Arnaz Battle Posts -- FanHouse

Latest Arnaz Battle Stories

Fantasy Cut-N-Go: Matt Cassel Injury Hurts Draft Position

Posted: Aug 31st 2009 2:07PM by Knox Bardeen (author feed)
Filed under: Draft Advice, NFL Injury Report, NFL Preseason

Cut-N-Go is Fantasy Football FanHouse's daily gathering of links from around the web, covering the goings-on in NFL Training Camp which have an impact on fantasy value.

The Kansas City Chiefs got really bad news on Sunday after quarterback Matt Cassel went down Saturday night with an injury.

It appears, according to Jason Cole of Yahoo! Sports, that Cassel could miss the season opener as he'll be out two to four weeks with a strained medial collateral ligament in his knee. The injury isn't expected to require surgery but will force Tyler Thigpen into action.

More FanHouse Advice | Get Extra Edge With Rotoworld's Premium Draft Kit

Continue Reading Fantasy Cut-N-Go: Matt Cassel Injury Hurts Draft Position

Injuries to Watch: Week 12

Posted: Nov 21st 2008 5:18PM by Ryan Dembinsky (author feed)
Filed under: Fantasy Football, NFL Injury Report

0 COMMENTS

Every week when the dinner bell rings on Friday evening, we'll be here to provide you a comprehensive commentary of the key injuries for the NFL weekend to follow. For those injuries that go right down to the wire, drop by our Fantasy Fanhouse expert live chat from 10:30am to 1pm EST every Sunday and we'll take care of you on those bloody game-time decisions. As always, please feel free to chime in with opinions, updates, and rumors in the comments.

The Atlanta Falcons

Roddy White - This season's superstar bust-out receiver missed Wednesday and Thursday practice with a back injury. The deep back bruise is not expected to cause White to miss time and he practiced on Friday, but keep him in the corner of your eye just in case.

The Baltimore Ravens

Derrick Mason - Despite a partially dislocated shoulder, Mason made good last week with seven catches for 82 yards. He should be good to go this week as well.

The Cleveland Browns

Kellen Winslow - Quickly becoming one of this year's leading fantasy frustrators, Kellen Winslow has not returned to practice despite an MRI indicating no structural damage in his shoulder. While normally the positive MRI would be a good sign, Coach Crennel says the only way he sees the field is if he shows full motion in the shoulder, which I assume means actually practicing. You might be wise to plan on another option should Junior disappoint yet again.

Brady Quinn - Quinn suffered a small fracture his right index finger last week against the Browns. While Quinn played with the injury and should play again this week, this is enough to bench him if you previously considered him for the starting spot this week.

Continue Reading Injuries to Watch: Week 12

Waiver Wire Wonders: Week 4

Posted: Sep 28th 2008 8:40PM by Ryan Dembinsky (author feed)
Filed under: NFL Waiver Wire, Fantasy Football, NFL New Studs

3 COMMENTS

Weeding through those unwieldy waiver wires requires a keen eye and a quick trigger. Thus, Waiver Wire Wonders provides a weekly snapshot of players worthy of consideration who should be available on a good portion of league waiver wires. Enjoy those pickups...

Week 4 provided more of the same - big breakout games by our waiver wire friends. Not as many of this week's crop of eye-popping stat producers are necessarily worthy adds to the roster at this point however, so we'll filter through the noise and bring you the music.

Muhsin Muhammad (Carolina Panthers) - Looks like the Smothers Brothers are back together. After years together as a dynamic duo in Carolina, Muhammad parted for Chicago. Fast forward a couple of disappointing seasons filled with lots of whining and Moosh is in step again with Jake Delhomme. Although, Steve Smith should develop into the primary target, don't underestimate this veteran receiver and the great chemistry with his QB.

Steve Breaston - (Arizona Cardinals) Breaston actually looks like a great pickup at this point. Unfortunately, a big reason for Breaston's value uptick is the vicious helmet-to-helmet hit that Anquan Boldin took. And it looks like Boldin could be out for the near future. Breaston racked up nine catches for 122 yards with Boldin in the game, so he could assume a big role without him in the lineup.

