Fourth-round pick Clyde Gates is listed as Brian Hartline's direct backup on the Dolphins' preliminary preseason depth chart.
Gates known as "Edmond" in college, but has changed his name to "Clyde." The No. 111 overall pick in the draft, Gates boasts more speed than Hartline and could pass him if he catches up to the pace of the game quickly. The Fins are desperate for a true deep threat to run clearing routes on the perimeter.
The part of this that I found newsworthy was that Edmond Gates is no longer Edmond Gates, but Clyde Gates. This is useful information to pass along for fantasy football geeks like myself and to normal fans as well. ; ) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Lions have contacted free agent Jerome Harrison about competing for their No. 2 back opening behind Jahvid Best.
Ricky Williams was the Lions' top target until he signed with Baltimore. Harrison is the best free agent running back left available, even if he wouldn't fit Detroit's preference for a true power back. The 28-year-old Harrison goes just 5-foot-9, 205, but would be an excellent early-down change of pace for Best.
Free agent Jerricho Cotchery is en route to Baltimore for a visit with the Ravens.
Cotchery left his Steelers visit Monday morning without a contract, probably because Pittsburgh could offer only veteran minimum money and no guarantee of a starting job. Cotchery would have a better shot at a first-team position in Baltimore, opposite Anquan Boldin. His addition would take some life out of rookie Torrey Smith's sleeper appeal in fantasy leagues.
Coach Lovie Smith promises that Devin Hester will "be a huge part of the offense" and has named him the Bears' starting flanker.
Hester's role should have been reduced upon the acquisition of Roy Williams, but Bears coaches claim to have more confidence in Hester than Johnny Knox. "[Hester] really was our best receiver last year, even though the numbers didn’t show it," said delusional WRs coach Darryl Drake. Knox, who in reality was the Bears' top wideout a year ago, has been reduced to a backup split end role behind Roy Williams. Williams is the best bet for fantasy value of the trio. Slot receiver Earl Bennett is now the favorite to lead the Bears in catches.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Cam Newton put on a show for the more than 15,000 Carolina Panthers fans who braved threatening weather Saturday to get a glimpse of the rookie quarterback at the team's annual Fan Fest at Bank of America Stadium.
The No. 1 overall pick looked extremely comfortable in his new home stadium, making short work of a two-minute drill on offense by throwing a 70-yard touchdown pass to tight end Gary Barnidge and then adding a 65-yard scoring strike to David Clowney later on.
It capped an impressive first week for Newton, who led Auburn to a national championship last year and won the Heisman Trophy.
Earlier in training camp, coach Ron Riverawas asked his impressions of Newton and responded, "Wow!"
Fans seemed to have the same reaction Saturday, giving Newton a hero's welcome. Many view him as the savior for an offense that finished last in the league in scoring, total offense and passing yards in 2010.
"It felt great," Newton said. "For me this whole process has been a roller-coaster ride -- up and down, up and down. But the one thing I've been trying to focus on in practice is being more consistent. ... New plays are going in every day. I'm just trying to learn each day."
Wide receiver Steve Smith, who worked out with Newton in Charlotte during the lockout, said both Newton andJimmy Clausen are doing well.
When asked about Newton in particular, Smith called him "a superior athlete."
"He's on his back foot throwing 50-yard passes. I mean, c'mon," Smith said. "I'm not going to sit here every week and say how good Cam is. He didn't win the Heisman Trophy because there was bad counting on the ballot. He won because he's good."
Rivera isn't saying who'll start the regular season opener on Sept. 11 against the Arizona Cardinals, but it's pretty easy to tell who the fans like. On Saturday they booed Clausen when he threw incomplete passes and cheered when Newton did just about anything.
Smith said both quarterbacks stand a better chance of succeeding in this year's West Coast offense, run by offensive coordinator Rob Chudzinski.
