It Was a Nice Run…

Reports of my demise have been greatly exaggerated.

Just because I’m known to some of my friends and colleagues as the biggest Brett Favre fan among lifelong Vikings fans does not mean I need to be kept away from sharp objects. I am not in denial. I know the gunslinger has decided to retire.

I don’t know if I can say the same about my in-laws who live in Wisconsin and wore Packers gear to my wedding rehearsal dinner last fall. I have not heard from them all day and, quite frankly, I’m a bit worried.

Brett has decided to hang up the cleats, to put the gun back in the holster… to retire. I have come to grips with that and, as a Vikings fan, that’s good news.

As many have pointed out today, he’s played in more straight games, thrown more passes for more completions, more interceptions, more yards, and more touchdowns, won more games, and won more MVP awards than anyone who has ever played quarterback. Favre has all the records and accolades, he has a Super Bowl ring, and his bust is already being worked on in Canton.

The question then is: why retire now? After years of flirting with retirement, why retire after one of his best seasons with a team that almost got to the Super Bowl?

Packers’ general manager Ted Thompson and head coach Mike McCarthy held a press conference this afternoon looking as though they hadn’t slept a wink. Asked why Brett decided to retire, they kept coming back to the fact that he was mentally tired.

How will his heir apparent, Aaron Rodgers, fill his shoes? You might be surprised to know that I’m not totally down on him. Rodgers knows the Packers offense well, has good size, an accurate arm, two Pro Bowl caliber wide receivers, the support of a solid running game (assuming Ryan Grant was not a mirage) and he looked good in his limited opportunities this past season. I would not want him as my starting quarterback in a standard 12-team fantasy league, but as a backup, I’m listening. Have you seen what passes for “quarterbacking” for at least half the teams in the NFL lately? Then again, maybe Grant, Greg Jennings, Donald Driver, et al. looked as good as they did because of ol’ number 4. In the end, none of them will be as valuable to fantasy owners.

Skeptics will point out that Favre conveniently waited until his name was atop the record books in several more prestigious passing categories to retire. I don’t buy it. He was still wrestling with the decision last week when he spoke to McCarthy and ultimately didn’t make up his mind until Monday. There are also those who will mock and chide Favre over the reports that he spoke with then-free agent Randy Moss last week and was prepared to play another year or two if the team signed him. And then when the Patriots re-signed the record-breaking receiver, he decided to take his ball and go home. Again, I’m not buying it. Favre made no mention of Moss in the infamous voicemail he left Chris Mortensen nor did he mention it to McCarthy or Thompson.

You can’t call me a homer for not believing the negativity about Brett because, again, I’m not a Packer fan. By all rights I should despise the guy after all he’s done to my Purple-helmeted warriors over the years, but I don’t. You didn’t have to be a Packer fan to enjoy watching Favre play the game with the youthful exuberance of a kid in his backyard for the past 17 years. You just had to be a football fan.

I know I’m just teeing myself up for ridicule from those I know, but I’m going to say it anyways. In my years of watching and covering sports, rarely have I truly, seriously missed watching a player perform after their retirement, but I’m going to miss watching Brett Favre. I wish him well.

It was a heckuva nice run.

Yanks beat Wang; Jets Get a Woody

There are a whole lot of mundane transactions in the NFL, so back in the day when Kind Of A Big Deal contributors were gainfully employed by a different fantasy sports company we took it upon ourselves to liven things up.

Evidently that’s not the plan for New Coke going forward, as for the most part quantity and volume have replaced quality and wit. So when the American League’s New York franchise won their arbitration hearing with one of their better pitchers, there was no sophomoric headline such as “Yanks beat Wang at bargaining table.”

And when the same city’s AFC football squad added a new member to their revamped offensive line, there was no “Jets get a Woody” headline to be found.

In the words of former Coke Classic publisher (and current FF Champs publisher) Bo Mitchell, “Sigh.”

NFL’s Black Friday

 

It’s the football holiday season again!  And the NFL’s version of Black Friday is upon us.  The top free agents are ready to sign massive contracts and change uniforms, making our fantasy football life just a bit spicier on these late winter nights.  Every team is standing outside their favorite player’s house, with the door-buster deals on their mind and a contract in hand, hoping to be one of the few to land that perfect item.  There will be a bum rush through the front door, and teams will fight over players like stingy obese women, resulting in the tugging of arms and the pulling of hair.  And after the NFL Black Friday’s dust has settled, we will get a taste of how our new squad will look, and even if we don’t get that perfect addition, there’s always NFL Christmas (the upcoming draft).  

