My brain is quite mushy after an awesome day at the NBC Fantasy Sports Football Championship, then an evening digesting the 250+posts from cut day. With that in mind, let's look at a few quick takeaways from cut day.

1. The Colts must be really confident in Peyton Manning's knee to carry only two quarterbacks. Big sigh of relief.

2. The Lions are too confident to carry only two tailbacks: Tatum Bell and Kevin Smith. To make it even nuttier, the Lions kept only four receivers. Six players total at RB/WR?

3. Perhaps Detroit will look at Rudi Johnson, who was mercifully released. Rudi isn't a lock to get a job, but he seems likely to embrace being a role player rather than worry about being "The Man."

4. With Anthony Alridge out for the year, Michael Pittman may have lucked himself into a role at tailback.

5. An NFL career can change quickly. Roydell Williams was Tennessee's leading receiver last season. Then he broke his ankle in the playoffs and now he's out of a job. Brandon Jones could surprise there.

6. Mort was right about Kurt Warner, as we expected. Good news for Boldin and Fitzgerald.

7. Jesse Chatman wasn't cut after all, but he won't be playing in the first four games of the year. Don't be surprised if Chatman is cut after he serves his steroid suspension.

8. Interesting that Deion Branch didn't go on the PUP list. With Ben Obomanu out for the season, the team may push Branch back. Just don't expect him to stay healthy. All of the injuries continues to bode well for Courtney Taylor.

9. With Chris Brown gone, Steve Slaton, Chris Taylor, and Ahman Green's stock all go up. Taylor is probably third in line, but expect a three-man committee in Week 1.

Posted by Gregg Rosenthal at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (11)

1. The Cardinals quarterback decision won't be officially decided until Saturday at the earliest. Matt Leinart did well Friday, but Warner is still the likely pick.

2. Ben Obomanu, sleeper no more. That cements Courtney Taylor's starting job and gets Logan Payne on the team.

3. Darius Walker and Marcel Shipp are out in Houston, which is good news for Chris Taylor. Chris Brown could get axed today.

4. Thomas Jones isn't going to lose red-zone carries to Jesse Chatman now.
(Update: Actually we don't know this at all. His agent says Chatman will not be released. Stay tuned.

5. Another team is going to fail to turn Josh McCown's career around.

6. Ryan Moats is officially a dynasty sleeper gone wrong.

7. Ronnie Brown is going to be just fine.

Posted by Gregg Rosenthal at 10:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)

Let me know if anyone is heading out tomorrow to the NFFC/NBC Sports Fantasy Championship at the Sheraton in Midtown. I will be lurking around trying to find something to do, then hope to do a question-and-answer session between drafts. See everyone there.

Posted by Gregg Rosenthal at 11:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

How much is a game worth? In Brandon Marshall's case, almost a round. I never dropped Marshall out of the end of my third round in rankings, but the news that his suspension was dropped to one game vaulted him back into the top-ten wideouts. He's just ahead of Torry Holt, Steve Smith, and Chad Johnson. On our top-200 list, he's now 24th. Don't forget how ridiculosly good Baby T.O. was last season.

Posted by Gregg Rosenthal at 09:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (10)

After Troy Smith's ridiculously unlucky second consecutive no-show Thursday night, the Ravens starting quarterback job is still truly up in the air.

"Even if we planned to name a starter, we couldn't right now," coach John Harbaugh said. "We'll find out more about Kyle in the next couple of days. We don't know about Troy. We'll see what the next few days bring."

I can't remember a Week 1 starting job being truly up for grabs this close to Week 1 before? I'm not counting Arizona, in which the decision has likely been made. Joe Flacco didn't lead the Ravens to a point in the first half against the Falcons backups. I think the Ravens really don't want to throw him out there in the opener. If they are going to throw someone unprepared to the wolves, I still bet it's Smith.

Posted by Gregg Rosenthal at 10:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

If you aren't sick of me already, check out the video below. It was produced by my buddy Nabate Isles last week on his great show So Much to Talk About on the Manhattan Neighborhood Network. No one has more energy and love for his topics, in this case football, than Nabate. He usually gets much cooler guests than myself.

We previewed the season in 30 minutes and he posted them on Youtube at five minutes a pop, so we really get to dive in to the topics. My vultures column went up earlier today, and I'm working on some NFC notes for tomorrow. Thanks for stopping by.

Posted by Gregg Rosenthal at 05:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

With our first live Fantasy Fix in the books, the season feels ready to begin. We still have to get through the mostly meaningless final week of the preseason, though. There are a few things to watch tonight. Here's what I'm looking for.

1. How does Rudi Johnson fare in Cincinnati?

2. Baltimore quarterbacks: I'm guessing it's Troy Smith to start Week 1 regardless, but a big game from Joe Flacco could change things.

3. The Chris Taylor/ Steve Slaton battle in Houston.

4. Ryan Grant getting some work in to prove he's healthy.

5. Can Roydell Williams do enough to avoid getting cut in Tennessee; Same with Troy Williamson in Jacksonville

6. Can Ronnie Brown show enough to get an even split of touches in Week 1?

The real stuff is only a week away. Once the games are complete Thursday, we should start seeing roster paring Friday before Saturday's deadline.

Posted by Gregg Rosenthal at 03:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

This is one of those days I realize how ridiculous my job is. While doing the normal columns and draft guide updates, I realized I have an "industry league" draft run by Jeffrey Ma of Protrade and Bringing Down the House fame to attend to at 4PM. Then I realized it's my office league draft tonight at 6:30PM. And to top it off, I have the final five rounds of a FantasyGuru.com draft that we started in June for their magazine. At 10PM. To make the whole thing a little more ridiculous, I thought I'd liveblog some of the results here. This may not exactly be captivating blogging and there will be some long holes in the coverage, but it beats an empty day on the blog. I'll kick off the fun around 4PM.

Posted by Gregg Rosenthal at 03:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

ESPN's Chris Mortensen reported Monday night that the Bengals are shopping Rudi Johnson. Just like the Seahawks once wanted to deal Shaun Alexander, the Raiders wanted to deal LaMont Jordan, and the Steelers wanted to deal Najeh Davenport. It will never happen, and the rumor calls into question whether Rudi will even make the team. He may not react kindly to this news and they sound ready to move on. Rudi's been a huge part of their organization, but good for them. Stay far, far away from Johnson in drafts this week. (And bump Chris Perry and Kenny Watson further up your boards.)

Posted by Gregg Rosenthal at 09:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)