Wesley here to save the day

Pats added Dante Wesley pictured above to add to the CB depth. I'm glad there's a little more depth but I won't count on him to do much right away. They also added Marcellus Rivers, probably to play some time in Tampa because the TE spot is unreasonably thin with Watson and Brady out right now, the only TE's were Garrett Mills and Matt Kranchick before the signing of Rivers who sounds like a mediocre journeyman.

P.S. does Wesley look like an elite athlete or what? He's entirely ripped (no homo).

Fantasy QB Rankings 1-10

After ranking the RB's in terms of expected fantasy output last week I thought I'd start on the QB's this week. This time though I'll make it a three-part affair so as to provide rationale or commentary for each choice. Again, these are subject to change significantly within a few weeks. Without further ado:

1. Peyton Manning: The most consistent player in fantasy leagues. He's already been the best statistical quarterback in the league, and given my analysis of the colts' defense this year, Manning may find himself trailing more than usual and his production could actually increase (if that's possible.) The maturation of Addai and the addition of Anthony Gonzalez should help - clear cut #1 here is Manning.

2. Carson Palmer: This is kind of a tough spot, because there are a few QB's you could slot in here, but given that I think their production will be roughly the same, I'm going with Palmer because I feel he's the safest pick. He's reached a level of consistency where he's automatic to have a better than 2:1 TD-INT ratio and exceed 3500 yards with 25 TD's. I consider that a worst case scenario (assuming he's healthy) whereas the best case is something like 36 TD 10 INT 4300 yds. He is in his prime and his weapons are still in their primes, expect him to have a good year.

3. Drew Brees: I'm a little less confident with this choice because it's not a lock that Brees has a year like he did last year, given that guys like Colston could regress. Still though the playcalling down in New Orleans is great, he still has a great pair of RB's to work with and the wide recievers should still be good if not great with the addition of meachem.

4. Marc Bulger: I didn't really appreciate how good Bulger was until I looked at his stats. He has been putting up consistently very good numbers, and I don't see it stopping this year. At 30 he is in his prime, with a top 3 RB to work with and a very able set of wideouts led by Holt and bolstered by the addition of Bennett.

5. Tom Brady: Debated putting him ahead of Bulger, but I think Bulger is safer at 4. Brady has the potential this year to be all the way at #2 if Moss and Stallworth stay healthy the whole year and perform up to their potential. Brady would have two of the best deep threats in the game and I'd imagine would rack up a ton of TD's with elite end-zone threats in Moss, Watson, Stallworth. However, there's a risk factor with those guys, Moss could be old and Stallworth could be injured. Even if they are Brady's a safe bet to put up good numbers, and I don't think you could let him slip past this spot.

6. Donovan Mcnabb: No clear-cut choice in my mind here. However, Mcnabb put up the 9th best production last year....in only 10 games! He was on pace for over 4200 yds passing before a knee injury derailed him. This year I expect his mobility to be hindered, but he should be due for a healthy season and I expect him to be in the 3800-4000 yd range. Losing stallworth hurt a little bit, but the eagles' coordinating is great, and you still have brown and westbrook at the very least.

7. Phillip Rivers: Phil was in the top 10 in production last season, all while being "managed" by schottenheimer and Cam Cameron. Although he's a 2nd year starter he's a 4th year QB and I expect him to have even more of a breakout year. Although Norv Turner like to run in the red zone, he should turn Rivers loose more than Schottenheimer did. We already know about LT and Antonio Gates, but Eric Parker is very underrated and Craig Davis has the potential to be a real asset to Rivers. I'd feel very confident taking him in this spot.

8. Ben Roethlisberger: If you feel this defies logic, good for you. Call it a hunch, but I think Ben and the Steelers will be back with a vengance this season. Hines Ward should be as good as ever, and I see Santonio Holmes, Heath Miller and Willie Parker all on a serious upswing. From what I've heard the new OC is partial to opening things up for Ben, which should mean more production. If a very good 3rd option at WR develops this year, look out for the Steelers. I'm aware they'll still run a lot, but I see ben getting a lot of production out of the deep ball, as well as the fact that Parker can really RAC on short dump offs and screens. I see the steelers scoring a lot of touchdowns this year. It's pretty much a make or break year for Roethlisberger, and although he's no lock - I'd bet on him.

