Posts tagged PatrickCrayton at FanHouse

While I rarely agree with anything ESPN's Bill Simmons says, he did raise an interesting point about Monday night's Cowboys-Eagles game. After all, it was only the most watched cable event ... ever.

Again, it was an extraordinary game. But it wasn't more dramatic or memorable than Baltimore blowing its chance to end New England's undefeated season on a Monday night last December, right? The more I thought about it, I decided the fantasy subplots propelled the Philly-Dallas game to its record numbers. That had to be it.

There were a ton of subplots going in that game. The Eagles and Cowboys may be the NFC's two best teams. Both are fierce NFC East rivals. And there is that whole Terrell Owens-Donovan McNabb thing.

Those all contributed to great numbers of viewers. But fantasy football also brought in a ton of others.

In that game, you had Terrell Owens, Tony Romo, Brian Westbrook, Jason Witten and Marion Barber ... who are all elite fantasy performers. You also had Donovan McNabb who is no slouch himself. Some owners had Patrick Crayton, Desean Jackson, Hank Baskett, Felix Jones, David Akers or Nick Folk. And that doesn't even mention the two defenses who, depsite giving up a lot of points, scored some too.

While I rarely agree with anything ESPN's Bill Simmons says, he did raise an interesting point about Monday night's Cowboys-Eagles game. After all, it was only the most watched cable event ... ever.

Again, it was an extraordinary game. But it wasn't more dramatic or memorable than Baltimore blowing its chance to end New England's undefeated season on a Monday night last December, right? The more I thought about it, I decided the fantasy subplots propelled the Philly-Dallas game to its record numbers. That had to be it.

There were a ton of subplots going in that game. The Eagles and Cowboys may be the NFC's two best teams. Both are fierce NFC East rivals. And there is that whole Terrell Owens-Donovan McNabb thing.

Those all contributed to great numbers of viewers. But fantasy football also brought in a ton of others.

In that game, you had Terrell Owens, Tony Romo, Brian Westbrook, Jason Witten and Marion Barber ... who are all elite fantasy performers. You also had Donovan McNabb who is no slouch himself. Some owners had Patrick Crayton, Desean Jackson, Hank Baskett, Felix Jones, David Akers or Nick Folk. And that doesn't even mention the two defenses who, depsite giving up a lot of points, scored some too.

If you pay attention to fantasy football, odds are you have something riding on tonight's game. Combining these two teams, you have a veritable fantasy paradise. Let's run through the players who are fantasy relevant and examine their possibilities for blowing up, shall we?

Tony Romo -- Brinson's already covered his bad splits against Philly at home, but that's a small sample. There's no reason to sit him in any format.

Marion Barber -- He's banged up, and he's a physical back. The Eagles have a gritty defense. I don't like the way these things add up. Again, though, you can't sit him because he's a touchdown machine. You're liable to miss out on two scores if you get nuts enough to bench him. That should overtake the possibility that his yardage numbers don't end pretty.

Terrell Owens -- What a pathetic person he is to go out of his way to call Donovan McNabb jealous. He's not half the man McNabb is, nor will he ever be. Does that impact fantasy? Of course not, it was just an unrelated rant. Look, there's fire here on both sides. The Eagles really want to stop him, and they have the tools to do just that. T.O., however, loves the spotlight and wants to prove something to the Eagles. Something's gotta give, and I'm betting it's T.O. Eagles blanket him, bust-city. Book it.

The one piece of bad news to come out of the Cowboys' impressive win over the Cleveland Browns was that running back Marion Barber left with bruised ribs.

X-rays have come back negative and it is hopeful that he will play next week against the Eagles:

"I have no idea what his status is," Jerry Jones said, adding that Barber sustained some cartilage damage. "I'm assuming that everything is going to be fine."

"That dude's a tough guy," WR Patrick Crayton said. "I'm not too concerned about it. He's got an extra day to recuperate."

With Barber out, rookies Felix Jones and Tashard Choice filled in nicely and iced the game (Jones took his first NFL carry to the house).

Before Barber left, he averaged 5.0 yards-per-carry (80 rushing yards) and two TDs.

As we get ready for week one matchup of the Cowboys and Browns, Ace Davis from his own Ace Davis Cleveland Browns Blog was nice enough to offer some insights on the Browns for this week's Behind Enemy Lines feature.

In yesterday's DMN Cowboys Blog, Tim MacMahon directed us to some comments from May, 2008, where owner Jerry Jones admitted to being intrigued by the possibility of "Adam" Pacman Jones occasionally playing wide receiver.

