Fantasy Football

With the dwindling number of NFL headlines, it’s making it easier and easier for me too mail-in my responsibilities for this site. It’s kinda nice, actually, not having to do anything. I could get used to it in June. Basically the only news circulating of any relevance is the ongoing Anquan Boldin saga, and the will he or won’t he speculation pertaining to his tenure with the Cardinals. The news this time around? He intends to fire his agent (note: he has since officially left Rosenhaus).

There are a couple of things about this story that I love and hate. One, I loathe Drew Rosenhaus and his self-promoting bullshit as much as the next guy who has no financial stake in the outcome of these contracts; but I’m a tad befuddled by a player firing his agent because of his inability to trade him. Because, you know, why would an agent intentionally sabotage his client’s chances of being trade and in all likelihood seeing an increase in pay, thus increasing the agent’s take home? This seems like it might be a structural problem with how the NFL and its franchises operate.

Additionally, this is kind of tantamount to the shallowness and urgency of sports reporting, particularly in the NFL. We can’t even wait for Boldin to actually bring down the hammer for the story to be reported. Some word of mouth reached the wrong guy, he told his friend at ESPN and that friend made it a story so to get the scoop. In case you feel like you’re reading this incorrectly, breaking a story before there even is a story to break is the new (arguably necessary) foundation for sports journalism, an industry growing in irrelevance that has everyone so paranoid reports are being released along the lines of “Boldin plans to change agents”.

I don’t know about everyone else, but I’m looking forward to the day when a Tom Brady dream is a lead story on Sportscenter. We can speculate about what it means for his future prospects, if it has any basis in this reality and if whether or not he’s going to put any stock in it. Of course, Boldin isn’t Tom Brady so he doesn’t get the same level of coverage. We have yet to analyze a state of his subconscious. He is hardly a litmus test.

All kidding aside (sort of), we can’t imagine why Boldin is so desperate to get out of Arizona. We’ve pondered this numerous times before, but it seems to suit what the majority of NFL players seek out in a franchise and what Boldin himself would look for: It’s a warm weather climate, they play in a dome, he has one quarterback who can reach him and another waiting in the wings whose showed promise, the team isn’t overly dependent on him despite being one of their biggest playmakers and he is amply compensated. What is he seeking exactly? Some misguided sense of respect after they benched him in a playoff game they won? He’s in for a world of hurt when he’s traded to New England, Tennessee or Pittsburgh or some other team accustom to winning on a regular basis and not just once every thirty or forty years.

Anyhow, if and when he’s traded we suspect his fantasy value will drop him at least five picks on average, if not more. Shit, Randy Moss’ value plummeted when he went from the Raiders to the Patriots, we can’t imagine Boldin’s fate will be any different.

A lot going on in the past few days that we’ve neglected to write about: NFL schedules being announced (Note: we like Adrian Peterson this year), John Madden just recently retired (we understand he’s something of an icon to your NFL loyalist, but it’s time for some new blood) and a bunch of people resigned with their current teams that shouldn’t really have any impact on the upcoming season that it didn’t have on the last (Jones-Drew & Harrison most notably).

Again, none of this is really relevant to anything regarding fantasy football, but it’s still news we could have at least commented on, because this site is so current and encompassing. But finally, we have a smidgen of news that might actually have a tangible effect on your 2009 season: Anquan Boldin is now officially on the trading block. I’m not sure what the big deal is, wasn’t he on the trading block about three months ago? Whatever. But the three main contenders come from all statures, proving that a star receiver is valuable regardless of current standing: The Browns, The Giants and The Eagles.

Or these are the three teams who seem to have surfaced, at least. He’ll probably end up playing for the Dolphins or something. But of the three the Giants are the team that not only need him the most, but the team he could improve the most, despite the fact they went 13-3 last season and won the Superbowl the year before it. Personally, though, I don’t see it happening. The Giants have little to offer in the way of draft picks (fairly low), there defense is stretched too thin, and they have no viable quarterback that they will be willing to trade that the Cardinals would probably put some value in. All they have to offer is running backs, and even then it’s only Bradshaw, who the Cardinals probably feel they can draft better than, much less give up a top five receiver for.

The Browns, on the other hand, have already thrown it out there that they would love for someone to take Braylon Edwards off their hands. Which seems insane to me, since they traded away the most talented tight-end in the league, their second wideout is facing a DUI manslaughter charge, and they’re starting a brand new quarterback who no one in the organization seems to like. I mean, right now if you’re a Browns fan, you have to be wondering if they’re cleaning house or sabotaging the team from the top down.

Bringing in Boldin would be a step in the right direction. Unload some draft picks in a weak draft, maybe throw them a bone with a utility receiver, keep Edwards, and you have a top three receiving corps. for the next five years. I know much of the Cleveland faithful want Edwards gone because he does have a penchant for dropping passes at costly points in the game, but he has top-five pure, god-given talent (behind Moss, Fitzgerald, Calvin & Andre Johnson). You don’t mortgage that because he played college ball in Ann Arbor (which I think has a lot to do with the antipathy for him). In short, I don’t see Cleveland pulling the trigger because off all this talk about Eric Mangini wanting to bring in “his own guys”.

