Posted by Mike Florio on August 12, 2011, 10:32 PM EDT
AP
The Texans are counting on cornerbackJohnathan Joseph to prop up an anemic secondary in 2011. And so Texans fans will understandably be unnerved by any evidence suggesting that Joseph may not be able to do what he was hired to do.
Only days before the preseason opener, Joseph missed practice due to tightness in his groin.
“[H]e actually got an injection so that takes some time to come back but everything looks fine,” coach Gary Kubiak said Friday, via comments distributed by the team. “He’s OK. I expect him to be out there tomorrow.”
There’s no reason to be concerned, for now. But any time “groin” and “injection” are used in the same sentence, it makes sense to at least worry — and cringe — a little bit.
Cringe indeed. More importantly is that Joseph will need to be given time to rest and let it heal properly. Too often with one of these types of pulls/strains the players try to fight through it, but often they just suffer in the long run. One example is Lions third year safety Louis Delmas last year. Delmas, as a rookie, was a DROY candidate. He was the only rookie in history to record a safety, return a fumble and interception for touchdowns. Yet last year he was very average, with no splash plays. The difference, the Lions did not have any depth and were not able to let him take time to heal. So he dealt with a mid grade groin pull the entire season.
Houston's defense is indeed anemic, but if they ever want the bleeding to stop they need to let Joseph heal.
Posted by Gregg Rosenthal on August 12, 2011, 9:30 PM EDT
AP
Starters usually stay on the field this week for only a drive or two, but Alex Smith and the 49ers got five drives on Friday night.
That’s because the first four drives didn’t produce a first down.
The fifth drive was slightly better, with two first downs. Smith was sacked twice and fumbled while completing only 2-of-7 passes for 10 yards in his outing. He was under constant duress, with free rushers coming at him often.
On one play, 49ers tackle Anthony Davis clearly committed a false start, jumping off the line early. He still gave up a strip sack to Will Smith.
Things didn’t get much better when rookie Colin Kaepernick entered the game. Kaeperick’s first drive ended after three consecutive sacks, which included a fumble. The 49ers trail 10-0 late in the first half.
Luckily, the 49ers have three more preseason games to iron out the offensive kinks under Jim Harbaugh.
The top priority for every NFL team in the preseason is to emerge from it with all key players healthy.
For Pittsburgh, there’s already a problem.
Cornerback Ike Taylor suffered a broken thumb on Friday night against the Redskins. Owner Art Rooney, II, disclosed the injury during halftime of the KDKA-TV coverage of the game.
Also, quarterback Ben Roethlisberger suffered hand and hip injuries that are regarded as minor.
Safety Ryan Clark completed the Trifecta with an injury that also is regarded as minor.
Whether and to what extent Taylor misses any time remains to be seen.
The first quarter in this first preseason week is the key quarter to watch. That’s when the starters are in.
Atlanta’s starters absolutely shreded the Dolphins starters on Friday night.
At the end of the first quarter, the Falcons had a 17-0 lead. They picked up ten first downs to one for Miami. (On a Chad Henne run.) Atlanta gained 159 yards to 17 for the Dolphins.
Chad Henne threw five passes, completing one to a teammate, and two to the Falcons. (In fairness, a bad Anthony Fasano drop led to one of the interceptions.) He also took a couple of big shots.
Falcons rookie receiver Julio Jones quickly showed why Atlanta traded up for him. He caught two passes for 43 yards and gained a first down on a 12-yard end around. His after-catch burst was impressive. Jones beat the defense deep another time but Matt Ryan couldn’t connect with him.
It really couldn’t have been a better start for Atlanta. Wideouts Harry Douglas,Kerry Meier, and Eric Weems all made nice plays early to show Atlanta’s receiving group may be far deeper than last year.
There weren’t any “We want Orton!” chants in Atlanta, but the start couldn’t have been much uglier for Miami.
UPDATE: Tony Sparano smartly left Henne out there against the Falcons backups. After picking up a third and long with his legs, the Dolphins went on a touchdown drive in the second quarter.
Brian Hartline caught a 44-yard touchdown on a blown coverage. 17-7 Atlanta early in the second quarter. Henne figures to leave now.
It has been a pretty one sided game in Kansas City tonight. Keep in mind that Todd Haley chose not to play most of his starters tonight. Not that it matters, because these games don't count, but it made it hard to find much good to point out from the KC side. Tampa Bay was more prepared to play a game in terms of not only making less mental mistakes, but they are playing at a higher tempo with more intensity, but a few notes here so far.
Thomas Jones is still a very capable runner, but he has clearly lost a step.
