Yup, it’s that time of year. The time of year where football is all about the what ifs and the maybes and the possiblies. A time where everyone could have value and no pick could possibly go wrong. So of course this was a great time to have a Mock Draft when the world is your oyster and you get to shuck the hell out of it. So with that mindset, I joined Murph for a little bit of late February, early March mockery of the 2013 fantasy football draft system. Let’s just look at how I did, shall we? Yes, let’s:

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I heard the news on Wednesday…oh boy. About an Alex Smith that was in a trade. My apologies to the Beatles, their fans, Chiefs fans, and any other amalgamation of those three, this is gonna get ugly fast. The 49ers agreed to trade Alex to the Kansas City Chiefs for compensational picks on March 12th, the first day off-season trades can be made official. At the time of this writing, it sounds like a 2013 second round pick and a similar pick for 2014 in exchange for a quarterback whose most successful season came in 2012 with 3,144 yards and 17 touchdown passes. If you’re unable to read sarcasm font or just aren’t familiar with fantasy football in general, this isn’t going to be sleeper post on Alex. In fact, most of this post is going to take a look moreso at what others will do with this move than it will be to do with what Alex will. Sorry for you diehard game manager quarterback lovers out there, this post probably won’t be for you. But enough with this, let’s see what impact Alex Smith and this trade will have on the 2013 fantasy football landscape…

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As we look back on my projections for the top 20 running backs for 2012 fantasy football, I would like to say I feel I nailed it. Unfortch, unlike that one famous carpenter that was around prior to AD, I’m not good with a hammer and injuries always seem to rattle this position to it’s core when you go to review. There were plenty of surprises, some pleasant and some not so, but the people who drafted players like Maurice Jones-Drew or Ryan Mathews may never play this wonderful and wacky game again. In the end, the top 20 at this position were most likely the least injured players more so than they were the best players at times during the year which is to say, it wasn’t always sexy to own some of these backs. For the meat and potatoes of this conversation, since we don’t have a player rater yet, we’re going to rely on yahoo PPR rankings for our review. So with the groundwork set, let’s take a look back at the top 20 running backs for 2012 fantasy football…

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Well here was the Monday Night Football game everyone no doubt had circled on their calendars this season. Truly one of the few games where Gruden’s ‘this guy/that guy’ analysis fits perfectly since we don’t really know who this or that guy is any better than he does. I had a better joke to lead this paragraph off with but felt starting and ending a paragraph with ‘The Jets’ would leave many wanting. But outside my sarcastic comments, there was still fantasy relevance to be had…well, there was very little to be had but we write about fantasy football so we feel obliged to dig and find some and what we came up with was Jake Locker. As I was doing rankings for QBs, I left him out of my top 20 QBs for 2012 but did decide to blurb on him as he was on everyone’s radar in 2011 and was being tabbed as a sleeper in 2012, especially for 2 QB leagues. Jake was the big armed, big bodied QB of the future for Tennessee and 2012 was going to be his year to showcase his skills. Well, a shoulder issue derailed him week 4 and he didn’t return until week 10 and then it took a couple of weeks to shake the rust off. Peering under the hood that is the Monday night spotlight game, what I saw was a very raw athlete and someone who doesn’t deserve a grade for his 2012 season, whether in his favor or punitive. Against a tough Jets secondary, Locker finished the night with a respectable line, completing 13/22 pass attempts for 149 yards without any touchdowns but, more importantly, no interceptions. Of course, this is not what made people interested in Jake coming into the year. Jake also finished the night with 43 rushing yards on 7 attempts with the game winning touchdown. As we all know, quarterbacks with great legs get fantasy owners hot and bothered. If you don’t believe me, just ask yourself how many times we’ve talked about Tim Tebow this year…you know, the guy with only 126 total yards on the season coming into the game. Legs change leagues like Tebow and Cam Newton did last year and Robert Griffin, III is doing this year. So the fever about Locker for that reason is understandable but some reality needs to get tossed into your fantasy, folks. Unless Locker can figure out how to cure inaccuracy issues and how to – good GAWD man – slide rather than hurdle himself into a defensive player head first, Locker’s chance at success ROS and beyond is going to be extremely hampered by inconsistency and leaving himself open to pointless injury and incessant ‘Hurt Locker’ puns. In other Monday Night Football news for 2012 fantasy football…

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It’s championship week in most leagues, so there aren’t many roster holes that need to be plugged. There are teams everywhere who rode Adrian Peterson and Drew Brees to the title game, and they aren’t too worried. But there are also teams that got this far on the backs of Russell Wilson, James Jones and Dennis Pitta, and those owners might have some issues.

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Although Stevan Ridley did score a TD against one of the best rush defenses in the league on Monday, he did so in the 4th quarter after The Patriots had already solidified a victory.  He also had 39 of his 72 yards on one drive in the 4th quarter.  Now he plays against The San Francisco 49ers who are also one of the best at guarding against the run.  The Patriots are still battling for the top spot in the AFC as well as a first round bye so they won’t be sitting Ridley just yet, but they might lessen his load a bit so if you’re looking for Ridley to extend his streak of 6 straight games with a TD, I wouldn’t bet on it.

