FanHouse MattStover

Colts kicker Adam Vinatieri was forced to undergo surgery on his right knee to remove some cartilage. Early Wednesday, the Colts announced the surgery has been successfully completed and they expect the 37-year-old to miss four to eight weeks with the injury.

In his absence, the Colts have signed 41-year-old Matt Stover to take over field goal and extra point duties. Stover had previously kicked for 18 full NFL seasons, all with the Baltimore/Cleveland franchise -- 13 for the Ravens after five for the original Cleveland Browns. He's a very accurate kicker, having made 83.7 percent of his career field goal attempts and 99.5 percent of his extra point tries. Believe it or not, Colts fans, losing Vinatieri for Stover actually doesn't hurt the team much, if at all.

In continuing with our three-part series on ADP analysis, today we look at the second method in which average draft position can be utilized to uncover values come draft day -- trend analysis.

This approach involves following a sequence of successive ADP charts over a span of time, usually a couple of months (or anteing up for a premium service that tracks more detailed mock draft data), and following the trends. Trends in ADP are great indicators of who is moving up or down on depth charts, which players have made breakthroughs in camp, and most of all, who got dinged up in camp -- information that can be daunting to follow on a player-by-player basis.

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

It was improbable. The Baltimore Ravens made another playoff run in 2008 based on a defense that used the art of suffocation (oh, and Ed Reed) and an offense that improved dramatically over the previous years. John Harbaugh was impressive as coach, putting a rookie quarterback out to toss the ball around and sticking with him through thick (17-29, 248 yards, 2 TDs in Week 9) and thin (11-28, 115 yards, 2 INTs in Week 15).

Now the team has to figure out what to do about a superstar in Ray Lewis, and how they should handle other important positional players (hello Mr. Stover) in order to return to (and move past) the AFC Championship game without their defensive coordinator.

Great news, Titans fans: got some closure for you. Mike Pereira, the NFL head of officials, agrees that, yes, the Ravens probably should've been called for delay of game during that last, fateful drive that would eventually set up Matt Stover's game-winning field goal.

Quick refresher for the one person who has no idea what I'm talking about: with the score tied 10-10, 2:52 to go in the fourth quarter, and the Ravens facing a third and 2, quarterback Joe Flacco didn't take the snap until after the play clock hit "00."

By itself, that's not necessarily a penalty; as Snyder pointed out at the time, "if the clock strikes zero and the snap is eminent, [the officials] will let it happen." We see it all the time, but when it's a playoff game, and on the play in question, Flacco completes a 23-yard pass to Todd Heap. And six plays later, Baltimore takes the lead, I can sorta understand all the mock outrage.

As has been the case since, well, the Ravens relocated from Cleveland back in '96, this team is only as good as its defense. That was never more evident than during the 2000 Super Bowl run. Eight years later, Baltimore is 60 minutes away from the championship game thanks largely to its defense. Shocking, I know.

Unlike the '00 team, this year's version has some semblance of an offense. Trent Dilfer was game-manager-tastic, and one of Brian Billick's biggest mistakes as head coach was releasing Dilfer to bring in Elvis Grbac. But new offensive coordinator Cam Cameron has done a fabulous job of protecting Joe Flacco (did you know he's the first rookie to ever win TWO playoff games!?) with a punishing running game and play-action passes.

Flacco isn't easily rattled, and that quality has served him well. But he's also benefited from the knowledge that the Ravens can score 14 points a game and win. The defense held opponents to fewer than two touchdowns 10 times during the regular season, and have allowed just nine and 10 points in two playoff games. Not too shabby.

If you play in a playoff fantasy football league and get to reset your lineup before this weekend, worry not, we got your back. We'll just do a quick run-through of each game.

Baltimore Ravens @ Tennessee Titans
First of all, don't you dare play any defense other than the Ravens. Ed Reed might score the most points in this game. If you've been watching the Ravens' play of late, you definitely aren't laughing at that statement.

I don't see how the Titans generate much offense, outside the possibility of getting Chris Johnson in space. I'd avoid everyone other than Johnson, and I'm not even a huge fan of Johnson.

The Ravens won't be able to move the ball quite as well as they did against the Dolphins' average defense. Your best bet would be Le'Ron McClain, as the Ravens will likely try to control the clock. The Titans are more vulnerable via the pass than the run -- though they aren't really weak anywhere -- but I can't see Joe Flacco playing overly well against this defense.

