Rookies Have a Great Day

Hey All,

Yesterday, Sunday November 4th, a pair of rookies had record breaking days. Running back Doug Martin for the Bucs explodes with a huge day on the ground, while Andrew Luck and Brandon Marshall scored a hat trick.

By now, Fantasy owners probably gave up on Doug Martin, but not this guy. I knew it would only be a few games before Martin had a big day, and became a feature back in the NFL. He already won the position over a very good running back in LaGarrette Blunt in the off-season, and has looked very good as of late.

Martin happened all over the Raiders with a legendary performance of 272 total yards and four touchdowns. The arrow is pointed firmly up for the Boise State rookie after three straight scoring weeks and a second straight multi-touchdown outing. The rest of the schedule is promising, too. San Diego's fourth-ranked rushing defense next week looks like the biggest obstacle without one other top-11 ranked unit on the rest of the schedule. The Broncos (12th), Eagles (16th), Panthers (20th), Falcons (24th) and Rams (13th) are all middle of the pack at best, with Week 15's Saints matchup looking like playoff gold.

Andrew Luck's record 433-yard, two-touchdown day suggested a bigger win, but the Colts needed every completion to down the Dolphins. While Reggie Wayne has had a career resurgence this season, on Sunday the two biggest beneficiaries were rookie T.Y. Hilton (on a team-best 11 targets) and the inconsistent Donnie Avery, who both went over the 100-yard mark. In part, that was also a function of an inconsistent running game. Wayne is still the only receiver to wholly trust, but those in deep keeper leagues should have Hilton on their rosters for safe keeping.

Along with these two having monster days on the grid iron, there were a couple of players that did not have too good of days. There are bigger problems in New York these days other than football, much less fantasy production. But it was still surprising to see the top-ranked pass defense of the Steelers climb off a bus, then hold Eli Manning and the Big Blue passing game to 10-of-24 for 125 yards and no touchdowns. There are better days ahead for the Giants, but a tip of the hat to the Steelers who continue to be a matchup landmine for opposing fantasy owners.


From the "Stop Me When You've Heard This One Before" file, I give you Raiders running back Darren McFadden. It's been a strange year for Run DMC, who started the season being more effective catching the ball and despite flashes overall, is averaging a paltry 3.3 yards per carry and has two rushing touchdowns. He's never made it a full 16 games in the regular season and yesterday's leg injury shows why it's so hard for fantasy owners to trust him. Owners should grab Mike Goodson for a handcuff if they can, of if Goodson is too injured to go, target a Marcel Reece.

All in all some Fantasy owners should be happy with their players, provided they had Luck or Martin. On the other side of things they probably don't feel to good about themselves if they have the Giants D, or McFadden. My advice is that if you have any of these players I would stick it out with Martin, Luck and I would stick it out with the Giants D. As for McFadden I would be looking around for other options.

If you would like to know more
Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/fantasy/11/05/fantasy-football-awards-week9/index.html#ixzz2BNWto6B5

Until next time,
You keep doing what your doing, and I'll keep you up to date with everything sports

The First 2 NFL Draft Picks

 Hey All,

 As I'm sure most of you know, the NFL draft was this weekend, and with no surprise to anyone Andrew Luck was announced first to the Colts. Next to him was Robert Griffin III at the number 2 slot to the Washington Redskins, and both men have big shoes to fill. With Luck, his has to live in the shadow of Peyton Manning, and Griffin will have to try and win over the fan base there who can be a bit on the critical side. Let's get started by talking about Luck.

Andrew Luck trying to fill the shoes of Peyton Manning, who only won 4 MVP awards and a Super Bowl ring while with the Colts, but it shouldn't be that hard for Luck right? Luck went on to say this about how he feels about the whole Manning situation, ''You don't really replace a guy like that, you can't. You just try to do the best you can. Obviously, he was my hero growing up.''His selection as the top pick was hardly a stunner. The Colts informed Luck last week that Commissioner Roger Goodell would announce his name first. After Lucks name was called he went up, held the jersey with Commissioner Goodell, walked off stage, slapped hands with some Colts fans and then went right into the interview room where he was asked the obvious question about Manning. ''I realize you could go crazy trying to measure yourself to Peyton Manning every day. That would be an insane way to live,'' Luck said. ''I know his legendary status, really. Huge shoes to try and fill if you're trying to do that. ... If one day I can be mentioned alongside Peyton as one of the football greats, that would be a football dream come true.'' All in all Luck is very happy to be in Indy and playing for the Colts. 

