Calling in sick

What happens when a rabid sports fan gets sick and can’t access the Net for 36 hours? Let’s find out.

No Titans have been arrested in the past 36 hours, although Ben Troupe broke his left foot in a non-contact injury. Joy. It seems likely that he’ll be OK for the season opener but he might miss a lot, if not all, of training camp. Our favorite video-game character Pacman Jones is still out of practice with his mysterious leg injury. If I were about to hand a guy 12 million like the Titans are to Jones, I’d be careful too.

It’s a banner week in the AUBL. My opponent for this week is my dad. I dragged my dad into fantasy sports and he took to it pretty well. In fact he beat me like a drum until I took him out twice last year. My dad’s so into the league that he bought the MLB extra innings package. It’s not helping him this week so far, because I’m winning 11-0.

It’s been a banner year for injuries in fantasy baseball. I was smart enough to create two DL positions in our yahoo league. I have four guys on the DL on my team. Most of my offensive All-Stars have been all crap. Victor Martinez, I believed in you! Both Paul Konerko and Eric Chavez haven’t topped .240 in average all year although Konerko’s at least hitting for a little power. With Bobby Crosby on the DL all year I’ve gone with SSBC (shortstop by committee). It’s not a good position to fill via the waiver wire. Any league where Barry Bonds has been released twice is a strange place indeed.

I have done well with my pitching at least. Mark Buehrle, Javier Vazquez, Roy Halladay, Kevin Millwood, Freddy Garcia, and Adam Eaton have been solid. I generally have to dump a starter or two in the first few weeks, but all I’ve done is add guys due to my full DL slots. I picked up Todd Jones and Ryan Dempster to get some cheap saves. It hasn’t been the best year for closers.

The White Sox scratched out another series win in Anaheim. Dustin Hermanson, considered an iffy acquisition at his $3 million price tag, earned his 11th save and has not given up an earned run all season. The White Sox have continued their amazing pitching through the end of May. The team is 19 games over .500 47 games into the season. There’s still a small part of me that thinks it’s all a dream.

Weekend review

Is every owner who drafted Ronnie Brown number one in their rookie drafts banging their collective heads against a wall with the news that Ricky Williams is returning this year? The Dolphins have to feel like they can get some trade value for Williams. You can't depend on a guy who quit on his team during training camp last year, then turned down a deal to serve his suspension at the end of last year in anticipation of returning this year because he was 'done with football', and now has made an abrupt about-face. I'd like to see the security cameras in the locker room when Ricky comes strolling in.

It's not just his reversal that's stunning. It's the fact that the Dolphins will shell out something like $25 million for two running backs. Ronnie Brown is going to get a signing bonus in the $15 million range and Ricky Williams is owed about $8 million.

Yes, I'm going to gloat about the White Sox coming into Wrigley field and taking two out of three. What's icing on the cake is the Cubs were so shell-shocked by their bullpen implosion on Saturday that Dusty Baker kept Mark Prior in the game through the ninth inning on Sunday. Prior threw 126 pitches, which is always good when you're coming off an arm injury.

The losing pitcher in Sunday's game was rookie Brandon McCarthy. When Orlando Hernandez made his inevitable first trip to the disabled list, McCarthy was called up. The 21-year-old pitched pretty well in his debut. He's considered to be the best pitching prospect in the Sox organization since Jack McDowell.

Yes, Jon Garland lost his first game last night. If you polled most White Sox fans, they would have predicted that Garland's first loss would have occurred in game five (his first start), not game forty-five. The Sox were shut out by rookie Elvin Santana of the Pick a Town Already Angels. Considering that the White Sox played Sunday afternoon then flew to California, a letdown was expected.

On Friday night I sampled one of the best new candy bar concepts in a while. Reeses introduced a limited-edition peanut butter cup that's about 95% peanut butter. I like it when candy companies think outside the box.

I attended a series of writer workshops on Saturday. Here's what I learned. It's really hard to get fiction published, and it's doubly hard for first-timers to get published. I'm not discouraged, as being in rooms filled with people sharing my dreams of publication fired me up a bit. I'm ready to put this eleven-year-old novel of mine to bed.

