Fox says Portis up; Defense down
 

[url="http://msn.foxsports.com/fantasy/story/3731968"]http://msn.foxsports.com/fantasy/story/3731968[/url]


Here is their opinion on the NFC EAST all of the NFC is on the site for anyone who cares.


NFL sleeps this month, but fantasy junkies do not. We search for scraps of newsworthy information, probably assigning too much importance to every press conference, MRI, and rumor. We adjust our rankings out of boredom. All that ends at the end of July.

There will be more fantasy-worthy news in the first week of training camp than the last two months combined. It's something to keep in mind while checking out our final recap of the winners and losers of mini-camp season. Summer heroes often fade away when the hitting starts. Injuries will shake up depth charts and cheat sheets. But after looking at the AFC last time around, let's look at the final summer movers of mini-camp season in the NFC.

[b]NFC East[/b]
[b]Dallas Cowboys[/b]

[b]Moving Up: Marion Barber, III, RB[/b] Bill Parcells knows running backs. He believed in Ottis Anderson when no one else did. He turned the Patriots offense over to Curtis Martin when many doubted the third-round rookie's speed and durability. He traded down in the 2004 draft because he knew Julius Jones could handle the load. He believes he's found another gem in Marion Barber III.

Hardly a coach to heap praise on young players, Parcells has been giddy about Barber's potential this summer. He loves his skills in the passing game, and believes Barber can spell Julius Jones when necessary. Barber looks to have a defined role as a rookie, while veteran Anthony Thomas may have to contribute on special teams just to make the team. We'd take Barber in deep drafts over A-Train.

[b]Moving Down: Quincy Morgan, WR[/b] Morgan injured his shoulder in June, ruining a strong off-season for the No. 3 receiver. It's uncertain whether he'll be ready for training camp. The longer Morgan stays out, the further he may fall behind upstarts like Terrance Copper and Patrick Crayton in Dallas.

[b]New York Giants[/b]


[b]Moving Up: Brandon Jacobs, RB[/b] We've pumped up Tiki Barber's new backup enough this off-season. But if anyone can handle the weight of expectations, it's a 265-pound running back. New York's only mandatory mini-camp ended a few weeks ago and Jacobs once again made a big impression on teammates. The Bettis-wannabe is one of the most interesting backup running back picks for fantasy leaguers.

[b]Moving Down: Plaxico Burress, WR[/b] Forget about the new arrest warrants. Don't worry about the deafening silence around the NFL when Plax become a free agent. We're more concerned with the fact Burress skipped off-season workouts with the Giants all summer. It's hard enough for free agent wideouts to adjust to new offenses, especially with a second-year starter at quarterback. Skipping the chance to establish timing is questionable, but not surprising. Expect a slow start for Burress, and expect him to overrated in fantasy leagues.

[b]Philadelphia Eagles[/b]


[b]Moving Up: L.J. Smith, TE[/b] His back is finally healthy. Smith recently admitted he could barely move at times last season despite playing every game. It helps explain the promising tight end's disappearance for weeks in 2004. While not a great TE1, he should come cheaply this season and could score 8 touchdowns.

[b]Moving Down: Brian Westbrook, RB[/b] FoxSports.com's overlooked source of fantasy nuggets, the weekly Off-season Blitz, had a great note about Westbrook this week. The utter lack of movement on a long-term deal for the shifty running back is a bad sign. There are reports that some within the organization still question his durability long-term. The drafting of Ryan Moats, a similar player, would support this claim. It's not a major concern in re-draft leagues, but keeper leaguers should fear Westbrook heading elsewhere. It's hard to imagine another team taking advantage of his unique skill-set.

[b]Also Moving: Terrell Owens, WR[/b] The Eagles won't budge on T.O.'s holdout. That much is clear. It's also becoming more apparent that they'd entertain trade offers for him. While the Jerry Porter-for-T.O. rumors look baseless, don't be surprised to hear similar reports in the next month. While we think Owens will show up towards the end of the preseason, the uncertainty makes him a slightly risky pick right now.

[b]Washington Redskins[/b]


[b]Moving Up: Clinton Portis, RB[/b] Portis packed on ten pounds of muscle this season. He knows Joe Gibbs is going to run him into the ground. The offense has also changed their running attack this off-season to suit Portis's slashing style. They want to open up the field for him. He didn't have much patience in tight spots last season.

[b]Moving Down: Redskins defense[/b] Antonio Pierce is gone and his replacement is Lemar Marshall? Fred Smoot is gone and his replacement is Walt Harris? No. 9 pick Carlos Rogers has a stress fracture in his foot and won't be ready for camp. LaVar Arrington has a bum knee and can't stay out of trouble. The no-name defensive line got no help this season. It will take magic for defensive coordinator Gregg Williams to maintain his powerful defense.

