Three weeks into the season, many patterns have emerged. But even if you're 0-3 in fantasy land, hope is just a few smart moves away. 0-3 in NFL land, well, start paying attention to players on Saturdays.

The best thing anyone can do is to take advantage of some poor starts and to go out and get someone who may be undervalued. It's always about value.

A good place to start is with players who just had their bye week. Not only will you not have to worry about sitting them later on in the season, but their stats don't look as good as most everyone else. Jake Delhomme is a good example here. Not too many people have missed noticing the Jets are off to a great start, so Chad Pennington probably won't be cheap. But Jake is in a new kind of offense this year in Carolina. I think he'll put up some decent numbers for the value he's at right now.

At running back, I can think of no better opportunity than Rudi Johnson right now. With the patches that offensive line has had to put together, and Carson Palmer's first few starts, it's not surprising that Rudi hasn't had a big game yet. But he's still had decent numbers so far this season. And remember what kind of runner he is. He's Jerome Bettis minus 30lbs. The cold months should be his months. It's also not a bad idea to take a shot at LT. He started slow last season too and really finished well.

Wide Receivers are usually the easier bunch to pick up as the season goes on. But consider what the Kerry Collins change will do to Jerry Porter's future. Also Tyrone Calico has yet to play a game, and maybe somone has given up on him.

Some other notes around the National Football League.

• The NY Times (subsc) has this story about Tiki being the featured back. Every year people seem to write him off, he comes back like this.
• In his Monday press conference, Mike Martz answered questions regarding his lack of balance by saying "You can find another coach then. We're going to play fast and furious. That's what we do." Here's an article with more detail.
• Lee Suggs expects to be back this week. Butch Davis comments on the offense.
• Stecker has impressed Coach Haslett.
• Brad Johnson will remain the starter. At one point during Sunday night's game, I think I saw Gruden say something to him about how he was finishing that game no matter what. That's what it looked like, at least. I think Gruden underestimated the effect bringing in Simms last week would have. It's almost to the point where you can't bench the QB to light a fire under your entire team like it used to be done. Like it's done in hockey with the goaltenders.
• Seahawks defense is getting a lot of recognition. They've played 2-1 NO, 0-3 TB, and 0-3 SF. I'm not saying they're not good, but let's wait and see.
• Steve McNair is still in the hospital. Status for Sunday still uncertain.
• Interesting story out of Green Bay about two of their CB's getting into a fight after the week 2 loss to Chicago. With that and the whole Mike McKenzie situation, it's no wonder they looked so bad against the Colts.
• With not exactly the same violence, Joey Harrington talks about Tony Siragua's sideline comments.
• Anquan Boldin may be back by October 31.

- posted by jrf @ 9/28/2004 03:39:00 PM