"The quarterbacks are doing what has not been done around here in a long time," Smith said. "The philosophy has been in years past is not to screw it up and now it's put your foot down on the gas pedal and go hard."
Newton praised Chudzinski for being "open-minded" when it comes to the playbook.
Chudzinski, who coached under Norv Turner in San Diego and is using many aspects of the Chargers' offense in Carolina, even installed some zone-read-option plays, something Newton excelled at last year at Auburn.
"That means a lot to me personally," Newton said. "He's always willing to put in things that make everybody excited. Not only me, but everybody. He's willing to capitalize on my strong points of the game."
It's hard to find someone who's not happy with the new offense which is expected to feature tight ends Greg Olsen and Jeremy Shockey.
Smith, in particular, is thrilled after two seasons where his season statistics dropped off dramatically under former offensive coordinator Jeff Davidson.
"Run blocking is not my forte," Smith said. "And it's nice to have layers and have multiple sets and not be standing in one spot for 70 plays during a game. I get to line up at different spots and it's refreshing. I like that. It's not (coaches) saying, hey, we're going to move you around and then never do it. Here they are actually saying it and it's happening."
Newton, who signed a four-year, $22 million contract with a team option for a fifth season, spent much of Saturday flashing his million-dollar smile and soaking things in.
"In kindergarten they always said kids do something that you want to wake up and do in the morning and enjoy doing that for the rest of your life," Newton said. "I'm under contract for a couple of years so every single day I'm going to enjoy playing football. I'm going to be the person I am and that's enjoying life and playing football."
Notes: The Panthers claimed defensive back Chevis Jackson off waivers from the Denver Broncos. Jackson has played in 33 games with three starts during his three-year career. ... The Panthers were without six defensive starters on Saturday including defensive end Greg Hardy, defensive tackle Ron Edwards, linebackers Jon Beason and Thomas Davis, and cornerbacks Chris Gamble and Captain Munnerlyn. Rivera said the team hasn't made a decision yet on whether they'll place Edwards on injured reserve after he tore his triceps Thursday night.
Per Jim Wyatt and John Glennon, Titans cornerback Cortland Finnegan said after practice Monday that his Saturday absence was, in fact, contract related and that he did not tell the team he was leaving.
He disputed both those things via Twitter on Sunday.
But Monday Finnegan apologized to the team, fans and media and said he should be fined. Mike Munchak said he will comply.
And that puts the weird story of the last couple days (find posts on the walkout here and the denials here) to rest.
Hopefully Finnegan can have a big year, closer to the All-Pro form he showed in 2008 than how he played the past two seasons. That will get him paid, and it will make the Titans want to pay him.
We know how the Osi Umenyiora standoff ends, one way or another. He’ll wind up playing for the Giants.
At least Giants owner John Mara thinks so. (And really what choice does Osi have?)
“Yes. I think it will be resolved and he’ll be a Giant this year,” Mara said via the Newark Star-Ledger. “It’s something we can work out. We’re already talking to his agent to do something incentive wise with his contract to make him happy.”
Osi’s side was less sunny.
“We appreciate John saying that and hope that will be the case,” his agent Tony Agnone said.
Umenyiora doesn’t have much leverage here, especially after the Giants stopped allowing him to seek a trade. ESPN.com’s Adam Schefter reports the Giants are offering an incentive for Umenyiora to get 13.5 sacks. He’s done that once in his career.
Agnone hopes that the Giants will take a year off the contract. (It’s currently through 2012.)
The fact that the Giants are bending slightly now is a strong sign this standoff is headed towards a resolution, even if it takes a while.
1. Adrian Peterson - The Vikings did not really do much to help themselves in the off season. They add McNabb and lose Rice, so no net gain there. They did get rid of Mount McKinnie, but brought in Charlie Johnson to fill his spot. I do not think Johnson will be as good of a run blocker, but AP is still a beast. He will continue to shoulder the load here and defenses will still have a hard time slowing him down.
