The 2,000 Yard Man

The regular season is officially over!  Week 17 is always a bit yawnstipating at best, but we did have some interesting individual performances to follow and playoff implications to suss out. So we now know who’s in and who’s out and who bribed the Colts and Bengals and who choked against the Cowboys, and so on and so forth.

As we go through the playoffs we’ll take a look at the season we just finished while we also analyze the playoff matchups.  That’s what we like to call, multitaskalyzing.

Don’t forget to join us in our two playoff leagues: you can join our Sporting News playoff league, password Schmohawk and/or our playoff challenge at NFL.com

Chris Johnson: They ran him as much as we thought they would, but he just couldn’t get the big chunks of yardage he needed to push ED’s record (Erectile Dickerson).  He did become the 6th running back to reach 2,000 yards and the all-time leader in yards from scrimmage. It was an amazing season and I look forward to drafting him if I get the #1 pick next year.

Jamaal Charles: 259 yards rushing and 2 touchdowns are a Chiefs record which erases Leisure Suit Larry’s old record. If only Todd Haley would have erased Larry Johnson from the starting lineup in the beginning of the season!  I’ve run out of superlatives to heap onto Mr. Charles.  It’s a shame that he has now made it impossible to get him for any kind of value in your drafts next year, but it’s looking like he could be a value about anywhere you can get him.

Jerome Harrison: Eric Mangini hopefully will get fired for the way he has handled Harrison.  Harrison and James Davis were obviously better backs than the aged Jamal Lewis, but of course he kept starting him and even deactivated Harrison and then to top it all off he runs him into the ground to end the season.  I know it sounds like I’m talking out of both sides of my mouth here, but it is overkill to break a three game record for carries with Harrison just to save Mandingus’ job.  He may be overvalued next season, but I like him and his offensive line.

Tom Brady: Belichick never fails to amaze.  If you want to play your starters in a fairly meaningless game, I’m all for that, but why pull Brady in the 2nd quarter and then bring him back in and then pull him again when you are down one touchdown with a couple minutes on the clock?  The guy is so many steps ahead of everyone else that Welker’s injury was premeditated.

Wes Welker: Yeah, he’s done, along with his unbelievable season.  He tore his ACL and PCL which means he is SOL. Welker might not be ready for next season.  You’ll need to find another Dubya Dubya to fill his spot.

Julian Edleman: Well, he’s not a Dubya Dubya, but he’ll at least try to fill his spot. He had a good start by catching 10 passes for 103 yards. He might not be as fast, but he’s got a lot of scrap.  And scrap can’t be measured.  Unless it’s scrap metal, then they do it all the time.

Willis McGahee: 16 carries, 167 yards, and 3 touchdowns and it wasn’t Ray Rice? Ok, is the joke over?

Vernon Davis: He tied Antonio Gates touchdown record with 13 and ends the season just behind Dallas Clark or ahead of him depending on your scoring format.  After Mike Martz relegated him to blocking it sure didn’t look like this would ever happen, but he always had the talent.  Now he has the stats.  Stats plus talent equals stalent.

Jay Cutler: Cutler goes off in back to back games to finish the season.  We knew he always had the talent. Now he has the, oh nevermind, the guy can throw the ball, but his head ain’t screwed on too good. He needs another wide receiver. I vote for Malcolm Floyd, but I’m sure we’ll hear a lot about Marshall, Boldin and TO.

Fred Jackson: Fast Freddie also had over 200 yards rushing and a TD in a huge game against the Colts scrubs.  His future depends a lot on what the new coach does with Marshawn Lynch, but Jackson has proven that he can be the main back and if all signs are pointing to him remaining the guy he will go high in drafts next season.

Jabar Gaffney: Early on it looked like Josh McDaniels wanted to erase Brandon Marshall’s single game receptions record from the face of the earth, but Gaffney only ended up with 14 receptions and 213 yards, loser.

Devin Aromashodu: He finished the season with style and if he can win a job there is no reason to think he can’t be a productive player with Cutler throwing to him.  He’s no lock, but he has a chance as long as they realize Bennett and Hester aren’t much, which they aren’t.

Sidney Rice: Rice finished his breakout season with yet another big game. 112 yards and 2 touchdowns bring his account to 1,312 yards and 8 touchdowns from your waiver wire.

Malcolm Floyd: In a non-game Floyd finished with 9 catches and 140 yards.  There is no doubt that Floyd could put up good to great numbers if he becomes the #1 or #2 guy somewhere.  He’s a free agent this off season and should have quite a few teams vying for his services.

Thomas Jones: Over 1,400 yards and 14 touchdowns; the guy just won’t stop.  He finished as the 5th best fantasy back and I will take my lumps for liking Leon Washington more than him.  Can he keep this up next year?  I can’t say for sure, but I will be much more cautious in my evaluation, no matter how old/slow he gets.

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