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.

Hide your left tackles!

The sweltering August heat isn’t being especially kind to NFL players today. A couple of high profile injuries occurred this morning, and while it’ll take all day and possibly tomorrow to find out the severity, lets get you caught up on what info is available today.

Knee Twisting

The Kansas City Chiefs had their prized free agent acquisition, Damion McIntosh, go down in the summer heat with what looks to be a serious injury to his right knee. The left tackle was brought over from Miami (mmm, Dolphin o-line table scraps) in hopes of securing the left side. Kyle Turley was a disaster last year at LT, and despite being brought back, KC would probably rather prefer not to go through that same scenario again.

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.

The world says goodbye to a legend.

We’d be remiss if we didn’t say a brief word about Bill Walsh. At 75 years of age, Walsh finally succumbed to the leukemia that had been affecting him for quite some time. For the San Francisco 49ers and the NFL, it’s a day of great sadness, but also a chance to remember the man and the coach.

An absolute innovator in every sense of the word, Walsh changed the way offenses operate in the modern era. I remember watching a video about a year ago from the ’80’s of Walsh and Joe Montana demonstrating the basic concepts of the forward pass in the West Coast Offense.

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.

Brett Favre Continues His Slow Assault on the NFL Record Book…. 

It’s been a little over a week now since we first looked at some milestones that were on the horizon for running backs.  This time its the quarterbacks and two guys who are mentioned way too much by the mainstream media. 

Brett Favre is either first or second in just about every category there is for a quarterback, and is within striking range of owning every major NFL passing record.  He also leads the league in getting his ass kissed by T.V. commentators.(Look it up)

49ers Sign First of Two First Round Picks……

According to ProFootballTalk.com’s sources, the 28th pick of this year’s NFL draft has joined tight end Greg Olsen as one of two first rounders to have signed on the dotted line.  Offensive tackle Joe Staley was selected by San Francisco after they had traded their 2008 first rounder to the New England Patriots to get back into the first round.  The official announcement is expected soon.

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.

Dwight Freeney became the first of four remaining franchised players to sign, agreeing to a six year deal worth $72 million dollars. According to ESPN’s John Clayton, Freeney now moves passed the Patriots Richard Seymour in becoming the highest paid defensive player in league history.

Apparently ESPN is done promoting the $80 million that Niner cornerback Nate Clements picked up earlier this off season as the highest of all time; the actual value of that Niner deal was $52.75 over 6 years with $22.6 in guaranteed money according to the San Francisco Chronicle’s Nancy Gay.

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. 

– With the Seahawks, Broncos, Dolphins and Cardinals all needing help on the interior of their lines, it will be interesting to see if any of these teams pull off a trade for one of the league’s many disgruntled guards.  Alan Faneca of the Steelers, Pete Kendall of the Jets, and the Niners Justin Smiley round out a talented bunch of guards looking for a (significant) pay increase….

The question will ultimately be if there are teams out there willing to part with a 2nd round pick and pay upwards of $18-20 million in guaranteed money.  To a guard.  Minnesota, Dallas, Cleveland, and Buffalo say hell yes.