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.

All injuries, all the time…

– Chester Taylor looked like he could be done for the year after being carted off the practice field in writhing pain, the result of a blow delivered as Taylor attempted to catch a pass that was strung out in front of him.  Childress, though, downplayed the injury, calling it a right arm “contusion.” This, of course, is during a time when Adrian Peterson obviously needed a better opportunity to win the starting job.

Hold out news from around the NFL

With many NFL camps in full swing, it’s time to look at some players who were hold out possibilities. 

Larry Johnson, Marc Bulger, Lance Briggs, Asante Samuel, Michael Strahan, and Pete Kendall. 

Well let’s first look over who did end up reporting to camp. 

Lance Briggs of the Bears decided, along with his agent Drew Rosenhaus, that it would be in the best interest for the linebacker to be in camp on time, and be able to perform well enough to try again for a new contract next year.  Briggs signed his $7.2 million tender well in advance of Chicago’s first practice.

Houston and St. Louis sign their first round DT’s

Since it worked so well last night, we’re gonna go ahead and stuff two first round rookie signing updates into one again, and this time, we’re gonna take a look at two defensive tackles chosen in the top 13. 

Let’s first take a look at the contract signed by the 10th pick in the draft, Amobi Okoye out of Louisville.  Houston and Okoye’s agent have agreed to a contract worth a total of about $17.6 million, and Profootballtalk.com reports the deal, which also includes $12.78 million in guaranteed money, represents a 12.6% increase over the deal received by last year’s tenth overall selection. 

It’s alright, everybody’s doing it…

With the salary cap having gone through the roof and many agents around the league clamoring in the ears of their talented clients, next week could see an abundance of holdouts and salary demands.

Agents for Asante Samuel and Lance Briggs have both come out and threatened to have their clients sit out not only training camp, but most of the regular season as well. These messy events take place every offseason thanks to the franchise tag, a tool used by teams to keep their star players from flying the coop. Of course, there’s a new salary cap in town now, and with it, a slew of new problems, disagreements, and ultimately greed.

NGPF’s Short Slants, just in time for the weekend…..

– Dolphins head coach Cam Cameron has come out and said that the Dolphins had a trade partner for quarterback Daunte Culpepper.  Apparently the situation dragged out before disintegrating into dust.

While the obvious trade partner Cameron is referring to would be the Jacksonville Jaguars, we figured that the Jags were waiting for Culpepper to be released before bringing him in for a workout. If they were the Dolphins’ trade partner, though, Culpepper might already be in Jacksonville, signed, sealed, and delivered.

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.

Welcome Back to the Final Installment of the Fantasy Impact Series

There’s no better way to end this series than to preview what could easily be viewed as the most loaded division in terms of offensive FF studs, the NFC West. In our eyes, three of the top five fantasy running backs in the NFL reside here, as do two of the top six quarterbacks, and three of the top ten wide receivers.

None of the four teams in the NFC West possess lock-down defenses, and considering any of the players listed here will be playing against three of those units six times a year, its an added bonus for this already impressive group.

The St. Louis Rams were dealt a huge blow today with the NFL announcing that cornerback Fakhir Brown will be sitting out the first four games of the 2007 season.  Last year, in his first season as a Ram, Brown was responsible for tying the team lead in interceptions and starting 14 games at corner.  Fakhir was also responsible for television commentators everywhere nearly blurting out a four letter word.

– Marc Bulger is prepared to hold out if the Saint Louis Rams do not work on signing him to a new extension before training camp.  Putting that into perspective, camp is only a couple weeks away, and they don’t seem to be going anywhere in negotiations. Were I a Rams fan, though, I wouldn’t panic just yet that they won’t get it done.  Says Bulger in regards to the possibility: “I don’t think it’s going to happen, but you never know. I don’t want to rule anything out,” he said. “The Rams have been good to me. I’ve been there my whole career, and I think everything’s going to get worked out.

Marc Bulger Extension?

ESPN’s John Clayton is reporting that the St. Louis Rams and quarterback Marc Bulger are finally progressing in their contract talks.

In our (humble) opinion, what took so long?

Bulger’s story seems to be similar to the situation that played out in the early 90’s in San Francisco. Playing in the shadow of Joe Montana, it looked as if Steve Young could do no right, and even while winning games and putting up big numbers, there was no clutch postseason victories. There wasn’t a Super Bowl victory.