You could do much worse than either kicker here, by the way. Both Rob Bironas and Matt Stover are sure to be busy, considering the defenses don't allow many touchdowns.

There is a reason the blockbuster hit "The Replacements" portrayed the field goal kicker, played by Rhys Ifans, as a guy that smoked cigarettes on the sideline in between appearances. It's humor we can relate to. Kickers aren't necessarily the hard nosed players we're accustomed to seeing on the gridiron.

That is why it was a rather interesting choice by ESPN's SportsNation to pick Matt Stover, member of one Pro Bowl team, as the greatest Baltimore Raven in team history. Granted, the history of the Ravens is only 12 years, but come on, the field goal kicker?

Stover received 54.1 percent of the vote, while linebacker Ray Lewis earned 37.3 percent and most deserving, in my brainless opinion, Jonathan Ogden, only garnished 4.2 percent. 4.2! Obviously, a few observers aren't too happy about this, including ESPN.com's James Walker.

Come on Baltimore Ravens fans. You're kidding, right?

Linebacker Ray Lewis or offensive tackle Jonathan Ogden are not the greatest players in Baltimore's franchise history?

And kicker Matt Stover is?

Usually, the AFC North version of the Blog Network applauds creativity. We try things outside of the box all the time in this space, and everyone is certainly entitled to their opinions. We're family here.

But this is just silly, Baltimore fans. Let's call a spade a spade.

Training camps are underway, the NFL season is right around the corner, and to get you ready for 2008, FanHouse previews all 32 teams, "heat index" style. We'll rate each club in 10 categories on a scale of 1 to 10, high score wins.

Quarterback: The position has been an issue in Baltimore since, well, the club moved from Cleveland. Brian Billick turned out not to be such a smart guy, after all, which explains Tony Banks, Elvis Grbac, Chris Redman, and Kyle Boller. Second-year player Troy Smith showed promise during a brief stints last season, but Joe Flacco is the team's newest franchise quarterback. Now it's just a matter of getting him up to speed on running the offense. Heat Index: 4

Running backs: Letting Jamal Lewis walk after the 2006 season was a no-brainer, even if he had a resurgence of sorts with the Browns. Willis McGahee is more than capable when healthy, and rookie second-rounder Ray Rice should see plenty of action. Heat Index: 7

Although Baltimore Ravens kicker Matt Stover appears to be in the minority when he says it's time to start looking for a successor to NFL Players Association Executive Director Gene Upshaw, he's definitely not the only one.

Stover backed off comments he had made about Upshaw in an e-mail message to fellow union leaders, but now Giants center Shaun O'Hara, his team's representative in the players' union, is also questioning Upshaw's leadership. From Pro Football Talk:

"I've been defending him for years, and he's not helping us," O'Hara said, according to Paul Schwartz of the New York Post.

"I personally don't have a problem with Gene Upshaw and his ability to negotiate CBAs and this next upcoming extension," O'Hara said. "His knowledge and his 25 years of service can be nothing but a benefit for us so I would hate to lose his services and his knowledge when the time comes for us to work on this new deal. I think there are some players who are disappointed with the way he's reacted to them and with some of the comments he's made. Whether we can put those personal problems aside and focus on what's really important, that's yet to be determined."

Upshaw is not likely to leave this year, but there appears to be growing disapproval among the union membership. And the union members are, after all, his bosses. Upshaw can't feel great about his job security right now.

This week Baltimore Ravens kicker Matt Stover, who is active in the NFL Players Association, sent an e-mail to other players in which he said he thought "it is time for a change" in the players' union, which has been run by Gene Upshaw for a quarter of a century. The e-mail was widely interpreted as Stover wanting to oust Upshaw.

But now Stover says that wasn't what he meant. He sent an e-mail to ESPN's Chris Mortensen that included this:

It is not, and has never been, my intention to "oust" Gene Upshaw. Gene has done a remarkable job in leading the players for over 2 decades. My goal is to be prudent and have a process intact to allow the Executive Committee the ability and confidence to offer various options to the Board of Reps as a whole. The inevitability of the end of Gene's tenure is approaching this generation of players, which may create some uncomfortable issues to deal with.

For all the criticism Upshaw gets in the media, he still seems to have the support of the majority of NFL players, and Stover appears to have calculated that publicly taking on Upshaw is a losing battle.