I know I won't be the first to use this hackneyed phrase but "At long last, our national nightmare is over." That nightmare, of course, was the Brett Favre Media Express, where reporters rushed into Green Bay camp for the possibility of a glimpse of Favre grabbing a duffel bag out of his car. It seemed inconceivable that Favre would actually play for the Packers, and indeed, his reinstatement was largely a technicality to allow the Packers to trade him.

Jett Favre is back and looking to make a fantasy impact in 2008. Photo Credit: Icon SMI

So, now he's a Jet. And when you're a Jet, you're a Jet all the way. From your first cigarette to your last dying day.

What does that do to your fantasy hopes? Well, it adds another starting QB into the mix, for one. Favre is just on the fringe of being a QB1, and certainly a great QB2 in any league. Neither Chad Pennington or Kellen Clemens would have been draftable (at least not by this writer), so this adds some depth to most leagues. It also increases not only the value of Jerricho Cotchery and Laveranues Coles, but also running back, Thomas Jones. I'm a little bummed about that last one because Jones was looking like a nice sleeper for me, but now he should start moving up in draft orders when people realize that he's not going to get eight men stacked in the box against him. As for the Pack, I'd say that most of the values folks placed on Green Bay players before all this drama should stay pretty constant. There's enough time for Aaron Rodgers to assert himself as the team leader (and he's done a very good job of staying professional through all of this, unlike, say, Favre), and the rest of the team should step into place. (For what it's worth, I'm on record saying that Greg Jennings is overvalued, and I'm sticking with that--but this whole Favre saga hasn't changed that evaluation a whit.)

Oh...is there something to talk about besides Brett Favre?

You betcha. I've just started slipping into what I call My Lovely Obsession. That is, the month before the fantasy football draft, when I start doing mock drafts over and over and over. In the league I've played in the longest, we have fortunately kept the same group of owners for the entire history of the league. So this year, I'm taking the guys who are playing around me and analyzing what they've done over the years. It's actually pretty revealing--because your memory plays tricks on you. Our league is pretty QB-friendly, and I'd had it in my dome that one of the owners (a guy drafting right next to me) had taken quarterbacks--generally speaking, Peyton Manning--on numerous occasions. And in a few of my mock drafts, I took that into consideration.

Then I looked at the history of our league and realized that this guy has drafted a QB in the first or second round just once.

What does this tell me? More importantly, to the purpose of this column, what does it tell YOU?

It tells you that facts are important. Perhaps your league hasn't been around that long, or you aren't quite as anal as I am in keeping records. But there's plenty of information out there about other leagues that are probably not materially different than yours. Mock Draft Central is a great place for that, and there are others as well. It might not be the best predictor of when, for instance, a QB will go; league rules determine that, generally--but it should tell you what the consensus ranking of a given player is. That is, is Carson Palmer going to be the 5th QB drafted, or the 3rd? Or the 9th? Those are pretty big distinctions. (As it is, he's now moved up to fifth on the list, where he'd been languishing behind guys like Derek Anderson and Ben Roethlisberger for awhile.)

In non-fantasy news, the Olympics are starting--and yes, I'm sure there's a Synchronized Swimming Fantasy League I'm not aware of. I have to say, I just love the games. I can't remember the last time I swam a lap in a pool, but I'm flat out riveted to the screen for any and all swimming events, as well as diving. I love most track-and-field contests, and boxing is often quite good too.

I know I should care more about basketball, but listening to guys like Kobe Bryant talk about how demoralizing "losing" was in 2004, when the USA did get a bronze medal, just illustrates how preposterous it is to have a sport where one country--and only one country--is truly expected to win the gold. That's not really the spirit of the games, is it?

Still, I've got a healthy dose of Olympic Fever.

By the way, I'm not ignoring baseball (even though I'd like to in most of my leagues). News out of Cleveland is that Travis Hafner is finally feeling strong enough to participate in some drills and might be back in a few weeks or so. I've had this guy on my DL for a looooooong time, but it's clear that this is a lost season for Pronk. The question is, does this make him a good sleeper pick next year? It says here that he won't be worth any draft pick next season. Sure, this is a guy who showed tremendous power a few years ago, but at this point it looks more like lightning in a bottle. Last season he presumably wasn't hurt, and his power was cut in half; and there's no real draft value for a guy who might hit 25 HR and 85 RBI. You can find that all over the waiver wire, and that's all I can reasonably expect from Pronk from here on out. It's sad. I like the guy. But he's quickly turned into a Fantasy Anchor (joining wealthy but ineffective Eric Byrnes, who is also still riding out his tenure on my team, for what it's worth).

That's just about it for me here. Now go pull out your miniature American flags and get interested in the sports you only think about every four years, all while filling out your mock draft sheets (or maybe that's just what I'll be doing).

USA! USA! USA!

Matthew Greber is a Senior Writer for RotoExperts.com and is considering a holdout until he's named the starting QB of the San Francisco 49ers. In between burping his daughter and wondering if Darrell Jackson is really the 4th WR in Denver now, he responds to any emails he gets at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Comments (0)

Subscribe to this comment's feed