FanHouse DennisNorthcutt

One of my favorite moves on fantasy football draft day is taking a late-round gamble and letting everyone else laugh at me. You can have the first round, just let me pick late. To illustrate, here's an actual message board post last season after one of my drafts: "Commish Snyder purposefully did not draft a kicker so he could take a flier on yet another long shot (Steve Slaton of the Texans). I'm sure he'll say it will pay off in the long run."

My response? "I'll end up dropping Patrick Crayton (my fifth WR) for a kicker before week 1 when Slaton wins the Houston gig -- unless someone suffers a season-ending injury, in which case I'll drop that person."

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Multiple sources are reporting that Jacksonville has agreed to send wide receiver Dennis Northcutt to Detroit in exchange for safety Gerald Alexander.

The Jaguars were rumored to be shopping Northcutt recently -- a notion confirmed by Northcutt's agent (who, incidentally, is also Alexander's agent). The 31-year-old receiver is scheduled to make $2.75 million in 2009. But it was the presence of rookies Jarret Dillard, Mike Thomas and Tiquan Underwood, along with the free-agent signing of Torry Holt, that made Northcutt expendable for Jacksonville.

In fact, despite his 44 catches for 545 yards last season, the Jags were prepared to release Northcutt if a trade partner could not be found.

Torry Holt and the Jaguars, in theory, go together like proverbial spaghetti and meatball -- Holt is a free agent with plenty of skills remaining and the Jaguars are a team in desperate need of a wide receiver.

And, according to Michael Wright at Florida Times-Union, the marriage is a done deal, as the Jaguars have signed Holt to a two-year contract.

According to ESPN's Chris Mortensen -- please raise red flags when I say, "GO!" -- former Rams wideout Torry Holt is close to signing a contract with the Jacksonville Jaguars. We should note that, according to our boy MortScoop, the deal isn't finalized. Of course it's not. That way when it doesn't get signed, Mort didn't actually make a mistake.

If Mort is correct, which we'll admit is possible, and the Jags complete the signing, this is a big move for them. The current receiving corps is Dennis Northcutt, Mike Walker, Troy Williamson, Nate Hughes and D'Juan Woods.

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...

If you are like me and surrounded by a glass case of emotion after two lousy games that ended your championship hopes in two leagues, making waiver wire moves is not exactly your top priority. Instead, that honor goes to talking yourself off of the ledge and convincing yourself that fantasy basketball is actually sort of fun. Since we all know that is a lie, let's take it for the team and plow on for another round of waiver wire wonders for the lucky few who get to compete for the title next weekend -- and for the rest of us to go out with a bang in the lousy third-place game, or worse, the consolation bracket.

Matt Schaub (QB, Texans) – I'm guessing if you are still reading this column, you probably have a guy named Manning, Warner or Brees on your roster, so at this point, you probably are not scouring the waiver wire too much at your quarterback slot. In the event that you do want a little padding for your QB situation, Schaub is coming off two very formidable performances. He helped propel the vast majority of Andre Johnson owners to a victory and should continue the trend with Oakland this week. After seeing what Cassel did Sunday to the Raiders defense, Schaub looks like a mighty fine start against Arizona.

A pregnant woman who says that Jacksonville Jaguars wide receiver Dennis Northcutt is the father of her baby has filed a lawsuit against him, claiming that he and people with him beat her up because she wouldn't have an abortion.

TMZ.com is reporting that the woman, Sharri Henry, says that on May 17, when she was four months pregnant, Northcutt got his cousin to "maliciously assault, beat, strike and batter ... her face and head with great force and violence ... causing severe and permanent disfigurement to her face."

And Henry's lawyer said Northcutt was part of a group (which also includes his current girlfriend) that confronted Henry and demanded that she have an abortion. According to the lawyer, she refused, and that's when the cousin attacked.

Henry filed a police report, but Northcutt was apparently not charged. Henry is now seven months pregnant.

The picture to the right is the one that I used this morning in talking about Peyton Manning's knee surgery. He is wildly gesticulating like he usually does at the line, but perhaps it is something more sinister.

In an article today in the LA Times, Sam Farmer says that the NFL is reviewing tapes to see if NFL players are using gang signs during games. Apparently, they have already spoken to a few players about it, and it was a subject that came up during the rookie symposium.

One of the difficulties in detecting gang signals is that gang signs can also mean different things:

"Guys come from all over the country, and who knows what they're really doing?" said Jacksonville Jaguars receiver Dennis Northcutt, adding he cannot remember seeing a gang gesture in his nine NFL seasons. "People have got signs for their kids, signs for their fraternities. How do you differentiate who's really throwing up gang signs?"

Northcutt gave an example.

"This is a gang sign," he said, touching his index finger to his thumb to form a squished OK sign. "But at the same time, it's a sign for a personnel group."

So, I guess Peyton Manning in the above picture is directing traffic, or saying what coverage the defense is using, or asking to give peace a chance, or signaling Dallas Clark to go gangster on someone.

In the first half of this AFC Playoff game, the Jacksonville Jaguars were able to match the New England Patriots score for score. It looked like that might continue In the second half ... until Dennis Northcutt dropped a potential 21-yard touchdown pass that would have tied the game at 21-21.

Instead, the Jaguars settled for a field goal, and it was 21-17. When Tom Brady and Laurence Maroney led the Patriots 76 yards down the field for another touchdown -- their fourth TD in five drives up at that point -- the Pats were up 11 points. They had the Jaguars right where they wanted them. Suddenly, David Garrard had to take more chances, and eventually, the pressure caught up with him. After a near-flawless first half, Garrard completed only 10 of 19 passes in the second half, and a late interception by Rodney Harrison sealed the Jaguars' fate.

Tom Brady brought the awesome once again -- 26 for 28, 262 yards, 3 TDs. (That completion percentage could be a playoff record.) Laurence Maroney also delivered an outstanding performance, rushing for 122 yards and a TD on 22 carries. The Jaguars' insistence on preventing the big play opened up too many opportunities for Maroney to run.

On behalf of all Fantasy Football players everywhere, I would like to say welcome back Maurice Jones-Drew! The second year running back finally broke out of this slump this afternoon, tallying 141 total yards and a touchdown. It was a breath of fresh air not only for the fantasy players, but the Jacksonville Jaguars as well.

Meanwhile, wide receiver Dennis Northcutt and quarterback David Garrard also added solid performances. Northcutt hauled in four passes for 73 yards and his first touchdown of the season, while Garrard completed 20 of 27 passes for 218 yards and a touchdown.

For the Kansas City Chiefs, things weren't so positive. They narrowly avoided their first home shutout since 1994 by scoring a touchdown with zero seconds left on the clock. And not only was that touchdown meaningful because of the pending shutout, it was also Brodie Croyle's first touchdown pass in the NFL.

Now the question will quickly become, should Croyle replace Damon Huard permanently? Before leaving the game with injury, Huard was clearly struggling, completing only 19 of 30 for 196 and added an interception. And while Croyle wasn't overly impressive himself, he was able to avoid the big mistake, and he got Kansas City in the endzone.

The Chiefs fall to 2-3, while the Jaguars improve their record to 3-1.

Final Score: Jaguars 17 - Chiefs 7