As a general rule, it's prudent to ignore roughly half of what Jones says, but in this instance, there could be a better than 50 percent chance "Adam" actually lines up at wideout against the Browns on Sunday. Wide receivers coach Ray Sherman is all for it, and Wade Phillips hasn't ruled it out, although he admits that it probably makes sense to get Jones up to speed defensively before giving him more responsibility.

Fair enough ... so how about Sunday?

"It's a little early and we don't want to give out any secrets," Phillips said with a smirk, "so I'd say right now we don't expect him to play much receiver."

Which means that the Cowboys are perfectly happy with Terrell Owens, Patrick Crayton, Jason Witten and Felix Jones as the team's primary pass catchers. Pretty impressive group, actually.

Almost as impressive as Jones' get-up unveiled at the Cowboys Kickoff Luncheon. And by "almost" I mean "not even close." Obviously.

Another preseason game, another injured wide receiver for the Cowboys. Terry Glenn hobbled his way out of town earlier this summer and Miles Austin could be out for three weeks after hurting his knee in the second preseason game.

And last night, Sam Hurd went down during Dallas' first possession, and according to the Morning News' Jean-Jacques Taylor, "[Hurd] wore a walking boot on his left foot and carried a Bible in his right hand. No one knows when he'll be back on the field."

As it stands, the Cowboys enter the regular season with Terrell Owens and Patrick Crayton and, well, that's it at wideout. There's tight end Jason Witten, of course, but it would be nice to have a little more depth beyond the starters, I'd think. Taylor writes that crappy luck has conspired against the Cowboys, but that doesn't mean Jerry Jones will run out and sign the first aged veteran to answer the phone.

Training camps are underway, the NFL season is a month off, 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: We know that Tony Romo isn't a fluke. He stepped in last year and had another fantastic season, setting team records in the process. There are questions remaining about distractions (Romessica) and winning a playoff game (none in his two years) which Romo must answer if he wants to take a place among the NFL's elite. Dallas is putting all their eggs in that basket as the only fallback if Romo gets hurt is 39-yr old Brad Johnson who isn't quite the risk taker. Heat Index: 9

Running backs: It's rare when a team loses their starting running back and everyone is fine with the position. Julius Jones is gone, but rookie Felix Jones is in. Jones (Felix) will get a ton of carries this season to keep Marion Barber fresh. Barber, who only started the Cowboys' playoff game, is the NFL's version of Mariano Rivera -- he dominates late in games and finishes drives off. Jones and Barber will combined for that classic "lightning and thunder" combo and should be quite successful doing it in what supposed to be a more run-friendly offense. Heat Index: 7

Aaron Rodgers looks unassuming enough, but if there's one thing the fourth-year quarterback can't stand, it's the allusion that he's soft. He made that perfectly clear when answering questions about the perception that he's an injury waiting to happen.

Cowboys wideout Patrick Crayton must've missed out on that league-wide e-mail because yesterday he took a few shots at the Packers quarterback.

"Green Bay, that's a soap opera,'' he said, referring to the ongoing Brett Favre saga. "It's shaking Aaron Rodgers, I don't care what they're saying.''

Then Crayton went on to urge the Packers to start Rodgers, not Favre, against Dallas on Sept. 21. When he was reminded that Rodgers played fairly well against the Cowboys when Favre was injured, Crayton said, "Did anyone have any film on him?

"Their defense had film on him for last week's scrimmage. How'd that go?'' Rodgers was 7-for-20 and booed by Packers fans in last week's Family Night scrimmage.

Well, I think Crayton will get his wish since Favre is apparently out of the picture in Green Bay (for now, anyway; there's always the chance he magically reappears at some point before opening day, I suppose).

Hear that? It's the pitter-patter of fantasy football season approaching. Fantasy FanHouse is here to get you ready by previewing every team from a fantasy perspective.

Meet The ...
Team everyone is sick of hearing about. If not, give it some time. You already have the circus around The Artist Formerly Known as Pac-Man and constant updates on Tony Romo's social life ... mix in the storylines involving my personal least favorite player in the NFL (he wears #81), speculation about the head coaching situation, and anything involving Jerry Jones; and it's a cornucopia of maddening media attention.

The Breakout
Actually, most of the guys on this team are properly rated, but since I have to pick one I'm going with Patrick Crayton. He has been steadily improving since his rookie season in Dallas each year, and exploded once last year (7-184-2 in week 4). With Terry Glenn back in the fold some fantasy owners may downgrade Crayton's value. The thing is, he's still gonna be their second outside option. I like him to be a top-40 wideout for '08. He quietly set career highs in everything last year (50 catches, 697 yards, seven TDs) and will far exceed those.