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The first couple of games we saw Nick Foles, he truly did play like  a rookie.  The game seemed too fast for him.  He was throwing passes way too late and had to deal with the same struggles Vick dealt with concerning a porous offensive line.  It really wasn’t the best set up for Nick to step into after Michael went down with a concussion and blurred vision a few weeks ago.  But last week was encouraging as he was able to stay in the pocket a little bit and gain some confidence.  Though I’m sure Bryce Brown and his antics were a huge part of it, that shouldn’t deter from a solid 251 yard 1 TD performance against a Dallas secondary that really isn’t that bad.  Well this week was against a Buccaneers team that hasn’t been able to stop a passing attack all year.  The set up could not have been better and Foles took full advantage to the tune of 381 passing yards to go with 24 rushing and 3 total touchdowns, one of which came on the ground, turning not one but two WRs – Jason Avant and Jeremy Maclin - into fantasy relevant players on the day and barely missed doing the same for Riley Cooper on the game-winning drive.  Keep in mind this is a team that’s in shambles from the top down.  Plenty of firings, plenty of injuries and plenty of angry Eagles fans to boot but with Michael Vick all but gone after the 2012 season from Philidelphia, I think it’s a good time to think about what Foles could do for 2013 and beyond.  Hey, not all of us are in the fantasy playoffs people.  Some of us have to look forward while we cry into our winter beards.  If you wanna skip the next paragraph because you’re in the playoffs and don’t care, I won’t stop you but I warn you there might be a pop quiz later.  So before we get on with Sunday highlights, let’s highlight Foles for 2013 fantasy football…

First off, let’s make some comparisons.  Coming into the year, Foles had been compared to Chad Henne and even John Skelton.  Personally, I think he looks more like Jon Heder and Ron Perlman’s lovechild…hrm, these comparisons aren’t off to a very good start.  The Henne comparison is reasonable: a strong-armed pocket quarterback who, though not extremely mobile, isn’t Philip Rivers either.  The two biggest knocks against Foles coming into the draft were the injury issues and that his big stats came from a ‘gimmicky’ offense with the Wildcats.  In reality, all this is moot as even in training camp there were rumors that Foles should’ve received the starting job and given how stubborn Andy Reid has been in making the right moves over ‘sticking with his guys’, I think we’re seeing why now.  Moving forward, my main concerns with Nick would be two things.  One, how quickly will he make adjustments.  It took him about 2 1/2 games to get his footing to perform over these last two games.  These last three games – one against a stingy Cincinnati secondary and another against a Redskins secondary that is easy to beat but man-handled him the first time the two teams played – will tell a story of how we can view Foles looking forward.  The second concern is the uncertainty of the Eagles themselves.  Will Reid be back?  If he isn’t, who takes over and how does that change the offense next year?  Change isn’t always the best thing when you’re talking about a QB and playing within a system, even if the system has failed the last two years.  Though it’s ridiculously early to make these calls, I’m gonna say I see a QB who gets to throw it often given how terrible the Eagles defense has been the last two years.  As Tony Romo owners can confess to, it’s nice to own a QB who plays from behind most of the time.  Foles can give his owners about 3700 passing yards, 24 touchdowns, 15 INT with plenty of room for upside/downside in the TD:INT ratio for the 2013 season.  In re-draft leagues, I’d target him as a backup QB as long as the hype vultures don’t start circling in the off-season.  In dynasty and keeper leagues, I’d be interested but not jumping out of my seat.  I can tell I just got you all crazy excited for next year.  You’re welcome.  And now on with the news from the 2012 fantasy football season as it’s still rolling for some of us…

Alfred MorrisI said he’d end the day with 120 rushing yards and a touchdown.  I didn’t realize he’d fumble it.  Sorry about that, my Spidey senses went on the fritz, obviously.  I guess this is as good a place as any to talk about it: Robert Griffin, III got hurt and it did not look good at all.  Knees aren’t supposed to turn that way.  I’m no doctor, but I once reattached a limb to a man’s body.  Granted, I used superglue and it was a doll’s leg and said man was passed out at a party, but I was wearing a stethoscope while I did it.  Oh and I’d be extremely surprised if RG3 is playing next week.  It’s tough, but I did say to sell him way earlier this season for the very reason of health.  I’m sure he carried many people into the playoffs this year but now might be taking those same teams out on a stretcher with him.  And while we’re on the subject of Redskins, let’s just get this out of the way: Pierre Garcon cares not who throws to him, he shall catch a touchdown as he went for 5/87 with his final one coming from Kirk Cousins who is everyone’s distant relative, apparently.

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After allowing Beanie Wells into the end zone twice this past weekend, The Rams are officially one of the worst run defenses in the NFL.  Interestingly enough, they face one of the best run defenses in the league this week, The San Francisco 49ers.  Even more interesting is how that game turned out the first time these two teams met.  You may remember their 24-24 tie game from just a few weeks back.  Although another overtime game is unlikely, these division rivals know each other well and both teams will be playing like it’s a playoff game.  Steven Jackson actually broke the century mark against the 49ers earlier this year with a TD on top of it and Frank Gore had almost identical results on the opposite side of the ball.  On paper, this is a much better matchup for Gore, but both RBs are worth a start this week.

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