The joys of football are upon us, and NGPF is here to catch you up on the games you missed

Good morning, America! I’m not sure about you, but I had a great time sitting back and watching some football on the good old HDTV. (I probably can’t say the same for my girlfriend, but hey, she needs her training too, right? After all, my weekends should be all but gone in a few weeks here.)

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.

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.

Every year numerous milestones and records are reached in the NFL.  Last year, for example, LaDainian Tomlinson shattered the single season record for rushing touchdowns with 28.  Of course, there’s no way we can forecast individual season accolades, but we can explore career accomplishments.

Over the course of the rest of the summer we’ll get caught up on what possible milestones players will be working on in 2007.  Today we will take a look at the rock carriers — running backs.

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.

– 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.