Big Frank is back

Frank Thomas last played in the minor leagues in 1990, when he was MVP of the Southern League in AA. Last
night he had his first AAA at-bat (and hit) in a rehab assignment for the Charlotte Knights. Frank suffered an ankle injury last summer and needed to get himself back in ‘game’ shape. That he did it in Ottawa was slightly bizarre. Frank Thomas may spend his 37th birthday in the minor leagues. He said he needs 40 to 70 at-bats to get ready for the major leagues. Big Frank in the three hole for the White Sox would be a wonderful thing indeed.

The White Sox followed a losing streak with a winning streak for the third time with an 7-0 win over the Texas Rangers today. Mark Buehrle moved his record to 7-1. Paul Konerko had a homer, which makes sense since I benched him today in my fantasy league. Now it’s time for a ‘road’ series against the Cubs. Watch out for falling concrete, boys.

The weekend

It was slightly disheartening to see the White Sox drop the final two games of the Orioles series. You mean we don't get to win every series? The streak of 37 games in a row with a lead ended on Sunday. The 'experts' haven't said much more than the pitching's been incredible and the offense has been mediocre. The experts are right. Frank Thomas needs to come back strong. The team could use a guy who knows how to draw a walk.

In exciting local Atlanta news our flag-football game was rained out for the second time in three weeks. I think our fearless ringleader gave up too early this week. Two weeks ago we had thunder and lightening. This week it was just some pesky water falling out of the sky.

I went to a workshop sponsored by the Georgia Writer's Association this weekend. It's weird to sit in a room full of people (OK, there were eight total) and describe my projects. I'm spending a lot of my free time working on a novel I wrote when I was in college. It's a project eleven years in the making. Susan Larson, who ran the workshop, earned a columnist's job at a local paper at age 50 (I'm estimating) with almost no experience, so it appears that anyone can break through if they have talent.

Writing is easy. It's reading your own stuff that's hard. It's hard to read something you've written that might as well be in a foreign language, and it's doubly hard to delete something deemed 'good' that doesn't fit in context with the whole. I spent most of my weekend working on adding a new character to my book. 24 hours later I think that was a mistake and it's all going in the delete bin. There's a reason why they call it suffering for your art.

As trade winds blow

Before I get started, I wanted to point out that the two times the Chicago White Sox had a losing streak this season they've followed it with a winning streak. Jon Garland is our stopper? I'm just going to enjoy the ride.

Now I will proceed with my boring dynasty rookie draft tale:

One of my dynasty rookie drafts starts this morning. I had to wheel and
deal to get in the draft position I wanted. Julius Jones is one of my fine running backs. The Cowboys drafted Marion Barber III, who I think will be Jones' eventual backup. One of the keys to running a successful dynasty team is to secure backups. This is especially important in leagues like the Zealots, where you have an NFL-esque 53-man roster. I had rookie pick 1.12 and thought that to be too high for
Barber. I traded 1.12 for 2.09, 3.09, and Shaun McDonald (12 teams in the league). McDonald was key because I already acquired Kevin Curtis and one of those guys is going to be Torry Holt's running mate in St. Louis when Isaac Bruce retires.

I looked at all active rookie drafts and saw that in 12 of the 22 drafts did Barber last until pick 2.09. I got nervous. So I dealt 2.09 and 3.10 to move up to 2.05. I know, I burned a decent mid-round pick to move up four slots. The odds were much better (18 of 22 drafts) of Barber being at 2.05. I took him at 2.06 in another rookie draft. As Tom Petty once said, waiting is the hardest part, so I had to wait to see if my deals would bear fruit.

I finally got Barber. My pick, the 17th of the draft, was up approximately 2.5 days after the draft started. Why was that? Well, if an owner wasn't trading half his roster for half of another team's roster, he was taking ten hours to draft. If you enjoy crazy dynasty league trades, look here. Yes, that's the Bears that managed to get three first-round rookie picks and now has Terrell Owens, Randy Moss, and Torry Holt as starting receivers. I think he wears other owners down with ridiculous mind-boggling trades.