9. Jon Kitna: Again, probably seems like a wild pick. What you need to realize is that INT's just don't penalize you much, and we know that Kitna is going to be throwing the ball like it's going out of style. The Lions will trail early and late and Kitna will be airing it out big time. He was already in the top 10 in terms of fantasy production last year, and now you add Calvin Johnson to the mix? Kitna may not have to do much besides let it rip and let Roy Williams and Calvin Johnson track it down. This pick has high bust potential because Kitna could be replaced if the Lions struggle, but I still think he has value at #9.

10. Vince Young: He didn't even start the first couple games and still ended up at #11 in production. While at first I thought that Young's loss of weapons such as Bennett and Henry would hinder him, I realized that it could actually cause his fantasy production to increase. I'm sure the Titans will still try to run a fair amount, but probably to little avail. The titans are likely to be in a lot of 3rd down situations, and a lot of "come from behind" situations late. This should mean a lot of passing plays for Young, and hopefully if you're a fantasy owner a lot of scrambling. Let's be honest, even if VY develops as a passer this year, he's not going to be throwing a boatload of TD's. What I'd hope for and expect is that VY will have to take care of things himself, which should entail a lot of scrambling and therefore points. Injury risk is a major concern so again I wouldn't feel safe taking him here, if he fell to 15 or so I'd snap him up in a hurry. Still I don't think there's anyone at this spot with more potential.

Historically Worst?

Before Colts fans get riled up by this post - you won the super bowl last year, so relax. So the Colts last year has a historically bad run defense, and we know that they magically ratcheted up their level of play in the playoffs to the point where they really shut down the chiefs and ravens (patriots not so much). So, I guess it's fair to contend that that their very poor run defense during the season didn't matter. Still, it's not something I'd be excited about, and I would sure as hell want it fixed. Only it doesn't look like it'll be fixed, it looks like it'll be worse. You never know how players will gel and how a defense will play together, but let's think about what happened to some of the Colts run-stoppers. Cato June = gone. Corey Simon = released. Booger McFarland = out for the year. Hmm......smells like a miserable defense to me. What I really hope happen is that the colts are forced to put 8 in the box and their secondary really gets torched (Nick Harper gone, Bob Sanders on the PUP list). It could be a real joy to watch jacksonville play them again as Fred Taylor, MJD and Greg Jones waltz into the end zone untouched all day. Maybe Dwight Freeney and his 72 million can stop the run......oh wait Freeney has never been good against the run in the first place.

Let's See : New Orleans, Jax (twice), New England, Denver, San Diego, Baltimore, Atlanta, Kansas City etc. Sounds like a whole boatload of rushing yards. I can't even conceptualize what LT will do to that pathetic run defense of the Colts, 300 yards is not out of the question. For the Colts to get to 12-13 wins again their offense is going to have to be better than ever. That is all.

Fantasy RB Rankings

Before I unveil these very early rankings, let me say a few words. First of all, these are subject to change greatly over the next 4 weeks as I do some research, watch preseason etc. Second, you may feel like there are some obvious omissions here, thats because i'm basing this more on risk (or lack there of) than potential. What that means is that I may rank a guy like jamal lewis who sucks but will get a lot of carries ahead of someone like jerious norwood who would produce at a much higher clip if he gets a lot of carries, but we don't know that he will. You might wonder why Cedric Benson is somewhat low consider I wrote the other day that he could go for 1500 yards. Well, he could also be a total flop - and I'm not willing to take that risk as a fantasy owner picking in the top 10. In the 10-20 range, I'm more willing. I rank down someone down like Fred Taylor or Warrick Dunn who is an aging injury concern. Given the statement I just made, you may wonder why Shaun Alexander is so high. That's a topic for another column, so i'll go ahead and let these rankings rip roar their way down the page.

