Random thoughts from some of Week Two’s games

The second week showed the continued dominance of some units, while weaknesses became more glaring than the hot August sun for others:

Joey Harrington is still struggling, Vikings’ Adrian Peterson has some insane moves, Chad Pennington has Kellen Clemons hot on his tail, Vince Young still needs some work, Brady Quinn can throw touchdowns against the Lions’ 3rd string defense, the Panthers’ offense was completely inept against Philly, and the Jags have some wild running backs.

And now for some more organized thoughts on some of this week’s games.

Stop working. Stop doing your homework. Stop hanging out with your wife/girlfriend. Catch up on the NFC training camps.
– The New Orleans Saints will help open the season against the Steelers on Sunday, and as is the norm for the Hall of Fame game, many of the players aren’t too excited about an extra preseason game.

Sean Payton, however, has taken this in stride, and believes this field trip to Canton will be a great learning experience for the team. It’s also going to be an opportunity to let a special teams group gel that will look completely different from the ‘06 unit.

‘Boys finally unwrap Philly’s draft day present

According to the Star-Telegram, Dallas Cowboys’ first round pick Anthony Spencer has signed a contract for $9 million over five years. Dallas started signing their draft choices fairly late into the process, but thanks to this morning’s signing, Jerry Jones will have all his draft picks in camp on time.

In order to pluck the last pass rusher in the draft with a first round grade off the board, the Cowboys had to pull off the unthinkable, trading with arch rival Philadelphia. While it cost several other teams (Cleveland, San Francisco, Indianapolis) first rounders to move up in the ‘07 draft, Jones cleverly managed to obtain Spencer for a second, a third, and a fifth rounder.

– In an obvious direct response to our write-up two days ago, the Bears are now making headway with Lance Briggs.

– Priest Holmes is ready to resume his career with Kansas City. (We’ll see how that goes)

– Curtis Martin, however, is ready for retirement. (We feel 5% more confident that this is final)

– Bills’ second rounder Paul Posluszny signs his deal just in time for camp.

– The Eagles’ first pick, Kevin Kolb, is signed and ready to make Donovan McNabb’s life miserable.

It’s never too soon for an MVP list here at NGPF.

It’s only July and opening day is a ways away but we thought it’d be fun if we took a look at some of the league’s MVP candidates for 2007. Usually, just after the first month and a half of the season has concluded the clouded picture of candidates starts to become a little more clear.

Well, obviously, we can’t wait that long.

NGPF has gone out and rounded up the TEN most likely NFL players to be mentioned as an MVP candidate.

We Don’t Just Pick. We Pick Big (Country).

Recently we here at Next Gen Pro Football were invited to participate in a fantasy football mock draft featuring owners of various sport-focused blogging sites. After the lottery balls had fallen, we were “awarded” the #7 selection in the order (out of 12) and left feeling a lot like what the Boston Celtics must have felt last month heading into the NBA draft (see: not good).

Having participated in FF for about a decade now, we’re going to take this as an opportunity to show you how to approach a draft when you’ll be drafting in the middle of each round, a notoriously tough spot.

Fantasy Impact #5 — The NFC East

It’s been a few days since our last Fantasy Impact but now that our new home has been set up we’re happy to start rolling them out again, just as fast as before.

Today we start talking about that OTHER conference: The underperforming NFC.

And the first division we’ll be discussing from said conference is one featuring names seen in the newspaper headlines quite a bit the last couple of seasons: TO, Romo, McNabb, Eli.

We’ll get right down to those guys in a second, but first, we have a promise to keep. That’s right… It’s time for your daily jewel of wisdom.

Extra, Extra! “Vasher Signing Signals End of High Priced Cornerbacks,” Screams Mainstream Media

The Boston Globe joins the parade now forming to proclaim the cornerback market crash after the Chicago Bears inked Nathan Vasher to a five-year, $28 million deal.  Suddenly because of the less lucrative contract extensions signed by Broncos’ corner Dre Bly and Vasher, people are proclaiming Asante Samuel, well, cornered. 

Contract extensions traditionally are worth a lot less than deals signed with new teams on the open market as profootballtalk.com touches on.  Extensions are usually a goodwill gesture on the part of the team to ensure that a talented player will never see the deadly auction block that is free agency in the NFL. 

I know we’ll be covering this story in more detail later, but I found it particularly interesting that CNNSI.com, the same folks that boldly predicted the Miami Dolphins to be the 2006 Super Bowl winner, advises that you draft Willie Parker, Rudi Johnson, and Brian Westbrook before Peyton Manning:




Tony Romo’s Next Destination?

The contract extension talks between the Dallas Cowboys and their young quarterback Tony Romo seem to be over, at least for the time being.  In all likelihood, as the Dallas Morning News points out, Romo will probably receive a large contract at some point during the 2007 season. 

Depending on how the first month of the season goes for Romo, however, the leverage of either side could swing widely.  The downside for the Cowboys is if Romo has a great start to the ‘07 campaign he could start to think about opting for free agency in the spring.  The price tag to lock him up would certainly rise significantly.

Packer Trade Rumors

Rumors continue to circulate around the net that the Green Bay Packers will make a move before training camp opens July 28th. None of their draft picks seem to be inspiring awe, and they did next to nothing in free agency. While most of the talk circulates around current free agents still looking for a job, we find it hard to believe that making a move on one of them would help the team let alone make Brett Favre happy.