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Raiders’ Schilens breaks foot

The San Francisco Chronicle reports that wide receiver Chaz Schilens broke a bone in his left foot.

Schilens was hurt cutting on a route. There was no contact on the play. He hopped it to the locker room and emerged after practice on crutches.

Schilens did not say how long he’d be out. When asked if he’d play Sept. 14 against the Chargers, he said, “God does miracles,” which is another way of saying it’d take a miracle.
As for Raiders coach Tom Cable, he said “nothing happened” when asked about the Randy Hanson incident before resuming his no-comment stance.

This is a serious blow to the Raiders’ passing game, as Schilens was having a great camp and was quickly emerging as quarterback JaMarcus Russell’s go-to guy.

In Oakland’s preseason opener last Thursday against Dallas, Schilens caught five passes for 52 yards. He demonstrated good speed and pass-catching ability to go along with his great size (6’4, 225 pounds) and if the performance was any indication of how he would fair this season, Schilens was set up for a breakout year.

The Raiders have given no timetable for how long he would be out for, but chances are he’ll miss the first couple weeks of the season.

What is Favre’s fantasy value?

In case you missed it, pending a physical, Brett Favre is about to become a Viking.

People are justifiably interested in talking about the on-again/off-again Brett Favre saga, and how the Vikings bent over backwards, allowing #4 to skip training camp because…well…he doesn’t like to practice.

But what about his fantasy impact?

First things first, the Vikings have one of the easiest schedules for a QB. Whether it’s Brett Favre, Sage Rosenfels or Tarvaris Jackson, the Minnesota QB is only projected to have one tough matchup all season.

Fans around the country have been dumping on Favre since the Jets’ December swoon last season, but let’s not forget the fact that he was in the MVP conversation as late as Week 12 after he led the Jets to a 34-13 victory over the then-undefeated Titans in Nashville. At that point, Favre was averaging 224 yards, 1.8 TD and 1.2 INT per game. Had he continued on that pace, he would have finished as fantasy’s #9 QB, ahead of David Garrard and behind Matt Cassel. Somewhere around this point in the season, Favre tore his biceps which led to his late-season swoon. Even so, he finished as QB13.

In early July, when Favre-to-Minnesota looked inevitable, he was going in the 12th round. I suspect that he might go a bit earlier (maybe the 9th-11th) now that it’s (almost) official. This puts him the QB15-QB20 range. I’d probably take him after Cassel/Hasselbeck/E. Manning/Garrard but before Orton/Edwards/Flacco/Delhomme.

Favre is still starter-caliber when healthy, but his age makes him better suited to be part of a QBBC. With that in mind, I re-ran the QBBC numbers, assuming that Favre would score 251 fantasy points (in a high performance scoring system) figuring that last year’s total (which included five games with a torn biceps) would be a fair estimate of his 2009 production. It turns out that Favre’s schedule combines well with Shaun Hill (#14 combo), Garrard (#20) and Cassel (#27), so if you’re trying to get one of my recommended QBBC combos — Cassel/Hill, Garrard/Hill or Garrard/Cassel — Favre works with all three of those QBs. Put him alongside Trent Edwards on your list of backup options if you miss out on one of those players.

As for the rest of the Vikings, the threat of Favre in the passing game should boost the value of Adrian Peterson, while his experience and talent should help Bernard Berrian, Percy Harvin and Visanthe Shiancoe.

If you do draft Favre, be sure to grab Sage Rosenfels as his backup. Prior to the Favre signing, Rosenfels was leading the QB competition and has the best chance of being Favre’s backup.

Did Raiders’ Cable fracture assistant’s jaw?

According to a report by Nancy Gay of AOL Fanhouse, Raiders head coach Tom Cable fractured the jaw of defensive assistant Randy Hanson during a fight early in training camp. But Cable denies that punches were thrown and ESPN.com is reporting that Hanson suffered the jaw injury when Cable flipped him out of his chair.

That’s backed up by what former NFL scout Daniel Jeremiah told ESPN’s Chris Mortensen. Jeremiah’s “reliable source” said that Hanson broke a facial bone when his cheek hit a cabinet in a team meeting room when Cable flipped him out of his chair.

