8. Michael "Sacachong" Saclarides

                Even though it was morning in Chinatown, the moon was setting on the computer screen at the Hoppy Toad Inn.  I didn’t think about it until now, but I guess that was 2 sets of cheeks Teague got up close and personal with on the weekend.  Anyway, Sac proceeded to throw on some clothes, kiss David Pontius good-bye and lap it up for a few hours of drafting.  Let’s take a look at the 8^th ranked team.

Draft Recap

Team Handcuff 1. (1) Maurice Jones-Drew 2. (20) Steve Smith 3. (21) Roddy White 4. (40) Ryan Grant 5. (41) Matt Schaub 6. (60) Bernard Berrian 7. (61) David Garrard 8. (80) Greg Olsen 9. (81) Ahmad Bradshaw 10. (100) Donald Brown 11. (101) Darren Sproles 12. (120) LeSean McCoy 13. (121) Ted Ginn Jr. 14. (140) Patrick Crayton 15. (141) Chester Taylor 16. (160) Tennessee 17. (161) Jerious Norwood

Roster

QB’s:      Matt Schaub, David Garrard

RB’s:      Maurice Jones-Drew, Ryan Grant, Ahmad Bradshaw, Donald Brown, Darren Sproles

                LeSean McCoy, Chester Taylor, Jerious Norwood

WR’s:     Steve Smith, Roddy White, Bernard Berrian, Ted Ginn Jr., Patrick Crayton

TE’s:      Greg Olsen

DEF:       Tennessee

Quarterbacks:     

                One of my favorite players in this year’s draft is Matt Schaub.  I had him rated as the 8^th overall best QB and he was the 8^th QB taken off the board.   Even though the 5^th round might seem high, the pick still has great value for such a player with tremendous upside.  The Texans have a dynamic offense and the fact that their defense is so bad contributes to the opportunity for Schaub to put up monster numbers.  David Garrard can be a good match-up guy, but it’s hard to see him as a weekly starter.  Last year he threw more INT’s than TD’s and only threw for more than 1 TD in 3 games.  He will get a few extra points with rushing yards, but with the lack of receivers in Jacksonville and the ball control style of offense the Jags play, Garrard should have plenty of weeks with low scoring outputs.  Also, the lack of a back-up will hurt in tougher defensive match-ups.

Running backs:

                Being a million miles away when football games start at 2 AM forced the Sac to draft a lot of depth since he will always be behind the 8 ball in picking up players.  While it’s not a terrible thing in his situation, the players are pretty much useless until a starter ahead of them goes down.  With 6 “stud” back-ups on the roster, you have to think that at least one of them will be in that starting, feature back role at some point in the season.  In the mean time, he has my overall #1 RB in MJD as well as Ryan Grant, a guy who could really go either way this year.  He should have good production in such an explosive Packers offense.  However, even though he was banged up quite a bit last year, he still had 312 carries,  but managed just 4 TD’s and only caught 18 passes.  With a little luck, this could turn out to be the best group of backs in the league, but it may take some time and it will be tough to make adjustments to the rest of the roster and retain most of the “handcuffs”.  

Wide Receivers:

                Steve Smith continues to be the Panthers only source of offense in the passing game and should have another big year.  As good as Roddy White was last year, it’s hard to envision him coming close to those numbers again, especially with the addition of Tony Gonzalez.  Also, Ryan completed less than 20 passes in 11 out of 16 games last season and attempted 30 or less passes in 10 out of 16.  This has nothing to do with Ryan’s ability, just the emphasis the Falcons put on the running game.  Bernard Berrian’s stock certainly rises with the addition of Brett Favre.  Berrian is a big-time deep threat and should be targeted on at least 1-2 air-it-out throws from Favre.  Somebody has to step up in the Dallas passing game outside of Roy Williams and Jason Witten.  Patrick Crayton could fill that void but Miles Austin and Sam Hurd will also see significant playing time.  Ted Ginn Jr. is an explosive receiver, but the Dolphins seem to have a different leading receiver every game and their gimmick style offenses make players hard to rely on in terms of fantasy production. 

The Rest:

                Greg Olsen has a chance to have a huge year in Chicago with Jay Cutler slinging the ball around.  With speedsters Devin Hester and Earl Bennett along with the athletic Olsen, look for the Bears to throw the ball downfield more this year, now that they have a guy with the arm to do it.   The Titans are a solid defense but the loss of Haynesworth will hurt a lot, specifically in stuffing the run.  The Titans still have one of the leagues best defensive backfields and only gave up 20+ points in 3 games last year.  

Ratings

Quarterbacks:      C+           83

Running backs:    B-            85

Wide receivers:     B-            85

Tight End:             B-            86

Defense:                B             N/A

Overall:                  B-            85

Season Outlook:

                It will be hard to win a football championship from China, considering there will be so many valuable pick-ups over the course of the season that the Sac will miss out on.  His team has to stay healthy and he has to get value out of at least 1-2 of his star back-up running backs that have the potential to explode if given the chance.  Matt Schaub will have to live up to expectations and David Garrard can’t have too many games with single digit points.  Maurice Jones-Drew should make the helmet go            vrrroooommmm on the reg.