Now for RG3. Washington dealt a second-round pick this year and its first-rounders in 2013 and '14 to St. Louis to move up four spots. But they wound up with the Baylor QB who beat out Luck for the Heisman Trophy. Dressed in a light blue suit that didn't quite mesh with Redskins' burgundy and gold — and wearing socks that fit the team's color scheme and proclaimed ''GO CATCH YOUR DREAM'' — Griffin had some trouble getting the Redskins hat over his braids. He ended up wearing it just a tad crooked while he flashed big smiles for photos.''Go catch that dream — because a lot of times when you chase something you never get to it,'' he said. ''So if you say, 'Hey, I'm going to go catch my dream,' you're already telling yourself that you're going to get it.'' Griffin even was heard signing the Redskins fight song on the phone with the team when he received  his call. So it seems that he is very excited to get started with the Skins. 

I think both men will be great complements to their respective teams, and should have great careers to go along with that. 

Until next time,

You keep doing what you do, and I'll keep you up to date with everything sports.

Luck vs Griffin III

Hey All,

 As I'm sure all of you know, the NFL Draft is slowly approaching. All the buzz is about the two top Quarterbacks entering the draft, Andrew Luck and Robert Griffin III. Now everyone is assuming that Luck will be the first pick in the draft by the Colts, with Griffin coming in closely behind him. Now all the hype is about how the draft and how both players will live up to the big stage of the NFL. Both players are strangely similar; Both are 22, exactly five months apart, both were recruited by Stanford. Now most didn't know this  but the offensive coordinator tried really hard for Griffin, while Luck was already in house. Though Griffin preferred Baylor because he knew he would have a better chance to play early and often. The next similarity between Luck and Griffin is that both were high school football stars in Texas, Luck was at Houston Stratford, Griffin at Copperas Cove. Both declared for the draft with a year of college eligibility left. Both were academic stars as well. Griffin had a 3.67 GPA in political science. Luck was a academic All-American in architectural design and engineering. Now the most obvious similarity is that they both are athletic. Even though it's clear that Griffin is more of an athlete.

ESPN's Peter King spoke with both coaches on how they will far in the NFL. Shaw, on Luck: "You saw the USC game this year. Andrew threw an interception in the fourth quarter that they returned for a touchdown to put them up, and then we had to respond. He went to everybody on the offense on the sideline. His message was the same up and down the sideline: 'We have no choice here. We're going to take the ball downfield and score, and we're gonna win.' He drove them to the tying touchdown, and we won in overtime. That's who he is. He will not accept failure, in anything. Wherever he goes, he will have a drive to succeed. And when he gets picked, all the extraneous stuff, he'll do what he has to do.But all the stuff he can't control, I guarantee you he won't worry about it. He's a guy who will have faith in his coaches. I can't tell you how smart he is. I used to tell him, 'OK, take the stuff you don't want out of this game plan. Kill the plays you don't like.' He hated that. HATED it. The way he knows football, the coach coaches, and he plays. So wherever he goes, he's going to master what is in his control, and he's going to forget everything else. It's not his job.

"One other thing: I remember early on at Stanford, I told him one time, 'Andrew, this is your huddle, take charge of the huddle.' He looked at me and said, 'Coach, before that can be my huddle, I have to earn it. I don't want it handed to me.' That is how he will approach the NFL -- like whatever he gets, he'll earn. The position is about finding completions, about moving the offense. You watch how he played, how he checked down, how he always found the open receiver. He will have no ego about throwing the ball deep or throwing it short. He'll be throwing for completions.''

Briles, on Griffin: "The thing about Robert is he's a football player. Some of his happiest times are not when he's done something great himself, but when he's done something for a teammate. You ask him about our bowl game against Washington this year, and he'll tell you the play he loved was making a block downfield to spring our ballcarrier. That's what his new team will realize about him. It's not about the stats, or the fame. It's about elevating the team any way he can.

"I believe with Robert that going to a team that isn't very good will be inspiring to him. Because he'll realize he has to elevate that team any way possible. If you allow people responsibility, you'll soon find out if they have the capacity to handle it. Robert always could handle as much as you gave him. And I don't mean to keep coming back to this but a leader on a team is one who cares for everyone else before he cares for himself. And the excitement and gratitude he has for others on his team ... it's something I saw every game he ever played. That's going to translate to the NFL. This is a great team player.''

If you would like to know more, please be sure to check out the full report by ESPN's Peter King by the link below

Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/writers/peter_king/02/19/king.free.agents/index.html#ixzz1n4F6RnJv

As always readers, you keep doing what you do,

And I'll keep you up to date with everything sports