Big Blue Huddle

They were not good enough anywhere but I did not feel like the 49ers dominated (at least the way Dallas did).

I thought the 49ers played harder and with more passion but I was not boown away by how good they were.  Given how the Giants played, I am now revising my prediction for their record being 8–9 to 7-10 and maybe 6-11.  Why?

1) never expected Evan Neal to be this bad.

2) OL is far from playing well and cohesively.

3) Thibs is soft.  Think he has potential to be average at best.  I see no heart or aggressiveness.  Just dancing.

4) Saquon's year may be one of fighting recurring ankle problems.

5) the supposedly strong DL look horrible.  I see nobody there playing with fire.

6) I dont think DJ has any level of gunslinger's mentality.  He seems averse to taking chances.  All I see is a constant pattern of dump offs.

We are in a world of hurt now.

Quote from: kingm56 on September 22, 2023, 08:30:23 AMSimmons is not special; bad teams don't trade young 'special' players for a ham sandwich.  He's not going to magically become something hes never been by simply changing his helmet logo.  I like Hyatt, but he's a 3rd round pick...we don't know what he is/will be.

C Mack, Debo Samuel and Nick Bosa are special, Hyatt and Simmons are not; although, there's still plenty of time for the former to become special. The Giants problem continues to stem from the lack of dynamic players.   

It's a facts versus circumstances debate.  Sometimes a player simply is not producing results because of circumstances.  You can't draw conclusions just because of results.  A different environment, different scheme, different way a player is communicated to, may sometimes be the ingredients to produce a different result.

Quote from: DaveBrown74 on September 21, 2023, 06:49:26 AMThis team has been awful right up through last year and now they're relevant. I totally agree that they're "going nowhere" with respect to the playoffs and probably even just the New Years 6 bowls (though nobody cares about these anymore), but they've suddenly become the biggest story in college football right now if not American sports. I don't really have a rooting bias but I'm enjoying it as a story. I know some don't like Deion's style, and I get the reasons why, but I just find the whole thing entertaining personally, and I think it's pretty impressive to do what he did in just a year, even given you now have the transfer portal. If it were this easy other new coaches would be going to irrelevant schools and doing the same thing too.

I agree completely with what you wrote.

I have never loved his me first attitude and showy personality but he got players to come and they are believing in him and they are playing well. As a story, it's a great one.

It will be interesting to see what happens when real adversity hits.

The difference between his attitude vs Tom Bradys shows up clearly in how they approach Sanders son buying a Rolls Riyce.  Sanders seems indifferent.  Brady says he should be more focused on spending time looking at film.

Quote from: DaveBrown74 on September 20, 2023, 03:53:21 PMI hear you and I know people who are now rooting against Colorado. For me personally, I'm enjoying it. Sure Deion is cocky and self-aggrandizing and always has been, but I feel like it's an entertaining story that is adding some good juice to the college season. A lot of the clips of his locker room speeches etc have been fun to watch.

Without this Hunter kid they're not going to have much of a chance this weekend though. He's a Heisman caliber talent. I'm not saying they'd win with him, but I think they might be a bit more competitive. Oregon is a big time program though and Eugene is a very tough venue.

They're not going anywhere because you need depth to win and they dont have it yet.  I think it's a great story for football.  Colorado would never be relevant doing it the usual way.  It needed a disruption such as what Deion did.  Now he has to see it through however if team outperforms, I can see a team with a bigger wallet come calling that is in the doldrums or massively underperforming.

I see a lot of questions among many of the so-called top teams or previous top teams.  Bama is a hot mess with 3 QBs not gettingit dine and an OC failing.

I am not a believer yet in Sark or Texas.  Too many entitled players from places like Southlake Carrol.  Ewers will not meet the bell at the end of the season.

