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Surviving Sundays with no Packers Football

Instead of a long intro this week, I’m going to save my bloviating for the non-Packers links and other nonsense section and get right to the Packers news of the week.

I’ll be back next week with a strong opinion on something related to the Packers or the NFL. For now, we’ll just catch up on Packers news and talk about a baseball text simulation game that everybody should own.

Packers News, Notes and Links  Read more... (1137 words + 1 image, estimated 4:33 mins reading time)

• Center Evan Dietrich-Smith signed his one-year restricted free-agent contract tender this week. I’m surprised no other team offered him more money to lure him away from the Packers. I’m also happy that Dietrich-Smith will be back. Should we be worried that no other team bothered to offer him more than the $1.323 million he got from the Packers? 
• Jermichael Finley was on KFAN in Minneapolis this week with Vikings play-by-play broadcaster Paul Allen. The interview is painfully bad, but if you want to know what Finley had to say, read this summary from Jason Wilde’s ESPN Milwaukee blog. Finley says he wants to play like Tony Gonzalez. In other news, I want to write like Shakespeare.

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Surviving Sundays with no Packers Football

Forgive me, Packers fans, I’m about to stick up for the Chicago Bears.

(*The author pauses for a moment to put on his bullet-proof vest, change the locks on his home, and take a deep breath*)

I have no problem with the Bears one year, $2 million contract offer to Brian Urlacher. I’m actually insulted that Urlacher called the offer “insulting.”

Football is a business. Good teams make roster decisions not to reward once-great players or keep local heroes around to appease the fanbase. Football has been trying to teach us this lesson over and over again, but most people will never learn it, or simply refuse to even try to learn it.

Urlacher was a free agent for the first time in 13 seasons. He’ll be 35 years old in May and he missed the last month of the 2012 season with a hamstring injury.

In the 12 games that Urlacher did play, Pro Football Focus graded him out positively in only three of them. He finished with an overall season grade of -11.3. Pro Football Focus is not the be-all, end-all of player evaluation, but from what I saw of Urlacher in 2012, a -11.3 seemed generous. I thought he was slow and a shadow of his former self.

Does a $2 million contract offer for a once-great, but now aging player coming off an injury and likely on the downswing of his career really sound that insulting to you?  Read more... (1200 words + 1 image, estimated 4:48 mins reading time)

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Surviving Sunday with no Packers Football

It’s already July, but football and the Packers first game still feels like it’s a long ways away. Good thing it’s never too early to talk some fantasy football.

Here are my way-too-early top five at each position, along with a darkhorse candidate and some random thoughts.

QB
1. Aaron Rodgers
2. Tom Brady
3. Drew Brees
4. Matthew Stafford
5. Michael Vick

Darkhorse: Jay Cutler

Drafting a running back early in your fantasy draft is so 2006. I’ll take Rodgers, Brady or Brees over any running back. High-end, modern-day QBs put up ridiculously good fantasy numbers, and, most importantly, they’re consistent. Thanks to injuries, you can’t make the consistency argument for Stafford or Vick, but man, it’s going to be hard to pass those guys up for a running back if either remains on the board.

RB
1. Arian Foster
2. Ray Rice
3. Maurice Jones-Drew
4. Chris Johnson
5. Lesean McCoy

Darkhorse: Roy Helu

Running backs are a lot like closers in fantasy baseball. You can usually find good value at the end of the draft or on the waiver wire during the season. That said, it’s so hard to pass them up early in the draft. If you guess right, and pick a RB that remains healthy and gets plenty of carries near the goal line, you’re set. Picking a running back with your first selection used to be a no-brainer. Thanks the rise of the quarterback, running backs are no longer the safest bet.  Read more... (733 words + 1 image, estimated 2:56 mins reading time)

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