By Dalton Del Don
The Cardinals players received their NFC Championship rings Tuesday night – Arizona has the privilege of once again playing in the NFL’s worst division, and it’s not even close. However, with the terrific playoff run fresh in our minds, don’t forget this team entered Week 17 at 8-7 last year and outscored its opponents by just one point during the regular season. To put that into perspective, there were six teams who didn’t even reach the postseason that outscored their opponents by an average of 53.7 points. Kurt Warner is a huge injury risk, the defense is likely to remain one of the worst in football, and it’s extremely difficult to rebound after such an ultimately disappointing deep run in the playoffs during the following year. Expect the 49ers or Seahawks to win the West this year.
Beanie Wells remained unsigned on Wednesday, although Arizona general manager Rod Graves reported significant progress in negotiations – It’s not all pessimism in the desert, as their isn’t a player being more undervalued in all of fantasy football this year than Wells. I have far more to write about him in the future, but the short version is that the Cardinals are a much better run-blocking unit than most realize, coach Ken Whisenhunt is a ground-attack guy at heart, the NFC West is soft defensively, and while Wells is somewhat shaky when it comes to durability, the fact remains he only missed three games throughout his collegiate career, and he’s got a ton of talent. Anyone who thinks Tim Hightower is a threat would probably ask this guy to babysit their kids.
While Brett Favre has confirmed he’s decided to stay retired, he told several sources he’ll continue to work out and won’t entirely rule out a comeback – I’ve officially gone from tired (like everyone else) of Brett Favre news to oddly entertained, like rubbernecking when driving by a car accident. I’m definitely rooting for him to come back this season, as it will surely add to the entertainment value. I can’t see the Vikings finishing better than third in the NFC North either way.
Michael Huff is in danger of being cut by the Raiders – Huff was drafted ahead of Jay Cutler, in case you were wondering.
During an interview with Peter King on the Michael Kay Show Wednesday on ESPN 1050, Kay’s co-host Don La Greca asked who King thought was a better quarterback, Jason Campbell or Tony Romo? – I don’t bring this up based solely on this one occasion, as I have consistently heard Romo bashed in the media this offseason. But in what universe are these two quarterbacks even mentioned in the same paragraph, yet alone sentence? After all, this is comparing a below average league starting QB versus one of the 15 best players in the NFL. By all means, avoid Romo in fantasy football this year because he lost Terrell Owens, who caught a hideous 49 percent of his targets and got 7.52 YPA last season – how ever will Romo be able to replace that kind of production? Romo is a star, and the Cowboys are a legitimate threat to win the NFC in 2009.
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