UGA and OSU have huge uncertainty at QB.  It won't matter how good the rest of their team is. OSU hired a DC in Him Knowles who plays a style of D that can beat the Big 10 but is not a design to beat Michigan.  Think it will hurt them.  Michigan has yet to get its running game going like last year and they've already made some changes in OL which show the problem they are having.

Quote from: JT39 on September 20, 2023, 12:42:07 PMHopefully Oregon wins by 50

Why?

Quote from: TDToomer on September 18, 2023, 08:59:57 PMFrom what I was told that even if you have a NFL Sunday Ticket package you can't get it without Amazon Prime. Is this true? If so does that mean most Sports bars won't be able the show the game? I am getting worried that I won't find a way to watch this. 

EDIT: Look to your left. I am not in Metro NYC.

Amazon won the TV rights for Thursday Night Football and yes it is only available on Amazon Prime.

10

8 (due to high number of injuries)

11

1 playoff win

Quote from: DaveBrown74 on August 29, 2023, 02:07:28 PMFirst off, great job last year to now be in a position to keep Pollard and St. Brown. Those were both league-winning type picks last year.

I think you're correct to feel very good about your team. I don't see any weak spots. People around your league will probably think you're being a homer with Jones, but I think the odds favor him having a very good fantasy season, certainly relative to ADP. So I like that pick plenty.

I love Jaylen Warren. Unfortunately he has flown up the CBS rankings, which is where my league is housed. People are taking him in the 9th round now. He was a 13th or 14th rounder a couple weeks ago. I'm drafting 12th in a 12 team league, and there is zero chance I take him on the 7/8 turn, so unless he makes it to me at 9/10 I'm not going to get him. Annoying as I really like him. I think he's better than Najee Harris. I just don't know that he will fully supplant him this season. If I felt confident that he would, I would have no problem drafting him in the 7/8, or earlier.

Also love the Quentin Johnston pick. That offense is going to throw it a ton again, and Mike Williams never quite puts it all together. Meanwhile Keenan Allen is getting to an age threshold where his ability to separate might start to tail off a little. I could see Johnston thriving this year. He has both the ability to get open deep AND make plays after the catch. I could see Herbert really loving him.

What's the latest on McLaurin's toe? I read that he is in real jeopardy of missing regular season time.

I lime your team though my potential concern would be at QB as I think to win in league you need a 280+ points with some combo of 30+ TDs/3,500 yards + passing yards with an offset for rushing TDs/yards.  That assumes a significant leap for DJ or Pickett.  I think DJ has it in him and skill players but OL work in progress may be the stress point.

You are strong at WR and Johnston pick is nice upside for low cost move.

Good job drafting

Dave - so last night I did my second fantasy draft for this season which was a snake draft.  I must say I prefer $200 auctions to snake formats.

QBs - Joe Burrow and Tua Tagliovoa

RBs - Saquon Barkley, James Cook, Devon Achane and Tyjae Spears

WRs - Garrett Wilson, DeVonta Smith, Jaxon Smith Njigba, Michael Thomas, Zay Flowers and Jonathan Mingo

TEs - Darren Waller, Dalton Kincaid

Kicker - Evan Mcpheraon

D - Saints

My likes:

I think I have good players across all positions.

Gamble which may not pay off - taking Michael Thomas.  Is he really past far past his prime?

Concern - after Saquon and James Cook, I have 2 rookies who have not been established as starters.  I am betting Derrick Henry misses some games or they really resuce his workload maybe on 3rd down.

Concern - is James Cook enough of a WR2 or do I have to hope for Achane to have more impact?

Quote from: DaveBrown74 on August 27, 2023, 07:07:37 PMGood point about Michael Thomas.. I agree that that could impact Olave.

Fair on LaPorta. I don't think he'll be better than 2021 Hockenson as a rookie either, but I feel like he's a guy who over the course of the season will integrated more and more. Last year there wasn't really much of any TE presence. Tack on Gibbs all year and Jameson Williams for the final 2/3 of the year or so and St. Brown has a lot of competition, even though he's the number one option.