Why fantasy sports matter

The universal reaction to my hiring as a staff writer for Xpertsports was positive. There was one comment that made me pause, though. My dad told me something to the tune of "Let them know that it doesn't really matter." Now this is the same dad who's in three fantasy leagues with me, so he wasn't being mean. What he was trying to say was that in the grand scheme of things, fantasy sports isn't that important.

Sure, we're not curing diseases here, but as Chris Rock once said, no one cures diseases anymore. If fantasy sports meant nothing, no one would play them. I'll outline a few reasons why fantasy football (had to get specific) really matters.

Competition

There are a few females sprinkled in fantasy leagues around the country. For the most part, it's a male-dominated sport. Males are, primarily, competitive creatures. We want to win. We're supposed to win. Deep down men are programmed to provide, and many moons ago that meant beating down other men. Now that resources are slightly less scarce, men need alternate avenues to express that competitive energy. Some guys play Ultimate Frisbee, some indulge in pick-up basketball, and others use fantasy football. Defeating your peers, especially your close friends, in any kind of competition is immensely satisfying.

Know your sport

Come on, before fantasy football did anyone know, let alone need to know, that Abercrombie Echemandu is the fourth-string running back for the Cleveland Browns? One thing that owners must know before assembling a draft 'cheat sheet' is a team's depth chart, offensive philosophy, and any number of silly statistics to determine a pecking order. This is not true of all fantasy owners, because we all have one owner in our local league who buys a fantasy football magazine (amateur) for their draft preparation. Those owners get David Boston and deserve him.

Conversation

Face it; guys converse on a limited number of subjects. Generally acceptable topics include women, beer, chicks, drinking, broads, booze, and meat. When you add sports to that, men can talk for hours. What's more titillating than bemoaning the fact that Bill Cowher took Duce Staley out of the game after he ran the ball to the one-yard-line, allowing that has-been Jerome Bettis get the cheap touchdown? There is no limit to the value of this knowledge.

Weekend rambling

In addition to being a mediocre writer I'm a fairly average flag-football player. Our local group was on the verge of collapse over the past months as defections left us just short of the minimum five required to play a game. Sure, it's possible to play two-on-two, but we need our plays off and that's only possible if two receivers are available on every play. So I posted a query for an Atlanta flag-football player on the football guy's free-for-all board and within a day I had two responses. One guy showed up this Saturday.

When there's an all-time QB there are two advantages. Since there's no rush with an all-time QB, it's like having the best offensive line ever. Also it gives everyone a chance to throw, and usually we're done when we finish the rotation. See, we play all games to three touchdowns. Whoever gets three scores first wins, and that keeps the games relatively short.

Our game went to the infamous 'next level' when another group of players joined us from the other side of the field. We've played them before. They're lawyers. So we went from bottom-of-the-barrel two-on-two to a full-field five-on-five massacre. I can tell why NFL teams wear jerseys that match. We wailed on those lawyers, who are nice people and made things competitive as we got into our fourth hour of competition. Yes, four hours. We usually play for two hours, tops. My back tightened up around hour three and didn't really let up. It's two days later and I'm still sore.

Are the Chicago White Sox the worst 24-7 team in major league history? I'm only saying this because just about any other major-league team with that kind of record would be getting magazine covers. I'm still a little worried that they're on an eight-game winning streak and the Twins are only 4.5 games back. I can see writers across the country trying to backtrack from their "Tigers/Indians are going to contend this year" stories.

I'll repeat something I posted on my fantasy baseball board. You could have taken infinity-to-one odds that the White Sox would have the best record in baseball at this point.

Swept away

The White Sox swept the Royals again. They won despite having two hits for the entire game. Two bases-loaded walks were all they needed to ensure a sweep and a healthy 21-7 record. Note that in the three games Takatsu had two saves. The White Sox have 13 games left with the Royals. By the time they play the Royals again in June, manager Tony Pena will probably be gone. Pena was a loveable chap in 2003 when the team had their first winning record in nine years. Now that the Royals mirror the White Sox at 7-21, he'll probably be the first manager fired in the 2005 season.

I lived in Kansas City from 1989 to 1992, and while the team never won a thing they were competitive. Now they're hopeless. It's different in a place like Tampa Bay where they've never won. Before today's megabudgets the Royals were a great franchise. They were an expansion team in 1969 and made the playoffs in 1976. From '76 through '81 they made the playoffs five times. In 1985 they broke through and won a tough World Series against the St. Louis Cardinals. Ever since George Brett retired, it hasn't been the same.

