Posts tagged LenDaleWhite at FanHouse

Redskins tight end Chris Cooley hosted a fantasy football draft with some of his teammates, and it resulted in the most interesting seven minutes of video you'll see today:

When Redskins rookie quarterback Colt Brennan selected Titans running back LenDale White, Cooley reacted by saying, "That's a gay pick."

Although I wish Cooley would cut out the homophobic comments, I do like the fact that he uses YouTube -- and his personal web site -- to give fans a look inside the life of an NFL player.

Redskins tight end Chris Cooley hosted a fantasy football draft with some of his teammates, and it resulted in the most interesting seven minutes of video you'll see today:

When Redskins rookie quarterback Colt Brennan selected Titans running back LenDale White, Cooley reacted by saying, "That's a gay pick."

Although I wish Cooley would cut out the homophobic comments, I do like the fact that he uses YouTube -- and his personal web site -- to give fans a look inside the life of an NFL player.

Training camps are underway, the NFL season is right around the corner, and to get you ready for 2008, FanHouse previews all 32 teams, "heat index" style. We'll rate each club in 10 categories on a scale of 1 to 10, high score wins.

Quarterback: If you can say with certainty that you know whether Vince Young is going to take a big leap forward this year, or stumble into mediocrity, I want to hear your stock tips. The Titans say they're happy with the way Young has improved his drops and his accuracy during training camp--we just haven't seen much of it in games. Kerry Collins is a very solid backup, but with the group of receivers these two are going to have to throw to, it's hard to know how much blame they deserve if the passing game struggles. Heat Index: 5.

WHO YA GOT???
While it's easy to sit back before the draft and know who you want, it's a helluva lot harder to make those calls when the pressure of the clock counting down is squared all up on your shoulders. (Although in fairness, if you're playing in the most perfect and free fantasy football league of all time, then it's a lot easier to deal with those decisions.)

So that's why Fantasy FanHouse (with the help of Mock Draft Central's ADP report) is here to help you through the tough picks, with a little thing I like to call: Fantasy Coin Flips.

Early Round QB: Peyton Manning vs. Tony Romo
If you follow what we write here at FanHouse, you know that I am an unabashed basher of Romo. Not because he won't help lead the Cowboys this year, but just because he's overrated in fantasy. (No, seriously, Cowboys fans, re-read that before you comment. Please.) Peyton carries the injury risk, yes. And Romo has weapons, sure. But unlike most years, Peyton's going to be fighting for the playoffs while Romo is going to be taking it easy in December with the NFC East on cruise control. Plus, the value in Peyton Freaking Manning at this point is too good to pass up.

Score that two former USC players running smack ahead of the Ohio State game. Everyone's favorite not-so-slightly doughy back made sure to let everyone know what he thinks of Ohio State before ESPN cameras. There's some context of course, as it was a friendly -- if random -- comment as the Jim Rome show followed Titans lineman Kevin Mawae for a feature.

Audio

Sayeth Rome: "White's comment was a complete non sequitur"

The segment will broadcast Friday on "Rome Is Burning" (4:30 p.m. Eastern, ESPN), the game will be played Sept. 13th in Los Angeles. The Trojans would probably be heavy favorites with White, but the continued noise coming from former USC players can only have the effect of working against USC in Las Vegas.

(Via: Sports by Brooks)

From the days of Olandis Gary (yes, that's him in the picture ... I can't believe I found one) taking over for Terrell Davis to last season's Earnest Graham breakthrough following Cadillac Williams' injury, fantasy owners have long seen backup running backs rise to prominence via injury to a teammate. Conventional wisdom states that you grab the backup runner to your highly drafted starting running backs, and the term handcuff is used to describe this theory.

This isn't always the case, though, unless you have a very large league. Say you have a 10 owner league with only five bench spots. Simply put, DeShaun Foster should not be taking up room on that bench.

Let's take a look at whether or not to handcuff starting RBs around the league in four different categories.

Must Cuff
Ryan Grant -- Grant held out, and now has a slight injury in camp. Meanwhile Brandon Jackson -- supposed to be the starting back last season before injuries and inexperience derailed him -- has been receiving rave reviews from the Packers coaching staff. You can still draft Grant in the 2nd round, but it is imperative to grab Jackson as well.