Re: Fox says Portis up; Defense down
 

Well i guess we can start calling GW the Magician.

Re: Fox says Portis up; Defense down
 

[QUOTE=BigSKINBauer][url="http://msn.foxsports.com/fantasy/story/3731968"]http://msn.foxsports.com/fantasy/story/3731968[/url]
[b]Washington Redskins[/b]


[b]Moving Up: Clinton Portis, RB[/b] Portis packed on ten pounds of muscle this season. He knows Joe Gibbs is going to run him into the ground. The offense has also changed their running attack this off-season to suit Portis's slashing style. They want to open up the field for him. He didn't have much patience in tight spots last season.

[b]Moving Down: Redskins defense[/b] Antonio Pierce is gone and his replacement is Lemar Marshall? Fred Smoot is gone and his replacement is Walt Harris? No. 9 pick Carlos Rogers has a stress fracture in his foot and won't be ready for camp. LaVar Arrington has a bum knee and can't stay out of trouble. The no-name defensive line got no help this season. It will take magic for defensive coordinator Gregg Williams to maintain his powerful defense.[/QUOTE]
Arrington can't stay out of trouble? Did Sean Taylor and Arrington morph into one person? With the exception of that, at this point I have to agree on paper with the overall assessment. I'm glad at least that someone nationally has acknowledged that Gibbs has revamped the offense to suit Portis and it won't be the same plunge, dive, counter offense that it was last year.

Re: Fox says Portis up; Defense down
 

Not to knock Pierce because he did a great job but I'm sure a lot of people last year were wondering how could Pierce possibly replace Barrow, and yet AP surprised everyone. Plus Marshall did a pretty decent job playing OLB last year and now he's moving to his natural MLB position so I'm not all that worried about that really

Re: Fox says Portis up; Defense down
 

last year they could have said ALOT worse and see what we became?
we had no MLB at all, we replaced THE CHAMP with little ol' springs, we didn't have a great DT, we had Marcus Washington for trotter, and Barrow hurt wow we were gonna suck
the season started we lose arrington and bowen with 2 weeks and daniels also

IF you were to think of the people comming in from injuries as newly acquired players we would be gitty for the season.
I agree TAFKAS about pierce

Re: Fox says Portis up; Defense down
 

[QUOTE=BigSKINBauer]Well i guess we can start calling GW the Magician.[/QUOTE]

My thoughts exactly.

I thought it was funny how they made a big deal about the Redskins trying to replace Antonio Pierce with Lemar Marshall-- like Pierce was some household name. I guarantee you, whoever wrote up this report had no idea who Antonio Pierce was before last season, and apparently, he didn't happen to notice how good of a job Lemar Marshall did filling in for LaVar Arrington. Of course, Marshall's success manning the outside LB spot might not necessarily translate into success in the middle, but if you pay attention to what "The Magician" has been saying all offseason about his defensive philosophy, ALL of the linebackers must learn ALL of the linebacking roles in his defense-- and be prepared to step into any of those roles should the need arise. So that means that Marshall has spent the past year learning the middle linebacker position, as well as the other spots.

The writer also forgot to mention the other entries in the middle linebacker competition: Brian Allen and Warrick Holdman, as well as the outside possibility that Mike Barrow (whose recovery from knee tendinitis is still questionable) will be available. Not surprisingly, he also overlooked rookie Robert McCune, who will probably spend most of the early part of the season playing strictly on special teams, but will likely see more and more opportunities in the regular defensive rotation as the season wears on. Williams simply won't be able to keep an athlete of that caliber on the bench for very long-- particularly in his linebacker-centric schemes. So to make it appear that Lemar Marshall is the lone hope at middle linebacker (especially when this writer makes him sound like such a significant drop-off from Pierce) is way off-base.

To a lesser degree, I disagree with him on the Smoot-to-Harris transition at cornerback. Harris isn't the athlete that Smoot was for the Redskins, but he's a seasoned veteran whose experience and tenacity will more than likely make up for any disparity in pure athleticism. And it's not like Harris didn't see plenty of action last season (seeing extensive action in 16 games, starting two), despite recovering from offseason knee surgery, nor can I recall Harris getting burned by a receiver, or making any glaring mental errors. Harris will likely be in better physical condition this season, and he brings a physical presence-- particularly on corner blitzes-- that Williams prefers and Smoot simply lacked.

