With attention spans dwindling, we forego full game-by-game previews to give you the essentials you need to know about every contest this glorious NFL weekend. We call it The Once-Over.
The Early Games
Tampa Bay (0-3) at Washington (1-2): With the Buccaneers winless this season and looking back at their final four losses to end last season, Tampa Bay hasn't won a regular season game since November 30, 2008. Add to that the fact that a new quarterback, Josh Johnson, is taking over for the Bucs and Antonio Bryant still isn't positive he'll play, and the horizon is bleak in Tampa.
Jim Zorn's days seem numbered in Washington. He lost to Detroit last week, which hadn't won since 2007. It might be the kiss of death if he drops a home game to Tampa Bay on Sunday. Pick: Washington
Since arriving in Chicago, Jay Cutler's been fighting the stigma that he's more of a stat-monger than a winner. The only way to change the feelings of the general public is to go out and win tough games. Anyone can look good during a blowout of an inferior opponent.
For the second consecutive week, Cutler has won close games in come-from-behind fashion. Last week, he led the Bears on a 72-yard, game-tying touchdown drive and then a 41-yard game-winning field goal drive against the Steelers. Sunday afternoon, Cutler brought the Bears back from an early 13-0 deficit to lead 17-13. The Bears lost the lead, but that was of no consequence, as Cutler again led them on a game-winning drive.
With attention spans dwindling, we forego full game-by-game previews to give you the essentials you need to know about every contest this glorious NFL weekend. We call it The Once-Over.
As the season nears, FanHouse's fantasy football team decided to put our heads together for another set of updated positional rankings. First up, the signal-callers.
We've now established thrice what everyone already knew anyway: Drew Brees is heading into the season as the consensus No. 1 fantasy football quarterback. This time around, though, we did have quite the knock-down, drag-out battle for a spot toward the top -- the two-hole. Rivals Peyton Manning and Tom Brady did battle, and their average ranking amongst our staff was a near dead heat (2.5 to 2.67).
Click through to see who emerged -- along with the rest of our top 45 quarterbacks.(Last Updated: 8/27/09)
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 Summer Scramble, and this afternoon we look at some Burning Questions in the NFC West and offer a ridiculously early prediction.
It's been over a month since we last posted positional fantasy football rankings, so it's time to run our second version. Plus, we added some staff. This is now an average ranking from eight Fantasy FanHouse writers. To view the early version of our quarterback rankings, click here.
Since we last checked in, there have been a few difference in the quarterback rankings. Not only have OTAs taken place, but we've also had some changes of heart and done a lot more studying -- plus the aforementioned FanHouse staff additions. One thing that didn't change? The top three ... Drew Brees, Tom Brady and Peyton Manning remain intact.
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?
Retired NFL quarterback Trent Green is the first-ever guest columnist of MMQB, filling in while Peter King is on vacation. Green provided an interesting read on subjects relating to the league's personal conduct policy, concussions and the expanded season. And of course it wouldn't be a MMQB without a healthy dose of Favre thrown in for good measure.
FanHouse's crack squad of savvy fantasy football personnel put our five heads together and amassed consensus rankings for non-keeper, standard scoring leagues. We'll update as the season gets closer, but this is our "incredibly early yet still fun" version.
Was last season the year of the quarterback or what? You still had the old reliables like Drew Brees, Peyton Manning, Kurt Warner and Donovan McNabb doing their thing, but a whole new crop of passers have elevated themselves. Aaron Rodgers, Philip Rivers and Jay Cutler led the way for the youth movement. You could have even waited toward the end of your draft and landed stud QBs in Matt Ryan and Tyler Thigpen (who would have been waiver-wire fodder). Team all that with Tom Brady's Week 1 injury, and we had a really interesting season. Let's see how they fall out presently for 2009.
Last summer, as Nate Davis prepared for his junior season at Ball St., some scouts thought he had the potential to be a first-round pick in the 2009 NFL Draft. He got off to a fast start but shaky showings against non-MAC teams -- including Tulsa in the GMAC Bowl -- raised questions about his productivity.
Then, at the NFL Combine, Davis measured only 6'1", struggled through the passing drills, and that was the beginning of a tumultuous few months. In March, only one team attended his pro day, and the news that he might suffer from a learning disability further lessened his draft value.