What I love most about fantasy football and the NFL in particular is the unpredictability factor. The league has setup a system where parity truly reigns, and most games are won & lost on coaching and effort. Fifteen years ago it was much easier to predict who the best teams would be pre-season, and many of the top franchises had a disproportionate amount of talent (think SF with two hall of fame QB's on its roster in Joe Montana & Steve Young from 1987-2002). I personally felt I had a good eye for talent and could predict better than most who will be successful and who will fail. However after a stretch where I've invested heavily in guys like Vince Young (after that USC game I felt he was a winner who would transcend the pro game) I've lost confidence.
However one of my peers, Short Bus, riding high on the personnel front after picking up Adrian Peterson & Marshawn Lynch last season, has been quick to dismiss former USC & NE Patriots backup Matt Cassel as nothing more than a backup. While that's understandable given his history I think he's been to glib about his opinion, saying the following:
"Casel's been marginal (at best) as the NE QB and I think if you can only be average as the NE QB with all of that talent, you're not going to get Schaub money in the Off-Season."
Following Thursday night's game in which Matt Cassel became the first ever NFL QB to throw for 400+ yards & run for 60+ in the same game, I think its fair to say he's been better than average. In the PAFFL fantasy league Cassell scored 25 points on Thursday, is now the 10th highest scoring QB (thru 10 weeks) and has the highest scoring QB week of the season outside of Bret Favre's explosive in week 3 (32 points). And Cassel is doing all this in his first starts at QB since high school, making his performance truly remarkable.
I've always felt that QB's needed time to experience the game & mature from the sidelines. Cassel has had the luxury of learning from Tom Brady, the Patriots coaching staff over the past three plus years and before that for four years at USC along with Carson Palmer, Matt Leinart & an outstanding USC coaching staff. Will Cassel turn into a future star at QB? The odds are against it but as Mike Lombardi (former NFL GM & National Post writer) wrote on Friday, he surely has made himself millions with his performance Thursday. Now all he needs to do is make the Short Bus regret making such comments about him. At this point he's exceeded just about all expectations you could have for him.
Schaub shouldn't have received "Schaub money" as he's been one of the biggest busts in the NFL (in terms of monetary & draft selection cost) in the past decade.
You can successfully argue that the 49'ers are better off than Houston with the Alex Smith deal than the Texans are with Schaub. Reason is that they paid $24 million in guaranteed dollars, Schaub will exceed that next season and the 49'ers only spent 1 draft pick on Smith whereas the Texans gave up 2 second round picks.
I wouldn't be surprised if Rosenfels became their starter in '09 if he gets the Texans on a roll late this year.
Regardless, Cassel will get plenty of money from a QB needy team - it may not be "Schaub" like but it could be, especially since he'll be entering free agency with more experience & success than Schaub did.
Posted by: Beavercats | November 15, 2008 at 09:01 AM