FanHouse DreBly

Dre' Bly needs to work on his field awareness. After intercepting a Matt Ryan pass on the 49ers' 10-yard-line, Bly started Primetimin' his way down the sidelines, presumably under the impression that he was going to high-step his way into the end zone.

That lasted for about 30 yards, until wide receiver Roddy White stripped Bly and the Falcons recovered. First down Atlanta.

Moving pictures hilarity after the jump.

Austin Collie was a little-known receiver coming out of BYU in this year's NFL draft, but on Sunday night he had a big game on a big stage, with the best performance of his young NFL career in the Sunday night Colts vs. Titans game. And as we open up the Monday morning NFL Twitter mailbag, we start with Collie.

We also get to Randy Moss's interception, Mike Singletary's coaching, Dre Bly's Leon Lett moment, and Derek Anderson's pathetic completion percentage. Your questions and my answers for the NFL Twitter mailbag are below.

With Fantasy Football season ready to kick in high gear, FanHouse is here to preview each and every team -- one per day until we've done them all.

Meet the ...
Perennial sleepers. It seems like almost every season, people are discussing the fact that the 49ers are ready to break out and surprise people and win the NFC West. And then, almost every season, they suck. They might not be great this year either. Mike Singletary brings a more disciplined approach than even Mike Nolan, but you can't possibly expect Shaun Hill or Alex Smith to lead a team to the playoffs. Or can you? Well, actually, for fantasy purposes, who cares? There's going to be a lot of running and a lot of surprises on defense in San Fran this year, and that's going to be where you pick up the value.

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San Francisco's secondary took a huge hit on Tuesday with word that veteran cornerback Walt Harris would likely miss the season with a torn ACL. The Niners wasted little time trying to restore some defensive depth, signing veteran Dre' Bly to a one-year deal on Thursday.

Bly will likely compete with third-year man Tarell Brown for the starting cornerback spot opposite Nate Clements.

Marvin Harrison has been out of work for six weeks now, and there's no reason to think that'll change anytime soon.

Teams have shown no interest in the 36-year-old, 13-year veteran and Hall of Fame lock. He barely cracked the top-10 in FanHouse's list of top available free agents, which is remarkable when you see such luminaries as Byron Leftwich, Cato June and Dre Bly ahead of him.

Former general manager and teevee talking head Charley Casserly seems unfazed by Harrison's unemployment.

Because the NFL season never ends, we present our 2009 Offseason Roadmaps for front offices to navigate through the summer.

It's a brave new world in Denver, where the Broncos will take the field without Mike Shanahan on the sideline for the first time since 1995. Josh McDaniels, their new coach, was 19 back then, and has one of the shortest resumes of any head coach in NFL history. That could be a good thing or a bad thing, but it was clear that Shanahan's system was no longer bearing fruit and the team may benefit just from the change of voice on the sideline.

The Denver Broncos are in the midst of some serious turnover on defense. The team flat-out stunk defensively last season, and the Broncos have already overhauled their coaching staff. Now, it's the players' turn to experience some change.

After cutting six defensive players Monday, the Broncos weren't done. They released veteran cornerback Dre' Bly Tuesday.

The Lord works in mysterious ways. Tatum Bell, released by the Lions prior to the season for being a better luggage thief than running back, now finds himself back in the league. And all it took was for the Broncos to lose 25 running backs to injured reserve.

Denver originally selected Bell in the second round of the 2004 draft, but traded him to the Lions last year in a deal that brought cornerback Dre' Bly to the Broncos. During the '07 season, Bell played in only five games and rushed for 182 yards, and then, after turning to a life of crime some eight months later, the team cut ties with him.

Desperate times and whatnot have forced the Broncos to re-sign Bell, and NFL.com's Adam Schefter reports that there's a pretty good chance he'll play this weekend against the Falcons. Apparently, Mike Shanahan has less confidence in a Peyton Hillis-featured running attack than I do.

Unlike Daunte Culpepper and Ty Law, two players recently signed after extended layoffs, Bell won't take long to get up to speed because this is his second tour with the Broncos. And more importantly, as Gretz points out, he's also "familiar with the locker room and, you know, where all the guys keep their luggage."

Amen to that. Now let's all pray for Travis Henry.

*Jon Kitna just can't quit him.

I think it's official. Besides Kitna, who apparently views Mike Martz as the Dr. Cox to his J.D., I think we've heard from every other 2007 Lion, and the consensus is that Martz is Lucifer.

The latest in the parade is right tackle George Foster, who was acquired in the trade that sent Dre Bly to Denver. Foster was a disaster last year, getting flagged for nine false starts in a stretch of nine games that eventually led to his being benched for Damien Woody, who had never played right tackle before in his career.

But Foster, like all those other Lions, thinks he's about to go from Oh No to All-Pro now that Martz is gone, because Jim Colletto has crafted the greatest offensive scheme known to man. Or, you know, because he's implemented one that suits his players' talents.

For Foster, its the zone-blocking scheme and the use of more running that will make the difference. Foster was a first-round pick in Denver and, while never a great player, was better than last year because he was playing in the scheme the Lions are now using. He's also worked on those jittery feet, going without a false start penalty all preseason.

Still, if/when Foster starts on Sunday, it'll be less because he's earned the spot than because Gosder Cherilus, the team's 2008 first-rounder, has failed to adequately step up and claim the job. When he does, you can be sure no matter how good Foster is playing he'll be hitting the bench. And he won't have Martz to blame.

It looks the Broncos could pull a "Cam Cameron" on on first-year defensive coordinator Jim Bates. Bates had success at previous stops in Miami and Green Bay before coming to Denver 51 weeks ago, but this year has been a disaster. As the Rocky Mountain News' Dave Krieger notes, here's what head coach Mike Shanahan said when Bates was hired:

"There's no way if we had (gone) to the playoffs that those guys would be here because they had so many other opportunities," he said of Bates and defensive line coach Bill Johnson.

So in a way, it's Shanahan's fault -- both directly and indirectly -- that Bates was brought on. If he had stuck with Jake Plummer, the Broncos almost certainly would've made it to the postseason, and some other team would've snatched Bates up before Shanny got the chance.

Instead, Plummer was benched, Cutler took over, the Broncos missed the playoffs and here we are.

From the beginning, Bates' seven-in- the-box base scheme didn't work here. In fact, during the preseason, Cleveland Browns broadcaster Bernie Kosar wondered aloud why a team with cornerbacks like Champ Bailey and Dre Bly wouldn't take advantage of their man coverage ability by moving a safety into the box to help against the run.

Look, when Bernie Kosar can game-plan you from the press box, you're probably not doing something right. Who knows how this ends up, but the Broncos might want to make sure they have a go-to guy if they can Bates. I mean, when this dude is back in the mix, it's definitely a sellers market.