Continue Reading Waiver Wire Wonders: Week 4

Epic Battle Between Seahawks and Niners Somehow Needs Overtime to Finish Failing

Posted: Sep 14th 2008 11:45PM by Will Brinson (author feed)
Filed under: 49ers, Seahawks, NFC West

3 COMMENTS

Let's go ahead and get the good news out of the way first. Julius Jones rushed for 127 yards and a touchdown on 26 carries, flashing the revamped running game that Mike Holmgren had mentioned bringing back around the Northwest.

As for the rest of the news (all bad), the Seattle defense allowed: San Francisco to score 33 points, J.T. O'Sullivan to throw for 321 yards, and Isaac Bruce to catch 153 yards worth of passing. Yipes. On offense, John Carlson seems nice ... which is good because he's all they've got in the passing game. Courtney Taylor -- fresh off bemoaning his potential release -- was nonexistent, and Seneca Wallace didn't catch a single pass. That could be because he got hurt before the game, joining Logan Payne, Nate Burelson, Deion Branch and Bobby Engram on Seattle's Red Cross list.

Also, Matt Hasselbeck was a horrid 18 of 36 for 189 yards and two interceptions, probably because he has no receivers.

So, yeah, Seattle is more or less finished at this point, in all honesty. The crazy thing is that if 'Beck can somehow manage to get kind of healthy and Branch can come back, they could still win the NFC West.

Why's that? Because the Niners, who needed two shots at victory (Joe Nedney whiffed the potential walk off field goal) to topple these pathetic 'Hawks. And they're the second best team in the division. Epic fail indeed.

Continue Reading Epic Battle Between Seahawks and Niners Somehow Needs Overtime to Finish Failing

Digging Deeper For Wide Receivers

Posted: Sep 2nd 2008 12:15PM by Ryan Dembinsky (author feed)
Filed under: NFL Position Rankings, Fantasy Football

0 COMMENTS

In searching for undervalued wide receivers, a key stat to note is the number of times a particular player is targeted. While obviously the number of targets correlates pretty closely to the number of receptions, a better way to uncover value is by including the number of receptions in the equation. In other words, look at the catch to target ratio (catches divided by targets). By analyzing this stat, it gives a better sense of the efficiency of a particular quarterback to wide receiver connection. In doing so, you can undercover some gems in two different ways.

The first is obvious; by looking at those players who convert the highest percentage of their targets into receptions. A high catch to target ratio should imply consistency from any of these picks. In looking at the top 50 wide receivers in 2007, the range of percentages of catches per target ranged from 42.7% to 77.2%. Amongst the top ten, two were tight ends (Owen Daniels and Jason Witten) and two were running backs (Reggie Bush and Brian Westbrook). Obviously, those positions have higher efficiency numbers based on these receptions being quick strikes and screen passes. Of the remaining six, Wes Welker (77.2%), Anquan Boldin (71.2%), Bobby Engram (70.1%), Marques Colston (68.5%), Donald Driver (67.2%), Reggie Wayne (66.7%), and T.J. Houshmandzadeh (66.3%) posted the strongest numbers. While Donald Driver will be playing with a new quarterback in Aaron Rodgers and Bobby Engram is banged up, the other four wide receivers should be up on your radar in their respective ADP ranges.

Continue Reading Digging Deeper For Wide Receivers

Sunday Wrap Up: Week 14

Posted: Dec 10th 2007 9:00AM by Will Brinson (author feed)
Filed under: Fantasy Football, Sunday Wrap-Up

7 COMMENTS

Walk It Off, Son
That was the theme as the San Diego Chargers completed a thrilling come from behind victory in Tennessee during the early set. LaDanian Tomlinson reminded why he's the best player in fantasy football and Philip Rivers bounced back from an embarrassing first half and an awkward little encounter with LT to throw two touchdowns and put the game into extra periods. (Which, by the way, should be switched to the college format. Imagine the fantasy football possibilities.) Anywho, give props to Phil too, as he walked off what looked like a serious knee injury to come in and lead the comeback. But the biggest walk off of all was LT's bust around around the left hand side of the line on first and 10 for a touchdown, putting the Chargers within one win of locking up the AFC West and sending the Titans to a potentially long off season.

