Champion's PreSeason Fantasy Season Checklist

NFL Fantasy Football is fast becoming a 12 month operation that requires planning, prep, and mock exercises in the offseason just as well! Let's take a look at some of the things a Fantasy GM has to review in the offseason:

 

 

 

 

 

1st - Stay abreast of Team's depth charts before and after Free Agency and the Draft. Most teams wipe their charts before training camp but if you follow at these times you will know who they are counting on to produce for them. I followed OBJ and the daily reporting on the Giants website and knew they were really counting on him so I jumped in week 3 of the season and added him to my roster before his debut in week 4. I knew he was going to be counted on to add excitement for the Giants and I hit big!

2nd - Fantasy GMs have to be fans in season and out. Chip Kelly has "erased" his QB, RB, and WR from the Eagles. You have to follow that story now thru the OTAs to Training Camp. He will tell you who he's counting on offensively from his WRs and how they will be deployed before the season starts.
 

3rd - Follow all the sites for all the information. There are free and pay sites that will help you GM and if want to compete you have at least 5 sites that you can rely on so you can make informed decisions.

Do these three things in the offseason and work like hell during the season doing the same things and you see that win graphic......That could be you with some luck added with your skillful preparation!

NFL Draft Season, Oh You Thought The Football Season Was Over?!

The NFL Silly season as some would call it or evidence that Football is a twelve month league, the NFL Draft season is in full swing! A quick look at my twitter feed favorites would show favorited tweets of Matt Miller, Charles Davis, Daniel Jeremiah, Jimmy Kempski, Tommy Lawlor, Bucky Brooks and Fran Duffy.  These guys are the go to analysts for prospect analysis, prospect visits, and things happening with teams during the NFL Draft Season and please know there are a lot of things happening!  My wife asked me the other day "is the season over because that looks like the football dudes you watch during the season", my reply was it's Draft Season and it's probably just as busy now as it is during the season.  She said you must really love football and I said YES I do and I follow the Silly season just as passionately. I need to know that Dan Quinn is planning to use referees in all of the Atlanta Falcons practices so they can cut down on infractions. I surely must know that Tony Romo re-did his contract in hopes of the Dallas Cowboys trying to trade for Adrian "All Day" Peterson.  I definitely have to know that Chip Kelly is hosting wide receivers in hopes of bringing in top wide receivers to the team to offset the loss of Jeremy Maclin.  YES this is the Silly season but guess who's silly? I will fall on the silly sword but I will bet large sums of money that I'm not alone!  It's ok to step out with me silly season lovers, we must get our own shirts and be proud of it!

 

The silly season will be over starting the weekend of April 30th ending May3rd and then everyone will be redoing all of their silly season work again but with knowledge of the new players on their teams. Something funny happens after silly season though and you can probably guess it's just as passionate as the silly season and that is the Offseason Training activities and Mini Camps.  It surely does appear that the NFL season is 12 months long!!

Miles Austin Reportedly Signs With The Eagles

I texted my brother yesterday and said "We signed a big-time receiver!!!!" He replied "WHO!!!" and I said Miles Austin and he replied back "Man why you playing with me, you're kidding right?" and I said no.  He wasn't happy that I wasn't kidding and said man what is Kelly doing?!  I thought I'd get you started with a funny exchange before we break Miles Austin down and folks it's not a bad signing to me.  Miles Austin in this offense can be productive, let me repeat Miles Austin in this offense can be productive.  Let's look at his profile, 6-2 220 with some speed and tackle breaking ability.  Miles played well with Dallas when he was on the field and if we want to be honest, his bubble screens (I'm come back to this) killed the Eagles because we had Asante Samuel who wanted nothing to do with tackling.  Let's look at 2 Chip Kelly bubble screens to see how Miles would be a threat in this offense, keep in mind we threw Riley Cooper this play and he stunk it up.
 

