Posts tagged MikeHart at FanHouse

Things aren't looking good for Kenton Keith's place on the Indianapolis Colts right now. Not only is Dominic Rhodes back in town after a year away, but Mike Hart was drafted. So far in the pre-season, Hart has 73 yards on only six carries while Keith has gained only 11 yards on four jaunts. Hart has also hauled in five passes for 49 yards.

Now Keith is hurt, and the Colts are hoping that he makes the team's 3:30 practice. Uh, if anything I'd guess Keith should be the one hoping he can go. We've already reported that there are several young players impressing Tony Dungy and company in camp thus far, and that several injured veterans are well on their way to exiting the PUP list quite soon.

Personally, I don't think there's any reason to keep Keith on this roster. Between Joseph Addai, Rhodes, and Hart, the Colts have all the backfield talent they need to succeed in Peyton Manning's Tom Moore's offense.

Fantasy Spin after the jump ...

Things aren't looking good for Kenton Keith's place on the Indianapolis Colts right now. Not only is Dominic Rhodes back in town after a year away, but Mike Hart was drafted. So far in the pre-season, Hart has 73 yards on only six carries while Keith has gained only 11 yards on four jaunts. Hart has also hauled in five passes for 49 yards.

Now Keith is hurt, and the Colts are hoping that he makes the team's 3:30 practice. Uh, if anything I'd guess Keith should be the one hoping he can go. We've already reported that there are several young players impressing Tony Dungy and company in camp thus far, and that several injured veterans are well on their way to exiting the PUP list quite soon.

Personally, I don't think there's any reason to keep Keith on this roster. Between Joseph Addai, Rhodes, and Hart, the Colts have all the backfield talent they need to succeed in Peyton Manning's Tom Moore's offense.

Fantasy Spin after the jump ...

Every year in Fantasy Football we all get outsmarted and we miss the waiver wire wonder that would've saved our fleeting Championship dreams. Unfortunately, by the time we've caught the stat line of some random dude we've never heard of who ran for 100 yards and a TD, he's already been snagged by our peers. And so is the way of Fantasy Football.

Anyhow, today I'm taking a gander at the prospects of who just might be the NEXT Ryan Grant of the 2008 Fantasy Football season. For practical purposes I had to leave the obvious candidates like Matt Forte, Kevin Smith, Jonathan Stewart and Rashard Mendenhall out of the discussion. In reality, all those guys are competing for starting jobs or are locked into timeshares and will see their fair share of carries.

So, let's dig a little deeper if that's possible and stay as far away from the obvious department as possible (easier said than done). Follow me...

You don't build an NFL team via free agency or trades. Unlike a few other sports, you really can't. There are too many players and salary cap implications. This is why you'll never see a team reload like the Yankees, Red Sox, Mets, and Cubs can in baseball, for example. The best football franchises are the ones that understand this -- like the Pats, Chargers, etc. -- and do it well.

This just in: Colts Prez Bill Polian knows what he's doing. Whether it was choosing Peyton Manning over Ryan Leaf, Edgerrin James over Ricky Williams, letting Edge walk and replacing him with Joseph Addai instead of LenDale White ... most of what he touches turns to gold. There are a ton of low-profile draftees as well. This whole team was built via the draft.

That is why it was hardly surprising to see a crop of unheralded rookies exceed expectations Sunday night in Canton.

"There were a lot of really good performances from our young guys that have us excited," Dungy said Monday afternoon.

I'll say.

Look, I understand the game was completely meaningless and many high-profile stars didn't even suit up. In fact, by the time most of these guys shined there were a bunch of dudes playing that won't even make the Redskins final roster.

Good news: Colts sixth-round pick Mike Hart is pleasantly surprised by his NFL experience so far. Bad news: he's still got a lot of work to do to make the team amid a pretty crowded backfield.

"It's a little different," Hart said ... "The only surprise is it's not as tough as I thought it was going to be, as far as practice and those type of things ... It's more laid back."

... "Indianapolis is a different organization. You watch 'Hard Knocks' on HBO and you expect to be hazed and a lot of those things, but the Colts are a lot different. It's not as bad as I thought -- we don't get taped, we don't get hazed with the Colts."

Too bad the Colts didn't draft Erasmus James in 2005. Things might've turned out differently.

Hart, who set the record for most rushing yards by a freshman at Michigan, and left four years later as the school's all-time leading rusher, will be fighting for a roster spot in Indianapolis. Newly (re-)signed Dominic Rhodes and Kenton Keith will battle for the backup/change-of-pace job behind Joseph Addai. If Hart shows well in the coming weeks and months, he could also be in the mix.

The easiest way for low-round picks to make the club in on special teams, and given the Colts have one of the worst units in the league, it might not take much for Hart to sneak onto the final 53.

Notes on a trip to the NFL Scouting Combine.

In the photo, Michigan running back Mike Hart is talking to the media at the Indianapolis Scouting Combine. Hart was smart, funny and articulate, and he'll be quoted in a bunch of newspaper articles tomorrow.

There have also been some little-known, small-college players who talked to the media at this year's Combine, and they won't be quoted in many newspaper articles. The reason is that unlike Hart, they haven't mastered the art of speaking in complete-sentence sound bites that reporters can easily pick up and use for their stories.

In general, the players at the Combine look pretty much the way you'd expect a 22-year-old getting ready for a job interview to look: A little nervous, a little overwhelmed, but trying to put their best faces forward. But it's striking how much better the guys like Hart, who has a great deal of experience with media scrutiny in college, are at presenting themselves than the guys who spent their college years at small schools, without TV cameras in their faces.