Groin Shot of the Week Candidates

DeShaun Foster (174 RuYd, 1 TD) - Quentin Griffin goes to town on the Chiefs to the tune of 3 TD so Foster is going to have a banner day, right? Well, let's think about it. The Panthers lose their best receiver and bring in a rookie so the Chiefs can concentrate more on stopping the run. The Panthers didn't lose Stephen Davis until Friday practice, so there was little time to prep with Foster. The Panthers' OL still has its problems. Surely, the Chiefs are already focusing all their attention on run stopping anyway, given the poor week 1 outing, right? Starting Foster is way too obvious. No way can he meet expectations fantasy owners are placing on him. The Chiefs know it is coming. They'll stop it.

That my friends, is a perfect example of paralysis by analysis. Everyone raise their hand who got caught in it. I'm now writing the rest of this column typing with one hand.

Daniel Graham (21 ReYd, 2 TD) - I'm not sure why, but this guy just bugs me. It must be the inconsistency he displayed in the past, like the bad route he ran last week resulting in a Tom Brady INT. Apparently Brady holds no ill will towards him though. Props are now due when through two weeks this 13th or so round draft pick has out fantasy scored Tony Gonzalez (3rd round pick), Todd Heap (4th), Jeremy Shockey (5th) and Kellen Winslow (6th). Almost combined I might add.

Deuce McAllister (1 RuYd) - Hey, weren't you on this list last week Deuce? Something about, "value crashing through the floor"? I'm psychic! Right... I don't mean to pull out the Major League references in back-to-back weeks, but this one just begs, "one yard? One G-D yard?!?" "You can't say G-D on this website." "One look at the injury report and I can say G-D and then some." A lot of good that blocking fullback is going to do him now.

Honorable Mention: Roy Williams running an early campaign for rookie of the year votes and the Giants D with 4 sacks, 7 turnovers and a TD, but who in their right mind would have started them anyway!

Pass The Antacid

Two weeks in and we can already tell, it's going to be one of those years. One of those injury plagued seasons. Star players falling by the wayside every week. Those who already have high blood pressure, which should only be about 80% of us, had better just bail on this season of fantasy football right now before things get any worse.

Already down Steve Smith, Charles Rogers, Lee Suggs, Stephen Davis (late-week) and getting a scare from Shaun Alexander and Chris Brown after week 1, let's run down the week 2 list.

Deuce McAllister, high ankle strain expected out 5 weeks. Quickly jumps to head of the pack in "worst 1st round pick of 2004" contest.

Kellen Winslow, broken fibula on an onside kick attempt, which wasn't really much of an attempt at all. That gives me a pair of broken fibulas on one team between Smith and Winslow. Nice.

Tommy Maddox, strained or torn muscle in his elbow. Ouch. His arm looked like Mr. Fantastic of Fantastic Four fame in the replay, but there is a reason rubber limbs only work in the comic books.

Warrick Dunn, strained knee and awaiting MRI results. Nice start for him too. Do you hear that low rumble? It's a horde of T.J. Duckett supports heading over to the message board rapidly keying in their "I told you so" posts.

Todd Heap, sprained ankle. I'm just going to start listing guys who are in question because this is getting ridiculous.

Deion Branch. Eddie Kennison. Mark Brunell. Cedrick Wilson (late scratch). Kevan Barlow didn't finish the game but seemed okay on the sideline.

Mike Brown, torn Achilles', for you IDP guys. That represents the second defensive back I've lost in back-to-back weeks in the Red Eye Masters league (Mike Doss). I still contend this is the worst injury a player can get. It sends shivers up my spine.

What the hell? I just now see Edgerrin James is doubtful for week 3 with a second-degree hamstring strain. I can't even get finished typing this list and another one goes down! Someone put a stop to this horror!

Holy crap! This is scary, but there's another one! Julius Jones, broken shoulder blade and now out for 6-8 weeks! Hope you got in on the ReShard Lee stock early and cheap.

Uh oh. Say it ain't so but I'm hearing some rumblings coming out of Kansas City, home of the undisputed best fantasy player in the land, 2 years running...

FF In The Groin (MacGregor) vs. Hindsight's a $%&^! (Waldman)

Took a calculated risk that most teams would choose DeShaun Foster and Onterrio Smith so I went another direction hoping those players did not meet expectations. Betting against Foster actually was going pretty well until the 71 yard run followed up by 3 more yards into the end zone. We'll see what Monday night brings for Smith.

Thanks to the message board for the late note on Cedrick Wilson getting scratched. I had him in and then had to scramble to find a replacement and I went with Donald Driver. Not a great choice given Favre's poor day, but better than nil. Too bad I didn't think about Curtis Conway replacing Wilson as an option.

The Ravens defense was primed to pitch a shutout until I turned to my wife Sarah through 3 quarters and said, "hey, my defense has a shutout so far." Seriously, I did say that. I should have my head examined.

I hate kickers.

