Checkdown Chatter

Yes, the title is two years two old, and well past its humour expiration date… but give me a break, I haven’t written anything in 6 months and I’m easing my way back in with a well used line.

It took a little longer than usual this year, life has been busy, work sucks, the usual, but I’ve fully caught NFL fever just in time for fantasy draft season and the opener on Thursday night.

As always, the 2011 NFL season is bringing with it lots of intrigue, and there are lots of interesting storylines to keep up with. I’ve decided today to enlighten you with a list of those things I’m looking forward to most.

• Fantasy Football.
  This is an obvious for most true fans, but it seems to me like the fantasy football hype is higher than ever, and most leagues are trying interesting new things, PPR, IDP, I’m in my first keeper league (first season where we keep guys, that is) this year and there are some interesting rule tweaks in all my leagues to really get you thinking.
• The 2011 rookie class.
  There are lots of potential impact players at all positions, but I’m particularly interested in seeing how RBs Jahvid Best and Ryan Mathews fare, (sorry, Montario, your hype is on hold). Mathews has some big shoes to fill in San Diego, replacing inner circle Hall of Fame candidate LaDainian Tomlinson, but he’s been handed the starting job for a reason, and Norv has a way of producing successful running backs. Then there is Best, who, I admit I’ve only seen about 5 minutes of in preseason, but I loved every minute of it. This guy can run, and is part of a young nucleus of players in Detroit that has a real chance to make some noise. Make no mistake, I’m not calling for the Lions in the playoffs, but I’m predicting them to be in a lot more games than they are out this year.

How big of an impact Jahvid Best will have in Detroit is still unknown, but he's a definite upgrade over Kevin Smith.

• Division races.
  Of course, it’s every team’s goal to improve in the offseason, but it sure seems to me like a lot of the middle ground teams are making some big leaps heading into ‘11 while the top tier is sticking with status quo. I’m not ready to hand division titles to anyone at the outset of the season. Well… lets be honest, its hard to pick any of the lowly AFC West gang to upset the Chargers, but, all other titles are up for grabs. Of particular interest, the AFC East with both the Jets (assuming they can welcome back Revis, and even still if not) and Dolphins making big leaps. I love me some Patriots, but that is going to be a tough division to come out of this year. I’d be shocked if the Cardinals manage to hang on in the NFC West too, after losing Warner, and Boldin and many cogs on defense. And even in the NFC East, are the Redskins finally ready to make some noise? If so, and if the Giants defense makes some improvement, we’ve got a legitimate 4 team race.
• The Green Bay Packers.
  Lots to love here, a very exciting football team with skill at every spot. Lots of people picking them early for the SuperBowl, and I’d be inclined to agree – but we have to see some significant steps in QB protection, and overall defense if they are going to get there. Still, this team is ready and every game will be exciting. If nothing else, the Packers will be producing some very watchable football this season.

Packers: contenders or pretenders? Most would side with the former, but either way, there will be 16+ action packed football games featuring the Pack this year.

• My first live game.
  Things are different North of the border, ok? I finally caught my first CFL game this year, and even with its inferior players, inferior rules, and general crapiness by comparison I had an AWESOME time. With passport in hand and the border nearby, I have no excuse not to be in Buffalo on at least one Sunday. Its the Bills, I know, but its still live football.

I doubt I'll be cheering for the home team... but just to be at the game...

That’s not necessarily the top 5, just a random spewing of thoughts, but the point is… I’m excited, like all of you for 2011, and can’t wait to get the season underway!

Reggie Wayne is at the forefront of the receivers lost on Revis Island this year, but he'll get his chance to break out in a big way for the Colts this weekend.

It was a pretty sweet gimmick to begin with, but Revis Island has gone to a new level.

With New York City, as it always seems to do, rallying behind its team as it strives for playoff glory Mayor Mike Bloomberg renamed Manhattan Revis Island. As far as lame playoff gimmicks go, this one is pretty good, at least its fun.