 

Quarterback                        Possible Landing                 Notes

Derek Anderson(RFA)        CLE, ATL, BAL                    He is a RFA, team would have to give up two picks.

David Carr                             KC, BUF, MIA                      Recently released, one of the best options out there.

Todd Collins                         STL, WAS, MIN                  High priced, old backup.

Daunte Culpepper                ATL, BAL, CHI                    Wants to start, has a chance in those three cities.

Trent Green                           MIN, STL, BUF                    Has had too many concussions to start, solid backup.

Byron Leftwich                     KC, BAL, OAK                     No not a Manwich, a Leftwich!

Josh McCown                      OAK, MIN, BAL                  Might start if resigned by Oakland.

Billy Volek                             SD, NYJ, BAL                       Could his drive against the Colts land him a start? 

Running Back                     Possible Landing                 Notes

DeShaun Foster                   HOU, MIA, DAL                  May be a yardage hog, and split time in a new town.

Earnest Graham(RFA)         TB, HOU, KC                        Most likely the starter for the Bucs next year.

Julius Jones                          DET, DAL, MIA                   Wants to find a new role, but may end up splitting.

Jamal Lewis                           CLE, HOU, DET                    Old guy had a great 07, it might pay off for him.

Michael Turner                     HOU, DET, NYJ                    The top back available will get paid.

Derrick Ward                        CHI, NYJ, MIA                     Looked great in Super Bowl run. 

 

Wide Receiver                     Possible Landing                 Notes

Bernard Berrian                    MIN, CHI, TEN                     Many teams wanting his field stretching abilities.

Marty Booker                       NE, MIN, NO                        Veteran presence needed on young corps.

Isaac Bruce                           STL, SD, TEN                       Has played 85 seasons, will he play another?

Jabar Gaffney                        MIN, KC, NYJ                       Showed brilliant flashes with the Pats last year.

Justin Gage                           TEN, HOU, BUF                   Was Vince’s favorite target, will he resign?

D.J. Hackett                           MIN, CHI, SF                        Might be sleeper free agent of the year.

Devery Henderson              STL, OAK, MIN                   Fast as can be, can he take the next step?

Randy Moss                         NE, GB, DAL                         Greatest receiver of all time wants a ring…badly! 

Tight End                              Possible Landing                 Notes

Alge Crumpler                      GB, NYJ, CAR                       Silly Falcons, Alge might have been your best player!

Bubba Franks                       MIN, DET, CIN                     Way past his prime, he might just not be signed.

Eric Johnson                         CAR, ATL, DET                   Can he be productive, I’m not sure. 

Kicker                                   Possible Landing                 Notes

Josh Brown                           SEA, KC, NO, DEN              He is a good kicker, and a better person.

John Carney                          KC, NO, DEN, WAS            Carneys are known for small hands, and accuracy.

Jason Elam                            DEN, WAS, NO, SEA          Elam was kicking in Denver before it was cool.

Olindo Mare                          WAS, SEA, KC, DEN          Oh Lindo!

Shaun Suisham                    WAS, NO, KC, SEA            There really isn’t much to write about kickers.

Long Shot

I think it’s unlikely that the Miami Dolphins will hold onto the first overall pick in April’s draft, but if they don’t trade it away to some team gaga over Darren McFadden or Matt Ryan, I think they might just grab Michigan All-American tackle Jake Long.

Nope, taking an offensive lineman is never a sexy pick, but as my good friend John Tuvey is fond of saying: “It all starts up front!” Of course, he just says that because he played on the line in college… and because he likes to mock Dan Dierdorf.

Where was I? Oh yeah, taking an offensive lineman is never sexy, but something tells me that new Dolphins GM Bill Parcells could give a crap about sexy. What he does care about is loading up with talent, which is why if he doesn’t stockpile picks by trading away the first one, I think he just might address one of their many positions of need by grabbing Long number one.

Long just got done turning in one of the most, if not THE most, impressive workouts at the combine in Indianapolis this week. The 6-7, 315-pound, heavily-tattooed monster wowed the stopwatch-carrying scouts in all the drills, but especially in the bench press where he tied with Vernon Gholston by putting up 225 for a combine-high 37 reps. Coincidentally, Gholston is the only player to beat Long for a sack during his senior year.