The Yankees were swept by the Devil Rays this week. It's a good thing this happened in Tampa, or Steinbrenner would have fired everyone. This would have been a better investment than the $71 million plus the Yankees are paying their pitching staff.

A brand new day

I know that my ten die-hard readers are wondering when the next issue of fantasy files will be posted. They won't. I've been hired by Xpertsports.com to provide fantasy football content, so for all intents and purposes, they own that side of me. Ok, it's more like a long-term lease, but you get the picture.

Listen, it's not like there are a ton of draftable tight ends out there. Besides, I know that people who drafted Kellen Winslow will get the shakes for the rest of their lives any time they think about drafting a tight end early.

So what do I write about now? Well, the White Sox had another incredible rally Tuesday night. They won again last night. Their great record and continued excellent pitching are starting to get boring, though. After all, it's only May. They could be ten games out of first place by the All-Star Game, but I doubt it.

I started my rookie draft in one of my football fantasy dynasty leagues. Once the initial draft is over, the only way to get players is in the annual rookie draft. With the third pick of the 2005 Zealots 34 draft, the Tennessee Titans select Cedric Benson. In fantasy football running backs are like free samples at the grocery store. You can't get enough of them. My running backs include Julius Jones, Larry Johnson, Warrick Dunn, Mewelde Moore, Chester Taylor and some scrubs. I took Eric Shelton, the running back of the future in Carolina, with my second pick.

Fantasy files -- Rookie quarterbacks

The first QB drafted isn't always the best one. If this doesn't convince you, then I can look back to 1999 and pull out Tim Couch. This doesn't mean that Alex Smith will be a bust. I do remember the week after the Fiesta Bowl, when Alex Smith declared for the draft, that he wasn't really thought of as a number-one pick. Peyton Manning was the number-one pick in the 1998 draft before he even lost to Florida for the fourth time.

Alex Smith, San Francisco 49ers: His stats are quite impressive. He had 57 touchdowns (47 passing, 10 rushing) with eight interceptions. It's hard to say much bad about a QB who earned a degree in Economics (that bonus will be well-invested) in two years, led his team to an undefeated season and runs a 4.7 40. In short, he makes sense as a top pick. As for his surrounding cast, Kevan Barlow had a horrible year and it's hard to tell if anyone besides Brandon Lloyd is a decent wide receiver. He's a worthy dynasty pick, but stay far away from him in a redraft.

Aaron Rodgers, Green Bay Packers: Like Smith, Rodgers led his school on a great two-year run. His 43/13 TD/int ratio is excellent. Jeff Tedford, his coach, has an excellent pedigree for developing quarterbacks. Rodgers didn't put up the superb numbers I thought he was capable of in 2004. I think that J.J. Arrington, or that offensive line, was the star of the team. He's behind Brett Favre which means he might be a good QB in a couple of years when Favre retires and John Madden cries his eyes out. Assuming that the team is still stocked at WR at that time (and who knows about that), Rodgers would be a good QB to have. The sound you hear is Craig Nall and J.T. O'Sullivan's stock dropping.

Jason Campbell, Washington Redskins: I see him as this year's Carson Palmer. Palmer was mediocre before getting under Norm Chow's wing in his senior season. That turned out OK. Campbell was considered one of the top QBs coming out of high school. Three years of crapitude followed. Then Campbell blossomed in his senior season with the help of QB guru (you’re only a guru if you don’t suck) Al Borges. Sure he had Ronnie Brown and Cadillac Williams in his backfield, but it was Campbell who earned SEC player of the year honors. He made the 4th-and-10 completion to help beat LSU and preserve a perfect season. Campbell's big and runs well. Naturally the Redskins traded a lot of picks to get him when they already had a young QB in Patrick Ramsey and lots of holes. That situation dampens my enthusiasm a bit.