1. LT

2. Steven Jackson

3. Frank Gore

4. Willie Parker

5. Shaun Alexander

6. Reggie Bush

7. Larry Johnson

8. Brian Westbrook

9. Travis Henry

10. Joseph Addai

11. Clinton Portis

12. Rudi Johnson

13. Edgerrin James

14. Cedric Benson

15. Laurence Maroney

16. Thomas Jones

17. Willis McGahee

18. Ronnie Brown

19. Deuce Mcallister

20. Chester Taylor

21. Brandon Jacobs

22. Maurice Jones-Drew

23. Marion Barber III

24. Jamal Lewis

25. Marshawn Lynch

26. Tatum Bell

27. ladell betts

28. Adrian Peterson

29. Fred Taylor

30. Jerious Norwood

Pittsburgh Steelers

I'm going to be an optimist and say I feel the steelers at full health should go 11-5 this year with losses at Baltimore, at New England, home against Seattle and Cincinnatti and at the New York Jets. Yes that means I'm giving them away wins At Denver, St. Louis and Cincinatti. With that record they should be the 3/4 seed for the playoffs. On another note, I wasn't really aware Willie Parker rushed for 1494 yards last season, at 4.4 clip. With the atrocious play of Ben Roethlisberger last year, that's pretty impressive. Given that Parker is 26 (prime) it's not out of the question that he could exceed 1600 yards this season, but I'm not sure we know exactly what Tomlin's philosophy is as far as run/pass.

Brady Quinn Needs to Grow Up

Brady Quinn thinks he should have been a top 3 pick, so he should be paid like a top 3 pick. Guess what Brady, you were picked 22nd. Now, it could be Quinn's agent convincing him to hold out - but if it's all the agent I would assume Quinn would be telling him, "Get a deal done so I can get to camp." The Browns did not pick Quinn at 22 to pay him like a top 3 or top 5 pick, they picked him at 22 to pay him what that slot deserves. It's just mind-boggling that Quinn and his agent think this is a great strategy. The longer Quinn holds out, the less chance he has of getting a starting job. If he doesn't get a starting job soon, and starts things off on the wrong foot with the Browns, whats his NEXT contract going to look like? Quinn needs to accept that he was the 22nd player taken, take his salary of about 15 million or so for 5 years, get to camp - win the starting job, and prove that he's worth the big bucks. If he did this, he would be plenty rich in a couple years. It's almost like this hold out says "I'm probably not going to get to a next big contract because I suck, so I need to cash in before everyone finds out I'm a bad Quarterback." The pathetic part is that the Browns QB job is totally open and there for the taking, but Quinn wants to insist that he be paid like the top pick he wasn't instead of going out there and earning it. If I was Brady Quinn's teammate I'd hate him already.

The New-Look Bears

John Clayton wrote an article today after visiting Bears camp and I'm assuming he didn't dictate the story because his mouth is definitely full of bear globes. Joking aside, as one sided as the article kind of was, I'm basically with Clayton here. A lot of people are down on the bears, saying with a tougher schedule they're going to be much worse, some even bold enough to predict that Chicago misses the playoffs. I really don't agree, I still think Chicago is #1 in the NFC, albeit with Dallas and New Orleans close behind. Here are a few reasons why:

1. Cedric Benson - I have only my viewing experience and my review of stats, but personally I think Thomas Jones is very overrated. The guy averaged about 4.1 per carry his last three years in Chicago, and has a number of sub 4 seasons for his career. Don't get me wrong, he's a "nice" back, and I think he'll be great in NY as a platoon guy. However, Ced Benson is the real deal. Skeptics will point out he too only averaged 4.1 last year, fair point. Numbers aside though, I just think Benson has much better potential than Jones as a feature back, he has a better combo of speed and power and more potential to break long runs than jones did. Benson won't even turn 25 until the end of the year, it was the right move to dump Jones and begin the Benson era. With an improved passing attack (I'll address this below) I see Benson as more like a 4.5 YPC guy, who could be due for a breakout year somewhere between 1300-1700 yards and a number of touchdowns.

