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Lee? Fukudome and Zambrano to a lesser extent? That's what I was thinking too. Lee could probably do a little better next year, Zambrano's ERA should be closer to 3 than 4, and Fukudome should hopefully rebound from a terrible second half. I think Soriano and Aramis had down years. They were down from 07 and down from what I expected from them. Of course, Theriot, Soto, Derosa and CF was a lot better than expected.

Unfortunately, the core of the defense is getting no younger. The youngest star, Harris, is already playing like an old man. They still need to add to the offense, but are becoming desperate for fresh blood on defense. At this point, I'm hoping for another defense heavy draft. The QB, RB, and WRs are all pretty young. Olsen is young. The OL will be 2/5 really young with Beekman and Williams next year. Buenning and JSC aren't old either. Bears could use a DE and FS in the first 2 rounds. This draft is heavy in both. I'd get one more young OL in the 3rd. But you have to think about OLB and DT too.

I think DeAngelo Williams is a must-start at this point, even against the Giants. He has been on fire the past 5 or 6 weeks. I would start him over Steven Jackson if it were my team. Yeah, I'm actually starting to consider that. Jackson outscored him last week, though, but DA is more of a must-start at this point. I have til Sunday to decide.

Slaton Lynch Pierre Don't bench Westbrook, ever. If it's a PPR league, you should be ashamed for even thinking about benching him. Don't be fooled by the Monday night game. That was a case of the Eagles taking it easy on him vs. a team they knew they could beat. Two division games for their playoff lives left, Westbrook will get the ball a ton. Also, Westbrook has had great numbers vs. the Skins in his career. Westbrook Slaton Can't go wrong w/ Lynch or Thomas. I think all 4 have big games. I agree. Between Lynch and Thomas though, I'd go with Thomas. They're playing Detroit and he's getting the ball a lot. Weather won't be a factor either. Lynch is coming off of a huge game and the Raiders are coming off of giving up 250+ and 8 ypc to the Patriots

Slaton Lynch Pierre Don't bench Westbrook, ever. If it's a PPR league, you should be ashamed for even thinking about benching him. Don't be fooled by the Monday night game. That was a case of the Eagles taking it easy on him vs. a team they knew they could beat. Two division games for their playoff lives left, Westbrook will get the ball a ton. Also, Westbrook has had great numbers vs. the Skins in his career. Westbrook Slaton Can't go wrong w/ Lynch or Thomas. I think all 4 have big games.

Turner has gotten his yards for the most part. He will get at least 75 yards and a TD, guaranteed, even if it takes him 35 carries. Oh yeah, and I didn't even count that league as being in the playoffs. Your team is really good, Frank Gore was injured for my team, and as you know my team is allergic to beating yours for some reason.

Heh. I hope you lose badly! My matchup McNabb vs. Cutler S. Jackson vs. Barber/Choice Turner vs. Dunn/ Kevin Smith/ Jacobs R White vs. T Owens Boldin vs. R Moss T Gonzalez vs. DeSean Jackson (start flex WR/TE) Akers vs. Crosby Redskins vs. Giants Obviously Jacobs and Barber are his starters if healthy. But the CBS guru (who sucks by the way), projects Dunn and Smith as his best 2 RBs this week. Projection: Me- 148.2, Him- 124.1. I have the edge at every position except projected 1 point worse at QB and DEF.

No. Yes.

Slaton/Jackson Johnson/Johnson

Made it to the championship in one league. McNabb teased me with 5 straight failed redzone trips. Good thing I have Akers too. Won by 4 points on his 4th Q TD. Lost in semis in another (stupid Dallas Clark). I don't really have any tough decisions, just wanted it known! I'm going to start Michael Turner vs. MIN and Steven Jackson vs. SF over D'Angelo Williams vs. NYG.

Schaub Forte Moore Bears Don't ever think about sitting Forte.

So, basically Bears have to win out in any scenario. Vikings either have to lose twice or..... -Eagles have to lose this week to the Skins, but beat the Cowboys to end the season AND -Dallas has to lose to Eagles AND -Falcons have to lose once (Minnesota and St. Louis) This would create a 3-way tie for the 6th seed (Tampa would get the 5, assuming they don't lose to SD and Oakland both). Then the 3-way tiebreaker is: 1. Apply division tie breaker to eliminate all but the highest ranked club in each division prior to proceeding to step 2. The original seeding within a division upon application of the division tie breaker remains the same for all subsequent applications of the procedure that are necessary to identify the two Wild-Card participants. 2. Head-to-head sweep. (Applicable only if one club has defeated each of the others or if one club has lost to each of the others.) 3. Best won-lost-tied percentage in games played within the conference. 4. Best won-lost-tied percentage in common games, minimum of four. 5. Strength of victory. 6. Strength of schedule. 7. Best combined ranking among conference teams in points scored and points allowed. 8. Best combined ranking among all teams in points scored and points allowed. 9. Best net points in conference games. 10. Best net points in all games. 11. Best net touchdowns in all games. 12. Coin toss 1 and 2 don't apply. Falcons, Bears, Cowboys would all be 7-5 vs. the NFC. Bears and Cowboys would both be 3-2 vs. common opponents (PHI, TB, GB. StL). Bears would be 7-4 vs DET, TB, CAR, GB, MIN, STL, PHI, and NO while ATL would be 6-5. I'm not sure how strength of victory would work out w/ Bears and Dallas.