Charlie Frye, Cleveland Browns: Last year's QB of the future, Luke McCown, was jettisoned to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. In steps Charlie Frye. The Browns signed Trent Dilfer to run the team for a year. Because of the success of guys like Ben Roethlisberger, Chad Pennington, and Byron Leftwich, Frye's status as a MAC QB is actually a plus. Frye returned to Akron and led his team to a solid (for them) 6-5 record despite losing most of his supporting cast between his junior and senior years. He used that experience to become a much better all-around QB. He played nine games in 2002 with a broken bone in his right (throwing) hand. He's being all but handed the job in 2006 with Braylon Edwards as his WR1. Now, about that offensive line. . .

Andrew Walter, Oakland Raiders: Walter set most of Arizona State's career passing marks. Nice 30/9 TD/int ratio last year along with more than 3,000 passing yards. His size is ideal, and he has the arm to throw the deep ball. Walter suffered a shoulder separation in his final college start, which kept him from working out for scouts. If you look closely, you'll notice the excellent set of receivers that Walter will inherit when Kerry Collins is put out to pasture.

David Greene, Seattle Seahawks: Greene was considered 'roster fill' when he signed with the Bulldogs, then he proceeded to start every game for four years (after a redshirt year). He's the all-time winningest college QB with 42 victories. He's more of a pocket passer than the guys mentioned so far. His accuracy isn't great when on the move, so he will need time to work on that. The Seahawks let Trent Dilfer go, so Greene has a golden opportunity to back up Matt Hasslebeck. Many scouts think his ceiling is a backup, but he's beaten scouts' expectations before.

Kyle Orton, Chicago Bears: Yes, this means that the Bears aren't convinced that Rex Grossman is going to lead them to the promised land. Orton and his Purdue Boilermakers were on their way to a season for the ages before things completely fell apart with four consecutive losses by 11 total points. Orton went from Heisman frontrunner to forgotten. Orton missed a couple of games during that streak with a hip injury. He spent a lot of time in the shotgun and will need time to adjust to taking a snap from center. If he's fully recovered from his injury the Bears' starting job could be his in a year or two.

Stefan Lefors, Carolina Panthers: All Lefors did last year was captain his team to an 11-1 finish while leading the country in passing efficiency and holding off the nation's number one college QB prospect in Brian Brohm. He was drafted earlier than expected, as his small stature and iffy deep ball hurt his prospects. He's mobile and very accurate. JakeDelhomme is entrenched as a starter but he's already 30. Rodney Peete’s eligible for Social Security, so the Panthers need a new backup.

Dan Orlovsky, Detroit Lions: Like Kyle Orton, Orlovsky was selected by a team with a young QB who may or may not pan out. The Lions signed Jeff Garcia for the short term and drafted Orlovsky for the long term. UConn made the move from 1-AA to 1-A and Orlovsky was their 'franchise' player. He led the Huskies to their first bowl appearance and win in 2004. Orlovsky's a big guy with good arm strength although he sometimes forces the ball into coverage. Then again, what quarterback doesn't occasionally force the ball into coverage? He's another less-than-mobile prospect. If he does earn a shot at starting in Detroit, the Lions will probably draft or sign someone to challenge him.

Adrian McPherson, New Orleans Saints: You want intriguing? How about a tall, athletic QB who can throw the ball 70 yards flat-footed. You want a rap sheet? He has one of those too. McPherson was kicked out of Florida State after passing a check. There were allegations of gambling, but they were never proven. McPherson then played a year in the Arena League and had 80 total touchdowns (this number isn't as mind-boggling as it looks). He's a QB who will try to get by on his athleticism alone. That won't cut it in the NFL if you're not named Vick. Aaron Brooks is a consistent top-ten fantasy performer but he's not going to last much longer in New Orleans if his leadership doesn't improve. That gives McPherson an opening.

Derek Anderson, Baltimore Ravens: Anderson was a turnover machine at Oregon State, so he's perfect for the Ravens. At 6'6 Anderson is the tallest drafted quarterback. For a tall guy he has a lot of balls batted down at the line. He has the size and physical ability to be a competent QB in the league. Rick Neuheisel has a lot of work to do on this guy. With Kyle Boller being Kyle Boller, you never know.

Seventh-rounders in a hurry:

James Killian, Kansas City Chiefs: He's a project. He has good arm strength and foot speed. They have to replace Trent Green one of these days.