What kind of narcissistic bullshit is that? “Whatever success I may experience, I can’t have any of the credit going to my predecessor who is also presumably my friend as we were coordinators together for one of the greatest franchise runs of all time.” Honestly, I defended the Mangini hiring and condemned his firing at the time, but he does seem like a bit of an asshole. The good news for Cleveland is, assholes tend to thrive in the NFL, especially at the coaching position.

Or maybe bringing in a free agent is considered “his own guy” because he was brought in under his clock, I don’t know. But what I do know is that Philly, all things considered, is the best and most likely fit of the three teams. For starters, they have multiple first round picks, meaning they could offer a first and a third (the same thing the Cowboys gave up for Roy Williams, which kind of set the market value for standout receivers) and not sacrifice an entire draft for the benefit of one offensive weapon.

The only setback would be if the Eagles haven’t recovered from their Terrell Owens hangover, which has prevented them from acquiring and hanging onto a legitimate first option at the wideout position. I can understand the trepidation, Anquan Boldin could have represented himself better in the playoffs, but I can also assure you that they are not making the playoffs without Boldin, even in the weak, weak NFC West.

That said, I think one aspect of this trade all three of those teams might want to take note of: Anquan Boldin does not operate well in cold weather. He’s not Kurt Warner bad, but he’s not Larry Fitzgerald good, either. Boldin played at Florida State, and went straight from their to the desert, playing at Sun Devil Stadium (which has to have the highest average temperature of any college stadium in the country) and later in a fucking dome at University of Phoenix. If you recall the Thanksgiving game, which was blistering cold in Philly, he dropped numerous passes and played a large hand in costing his team the game. If any of these teams are going to consider a move with this many potential consequences, they might want to make sure games like that are anomalies and don’t speak to a pattern of ineptitude.

If I am the Titans, however, I get the Bidwell’s on the phone post-haste.

So I said I would post about Jay Cutler once he was eventually traded, little did I know that would happen eighteen hours after I stated the fact. I thought it would be drawn out and met at its inevitable conclusion in which the Broncos get back about five cents on the dollar. But no, about twenty years after the fact it finally dawned on Chicago just how dire their quarterback situation is, and they trade away two first rounders, their current starting quarterback and some additional draft picks for an upgrade at QB. At least the “saga” is over.

Really, and I know it’s a cardinal sin to trade away draft picks in the NFL, this is the right move for them. They have an aging defense that rebounded in 2008 (they had an off-season in 2007), a respected and underrated line, and a top-tier running back. Everyone of these facets is older than they should be, and the argument for them is the same for the Vikings: If they just acquired a serviceable quarterback they could contend for a Super Bowl. Well, they not only got a serviceable quarterback, they got a top five quarterback behind Brady, Manning, Brees & Roethlisberger. And even beyond the short term, he’s probably a better asset than any of those five because he has comparatively so few miles under his belt.

Denver probably got all they could out of the ordeal as well, given the circumstances. If that new coach (their first new coach in a couple decades) and Cutler couldn’t get along, then reload everywhere else but receiver (they need it) and hope to make a turnaround by the end of the decade with a young, competitive team. In other words, you’d ultimately rather have Cutler than the draft picks (much like Chicago would), but the alternative wasn’t nearly as bad as one would have thought.

That isn’t to say there isn’t a downside for both franchises. Chicago, for instance, is out two first round picks in 2009 and 2010. We’ve already established that this team is getting old by NFL standards, and the difference that those two draft picks would have made (probably on the defensive side of the ball) will be palpable. The NFL is about reload and replenish, and obviously the first round of the NFL draft is the best place to do this in.

Not to mention, who exactly is Cutler going to be throwing the ball to next season? Devin Hester is a phenomenal athlete, but he wasn’t an “every down” receiver until last year (and that dates back to college). Needless to say, and you can blame it on the mediocre quarterback play if you want, but he left a lot to be desired. I think for Cutler, throwing to Brandom Stokley, Brandon Marshall and Eddie Royale is going to feel like it was a decade ago.

That said, I would dismiss all the hullabaloo about him only being 17-20 as a starter. I mean, did you see that defense last year? It is, unequivocally, the worst defense that has ever contended to make the playoffs. That includes any Bengals or Rams defense of the past decade. Yeah, that bad. It might have only been the second worst in the league, but it just so happened to exist in the same season as the first ever 0-16 team in history. There’s a feather in their cap, I guess. Oh, and last year was the first Shannahan team in recent history to fail too produce a 1,000 yard running back. Whether it was the backs or the line (note: It was both), Cutler’s team’s record is going to suffer as a result.

Denver, for all the reasons just stated, has their own host of concerns that should take a lot more than a few extra draft picks to compensate for, especially since they just offered up their best player at the most crucial position after a fallout in the front office. Man, what a bunch of children. There should really be some sort of law against acting this petulant if you’re as rich as everyone at the proverbial bargaining table.

Anyhow, it’s going to be interesting to see how this all pans out. It’s a rare occurrence for a pro-bowl caliber quarterback to switch teams just as he’s entering the prime of his career. Because, you know, such a thing is ofttimes regarded as a commodity worth holding onto. Either way, I’ll be on the edge of my seat waiting to see how this effects my fantasy weeks.

Back later this week with something draft related.