Jameson Williams seemed destined to be JaMar Chase out of college but he's doing everything possible to be a wasted draft pick.  Now with this gambling suspension after a lost year due to ACL surgery, he may or may not be a factor.  I'd stay with Amon

Quote from: DaveBrown74 on August 27, 2023, 03:30:01 PMYes - this is purely a fantasy discussion. Not who is the best in real life.

We're not far off in our rankings. I like Lamb a lot myself. He might be number one in this group for me. He's only 24 so likely still in an upward slope, the guy basically doesn't ever miss games, and he has been good from day one but has gotten steadily better.

Everyone loves Amon-Ra, and I don't disagree. I just have a couple of question marks with him:

(1) When Jameson Williams back, unless they play on throwing a hell of a lot more or barely targeting Williams at all, Amon-Ra's target share has to go down.

(2) In Amon-Ra's rookie year, he played best when TJ Hockenson was hurt. Then last year they didn't really have a tight end. Now all of a sudden they have Sam LaPorta, who supposedly they're very high on. Campbell as we know was a TE himself. I just wonder what that does to Amon-Ra's target share relative to last year.

(3) I wonder if Jamyr Gibbs ends up with a bigger pass catching role than either Swift or Jamaal Williams had.

I'm not down on St. Brown in any way. I think he's a thoroughbred talent. I just wonder if he's going to see the same target share that he did in 2022.


AJ Brown had a much better season last year than he has ever had before. I wonder if he'll be able to do that again. Maybe, but things could not have gone better for the Eagles offense than they did last year, and their defensive schedule is much, much tougher this year. I could see some regression there this year.


Wilson is an electrifying talent. I've said this before but he reminds me of a young OBJ. Except he's much less of a self-absorbed diva. His talent level looks similar to me though. I could see him being a top three fantasy receiver this year.


Olave is another guy I like. I don't put him quite on the level as some of the others listed above, but he did very well as a rookie with Andy Dalton as his QB. While Carr isn't great, I consider him better than Dalton. So Olave should be in a position to take a second year jump.


I'm trying to be careful with older receivers who are still going in the first and second round. Adams, Kupp, Diggs, etc. I'm not saying they will fall off, but 30 years old is a tricky threshold. Usually receivers fall off noticeably by 30/31. There are exceptions, but that's generally the rule. Sometimes you even see it at 29. So I'm trying to avoid those types of guys and instead get guys who are in the 23-25 range, where not only do I not have to worry about age, but they might still be getting better.

Dave - I dont think sam Laporta will be better this year than TJ was as a Lion so i believe that risk is minimal.

I like Chris olave a lot but now you have Michael Thomas returning and he has been a beast.  Got to think Olave may be affected by that.

Quote from: DaveBrown74 on August 27, 2023, 01:24:57 PMQuestion for the thread:

How would you rank the following receivers for just 2023? Ideally from a PPR point of view.

AJ Brown
CeeDee Lamb
Garrett Wilson
Amon-Ra St. Brown
Chris Olave

I had CeeDee Lamb last year to much success.  It taught me something.  I picked him because I thought he was good and by far the top WR on Dallas which meant lots of opportunities.  My preference is I think a good WR who clearly stands out as WR1 for all the opps he will get from his QB and quality if the QB.  Given that, here is my ranking:

Garrett Wilson - great WR1 and great QB
Amon-Ra St. Brown - great WR1/good QB
CeeDee Lamb - good, sole WR1/good QB
AJ Brown - great WR but too many options
Chris Olave - good WR returning Thimas and new QB

This is only for fantasy and points, not who I think is the best WR among them.

Question to my fantasy football brothers.

This is my first time playing in two different leagues.  One was an auction draft.  Second is an upcoming snake draft.  If you have played in multiple drafts, do you try to still target your same players or do you try to draft a different team and players?  I am leaning toward different players and strategy.  Thoughts?