Matt Cassel, New England Patriots: Can you say practice squad? Cassel backed up Carson Palmer and Matt Leinhart, so he has one advantage over all other prospects. He knows how to hold a clipboard. He played some tight end in college, and you know how the Patriots like those tight ends.

Ryan Fitzpatrick, St. Louis Rams: Led Harvard to an undefeated season. Scored very high on his Wonderlic. The Rams have been good at finding diamonds in the rough, so Fitzpatrick is the rare seventh-rounder worth watching.

UDFAs:

Timmy Chang, Arizona Cardinals
Brian Randle, Atlanta Falcons
Gino Guidulgi, Tennessee Titans
Brock Berlin, Miami Dolphins
Craig Ochs, San Diego Chargers
Marcus Randle, Tennessee Titans
Chad Friehauf, Denver Broncos
Shane Boyd, Tennessee Titans
Darian Durant, Baltimore Ravens
John Bowenkamp, Minnesota Vikings

Five years of rookie QBs (player, team, draft spot):

2004:
Eli Manning, New York Giants (1)
Philip Rivers, San Diego Chargers (4)
Ben Roethlisberger, Pittsburgh Steelers (11)
J.P. Losman, Buffalo Bills (22)
Matt Schaub, Atlanta Falcons (90)

2003:

Carson Palmer, Cincinnati Bengals (1)
Byron Leftwich, Jacksonville Jaguars (7)
Kyle Boller, Baltimore Ravens (19)
Rex Grossman, Chicago Bears (22)
Dave Ragone, Houston Texans (88)
Chris Simms, Tampa Bay Buccaneers (97)

2002:

David Carr, Houston Texans (1)
Joey Harrington, Detroit Lions (3)
Patrick Ramsey, Washington Redskins (32)
Josh McCown, Arizona Cardinals (81)
David Garrard, Jacksonville Jaguars (108)

2001:

Mike Vick, Atlanta Falcons (1)
Drew Brees, San Diego Chargers (32)
Quincy Carter, Dallas Cowboys (53)
Marques Tuiasosopo, Oakland Raiders (59)
Chris Weinke, Carolina Panthers (106)

2000:

Chad Pennington, New York Jets (18)
Giovanni Carmazzi, San Francisco 49ers (65)
Chris Redman, Baltimore Ravens (75)
Tee Martin, Pittsburgh Steelers (163)
Marc Bulger, New Orleans Saints (168)

Monday throat-clearing

I'll continue my rookie files later today. I'd like to inject a little personality into this blog by talking about my own life for a while.

After initially showing no interest, my wife suggested that we go see Kung Fu Hustle yesterday. It might be the best over-the-top kung fu movie ever, and this is coming from a guy who owns Drunken Master 2 and Iron Monkey. If you like fun action movies that don't take themselves seriously, then this is the movie for you. It's a guarantee that Hustle will be better than 99% of the overproduced Hollywood remake garbage that's coming out this summer.

If you don't believe me, believe
Roger Ebert.

The only problem with Alison liking the movie is she still thinks that some kind of reciprocity is in order. I may have bought her When Harry Met Sally, but that doesn't mean I need to go see Beauty Shop with her.

The White Sox ended a three-game slide by taking the final two games of their series with the Tigers. Even Jon Garland's mom didn't think that Garland would be this good so far. He's the team's fifth starter and he has two shutouts in a row. Dustin Hermanson still hasn't given up an earned run all year.

I sustained my urge to rant at yet another story about the Cubs' cursed 2004 season in ESPN the Magazine. Instead of automatically getting red-faced about the national Cub love, I'm turning the other cheek and realizing that it's just plain pathetic. So what if they sell out all their games and there are people who stand outside the stadium every game to catch home-run balls while someone who did that outside The Cell would probably get arrested. They can have their woe-is-us attitude and tears and Steve Bartman. My team is in first place.

Fantasy files -- Rookie receivers part three (whew)

Airese Currie, Chicago Bears: Currie was all-conference last year as well as a stellar trackster for Clemson. He discovered a broken bone in his right foot during workouts, and that might have hurt his draft stock. He could start as the Bears' WR3 and move up if Mark Bradley doesn't develop.