Going with Long is hardly a (ahem) long shot. He’s the safest pick in this year’s draft.

For my complete first round mock draft, please visit www.fantasyfootballchamps.com.

Yao-uch!!!

I have quite a bit of respect for Yao Ming. The guy is a tremendous athlete for his size, has been well-spoken (despite the somewhat broken English still) and thoughtful the few times I’ve dealt with him, and carries the weight of an entire country’s basketball-crazy fan-base on his shoulders. Perhaps Yi Jianlian will share that in a few years, but for now, it’s all Yao’s. So I’m disappointed to hear that Yao is done for the season with a stress fracture in his foot. But I also feel vindicated after once again passing on my opportunities to draft Yao in fantasy leagues.

I’m always tempted to grab Yao early in 8-cat leagues because of his fabulous percentages – 52 percent career shooter, 82.6 percent from the line – and because I simply like having guys on my team who I can pull for. But the only time in Yao’s career I’ve had him on one of my fantasy teams was the 2003-04 season – his second and final 82-game campaign since entering the league.

Houston cut back Yao’s minutes a bit the next season and got 80 games out of him, but realized he was better than the 18 points, eight rebounds per game that he was putting up was far below his potential. And they were right.

But at 7-foot-6 inches, no matter how good of an athlete Yao is, he can’t play much more than 30 minutes per night and stay healthy. He’s proven it the last three seasons. In the 2005-06 season Yao needed toe surgery to deal with osteomyelitis and missed a total of 25 games. He averaged a then career-high 34:12 per contest that season.

Houston maintained Yao’s minutes the 2006-07 season and was rewarded with more of the same. The center suffered a fractured right tibia in December and ultimately missed 34 contests as a result.

Now Yao is 55 games into the season and the Rockets have a 12-game winning streak under their belts. Yao averaged more than 37 minutes per night in those 55 games, setting a new career high by three minutes per game. There’s no doubt that fantasy owners with Yao at center have been at least somewhat successful this season in part due to the 22 points, 10.8 rebounds, 2.4 assists and two blocks per game Yao has supplied. No one in the game can duplicate those numbers with the percentages he shoots. So once again, his fantasy owners will likely finish the season short of a championship.

My hope is that Houston figures out that no matter how great of an athlete Yao is, his body is simply too big to play much more than 32 or 33 minutes per night. Is it tough to leave him on the bench for 15 minutes per game, especially with your team still fighting for a playoff berth? Absolutely. But guess what? The Rockets aren’t getting to the playoffs with Dikembe Mutombo patrolling the paint.

Will Houston figure it out? It’s tough to say. I certainly wouldn’t bank on it. And I also wouldn’t select Yao in the first two rounds of a draft. If for some reason I did wind up with him you can bet I’ll be sending out trade offers before the calendar hits 2009 because I don’t want to be left holding the bag when Yao checks out early again. Perhaps he’ll do the same thing Marcus Camby did – shake off years of injury troubles to put up a couple ridiculous seasons – but fantasy owners reaping the benefits from Camby are doing so because they took him in the middle rounds. Yao’ numbers certainly are tempting enough that someone will take him in the first couple of rounds. But the best-case scenario there is that Yao reaches expectations, unlike Camby’s situation where he easily surpassed the expectations based on his draft position. Yao is too much risk compared to the reward as far as I’m concerned.

For once, though, I hope I’m proved wrong.

February Sucks!

After being sick for the last week and change I have come to hate winter just a little bit more.  I curse the descendants that thought living in Minnesota would be a good idea.  Just because it has a similar climate to Scandinavia, does not mean it’s a great place to settle down and start an onion farm.  I suppose if I wanted to be in a warmer climate, we could load up the truck and move to Beverly, but it’s not so easy when the kids are involved and I don’t have a truck.  So, I’m stuck here in this snow globe until it all melts after March Madness. 

The first half of winter doesn’t seem to drag on as long as February does simply due to a little diversion that I like to call the National Football League, and the lovely by-product of said league called fantasy football.  I love fantasy football.  No other sport is arranged quite as perfect as the NFL for the fantasy game.  I believe this so much that I simply cannot stick with any of the other conventional fantasy sports.  My gripes about the other leagues are as follows…

The NBA just feels like one of the most heartless sports ever.  If the average NBA player doesn’t care until mid-May, why should I?