He can run after the catch and get yards and in this offense Kelly can get him the ball in space (like shown) with that ability.  Corners in today's game hate to see a 220lb wide receiver coming at them with linemen and in front on bubble screens so I can see how the plan and best way to maximize Miles in this offense. I have a gripe with our fan base who like my brother places too much emphasis on name players.  Our previous name players like DeSean, LeSean, and Jeremy haven't won a playoff game and we've had two playoff games at home with these players. It's time to stop falling in love with names and look at the blue-print for winning.  Yes Miles comes with a health concern but everyone that plays football is subject to health so I'm not as concerned as others are.  I want to see this new physical football team that Kelly is building and I want to see Miles deployed correctly because this offense has helped players have career years.

What do you think? Think Miles is washed up and risky or a good veteran who can fill a role on a team that currently has 3 signed receivers?  I'm going with good veteran who can fill a role and be a team player.

Battle of the All 22s

If you're like me when it comes to football, you enjoy the strategy and gamesmanship of football. I believe the reason that football is the number 1 sport in the United States is because it has a "battle" plan aspect similar to a general commanding his troops to get the mission completed.  The All 22 "tapes" that come before and after games are something that I really look forward to because it shows the tremendous strategy, preparation, and action of the NFL game and also who is doing the yeoman work for teams. The Philadelphia Eagles have 3 analysts that really do great work with their All 22 cutups and they are Fran Duffy of Philadelphiaeagles. com, Sheil Kapadia of Birds 24/7 of Phillymag.com and Chipwagon.com who withholds his name.

These analysts do a great job of drawing out the little things that take place of the football field that are keys to winning and losing a football game.  I'm lucky to consume their insights of what makes the team successful and I look forward to watching them breakdown games so I can sound smart. I especially like discussing football in the Sports bar against other fan bases because I can tell them arrogantly how and why my team will win!

Check out their pages and get the details you need to be smart about our team!  Who do you think does the best job by the way?  I like them all but you may prefer one over the other in the "Battle of the All 22's".

 
 

Chip Kelly and Jeff Lurie Dominate The News At The Annual NFL League Meeting

 

I took a few minutes to talk about Chip Kelly and Jeff Lurie dominating the news at the Annual NFL League Meeting.

 

 

 

Mission Impossible?! Philadelphia Eagles Quest for The Super Bowl

I have recently stumbled upon the classic series Mission Impossible on Netflix and I'm already a big fan of the show and it made me wonder if winning the Super Bowl is a Mission Impossible for the Philadelphia Eagles.  I'm 46 and I have tasted some success with the franchise especially through the Andy Reid years but we have never won the Lombardi trophy aka Super Bowl trophy.  What's even more ironic is the Eagles are the only team who beat Lombardi in a championship game way back in 1960.  It wasn't called the Super Bowl though, it was just the NFL Championship and to be quite honest it's about time to complete this Mission Impossible. 

We have the new heavy in the league, Chip Kelly, and the networks love his swagger and arrogance some calling him the next Jimmy Johnson.  I want to wait on that comparison as Jimmy set up Dallas' revival that resulted in 3 additional Super Bowl's for the stinking Dallas Cowboys!  Ok I let my passion out and called Dallas out of their name and I shouldn't have especially knowing previous winners always get the hate. 


Eagles fans have placed their faith in Chip and have a twitter hash-tag called #InChipWeTrust and I have created one called #TaoofChipKelly after the titled book by Mark Saltveit. We are all hoping that this is definitely not a Mission Impossible or better yet a successful completion of a Mission Impossible task of winning the Super Bowl!

DSPN Launches - Philly and National Sports Blog!!

The Mancave

Let me introduce Myself, They call me DSPN and it comes from my background writing daily recaps for a 5,000 member social networking group.  My style was similar to Stuart Scott, our departed ESPN friend who turned the analyst game on its head with his style and delivery. I just did it from a writing perspective with the recaps and it caught on and now I'm moving into the blogosphere trying to see if there is room for me to do what I do.

I'm from Philly and love Philly sports so I will write about the sports scene from Philly and I will go national as well. I figure I cant be called DSPN and not talk about the sports scene from a national perspective and my brother Socks (nickname of course) reminded me of that on one of my video blogs. 

So I look forward to bringing you a slice of my personality with the sports news of the day! Stick with me please, this is a start of something different and hopefully exciting for me and you!

                                                                                                                                            DSPN