Agree with pretty much everything you said, Dopple. ;)

I'm not really worried about my bench for a few reasons. First of all, Cassel should be decent on bye weeks since the Chiefs run a pass-first offense, and he has Dwayne Bowe to throw to. Torry Holt doesn't please me, but he does have a lot of experience and a decent quarterback in David Garrard throwing to him. Knowshon Moreno will be a boom or bust player, hopefully a boom, and Chester Taylor is almost always guaranteed a few good runs a game. Peterson has to rest, right? I'm a Saints fan, so of course I have faith in Devery Henderson. I don't like Pettigrew at all, though.

Good points. I completely overlooked the fact that Cassel no longer plays for the Pats. I haven't really paid much attention to what's going on since the end of last season. Looking over your bench again, it actually isn't too bad. Nobody is really going to put up big numbers, but they're at least capable of performing and touching the ball in any given game. Depending who the Chiefs play when Palmer has his bye, Cassel could actually put up decent numbers though. As far as tight ends go, there are only a given few that provide enough points to even be worth considered, so having a TE like Pettigrew as a back-up isn't going to make much more of a difference than anyone else you might have gotten at tight end.

Revolutionist, I wouldn't say your team sucks. But I wouldn't put it ahead of the teams that got listed. Brandon Marshall put up good numbers last year, but he's in a different situation this year. Orton, while a decent QB at times, has yet to prove himself as a consistent player. I don't doubt that Cutler assisted in Marhall's great season last year, so I don't think that Marshall is going to be as solid this year. The whole ordeal with wanting to be traded is just one more thing that will keep him distracted. Terrell Owens, while a phenomenal player, is also in a completely different situation. Not only is he losing out on an A+ quarterback, he's also getting older and is more prone to injury. With that being said, it makes what looks like a very strong receiving corps a little bit questionable.

Brady is obviously gonna kick some ass, but that brings up the point of your running backs. It seems like you might have sacrificed some depth at running back in exchange for the elite line-up at QB and WRs. Jacobs will do well for sure, but Stewart is a rather inconsistent back. I think, out of his 139 points last season, most of them probably came from 3 or 4 games. The crazy ones where he'd put up 100+ yards and 3 touchdowns and such.

Your defense and kickers are good, and that will help you out in several games I'm sure, but I'm going to guess that their performance is only going to make up for the random off day that at least one of your RBs or WRs will have in any given week.

Of course, this is all speculation, but I feel pretty confident about the unpredictability of your starters at WR and RB.

For sure there's a lot of promise in your choices. And if they all pan out, then I don't doubt your position as a contender. It should be cool watching how all of those guys pan out. All of them being on your team should make it pretty easy to keep track of.

TO, for instance, I'm quite interested in seeing how he performs.

Well, so far, a lot of the things I expected to happen have happened.

I had the fortune of watching the Packers/Bears game, so I'll give a rundown of what I saw in that game. Cutler, as expected, didn't really jive with any receivers today. Hester was his main target, and I think they'll do some great things together, but without any other legitimate threats at WR it'll be easy for teams with a decent secondary to lock Hester down for most of a game. I think that Cutler needs to make connections with Forte in order to play into the already existent offense that the bears have. Forte can be a real threat at wide-out, a lot like Westbrook or Curtis Martin, and he should be used that way. It's a pretty sure bet that eventually it's going to happen in the season. The question is when? As for Forte, he'll be good again this year for sure. He didn't score any touchdowns, or even break 100 yards total (he had 0 receptions), but when he ran he was able to do it with decent speed and gains. The terrible pass offense by Cutler made it pretty easy to shutdown Forte, and at one point they kept trying to run him out to the sidelines. Which ended predictably. Obviously there are some kinks in the Bears offense that needs to be addressed, but it's going to have some formidable fantasy players early mid-season and beyond.