As they point out at PFT, its nice that a cornerback is getting this kind of recognition – its been hard to ignore Revis’ contributions all year, and with the Jets making playoff waves thanks in no small part to their defensive prominence, he’s making headlines.

The great season won’t be forgotten any time soon, as Revis has emerged into (if not a no doubter) one of the top cover corner’s in the league, and he’ll be around playing the role of shutdown corner for years to come, but all will be for naught, at least as far as the outcome of the 2009 season is concerned if he can’t continue his dominance against Reggie Wayne and the Colts this weekend.

He was able to shut Wayne down in their Week 16 contest, but of course, that game marked the beginning of the end for the Colts’ perfect season and the now infamous Paintergate of 2009 which is a big reason the Jets even got this far. It will all be on the table in the Conference Championship and if anyone can break out of Revis Island it will be Wayne. (Although, Kurt Russell/Snake Plissken did a great job 30 years ago in Revis Islands’ more traditional namesake).

Update: The coverage of the Jets’ conference game appearance just keeps getting better.

Though some fans embrace the game, the Toronto-Buffalo link needs to iron out some wrinkles to be successful

The game was competitive, with the Jets coming out on top 19-13.

As I mentioned in an earlier article there wasn’t a whole lot of reason’s to be hyped up about this game. By December, as usual, the Bills were out of playoff contention – as were their opponents, the New York Giants. The game had little meaning, other than it was played North of the border.

Owens had picked up his game in recent weeks, but blanketed by cover corner Darrelle Revis there wasn’t much to see (3-31). Braylon Edwards scored a nice touchdown for the Jets, but it was preceded by a few drops/missed plays and one huge drop where the ball hit a wide open Edwards in the hands/face rather and fell incomplete.

I had the opportunity to buy decent seats for 75 bucks or so. I guess that’s cheap? considering that the over priced game featured obstructed view top level seats for $100, but it just doesn’t make sense. Why would Toronto fans pay to watch a transplanted game, where they can’t choose the teams and they are asked to overpay, when they can make the quick drive to Buffalo, for reasonably priced tickets, a real NFL atmosphere, and choice of opponent (Dec 20 upcoming against the Patriots would be nice).

There are problems with the game, no doubt, but at least Toronto came off looking pretty good in the NFL spotlight, and the game was competitive. Cheers to Rogers for trying to get involved, but it won’t work in its present context. Bring an October/November game where the Bills aren’t knocked out, against an opponent worth watching, and – get this for an idea – rather than having to give away endless numbers of seats to ’sell out’ why not just drop the prices and sell them?

Works for me…

So, I’m not going to add any more to the dissection of the Saints dominance/the Pats failures in last nights MNF, except to say that I’m surprised the Patriots didn’t at least make a game of it.

I don’t think anyone in the New England camp is sweating all too much about this loss, they are still in great position for the playoffs and even AFC home field advantage depending how the chips fall, and they’ll get another shot at the Colts/Saints if they hope to make it to the big game. If they are so fortunate expect the Pats to be much better prepared the 2nd time around.

What I will say is this: Bill Bellichick continues to prove that he has some massive stones. Just two weeks removed from the 4th and 2 debacle to end the Colts game, Bellichick went for it on a couple of early crucial 4th downs, and a late play deep in Colts territory down by a pair of touchdowns. I think all the play calls made sense (as did Sean Payton’s very effective response on the Saints lone 4th down conversion).

The Patriots ended the game 2/3 on 4th downs, and again, all the play calls probably made sense, but you get the feeling that Bellichick’s hatred for all things kicking (punts, field goals, and by this vein of thinking, definitely soccer) has opposing coaches shouting “play the game for real, man” just like playing Madden against your friend who refuses to punt. “You wouldn’t call like that in a real game”, well, apparently Bellichick would. And good for him – although last night’s game was a blowout, at least early it makes the football a lot more exciting to watch.

