In a surefire sign that we may have seen the last of Mike Wallace in a Steelers uniform, Pittsburgh turned around and gave the contract they offered to Wallace to their other young wide receiver, Antonio Brown. Though I had both very high in my 2012 fantasy football rankings this year, their respective values hinged a bit on each other. Wallace is the barn burner of the pair when it comes to speed. He opens up the under routes that Antonio handles. Without Wallace, Antonio might get WR1 looks but would still most likely produce at a WR2 level. If somehow Wallace does get traded or pulls a Vincent Jackson and sits until he gets his money, the main fantasy football benefactor would most likely be Emmanuel Sanders.  Sanders has a few good games under his belt, including a 6 reception 81 yard game in the playoffs last year versus the Broncos. Like Wallace, Sanders has great speed and is currently going off the board as the 74th wide receiver and 200th pick overall off the board in yahoo leagues. On a team that says it wants to be pass-heavy for 2012, it would be wise to invest in whatever receivers touches in Pittsburgh. And with that let’s take a look at what else is going on in fantasy football…fooled! I don’t know if any of you are aware but we have this cool thing we do here at Razzball called the Razzball Commenter Leagues. That hyperlink takes you back in time to last Tuesday when I originally posted we needed to create some leagues and get some managers on board. Well, we almost have 10 leagues full and that is at least 999,999,990 leagues less than I was expecting to have. I guess I have high expectations. In any case, if you’d like to play for some Razzball swag, I strongly encourage you go back to that link and create yourself as commish of a yahoo league based on the directions.  Alright, now let’s really get on with the news.
Louis Murphy – In a trade that surprisingly didn’t get too much publicity when it happened, Murphy was sent to the Carolina Panthers for some tang and a bag of funyuns. Actually, I don’t really know what he was traded for because that’s not the part of the trade I cared about. What I do care about is that Murphy is being reunited with his former teammate at Florida in Cam Newton and is a player that likes to run really far, really fast and catch the ball while he’s at it. As I mentioned earlier this summer as part of my Balls Deep analysis, Cam was quite the chucker in 2011. If Newton’s ratios stay near the same and Louis takes on a big enough role, he may blow away his current 285 ranking at yahoo. Man, this guys sounds like he might deserve a sleeper post…
Mikel LeShoure – In news that may no longer be news by the time this gets posted, LeShoure strained his hamstring over the weekend and was not on the practice field Sunday. Though it’s said to be for precautionary reasons, we all need to realize his health history – though short – ain’t the greatest. He’s being tabbed as the goal line back for the Lions, but his price tag at yahoo as the 98th player off the board ahead of guys like James Starks and Toby Gerhart might be a bit steep especially when we factor in a two game suspension to start the year. In fact, Andrew wrote all about the pitfalls of drafting a Lions running back last week in his Fantasy Flatliners post.  Let’s all go back and tell him how clairvoyant he is.
John Skelton – So as to squash a rumor before it got out of control, Ken Whisenhunt spoke to the media saying ‘whatever small rumor there was about players preferring Skelton to Kevin Kolb was ridiculous. Now please put that in bold font and on the front page so that everyone knows there’s absolutely no truth to this’. Way to keep it under wraps, Ken. This reminds me of that one time Don Mattingly said ‘Javy Guerra is the Dodgers closer’. Which side will win? Probably no one cares so long as Larry Fitzgerald gets the ball. Kolb has the contract so he will most likely get the first shot but I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s Skelton by week 4 or 5. You can quote me on that but if you’re placing bets, don’t ask me for your money back if I’m wrong.
Maurice Jones-Drew – Like Wallace, crazy old Maurice is also a hold out heading into training camp looking for that sweet cheddah. For some reason I’m not as worried about him as I am Wallace. I know I should have a reason for you but I don’t. Maybe I shouldn’t have put vicodin on my ham sandwich. Well, whatever the case may be if you’re drafting the Oompa Loompa in the first round,Rashad Jennings becomes a must. Thankfully his current rank of 184 in yahoo leagues is at a reasonable price.
Michael Vick – Obviously feeling the loss of stupid comments coming from Vince Young, Vick decided to step up and say that the Eagles could develop into a dynasty. To make sure that the absurdity stuck, he reiterated it later. What’s scarier is that his coach actually went and backed him up. Now rather than pick on Vick and Reid I think I’d rather just refer them to a site that actually knows what they’re talking about when it comes to dynasties. Quest Fantasy Football Leagues is a site created for and dedicated to all things dynasty football with payouts to the top teams. I’ve personally sent the link to Vick and Andy to loop them in so maybe you’ll get to play them in 2012. Given their idea of how a dynasty is built, they’re basically giving away their money to you and they have a lot so go take advantage.