Jonathan Baldwin did not get very many looks, but what I did see was not that impressive. He did not appear to be very explosive, and the one catch he had was on a slant, but it looked like he ran a lazy rounded off route. Not a good idea, especially over the middle.
Josh Freeman has to be one of the most impressive young players in the league, and I don't mean just his play. He is a very intelligent young man and he is a student of the game. Just listen to him speak, you'll understand.
Don't be surprised if Josh Johnson is on another roster sometime this season. This young QB has all the athletic tools, he is very poised in the pocket, and his mechanics are very clean. He threw some frozen ropes down the field that were just beautiful.
Rookie defensive end Adrian Clayborn showed a good motor.
Rookie MLB Mason Foster is quicker than I expected. It's only preseason, but the game doesn't seem too big for him at this level.
Eight-time Pro Bowl receiver Cris Carter was asked on ESPN Radio this morning to list the elite wide receivers in the NFL. Lions receiver Calvin Johnson did not make his list.
ESPN Radio’s Mike Greenberg pointed out that Johnson has played with lousy quarterbacks, but Carter wasn’t buying it.
“I made eight Pro Bowls,” Carter said. “I made it with five different quarterbacks. They weren’t always great. So I don’t want to hear the excuse that I’m not playing with a great quarterback.”
Frankly, for Carter to compare the quarterbacks he played with to the quarterbacks Johnson has been saddled with is absurd. In Carter’s best years he was catching passes from Jim McMahon, Sean Salisbury, Warren Moon, Brad Johnson, Randall Cunningham, Jeff George and a prime Daunte Culpepper. Johnson has caught passes from Jon Kitna, Dan Orlovsky, Matthew Stafford, Shaun Hill, Drew Stanton and a past-his-prime Culpepper. Carter’s quarterbacks were far better than Johnson’s.
Carter also downgraded Johnson, he said, because “right now you don’t have to double team him to take him out of the game.” But Tom Kowalski writes at MLive.com that opposing defenses don’t seem to think that’s true: Even withCharles Woodson and Darrelle Revis, the Packers and Jets doubled Johnson last season.
I’m not going to go so far as to say that Carter is simply wrong with his assessment of who the elite receivers in the NFL are, since judging the greatness of a wide receiver is a subjective exercise — as Carter himself has found out when getting passed over for the Hall of Fame. But I will say that Carter’s analysis was weak. Johnson has been held back by the quarterbacks he’s played with, and he hasn’t been shut down by single coverage. And he’s great in more than just video games.
Cris Carter was an excellent player, and his numbers are worthy of the Hall without doubt. But Carter on multiple occasions has been off base in his expert analysis. I have to challenge Carter's claim to have spent time actually watching Lions games, other than the occasional highlight reel. If he were to actually watch the games, he would find out that not only is Calvin almost exclusively double covered, but he is one of the only receivers that I have watched get triple covered. I also can appreciate what Michael David Smith said about the quarterback quality in Detroit, as it has been terrible for the most part. Megatron may not be the top receiver right now, and yes he can grow in some areas still, like he has been this off season with his route running and timing with an actual pro caliber QB. But he certainly is in the discussion of the leagues elite. Just ask the guys who have to try and cover him.
Our goal is to help you leverage your time more effectively with the use of our tool. The PPI can be used to help you quickly and efficiently generate and analyze player comparisons. This is incredibly useful whether you are just putting together your draft strategy, or on a week by week basis of who to play and not to play, or even who to pick up from the waiver wire. Our tool can be used to evaluate your options in any given situation.
The PPI is a way to determine a player’s effectiveness in terms of fantasy point generation, on a per play basis. This of course is not the only way to determine a player’s value, but it is a value that you can weigh against other values in a comparison. Some players require many opportunities to generate X amount of points, some players can do that with less opportunities. This equates to higher chance to reach their point totals, essentially being less risk.
The PPI covers the Quarterback, Running Back, Receiver and Tight End positions. Each position group has their own tab on the spread sheet, with the Top 50 fantasy performers from last season (standard scoring).
The PPI functions slightly differently for each position as far as the algorithm is concerned. However, the non-QB positions all have both PPR and non-PPR format scoring. If you play in a points per reception (PPR) league, then this is of great value to you. If you do not play in a PPR format league, then you would disregard the PPR scoring.
How do I use it?
First select the appropriate tab based on the skill position you want to evaluate (ie: Running Backs). Then once you are on the page, you will notice that the page is split into two panes. To navigate either, simply click on the pane you want to navigate, and scroll the direction you want. (You can remove the split screen view if you like from the View Tab atop your screen). The split screen was put in place to allow you to see the top of each page, while scrolling through the players.
You will notice at the top of each page, there is a group of 5 boxes where player data can be entered, as seen below.
