Not that Byron Leftwich belonged on your roster anyway except in very deep, 2-QB formats, but the news that he has been demoted from the starting role still comes as something of a surprise as the Jags have been saying all along that they were confident in his abilities. He's looked pretty rough in the preseason, and Garrard had some mild success filling in for him last season, so the move makes sense, I guess. It's not like they had a better option.

Don't mistake this for an opportunity to pick up Garrard, though. Of the ten games he played last season, he only threw more TDs than INTs in four of them. I wouldn't say this has much of an effect on the value of the Jags wideouts, either - I still wouldn't want any of them on my team. We don't have any of them higher than the 5th tier on our WR cheat sheet. Kind of sad.

Throughout my experiences with fantasy football drafts, I've noticed one thing: no matter the format of the league, when it comes time to pick the last 2 or 3 guys for a team, managers rarely make very educated selections. In a 15 round draft that lasts over two hours, rosters are pretty much set and the manager is simply looking to grab another beer or get ready for bed. Even in a more experienced keeper league this can happen. In our keeper league draft, players like Priest Holmes, Sammy Morris, Kevin Faulk and Reggie Williams made onto rosters with late round picks. These are prime candidates for a "Post-draft Draft".

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Similar to that old Carmen Sandiego TV show/video game in which Carmen's henchmen were hunted down all over the world, fantasy owners have been struggling to hunt down any information regarding one of their potential top picks in the fantasy draft this season: Randy Moss.

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Larry Johnson finally took part in a preseason game last night against the St. Louis Rams, although he still saw only limited playing time. Johnson carried the ball three times for 12 yards, a healthy average of 4.0 yards per carry (although the sample size is a little too small to read into this all that much). It appears that LJ is ready to begin the season, but it seems that in his first game he might not see 100% of the load that he would generally see. Feel safe starting him in your leagues however, as he is still LJ and with 75% of his normal carries, he will still perform better than 75% of the other running backs in the league.

It was good to see last year's surprise rookie standout out on the field last night against Miami, even if it was only for two offensive series with backup QB Jamie Martin (Drew Brees sat the game out due to being Drew Brees).

Overall, Colston's a very solid #2 fantasy WR and will quickly qualify as a #1 WR if he can return to last year's level of production and avoid injuries. However, while it may be too early to label him as "injury-prone," it's hard not to worry about a guy who missed some games in his rookie season and is starting this year with an ambiguous knee problem.

People who own him in Yahoo! leagues will sorely miss the TE eligibility he had for all of 2006, which made him an absolutely priceless commodity.

Last updated: 9/05/07

In the world of fantasy football, the phrase "running back platoon" or "running back by committee" usually sends managers running for the hills, with good reason. While NFL coaches love to use platoons (if they have two quality running backs), keeping their backs fresh and changing the pace for opposing defenses, it can become a nightmare for fantasy managers trying to decide who to start on a week to week basis.

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AOL loses all credibility when they post this joke of a mock draft on the front page of their fantasy football site, as if there's something we can all learn from it. A few highlights from the draft:

Frank Gore with the #2 overall pick: You have got to be kidding me. Gore's a great player, but he's a huge injury risk, and even at his best it's hard to see him having a bigger season than Steven Jackson. Larry Johnson should also always go before Gore.

Marc Bulger with the #8 overall pick: This is a team-crippling pick. I didn't even comment on Peyton going at #6 because this pick made that look damn near sensible. Bulger belongs in the 3rd round at the very earliest, and that would be a reach.

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Sounds like Holt's knee could be a major source of frustration for his fantasy owners this season:

"It's just one of those deals where I'm not recovering as quick as I used to," Holt said. "It feels good some days and some days it doesn't feel so good."

"I'm getting somewhat used to that, and I'm getting to the point where I can manage it pretty well."

That's just about the last thing you wanted to hear if you used a high draft pick on Holt (which, if he's on your team, you did). He seems to be acknowledging that he'll no longer be as dominant, and that's... OK with him. Come on Torry, where's the fire? Where are the pushups in the driveway in front of a few dozen TV cameras? We better see you riding an exercise bike in a Lance Armstrong costume on the sidelines for the rest of the preseason.

We're bumping Holt down a few notches on our WR cheat sheet based on this news, and you should do the same.

Well it looks like the quarterback competition in Oakland is finally winding down. Although at this point this battle should have very little fantasy implications, the winner might be a name to consider during the year when you run into injury problems or the bye week blues. McCown has proven himself to be a completely mediocre quarterback, averaging only 155 yards a game and throwing only 25 touchdowns in 35 games, while also throwing 29 interceptions. I wouldn't expect much different from him if he takes over as quarterback for the Raiders this season. However, Daunte Culpepper brings a lot more intrigue to the conversation.

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Michael Silver thinks so. His editorial comes off mostly as a fluff piece, and it's important not to get too excited about a player over one of those, but there's one thing to consider: Maybe Denny Green was just a terrible coach. This passage in particular makes it seem as if there's some hope for a resurgence of sorts now that Green's gone:

Green's system didn't help, either: Effective as a spread offense the previous year, the Cardinals began favoring a two-tight-end formation that brought more defenders into the box to stop James. An injury to Larry Fitzgerald, one of the team's two stud wideouts (along with the brilliant Anquan Boldin), didn't help, either.

"Teams knew what was coming," James said. "Opponents were calling out plays before we ran them. (Chicago Bears middle linebacker) Brian Urlacher, when we played them, told me, 'Dude, I feel bad for you. They're not giving you a chance.'"

With all the talk over the offseason about how James has "lost his burst" (Matt Pallister recently called him "merely an average back"), maybe we all could use a reminder that just the season before, he had over 1800 total yards and 14 scores. If he had remained in Indy (and Joseph Addai didn't exist), there's little reason to think he wouldn't have had a comparable season in 2006. The setting changed, not the player. With a new coach in the desert, perhaps the setting has changed again, for the better this time.