According to the Denver Post (and big ups to our good friends at Mr. Irrelevant for passing it along), Javon Walker will undergo surgery on his right knee Friday in Houston. As always, this has some pretty major fantasy implications. Guess what we're gonna do?
Walker is too good to be droppable, especially since his timeline is only four more weeks at this point in time. His production hasn't been spectacular this year, a combination of being banged up and Jay Cutler underperforming. The real nightmare is that this injury is the same knee that he had surgery on two years ago. If you can get anything worthwhile for him in a trade, it's advisable to do so. And if you have room on your bench in the event that someone in your league drops him, it's a worthwhile gamble.
Cutler takes a huge hit because he loses the best receiving option on his team. It's as simple as that. He's really underperformed and with lots of waiver wire circulation among signal callers, is probably dropable unless you're in a really deep league or one that starts two quarterbacks.
Brandon Marshall is the obvious beneficiary here, as he's the number one wideout for the Broncos for the next four weeks. There is of course the downside that he'll be seeing teams' best DB's during that span, but he's still the best receiving option for Denver.
Brandon Stokley should slide into the number two slot in Denver now but he's not a spectacular option for most fantasy owners. Deeper leagues should have already pounced by now as he'll see some targets; don't expect him to fire out big fantasy numbers though. He'll be a nice by week filler on occasion, and the Broncos get the Packers and the Lions, ranked 21st and 30th against the pass respectively, in weeks 8 and 9.
Tony Scheffler and Daniel Graham have both been nothing short of ineffective thus far this season, but it would make sense to see Cutler lean more heavily on his tight ends with his number one wideout out for a while. Don't make any crazy moves to get either one of them, but certainly consider using one of them as a bye week filler. Graham is probably the better option if you're looking for the immediate gamble.
Per the House's Michael David Smith (via several sources), Travis Henryhas reportedly failed a drug test for marijuana and could face up to a year suspension from the NFL. He has also reportedly sued the NFL to keep it under wraps, but as MDS points out, there's probably a lengthy Ricky-style suspension coming down the pipe.
In that same fashion, you may have noticed my boy Selvin Young averaging 9.2 yards per carry so far this season in a backup capacity. Mike Shanahan has taken a liking to the youngster out of Texas and he's looked very good in a reserve roll for the Broncos. For fantasy purposes before now, he was nothing more than a classic handcuff (despite the fact that the term is actually outdated because of all the RBBC's). Suddenly, Young looks like he might be the starter for the remainder of the year on a Broncos team that always seems to get over 1,000 yards out of its backfield.
It's obvious you should have stopped reading and gone to pick him up in any fantasy league right? This is what we calla freebie. Hustle up.
Meanwhile, Newsday is reporting that Henry is suing the NFL to prevent it from using the results of the drug test to suspend him. If the lawsuit fails -- and it seems like an incredible long shot -- he could also appeal, but the chances are very good that Henry will be suspended for a year, and that the suspension will come soon.
Henry, who is leading the league in rushing, served a four-game suspension in 2005 after testing failing a drug test when he played for the Tennessee Titans. Henry signed a five-year contract with the Broncos in March that guaranteed him $12 million, but unless the Broncos' front office is a collection of the world's biggest idiots, they included a provision that allowed them to get his bonus money back if he failed another drug test.
Remember last year, how Broncos coach Mike Shanahan put undrafted rookie Mike Bell at the top of the team's running back depth chart, and all of a sudden fantasy players were scrambling to grab him, on the theory that whoever plays running back for the Broncos is guaranteed to have a good year?
Well, this year fantasy players are scrambling to dump him. As are the Broncos. He's been moved to fullback, and Pro Football Talk is reporting that the Broncos are trying to trade him.
Shanahan just doesn't feel the need to keep running backs around. He's already traded his top back from last year, Tatum Bell, and he's apparently happy to have free agent acquisition Travis Henry carry the load this year, with some help from undrafted rookie Selvin Young.
But would any team want to trade for Mike Bell? He was a decent player last year -- advanced stats show he was more effective than Tatum Bell -- but there's a perception around the league that assuming a running back will be productive in another offense because he's productive in Denver is a sure way to end up with a running back who can't run. The Broncos aren't likely to get much for Bell.
A regular look at 30 people who will affect the 2007 NFL season.
To fully appreciate how good Javon Walker was last season in his first year as a Denver Bronco, you have to understand just how bad the rest of the Broncos' passing game was.
The advanced stats at Football Outsiders ranked the Broncos' passing offense 22nd in the league. Receivers Rod Smith, Brandon Marshall and David Kircus all came out below average in the Football Outsiders wide receiver stats. But despite playing in an otherwise terrible passing game, Walker ranked 16th in the Football Outsiders stats.
