8/22/06
Wow, where do you draft Portis now?
Duckett will be the goal line back, and may even unseat Portis!
If Portis sits out the first game Duckett will be given a chance and it may be all he needs to begin a new legacy.
Shoulder injuries are very serious for a running back and Portis who has already been downgraded to twelfth will fall even further with this development. More later.
I believe that Portis has the best chance to crack the top three by the end of the season.
Washington has a very strong division and will be fighting to the last game, just like last year.
Gibbs is a great coach. He has more then competent assistants. Greg Williams is getting head coaches money or he would already be one and Al Saunders helped craft on of the most spectacular offenses in the recent history of the N.F.L. You cannot underestimate quality coaching when prognosticating a performer's ability to succeed.
Saunders guided Priest Holmes and Larry Johnson to rushing records in Kansas City.
Portis looks great and has a great attitude. He seems very comfortable with where he's at.
Gibbs loves grinding it out, (remember Riggins) and understands that controlling the clock wins football games. A great rushing attack sets up every other aspect of football success.
Snyder's free spending has collected a talented group and with a couple years to figure out the nuances of the current N.F.L. a two sport champion like Gibbs is exactly what he needed.
(To read only about Portis, skip down to the next brackets.)
The first three picks were the 'no-brainer's'. Every pundit, analyst, prognosticator, magazine, website etc. can get those three and the order is largely arbitrary.
But, here is where it begins. Most of the rest will regurgitate and repackage everyone else's 'common knowledge'. Most of the fantasy analysis is based in the N.F.L. past.
And, this is precisely where we will begin to diverge. Fantasy Football is a game itself. It mimics, utilizes, reconfigures the actual game and creates something new, and, actively accessible to everyone.
Only a few of us are physically gifted enough to actually make it in the N.F.L. Of those injury, character, circumstance and lack of a champion's desire derails most of these. The very few who can play at an elite level and sustain this for multiple years are fortunate beyond the wildest dreams of the majority of the world's population.
these champions have honors and opportunities that are not part of the lives of the vast majority of the population that created and sustains them.
The N.F.L., and all professional sports, would be wise to remember the average man that sustains their existence.
Currently baseball wants to reign in the wild west of fantasy sports and tithe its fabric and every facet of its essence. the level of greed exhibited is simply sad.
Fantasy sports are just that, a creation of the fans to participate in society and the sport they love; to fulfill the need to be a part of the cultural traditions of their lives.
Grade school, high school and college are not just farm systems for the pros, but, the very backbone of our society and a necessary outlet for the essence of the marriage between ideals, and the physicality that is man.
Fantasy sports sustain and further the growth of the fan base of sports and to choke it off into specific channels that are mere feeding tubes of cash directed to the upper echelon of the business side of sports is obscene and will destroy the loose appeal and creative nature of our sport.
The public pays for stadiums, the legislature allows exclusivity and financial titans benefit from tithing every aspect of the game, extorting cities in hostage while their investment simply accrues in value. The ridiculously high prices for everything involved with sport is seen as justified by limited supply and maximum demand, and, since it is discretionary and not need spending. Instead of glorying in an expanding client base that they don't have to spend a penny advertising for, they now seek to wring it dry and allow only the elite of society to reap the rewards of enjoyment.
More on this later; for now, I'll simply say that i intend to bring thorough research and a creative, imaginative element to prognostication.
In studying the fantasy game stats, and giving them more weight then actual N.F.L. stats, more can be learned that pertains to the F.F. game.
This is what really matters to fantasy success. Too often the pundits are caught up in their N.F.L. knowledge and N.F.L. stats and fail to see that the world of fantasy sports has its own relevance to itself, its own playing field philosophically separate from the unreal world of ubermensch.
In 'reality' the world of fantasy sport is reality for its followers, much more real then that of the players, which is a world the vast majority of us will never be a part of.
(Portis continued.)
Washington has built one of the top five offensive lines in the league. They have numerous blocking tight ends and great depth. They don't have a listed fullback, but their tight ends are often listed as halfbacks and do a great job of it.
There are certain criteria to a fantasy running back's success: great coaching, solid o-line, and a playoff caliber offense. It also helps if the team has a competent quarterback with a good, but, not consistently game-breaking receivers.
Washington has all of this.
Santana Moss is not an elite receiver. He's too small and, though fast, is easily game planned as evidenced by how easily he was taken out of the equation last year after strutting his stuff against a couple teams. His infrequent outbursts were game-breakers in both the N.F.L. and fantasy, but, his week to week numbers were terrible.
Give me the steady performer over the erratic spectacular any day. Clinton Portis has evolved into exactly that.
Washington will go to the playoffs and Portis will lead the way. He has a great backup who can competently fill the role, but, not spectacular or well known enough to be on any other owner's bench. He'll be available if Portis goes down.
I think he'll be fine.
His great year in Denver and spectacular trade to Washington left him in need of adjustment. He needed to relearn how to run. He needed to rethink his attitude to the game.
Denver's o-line attack was unique and different from the one he was traded to. It took time, but, Portis has responded in a big way.
Gibbs has brought the stability and champion's respect; direction and purpose to a bedraggled corp of mercenaries. He has formed them into a unit, a team with drive, focus and purpose.
Clinton's dressing up antics have been embraced by all and allowed him in his own way to find acceptance.
He will have a season for the ages.
In '04 he was feeling things out and learning his role. In '05 he finished #6 and two touchdowns and over 100 yards in week 17.
This year everything is in place for a spectacular run. He may not match the fantasy output of the top three, but, he is the safest pick to stand above the rest; and, if he ends up #2 or #3 I won't be surprised.
Washington's schedule isn't a cakewalk, but, has its reliefs. The conference is difficult and it will be hard to contain the "Tuna's" run at a championship and stay ahead of the surging Giants, while keeping the Eagles at bay, but, a division championship is within reach; for this team can enter the crucible and meet its challenges eye to eye and toe to toe.
Last year, John Clayton said that Clinton was soft from a lazy off-season and probably the best candidate for injury. As elite back after back went down he steadily improved all year long. This year he's cut and fired up, Huyea!
