I will reiterate there has only been one pick 'em game in the 49 year history of the SB and it was last year.
In the SBs that Denver has been in, 1978 SB XII +6 to Dallas (loss to Dallas), 1987 SB XXI +9.5 to NY Giants (loss to Giants), 1988 SB XXII -3 over Washington (loss to Wash), 1990 SB XXIV +12 to San Fran (loss to 49ers), 1998 SB XXXII +11 to Green Bay (won over GB), 1999 SB XXXIII -7.5 to Atlanta (won over Atl), 2014 SB XLVIII -2.5 to Seattle (loss to Sea). This will be Denver's 8th SB. In their previous 7 their record is 2-5. As the favorite going into the game they are 1-2 and of course their record as an underdog is 1-3. Seems like the Broncos are a bit snake bit either way. The early line on SB 50 is Carolina -6 over Denver.
The feel good story of this SB would be that Peyton wins and walks away from the game a la his new boss John Elway. Going into SB XXXII Elway was 0-3 in SBs losing to the Giants, Redskins and 49ers in his previous attempts to get a ring. But, with the addition of Terrell Davis and viable running game Elway won back-to-back games and after SB XXXIII he retired. Many anticipate Manning will walk away after this game regardless of the outcome. I think it's safe to say Peyton is the sentimental favorite to win and if he does he will even his record in SB's to 2-2 which would tie little brother Eli in wins and he has already doubled Eli in SB appearances 4-2. Manning was 1-1 in SB's with his original team, the Indianapolis Colts and this will be his second SB with the Broncos. If Denver wins Manning will have won his first SB and his last with 2 losses in between. Another ironic aspect is Manning won SB XLI playing for one coach, Tony Dungy and losing with another coach, Jim Caldwell in SB XLIV. As a Bronco Manning lost his first SB with Denver under head coach John Fox in SB XLVIII. In SB 50 Manning will play for a different head coach, Gary Kubiak. Four SB's, four different head coaches. SB 50 will be the 4th SB in 10 years Manning has played in. In SB's 44 and 48 Manning's team wore their colored jerseys and both games were losses. In SB 41 the Colts wore their white jerseys and in SB 50 the Broncos will wear their white jerseys.
You can't argue with freaky stats like this so I'm going with the Broncos to beat Carolina by a TD.
I have another bold prediction, Cam Newton will suffer a high ankle sprain in the 2nd quarter and no be able to return to the game.

[eagle eye]

I have nothing left to say. Super Bowl 50 is mere hours away. The young and red hot Carolina Panthers bring their #1 ranked offense and really good defense to San Francisco to face Denver and their #1 ranked defense and the legend that is Peyton Manning. Will Cam Newton cap off a stellar year with a championship ring? He won the NFL MVP award last night and the Panthers will bring the best record in the NFL to the game. Denver is no slouch and can't be overlooked. If Wade Phillips can devise a way to stop Cam and the Panther's running game Denver has a shot to upset the Panthers. Defense wins championships and you need look no further than Peyton's little brother's team the New York Giants. Eli made a play or two in both of the Super Bowls they played in but it was the defense shutting down the Patriots high octane offense that was the difference in those games. If Peyton can take a page from the Book of Eli and just manage the game, make a play or two and don't turn the ball over Denver could shock the wise guys who think Carolina is a lock to win just like the Patriots-Giants games ended up. Heck, in one of those games the mighty Patriots were undefeated going into the game. Doesn't matter. Just like the old cliché, "On any given Sunday............" Broncos win, I just have a feeling.

[eagle eye]

That's it. The 2015 season is over and I must say that while I'm not overjoyed at the Broncos win I am pleased with the outcome of Super Bowl 50. I was rooting for the Broncos and, for a change, the team I was rooting for actually won. The thing that would have made it perfect is if it had been Dallas that won but Denver is a good substitute.
I was rooting for the Broncos for several reasons. 1) I was born in Colorado. 2) The first pro football game I ever saw in person was the Broncos and Oilers in Denver. 3) I wanted Peyton Manning to win especially if this is really the last roundup of his career. 4) There are a couple of guys with Cowboys ties that I was rooting for too. Like DeMarcus Ware and Wade Phillips. You can throw in former special teams coach Joe Decamillis as well. Wade's defense shut down the Panthers offense. Decamillis' special teams group did their job including the punt return by Jordan Norwood of 61 yards, the longest punt return in Super Bowl history, that led to a field goal. It was one of 3 field goals for the game kicked by Brandon McManus. Who says special teams don't matter? And Ware? All he and SB MVP Vonn Miller did was harass the crap out of Cam Newton all night and they were part of a unit that allowed the Panthers virtually nothing except one TD drive in the second quarter.
I have no problems with the Panthers. I don't hate Cam although he acted a bit tool-ish in the post game press conference. I don't have any problem with head coach Ron Rivera. In fact, the guy exuded class through the whole SB ordeal including the comments he made post game. Yeah, Ron Rivera earned a lot of respect yesterday. It's easy to be gracious when you win but to do it went you lose the biggest game of your coaching career is pretty special.
I predicted Broncos by 7 and it turned out it was Broncos by 14. It was still a good game and it just goes to show that a predominately defensive game can be fun to watch. The game was definitely closer than the final score would indicate. The difference was the fumble caused by Miller when he swatted the ball out of Cam's hand that was recovered at the Carolina 4 yard line. Barring a turnover, that was ballgame. Field goal, TD, it didn't matter. Denver was going up 2 scores with 3 minutes and change left in the game. The way Denver was playing defense Carolina just was not going to be able to come back and they didn't.
That's it for 2015 and that's it for me on this thread. See you next season!