Which, is not to downplay the Packer's D. The Packers acquired Dom Capers in the off-season, and their defense got some drastic makeovers. What I saw in the Packers D was pretty promising, even in the late game when all their starters were tired (they have terrible depth at D) they didn't really miss a beat. Overall they were more aggressive with their calls, and seemed to be on every receive like glue. I did see a few occasional wide open plays made, which is consistent with last year's secondary, but not nearly as many. Switching to a 4-3 offense probably has helped both aspects. Rodgers was pretty solid today. I didn't notice too much going on with him. Jennings is still his favorite target, and the two of them make plays happen on their own. Grant performed a lot better than I expected him to. While he only got 16 touches, and averaged around 3.8 a carry, he did manage to get a touchdown, and a lot of good runs were called back due to unnecessary holding. I would have liked to see a lot more carries by Grant, but I'm sure they're just easing him in and trying to get Rodgers into a rhythm early in the season. A good thing is that they only rushed Wynn three times. All of which ended pretty poorly. So, I don't think Grant is going to have to share much of the load of the runs if things continue as is.

This is what has stood out to me so far as far as each position goes

QB
Brees and Romo performed as well as I imagined they would. If I were around for the draft, I would have made sure that I picked up one of the two. Unless I could have picked up something like Adrian Peterson and Moss in the first two rounds. All other quarterbacks did okay, but none of them really stand out as special. And some, like Cutler, or even worse, Delhomme, look pretty terrible.

RB
Peterson, undoubtedly would dominate today. Cleveland isn't known for their awesome defense, and the inclusion of such a huge distraction as Favre is, made running circles around the Browns a cakewalk for Peterson. 180 yards and 3 touchdowns is an awesome way to start the season though! Other notables include Thomas Jones, who pulled in two touchdowns, and Michael Turner who got just 66 yards on 22 carries.

WR
Nothing worth commenting on here. Receivers tend to average out to those with a touchdown, those who have 100 yards receiving, those who have both, and those who have neither. Only a few receivers in the league can be expected to perform any better than randomly having one of those days, and I would really only depend on somebody like Moss or Owens to consistently have good games.


I'm too tired to write out the rest. But I'll say that I didn't even know that Gonzalez was on the Falcons. If I did, I would have considered him a better position at TE. His career and skill is waning, but being on a better team has obviously given him new opportunities to perform as he used to.

Week 2 ends in a victory for the Shinobars! Hurraaaa!!!

Yeah he did! I only watched the end of the second quarter, most of the third, and bits and pieces of the fourth. It was a pretty depressing showing by Rodgers, but that offensive line did nothing to protect him, either. I think that things will be different when the Vikings show up at Lambeau. I can't believe that the Packers failed to make it in the end-zone when they had four downs to do it. And running the ball 3 times, then putting Rodgers (who was not performing well) in the shotgun with no backfield on 4th and goal, that was pretty dumb.

I've had a pretty shitty season so far. Westbrook will hopefully be better by next Sunday. I'm not really sure what my long-term plan is yet, but I think I better figure it out soon.

4-0 makes me happy.

Who would have thought that Braylon Edwards would single-handedly win me the game? I'm very glad he got traded to the Jets.

Some serious blowouts this week. Both NFL style and FF style.

Looks like we may have already have teams that aren't going to be playing for the rest of the year. But, for the most part the competition will still be there. I'm a lot happier with my team now, than when I initially started this year.

Fooseball fiend, with the the only perfect record started just two players this week (the rest have byes), and will no longer be undefeated. Giving first place to the Shinobars, and placing the Living Legends and Jotuns into the soon-to-be-heated mix for the top 3 spots.

Who knew Ricky Williams would be so valuable to a Saints fan?

Crept into 4th!

Gotta keep my hopes alive. I totally blanked out for weeks 3-8.

edit: I'm gonna lose 4th as quickly as I had it. Also, congrats to the Living Legends and Fooseball Fiend, and Shinobars for owning the league this year.

Don't say anything about me yet! I'm in the same position I was in last year: two weeks to go and I need to win one game to get me in the playoffs. Last year, I lost both games. Hopefully I'll avoid the same fate this year. I really need to win this week, otherwise it'll come down to whether or not BoE has less overall points than me.

So glad I didn't miss out on the playoffs two years in a row! ;) Sorry, BoE!