http://www.yardbarker.com/content/player/2012 Recent articles about Stephen Gostkowski en-us We are more than half-way over in the Stinky Tee's Expert League as the Bruno Boys have landed their first 8 picks. We added WR's Roddy White and Donald Driver along with QB David Garrard to a team that has 2 RB1's in Frank Gore and Marshawn Lynch, a top WR in T.J. Houshmandzadeh, the best TE in Jason Witten and the best RB3 in the league with Darren McFadden. Our opponents are starting to fill out their starting lineups by drafting K's as well as DST's, which in the minds of the Bruno Boys is not the wisest direction to go unless you are already dominating your draft, and even then the results will be a weaker bench which can really destroy a team once injuries start popping up. The Bruno Boys have filled out our starting QB, RB, WR and TE positions and are going to let the DST's and K's continue to slide as we will eventually be able to fill those positions with a true-bargain in the later rounds. Until then we are going to focus on the opposite of what the majority of our opponents are doing as we will be adding to our bench solidity which can pay off big time when the season starts rolling and teams are in need of certain players. Heading into Rounds 9-11 we will remain adamant about the fact that we will not take a DST unless it is a true bargain and we will not draft a K until the last round. To see how the following three rounds panned out for the Bruno Boys read below! By clicking the link below, you can see the Ninth-Eleventh Round results for "The Stinky Tee's Expert League Live Draft" which took place on Yahoo, August 9th, 2008. Companies that are represented in this league includes Stinky Tee, Sirius Radio, WFan, Fantasy Football Nerd, WINS radio, BMS radio and of course, the Bruno Boys. To read more, click the link... Mon, 18 Aug 2008 23:42:07 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/308642 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/308642 That's right even the Kickers get updated...Jay Feeley Released, Kicker controversy in Saints and Seahawks camp... Mon, 18 Aug 2008 08:02:59 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/307880 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/307880 Bruno Boys Fantasy Football guest columnist Sara Holladay breaks down fantasy football kickers from a statistical perspective. She looked at stats from 2003-2007 and compared final fantasy football rankings for kickers with a slew of other offensive rankings. All of this helped her determine what is the best route to go when you are considering which kicker your should target in your fantasy football leagues. This is a can;t miss article that could help you snag the best kicker available in your draft, without having to take a kicker in the earlier rounds. Dont miss and check it out now... Thu, 14 Aug 2008 00:23:40 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/305707 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/305707 FIO, does a great job looking at what kickers to nab in your upcoming fantasy football draft. Tue, 12 Aug 2008 13:29:01 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/304514 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/304514 Tiered kicker rankings for the 2008 fantasy football season. Tue, 12 Aug 2008 12:17:29 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/304480 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/304480 Tennessee's conservative offense is favorable for field goals, helping Rob Bironas place first in Roger Rotter's kicker rankings. See who else is on the list. Thu, 07 Aug 2008 11:54:03 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/302501 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/302501 It?s late July and that means fantasy football is getting ready to kick off.. Some players are going to come out of nowhere and flat out dominate. Some older players who used to be studs will fall off and some players will be affected by a coaching staff change or a quarterback that leaves town. It is all ways wise to do some research before walking into a draft. The NFL is a copy cat league and there are some trends popping up fantasy owners should keep their eyes on. First running back by committee a lot have teams have made the switch. Darren McFadden or Justin Fargas would be fine backs to have but both players will split time at least early on and they will take carries away from each other. The only team that can pull that off is Jacksonville Fred Taylor and MJD are both worthy of consideration. When looking for a back stay away from Denver, Miami, Tampa Bay, Tennessee and Detroit. The fullback is dead and has given birth to the slot receiver. Wes Welker redefined the position last year and put up crazy fantasy numbers. Expect more teams to follow the trend. If you have a receiver go down to injury or some of them end up on the same bye week you can find value on the waiver wire. The third wide out on a pass happy team won?t be a long term solution but can get you by in a stop gap situation. Last but not least teams that have classified their quarterbacks as game managers are teams that don?t have a fantasy worthy quarterback. Game Manager means 10 of 17 passing 123 yards and no touchdowns. When you