Maybe Rivers is "more efficient" and "on fire" because he is spreading the ball around more and not trying to force it to one guy--namely, VJax.
What what what what what? VJax was 34th in targets last season, behind guys like Brent Celek, Greg Olsen, and Davone Bess, and one target ahead of Marques Colston (the #1 WR in the offense most famous for spreading it around and NOT forcing it to one guy). And now the problem with San Diego's offense last year was that they threw it to VJax *TOO MUCH*?! I repeat:
what?!Personally, I think it's a combination of factors. For one, Rivers has raised his game to a new level. For another, so has Antonio Gates. For a third (and this is a factor being underrated by everyone so far), Rivers has played KC (25th in yards allowed, 13th in NYPA against), Jax (29th and 32nd, respectively), Seattle (31st and 23rd), Arizona (26th and 21st), and Oakland (10th and 26th). Four of his five opponents rank 25th or worse in passing yards allowed. Four of his five opponents rank 21st or worse in NYPA allowed. His schedule of opposing passing defenses so far has been
miserable. Now, that's not the only reason Rivers is playing out of his mind, but anyone who thinks that hasn't been a factor has his head in the sand.
Anyone feel comforable putting Miles Austin over Calvin Johnson? I love that Austin is a threat if the Cowboys decide to dink and dunk, and he is a threat if the Cowboys bomb it down the field. Johnson seems to rely on the Redzone more than Austin, when it comes to putting up points. Austin can take a 5 yard in and break it, while Johnson relies on the ball traveling in the air to score. Thoughts?
I don't own either in my dynasty leagues. I would be targeting Austin, however, because of this. I would think his owners would be more likely to part with him than Calvin's owners. There seems to be the idea that Calvin is putting up Moss/Rice/Owens numbers as soon as his situation is closer to ideal.
Coincidentally enough, I just bumped Austin over Calvin and into Tier 1 prior to reading this thread. I've been saying for weeks that the only thing keeping him out of tier 1 was track record. That excuse had worn a little thin at this point.
If I were ranking, I'd probably be bumping Nicks up to about #6. Compare him to DeSean, Dez, Jennings, etc. and what do you come up with? I would trade DeSean for him straight up. I would trade Dez for him straight up. I would trade Jennings for him straight up. Great red zone skills, great deep ball skills, great possession skills, stable QB situation.
Football Scientist predicts he will be the best WR in the NFL soon largely due to his route running. Are other people believing as hard?
I've got Nicks at 11. Over Jennings was an easy call, because I've never been a big Jennings fan. I'd still prefer Dez or DeSean long-term. I just think they're better talents, although Nicks is slowly winning me over. I've also got Crabtree over him, which probably won't be a popular ranking, but I'm still a believer in Crabtree long-term. I could see someone having him as high as 6th, although I'm not willing to buy in that hard yet.
I wasn't talking about your ranking though. I was talking about Foster's long-term viability, and what some of the obstacles to that might be. Unless you've been hired by the Texans recently ( always a possibility with your aptitude, admittedly ), your opinion of Ben Tate has little to do with whether he sees playing time.
As far as a choice between ranking based on your thoughts vs. the team's thoughts, shouldn't you be using both? Obviously its not a 50-50 split, but its all just another component of the talent vs. situation argument. The NFL team's opinion is certainly a contributor to "situation". And even if its only 1%, I doubt anyone's going to say that situation should be wholly ignored.
....
In this case, it is irrelevant. Just like saying my opinion that Thomas Jones shouldn't be playing isn't relevant when discussing Jamal Charles's production. Comparably, saying that Ben Tate will not impact Foster in any way is just silly, regardless of your ( or any owner's ) opinion on Tate's talent level.
Now I'm no fan of Tate... at all. I don't think he poses a serious threat to Foster's role as the primary ball carrier. However, the Texans spent a second round pick on the guy. He **will** be given a chance to contribute, even if only at a small level. And since I'm also not as huge a fan of Foster's overall talent ( again... Pierre Thomas ), losing 5 or so carries to Ben Tate per game could take him from high-end RB1 to middle-tier RB2.
I'm all for divining a team's thoughts, and I 100% agree that Tate will get a shot. I just have 0 confidence in his ability to make anything of it. I mean, Ryan Torain is getting a shot right now, but I still think he's terrible so I've still got him buried in my rankings, and if I thought Portis was the long-term solution in Wash, I wouldn't let the presence of Torain impact his ranking.I do think that Tate might well carve out a role in Houston, but I never thought that Foster would get every snap, every carry, and every reception in the Houston backfield. There's plenty of room for someone else to carve out a role without impacting Foster's ranking. Jonathan Stewart has carved out a HUGE role in Carolina, but that didn't keep DeAngelo out of the top 10 (age and the threat of the lockout were what it took to eventually knock DeAngelo out of the top 10).