Here's some guys that I haven't talked about yet in my prior free agency posts...
Tim Hightower - Hightower left Arizona and landed with the Redskins. As luck would have it, Torain managed to bust up his hand, and so Hightower is currently slated as the starter. Hightower is a good fit, and might just be the lone bright spot for a team that should struggle offensively with John Beck as the QB. They'll have to pound the rock if they want Beck to have any chance at success, and this may be an opportunity for Hightower to finally break out. He's certainly worth grabbing, but not as one of your starting RB's. I'd prefer him as my RB3 or RB4, but he might just unseat one of your other starters.
Ricky Williams - Ricky leaves the Dolphins and lands with the Ravens. Of course, with McGahee leaving town, Ricky will act as a change-of-pace for Ray Rice. I think that Ray Rice's value is the same as when McGahee was there, nothing changes. Ricky's value depends on the kind of league that you are in really. For standard leagues, you can grab him as insurance for Rice, but other than that he's not worth owning.
Mikel Leshoure - and now for our first major camp injury. The Lions' rookie RB is done for the year, which helps fantasy owners in a big way, as horrible as that sounds! Now you know which Lions RB to target, and his name is Jahvid Best. Look to take Best as your RB2. The Lions did bring in Mike Bell and Jerome Harrison to add some debth, and I'm not sure that both of them will still be around by the time we get to the regular season, but keep an eye on this situation. Jerome Harrison isn't all that far removed from his break-out game in Cleveland a few years back, so you never know, he may shock the world and unseat Mr. Best. After all, did any of you consider know of Peyton Hillis during your 2010 fantasy draft? I didn't think so.
DeSean Jackson - he ended his holdout and showed up at camp. I think everybody expected that this would happen. I am not necessarily big on him as my WR1, but would welcome him on my squad as a WR2. Another Eagle WR to keep an eye on is Jeremy Maclin. A lot of rankings have him pretty darn high. Well, they HAD him high, not sure about now though. He's battling a mystery illness of some sort, and reports from camp is that he is VERY small right now, and he wasn't real big to begin with. So with losing a lot of weight since 2010, there's definitely cause for concern there. If you are drafting any time soon, buyer beware, he's an unknown entity right now.
Jericho Cotchery - Cotchery is spending time recently with the Ravens, where he just passed a physical. They haven't signed him yet, but he'd make a nice addition now that they've jettisoned Mason. Boldin is the main guy, and right now they've slated Torrey Smith as the #2. Cotchery would obviously be an upgrade as the #2 wideout in Baltimore, but let's see if the Ravens end up signing him.
Michael Crabtree - Crabtree is injured right now, in case you haven't heard about that. Now, we already talked about the fact that the 49ers recently signed Braylon Edwards. So that was a move that conceivably upgrade Crabtree's stock, as he likely won't be double covered with Edwards also getting plenty of attention. But is Crabtree going to miss any games? Well, we just don't know yet. There are reports that he'll miss the entire pre-season as a precaution. So whether or not he also misses a few regular season games as well is anybody's guess. So it's a situation where you just can't count on Crabtree as one of your main WR's, I'd feel more comfortable with him as my WR3 or Flex option until we know more about the severity of his injury.
Chris Johnson - Everybody has him ranked in the top 3 players in fantasy football for 2011, but he's starting to scare me a little bit. In case you didn't hear, he hasn't reported to traininng camp yet. Apparently he wants his long term deal and he wants it yesterday! The bad news is that the Titans aren't willing to budge unless he shows up to camp. It's an old fashioned standoff at this point, and I don't like it one bit. I don't think it'll get ugly, and I think this will get resolved, but right now it makes me a tad bit nervous!
nice post man. heard about that chris johnson stuff as well. keep it up!
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