by John U. Miller IV

Browns WR Donte’ Stallworth has a strained quad and is out again this week. He injured it in Week 1 pregame warmups. Word has it he just walked over to Romeo Crennel and pointed to his leg and said, “I can’t go.” No one saw it happen.  Wow. Counting the $10 million guaranteed he got to sign with Cleveland, Stallworth has made well about $23 million dollars in the NFL. He has 279 career catches.  That’s about $82,000 per catch! Stallworth’s talent and fear-inducing speed is well-documented. It makes him attractive to NFL teams (he’s on his 4^th different one now). But once he shows his work ethic and obviously less-than-ideal conditioning, he gets released. We’re no different.  We rank him too high every year and then end up slashing his ranking before October arrives. He’s a loser.

That said, I want to see Browns rookie WR Syndric Steptoe get out there and take Stallworth’s job. Right now they are considering Steptoe, Steve Sanders, and KR Josh Cribbs in the #2 spot. Steptoe has the best NFL name since Shyrone Stith. I saw this preseason catch and fell in love with the 5’9/200-lb juggernaut. I could see Steptoe being a Shaun McDonald-type, picking up crumbs off Braylon and Kellen’s table all season long.

Now that Tom Brady is gone, it’s shame we aren’t reading Boston headlines like: “All-Pro RB Laurence Maroney Picks Up the Slack.” Instead it’s, “Pats Running Game to Step Up.”  They speak of the Pats’ RBs as a “game” because it’s a big, fat committee. No singular mention of Maroney, a former 21^st overall draft pick. He and Sammy Morris each had 10 carries last week – and that was without Kevin Faulk or LaMont Jordan getting involved. Now Faulk is back from suspension and Jordan’s had another week to get acclimated to the system. They will all play, and Maroney is towing the company line: “We have me, Kev, LaMont, Sammy, it’s definitely going to be a nice rotation going on.”

Still, Maroney is the most talented back they have. Though Morris is probably the toughest player on the roster, there’s a reason he’s bounced all over the AFC East. Let’s see if Maroney can outwork the other guys in practice and command more touches going forward. It’s there for him, he’s just gotta take it. No coach wants a 4-man RB rotation – I don’t care what they say about “fresh legs” and all that crap.

JUMbo: Just Once

1. Just once, give DeAngelo Williams 25-30 touches. I actually think he could handle it. Jonathan Stewart can still have his 15 touches. Williams averaged 24 touches at Memphis and was one of the best college backs ever.  

2. Just once, target Roscoe Parrish 10 times. I think there’s a 170-yard game in him. And it would give the Bills offense one more dimension to make them lethal. He’s impossible to grab in the open field and his teammates go crazy when would-be tacklers drop their laundry.

3. Just once, I want Jon Gruden to draft a young QB and groom him. Quit jawing with these old vets like Jeff Garcia (and Rich Gannon). They’re Gruden’s age and they have egos like he does. In 2005 Gruden passed on Aaron Rodgers for Cadillac Williams.  Heck, in 2002 Gruden took WR Marquise Walker in the 3^rd round… 20 picks later the Jaguars got David Garrard.

I just saw this scroll across the NFL Network bottom ticker: “Saints CB Randall Gay (flu/hamstring) did not practice Friday.” Wow, he’s their starting LCB because Mike McKenzie (ACL rehab) was already out.  If you’re on the fence about starting Santana Moss or Antwaan Randle-El this week you might want to push him in.

My favorite stat is Yards After Catch. Over the course of the year the guys with the most YAC always reads like a Pro Bowl roster. Here’s the top-20 YAC’ers after 1 week:

Why do I get the feeling Denver’s defense is going to let them down vs. San Diego?  I don’t know – maybe they’re too confident after picking on the hapless Raiders, or maybe because they’re on a short week.  I just can’t see San Diego going 0-2 with or without Shawne Merriman.

Now we all get to see Steve Slaton under the lights on Monday night. Let’s see if he can shake-n-bake like he did at West Virginia.  We still like Chris Taylor and it will be interesting to see how many touches he gets. Ahman Green (foot) is out. Don’t be shocked if they just buy out his contract and kick him to the curb soon.  Darius Walker was re-signed to the practice squad and might be on the 53 for this game.

So much for “Sneaky Starter” Ricky Williams last week . On 7 of the 14 total times he touched the ball he gained 2 yards or less. He lost 2 fumbles. Not coincidentally, Ronnie Brown got more 1^st-team reps than Williams this week.  Ricky better get it in gear. I bet he will vs. Arizona.

It’s funny to watch other FF sites starting to chirp and sing about Chris Johnson.  We were slipping you juicy Johnson quotes from our Titans insider back in July. We revved up the bandwagon even before his 66-yard exhibition TD. Monster.

On that note, some FF sites are just now dropping Deuce McAllister down their rankings and talking about Pierre Thomas. One site had Deuce at #28 as of Sept 3^rd, undoubtedly causing many of their customers to take him as their RB3. Ouch. Deuce never touched our top-60 this summer and we talked up Pierre a long, long time ago.

Here are the Standings after Week 1 in the Draft Sharks Invitational Leagues:

 (Overall Total Points champion gets a free entry in the 2009 WCOFF)

If Buffalo’s defense manhandles the Jaguars on the road then we’ll know they’re going to be really, really special.

Word earlier this week was that Ted Ginn would be benched for Derek Hagan. From today’s Sun-Sentinel: “Derek Hagan, who was unseated by three-year veteran Greg Camarillo for his starting flanker role last week, worked with the starters in Ginn’s place during Wednesday’s practice. But Sparano insinuated the coaches are merely experimenting. ‘Every day we go out there on the practice field, every game that we play it’s a tryout,’ Sparano said.”  Ginn is still a starter but he’s on a short leash. Last week he fumbled and had an offensive pass interference call.

   <<< Go back to website: www.draftsharks.com >>>

This entry was posted on Friday, September 12th, 2008 at 8:53 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

3 Responses to “JUMbotron: Friday Night Bites”

1. GET THE HOTTEST REVIEWS ON ALL OF THE LATEST GADGETS OUT!! says:

   January 10, 2011 at 6:41 pm

   http://WWW.INSPECTAGADGETS.COM...

   REVIEW IT BEFORE YOU BUY IT!!…
2. SHOP ELECTRONICS!!! says:

   January 16, 2011 at 3:09 pm

   **YOUTUBE VIDEO REVIEWS ON THE HOTTEST ELECTRONICS OUT**…

   #1 SITE FOR THE LATEST REVIEWS ON THE HOTTEST TECHNOLOGY HITTING THE MAINSTREAM!…
3. REVIEW IT BEFORE YOU BUY IT!!! says:

   January 25, 2011 at 11:52 pm

   **YOUTUBE VIDEO REVIEWS ON THE HOTTEST ELECTRONICS OUT**…

   #1 SITE FOR THE LATEST REVIEWS ON THE HOTTEST TECHNOLOGY HITTING THE MAINSTREAM!…