2. The Bears Defense - It just really didn't get much worse over the course of the offseason. The bears wisely re-signed vasher and got Briggs to sign his one year tender. Even if they take a slight dip they'll be a top 10 defense in the NFL, and I think what losses they've had may be offset by experience gained.

3. The Passing attack - Look, first of all the Bears passing game couldn't get any worse, it's virtually impossible. Watching Rex Grossman play Quarter Back last year I felt some strange mix (as a non bears fan) of horrified, thoroughly amused, and sorry for Rex. This year, I don't think it's going to be the same story. I'm basing this mostly off of Clayton's article, but I think the difference is the number of weapons. All of a sudden the Bears have two above average recieving Tight Ends, Clark and Olsen. In addition they have an improved recieving corps, as Berrian is starting to break out and should only improve, and then you add Devin Hester to the mix who is sure to draw attention, and have the ability to turn a short dump off into a big gain. Thirdly, the running game should be as good or better as I stated earlier. Lastly, it just seems impossible that Rex won't improve, he really has nowhere to go but up. If he just learns to pick his spots with the deep ball to berrian, and then effectively dump off to backs, tight ends, and hester - his completion percentage and rating should really improve. I'm going to throw out a bold prediction: Rex Grossman will be a better Quarterback than Tony Romo in 2007.

As strange as it sounds to say, I'm really looking forward to watching the Bears offense in action, especially to see how Greg Olsen, Garret Wolfe, and Devin Hester fit in. Could the Bears be back in the Super Bowl next season? I'd bet on it.

Injury Strikes Patriots DB...again

We learned today that Chad Scott is out of the season with what sounds like an ACL. Apparently he wasn't contacted, but injured his knee nonetheless and had to be carted off the field. Clearly the Patriots Super Bowl hopes weren't resting on the shoulders of Chad Scott, but it does definitely hurt their depth. Apparently Scott had a great offseason and had been working with the first unit in camp. When you couple his injury with the fact that Asante Samuel might sit out the year, things aren't looking great in the defensive backfield. Right now the starters at corner project as Ellis Hobbes and Randall Gay. Supposedly Gay had his best offseason as a pro and is fully healthy, so I think they're OK at the starters. However, you have to assume someone will miss some time during the year, and right now the backups are basically Tory James and Mike Richardson (6th rd pick). To be honest I hope neither of these guys sees the field as a primary corner. Given the circumstances, it seems like brandon meriweather may have been a great pick this year, because if he's ready he can either play corner and bolster the depth there, or he can play safety if Harrison or Wilson misses time, which is likely. Good thing Meriweather (pictured below) is fast, and a brute.

Big 10 becomes Big 12?

ESPN.com released a story that the Big 10 might be considering expansion - to 12. They link this primarily to the Big 10 tv network and the idea that 12 teams would be better for the network, especially if you could split it into 2 divisions with a playoff at the end of the year. It all sounds nice, but I'm a little skeptical. I'm not saying it won't happen, because BC, VT and UM going from Big East to ACC happened, but I'm just not sure who it would be this time. Anyway, here are some schools I would see as schools the Big 10 might try to lure, and why I think they might or might not be good choices in no particular order:

1. Pitt - Like Penn St., Pitt is in Western PA so maybe because it's close enough to the Midwest, is a big public uni, and has a solid football program and a high class basketball program, it seems like it would be a logical choice to be poached.

2. WVU - Morgantown is roughly as far west as Pittsburgh, and would really benefit I think from a move to the big 10. Lately they've dominated the somewhat weak Big East in football, and it seems like there would be a $$ incentive to move to the big 10. Less chance of the automatic BCS bid I suppose, but matchups like WVU - Michigan, WVU - OSU etc. would be sure to bring money in the form of TV and ticket sales.

3. Louisville - Sort of the same case as WVU here, Louisville is virtually in the Mid-west and as a top football program in the Big East would really see increased competition and the likelihood of primetime games by moving to the big 10.

4. Iowa St. - I'm less zealous on this one, because (correct me if I'm wrong) I feel like Big XII football is pretty big time, maybe a slight step below the big 10, but not much - so I don't know what they would have to gain. They're not gaining and in-state rivalry because they already play Iowa anyway.