Since you don't want to face the same fate in your fantasy league (that of the Titans), we're taking a different spin with the Sunday Wrap Up tonight. Instead of running through every game, we're going to focus on some of the best and worst fantasy playoff matchups and then highlight some major points from Sunday's action.

Playoff Matchups
Harumphs

Cleveland Browns - v. BUF, @ CIN
New England Patriots - v. NYJ, v. MIA
Tennessee Titans - @ KC, v. NYJ
Cincinnati Bengals - @ SF, v. CLE
San Diego Chargers - v. DET, v. DEN

Continue Reading Sunday Wrap Up: Week 14

Wide Receiver Rankings: Week 14

Posted: Dec 5th 2007 11:00AM by Will Brinson (author feed)
Filed under: Fantasy Football, NFL Position Rankings

5 COMMENTS

I kept looking for a reason that Terrell Owens wouldn't be the top wide receiver this week again, and all I could think of was that Dallas might blow out the Lions too badly for him to accrue any really significant stats. But I guess a blowout would probably mean he's going large. So try as I might, I couldn't hate. Much like I can't hate on Lee Evans, especially when the Bills get the Dolphins this week. Buffalo knows that at stake is Miami's "perfect" season, but more importantly, they're still in the wild card race at 6-6. I hate to knock Dwayne Bowe down so low, but as long as Damon Huard is behind center he won't produce like he did with Brodie Croyle. Roddy White could be in a for a monster game this weekend, what with the New Orleans pass defense being embarrassing and all; Michael Jenkins is a nice sleeper as well. Another sleeper to consider gambling on this week is Arnaz Battle. I know, right? Sure it's the 49ers but at least he gets the Minnesota pass defense. Also please note that in terms of the Arizona injuries, I have Anquan Boldin and Bryant Johnson right next to each other - obviously a lot depends on what happens to Larry Fitzgerald and Boldin throughout the week, but we'll keep you updated.

	Player	Team	Opponent	Notes
1	Braylon Edwards	CLE	at NYJ
2	Terrell Owens	DAL	at DET
3	Chad Johnson	CIN	STL
4	Reggie Wayne	IND	at BAL
5	Randy Moss	NE	PIT

Continue Reading Wide Receiver Rankings: Week 14

Giants Keep Rolling, Rolling, Rolling; Drop 49ers 33-15 for Fifth Straight

Posted: Oct 21st 2007 4:42PM by Dan (author feed)
Filed under: 49ers, NY Giants, NFC East, NFC West, New York, San Francisco

2 COMMENTS

If you've watched the New York Giants this year, you have to wonder if they have the most talented defensive line in the game. Michael Strahan, Justin Tuck, Mathias Kiwanuka and Osi Umenyiora are some of the most athletically gifted players you will ever see -- and they proved it again today. The four of them combined for 13 tackles, four sacks, one pass deflection, one forced fumble and a touchdown.

The 49ers and their offensive line knew what to expect coming into the game, and they were still unable to stop it. In addition to the numbers put up by those four, San Francisco allowed another sack by Aaron Ross and turned the ball over two more times -- the Giants scored 24 points off turnovers.

However, not everything was a ray of sunshine for New York. The team, and Antonio Pierce specifically, made entirely too many boneheaded penalties. In addition, their running backs appear to have stone hands -- five drops this afternoon. And that's really unfortunate, because anyone just looking at the box score would assume Eli Manning didn't have a very good game, when that was not the case at all. You can bet that Tom Coughlin will address both of those areas this week.

For San Francisco, they fall to 2-4 and their frustrations continue. Their offense was unable to find any rhythm, and their defense showed some glaring weaknesses. But there were some positive signs as well. Ashley Lelie really seemed to step up when a play was needed, while Arnaz Battle had his best game since week one. It looks like building blocks are certainly there, and maybe with time and health, the 49ers can return to dominance ... it just won't be this year.

Final Score: Giants 33 - 49ers 15