Loving the "defense be damned philosophy this year". That combined with minimal offensive talent is a wonderful combination.

Yeah, I'm guessing something like 6Mil this year for Bradley, with a guaranteed 9-10M next year. Then some sort of team or vesting option for a 3rd year, making the total deal about 3yrs/25-28M.

From what I remember they would've been 3 for 3 on 3rd and 15+ if Brees didn't short arm a ball to Lance Moore when he was completely wide open. The other two were completions on square ins to Colston that were wide open as well. So, you're confirming it was twice. Also, the Saints were 0-3 on 3rd and 9 or 10 (including one they went for and got on 4th down). They did convert a 3rd and 8, though.

What did NO convert two 3rd and longs? I don't think it was that big of a deal.

Probably. And I'd probably do either deal.

Why? Because they're both black? You're not aware that Jones had to endure racial slurs from some of the idiots at Wrigley on a daily basis for most of his stay with the Cubs? Jacque Jones was also terrible. Milton Bradley won't be.

Good game. Orton and Kreutz made that game way more interesting than it should have been. NO moved 32 yards and got 14 points. Got their other TD on a 45 yard drive. Defense played well, despite being on the field too long, other than some weak tackling on Pierre Thomas and 2 bad 3rd and long plays. Anthony Adams was excellent for the 2nd week in a row. I thought Nick Roach played well, for the first time as a starter. Briggs was a beast as usual. I thought both DEs did well. Graham was solid again and took Lance Moore completely out of the game, other than 5 extremely short passes. In fact everyone on D played pretty well other than Kevin Payne, who did nothing. Hester beat his man all night, and sometimes beat two men. His route running was superb! Best I've ever seen him. He knew where to be in the zone. He was aggressive in his routes. Both pass interference calls though were balls he needs to catch. He was clearly impeded on both, but was free by the time the ball hit off his hands.

We don't have a great shot at the playoffs even with a win tonight, but I'm still getting nervous as losing will give us like a 2% chance (vs. like 20% right now and 35% if we win) Agreed. But things can change a lot by the end of the weekend. Dallas and Atlanta are both favored by less than 3 at home against playoff likely teams. Minnesota is a 2.5 underdog on the road vs. a playoff team. If the Giants, Cards, and Bucs win (which is very conceivable), the Bears odds will go up further as they move technically closer to the division lead and create at least a 3-way tie with ATL and Dallas, which the Bears would actually own the 3-way tiebreaker at that point. Of course, they would still be behind the Eagles and Skins if they win, but they play each other next week to take care of that.

Don't let this go to the 2nd page. The season comes down to tonight (and probably every week hereafter).

Im going with Turner in that same situation. Pick Two Roddy White Calvin Johnson Andre Johnson. The Johnsons both have terrible contracts Always start Andre. And I'd probably go with Calvin. Roddy White has had 1 good games vs. Tampa in his career, that was as a rookie.

Yeah, M's made out in that deal. I'm surprised that's all it took for the Indians to give up Gutierrez.

I think Bradford WILL win it. I think Tebow SHOULD win it. I think McCoy has the best stats.

I'll add a Saints fans stamp of approval onto this post. Saints are pretty much fried toast in games in those elements. Only consolation is that Reggie looks to be back from the DL playing very well and Pierre Thomas has never played as good as he has recently. Bears win. The Saints are going to stomp the Bears. Cold weather, unless accompanied by snow or rain, doesn't mean a thing. It is much harder to run a vertical passing game in the cold. Need to wear gloves or lose feeling in your hands, the football is hard, tougher to stay loose for the receivers. Not saying it is impossible, just that it would be crazy to think the Saints wouldn't much rather be playing in their dome than outdoors in Chicago. Fine but its irrational to think that the Bears passing defensive ranking jumps 20 spots if the temp at game time is 20 degrees or cooler. No more irrational than dismissing the Saints being 1-5 on the road. The outdoor cold night clearly plays in the Bears advantage in a game againt the dome-homed Saints. Yes, actually, its much more irrational. The Saints 6 road games were played against teams not named the Chicago Bears, who now currently have the 28th ranked passing defense. The cold might be an advantage, but not like the advantage of having the number one ranked passing offense versus the 28th ranked passing defense. Well they did lose to the 23rd and 27th rated pass defense on the road this season...(Atlanta and Denver) I was coming to post this. You can't just completely rule out the Saints road troubles (historically actually) because they have the #1 pass offense. Otherwise, they'd be better than 1-5 on the road. And I pointed out before, they got blown out twice on the road. Came back late twice to avoid blowouts. And blew a 2-TD lead once in their road losses.