The Rogers injury is definitely a concern, but this writer apparently missed the memo that the stress fracture is not the issue for Rogers (that's an old injury that reportedly has healed), but rather an ankle sprain/bone bruise, and it's expected to only keep him limited-- not necessarily out-- for the early portion of camp. Assuming the Redskins take the cautious route and bring him along slowly, the injury will probably be less of an issue than the mental reps Rogers will presumably be missing early on in camp. However, once healthy, Rogers should be a huge plus for the Redskins' secondary, and combined with the addition of veteran Artrell Hawkins and the year of maturation for youngsters Garnell Wilds, Rufus Brown and Ade Jimoh in Williams's school of defense, the cornerback spot may not require as much magic as one would think.

Finally, this writer seems to have overlooked one of Williams's biggest accomplishments last season (with much credit, obviously, to defensive coordinator/D-line coach Greg Blache): taking a presumably under-talented defensive line, and transforming it into one of the league's finest units. There's a reason the Redskins passed on upgrading the line in the offseason, and it's not because they didn't know that talented D-linemen such as Chike Okeafor, Jason Ferguson, Reggie Hayward, Marques Douglas and Bryce Fisher were available on the free agent market. They simply felt there wasn't enough of a need to spend big free agent money on defensive linemen, when they were pretty damn comfortable with the guys they have. With smart, feisty vets like Cornelius Griffin, Joe Salave'a and Renaldo Wynn returning as starters, and the talented Philip Daniels recovered from last season's injuries and ready to step into the defensive end spot, the Skins' defensive line may actually prove to be as good if not better than last year's "no-name" unit, which helped produce league-best limits of 3.1 yards per rushing attempt and only 67 rushing first downs, as well as NFC-leading limits of 81.5 rushing yards per game (second only to Pittsburgh's league-best 81.2 yards per game), and only 7 rushing touchdowns.

Let the "magic" begin! :headbange

Re: Fox says Portis up; Defense down
 

Whoever thinks the D is going to go down the tubes obviously didn't pay much attention to the outstanding job Williams did last year with being able to seemingly plug in anyone to any spot and get that player to produce at a high level.

The D is the least of my concerns for this season.

Re: Fox says Portis up; Defense down
 

Mark my words our defense barring injury will be better this year. First of all were adding Lavar Arrington which in due time will be huge. Second Carlos Rogers is a baller, he'll be good. Third Mike Barrow will be back. My sources tell me they finally found the problem with his knee and he's going to be okay. Third its everyone's second year in the system, and that is gonna be big. Time will tell.

Re: Fox says Portis up; Defense down
 

The D won't be as potent as it was last year. It will still be good, but we won't be going for the # 1, 2, or 3 spot.

Re: Fox says Portis up; Defense down
 

If our offense is really better, I think that the yardage our defense gives up will be worse. If teams are trying to catch up, they are going to have to play more aggressive. That won't mean the defense isn't as good. The good news is that if this senario happens, there will be many more opportunities for the defense to create turnovers and score points.

I see a more solid overall defense looking statistically worse on paper. I'll be happy to live with that!

Re: Fox says Portis up; Defense down
 

I think we'll have a top 5 D again, I don't see Smoot and Pierce as being guys that are irreplaceable.

Re: Fox says Portis up; Defense down
 

Little do they know, keep downplaying the 'Skins and see what happens

Re: Fox says Portis up; Defense down
 

[QUOTE=Mattyk72]I think we'll have a top 5 D again, I don't see Smoot and Pierce as being guys that are irreplaceable.[/QUOTE]
Exactly. Pierce was a one year phenom, not to diminish his accomplishments but there's a reason that he was a reserve going into last year.. Smoot is an excellent CB but he's aruguably not in the top 10 in the league as far as CB go. Harris/Rogers should be sufficient in replacing him.

Re: Fox says Portis up; Defense down
 

champ bailey was 10 times better than smoot and his loss did'nt have a negative effect on the d, so i don't see the loss of smoot as a reason to say the skins d will not be as good as last year, nor do i see the loss of pierce as reason for concern.
both players were good for us but both players will be replaced by very capable players.

Re: Fox says Portis up; Defense down
 

[QUOTE=Jamaican'Skin]Little do they know, keep downplaying the 'Skins and see what happens[/QUOTE]

I'm with you Jamaica'Skin.

And good post, Crisp. I especially agree with your point about the D-line. To my mind, if Daniels can return to form, he IS an upgrade there. But the main point is that Williams and Blache have a cohesive unit that knows how to stop the run and occupy blockers to free up the LBs and the blitzers.

And isn't this the first year we have the SAME coordinator as the year before?