2. Chris Johnson - IF CJ 1.3k ends his holdout before the season, and actually gets some football reps under his belt, and is healthy, then and only then, do I slot him here at #2. Otherwise he drops down several slots. It has nothing to do with his history, but with the history surrounding holdouts. Nearly everytime a player misses preseason work due to a holdout, they end up having injury or performance issues, or both. Those issues aside, CJ1.3k is still the same player that he was 2 years ago, and the Titans are better than they were last year. So expect his performance to be somewhere in between those seasons, IF he reports soon.
3. Jamal Charles - Charles is good, scary good. In fact when you look at what he has done in his young career, most would actually be quite surprised. In 3 years he has only had 487 carries for a whopping 2,944 yards, averaging 6.0ypc. That alone is phenomenal, but let's look a little further into the numbers. Charles has not only gotten better each year, but significantly better. His average ypc has soared from 5.3 to 5.9 then to 6.4, while his touches have increased. His receiving totals have also gone up each year. Yes he only had 5 RTDs last year and has never had double digits, however you have to account for the fact that even having over 1,400 yards last year, he still was second on the team in carries to Thomas Jones. Then you factor in the added and the addition of fullback Le'Ron McClain and you get more running lanes for Charles. Expect big things from him this year.
4. Arian Foster - Came off the practice squad into super stardom last year as he burst onto the scene becoming the fantasy football MVP. Not only did Foster put up 1,616 yards and 16TDs, but he snagged 66 receptions for over 600 yards and 2 more TDs. Now I don't think he is a one year wonder, but he did have the luxury of running behind Vonta Leach. Leach was rated by his peers as the best lead blocking fullback in the game last year. Now Leach has taken his services to Baltimore, and this does hurt Foster's value. However, he will still be a fantasy football stud if he gets this hamstring issue worked out.
5. Ray Rice - He should be one of the happiest running backs in the league right now. The Ravens were able to keep one of their best offensive linemen in free agency in Marshall Yanda, they drafted speedy Torrey Smith to help take the top off the defense, and they replaced the good fullback they lost in free agency with a better lead blocker in Vonta Leach. This all figures to increase Rice's production this year and he easily becomes a top 5 back.
6. LeSean McCoy - Shady McCoy that might surprise some people here, because last year he only had 1,080 yards and 7 rushing TDs, but there is much more to McCoy than that. First let's look at the fact that he topped the 1k mark on just 207 carries, which gives him a 5.2ypc which is excellent. Then you have to look at the fact that last year he plucked 78 passes out of the air for almost 600 yards and another 2 TDs. Even in a non PPR format that is still excellent production. Now factor in that teams will be game planning against Vick each week, and you can expect Shady to have more freedom to exploit the defenses. In a PPR format you could easily push him into the top 5 with similar production.
7. Maurice Jones-Drew - Pocket Hercules is hard to keep off the list, despite him recovering from the knee injury still. Even with an up and down year, and the knee, MJD still put up over 1,600 all purpose yards and 7 TDs. I think if he can stay healthy he can improve on those numbers, unfortunately Jacksonville did not really do anything to help their offense in the off season, so defenses will be able to focus on him.