The above post shows you a number of things a) I play Yahoo! Fantasy Football as part of my Fantasy palette b) my team names pay homage to a portly former backup catcher for the Houston Astros and a rare coloured pigeon and most relevant for fantasy purposes c) an alarming number of people (8500 and counting) have given up on Jerricho Cotchery.

Now, I know that things are changing pretty quickly in New York. The addition of Braylon Edwards moves Cotchery down the depth chart, and Mark Sanchez is not looking like the quarterback that he did the first few weeks of the season. Both of these facts likely hurt Cotchery’s fantasy relevance. However, if we recall that Cotchery played well alongside Laveranues Coles last season and assume that Sanchez will eventually stabilize to the point that he’ll have some success in getting his receivers the ball, this seems like a hasty decision.

Cotchery has been ruled out of play for week 7, so a percentage of those owners probably needed the roster space given the bye week/injury situation, in certain circumstances Cotchery is a necessary drop, but he should still be near universally owned. When Cotchery was healthy (and the Jets were Edwardsless) weeks 1-4 he didn’t have a game below 70 receiving yards. The touchdowns were a little light, but the performance was consistent. Again, things have changed a bit, but once he gets back up to speed there’s no reason to think that Cotchery can’t return as a viable every week WR3. Keep him rostered.

(Update: the number continues to climb, now over 10000 fantasy users are cutting ties…)

If anyone has visions of Ronnie Brown slogging around in the mud in London last year, there is some good news for the Patriots vs. Bucs game. Looks like, although there will be some clouds in the sky, the players should stay dry and Brady will get a few opportunities to throw the ball.

Bad news, I suppose for Maroney owners, but he’ll still get his shots.

http://www.accuweather.com/world-index-forecast.asp?partner=nfl01&loccode=EUR|UK|UK241|LONDON

Is Terrell Owens still the massive draw that they'd have you believe?

So, I know I should be thinking about making an impactful first post, something that will draw all kinds of wonderful attention to my blog and keep readers wanting more. Honestly. I haven’t put the thought in, I’m failing you already. I’m sorry.

When thinking of what I wanted to share with the world, I keep coming back to one thing that’s frustrating me endlessly. Every day on my commute to work I hear ads for the upcoming Bills in Toronto game.

There are two things around this game that are driving me nuts. The first: any legit NFL fan is already making the (less than) 2 hour trip to Buffalo to watch the Bills play at home, at a reasonable price. I get that the NFL wants to promote its product across borders and I’m happy that Toronto was chosen as a worthy site. But, I just don’t see the point of paying an uber-inflated ticket price to go to Rogers Centre and watch the Bills play when I can go to a game of my choosing in Buffalo.

In the end though, as I said, its kind of cool that the game is coming here – and I hope it makes a big impact in Canada, and understand the logic behind exposing the game to the fans that aren’t interested enough to make the trek to Ralph Wilson Stadium.

The big issue for me is with the promoters of the event. Again, to anyone with more than a passing interest of the game, the gimmick doesn’t work – nor does hyping Terrell Owens as the biggest and best thing in the NFL. I like T.O. and I don’t think his declined as much as analyst insinuation, and stats would indicate… his decline in production is clearly as much a part of the system and talent around him as anything else (though Charles Robinson at Yahoo would disagree)… but, I can’t help but laugh at the dramatic voice that announces T.O. is coming to T.O. like its something I should be excited about. Owens currently sits tied for 92nd in the NFL in receptions (15) with such marquee names as Mark Bradley and Cardinals 4th receiver Jerheme Urban. Owens has consistently been a producer, and deserves credit for it, I hope he produces in this game, but if we wouldn’t get excited over the 3 catch 24 yard performance a guy like Bradley would aim to produce matched up against the Jets and CB Darrelle Reevis I don’t see why I’m excited about his coming to Toronto.