Welcome to the 2014 NFL Training Camp Blog! Everyday I’ll be reporting on all of the fantasy worthy news, notes and nonsense from around all 32 NFL training camps. If you want more in-depth knowledge on how to become a better fantasy football player, check out the 210 page Fantasy Football Draft Guide. We’ve got 550+ players ranked, 30 winning strategies from the best players in the world, every coaching system, offensive line and rookie broken down like you have never read before. Plus, you can get is ALL FOR FREE when you deposit into a NEW DraftKings account.
Here is the Training Camp Report for Sunday August 6th:
Quick Thought On 2 QB Leagues
Thank God that I wasn’t in the SiriusXM Host League Draft tonight. It was a SupeerFlex (basically a 2 QB league) with PPR. I rarely call out my fellow brethren in the fantasy industry and I know the guys in this draft to be very skilled players for sure. But 22 QB’s going in the first three rounds is ridiculous. These guys overreacted to the league format which should be a sin.
Obviously it would be ideal to have two elite QB’s in this format but at a certain point these guys were drafting pure GARBAGE as early as the second round. Russell Wilson throws 24 passes per game and completes about 14 of them for slightly over 200 yards per game. Yet he goes in front of Dez Bryant?!?! If these guys would have done their research they would realize that as terrible as Geno Smith is, he only averaged four less points than Russell Wilson last year and will likely improve albeit slightly on those numbers this year.
It drives me CRAZY when I see drafts where everybody is just following the leaders. The fact is that no matter how you chop things up, the difference between the 16th ranked QB and the 28th ranked QB is about two points this year. Yet, the difference between players like A.J. Green, Dez Bryant and Brandon Marshall and the likes of T.Y. Hilton, Mike Wallace and Kendall Wright is about five points per game. Knowing where the breakoff points are at every position is absolutely CRITICAL in executing a good draft. Please don’t fall into the same traps that these experts did tonight folks. You can do better.
Don’t Get Your Hopes Up
Josh Gordon will play in the Browns first Preseason game against the Lions on Saturday. A decision on his suspension is likely to come next week and thus this will be one of the final times you see him on a football field perhaps ever. It would floor me if Gordon got his suspension dropped to anything less than a full season but no matter what the outcome of this punishment, Gordon still has to deal with the fallout for his DWI arrest back on Memorial Day weekend. A guy who plays in eight games or less is not worth drafting in the first 12 rounds of a standard 12 team league. Especially if those eight games are the SECOND eight games of the season. BTW, Gordon went in the sixth round of the SiriusXM Host League Draft tonight. Ugh!!
Rising
I am not a big fan of Danny Amendola for a number of reasons. He completely wet the bed in New England last year and has been an injury liability his entire career. But I have to admit that he is having a very strong camp this year and looks to be a very important piece of this Patriots offense this year. I still greatly prefer Julian Edelman (as does Tom Brady) but Amendola is climbing up my rankings with each successful practice. Keep an eye on this situation and don’t be afraid to take Amendola in the later rounds if you’re looking for a high upside PPR play at WR.
Cincinnati Bengals RB Jeremy Hill is getting a ton of work and is a shoe in at this point for the Bengals goalline carries it would look like. I am not completely sold that he will eat into Giovanni Bernard’s carries too much but he will hurt Gio’s TD upside for sure. The Bengals would be doing the right thing by cutting bait with BenJarvus Green-Ellis immediately to allow him to catch on elsewhere and to get Hill his proper amount of reps.
Falling
Lance Moore is learning that he ain’t in New Orleans anymore. Life for a diminutive WR outside of the Superdome and away from Drew Brees isn’t a good one. Moore is basically useless in the Steelers offense right now and looks pathetic when compared to even rookies wideouts Martavis Bryant and C.J. Goodwin. Moore is small, slow and isn’t catching the ball in traffic which he will absolutely have to in order to stick in Pittsburgh this year. He is a candidate for release before the regular season starts.
I was very excited about Packers rookie TE Richard Rodgers after OTA’s & minicamps a month ago but he has already hit a wall early on in training camp. After a strong start, Rodgers has run the wrong routes, dropped several easy passes and worst of all has been brutal in his blocking assignments. Rodgers was once considered the front runner to be the Packers starting TE in week 1, but now is in danger of being a gameday inactive if he doesn’t improve here soon.
Play Of The Day
I guarantee that you see the Jacksonville Jaguars use the QB bootleg play a couple of times this season. They have run the play twice so far in camp and both times has resulted in big gains by QB Chad Henne is defensive players are calling a “magician” in disguising the ball. Henne had a 50 yard TD run today and could wind up with 4+ rushing TD’s this season.