FanHouse MattStafford

Here's the deal: Upper Deck got a bunch of NFL rookies together and offered up a free autographed Michael Jordan jersey to the guy with the best touchdown celebration.

Random, sure. But also worth the four minutes you would otherwise spend staring at an Excel spreadsheet while thinking about taking a smoke break.

Sure, it may be a little early for most normal people to start thinking fantasy football draft, but for us derelict diehards, keeping abreast on the developments of the offseason can provide peace of mind and an advantage in watching things progress as we head into the summer. While the news coming out of the NFL these days is far overshadowed by two wildly entertaining playoff series, there are some pretty critical players to keep an eye on.

A small handful of elite fantasy stars are in the midst of a serious value conundrum. On one hand, they provide an opportunity to nab otherwise surefire first-rounders on the cheap, but not without taking on big-time risk. It is question of "how far do we let them drop before it is critical to pull the trigger?"

With the first pick of the 2009 NFL Draft, the Detroit Lions surprised nobody by inking a deal with the former Georgia Bulldog quarterback, Matthew Stafford. Long before the draft began at 4 pm this afternoon, Detroit and Stafford agreed on Friday night to a six-year deal worth $78 million with $41.7 million guaranteed.

While most young quarterbacks might be tempted to pull the Elway and start singing, "I gotta get out of this place, if it's the last thing I ever do," Stafford, on the contrary, seems genuinely excited to be a Lion and up to the challenge of turning this team around under his leadership. This, combined with a pretty savvy contract by the Lions that puts a lot of that $78 million in incentives based on playing time, looks like a recipe for success. So, the question remains, does Matt Stafford have fantasy value for the upcoming season in Detroit as a rookie?

To get ready for this weekend's draft, we're looking position-by-position at who could go in the first round, starting with the quarterbacks.


Matt Stafford (top 10 pick), Mark Sanchez (top 10 pick), Josh Freeman (mid-to-late first round).

Stafford may not go No. 1, and if he doesn't go No. 1, there is a chance he could slide to late in the top 10 because few teams at the top of the draft have quarterback as their biggest need. Sanchez is the true wild card. There were plenty of rumors that the Jaguars are interested in him at No. 8, even if the Jags already have a solid quarterback under contract for another six years in David Garrard. Whatever happens with Sanchez, it's hard to see him falling much past the Broncos at No. 12.

FLORHAM PARK, NJ -- For a guy who was generally acknowledged to be "winning" the first couple of days of the competition, Kellen Clemens had an interesting take on the fight for the Jets' starting quarterback spot.

"We're getting a lot of attention through all of this, but really, if you look at the five guys in front of us, our offensive line, they're going to make it easier for whoever the quarterback is," Clemens said. "Add in our special teams and our defense, and the way I look at it, whoever's playing quarterback for this team, the group that surrounds him is going to make it easier to perform."

Coming as it does from a man who very much wants the job, this is a jolting dose of perspective. Clemens is almost saying that it doesn't matter who the Jets' quarterback is, because the rest of the team is so good. But maybe it shouldn't be a surprise that Clemens has done so much deep thinking about this. After all, the competition for the Jets' starting QB job can't really start until after this weekend's NFL draft is over.

Jay Cutler is headed to Chicago. According to the Broncos' official website, Denver has agreed in principle to trade Cutler to the Bears. The Chicago Sun-Times is reporting that the Bears will send the Broncos their 2009 and 2010 first-round picks, a 2009 third-rounder and Kyle Orton in exchange for their first real quarterback since Erik Kramer threw for nearly 4,000 yards in 1995. The Bears also receive a 2009 fifth-round pick from Denver.

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

After winning just twice in 2008 and six times in two seasons, the Chiefs have decided to blow up the whole operation and start over. Scott Pioli and Todd Haley have replaced Carl Peterson and Herm Edwards, and the rebuilding process is currently underway.

Conventional wisdom suggests that such turnarounds might take a couple seasons, but after what the Atlanta Falcons and Miami Dolphins were able to accomplish, expectations are almost certainly higher -- which means that Kansas City could be just a few personnel moves from returning to the playoffs. The issue, of course. is which personnel moves will give Kansas City the best chance to make a postseason run in '09.

Maybe he will go on to NFL greatness, but for now, Dan Orlovsky is best known as "that dude who ran out of the end zone for no apparent reason." The Lions' 2005 fifth-round pick, Orlovsky started started seven games at quarterback last season, but has decided to test the free-agent market instead of returning to Detroit.

It has less to do with the Lions' 0-16 putridity and more to do with the organization telling Orlovsky, in so many words, that there was a better chance he'd lead the league in rushing yards than win the starting quarterback job.

On Sunday at the NFL Combine, we got our first glimpse of Matt Stafford and Mark Sanchez. And while it was difficult to divine much from, well, glimpses -- Stafford didn't take part in the passing drills and Sanchez didn't stand out in his handful of attempts -- it provides coaches, scouts and front-office types one more piece to the evaluation puzzle.

Although conventional mock-draft wisdom has Stafford going before Sanchez -- and probably to the Lions -- those sentiments aren't shared among all scouts. Via the Chicago Tribune's Dan Pompei:

On Friday, the Oakland Raiders released safety Gibril Wilson, defensive end Kalimba Edwards and wide receiver Ronald Curry, saving the team about $6 million against the 2009 salary cap.

Think back to last offseason when owner Al Davis, in an effort to return his once proud franchise to glory, was signing blank checks with a stamp and passing them out to second-tier free agents like it was the fashionable thing to do. A year later, it's becoming obvious as to how much of a total failure the offseason was.