Two years ago, David Garrard had his best season as an NFL quarterback. He started 12 games, tossed 18 touchdowns to just three interceptions, and completed 64 percent of his pass attempts. And according to Football Outsiders, he was the league's third-best quarterback in terms of total value (behind Tom Brady and Peyton Manning).
But 2008 didn't go well for Garrard or the Jags. The offensive line was decimated by injuries during the preseason and it only got worse from there. Garrard threw 15 touchdowns and 13 picks, was sacked 42 times, and was just the 15th-ranked quarterback in terms of total value.
It's July, the slowest month of the year for the NFL, and it's driving you nuts. You need a fix. A hit. Anything NFL to pull you through the dog days. FanHouse is here to help with an in-depth look at each division that should have you plenty prepared for training camp. We're calling it the Summer Scramble, and today we look at some burning questions in the AFC South and offer a ridiculously early prediction.
Sleeper is such a "yada word" come fantasy draft time. Everyone on the Internet is trying to tell you who's going to bust out and become the "next big thing" that eventually, some sort of saturation occurs and said person becomes overrated. Happens every year.
Instead, the smartest plan most of the time is to approach the landscape of a position as a whole and determine who is underrated overall (meaning, who's not getting the sleeper love and therefore falling too far on draft day). With that said, let's talk underrated fantasy quarterbacks, shall we?
Who moved to the head of the NFL class during the draft? Find out with FanHouse's team-by-team 2009 Draft Grades.
The Buffalo Bills seemed destined to acquire a pass-rusher on the first day of the NFL Draft, and their 11th overall pick was a perfect place for that: with Tyson Jackson, Everette Brown and Aaron Maybin all available, the Bills weren't going to have a problem there.
We covered the all-time worst draft picks in a team-by-team fashion earlier this week. Thankfully, the first round of the draft is in the books and not only was it freaking awesome, it was chock full of mistakes -- which, obviously, made it that much more awesome.
We've decided to pick out the top five and mock them here. If you have decisions that you think were worse, by all means, leave them in the comments. Two things to remember: one, "mistakes" can equal a pick or a trade, and two, yes, "Al Davis is insane" is an acceptable comment.
In the weeks leading up to the Biggest Weekend of the NFL Offseason, I've wondered why the Rams haven't shown more interest in quarterbacks Matthew Stafford or Mark Sanchez. St. Louis has the second overall pick, managed just five wins in two seasons, and Marc Bulger looks like he's had enough.
Bulger's perceived disposition is a familiar one; quarterbacks who play behind an offensive line in name only often exhibit some combination of apprehension and apathy after years of physical abuse (Jon Kitna,David Carr, and Joey Harrington also come to mind). Of course, that's a solid argument for why the Rams should take Jason Smith or Eugene Monroe -- offensive tackles who could start immediately.
SI.com's Peter King, the distinguished longtime football writer and recent defector from the great state of New Jersey, does us the favor of emptying out his pre-draft notebook on this dreary Monday here in the northeast.
I, a short-time football writer and New Jersey loyalist, hereby do you the favor of picking through Peter's notes and offering my own thoughts on them, for what those thoughts are worth. (Insert nasty crack here.)
Peter introduces his notes "in no particular order," so we'll go ahead and do the same:
For most of the offseason, people who pontificate about such things had the Lions taking an offensive player with the first-overall pick. Quarterback Matthew Stafford was the popular choice, with offensive tackles Jason Smith and Eugene Monroe also in the mix. But maybe the organization should focus on fixing the defense, which, surprisingly, was the weakest unit on an 0-16 outfit last season.
The Lions have the first overall pick of the 2009 Draft. This is the reward for going 0-16. Perhaps former team president Matt Millen's biggest accomplishment is that never during his misguided eight-year tenure did Detroit have the first selection. It seems almost impossible in retrospect.
On three occasions the Lions chose second (Joey Harrington in 2002; Charles Rogers in '03; Calvin Johnson in '07), but by the time Millen finally got it right with Johnson it was too late, the team was too far gone.
Well, not really, but it felt that way during a two-hour conference call that NFL.com draft guru Mike Mayock held with members of the media this afternoon. I'm pretty sure every NFL writer and every college writer in the country was on the call, and that everyone got to ask a question. Mayock is, I am 100 percent certain, either a computer or the 21st-century version of the robot 2XL (without, of course, the 8-track tapes). Only one time in the entire two hours did he fail to answer a question, and that was because somebody asked about a kicker, and he admitted he didn't really look at kickers in the draft.
Two years ago, David Garrard had his best season as an NFL quarterback. He started 12 games, tossed 18 touchdowns to just three interceptions, and completed 64 percent of his pass attempts. And according to Football Outsiders, he was the league's third-best quarterback in terms of total value (behind Tom Brady and Peyton Manning). 
Sleeper is such a "yada word" come fantasy draft time. Everyone on the Internet is trying to tell you who's going to bust out and become the "next big thing" that eventually, some sort of saturation occurs and said person becomes overrated. Happens every year. 
Who moved to the head of the NFL class during the draft? Find out with FanHouse's team-by-team 
We covered the all-time 
In the weeks leading up to the Biggest Weekend of the NFL Offseason, I've wondered why the Rams haven't shown more interest in quarterbacks 
SI.com's 
For most of the offseason, people who pontificate about such things had the Lions taking an offensive player with the first-overall pick. Quarterback 
The Lions have the first overall pick of the 2009 Draft. This is the reward for going 0-16. Perhaps former team president 
