Notes from Around the NFL (Aug. 2)

Do you hear that? What is that? I’ll tell you what it is. That is the sound of the doors opening up to many training camps so far around the NFL. There is no doubt that that makes me happy. And with it comes some stories around the NFL; stories that have some fantasy football ramifications.

As it is time to be hot and heavy into studying and preparing for your draft I will be tackling a few issues that presented themselves to us this week and seeing how it will affect you fantasy value wise.

- Brett Favre has decided NOT to join the Minnesota Vikings after all; yet his former coach Steve Marriucci has said that Favre will continue to throw just in case. At this point people, if you were hoping that Favre would be coming to the Vikings and make a solid quarterback option, it is time to stop that thinking.

If he would have come back, he would have been a solid, lower-end QB2.

At this point all you can really rely on is that the team in purple will be rolling with Tarvaris Jackson (who just suffered a leg injury in camp) and Sage Rosenfels as their main quarterbacks. Whoever wins the job, don’t expect anything more than QB3 numbers during most weeks.

- Michael Vick has been reinstated under conditional terms. That is fine and all, but don’t expect teams to be clamoring over him, trying to obtain his services, as it most likely won’t happen.

He will end up somewhere where he can fill a solid role as a backup quarterback who can be thrown into some game action and mix things up perhaps with the Wildcat formation. But other than that, expect him to try and keep his face out of the media. His fantasy football value for 2009 is zilch.

- LaDainian Tomlinson held a conference to answer any and all questions that way he can get the weird offseason past him so he can focus on his goal; breaking Emmitt Smith’s record. Don’t look now, but perhaps the most talented running back in the NFL has a newfound goal. And that goal is to shut the critics up.

I have been a big fan of his for years and I also have been preaching all offseason that you shouldn’t forget about Tomlinson on draft day. I still think he will end up as a top-three fantasy football RB by season’s end.

And he is someone that many mock drafts have seen fall until the middle to latter part of the first round. If you are sitting at six or seven and he is still there, I for one will say that you are a lucky fantasy football owner.

- Tom Brady said that he expects to get some action in preseason games. That is good news as timing patterns in practice are one thing, but it is live game action that really sets the skills.

Whether he does or does not see action though, he remains a capable, top-end QB1 as long as he is in the lineup. And if the Patriots didn’t think that he would be, Matt Cassel would still be on the team.

- Andre Smith, who slipped in the NFL draft because of his lack of commitment and physical prowess, has now taken on another identity; a player that did not sign in time for the Bengals first practice. If there was one player in this draft that needed a full camp, it is this player.

Smith has the talent to be a force on the offensive line; someone that Carson Palmer and Cedric Benson could use. But this organization just seems to never be able to figure things out. What are the fantasy football ramifications of this? If he holds out much longer don’t be surprised if the coaches force him to earn a starting spot, rather than just handing it to him.

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