I've been a Culpepper owner for 7 years in a dynasty league prior to this one so I've watched him quite a bit. I'll try to tailor my comments to the poster and keep it "football" and then say something about fantasy. The phins' are my AFC team.First off, should you be concerned?#1, there's the injury. I'm encouraged by what I've seen. He seems to be able to perform most functions in the pocket and not look too awkward like he has a big Robo leg. I think the biggest concern is he re-injures it someway. But he looks as natural as can be expected and has done a pretty good job of getting rid of the ball to protect himself (and the football). Is there a way's to go on this? Certainly. To me, his footwork seems a little off and has affected some of his passes. In the past, Culpepper was able to wing it off his back foot 60 yards downfield, ala, a Favre. I don't think he can do that anymore, or rather should do that anymore. He can still wing it 60 yards but he needs better footwork to make his passes better. That said, Culpepper hasn't always been the most fundamentally sound QB anyways. But overall, he threw the ball pretty well most plays and avoided an INT until the 4th quarter. I think we'll see improvement though in this area as Daunte gets more confidence and range of motion back in his leg. Did he make some bad throws? Sure. But I was encouraged enough by most things I saw to think he's not that far off and that with a little time he can be more than allright. The more time he gets under his belt and the better the leg feels the more he won't rush things and he'll be more conscious of his feet underneath him. Not only will he throw the ball better but the extra split second he gains in the development of pass patterns will help him tremendously. The bad passes he did throw last night oftentimes to me were timing issues. (For instance the dropped endzone pass)As for the INT's. Well here's the shocker. For all Daunte's myriad accomplishments, he's never been a great 4th quarter come from behind QB. For whatever reason, I've heard he isn't the brightest of QB's, if Minnesota was down late in the game and things became desperate, he more than likely would make a bad throw or get hit and fumble. I think the key with Daunte is keeping games manageable. If you noticed the Porter INT, Porter lined up in a rush end position on the line, with his hand down, and then snuck back into coverage. I don't think Culpepper even saw him. This has been a persistent problem and I don't have an answer for it other than if you're the Phins you want the game won before very late in the 4th quarter. I guess it must be trouble with prevent and dime defenses. If there is encouragement here, it is that Saban is a great coach, Mularkey is solid, and maybe somehow the collective coaching staff can do some serious work on this area of his game and either improve Daunte's decision making and reads or find some sort of package that works for him in these situations. That said, sometime in the playoffs, it helps if you have a QB that can pull a Win for the team out of his bass. You think Elway, Montana, those types of guys. If there is something that separates Daunte from those guys its that. The numbers are there. He can make some amazing throws. He's a beast to bring down. He can elude pressure. But he's best as a front runner QB, or say, a game manager with great, great upside. Normally you don't see Culpepper making tons of mistakes until his team is down and the situation getting dire.As for fantasy, Daunte should do allright although I'm a little worried that the Phins will play well enough that they'll be ahead in many games and we'll see the Ronnie Brown show. This would somewhat limit Culpepper's upside unlike in season's past in Minnesota. It also concerns me the Dolphins have not had a WR, TE, or back emerge as a bigtime redzone threat. Chambers got some looks but we need to see him convert. Booker is a tough possession guy so he might have some potential. McMichael has some serious talent. If I remember correctly, I saw a couple games last year where Miami didn't do well passing wise in the red zone and they certainly didn't do a good job last night. maybe going to a two TE set would help. To sum up fantasy for Daunte, if you have him, you have one very talented QB who should put up decent enough numbers but the negatives to me are lack of stupendous upside and injury risk. But, he played a very tough D last night and posted about 270 yards passing (and Miami will win more games than they lose so maybe the INT's can remain manageable).As for last year guys? Daunte normally had a DT in his grill about every pass play. I think a guy who's done what he has deserves the benefit of the doubt. There's a reason Minnesota threw up a ridiculous FA contract to Steve Hutchinson, who plays guard, not tackle. That's how desperate they were.
Just thought that was funny. If they do age real soon,I think that would bump Daunte's value up since the O would have to score more becasue of it's aging defense.
agreed,and I'm not a Phins fan. Considering where he came from in the past year I see him getting better as the season goes on. ANY team would have struggled last night in Pittsburgh in that situation. I'm going to hold off on calling Culpepper finished until we see him the rest of the way. Check his #'s after the next 3 weeks with the Bills,Titans and Texans on the schedule. Aside from a game at Chicago later in the year this week was Daunte's toughest opponent,fantasy wise. 262 yards and quite a few red-zone chances IN Pittsburgh on opening night give reason to think he'll have nice #'s when the smoke clears.
