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 today we look at the NFC West's looming position battles.
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?
Multiple sources are reporting that Jacksonville has agreed to send wide receiver Dennis Northcutt to Detroit in exchange for safety Gerald Alexander.
The Jaguars were rumored to be shopping Northcutt recently -- a notion confirmed by Northcutt's agent (who, incidentally, is also Alexander's agent). The 31-year-old receiver is scheduled to make $2.75 million in 2009. But it was the presence of rookies Jarret Dillard, Mike Thomas and Tiquan Underwood, along with the free-agent signing of Torry Holt, that made Northcutt expendable for Jacksonville.
In fact, despite his 44 catches for 545 yards last season, the Jags were prepared to release Northcutt if a trade partner could not be found.
After the Bears landed Jay Cutler in early April, the focus of many fans and media alike shifted to the receiving corps. Devin Hester, Rashied Davis and Earl Bennett will need some help, and no one can doubt that. Since then, the Bears have seen Torry Holt sign with the Jags, not traded for Anquan Boldin -- probably because they don't have enough to offer -- and drafted three second-day wide receivers.
Over the course of the past week, the Chicago Tribune has conducted interviews with the three respective quarterbacks of the three drafted wideouts. As can be expected, those interviews unearthed rave reviews.
I can't help that I love Torry Holt -- he's a North Carolina State guy who has dominated as a wide receiver at every level. Additionally, he's one of the nicest guys in the NFL, and generally deviates from the typical showboating style that one sees in so many of the league's wideouts. But that doesn't mean Holt's finger -- which is bent in all sorts of silly ways -- is any less disgusting. Because, well, as shown in the video below, it's just gross. But the finger is also a good reminder of why he's so successful; I would bet that Matt Jones or Reggie Williams might just try and smoke off such an injury or something. Holt, meanwhile, just keeps on playing. (Jacksonville.com via Frumpzilla Via Hot Clicks)
Everyone makes mistakes. But when those mistakes are magnified by intense scrutiny of the NFL draft, well, they become much more embarrassing than, say, my typical Friday morning, mustard-stain-on-khakis incident.
Which is why the NFL FanHouse braintrust got together to determine who is the biggest bust for each NFL team. They're not listed in terms of stupidity -- they're all stupid relative to a team's total draft performance. Meaning, of course, some teams "bust" is much different than another organization's; we did it this way to avoid just linking you to DetroitLions.com.
Instead, we're putting it in current draft order, sans trades, and allowing this list to serve as a reminder of each's team's ability to properly execute a fail. The "bust factor" was based primarily on three things: statistical production (or lack thereof), position in the draft and other available options during that year's draft.
Jimmy Smith was arrested this afternoon at a gas station in Jacksonville, Florida, and according to a TMZ report, has been booked into a nearby detention center on four different drug charges: two felonies and two misdemeanors, in addition to driving with a suspended license.
Smith was allegedly carrying multiple illegal substances, was photographed in handcuffs at the gas station while officers escorted him to and from the bathroom and is reportedly being held on $5006 bond in downtown Jacksonville.
Torry Holt and the Jaguars, in theory, go together like proverbial spaghetti and meatball -- Holt is a free agent with plenty of skills remaining and the Jaguars are a team in desperate need of a wide receiver.
If Mort is correct, which we'll admit is possible, and the Jags complete the signing, this is a big move for them. The current receiving corps is Dennis Northcutt, Mike Walker, Troy Williamson, Nate Hughes and D'Juan Woods.
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. 
Multiple sources are reporting that Jacksonville has agreed to send wide receiver Dennis Northcutt to Detroit in exchange for safety Gerald Alexander.
After the Bears landed Jay Cutler in early April, the focus of many fans and media alike shifted to the receiving corps. Devin Hester, Rashied Davis and Earl Bennett will need some help, and no one can doubt that. Since then, the Bears have seen Torry Holt sign with the Jags, not traded for Anquan Boldin -- probably because they don't have enough to offer -- and drafted three second-day wide receivers. 
Jimmy Smith was arrested this afternoon at a gas station in Jacksonville, Florida, and according to a TMZ report, has been booked into a nearby detention center on four different drug charges: two felonies and two misdemeanors, in addition to driving with a suspended license. 
Torry Holt and the Jaguars, in theory, go together like proverbial spaghetti and meatball -- Holt is a free agent with plenty of skills remaining and the Jaguars are a team in desperate need of a wide receiver. 
According to ESPN's Chris Mortensen -- please raise red flags when I say, "GO!" -- former Rams wideout Torry Holt is close to signing a contract with the Jacksonville Jaguars. We should note that, according to our boy MortScoop, the deal isn't finalized. Of course it's not. That way when it doesn't get signed, Mort didn't actually make a mistake. 
