Posts tagged Rookie Scouting Portfolio

One-on-One Fantasy Football-Free!

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Check out our one-on-one fantasy game in Year Two. It’s free!

Most of you reading the RSP blog play fantasy football. If you’re like me your favorite part of fantasy leagues is the draft. There’s nothing more enjoyable than assembling a team, except perhaps the week you play a heated rival and get a chance to smack talk like you’re James Harrison and he’s Ray Rice.

I’ve been touting a fantasy football game for the past 7-10 days that is a free, simple, convenient, and fast way to play every day and it’s also challenging enough to keep you coming back for more – FantasyThrowdown.com. I think it’s a great innovation to playing fantasy football because its one-on-one match ups allow you to challenge anyone, anytime.

You can play 20 times in a week or you can play once a month – whatever fits your schedule. It’s so easy to learn that I’ve had very few people need to ask me a question about how to play because if you’ve been in a fantasy league, it’s truly an intuitive game to learn.

Here’s the basics (for more complete directions go here):

  • Challenge a friend or another person on the site.
  • You and your opponent determine the three games for that week that will comprise your player draft pool.
  • Pick your games wisely as well as your draft order, because you each get to block a player from the draft pool during the draft. If there’s only two good QBs from those games you selected, you can set it up to force your opponent to settle for a scrub.
  • Draft your team.

Drafts take 10 minutes if you and your opponent are both online. Or you can stretch out the draft throughout the course of the week or even do predraft settings. Play standard or IDP, PPR or non-PPR. And the site has live chat and connects to Twitter and Facebook.

For those of you wondering why I’ve been promoting FantasyThrowdown.com on the RSP blog it’s because I am a co-owner of this new website.  This season we are Beta testing Throwdown and the response has been terrific since making it public.

Challenge me to a game either by registering and looking me up on the Leaderboard in the Lobby (matt) or use my email address: thegutcheck@gmail.com.

RB-OL Collisions: Reading the Road with Marcus Lattimore

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[youtube=http://youtu.be/B22ckUxr0D8]

A criticism I read about a few college running backs this week was the tendency for some of them to run up the back of offensive linemen. Sometimes this is a fair criticism of a player. However, it’s also an observation that requires a strong frame of reference about the critic. It’s easy to evaluate a running back, see him run into a lineman’s back, and conclude that he lacks patience, agility, or good decision-making.

However, there are numerous examples of plays where a running back is not at fault for colliding with the backsides of his blockers. Considering the number of Tweets I saw this week where this conclusion was made about a back, I thought it might be helpful to provide examples of when this type of behavior is not the fault of the runner. I’m using South Carolina running back Marcus Lattimore and his teammates as an example. Continue reading →

Reads, Listens, Throwdown 8/31/2012

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Reads: Frank’s Flops

Is that you, Weeden? Or is it just more of Frank’s depravity? Whoa…not sure I want to know. Photo by Makenshi Fox.

I have a slightly depraved colleague who refers to himself as “Frank.” I’m not sure if “Frank” is his real name, but after meeting him I forgot to ask. He’s a lot like Seinfeld’s Kramer in the sense that you might notice one outrageous thing about him immediately, but within 30 seconds you realize that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Continue reading →

Matt Waldman’s Second RSP Writers Squad

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An RSP Writers Team with Russell Wilson as the starting quarterback? You knew it was coming from me, didn’t you? Funny I had the belief to praise him and project him as a future starter, but was less confident about making him my guy until the preseason. Explanation below. Photo by Seth Youngblood.

This was actually my first squad, but admittedly I was a little uncomfortable going with so many first and second-year players as starters in my offense. As the summer played out, I see that perhaps my first inclination has as much or more promise as the team I published last month. The only changes I made to this squad since July were at guard and the defense. The offense is pretty much as I built it. I’ll call this my Rookie Scouting Portfolio Writers Team and the other team my Footballguys/Football Outisders squad. I have mad love for all three places, but couldn’t fill just one squad.

There are more RSP Writers Teams in the can that I’ll post as the season gets under way. You can go here for a complete look at the project, including the spreadsheet and rules so you can play at home. Continue reading →

20 Wishes for the 2012 NFL Season

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Brandon Graham is embracing the bust label, but the joke he’s pulling is going to be on those that gave him the moniker. Photo by Scott Stuart.

With only days away from the start of the NFL regular season it means time is running out for us to project our hopes on the league, its teams, and its personnel. If the NFL genie granted me 20 wishes (Jimmy Johnson helped me negotiate this deal for the Genie’s right to Trent Richardson), here’s what I’d wish for. Continue reading →

Reads Listens Views 8/24/2012

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I can see my home from here! A photo from the surface of Mars. Kind of looks like Kansas with Georgia’s red clay. Cool, but not sure I want to live there.

Why I Thank You Every Week

Nearly eight years ago, I worked in the call center industry. Yes, thank you for that quick twinge of collective telepathic sympathy – the job is truly a weigh station for lost souls. Continue reading →

RSP Writers Q&A: Jene Bramel, Footballguys.com

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Lardarius Webb is part of a complex defense explained in simple style by the inimitable Jene Bramel. Photo by Keith Allison.

Bramel RSP Q&A

You gotta love reading the work of a writer who understands how to complement simplicity with complexity and present it in an easy to understand manner. I think Jene Bramel does this as well as anyone in the football hemisphere today. Whether its injuries, X’s and O’s, or fantasy football strategy, Bramel is a must-read.

I especially enjoyed comparing my team with his, because Bramel was a huge part of putting this project together. We installed Continue reading →

David Wilson

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David Wilson getting better? I think it’s on the horizon. See below.

Many of you may remember that I did a series on David Wilson’s game at Virginia Tech and how it translates to the NFL. One of Wilson’s issues was the tendency to bounce runs outside to attempt the big play. I euphemistically call this “the corner store,” because it is fun to visit but few things are good for you there.

I just saw a promising David Wilson quote from Ralph Vacchiano’s Twitter feed that I think is worth reading.

Is rookie RB David Wilson ready for a bigger role? Yes, because he’s already learned a few lessons about the NFL…

“In my position in this league you can’t go out there and try to make the big play all the time,” he said. “At least I’m not comfortable to go out there and do it now. You can turn a bad play into a worse play by always trying to have the greatest play. I won’t say (I’ve) so much changed (my approach), but I know the playbook more, so I know what to expect a little bit. When I first got here I barely knew the playbook and the plays, and I just knew enough that the coaches would say ‘messing up’ and start screaming at me. When you get more into detail in the playbook and know what you are doing, you can become more of yourself.” #NYG

Whether he can do this on the field is a different story, but the fact he can verbalize it is half the battle.