5. Missouri - Again, makes sense geographically but I think they'd feel about the same way as Iowa St. feels. There would have to be a significant monetary incentive it seems like.

6. Other SEC and Big XII - Of course it would be a major coup to be able to poach a team like Oklahoma, Tennesee, Arkansas or Kentucky and I doubt it would happen, but they should be considered.

Anyway, like I said I'm skeptical that this would happen, but the idea of WVU and UL or WVU and Pitt joining the Big 10 is pretty spectacular. The Big 10 would really benefit in football but in basketball too, and fringe teams like Northwestern and IU in football would be less of a factor because every season you'd have something like 7 current powerhouses competing: OSU, Mich, Wisc, Penn St., Iowa, WVU/Lousiville and then you'd always have the good years where MSU, Minnesota, Illinois, NW, IU and Purdue would be competitive.

A whine of a good vintage

Apparently a few months ago, Shaun Phillips whined on Rome is Burning about the New England Patriots, saying he has a grudge and has circled the game on his calendar. First of all, wahhhh. Second of all, the Patriots' rivals if anyone are the Colts, not the Bolts, so circle away - they don't really care. Third of all, the Patriots don't circle games on their calendar, they're veterans. They prepare the same way every week and treat every game with equal concern. News flash to Phillips, beating the Patriots is worth one win (even though maybe it should be more due to degree of difficulty) just like every other game, it just shows that the Chargers are a young and inexperienced team that they're holding a grudge over not being able to seal the deal with home field. Sour grapes Shaun, better luck next year.

NFL Notes

• ESPN has a Patriots preview that there's not much to take issue with, the Pats are elite and Scouts Inc. knows it. Also the pats signed Chad Brown, which registers about a 1.83 on my whelm scale.
• They also have an article with Special Teams rankings which is semi-bogus. I don't see how Tennessee stays that high with no Pacman.
• Anyone taken a look at the Jets schedule? As much as I love the job Mangini did last year with about 1.5 above average skill players and a QB with an undulating dinglearm, it's not happening this year. I'd say there's a min of 4 and a max of 10 wins here with my personal prediciton being about 7-9. I'd be very impressed if they go 9-7.

Pre-season NFL Power Rankings

"Dave H" at the all-encompassing football blog unveiled his power rankings but did it in a tier-format in respect to the likelihood that teams will makes the playoffs. I liked the idea of this format, just not the rankings, so here are mine, divided by conference. The NFL is pretty hard to predict because teams can go from "worst to first" and it's hard to see it coming, but this is my guess at the moment. AFC I think is a little more clear-cut, whereas it's unclear in the NFC whether a team like SF is ready to make the leap, and it's also hard to sort out tiers 3+4 where I see a lot of teams being pretty bad, I just don't know how bad.


