Tag: Minnesota Vikings (Page 42 of 61)

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.

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.

Report: Favre to Vikings not dead

According to FOX Sports.com’s Jay Glazer, the talks between the Vikings and quarterback Brett Favre may not be dead after all.

Here are the horrifying details:

After visiting the Vikings for two days, I am convinced — positively convinced — that Brett Favre will soon have talks with the Vikings to return to the team and could be joining them for this season after all. If my instincts are correct, all those purple Favre jerseys will have a home on Minnesota store shelves.

Granted, my camp stop occurred before Sage Rosenfels lit up the Colts in the preseason opener to the tune of 10-of-13 passing for 91 yards. And if Rosenfels can continue like this, he could squash this prediction as the preseason continues.

But until I see it more consistently, I’m absolutely convinced. Why? For starters, because everyone else on the Vikings seems to be convinced of the same thing. I mean damn near everybody!

During my two days in Mankato, nearly everyone I talked to within the team talked about Favre joining not as an “if” but rather a “when.”

So then what’s the holdup? What’s keeping the Vikings from signing Favre right now? It’s not that I don’t believe what Glazer is reporting, but something just doesn’t add up here.

The only explanation I have is that Favre doesn’t want to go through training camp and the Vikings are waiting to sign him until just before the season starts. If they do, that would be a massive slap in the face of Rosenfels and Jackson, who would have gone through training camp with the understanding that it was their job to lose, not Favre’s.

Daily Six-Pack: NFL Preseason Friday

NFL preseason action continues tonight with four games on the schedule. Below are six quick-hit thoughts and things to watch for during tonight’s slate of games.

1. Are the reports true about Palmer?
All indications from Bengals camp is that Carson Palmer is in the best shape of his career after missing virtually the entire 2008 season with a right elbow injury. Palmer is expected to get 12-15 snaps tonight when the Bengals travel to New Orleans to take on the Saints. Just as the Patriots were hoping for a strong showing from Tom Brady last night (he threw for 100 yards and 2 TDs, by the way), Cincinnati is hoping that Palmer flashes the arm strength that once made him the top overall pick. Another thing to keep an eye on is how the young Cincinnati offensive line looks in protecting Palmer. The Bengals have a physical unit in Andrew Whitworth, Anthony Collins, Kyle Cook, Nate Livings and Bobbie Williams, but they’re an inexperienced unit on a whole and Cincy would love to see some cohesion from the group tonight.

2. The starting quarterback battle for the Vikings begins tonight.
Head coach Brad Childress reported that Sage Rosenfels will get the start Friday night against the Colts, which isn’t a huge surprise considering Tarvaris Jackson missed some time in camp with a sprained knee. Still, Rosenfels getting the starting nod tonight may be an indication that he’s pulled ahead in the race for the Vikes’ starting quarterback job. Rosenfels doesn’t have a high ceiling in terms of potential, but he’s steady and could be a good game manager for a Minnesota team that is expected to keep the ball on the ground a lot with Adrian Peterson. While Jackson will certainly get his opportunity to start in preseason, a strong first impression tonight would go a long way for Rosenfels.

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2009 fantasy football is coming aoon—a look back at 2008 defenses

Last month we started looking at last season’s statistics for position players in fantasy football land, and today we’ll look at a position many often overlook. That’s fantasy defenses, which can sometimes put up just enough points to earn your team a victory once in a while. It’s always smart to try and grab one of the top units, although as we’ve seen before, things change, sometimes drastically, from year to year with fantasy D’s. Me? I like to grab my defense before my kicker. This list is based on point totals from one of my leagues, so keep in mind that stats vary from year to year.

1. Baltimore Ravens—The Ravens’ defense is perennially awesome, and we’ll find out for sure how much of that was due to former coordinator Rex Ryan, who is now the head honcho for the Jets. Ryan took plenty of players with him too, like LB Bart Scott and S Jim Leonhard, but the Ravens still have Ray Lewis, Ed Reed and Terrell Suggs. Reed just keeps getting better every year, and his sick nose for the ball is one reason the Ravens had a league high 26 picks. They will keep scoring low as always, but their 34 sacks last season isn’t much to get excited about. Bottom line: The Ravens won’t be a number one this year, but are still top 10.

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