Player
Tom Brady
Michael Vick
Peyton Manning
Player 4
Player 5
Drop Backs
548
506
713
325
434
Sacks
25
34
16
5
12
Attempts
492
372
679
300
420
Completions
324
233
450
180
290
Yards
3900
3018
4700
2900
3200
Touchdowns
36
21
33
22
19
Interceptions
4
6
17
3
19
Rushing Attempts
31
100
18
20
2
Rushing Yards
30
676
18
200
4
RTD
1
9
0
3
0
Fumbles Lost
3
11
3
1
5
Per Play Index
0.538
0.578
0.395
0.720
0.360
Total Value
295
292.32
281.8
234
156.4
That is your Player Comparison Matrix, where you can enter any 5 players (of that position) along with their stats, and get an instant comparison.
Important- Do not enter data into the following fields, they are calculated for you:
Drop Backs, Touches, Opportunities, Per Play Index, PPI, PPI (PPR), Total Value, Total Value (PPR)
So for example, to enter data for a QB, you enter their sacks, attempts, completions, yards, TDs, INTs, Rushing Att., Rush. TDs, and Fumbles Lost. It will populate the other 3 fields. Likewise for the other positions, but the field names are different.
For PPR Scoring – On the RB, WR and TE pages, in cell H1 you will find a PRR multiplier. By default that value is set to 1. This is the value that you need to adjust to meet your leagues scoring system if you play with points per reception. A value of 1, means that you get 1 point for every reception. Each league is different, so I have left this adjustable to meet your needs. For example if you get 1 point every 5 receptions, then you would change the multiplier to a value of 0.2. The value will need to be changed on each page, as they are independent of each other.
The Graphs on each page are based on PPI and Total Value for Standard Scoring only at this time.
If you have any further questions of comments, please contact us at TigerReport@gmail.com
He’s been dealing with a mysterious illness for months, but coach Andy Reid nevertheless believes that receiver Jeremy Maclin will be ready to play in less than a month.
“I think he’s going to be ready,” Reid said after Thursday night’s preseason game, via Reuben Frank of CSNPhilly.com. “I guess I’m optimistic. I’m waiting to hear the results, but I’m optimistic.”
We hope he’s right, but it’s hard to envision Maclin playing on September 11 against the Rams, given that Maclin has yet to practice at all in 2011.
For now, Maclin is back in St. Louis for further evaluation. “He has to have some tests done,” Reid said. “His [surrogate] father is a doctor, so that is actually a comforting feeling. He has someone there that he is very close to, and his dad has a good pulse on things, which we encourage, so that’s where he had some of the tests done.”
Reid said that the acquisition of Steve Smith has no bearing on Maclin’s situation. As to Smith, Reid is (you guessed it) optimistic.
“He had a small microfracture, but all of his ligaments and cartilage was intact,” Reid said of Smith. “His knee is very stable, and he’s had no swelling in his knee throughout the whole process. He’s been running, and he starting running routes this past week.
“We’re just going to bring him back slowly and see what he can do. We’ll get him in a formal rehab with [trainer] Rick [Burkholder] and see exactly where he’s at. It could be three weeks, I don’t know. I have to see how he does here. We know he’s a fine football player, and we just need to get his leg where it needs to be.”
If Maclin and Smith can get back to 100 percent, the Eagles will have even more fine football players — and possibly too many weapons for one of the finest (on paper) teams in the NFL.
Buffalo sent wideout Lee Evans to Baltimore in exchange for a fourth-round pick. Ravens rookie Torrey Smithreportedly looked shaky in his preseason debut, and the Ravens have very little receiver depth after him.
It’s a terrific fit for the Ravens, who lacked speed last year. They have Anquan Boldin to go over the middle, in addition to their young tight ends. Evans and Smith can work outside the numbers.
Bills fans could understandably be upset about the trade package, but the Bills were ready to move on from Evans and save some money. The eighth-year veteran is due almost $5 million in each of the next two seasons.
There’s now visual evidence to corroborate that notion. In fact, it looks as if T.O. has already arrived at 100 percent.
Owens posted a video on Twitter of his footwork on a field ladder, followed by an explosion into a full sprint.
Though it’s hard to tell how fast he’s running, it sure looks like he’s where he was before tearing that ACL.
We’re told that his goal is to be ready to play by Week One. Given the rule that guarantees the salary of any vested veteran who is under contract at the start of the season, there’s a chance that he’ll be signed after the first weekend of regular-season games.
Teams that could — or at least should — be interested include the Cardinals, Ravens, Panthers. But for the ugliness of 2005, he’d probably be destined to join the Dream Team.
