FanHouse YamonFigurs

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

Until I saw this, I had actually forgotten B.J. Sams was still in the league. He kind of came out of nowhere to win the return-man job with the Ravens four years ago, but he suffered a broken ankle late in the 2006 season, and Baltimore later used a third-round pick on wideout/returner Yamon Figurs.

Figurs handled most of punt and kick returns as a rookie and the Ravens decided to let Sams' contract expire. Which, it turns out, is good news for the Chiefs, a team in dire need of some special teams upgradin' (I mean, they're thinking about signing this guy).

According to Football Outsiders, the Chiefs were one of the league's worst special teams units in 2007, and the kick-return team was dead last. And while Sams can't do anything for the offensive line or quarterback situations, if he helps improve "teams", it would be a good start. And, no doubt, all part of Herm Edwards' master plan.

Of course, as Arrowhead Pride points out, inanimate carbon rod would be preferable to Eddie Drummond.

Color me excited after last year. Sams, however many steps he's lost, is an upgrade over Eddie Drummond. Sams is only 27 years old and has shown flashes of being a potent return man. Yes, more flashes than Drummond showed us (Note: That's actually pretty arguable and I'll leave it at that).

And, hell, might as well see if Sams can kick field goals too.

The Baltimore Ravens kept the country on edge deep into the night on Monday as they ventured closer to a win against the Patriots than anyone else this season. They didn't make tonight's game with the Colts quite that suspenseful. There won't be any bags under the eyes or spirited conversations around the water cooler for those who watched tonight's game, a 44-20 slaughter that wasn't even as close as the final score indicates.

The first quarter was equally divided between Colt touchdowns and Raven mistakes. A Reggie Wayne touchdown, a Willis McGahee fumble and two Joseph Addai scores sandwiched around a Kyle Boller pick pretty much ended the game before everyone had stumbled in from the extended tailgating. When Michael Coe blocked a Sam Koch punt through the end zone to make it 23-0, people started streaming back out to finish the cases of beer and grilled sausages they'd left behind.

The Baltimore Ravens were so very close tonight but as Tony Kornheiser said just before the Patriots scored the winning touchdown, there was a tragic inevitability about their loss.

No matter how well Willis McGahee ran, no matter how much Kyle Boller defied expectations and no matter how late into the blustery evening they led New England, the Ravens never quite put to rest the sneaking suspicion that they would find a way to have the whole thing blow up in their face.

There was Ed Reed's fumbled interception near the end of the first half and Boller's interception at the Patriot 1 that ended a drive that could have put the game away in the third. There were the 11 penalties and the timeout called from the sideline on fourth and one just before stopping the Patriots short of the first.

There was the Patriot false start on the ensuing snap which negated another stuffing and the holding by Jamaine Winborne on fourth down in the end zone to give the Pats another chance. There were the two unsportsmanlike calls on Bart Scott on the winning touchdown which allowed the Patriots to get a touchback rather than deal with Yamon Figurs, who had broken a couple of swell returns earlier in the proceedings.

And then, finally, the catch by Mark Clayton of a Hail Mary two yards short of the end zone.

Oh yeah, there was Tom Brady with the ball in his hands of a winnable game with less than two minutes to play and driving toward their end zone, too.

Tragic Inevitability could be the title of the NFL Films video of the Baltimore Ravens 2007 season. As for the Patriots video, Undefeated remains the clubhouse favorite.

Every week, NFL FanHouse hits the lowlights from Sunday's action, looking at those players who did the most to move their head coaches that much closer to returning to the Bed and Breakfast business.

Miami Dolphins
That's right, for the first time in Coach Killers' short history, an entire organization earns the top spot. And they definitely earned it.

I understand the Dolphins are rebuilding, even though it's mid-season, but did everybody forget that they had a game Sunday? Want an example of how quickly things got out of hand against the Patriots? Here are Tom Brady's first half stats: 16 of 19 for 291 yards and FIVE TOUCHDOWNS. He finished with six for the day, and 27 for the year. There's a real chance he gets 100 by Christmas.

The Dolphins are now 0-7, and they truly have nothing to play for this season. Everything is about 2008 and beyond. Knowing that, it was encouraging to see Derek Hagan and Ted Ginn combine to haul in seven passes for 93 yards, and Ronnie Brown looked good until ... he left the game with an injury. Yeah, God has smited the 2007 Dolphins.

Silver lining: Joey Porter got his first sack of the season!

This makes sense: Baltimore reserve wide receiver Devard Darling was fined $7,500 for an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty last Sunday. His crime? Leaping into the stands following teammate Yamon Figurs, who had just returned a punt for six.

Now I understand rules is rules and all that crap, but $7,500? Really? When the league is fining guys five grand for throwing players on their head or grabbing facemasks, 7,500 clams is the going rate for ... leaping in the stands? Jeebus, that's not arbitrary. But it gets better:

"The league, they have their rules, and we have to abide by them," said Darling, who will lose 15 percent of his weekly paycheck to the league. "It was $7,500, man. I'm hurting right now. I won't be jumping into the stands anymore."