8. Steven Jackson - This is one of the harder picks. Steven Jackson is just an animal, plain and simple. I really want to place him higher on the list, because I think this will be one of his better years. However as the saying goes, "the best predictor of future success is past behavior". What that means is that while he is a workhorse, and he has had 6 straight 1,000 yard seasons, he has only had two double digit TDs seasons. In addition to that, he does average 46 receptions a year, but his yardage is only averaging 381. So outside of PPR formats, it is a marginal boost over a 16 week season. With all this being said, the Rams made several attempts to make this a better football team this offseason, and Jackson could be the primary beneficiary. The Rams have one of the best young offensive lines, and they just added Harvey Dahl. On top of that, Sam Bradford has a full year under his belt with a host of new young receivers including Mike Sims-Walker, and Josh McDaniels calling the shots. This should be a very fun offense to watch this year, and Jackson could have his best season yet as the offense spreads the defense over entire field
9. Darren McFadden - Right now DMC has an injury with a broken bone in his face, so that can change everything. The good news is that it is only expected to take a few weeks to heal. The question is how long before he heals mentally? If he is timid or shies away from contact, his value drops drastically, even though he is not a power back. Assuming he is healthy DMC should off the big play explosiveness that he was drafted for. Last year he averaged over 5ypc and also hauled in almost 50 receptions, giving him over 1,650 all purpose yards and 10 TDs. He does share time with Michael Bush, but he is still worthy of a top 10 pick if he recovers from the orbital bone fracture.
10. Michael Turner - Turner was on pace to have a very good '08 year that was derailed by injury. He did rebound last year, but there may be some signs of wear and tear on the 29 year old, indicated by his declining YPC. But the cause for excitement around Turner is that the falcons will have an offense that they have not had before. This year Matt Ryan will have an arsenal of weapons at his disposal with the additions of Julio Jones and Jacquizz Rodgers. With all these weapons at the ready, I think it is safe to say that the Falcons will be going vertical a lot more, and this will let Turner see seven-man fronts exclusively now. In a non PPR league, Turner is still worthy of a top ten pick. But the fact remains that most running backs decline rapidly around the age of 30, so keep that in mind before selecting him in a keeper league.
TTR's Sleeper #1 - Jahvid Best - Jahvid Best burst onto the scene last year and then as quickly as he emerged, disappeared. The dynamic back from Cal has the tools to be a 3 down back, and the speed and elusiveness to be a home run hitter every time he touches the ball. Despite playing behind a mediocre run blocking line in Detroit, best still showed flashes of brilliance last year. However best had not one, but two severe cases of turf toe that happened in week 3 and lasted all season. The Lions could not afford to let him rest and heal properly, so he played through the pain most of the year. Now a lot of people do not know what turf toe is and quite honestly, it sounds like something that only would keep whimps off the field. But turf toe is actually where you dislocate your toe. Jahvid played 14 games with both his left and right big toes dislocated. It was evident to see his lack of burst and the fact that he had to take many extra steps to cut or change direction, compared to prior to the injury. Best is now healthy and is back to his blazing 4.35 speed and is going to be a matchup nightmare for teams this season. In PPR formats I would take Best in the top 10.
TTR's Sleeper #2 - Daniel Thomas - Rookies typically don't have a very realistic shot of bearing much fantasy relevance on average. But I think Daniel Thomas is in a position to do some special things in South Beach this year. The Dolphins signed Reggie Bush, but we all know that he is not a feature back. Reggie is an explosive player that refuses to run between the tackles. It will not take long for Sparano to realize that he prefers Thomas 230 body slamming through the line, than Bush trying to dive for a pylon. Thomas also has experience running the wildcat while he was at Kansas State as well.
Not Top 10 - Peyton Hillis - The Madden cover boy does not make the TTR Top 10. I love the way Hillis plays, he is powerful and reckless. A throw back player that is fun to watch. However I do think that last year was the pinnacle for Peyton. It was his first season as the workhorse, and he produced, but you have to question the wear and tear. Can he produce at a high level again for a full season, I don't think so. The reason is actually based on the numbers from last year. Hillis is a bruiser that is also adept as a receiver. His 1,600 all purpose yards are more than impressive, as are his 13 total TDs. But the problem is that over the course of the season he was held under 4ypc seven different times. Four of which were in the second half of the season. Also 6 of his 8 games without a TD were in the second half of the season. In fact to simplify it, let me show his stat lines for his last three games of the year, all against division foes.
Yes, of course those are 3 solid defenses. But those are defenses that he will face another 6 times this year. I think Hillis will be good this year, but he will not repeat his success in 2010.
