Chad update
Chad Johnson practiced Saturday, complained about a bad ankle through his agent, and then told everyone to “Vote Obama”. More to come…
Henry suspended indefinitely
By Brian Doyle
For Fantasy Footballers who may have been tracking Chris Henry to see what team might take a shot on the troubled talent, it looks like he will not be an option for 2008. The NFL suspended Henry indefinitely following his fifth arrest since coming to the league. In April he was charged with assault.
The suspension can be lifted should Henry be acquitted of the charges, but should he be convicted he will be suspended for a minimum of a year under the leagues conduct guidelines.
Another upset receiver
By Brian Doyle
Plaxico Burress is doing his best Chad Johnson impression as he sits out at Giant mini-camp. Burress is unhappy with his deal which still has 3 years remaining ($10.5M). This coupled with Jeremy Shockey’s unhappiness with his role and the Giant front office put some question marks for a team coming off of a Super Bowl stunner.
Veteran leadership has expressed their anger in Burress sitting out. Center Shaun O’Hara stated “Either you are with us or you are against us,” between practices. “And I think the players are doing a good job of focusing in on their daily tasks and their jobs, and as long as we all continue to do that, this team will succeed.”
Burress feels he s underpaid, which based on the new contracts for New England’s Randy Moss and Dallas’ Terrell Owens (both for three years in the neighborhood of $27M) might be true, but his teammates still feel he should be on the field with him. It is important to note that Burress has been at meetings and head coach Tom Coughlin has not been to concerned stating “Naturally I want everybody on the field, We anticipated the camp being the camp. We want everybody out here. The quarterback wants everybody out here. The quarterback wants to throw to people; he wants to work with people. That is what a mini-camp is for.”. He also commented that this is a time that players often hold out to renegotiate. Coughlin’s calm, easygoing demeanor to the Burress situation might be related to his own 4 year, $21M contract extension.
Burress’ absence allows for more repetitions for Super Bowl hero David Tyree and second-year player Steve Smith.
Chad Johnson shows, sits
By Brian Doyle
Chad Johnson showed up at camp, put on his pads, and stood on the sidelines. The disgruntled star arrived at practice true to his word as reported previously at fantasyobsession.com, but did not participate.
Johnson who is unhappy with his contract made his statement by arriving at practice late and in his practice gear, but not joining his teammates in drills. He is unhappy with not receiving his trade request (the team turned down an offer by the Redskins) and in the past has stated he would be willing to sit the year.
So true to his word that he is “…crazy, but not stupid…” he is at training camp, but not participating. Until this situation is resolved it will be a challenge for the team and a distraction for his teammates. Carson Palmer is a top fantasy pick with the pairing of Johnson and TJ Houshmanzadeh, but both his and Houshmanzadeh’s value can diminish without their star WR.
Stay tuned…..
A Champ retires
Michael Strahan will not keep the Giants waiting for his arrival at training camp this year, he has decided to retire. This deprives Giant fans of the annual ritual of “Will he, Won’t he?” in terms of his arrival at camp, but it does provide the Giants an opportunity to plan for a future without him. Also, it allows the fans to celebrate the great career he had with the team.
He is coming off of a strong season in which he started 15 games and had 9 sacks and 141.5 in the regular season for his career. He is also the NFL record holder with 22.5 in 2001. Strahan wanted to let his teamates know before they began to report for mini-camp.
So how do you replace a great? Well it is never easy, but here are a few of the candidates:
Jason Tuck, 4th year pro who had 10 sacks last year while playing both end and tackle for the Giants.
Mathias Kiwanuka, a 2006 first round pick, who last year made the move from DE to strongside LB before getting hurt in Detroit on November 18. Will the coaching staff look to move him back to end?
They are a couple of the contenders to fill the big man’s shoes, but look for others to challenge for Strahan’s vacated position.
Chad Johnson wants to play
Chad Johnson has indicated that he wants to play for the Bengals despite his multiple comments to the contrary this off season.
”Am I coming back? Of course I am,” Johnson said in an interview with ESPN. “I told my coaches I’m going to California to act, but the truth is I may come back to the Bengals as early as June. I may be crazy but I’m not stupid.”
This is just another interesting twist in the colorful career of Johnson, but does it increase his fantasy value. Although he proclaims he wants to be a Bengal the fact that doesn’t change is that he is still under the contract that he does not like and will remain so until 2011. Not to mention he shares the load with TJ Houshmanzadeh who scores big points for many fantasy owners whose leagues incoroprate receptions and TD’s as part of their scoring matrix. TJ has become the prime target of Carson Palmer.
Johnson’s having a big year will be conditional to his staying happy That will be either the promise to renegoitate if he has a monster season and with the amount of passes that come his direction. In many respects he reminds me of another Johnson, Keyshawn, who never was really happy no matter what team he was a part of, and never quite lived up to the hype he attracted from the media and fans.
Travis Henry Cut
Travis Henry cut by the Denver Broncos today
“We did not feel his commitment to the Broncos was enough to warrant a spot on this football team,” Coach Mike Shanahan said in a written statement. “Although Travis has the ability to be one of the top running backs in the NFL, we have to make decisions that are in the best interests of our organization and its goal of winning a Super Bowl.”
Travis Henry has talent but lacks control of himself, as evidenced by the fact he has nine children with nine different mothers and repeated violations of the leagues substance abuse policy. The vast majority of NFL players understand what it takes to play in the league. There are a select few like Henry who just don’t get it. I don’t know who would take a chance on this guy this fall but someone is bound to. I wish I could say that he could be productive back but with a history like this, it is hard to imagine he could last a season without incident.
Scott Basso