BigJim

nj.com: PLAYER;;GRADE;;THE SKINNY Ramses Barden;;B+;;The grade is fitting because he's been more than just big so far. Domenik Hixon;;B;;Not as dominant as he was in last year's camp, but still solid. Derek Hagan;;A-;;A lot of people forgot about the former third-round pick, but he's reminded them of his ability lately. Mario Manningham;;C-;;Had a couple of bad mental errors recently and didn't finish a few makeable plays downfield. Sinorice Moss;;B;;Last year in camp, he had a lot of drops. He's cleaned those up now and has been open downfield. Hakeem Nicks;;Incomplete;;His absence hasn't helped matters, but he expects to be back on the field tomorrow. Steve Smith;;B;;Had a few uncharacteristic drops but made some real nice plays before being sidelined with a knee injury. David Tyree;;D;;Practice has never been his thing; he's a gamer. But he better start practicing like he plays.

Does anyone know why the name "Pierre Thomas" can not be found in any of these daily reports? Is he that irrelevant?

I don't understand this one bit. Reportedly, Fitzgerald negotiated a contract that assures him $33 million over the next two years. He has said he will do anything he can to help the club, but asking him to take less than what he's owed in guarantees AND locking himself up for 6 seasons to make it a manageable cap hit is putting the guy over a barrell. He could get the $33 million and then get a totally new deal that probably assures him another $30 mill in guarantees in 2010. But he's 'showing character issues" not accepting $20 million in guarantees and being shackled for the next 6 years? The guy should be considered for sainthood if he did that.

I'm just throwing this out there because I see this response all the time. And actually, I'm not necessarily focusing on MBIII/JJ... the same observation is true for other RBBC situations like Foster/DW and FT/MJD. However, for argument's sake, forget what you know about LT and how he's performed as a featured back: I'm curious how you think a tandom like Tomlinson/Turner would perform splitting carries? I'd say SD would absolutely be a top-10 rushing team, perhaps slightly less productive than using LT as a featured back. That said, would the mere fact that such a tandem proved to be successful, in of itself, dictate that San Diego is definitively better off sharing carries than feeding LT the ball as a featured RB? I'd argue that many NFL teams could be successful splitting carries among RBs, but in the end most choose to give the ball to the more productive player. For some reason, Dallas chooses not to, and no one really knows how that may be impacting them negatively. IMHO there's no basis to believe they wouldn't be equally successful, or moreso, giving the more productive player more carries. They could in fact be setting themselves back by giving JJ 10-15 carries at 3.9 YPC, despite their relative success considering that sandbag. So yeah, maintaining status quo could be a productive move. Maybe its not the best move, however.

Ah, if 27 is the right number I'm guessing the '1' was just a typo.

I'm curious how you project 17 TDs? I'm not suggesting he'll get more, I'm more curious on the method used to get 17 when he has 5 TDs through 3 games.

He is? Is there a link to that?

I'd say a token threat to report him to his state's gaming commissioner should prompt a quick refund. I believe what he is doing would be considered gaming in most jurisdictions, which is why most commissioners don't take a cut of the action or try to participate themselves without paying equal consideration [and certainly aren't stupid enough to broadcast it if they are, in some small informal league].

So basically, you are calling Barry Alvarez a liar? He said Calhoun was the best RB to ever come out of his program.

You've misunderstood. They aren't matching that term, under a theory that it is not a principal term. If they are wrong, he'll be awarded to the Vikes. If they are right, they can keep him in accordance with the other terms they matched.

Tough crowd.... no offense intended.

IMHO this definitely solidifies Green's role as a starting LB.

In my dynasty league, I have as my QBs ... Palmer and Culpepper :doah:

Nice league. Your champion must feel so proud of his accomplishment.

Old news. He ousted me last week.

I've got 4 words: Moss is milking it.

He's killing me too. As I see it, it's just a matter of time before some columnist in Oakland questions whether the Raiders truly got a bargain in Moss, thereby placing a huge chip on his shoulder. That's pretty much what inspired him when he disappeared for games in Minny.

Guys, these women have their privacy. I think we should move on to real football talk. Just kidding.

