Fantasy Arizona Cardinals

Philadelphia Eagles running back Brian Westbrook made one of the strangest plays of the NFL season when he took a handoff against the Dallas Cowboys, broke into the clear, raced toward the end zone -- and stopped at the 1-yard line.

The Eagles had a four-point lead just before the two-minute warning at the time, the Cowboys were out of timeouts, and after Westbrook's play Philadelphia could just run out the clock with three straight kneeldowns.

Eagles coach Andy Reid praised Westbrook, but not everyone did. Take Cardinals wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald, who approached Westbrook at the Pro Bowl and told him, "You ruined my fantasy football team."

Yes, NFL players do play fantasy football, and as Adam Rank of NFL.com writes, Fitzgerald was among the thousands of fantasy football players who were disappointed when Westbrook took away some easy fantasy points for a silly reason like managing the clock late in a close game.

Westbrook's play might have been the most memorable in the history of fantasy football, and Fitzgerald is one of the many fantasy players who was still thinking about it long after the season ended.

A regular look at 30 people who will affect the 2007 NFL season.

A year ago, Edgerrin James leaving the Colts for the Cardinals was supposed to be one of the big moves of the NFL off-season. James was supposed to provide a big boost to Arizona's' offense, and his absence was supposed to hurt Indianapolis.

It didn't quite turn out that way. James averaged a career-low 3.4 yards a carry, and the Colts won the Super Bowl without him. But most people held the Cardinals' offensive line -- not James -- responsible. And that means the Cardinals' new offensive line coach, Russ Grimm, has a big job ahead of him this season.

Grimm is a former Redskins lineman and Steelers assistant who was considered the favorite to land the head coaching job in Pittsburgh before the Steelers chose Mike Tomlin, and he's one of the most highly regarded offensive line coaches in the league. The Cardinals used their first-round draft pick on tackle Levi Brown, and Grimm has to get Brown ready to play by the opener and get the rest of the line to show some continuity where all it showed last year was instability. It's a big job, but if any coach can do it, it's Grimm.

Bottom line: Grimm will have the Cardinals' line playing better, but James will never match the production he achieved in Indianapolis.

30 to Watch: See them all.

I just got a new ride, and it has Sirius Satellite Radio in it. Sweet. I find that I listen a lot to Chill, Raw Dog Comedy and NFL Radio, not necessarily in that order. Anyway, yesterday on his NFL Radio program, Pat Kirwan mentioned his NFL.com article about how there could be 10 quarterbacks in the NFL this year who are starting the season for the first time as a 16 game starter. I hadn't realized it could be that many. He stresses that expectations shouldn't be too high for these quarterbacks because their learning curve is steep.

Stat stud, Doug Drinen at the always interesting Pro-Football-Reference.com blog, wrote an entry a while back about the difficulties of teams with inexperienced players at the offensive skill positions. He took a historical look at the greenest teams at quarterback, running back, tight end and 2 wide receivers, and then compared that to their final season records. Though there were a few success stories in the bunch, the data shows that the least experienced teams at the skill positions usually stunk. But since all quarterbacks have to start somewhere, a number of those quarterbacks helming those teams eventually went to the Super Bowl.

So, I have a few questions for you. Are you concerned about the inexperience of your team's quarterback and/or the skill players around him? And, what other Sirius radio programs do I really need to check out?

Fantasy Football is as popular as ever and players are always looking for the advantage. I am no different and I happened to draft Kurt Warner, so today I looked around to see where he ranked as a starter this week. It was not a surprise to see him ranked in the top five to start, but I was surprised to see him ranked as the "starter of the week" by Fox Sports.

Upon further review, Fox Sports was not the only place that had Kurt Warner listed the number one Quarterback of the week. This is a good sign for all Kurt Warner owners as well as for all Cardinals fans in general. The 49ers pass defense is not very good and the Cardinals passing offense has the potential to be fantastic.

My prediction? 20 of 30 for 315 yards and 3 touchdowns - No interceptions. Finally and most important, a Cardinals win. 38-13 and an ideal starts to the 2007 season.