Gotta love those regressive taxes. Fair and balanced, baby. If you need further proof of the haphazard nature of punishing these criminals, Darling's teammate, Demetrius Williams, was also assessed an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty Sunday -- for spiking the ball after a reception. His fine? Bupkes. Brilliant.

If there was a quarterback you thought would be free from on-field controversy this season it was Matt Leinart. Sure he might impregnate a basketball player here or party with an air-headed heiress there but there was no chance that Ken Whisenhunt would replace him with Kurt Warner, right?

Wrong. The new Cardinal coach did just that today and Warner nearly led the Cards back to a win after being down 17 points. But because Kyle Boller wrote another chapter in Baltimore's own book of controversy the Ravens improved to 2-1 with a 26-23 win on Matt Stover's last-second field goal.

Leinart wasn't hurt when Warner trotted onto the field in the second quarter and he was clearly unhappy, wearing a model's pout on the sideline, while the veteran led Arizona to a field goal.

Leinart returned for the rest of the first half but didn't do anything to slow the Raven march to a 20-3 halftime edge. He led one second-half drive, made a terrible throw that forced the Cards to settle for three and that was it for the Golden Boy from Troy.

While Warner was bringing the team back in the second half Leinart looked like the unhappiest camper this side of Michael Vick's pit bulls and even if the move worked out in the short term you have to wonder if Whisenhunt didn't destroy his relationship with his franchise quarterback. You know what you have in Warner, a strong arm and a penchant for mistakes, and it's not a long-term solution.

I suppose this is a good problem to have, inasmuch as losing a starter can be "a good thing." Return dude B.J. Sams was lost for the season on Monday night, and 2007 third-rounder Yamon Figurs, ahem, figures to inherit the job.

Figurs raised his pre-draft profile by busting out a 4.29-forty during the February combine, and now he looks to take his six career returns-for-touchdowns at Kansas State and parlay that into a nice little NFL debut Sunday against the Jets.

Just one thing, though: the Ravens haven't announced who will take over for Sams. It's only a matter of time, but here's a thought: why not put Ed Reed back there? The guy might be the best special-teamer in the league, even though he's seldom used to return kicks or punts. One reason is that he's battled a thigh injury this week, and to put a not-fully-healthy Reed back there would be idiotic. There's also the whole thing about not putting starters on teams duty because the risk for injury is seemingly higher. Whatever.

Like I mentioned, this is a fabulous problem to have. Special teams is such an integral part of the game, and if Figurs can win the field-position battle, Steve McNair/Kyle Boller's job will be a helluva lot easier. And given how last week played out, the Ravens' offense will take whatever they can get.

The news out of Baltimore just keeps getting worse: returner B.J. Sams is done for the year with a torn knee ligament. Sams, a former undrafted free agent, broke his ankle last last season and the team drafted Kansas State's Yamon Figurs in the third round as insurance in case Sams didn't make a full recovery.

Sams won the job in training camp, and played well during the preseason, but drafting Figurs is looking like a prescient move by general manager Ozzie Newsome. Sams is in the final year of his rookie deal, and he's probably done in Baltimore if Figurs plays well.

In other injury news: head coach Brian Billick said that Jonathan Ogden didn't re-injure his big toe, but "he's going through the pain ... I don't know if Jonathan will be able to come back from this or not." That's a problem given the Ravens' offensive line took the Wonder Twins form of: a sieve against the Bengals last night, and Steve McNair has the bruises to prove it.

In addition to McNair, Ray Lewis and Daniel Wilcox also received treatment at the Ravens' facility today, and although Lewis' torn triceps is now thought to just be a strain, no word on the status of the three players for Sunday's Jets game.

In typical U fashion, running back Willis McGahee offered this on McNair, who left the game late in the third because of an injury:

"He's a soldier ... That right there shows the character of him. He's out there playing hurt. He could have easily sat out, but he chose not to."

Kellen Winslow approves this message.

When the Ravens drafted Yamon Figurs, they knew they were getting someone really, really fast. But faster than Bears return man Devin Hester?

According to Figurs, yes. Figurs says he knows he's faster than Hester because they raced in high school, when both were in Florida, and Figurs beat Hester at the state track and field finals in both the 100 and the 200 meters.

"It was pretty close at regionals, but not when it came to states," Figurs said with a smile.

That speed looks, at least from what you can tell from watching the preseason, like it's going to make Figurs a big-time contributor on special teams. His shortest kickoff return so far is 28 yards. He's also tremendous as a punt gunner.

At the same time, no one should think he --or anyone -- is going to be this year's Devin Hester, who is special because there won't be a "this year's Devin Hester." But he doesn't have to be Devin Hester to be awfully good.