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Rantings

This is why I support players holding out for the season to get as much money as they can. Javon Walker has 2 years left on his underpaid contract. He was holding out this offseason because he just put up Pro Bowl type numbers. What happens the first week? He tears his ACL and is out for the year. Will he get that contract extension he deserves? No. Will the team cut him if he doesn't return to his pre-injury status? Yes. And will Brett Favre, the guy who publicly convinced Javon to come back to camp, help Walker out with his negotiations or salary? No. Hines Ward and Antonio Gates got the deals they were seeking, but only after they returned. They were lucky. Walker wasn't. How much money will this injury cost him? We'll never know, but it will probably be $10+ million over the course of his career. For those commentators who say they shouldn't hold out and it should be all about the team, well the team is not going to help out the injured guys when they can't perform to their prime levels. To even compare their jobs, saying that they don't holdout for more money from ESPN or whatever is a stupid argument. Everyone knows that the sports and entertainment business is completely different than any other business. If Mark Schlereth held out for more money, do you think ESPN couldn't replace him in a heartbeat? There's a reason commentators can't hold out, it's because they're not as valuable a commodity as a Pro Bowl wide receiver. If Mark Schlereth was the sole reason people watched NFL Live on ESPN, well he could probably hold out for more money.

TO, I hope you don't hold out because you're on my fantasy team. But if you think you deserve more money, then by all means hold out because we know NFL franchises do NOT honor the contracts that players and owners sign. They will cut you as soon as your production is not worth the money, you get injured, or your salary is not "cap-friendly." We all know football is a dangerous sport and one play could ruin your career. So, you might as well make all the money you can while you can still play because there are rarely any other industries where you can make that kind of money in such a short amount of time. Go get that paper.

Start Larry Johnson?

So if you have Larry Johnson, do you play him? And if you have Priest Holmes, do you start both?

When Eric Karabell was on ESPN news earlier, he said to play both as one will certainly have a good game. But I disagree. LJ got 9 carries to Priest's 22 which is about a 33-67 split. Priest is still obviously the #1, and obviously LJ isn't going to average 12 yards per carry every game. So I would bench LJ and go with your other #1 rb. Right now, either wait for LJ to start or wait for him to start getting close to 15 carries before playing him.

Recent Fantasy Football Draft

So we conducted our fantasy football draft this past weekend. Here's our league setup (We've tried to balance every position to have a realistic value to the team)

2 QB's, 2 RB's, 3 WR's, 1 TE, 1 D
All TD's = 6points
INT, Fumbles = -3
25 yards passing, 10 yard rush/rec = 1

Notice there are no kickers. Just as in the NFL, games should NOT be decided by kickers, so we omit them because they're boring anyways.

Some interesting things:
Peyton went #1, Daunte went #3, McNabb went #6. For all the experts who say draft a RB with your first 2 picks, take that. While I would draft a top RB at that point, due to the need for 2 QB's, it's just as important to get a top QB as it is to get a top RB. I was selecting 11th of 12 and thought I would get a chance to grab either Daunte and/or Moss. I was way off on my prediction as Moss went 8th. But that left me with some premier RB's to grab, so I picked up Deuce Deuce. Coming back around, I grabbed everyone's favorite WR, TO.

My strategy in this draft was to make sure I balanced out my team by selecting the best available RB, QB, WR with my first 3 picks (in no particular order). But I also wanted to make sure I got 2 top 5-8, wide receivers. So I picked Deuce, TO, and then Hasselbeck. I then traded Hasselbeck for Andre Johnson, the pick right after me, and selected Kerry Collins in the next round. So I had my QB, RB, WR, WR. Now my RB situation was a little scary with no top RB's left. I waited and waited since most people had filled out there RB's already and selected Delhomme, the Baltimore D, and the Wiggens before selecting Fred Taylor in the 8th round. That was the steal of the draft. Taking a 1200-1300 yard back that late. You say he's injury prone? He's missed 2 games in 3 years. But he is coming off an injury and that what I'm concerned about.

So my team came out:
QB: K. Collins
QB: J. Delhomme
RB: Deuce
RB: F. Taylor
WR: TO
WR: Andre Johnson
WR: Stokely
TE: Wiggens
D: Baltimore
BN: McCardell
BN: Larry Johnson
BN: T. Henry

Solid team, but question marks with Collins and Taylor. But I have 2 potential #1 backs in Johnson and Henry. Should be a fun season.

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