The NHL just has never cut it for me in a fantasy sense, simply because I can’t stay motivated to keep up with those teams that drop the puck south of the Mason-Dixon Line.  If they cannot produce an outdoor rink, they should not produce an NHL squad.

Major League Baseball is pretty cool, and I follow it as much as I can, but the length of the season and amount of games played turn me off from a fantasy standpoint.

NASCAR is not a sport. 

So, with that being said, I feel like I need to find something to fill in the dead time between Week 16 and March Madness.  I love to place a bit of money on contests of strength and skill, but what contests are left to be contested?  Here are three different ideas, even though some of which already exist. 

Fantasy American Idol At this point there are 20 contestants left on one of the worst shows ever to grace the airwaves.  Even though I truly believe that the show is terrible, I have probably seen a portion of half of the shows this season, and have realized the fantasy potential.  I figure if one were to enter a league of any size, each owner could select four idols as your team.  A simple one point for every round survived should suffice as a scoring system.  Everyone could pick and just wait for the weekly outcome.  My team of four players would include David Archuleta, Carly Smithson, David Cook and Kady Malloy.  Think you could choose better?  Post a comment on the blog. 

Fantasy LostYou could almost run a death pool on the show, because it seems fairly obvious that someone could die on any given show.  Since we now know that only the Oceanic Six leave the island, and the O-6 seem to have to lie about the lives of so many other plane survivors.  I think that a roster of any six people on the island would be appropriate, with any new characters finding their way to the island being a part of the free agent pool.  Every character is available for all owners, and people can pick up and drop as many times as they want.  Receive one point for every death on your roster.  On my roster I want Claire, Miles, Charlotte, Desmond, Karl and Juliet.

 

Minnesota State High School Hockey Tournament PoolIf you call yourself a hockey fan, you know that the premier event in all of hockey happens in Minnesota in early March, and is known only as the “Hockey Tournament.”  As of last year I started a pool for both the Class A and AA tourneys.  Every year it’s a complete crapshoot, even with the addition of the top four seeds in the eight team tournament.  Last year the Iron Range dominated the tourney, with Hermantown beating Duluth Marshall in class A, and Roseau defeating Grand Rapids in the big school title.  My home school, Minnetonka is still alive in their section finals, and don’t count them out if they make the tourney.  If you want to be in this year’s pool, email me at smoothmat@hotmail.com, and I’ll send you a bracket. 

If anyone else is as bored with the weather as I am, they would see that the format of the American Idol game could be used in any reality show, and if you have any great fantasy ideas, such as Fantasy America’s Next Top Model, leave a comment on the blog.

About Time!

Late last week, there was a report on ESPN that the Panthers were looking to trade DeShaun Foster. As a man who has loved fellow Panthers running back DeAngelo Williams ever since he was in college, I can only say, “What took you guys so long?”

Now don’t get me wrong, I think Foster is a solid back, but Carolina has been making a big mistake by not letting Williams, who left school with the NCAA record for career 100-yard rushing games (34) and 7,573 all-purpose yards. Heck, DeAngelo doesn’t need me to tell you about him, he has created his own website to do that. I will use this handy chart to help illustrate how good he has been in Carolina Blue.

DeAngelo Williams, Panthers

RUSHING

RECEIVING

Year	G	Rush	Yds	Yds/G	YPC	TD		Rec	Yds	TD
2006	13	121	501	38.5	4.1	1		33	313	1
2007	16	144	717	44.8	5.0	4		23	175	1

Need visual evidence of his elusiveness?

Assuming the Panthers can find a trade partner and don’t end up pairing DeAngelo with another back to split the load, Williams should get about 275 carries in 2008. Even his per-carry average falls half a yard from last season to 4.5 a carry, he will end up with over 1,200 rushing yards, and that doesn’t even count his receiving yardage. Heck, even if he drops to 4.0 yards per carry, he will still end up with over 1,000 yards.

As much as I love DeAngelo (and any long-time reader of Fantasy Football Weekly knows my love for him is endless), I still have too many concerns about the Panthers to include him in my running back top-10 if Foster is dealt. First off, he w is yet to prove he can handle the load of being a featured back for an entire season. Secondly, the interior of their line is very suspect. While their tackle situation is in good shape with Travelle Wharton and Jordan Gross (assuming he stays), guard Mike Wahle has been a titanic disappointment andcenter Justin Hartwig can’t stay healthy. Also, several serious questions remain about the passing game, not the least of which is, who will quarterback the Panthers in 2008? Without a reliable passing game to distract defenses, Williams’ ability to consistently post excellent yardage numbers will be limited, as will his chances to score touchdowns. Of course, Carolina can address some, if not all, of those concerns with an aggressive offseason. If they accomplish that and ship out Foster, Williams suddenly emerges as one of next season’s most popular sleepers, and you can bet I’ll be leading the charge.