Jeremiah also wrote on his Twitter page that Cable reacted when Hanson spoke profanely to defensive coordinator John Marshall. Cable rebuked Hanson, then pushed his chair, which caused the injury.

There seems to be little doubt that something did take place between Cable and Hanson, but the details are shaky. There apparently was an argument between the two coaches and physical contact did occur, but it appears that Gay’s original report that Cable punched Hanson seems to be false.

Regardless, it’s hard not to appreciate this kind of news coming out of Raiders’ camp. I would question whether or not a report like this was true anywhere else, but not in Oakland.
Al Davis has to be loving himself some Tom Cable right about now.

Favre to sign with Vikings soon?

According to a report by WCCO-TV in Minneapolis, free agent quarterback Brett Favre will sign with the Vikings sometime today.

Favre is on currently on his way to Minneapolis and is expected to sign with the team this afternoon, the source said.

WCCO-TV spoke with an official at the Hattiesburg, Miss., airport, who saw an airplane with the Vikings logo leave the airport Tuesday morning. The flight number for that plane has been blocked from tracking systems.

This is ridiculous. What has changed since July 28, when Favre told the Vikings that he would stay retired and not play football in 2009? What, does his arm feel significantly better today than it did at the end of July? Or did Favre just want to skip training camp and now that the Vikings have begun preseason play, he’s ready to join them?

If the Vikings sign Favre, it would be a massive slap in the face of Sage Rosenfels, who was brought to Minnesota this offseason in order to compete for a starting gig. Minnesota dragged Rosenfels through the ringer while flirting with Favre all summer, only to tell him that he was once again in line to be the starting quarterback after Brett said he would stay retired. Then, Rosenfels goes out and completes 10-of-13 passes for 91 yards in the Vikings’ preseason opener last week and now will once again take a back seat to Favre when/if the former Packer is signed.

I get that a legend like Favre would pull rank over a 31-year-old journeyman like Rosenfels, but it’s the principle of the matter. When Favre told Brad Childress that he was going to stay retired, that should have been the end it. But instead, Childress is so far down Brett’s pants that he’ll do anything in order to have Favre in purple and yellow this season.

Or maybe Childress knew all along that Favre was going to sign as soon as training camp was over. If that’s the case, then I still stand by the notion that Childress is sackless, because he should have told Favre to get his ass into training camp if he wanted to play this season.

What a load of crap.

Marshall still wants Broncos to trade him

One would think that Broncos receiver Brandon Marshall would lay low for a while after being acquitted last week of a misdemeanor battery charge for supposedly beating his girlfriend. But apparently that’s just not how Brandon Marshall rolls.

According to a report by Yahoo! Sports, Marshall has reiterated to the Broncos that he either wants a new contract extension or be traded.

Marshall and his agent apparently got together with Denver Broncos head coach Josh McDaniels yesterday to let him know that the wide receiver still wants a new contract extension or to be traded. The team reportedly has no plans to change his contract or trade him.

So Marshall didn’t practice yesterday and may just hold out till something better comes along. Of course, that means a daily $15,888 fine, which could eat into his $450,000 pretty quickly.

Marshall is reportedly looking for a deal in the neighborhood of what the Falcons gave Roddy White ($48 million over six years). Apparently NFL receivers just can’t be happy for each other without wanting what the other is making. (Don’t forget that White wanted what Greg Jennings got from the Packers earlier this offseason.)

Marshall doesn’t get it. The Broncos aren’t going to commit that kind of money to a guy who could easily wind up in court again by the end of the year, as opposed to helping them on the gridiron. His production on the field certainly warrants a new contract, but his immaturity off it will keep Denver from following through on an extension.

The Broncos aren’t going to trade him and if Marshall were smart, he would play out the remainder of his contract by being good both on and off the field. At the end of the year, the Broncos can decide whether or not he’s worth the investment by either offering him a new deal, franchising him so he doesn’t hit the open market, or flat out allowing him to walk via free agency.

The bottom line is that Denver wants the ball in its court and not allow Marshall (or his agent) to have control of the situation. If things get messy heading into the season, so be it, but the Broncos can’t allow another player to dictate his own situation like Jay Cutler was able to do before he was traded to Chicago.

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