Williams isn't a magician--he's a kick ass coach who creates top 10 Ds wherever he goes, with whatever talent is there. It's not magic--it's hard work and skill.

Re: Fox says Portis up; Defense down
 

In my opinion, we experianced some losses on defense, mainly Peirce and Smoot, but like Joe pointed out, we have some gains. One gain that I think is not getting enough attention is the return of Lavar Arrington. Now, I know that alot of Skins' fans and football fans in general are very critical of Arrington. Now weather his contract and whatnot is better for our team is a question, however when you put Lavar and Lemar Marshal side by side, Arrington is a huge upgrade there. In addition, the return of Daniels to the Dline, it just adds up. I still think it will be tough for us to maintain the same type of momentum we had on D last season, but I defintley dont think we will fall much at all.

Re: Fox says Portis up; Defense down
 

We have the same scheme as last season with a decent amount of starters coming back. Why would the D drop off?
Makes no sense to me at all. Top three, possible top D.

Offense will pick it up with improved play calling and more variety (shotgun) making us a shockingly efficient team.

Re: Fox says Portis up; Defense down
 

[QUOTE=JWsleep]Williams isn't a magician--he's a kick ass coach who creates top 10 Ds wherever he goes, with whatever talent is there. It's not magic--it's hard work and skill.[/QUOTE]

Well put, JWsleep. I can't say enough good things about Williams-- sharpest human being I've ever met, and I'd imagine with a mind like that he's always working. How can he rest when his brain is so full of cool stuff to work with?

Re: Fox says Portis up; Defense down
 

[QUOTE=Mattyk72]I think we'll have a top 5 D again, I don't see Smoot and Pierce as being guys that are irreplaceable.[/QUOTE]

i agree totally we should have a top 5 D again as although we have lost pierce and smoot GW says he wants to play Barrow at MLB so theres that problem solved and smoot isn't that big a loss especially if we can cope with the loss of champ a year earlier

Re: Fox says Portis up; Defense down
 

what i noticed this reviewer was to choose one Fantasy position that would go up and one that would go down.

Obviously it would be hard to say that our offense would go down because it was as low as us fans could possibly handle until we started to riot. So he was left with our D but it seems that most of us agree that GW will not let this D fall out of the top 5.

MOVING ON UP IN THE LEAGUE

Re: Fox says Portis up; Defense down
 

yea but our D can fall to 4 or 5 and he will be right it will have gone down not by much but it will have

Re: Fox says Portis up; Defense down
 

nobody believes in the skins right now. and that's why i can't wait until the season to prove them wrong.

Re: Fox says Portis up; Defense down
 

me neither can't wait to see their faces when we go to the playoffs

Re: Fox says Portis up; Defense down
 

This guy has no credit. When I read the part about Lavar not being able to stay out of trouble. Its obvious that he has herd a few things and made his assesment. It obvious to me that he has done little to no back ground work. Just a lazy ass opinion.

Re: Fox says Portis up; Defense down
 

It amazes me how people worry about our MLB position after forgetting that Pierce was little more than a backup OLB at the beginning of last season. I certainly liked his potential as a weakside LB but never thought he'd be a pro-bowl caliber MLB. Marshall's skills are similar to those of Pierce, and we have plenty of other candidates competing with him for the job.
As for CB, everybody forgets how well we did against Minnesota in the season-finale, despite having Smoot out with injury. Minnesota had one of the league's most formidable passing attacks, and we held them to 18 points (their last eight points came from a Hail Mary with a two point conversion in the final seconds). I'm no genius, but some of these sportswriters seem like they don't know what they're talking about. :laughing-

Re: Fox says Portis up; Defense down
 

[QUOTE=jermus22]It amazes me how people worry about our MLB position after forgetting that Pierce was little more than a backup OLB at the beginning of last season. I certainly liked his potential as a weakside LB but never thought he'd be a pro-bowl caliber MLB. Marshall's skills are similar to those of Pierce, and we have plenty of other candidates competing with him for the job.
As for CB, everybody forgets how well we did against Minnesota in the season-finale, despite having Smoot out with injury. Minnesota had one of the league's most formidable passing attacks, and we held them to 18 points (their last eight points came from a Hail Mary with a two point conversion in the final seconds). I'm no genius, but some of these sportswriters seem like they don't know what they're talking about. :laughing-[/QUOTE]

Good points. On the other hand, this writer is a sheer genius for noticing that Portis' stock is going to climb big time this year. I'm expecting a huge season from CP

Re: Fox says Portis up; Defense down
 

I'm hoping the Redskins will improve and prove these "experts" wrong.
That's what happened with my Spurs......Stephen A. Smith, Greg Anthony, Woody Paige, AJ Adane, Bill Walton, John Thompson etc etc........picked the Nuggets to knock the Spurs out, then the Suns, then the Pistons........and we Spurs fans laughed all the way to the VICTORY CELEBRATION PARADE!!!! leaving the "experts" with egg on their face!!! Here's hoping the Redskins do the same with the so-called NFL "experts".

