In our rearview mirror is the Ray Rice scandal. We can still see it but it isn’t coming at us anymore. Instead we are navigating through a road littered with injured players. Each week a big name goes down. This week saw Ike Taylor, Stephen Tulloch, and Danny Woodhead all exit stage left. Receivers Eric Decker and Brandon Marshall left the same game with a chance of missing time. What does that tell us? The NFL is a rough league and you can get hurt in all sorts of ways. It also tells us that no fantasy roster is safe.
Lions Defensive Player Stephen Tulloch tore his ACL doing a ‘discount double check’ celebration after sacking Aaron Rodgers. Now Tulloch is sacked for the year, after being placed on the IR by his team. This is funny, horrible, and deeply karmic all at once.
The Decker situation is Karmic in an entirely separate way. The Jets paid this dude a lot of money to be Geno’s security blanket and now he’s nursing a hamstring… Look, I’ve seen the offense run this year. Decker is acting like Vick–as in not terribly disappointed to be on the bench. Can you blame the guy? The QB competition was rigged and now that Geno is back to stinking up the joint, Rex is standing behind him. I loved the optics right after the last play of the game where Geno is on his knees and the camera shows Vick standing in front of him looking at Bilal Powell like, ‘this kid is a joke’. Powell shrugs.
Meanwhile in the valley of the sun, San Francisco continues to look victimized–both from a football and a human perspective. 3 years after a dodgers ‘fan’ famously beat a SF Giants fan nearly to death, this happens at the UFO (Cardinals Stadium). Notable is Darnell Dockett’s tweet to a fan that tried to protect a security guard. He offered the man tickets and said of the action, “I like that s*it”
This is what football is today–violence on the field and in the seats as a backdrop to a flurry of action and hopefulness. Everyone still has a limited shot at the title and the Cards can still have a perfect season, but hey, its week 4. S*it still has a way of happening.
Waiver Finds:
- Giants TE #84: Donnell (in PPR format the dude is worthwhile). He’s a system guy in the vein of a Kellen Winslow who keeps Eli very happy. He might fumble on occasion or try to dive over players, but that’s just spunk.