FF In The Groin Mailbag

Mike,

A buddy and I pooled our money and got in one of these high flying 14-team Vegas leagues. Our first four picks were Shaun Alexander, Lee Suggs (massive run on RBs), Steve Smith and Steve McNair. We also have Jim Kleinsasser as our TE. Now we have a stud back with a bum knee, a running back with an obscure spine disease, a receiver with a broken leg, a QB with no one to throw to and a bad tight end on the bench. Can you say do over.

Erik
St. Paul, MN

All I can say Erik is, don't give up the fight! Alexander is okay and McNair is bound to throw a TD pass...one of these weeks...

Comments From The Couch

• Thank you Mike Sellers - honestly, thank you - for getting tackled at the 1 yard line early in the Redskins-Giants game, perfectly setting up the 1 yard plunge attempt. Thank you Clinton Portis - a sarcastic thank you - for getting stuffed on two straight plays after which the TD went to Chris Cooley.

• And speaking of the Redskins-Giants game, I'm not a fan of either team so I wasn't planning on watching them much at all on Sunday, but figured I would watch the first few minutes to check out Clinton Portis and to see just how bad the Giants D really was. Everything was going exactly according to plan. The Giants D was like Swiss cheese as the Redskins stormed down the field. Change channel. What the begeezus happened?

• I know Chris Brown is running roughshod over the Colts all day, but really, when the Titans are 4th and 1 or even worse, 4th and an inch from the Colts 4 yard line, why are they pitching the ball back on those rushing attempts? Brown has to make up 7 or 8 yards to get the 1st down.

• You know how some guys are just born "winners". They possess some kind of mutant X-factor winner gene that helps them rise to the top through means above and beyond pure talent and hard work. It's a combination of instinct, and luck, and it is tough to tell which of instinct and luck is more prevalent. Tom Brady is the best NFL example of this. Jake Delhomme possesses the same qualities. How else to explain the spin-o-rama TD pass to Kris Mangum against the Chiefs?

• I'm feeling some terrible déjà vu with Jeff Garcia from last season. I bench him, he does good. I start him, he stinks it up. 71 freakin' yards! Against a team with no decent second cornerback!?! Are you kidding me? All right Garcia, I'm starting you the next 3 weeks no matter what and we'll see what happens. And don't go using the loss of Winslow as an excuse because you weren't throwing to him enough anyway.

• Consider this advance warning a gift to all of you who have Garcia. You might strongly consider benching him the next 3 weeks. HTH.

• I'm not ready to give up on Quentin Griffin just yet, after a poor outing against a tough Jaguars run defense topped off with a fumble in winning FG range with under a minute to go, but his hold on the starting RB job just got a little more...shall we say...tenuous?

• The Jags are one messed up team statistically. Byron Leftwich has completed exactly 50% of his passes in each game for a grand total of 267 yards. Fred Taylor has no catches and hasn't broken 120 yards for the season yet. They have 2 TD, only 2 TD, to rookie Ernest Wilford, not highly touted rookie Reggie Williams. The team is 2-0.

• It's about time I start giving Lovie Smith a little more credit than I have been. Nicely done Lovie. The Thomas Jones signing looks like pure genius right now.

• One of the popular preseason sleeper team picks, the Texans, are not looking too hot right now. Someone needs to investigate if Domanick Davis' hands shrunk in the offseason. He has already surpassed his fumbles lost total from all of last year.

• I'm going to have to push back the publishing deadline on this article every week as I now need to double and triple check how to spell Ben Roethlisberger.

• The Rams apparently called a deep pass play out of the end zone from which Marc Bulger was stripped of the ball by Brady Smith for a simultaneous sack, fumble recovery (or was in an INT?) and TD in a Rams 34-17 loss. Bulger was sacked 5 times in the game. Do you think Kurt Warner cracked a bit of a smile about this today?

• All of you Kevan Barlow owners can step down off the ledge you were so ready to jump off of last week. Of course, him failing to finish the game is still a bit of a concern...

• Remember what a great "value" pick Brad Johnson seemed in your draft when he was picked so late?

• Curtis Martin found the fountain of youth! He looks like LaDainian Tomlinson, only on a better team.

• Dolphins-Bengals: This game is so bad the mind really starts to wander. Does A.J. Feeley have blonde highlights in his hair? That would be reason enough to reject the idea of spending a 2nd round pick on the guy. As a QB no less?!?

• Here are two teams that got absolutely gashed by Chris Brown and Curtis Martin in week 1. So, did these teams really "fix" their defense or is the Sunday night performance more an indictment of the talent level for each of Rudi Johnson and Lamar Gordon. I'll take Door B, Pat.

• Hats off to Jerry Rice.

• I'm not even going to comment on the Bills debacle this week.

And The Winner Is…

DeShaun Foster, because I saw it coming and talked myself out of it. DeShaun Foster, because I'd already have one of my games wrapped up going into tonight had I dropped him into the lineup. DeShaun Foster, as a reminder to not outthink ourselves, and the obvious play really is sometimes the right play.