Myth Buster

Sorry I have been so absent lately. I decided to join the Dharma Initiative , but things got a little dicey when a plane crashed on our island and now I have returned.

Previously on this blog, I promised to explore the question of if aces consistently face other aces during a season. The idea for this test hit me while I was listening to a recent CBS Sportsline podcast where the guys insinuated that fantasy owners should care that a pitcher is the No. 1 hurler on his team because it would result in more matchups against aces from other squads. After watching baseball for about 20 years, I’ve noticed a thing or two, and my keen intuition has never picked up a noticeable trend of aces consistently facing other aces, at least not any more frequently than they face pitchers in other slots in the rotation.

Test: I chose to examine a sample size of 10 teams, which is one-third of the league. To ensure it was random I simply went down the list of teams alphabetically until I got five teams from each league. In this experiment, an “ace” is defined as the team’s Opening Day pitcher because he is the man on the top of the rotation at the start of the season.

While on many teams these pitchers will not end the year with the best statistics, the purpose of this test was not to see how often a team’s best statistical starter faced off with another team’s because that is not helpful to fantasy owners in the preseason as we prep for drafts. Obviously, it is impossible to know for certain who every team’s top pitcher in 2008 will be before the year begins. Instead, this experiment was to see how often a pitcher slotted at the top of his team’s rotation went up against another hurler in that same position.

Hypothesis: Aces will face other aces roughly 20 percent of the time because they have an equal opportunity to pitch against any of the five members of the opposing team’s rotation.

Data:

Team	Player	Starts	vs. Ace	Percent
ARI	Brandon Webb	34	5	14.7
ATL	John Smoltz	32	8	25
BAL	Erik Bedard	28	7	25
BOS	Curt Schiling	24	2	8.3
CWS	Jose Contreas	32	3	9.4
CHC	Carlos Zambrano	34	6	17.6
CIN	Aaron Harang	34	10	29.4
CLE	C.C. Sabathia	34	6	17.6
COL	Aaron Cook	24	7	29.2
DET	Jeremy Bonderman	28	6	21.4
TOTAL		304	60	19.7

Conclusion: Aces faced off with each other 19.7 percent of all starts, almost exactly one-fifth of the time. This confirms my hypothesis and makes sense since, statistically, every time they take the hill they have a one-in-five chance of battling the opposing team’s top starter. This is important to fantasy baseball players to know as we prepare for upcoming drafts because it proves that there is no reason to downgrade any starter because of his location in his team’s rotation. So while there are a variety of reasons (new ballpark, run support, ect…) to adjust your rankings for Erik Bedard, Dan Haren, and other hurlers who switched teams this winter, do not do so because he now occupies a different rotation slot than he did a year ago.

The Pujols Problem

Hitting .327 with 32 home runs and 103 RBI is called a great season nine out of 10 times; the exception is Albert Pujols. The Cardinals All-World first baseman has set the bar so absurdly high, that anything short of the spectacular production he usually provides gets labeled as an “off” season.

The inclination is to dismiss Pujols 2007 campaign as an aberration and return him to his usual place among the top-ranked players in fantasy baseball—perhaps as high as No. 2 behind Alex Rodriguez. However, blindly doing so would be to ignore the giant red flag waving over him this spring.

Pujols is one of my favorite baseball players. His is the only baseball bobblehead I own. He has helped me win in fantasy baseball many times. But I won’t be drafting him this season because of the right elbow injury he should have had surgery on following last season.

What elbow injury, you ask? Normally, I’d accuse someone asking such a thing of living under a proverbial rock, but I understand the confusion. As players begin reporting to spring training in the aftermath of the Mitchell Report, the Clemens saga on Capitol Hill, and the drama surrounding the Johan Santana trade, Pujols’ elbow woes get lost in the shuffle.

Pujols’ elbow has been bothering him for several seasons, and he when he found out after the 2007 season how much time he would miss if he had to have surgery on it, he elected not to do so. This has led to widespread speculation that he needs Tommy John (ligament replacement) surgery on the elbow—a procedure that would cost him the entire season.