Larry Brackins, Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Brackins couldn't qualify for college after two years at Pearl River Community College, so he threw his name in the draft pool. At 6'4, 205 pounds, he's one of the bigger drafted receivers. Brackins averaged 20 yards a catch last year. Take a chance on him only if you have a deep roster.

Rasheed Marshall, San Francisco 49ers: Unlike some of these guys who played QB in high school, Marshall played QB in college for West Virginia. He was Big East Player of the Year in 2004. Can he be a solid receiver, though? The 9ers already have one converted QB in Arnez Battle. Marshall is another project who, due to his draft slot, may not get too long to develop.

Chad Owens, Jacksonville Jaguars: If you want production, you've found the right guy. Owens won the Mosi Tatupu Award for best special-teams player in the country in 2004. He scored five touchdowns on punt returns last year. Owens is small (5'7) and more quick than fast. Pencil him in as the Jags' punt returner.

Tab Perry, Cincinnati Bengals: Perry played wide receiver and running back for UCLA last year. He's big (229 pounds) with excellent speed. With all the receivers the Bengals have, I don't know if Perry will even make the roster.

Dante Ridgeway, St. Louis Rams: Was Ridgeway a good college receiver? You be the judge. There's nothing exceptional about his measurables. It will be hard for him to get much playing time on this squad.

Craig Bragg, Green Bay Packers: A dislocated left shoulder kept Bragg out of four games last year and hurt his draft stock. He was team MVP as a junior when he had 73 catches. The Packers have a ton of receivers so Bragg better show some special-teams skills to make the team.

Marcus Maxwell, San Francisco 49ers: Maxwell must looked really good in his underwear, because his production was pedestrian. He must look like a WR1, although at best he's going to be the last WR on the roster this year.

Paris Warren, Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Warren is another of the seemingly endless parade of very productive college receivers. He was part of the undefeated Utah squad. So where’s the love? Warren ran a 4.68 40. That’s really the only reason I can see for a guy who had 156 catches in the past two years on a top offense being rated so low in the draft. Warren might have a shot considering the Buccaneers don't have a lot of depth at receiver.

LeRon McCoy, Arizona Cardinals: The Cards are pretty set at WR, since they’ve used two number one picks and one number two for receivers in the past couple of years. Here are some tidbits about LeRon: He’s recorded a rap album AND he’s been suspended for punching an opponent. This is a great place for an obligatory NBA dig but I’ll pass. He’s fast and has good size. He peaked at 36 receptions in Division II, although he did have ten scores. What are you going to do; he’s a seventh-rounder.

Harry Williams, New York Jets: Here’s another small-school guy. Williams is a pretty small guy for his size (6’2, 180 pounds) but at least he has good speed. You’d think a guy who got drafted out of Tuskegee would have better numbers. He’s raw and the Jets will give him a chance.

J.R. Russell, Tampa Bay Buccaneers: That makes it three late-round receivers drafted by the Bucs. Russell was a very productive guy for being taken so late. He had nearly 150 catches the past two years with Louisville. The Cardinals were one of the best college teams in the country, so I’m a bit surprised that Russell dropped so far. He’s not going to run a 4.28 but he’ll make plays. I’d like to compare how he does versus a guy like Larry Brackins long-term.

UDFAs of note:

Taylor Stubblefield, Carolina Panthers
Dan Sheldon, Arizona Cardinals
Josh Davis, Miami Dolphins
Steve Savoy, Detroit Lions
Tommy Manus, Baltimore Ravens
Reggie Harrell, Dallas Cowboys
Lance Moore, Cleveland Browns
Isaac West, Philadelphia Eagles
Chauncey Stovall, Philadelphia Eagles
Kerry Wright, Indianapolis Colts
Jason Anderson, Tennessee Titans
Effrem Hill, Carolina Panthers
Will Peoples, Buffalo Bills
Jamaica Rector, Dallas Cowboys
Tony Madison, Miami Dolphins
Jason Samples, Washington Redskins
Paris Hamilton, Detroit Lions
Keron Henry, New Orleans Saints
Carlyle Holiday, Arizona Cardinals
Brandon Smith, NY Giants
Grant Adams, Philadelphia Eagles