And he could be even better this year. He's completely healthy this year, something he couldn't say as he recovered from a knee injury last year. And quarterback Jay Cutler should continue to improve and do a better job of hitting Walker in stride on deep balls to take advantage of Walker's speed.
Bottom line: As Cutler improves, Walker has a chance on improving on last year's great numbers and being one of the NFL's top receivers.
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?
In a move that will have major implications for two teams and millions of fantasy football players, the Detroit Lions have traded cornerback Dre Bly to the Denver Broncos in exchange for tackle George Foster and running back Tatum Bell.
Bly, the Lions' best defensive player, was entering his last season in Detroit but has agreed to terms on a new contract with the Broncos. With Bly on the opposite side of the field from Champ Bailey, Denver now has by far the best pair of cornerbacks in the NFL and one of the best pairs of cornerbacks in NFL history.
Foster has spent his four-year career with the Broncos and started 45 games, and he's one of the big reasons that everyone just assumes the starting running back in Denver is good for 1,000 yards a season, no matter who he is. The Broncos' line won't be as strong if they don't find a solid replacement for Foster.
Bell had 1,025 yards and two touchdowns last season, and the fact that the Lions traded him shows they have no faith in the ability of Kevin Jones to recover from his season-ending foot injury. Expect Bell to carry most of the load in Detroit next year.
The question is a key one for fans, media, and fantasy gurus alike: who will be the starting tailback come the Broncos' opener this Sunday against the St. Louis Rams? No one will know for sure until Sunday, but I think I can take a pretty good stab at it. The backstory on this one is very familiar for Broncos fans. Undrafted free agent Mike Bell, who said after the first few rounds in the draft went by that he hoped not to be drafted so he could sign with the Broncos, jumped over four running backs to grab the starting spot out of training camp. After doing okay in his first few games, and with several other tailbakcs having breakout performances in the preseason, including the other Bell, Tatum, Coach Mike Shanahan decided not to announce the starting back after the final roster cuts were made last Tuesday. Instead, Coach Shanahan left us with a tantalizingly good cliffhanger: who will start on opening day for the league's premier running offense?
The Broncos announced their cuts today, which included 11 fairly nameless players and cornerback Willie Middlebrooks. Middlebrooks played last year for the Broncos before being traded to San Francisco for John Engelberger, who is still on the team. After being cut by the niners, Middlebrooks tried to start again in Denver, but obviously did not shine. To be honest, it was going to be tough for Middlebrooks to make the team behind pro-bowler Champ Bailey and second-year corners Darrent Williams and Dominique Foxworth, both of whom had tremendous rookie seasons and have continued to look sharp in the pre-season.
For those of you counting on a Denver running back to solidify your fantasy backfield this year, don't jump on the Mike Bell train just yet. Mike Shanahan made a second announcement today involving running backs. According to the coach, the starting position is still wide open, and will likely be determined by performances this Thursday against Arizona. This is a bit of a strange announcement. Obviously, Shanahan wants to keep his eyes open, but it looks like this is geared more towards making it seem fair for Damien Nash and Ron Dayne, who have both missed games due to injuries, than it is for the sake of competition. I think the starting role may be open in Shanny's mind, but it should be clear that the two Bells and Cedric Cobbs should be the top three backs in St. Louis - pick an order on the depth chart. I don't see what about their performances hasn't already locked up the three spots. Does anyone feel like Shanahan might be trying to avoid injury compensation by alluding to the fact that Dayne and Nash still have a good chance at being one of the top three backs? Only time will tell.
The only other big news is that Courtney Brown and Gerard Warren, who have been injured most of the pre-season, will start practice again tomorrow. Both are expected to be back for the start of the season, but in their absence, Kenard Lang and Demitrin Veal have really stepped it up, and have earned their spots on the team. Veal is an especially exciting player, so keep an eye out for him. It'll be fun to see how his role develops as the season continues.
According to the Denver Post (and big ups to our good friends at Mr. Irrelevant for passing it along), Javon Walker will undergo surgery on his right knee Friday in Houston. As always, this has some pretty major fantasy implications. Guess what we're gonna do?
Per the House's Michael David Smith (via several sources), 
Remember last year, how Broncos coach Mike Shanahan put undrafted rookie Mike Bell at the top of the team's running back depth chart, and all of a sudden fantasy players were scrambling to grab him, on the theory that whoever plays running back for the Broncos is guaranteed to have a good year?
A regular look at 
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 
In a move that will have major implications for two teams and millions of fantasy football players, the Detroit Lions have traded cornerback Dre Bly to the Denver Broncos in exchange for tackle George Foster and running back Tatum Bell. 