Just how much is the elbow bothering him? He showed reporters last month that he couldn’t straighten his arm all the way and admitted that it had limited his weight training during the offseason.

Those expecting Pujols to continue playing through elbow, or any other injuries, should know that he has a new philosophy heading into this season. Regarding last year’s leg injuries, Albert told the St. Louis Post Dispatch, “After May, I just felt it was hurting and it was hurting pretty bad. … If that same problem is happening this year, I don’t think I’m going to play the whole year the same way. I sacrificed my body. That’s how I put it.

“I’m telling myself that I ain’t going through the same pain that I went through last year.”

Umm, that doesn’t sound promising.

Drafting Pujols is the biggest risk/reward in fantasy baseball this year. To get him, you need to spend a high first-round pick. But how excited are you to do so, given what we know of his condition and his stated intention not to play in excess pain this year?

Houston, We Need a Running Back

In preparation for the upcoming NFL draft, and the fantasy ramifications of who goes where, I was looking back on how rookies performed last season. While I’ll go more in depth on that later in the draft season (which, in case you didn’t know, officially kicks off with the NFL Scouting Combine next week), one figure jumped out and grabbed me by the throat.

Ranking rookie running backs by per-game fantasy production, the Texans’ Darius Walker drifted near the top of the pack. Sure, he didn’t play much, but his per-game results ranked him between Willie Parker and Fred Taylor for the season.

You read that right: between a guy who was a consensus first-rounder and had a pretty good season (aside from the lack of touchdowns) right up until he broke his leg, and a guy who finished the year as hot as any back in the league.

Does that mean you should snap up the former Golden Domer and expect him to churn out numbers next season? Uh, no. But it did get me to thinking about what the Texans might do if they’re able to cull one of the talented backs from this year’s class.

After all, anyone expecting the aging and oft-injured Ahman Green to suddenly find the fountain of youth is delusional. And Ron Dayne is a plodder who’ll get what the line gives him but little more; plus, he proved last season that there are limits to how much of the load he can handle and still maintain what little effectiveness he possesses.

Chris Taylor was intriguing for one game at the end of 2006, but he blew out a knee at the start of 2007 and is a long shot to contribute even if he’s healthy. And Walker was a desperation plug-in who capitalized on his opportunity but isn’t being looked to as the solution.

Which leads us back to the Texans using Draft Day to replenish their backfield. It’s become relatively clear that passing on Reggie Bush wasn’t the blunder we all thought it was, and Gary Kubiak learned under Mike Shanahan that you don’t need to get your successful backs early.

So don’t expect the Texans to spend that first-round pick on Jonathan Stewart or Rashard Mendenhall; there’s a good chance one or both might be off the board anyway. Moreover, word out of Houston is that they’re eyeballing a corner or a left tackle (hooray, finally!) with that first-rounder.

An aside: how much better will Houston’s offense be with a guy like Ryan Clady or Jeff Otah or even Sam Baker up front? And if Charles Spencer comes back from that devastating knee injury, all of a sudden the Texans’ line is a strength instead of a liability.

But I digress.

With Houston’s second-rounder property of the Falcons thanks to the Matt Schaub trade, the Texans’ first shot to upgrade their backfield might not come until round three. The great news for Kubiak and his charges is that there should be options still on the table.

You want proven? Michigan’s Mike Hart played at a high level for four years, but he’s a bit on the smallish side to be an every-down NFL back. Still, if the wear on his tires isn’t too great, he has the vision and quickness to be very successful in Houston’s zone blocking system.

Or the Texans could stay in-state and take UT’s Jamaal Charles. He faces durability questions but has tremendous speed and is a classic one-cut-and-go runner—ideally suited for the Houston offense. This pick might also extend an olive branch to the faction of their fan base still miffed the locals passed on Vince Young a couple years back.

The list of possibilities also features a couple names unfamiliar to those who don’t worship at the alter of Mel Kiper, Jr.

Kevin Smith of Central Florida has good size and all the tools required of a feature back except the major college pedigree. East Carolina’s Chris Johnson is a tad undersized but has tremendous quickness and the ability to burst through a hole; you can’t hit what you can’t catch.

Either way, the hope here—and I’m guessing in Houston as well—is that the Texans use this draft to replace Ahman with someone you can trust will make it to the field on any given Sunday.

Besides, if an undrafted Darius Walker can have success, someone like Hart or Charles or Smith or Johnson could very easily carve out some fantasy relevancy in 2008.