I think you all can imagine that the first piece of football news I'll link to today is the emergence of Josh McDaniels as the Broncos new head coach - yea for a new head coach! I don't have strong feelings about this - from a fantasy standpoint it puts a smile on my face to think of our already potent Denver offense being led by someone with McDaniels' offensive success. I've also heard rumors that Mike Nolan or Dom Capers will come in as the defensive coordinator, a position that I'm very interested in hearing about of course.
Apparently my teams have a thing for going with extremely young coaches - a few years ago Pat Fitzgerald became the head coach of my alma mater Northwestern at 31, making him the youngest Div 1-A coach; Lane Kiffin is now head coach at the University of Tennessee, which is where my husband grew up; and now a 32-year-old McDaniels takes over my Broncos...
But there is other news in the football world, like who made it through the Divisional Round games this weekend. I really can hardly believe that either the Eagles or the Cardinals will be in the Super Bowl. Crazy thought. No offense, Cardinals fans, but I had you guys pegged at losing the first playoffs game...especially after that nasty game against the Patriots. I think my sister is still fuming about the Pats failing to make the playoffs after dominating the Cardinals. Anyway, if you missed any of the games, take a look at Peter King's Sixth Sense: Two bottom seeds find way to championship games for more details and insights.
Speaking of the playoffs, the weekly standings aren't available yet for the FFLibrarian's Challenge but the group continues to grow and we're now at 227. Very solid.
Moving onto more links:
Apparently my teams have a thing for going with extremely young coaches - a few years ago Pat Fitzgerald became the head coach of my alma mater Northwestern at 31, making him the youngest Div 1-A coach; Lane Kiffin is now head coach at the University of Tennessee, which is where my husband grew up; and now a 32-year-old McDaniels takes over my Broncos...
But there is other news in the football world, like who made it through the Divisional Round games this weekend. I really can hardly believe that either the Eagles or the Cardinals will be in the Super Bowl. Crazy thought. No offense, Cardinals fans, but I had you guys pegged at losing the first playoffs game...especially after that nasty game against the Patriots. I think my sister is still fuming about the Pats failing to make the playoffs after dominating the Cardinals. Anyway, if you missed any of the games, take a look at Peter King's Sixth Sense: Two bottom seeds find way to championship games for more details and insights.
Speaking of the playoffs, the weekly standings aren't available yet for the FFLibrarian's Challenge but the group continues to grow and we're now at 227. Very solid.
Moving onto more links:
- Throughout the offseason The Hazean will keep up the Monday Morning Rehab feature which provides updates on players that we'll probably all be wondering about as the weeks and months go by. So scope it out for some weekly insight on injuries, surgeries and recoveries.
- CBSSports.com has their first mock draft of 2009 going on right now - they'll slowly update it as they get through the results of all 17 rounds, so remember to check back over the next week or two. Who went first? Not surprisingly, Adrian Peterson.
- The Fifth Down has some quality commentary on the Divisional Round in Trend-Spotting in the N.F.L. Playoffs: Divisional Round, Part 2. I'm still trying to make up my mind about which QBs I want on my team for the rest of the fantasy playoffs - I think in the FFLibrarian's Challenge I need to stick with McNabb due to a lack of changes/flexibility in my lineup. But in the Bruno Boys/ESPN playoffs league I'm in, I have more freedom and just can't quite make up my mind...
- You've gotta love that Santonio Holmes took the time to update his YardBarker blog after the Steelers' win against the Chargers yesterday.
- Don't underestimate the import of the offseason - take a look at SportingNews.com's 10-Pack: The moves that shaped the final four for some thoughts on how coaching and player shifts have led the Cardinals, Eagles, Steelers and Ravens to the Conference Championship games.
Comments
At this point I'm forced to go all in on Ravens and Eagles to have any hope of a complete roster come Superbowl.
Go birds! (Not you, Cardinals...)