Time for fans to send message by reducing NFL spending

by | Jul 1, 2011 | 2011 season, NFL Lockout, NFL Random Thoughts

The first NFL preview magazines have showed up on the shelves of my local bookstore. For the first time in many years I didn’t make a special trip to go find them. I stumbled on to them while I was in the store looking for something else.

I bought two fantasy football publications: Sporting News 2011 Fantasy Football and Fantasy League Football 2011. The NFL is largely about money for owners and players so I’ve made it at least somewhat about money for me too – I play in several fantasy football leagues and have had a fair amount of success over the years.

But as for buying the actual preview magazines, it seemed a bit pointless given the lockout and lack of a free agency period to this point. We’re a couple weeks off of when training camps would normally start and there has not yet been anything resembling an offseason.

Lindy’s, which publishes my favorite preseason annual, seemed to recognize this. They published their typical June version with a publisher’s note saying they planned to publish again in August if there was movement toward the season taking place.

With all due respect to Lindy’s, I’ll wait until then to buy the magazine.

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Denver, Detroit make early strides in the draft

by | Apr 30, 2011 | 2011 season, NFL Draft, NFL Random Thoughts

There are a lot of picks left to be made but the Detroit Lions and Denver Broncos have already had winning drafts.

Even if Denver forfeits its remaining picks the team took unmistakably helped its putrid defense with the additions of linebacker Von Miller, safety Rahim Moore and linebacker Nate Irving.

I’m a little confused about why the team took Miller over Marcel Dareus in a year they are switching from the 3-4 defense to the 4-3. Miller is considered a top-notch edge rusher for the 3-4 and Dareus would help fill a gaping hole in the team’s run defense.

But as far as just adding talent, Denver has done a tremendous job heading into day three. (more…)

Fantasy football also affected by lockout

by | Apr 19, 2011 | 2011 season, Fantasy Football, NFL Lockout, NFL Random Thoughts

The NFL lockout is becoming a drag in more ways than one. Sure, it’s kind of cute … well, no, it’s really not cute at all … when players and owners get up in front of cameras or type away on twitter telling fans not to worry because they expect to make a deal in time to ensure that games are not canceled.

Or when the league moves forward with their farcical plan for a two-hour special on NFL Network introducing the schedules for the season that may or may not be played.

The truth is even if the league and the players miraculously settle during forced negotiations this afternoon, the lockout has already gone on long enough to ensure that the quality of play on the field in 2011 will suffer.

Free agency has been postponed for more than a month, leaving teams unsure how they will fill holes from last season. Minicamps have been lost, especially hard for teams with new coaches and new systems. And at this point there is little indication the collective bargaining process will conclude by next week’s NFL draft, so rookies and other new entrants to the league are almost inevitably going to lose at least one and likely more opportunities for pre-training camp instruction with coaches.

That means we are also closing in on the point where, assuming football is played in 2011, the lockout will have a direct effect on fantasy football this season as well. What teams and players benefit from this situation? Will there still be rookies who are worth drafting for your teams in 2011? We at Zoneblitz feel continuity will be key this season but we contacted fantasy football writer Ryan Boser, who contributes to a number of fantasy sites, to see what he thinks.

Zoneblitz: With a shortened free agency period and minicamps already being canceled it would seem to us that continuity and lack of roster turnover will be key to success in 2011. Do you agree? (more…)

49ers interest in retaining Smith shows downside of lockout

by | Apr 14, 2011 | 2011 season, NFL Lockout, NFL Random Thoughts

Reports out of San Francisco indicate that the 49ers have a contract on the table aimed at keeping former first-overall pick Alex Smith in the fold for at least one more season.

The on-again, off-again starting quarterback for San Francisco has shown flashes of competence but has been mostly injured or disappointing (not always through faults of his own) during his first six years in the league.

At the end of the season, Smith talked pretty openly about being ready to move on to a new situation where he could get a fresh start. The fans turned on him pretty aggressively at the end of the season and, with a new coach on board in Jim Harbaugh, in a normal year my guess is Smith would already have signed somewhere else.

But this is not a normal year. (more…)