AFC

Tier 1: Playoff Locks

1. New England Patriots
2. Indianapolis Colts
3. Baltimore Ravnes
4. San Diego Chargers

Tier 2: Playoff Probables

5. Denver Broncos
6. Pittsburgh Steelers
7. Cincinnatti Bengals
8. Jacksonville Jaguars

Tier 3: Playoffs Possible

9. Kansas City Chiefs
10. Miami Dolphins
11. New York Jets
12. Tennessee Titans

Tier 4: Playoffs would be surprising

13. Buffalo Bills
14. Cleveland Browns
15. Houston Texans
16. Oakland Raiders

NFC

Tier 1: Playoff Locks

1. Chicago Bears
2. Dallas Cowboys
3. New Orleans Saints
4. Seattle Seahawks

Tier 2: Playoff Probables

5. Philadelphia Eagles
6. Carolina Panthers
7. San Francisco 49ers
8. St. Louis Rams

Tier 3: Playoffs Possible

9. Minnesota Vikings
10. Tampa Bay Buccaneers
11.Washington Redskins
12. Arizona Cardinals

Tier 4: Playoffs would be surprising

13. New York Giants
14. Green Bay Packers
15. Atlanta Falcons
16. Detroit Lions

Tuesday ESPN links

• Short and lacking in detail, but nonetheless amazing story about a Rugby player who had a tooth in his head, and by head I don't mean mouth, I mean forehead.
• Delightful story about how Yi's Chinese team will block his move to the Bucks. It's nearly unfathomable how Larry Harris thought it would be a good idea to draft Yi when it was patently clear that he and his "people" did not want him to play for Milwaukee. It's not like Yi was by far the best talent on the board at 6 so they had to take him despite the risk that they might have to trade him, there were many other good options at 6 such as Brandan Wright, Corey Brewer etc. I really hope the Bucks are forced to trade him, and because other teams know this they refuse to offer much of anything in return and the Bucks end up getting screwed. Nothing against Milwaukee, I just think Harris should be punished for the boneheaded pick.
• Blue Ribbon Yearbook is exhibiting a healthy amount of zeal for the Boston College Eagles in its predictions of Conference rankings, but not for the Wisconsin Badgers.
• Finally, for those who didn't get to watch it, Brian Windhorst has a pretty good Summer League round-up with a few words about each of the first rounders, not much to disagree with him on here.

Speaking of contracts.....

ESPN.com has a great poll right now which asks, "Was Roger Clemens' seventh start (5.1 IP, 5 H, 5 ER, 2K, L vs. Devil Rays) worth a pro-rated $840,909 salary? Great question ESPN, I'll vote no. The only good thing about roger clemens' contract is that it's one year long, other than that it's miserable.

P.S. - Does anyone remember Roger's pathetic frosted tips? The picture above is such gold, the idea of Roger clemens trying to look suave and sophisticated is hilarious.

In other news, the US Men's Under 20 soccer team was finally defeated in the U20 world cup this afternoon. Very disappointing game as the US dominated for the first 30 minutes jumping out to a 1-0 lead and after that wasn't really the same until extra time where they had a boatload of chances but couldn't find the equalizer and lost 2-1. Still, this team is infinitely more fun to watch than the Senior team, at least they have some creative players, most notably adu. The US senior team could really use some of those ball skills and creativity.

Big Baby News - Third quarter of their summer league game he has a double double and about 5 blocks, looks like he was a total steal at 35 so far. Look for him to play a role for the Celtics this year similar to Paul Millsap's role on the Jazz.

Contract Week

For some reason this has been a week of ridiculous contracts (and contract talk) with NBA Free Agency, the NFL offseason and some odd baseball extensions. Overall the money doled out has been pretty preposterous, but then again you generally have to dish it out to hold onto (or snag) a star player. The contracts that have most caught my eye have been the A-Rod talk, Rashard Lewis, Ichiro, Dwight Freeney and what I'll call "the white role-players." There have been innumerable other contracts making news, and other bad ones, but I thought I'd just give a brief run down of what I think of these 5.

Rashard Lewis (6 years - 110 to 126 Million): This is probably the worst contract to come along in some time. Rashard Lewis is a "nice" player, 22 ppg, 5 rpg but is not a savior, is not a star, and will not even be the best player on his team! To top it off there didn't seem to be anyone else willing to pay this outrageous sum to Lewis, the magic we're not in a bidding war, and likely could have paid 20 million less and still had him. Just some food for thought, the Magic opted not to re-sign Milicic who ended up getting 7 Million a year. So they're paying one borderline all-star (Lewis) 20 million a year, when they could have had Milicic for 7, and Gerald Wallace (18 ppg, 2 stl, 2 blocks) who is a better player than Lewis for 10-12 Million (Just Look at this link). All of a sudden you'd be looking at a lineup that has a good young PG (Nelson) shooters (Redick, Milicic) Shotblocking and Post defense (wallace, milicic, howard) and a ton of rebounding from those same 3. What a miserable job by the Magic.

