2013 MoFo Fantasy Football - The Regular Season

Ya' got me there.

Well Mike Holmgren is astonished at this stupidity. Trent Richardson catching balls from Andrew Luck? Oh I see good things to come in Indy, and believe Richardsons overall numbers will improve.

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap200...chardson-trade

The crazy thing to me is that the Browns are pretty much just trading a #3 overall for somewhere around a #15 or worse overall pick. Giving up on Richardson during only his second season is ridiculous. Especially when you consider he has good hands, and is a valuable asset in the passing game. Which is what you need in today's NFL. A young QB that they would be drafting, probably not Bridgewater but likely a Tajh Boyd or Johnny Manziel, would absolutely need to check it down to Richardson a lot. Now you have an aging Willis McGahee, Chris Ogbonnaya who is too slow to be a feature back and too small to be a fullback, and Bobby Rainey who can't shoulder a workload. They will be forced to bring somebody else in next season. So now instead of just a hole at QB, they have a hole at RB too. They also seem to have a major hole in the front office as well.

But of course, it's not a #3 pick. It's the guy they (and they being an entirely different group of people, remember) took with the #3 pick. Trading Ryan Leaf wasn't "trading a #2 pick" because, by then, people had realized Ryan Leaf was not actually awesome. Once the guy is taken his draft position has very little to do with his value.

It's hardly fair to compare Trent Richardson to Ryan Leaf, but I know what you are saying. My meaning was simply that the Browns spent a #3 on a guy only a year ago. It's not like he was terrible, then they only get a #15 out of him. This leads me to believe one of four things: 1) They don't think he will amount to anything and want to get as much value out of him as they can now. 2) They hate their fans. They don't want their fans to have a good player to cheer for. 3) They want to tank and try to get Teddy Football. 4) They are as dumb as their reputation suggests.

I think any time you trade away your best player for a draft pick, that's really dumb. He is still very talented, the Browns being inept in every other category hurt his ypc. He will most likely thrive in Indianapolis, while fans in Cleveland will wish they were born in another city and wonder why they still care so much for a franchise that has given them so little.

Sure sure, I don't think he'll be Ryan Leaf either, though I think the odds are decent that he'll just be okay. I'm just saying that assigning someone extra value for their draft pedigree can be throwing good money after bad. If it was a bad pick, then the best move is to cut your losses.

As I mentioned above, it's totally true that the abstract entity we call "The Cleveland Browns" has botched this, because they either wasted a high pick on a mediocre player, or they just traded away a good player thinking he was only mediocre. But the Browns are not an actual thing; they are a different group of people each year. And this year, they're a very different group of people. One group picked Richardson, and an entirely different group traded him. We know that one of the two decisions was bad, we just don't know which yet.

Fun little flashback: remember how much everyone flipped out when the Texans took Mario Williams #1 overall instead of Reggie Bush? Yet they ended up being completely right. Everybody prefers the quick RB or the lightning fast WR prospect over the interior linemen or the salary cap flexibility, but it seems to me that the teams that are good most often get there by making lots of unexciting, unsexy, long-term decisions like this.

Being a Texas fan, and an advocate of Vince Young, I still say they should have drafted Vince Young. His track record isn't the greatest, but he would have had so much support if he played for his hometown team. I remember when the Titans played in Houston and VY ran in a game winning touchdown in overtime. Instead of booing the opposing team for beating their team, the crowd went crazy. In my alternate universe fantasies, this is the one I wish I lived in.

Just remember, the people that spent the 3rd overall pick on T-Rich have all been sacked at this point...

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Does this mean someone hit them in the nuts?

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“The gladdest moment in human life, methinks, is a departure into unknown lands.” – Sir Richard Burton

The Browns were the ones initiating this trade. When Jimmy Johnson traded Herschell Walker to Minnesota he got a buttload of talent which got Dallas 3 super bowls, 2 under Johnson. There is no such wheeling and dealing going on with this Richardson exchange.

The only thing that makes sense to me is it has to be because Richardson has an attitude problem. It all just seems too sudden and too stupid otherwise unless he's such a jerk they didnt care and just wanted him gone. Maybe he was high on Holmgren and was being mouthy to the new guard, I dont know.

There is some reason to believe this; here's a quote from the article I linked to earlier (emphasis added):

Dude, I skimmed your article. You're missing a key point here. The Browns suck. And why you a Steelers fan is spending so much time arguing for them is a wee bit weird but whatever. I'd think you'd be loving this because it will only help them to stay terrible, probably.

And I say to you again, because you seem to be missing a key point. Indy is on the hook for a very small portion of his salary. This is a WIN-WIN for them. Seriously. 6 million bucks? Who cares if he's nothing? 6 million bucks is a drop in the bucket to these guys.

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We are both the source of the problem and the solution, yet we do not see ourselves in this light...

hear me now and believe me later. When the dust settles on the fantasy season, Richardson will be a top 10 RB.

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"The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it." - Michelangelo.

I completely agree. Also the Colts will be in the playoffs. Now that there is a dual threat in Indy it will make it easier on Luck and Richardson to produce. Before they were always the lone target of defenses.

I see Peyton Hillis was released today, wouldnt be the least bit surprised if the brownies signed him for pennies on the dollar to see if he cant get the pre-madden curse mojo cookin.

The uniforms make people suck? Because that would totally upend my understanding of reality. But seriously, if the Browns just inherently suck, doesn't that extend to their drafting of Richardson too?

Well, if I thought it would definitely help them stay terrible, I would be loving it. But what I want to happen and what I think will happen ain't always the same thing. Which bums me out to no end.

Well, I did reply directly to that before: "If he's a mediocre or even a bad one, then he's a waste of touches and overpaid even based on that reduced salary." But remember that they gave up a 1st round draft pick, too, yeah? So he actually does kinda have to be good for them to come out of this ahead.

That said, I never suggested it was a bad deal for Indy. I think it's a decent deal for both sides. If he's not that great, then it's a good deal for Cleveland. And it might be even if he is, because is you blame his numbers on the team around him, then that means they didn't have the core in place to take advantage of his talents, anyway.

Browns are looking to trade Greg Little & Josh Gordon too. Theyre doing a complete overhaul! Again! Mike Holmgren has to be furious they are undoing everything he built these last few years.

Feel very good going into sunday. Decided to go Knowshon Moreno over Eddie Royal. The Raiders supposedly have the current best run defense, but its MNF and Ill be able to watch! Also the fact Joique Bell gets the start today (Bush is out) makes this decision easier as I wouldnt be surprised he posts huge numbers.

Flacco well on his way to having a third consecutive mediocre-to-bad game to start the season. But it's cool: he's only the highest paid player in the NFL.

I've got the Packers' QB, star WR, and starting RB.

Backup RB runs in the TD.