Re: Fox says Portis up; Defense down
 

Aaaarg there be another redskin hater

[url]http://www.profootballweekly.com/PFW/Commentary/Columns/2005/edholm070605.htm[/url]

It being early July and all, a dead time for the NFL, and with nothing too big going on, column-worthy, I thought I would just take a look at a few odds and ends going on around the league:

The Redskins are on the verge of capping one of the roughest offseasons in recent memory. Of course, in retrospect, most Redskins offseasons are bad; they just usually look good as they are happening. Maybe change is good, but in this case, most people agreed that the team suffered some key losses and was unable to get much immediate help. And trumping everything has been the Sean Taylor saga, which will continue to haunt the club through the season.

Now first-round pick CB Carlos Rogers was discovered to have a stress fracture in his right foot and a bone bruise in his right ankle — injuries that will force the Redskins’ top pick to miss the start of camp. The injury likely will set him back from challenging for a starting spot, meaning Walt Harris and Artrell Hawkins are the team’s Nos. 2 and 3 corners for now.

With Taylor’s status up in the air and Rogers out of the picture for the start of camp, a secondary that was an underrated and vital piece of the team’s defensive success last season will be knocked down a peg or two. And this is on a unit that also lost CB Fred Smoot and MLB Antonio Pierce and failed to acquire another defensive lineman. One Redskins defensive coach swears this offseason that Phillip Daniels is going to have a great year, but that’s far from a certainty, seeing as how he missed 11 games last season and hasn’t had more than 5½ sacks in a season since 2001.

Re: Fox says Portis up; Defense down
 

This writer is allittle off but just goes in and out of the redskins as he pleases in the article here is some more

[url]http://www.profootballweekly.com/PFW/Commentary/Columns/2005/edholm070605.htm[/url]
I’ll give the Redskins some credit. I think hanging on to Rod Gardner, for now, might be smart. There’s interest in him from a few teams, and any club that loses a starting receiver at the start of camp might want to place a call to Joe Gibbs.

Good to see that all 255 rookie draft picks made it to the mandatory Rookie Symposium this offseason. Though it’s not a harbinger of future failure, past absentees include Ryan Leaf and Sean Taylor.

Does anyone besides me think that Chad Morton is not only going to make the Patriots' roster but also run back at least one kickoff/punt for a touchdown? Two years ago he was the most coveted free-agent returner in the league before he got "Redskinned" (what happens to good players when they go to Washington).


DUDE THIS GUY SERIOUSLY HAS IT OUT FOR US

Re: Fox says Portis up; Defense down
 

"Redskinned" (what happens to good players when they go to Washington).
THIS GUY IS REALLY GETTING ON MY NERVES

Re: Fox says Portis up; Defense down
 

You know what really bothers me is how people are so quick to poke at our secondary... I mean look at the Steelers secondary, if there D went against a team that had a very good O-Line, there secondary gets burned every time. Troy P. is the only guy that they have to worry about in there secondary... I said to a steeler fan last year, the Steelers would kill for a player like Smoot or Springs... I know that we lost Smoot in our secondary but I dont think that we will drop off that much...

Also where does that guy get off saying about Taylor being a failure because he missed out a day at the rookie pow wow, I guess being a rookie safety and 1st alternate is now considered being a failure...

Re: Fox says Portis up; Defense down
 

"Redskinned" (what happens to good players when they go to Washington).

Seriously i am not gonna get over that.. DARN MEDIA
Yeah because Springs had his worst year in his career and griffin's stats just plumeted

And marcus washington was ranking up probowls in INDI

It seems that we are just too easy, no one does their homework and no one thinks before they right

Re: Fox says Portis up; Defense down
 

We're an easy target because we usually spend lavishly for supposedly top free agents. When that doesn't occur, the writers must find somethingelse to write about. Watch, I bet that next offseason they'll say something to the effect that we were lucky, we over achieved and fully surpassed our potential, and it will be impossible to reproduce what we've done to the ucoming season.

Guys we've built ourselves up as a target due to Danny's spending. It'll only go away after the critics see how good we really are.

Re: Fox says Portis up; Defense down
 

I think that might be the longest post I've written since I've been on the site :food-smil