Ichiro (5 years - 100 million): This one is pretty simple, the Mariners gave ichiro about 50% more than he deserved. When the red sox gave Manny Ramirez 20 million a year some time ago, it was a crazy offseason with sky-high prices (A-rod netted 262 million). However, at least for 5 or so years, Manny was basically a triple crown threat. Flash forward to 2007, and the Mariners are paying a 33 year old singles hitter 20 million a year, and this makes sense how? Ichiro's a great player blah blah, but his speed will decline which will hurt him, and he's not getting any better, so given that he's not worth 2 million now, it's unclear how he will be post-age 35.

A-Rod (rumored in the neighborhood of 30 million): As crazy as it is to say with the season that A-Rod is having, he simply isn't worth that percentage of a team's payroll. Even if you expect him to continue to have seasons like this (which is unlikely). The reason it doesn't make sense is that the next highest paid players are all around 15 million. You're telling me you wouldn't rather have two 15 million dollar players than one 30 million? In a fantasy trade in a keeper league if I were to offer you Vlad Guerrero (also 31 years old, 14 million) and Daisuke Matsuzaka (26 years old, 16 million) you wouldn't take it? How about Josh Beckett at 12 million, Vlad, and a good relief pitcher? It just doesn't make sense to pay one guy that much money.

Dwight Freeney (6 years, 72 million): I'm kind of ambivalent on this one. On the one hand Freeney is 27, so these 6 years will essentially be his prime. He is clearly very productive, if not the most productive at his position. Also, if Nate clements is worth 10 million, Freeney is worth 12. Then again, thats a ton of money to have locked up in a player who is not a Quarterback and really specializes in one thing, sacking the Quarterback. He makes any defense much better, but is he worth 12 million? I'm not sure. Another thing to consider, how are the colts paying for all of this? We know they're paying Peyton Manning a ton, Marvin Harrison a ton and have or will pay Reggie Wayne a ton. Now add in Freeney's mammoth contract. I can't help but think the Colts are going to continue to lose some of the guys who are not stars necessarily, but helped them win a championship, with all of this payroll on the books.

White Role Players (16 years, 81 million): Jason Kapono (4 years 24 million), Matt Carroll (6 years 27 million) and Luke Walton (6 years 30 million) are all overpaid. The worst is probably Kapono and the best is probably Walton. You're going to give a guy who has only one skill, three point shooting, and is very poor in all other areas, especially defense, 6 million a year? What a waste. Unless you're an NBA fanatic, you probably don't even know who Matt Carroll is, so I think that says enough about giving him 27 million. Luke Walton's contract is probably the most reasonable, because he is at least average at rebounding and passing and can score 12-15 ppg. Still, why give him 6 years? There's no reason to do that when he's missed more than 10 games a season the past 3 years, only recently averaged double figures in points, and only recently shot over 45% from the floor when he is a forward.

Year after year GM's continue to amaze us buy paying outrageous sums of money for players, some wise investments, some not. We'll have to wait and see about these guys, but I'd bet these GM's will end up regretting that they didn't fight harder to save a few million when they could use another piece to their team, but all their money is tied up in a "star".

Raiders sign.....Donovan Darius??

Apparently the Oakland Raiders signed Donovan Darius and I missed it. Darius was one of the best safeties around a few years ago, racking up a number of highlight reel (and fine-worthy) hits. Now he's coming off injury and may or may not be able to regain form, but is at least worth a shot. I'm not really sure I understand this move for Oakland though, on the one hand I applaud them for picking up a good player for once, but it seems like safety is not their biggest concern, especially when you have young guys in Huff and Schweigert who you want to get playing time in order to develop. I guess you can never have too much depth, I just wish the Raiders were as smart at finding players at important positions like Offensive Line as they were at finding safeties.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news?slug=ap-raiders-darius&prov=ap&type=lgns

Introductory Post

Disclaimer: This blog will cover (at least) the NFL, NBA, MLB, EPL, and NCAA basketball and football. Furthermore there will probably be an emphasis (but not too heavy) on the teams that I follow: The New England Patriots, Boston Celtics, Boston Red Sox, Georgetown Hoyas, US Men's Soccer and Fulham FC (recently adopted). Coverage will probably be dictated by what season it is. Also, I'll have a number of Guest Bloggers on here to discuss things, especially during the NFL season.