Listen, I think JJ will start. Everyone thinks JJ will start. That doesn't change the fact that your post title is an unqualified "JJ will be the starter if healthy" and your post itself concludes "Parcells has pretty much put to rest any RB controversy, RBBC, much less Barber becoming the starter." You are basing this on a quote that says "Don't anoint Barber." That is not a quote stating that JJ will start when healthy, as your title unconditionally states. That is also not a quote that settles "much less Barber becoming a starter" as you've further stated as fact. Parcells indicated nothing of the sort. It is a quote warning people not to go overboard and assume things that only the coach knows. That said, whether you have bias or not, you are drawing conclusions from an ambiguous quote and stating these clearly unresolved issues (possibility of JJ being a shoe-in, RBBC, Barber perhaps even starting) are "pretty much put to rest" based on a quote that clearly does not touch on those topics.

Yeah, paying top value for him last year after he'd scored 5 quick TDs wasn't the best move my dynasty team ever made. Hopefully he rebounds because this is getting ugly.

I'm not saying Barber will start when JJ returns, but I do think it's ridiculous to conclude JJ *WILL* start just because Parcells warns against anointing MB3. If Parcells said "Do anoint JJ" then I would say the takeaway is JJ will start.

I've heard way too many local reports where Zygi has taken a "Tice has never been given the tools to succeed" to take Tice's firing for granted. I have already been preparing myself for Tice staying with a proven OC coming in. Like I said, now it wouldn't surprise me if at some point I read a Zygi quote suggesting that Tice had the team turning around (GB win) before the Culpepper injury derailed the team beyond being coaching fixable. I hope I'm wrong because another year of Tice is another lost year.

Scuttlebutt where exactly in the TC? This is the first I've heard and as others have already said, ain't happening. The best thing that could have happened for Vike fans is if Tice continued to put a relatively healthy uncompetitive team on the filed. My greatest fear is Tice will get a free pass due to Culpepper's injury and be back next year.

I'm going to disagree with this. Matt Birk missed the vast majority of last season and yet this offense moved, and in fact Daunte put up statistically historic 5000+ passing/rushing yards with 40+ total TDs. I will agree with you that Moss is not the problem. Moss was healthy for all of 5 games last season, and while Moss did catch some goal line TDs in otherwise low production games upon his return from injury, his 700 receiving yards was not what made the offense move. I personally would pin the blame for what we saw last Sunday on the Vikings promoting yet another OL coach to a lead coaching position he's completely unqualified to hold, with the *SOLE* consideration being that it costs less than searching for and hiring a capable coach. And BTW, while Loney was acting as an OC last Sunday trying to figure out how to get a running play to go more than 1 yard, I'm curious who was working with the offensive line to straighten it out? Oh that's right, NOBODY, because the Vikings were too cheap to fill a vacated OL coach position. Instead, they expected a guy who's in way over his head as an OC to coach OL also. I do realize the Vikes brought in Corbin Lacina as an intern OL special assistant. All I'll say to that is: Great, adding another unqualified/unproven intern coach to this staff will accomplish exactly what it did last Sunday. This team cannot win until it has legitimate coaching. This should be the Vikings management in public~~~>

You have Chad Johnson's rookie stats wrong, which were actually 28/329/1. Also, this is definitely selective use of statistics being that you've excluded certain stud WRs who don't support immediate success for WRs, who may in fact take time to become 1000+ yard WRs. Immediate WR success is far from the rule. Since the analysis should be "is it possible for a guy to look like a turd his rookie year and still be a potential top 10 FF WR?" I'd look at the top 10 FF WRs over the past few seasons and include: Ike Bruce: 21 - 272 - 3 Hines Ward: 15 - 246 - 0 Jimmy Smith: 22 - 228 - 3 Joe Horn: 2 - 30 - 0 Eric Moulds: 20 - 279 - 2 Javon Walker: 23 - 319 - 1 Terrell Owens: 35 - 540 - 4 Reggie Wayne: 27 - 345 - 0 Derrick Mason: 14 - 186 - 0 Other guys who played less than 7 games as rookies I'll even take their 2nd season: Keenan McCardell: 13 - 234 - 4 Amani Toomer: 16 - 263 - 1 Bottom line, if you look at top 10 FF WRs, they are just as likely to have been turds as rookies as ho-hum WRs, and far more likely to have been turds than immediate top 20 WRs such as Moss, Boldin, Clayton.