It's hard to imagine how Chris Johnson could have had a better preseason debut.

The Titans first-round pick showed off his blazing speed (the run is at the 1:30 mark in the highlights) with a 66-yard touchdown run that was shocking for how quick he was. While we all knew that Johnson was fast, the reality is that everyone in the NFL is fast, so to see Johnson leaving the entire Rams secondary in the dust is a very encouraging sign.

Johnson was the star of the NFL combine with a 4.24 40-yard dash (the fastest time of anyone there). There are no concerns about whether he can maintain that speed when he put on the pads, as we saw on Saturday. He needed only to make one man miss, and he was able to bust a run straight through the middle of the defense. Heck, he didn't even need a block from any of the wide receivers, he just outran everyone. What was most impressive was his acceleration. While everyone chasing him was working up to speed, Johnson shifted into high gear before he was through the line of scrimmage.

In a sorta shocking development, the Titans released wideout Mike Williams last week after the Lions 2005 former first-round pick washed out in Detroit and Oakland. That he was cut isn't necessarily newsworthy, but that it happened just a week into training camp had to be unexpected. Or not, who knows.

Either way, the Titans were kind enough to explain why Williams is currently seeking employment.

"It was a combination of things we weren't getting from him. There were too many drops. We just didn't see improvement,'' Coach Jeff Fisher said. "He's had potential. He still has potential. Maybe he'll realize it someplace else.''

So, apparently, there's more to being an NFL wide receiver than not being fat. Interesting. What's most troubling, perhaps, is that the Titans current crop of wideouts aren't exactly Randy Moss and Wes Welker. That Williams couldn't make it more than a few days competing against the likes of Justin McCareins and Justin Gage pretty much tells you all you need to know.

Plus, when chronic underachiever LenDale White is giving you career advice, it might be time to look into a new line of work.

"No disrespect to Mike Williams, I love Mike Williams, but he is going to have show people that he is really serious about playing football,'' said running back LenDale White, who was a teammate of Williams at USC. "Unfortunately, they might be talking about him like Ryan Leaf as one of the worst draft decisions.''

Ryan Leaf has every right to be offended by that remark, by the way.

There's been a lot of speculation that Chris Johnson can solve the Titans glaring problems at wide receiver, but as the Tennessean explains, Johnson will be kept busy in his role as a running back, to the point where Johnson's chances at wide receiver apparently will be few and far between.

"I am just looking at him as a tailback,'' offensive coordinator Mike Heimerdinger said. "What we do outside of turning and handing him the ball is a bonus. He can do a lot of things, but I want to find out if we can turn and hand him the ball and how many times we can do that. I look at it different than all the 'experts.' I expect to see him out there on first and second down.''

The Titans are being specifically vague about exactly how they'll use Johnson, but it seems like Tennessee hopes eventually that he'll be able to fill a Bryant Westbrook role, where he'll get plenty of carries (Westbrook averaged around 13 carries a game during his first four seasons) while also catching a lot of balls out of the backfield (Westbrook averaged 45 catches per year in his first four days).

With Lendale White having plenty of durability but little explosiveness, there are lots of reasons to hope that Johnson can take some carries away from White. But one name we're not hearing a whole lot of as training camp starts is Chris Henry. Last year's second-round pick seems to be destined to be the third-stringer with few opportunities unless injuries crop up.

Hear that? It's the pitter-patter of fantasy football season approaching. Fantasy FanHouse is here to get you ready by previewing every team from a fantasy perspective.

Meet The ...
Only team that rivals watching paint dry in the boredom department. The Titans likely hate fantasy football. They definitely hate the pass. Their 543 rushing attempts last year led the NFL, even though they averaged a subpar 3.9 yards per carry. Only four teams threw the ball less often, and they were the only team in the entire league that threw less than 10 TD passes. I'm bored just thinking about this offense as I type. So they did the only rational thing to do in the off-season ... shore up the run game while nearly ignoring the passing situation. Yeah, they added tight end Alge Crumpler -- a 30 year-old TE who endured a rough 2007 in easily the worst season of his career. Still, the team virtually ignored wideouts in the off-season, fully content on letting Justin Gage and Roydell Williams being the top two with an absymal supporting cast. Instead, they used their first round pick on speedster RB Chris Johnson. Do you really believe them when they say they wanna pass more?