1. "Blackout" Stew-Wie

Congratulations to the current commish on the #1 ranking in the 2009 Meg Gangum Preseason Report.  The Stew managed to put together an excellent draft although the same can’t be said for his poker game where at one point he had a flush and somehow lost against 2 pair in a showdown. 

Draft Recap

Morris bros #1 & #2 1. (5) Drew Brees 2. (16) Randy Moss 3. (25) Anquan Boldin 4. (36) Brandon Jacobs 5. (45) Pierre Thomas 6. (56) Anthony Gonzalez 7. (65) Antonio Gates 8. (76) Ray Rice 9. (85) Kevin Walter 10. (96) Domenik Hixon 11. (105) Brett Favre 12. (116) Shaun Hill 13. (125) Leon Washington 14. (136) Davone Bess 15. (145) Peyton Hillis 16. (156) Jamaal Charles 17. (165) New York

Roster

QB’s:  Drew Brees, Brett Favre, Shaun Hill

RB’s:  Brandon Jacobs, Pierre Thomas, Ray Rice, Leon Washington, Jamaal Charles, Mike Bell, James Davis

WR’s:  Randy Moss, Anquan Boldin, Anthony Gonzalez, Kevin Walter

TE’s:  Antonio Gates

DEF:  New York Giants

Quarterbacks:

                Drew Brees was a very surprising pick at #5 overall but one can definitely argue his worth there.  Brees passed for an astonishing 5,069 yds last year and had a ridiculous 10 games over 300 yds including 2 of 400+.  He didn’t have one game where he threw for less than 200 yds and in only one game completed less than 20 passes (18).  To put it in perspective, he had over 1,000 more yds passing than the 4^th highest total (Aaron Rodgers) and averaged over 300 yds a game (316).  QB2 will be rotated weekly between the overrated Brett Favre and the underrated Shaun Hill.  After taking over the starting job halfway through the year, Hill led the Niners to a 5-3 record in the 2^nd half of the season only having one game of less than 200 yds passing and 6 out of 8 games with multiple TD’s.

Running backs:

                This is definitely the weakest link on the team, but comes with some promising value.  Brandon Jacobs is the focal point of the Giants offense and is one of the hardest backs in the NFL to tackle.  His liability in the passing game hurts him a good bit, but the amount of TD opportunities he always has in the red-zone makes up for it.  Pierre Thomas has taken over as the main, traditional rusher in New Orleans and should put up huge numbers in such a high powered offense.  After taking over the role, Thomas scored 9 total TD’s in his final 6 games last year while also reeling in 19 catches.  It remains to be seen exactly how many snaps Ray Rice will see in his “feature” back role, but he has tremendous value in such a run-oriented system, especially as an 8^th round pick.  Matter of fact, some experts predict such a good season that he will be a first round pick in 2010.  Leon Washington and Jamaal Charles could see significant playing time throughout the year and Mike Bell should have a huge first week if Pierre Thomas in unable to go.

Wide receivers:

                The wide-outs are top notch across the board with Randy Moss, Anquan Boldin and Anthony Gonzalez.  With Brady back, Moss will only improve from his 69 rec, 1008 yds and 11 TD’s last year while Boldin (Warner’s true favorite receiver) hauled in 89 catches for 1038 yds and 11 TD’s AND MISSED 4 GAMES! Now that Harrison is out of the picture, Gonzalez should really have a break-out year.  I had Hester and Gonzalez rated back to back and elected to go with Hester just because the Colts have Reggie Wayne.  I really figured I could get him on the way back, but Stew popped me for him.  Also, B-Mo has Kevin Walter on the bench, who is about as solid of a true #2 as you can get.  With the combination of their sensational offense and wretched defense, the Texans should find themselves in a lot of shootouts and Walter will be a big part of it. 

The Rest:

                Antonio Gates may as well be another wide receiver, because he is the most targeted and reliable receiver in the Chargers passing game.  I’m a little leery of having a weekly starting defense outside of Baltimore and Pittsburgh, but the Giants are kind of on that bubble.  The Giants have one of the best pass-rushes in football that doesn’t rely on blitzing.  New York’s front four can usually apply enough pressure on a quarterback where they can drop 7 back in coverage, confusing quarterbacks on pre-snap reads.  Also, more times than not, their offensive rushing attack controls the time of possession on long, time consuming drives, limiting the chance for big scoring outputs by opponents.  

Ratings:

Quarterbacks:      B+           92

Running backs:    B-            86

Wide receivers:     A+           98

Tight end:              A             95

Defense:                A-            N/A

Overall:                  A-            93

Season Outlook:

                As the frontrunner heading into the season, the biggest key is the running back situation.  If Ray Rice can keep McGahee and McClain off the field and Pierre Thomas establishes himself as a true starter, this team will be very tough to beat.  However, on the flip side, there could be some glaring problems at running back that could sink this team from the top if things don’t pan out the way they are expected to.  Either way, Brees and the receivers should consistently put up monster numbers to keep Stew-wie in the championship hunt.  

As always, questions or comments can be emailed to Meg Gangum at [e-mail].

Thank you and best of luck.

This has been a Meg Gangum production.

Meg Gangum

Senior Writer

Yahoo! Sports Journal