think game manager think Damon Huard. Be aware of the unstable quarterback situations in Chicago, Kansas City, Minnesota, Baltimore and San Francisco. Quarterback 1.Tom Brady- New England Patriots 2.Peyton Manning- Indianapolis Colts 3.Tony Romo- Dallas Cowboys 4.Carson Palmer- Cincinnati Bengals 5.Drew Brees- New Orleans Saints 6. Derek Anderson- Cleveland Browns 7.Eli Manning- New York Giants 8.Ben Roethisberger - Pittsburgh Steelers 9.Phillip Rivers- San Diego Chargers 10.Marc Bulger- St. Louis Rams 11.Donavon McNabb- Philadelphia Eagles 12. Matt Hasselbeck- Seattle Seahawks 13.Jake Delhomme- Carolina Panthers 14.Jeff Garcia- Tampa Bay Buccaneers 15. Matt Lienart - Arizona Cardinals Running back 1.Ladanian Tomlinson- San Diego Chargers 2.Adrian Peterson- Minnesota Vikings 3.Brian Westbrook- Philadelphia Eagles 4. Marion Barber- Dallas Cowboys 5.Steven Jackson- St. Louis Rams 6.Larry Johnson- Kansas City Chiefs 7.Frank Gore- San Francisco 49ers 8.Joesph Addai- Indianapolis Colts 9.Clinton Portis- Washington Redskins 10.Marshawn Lynch- Buffalo Bills 11.Ryan Grant- Green Bay Packers 12.Willie Parker- Pittsburgh Steelers 13.Willis McGahee- Baltimore Ravens 14.Jamal Lewis- Cleveland Browns 15.Michael Turner- Atlanta Falcons Wide Receiver 1.Randy Moss- New England Patriots 2.Terrell Owens- Dallas Cowboys 3.Andre Johnson- Houston Texans 4.Reggie Wayne- Indianapolis Colts 5.Braylon Edwards- Cleveland Browns 6.Chad Johnson- Cincinnati Bengals 7.Marques Colston- New Orleans Saints 8.Steve Smith- Carolina Panthers 9.Larry Fitzgerald- Arizona Cardinals 10.Plaxico Burress- New York Giants 11.Torry Holt- St. Louis Rams 12.Wes Welker- New England Patriots 13. T.J. Houshmandzadeh- Cincinnati Bengals 14.Roy Williams- Detroit Lions 15.Dwayne Bowe- Kansas City Chiefs Tight end 1.Antonio Gates- San Diego Chargers 2.Jason Witten- Dallas Cowboys 3.Tony Gonzalez- Kansas City Chiefs 4.Todd Heap- Baltimore Ravens 5.Jeremy Shockey- New Orleans Saints 6.Kellen Winslow- Cleveland Browns 7.Chris Cooley- Washington Redskins 8.Heath Miller- Pittsburgh Steelers 9. Ben Watson- New England Patriots 10.Dallas Clark- Indianapolis Colts 11Vernon Davis- San Francisco 49ers 12.Kevin Boss- New York Giants 13.Greg Olsen- Chicago Bears 14.Tony Scheffler- Denver Broncos 15.Alge Crumpler- Tennessee Titans Defense 1.New England Patriots 2.San Diego Chargers 3.Minnesota Vikings 4.Pittsburgh Steelers 5.Dallas Cowboys 6..Jacksonville Jaguars 7.Baltimore Ravens 8.Chicago Bears 9.Tampa Bay Buccaneers 10.Washington Redskins 11.New York Giants 12.Green Bay Packers 13.Philadelphia Eagles 14.Indianapolis Colts 15.Seattle Seahawks Kicker 1.Stephen Gostkowski- New England Patriots 2.Adam Vinateri- Indianapolis Colts 3.Nick Folk- Dallas Cowboys 4.Nate Kaeding- San Diego Chargers 5.Mason Crosby- Green Bay Packers 6.Shayne Graham- Cincinnati Bengals 7.Rob Bironas- Tennessee Titans 8.Phil Dawson- Cleveland Browns 9.Neil Rackers- Arizona Cardinals 10.Jason Hanson- Detroit Lions 11.Josh Brown- St.Louis Rams 12.Jason Elam- Atlanta Falcons 13.Josh Scobee- Jacksonville Jaguars 14.Jeff Reed- Pittsburgh Steelers 15.Matt Stover- Baltimore Ravens Top 25 Overall 1.Ladanian Tomlinson- San Diego Chargers 2.Adrian Peterson- Minnesota Vikings 3.Tom Brady- New England Patriots 4.Brian Westbrook- Philadelphia Eagles 5.Peyton Manning- Indianapolis Colts 6.Randy Moss- New England Patriots 7.Steven Jackson- St. Louis Rams 8.Marion Barber- Dallas Cowboys 9.Tony Romo- Dallas Cowboys 10.Larry Johnson- Kansas City Chiefs 11.Terrell Owens- Dallas Cowboys 12.Frank Gore- San Francisco 49ers 13..Joesph Addai- Indianapolis Colts 14.Andre Johnson- Houston Texans 15.Reggie Wayne- Indianapolis Colts 16.Clinton Portis- Washington Redskins 17.Marshawn Lynch- Buffalo Bills 18.Ryan Grant- Green Bay Packers 19.Braylon Edwards- Cleveland Browns 20.Carson Palmer- Cincinnati Bengals 21.Willie Parker- Pittsburgh Steelers 22.Willis McGahee- Baltimore Ravens 23.Chad Johnson- Cincinnati Bengals 24.Marques Colston- New Orleans Saints 25.Drew Brees- New Orleans Saints Thu, 31 Jul 2008 13:35:54 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/298770 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/298770 Can Tom Brady reward his fantasy owners with another record breaking season? There's no doubt about his fantasy value and where he should be drafted, but there are many more Patriots you'll want to choose for your fantasy team. Tue, 15 Jul 2008 07:58:45 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/290609 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/290609 2007 Summary: The Saints traded a 4th round pick for Olindo Mare in 2007, releasing the aging John Carney. They were hoping that Mare's strong leg would prevent the 4th down decisions around 25 or 30 yard line that the Saints had to deal with in 2006. Unfortunately Mare had a bad year. First with missed field goals while healthy and then missing field goals while hurt. The Saints eventually picked up Martin Gramatica to replace Mare and released Mare. 2008 Offseason: The Saints resigned Martin Gramatica and drafted Taylor Mehlhaff in the 6th round of the NFL draft. Player summary: Martin Gramatica has been in the league for 9 years, even going to the Pro-Bowl, but started having accuracy problems in field goals longer than 40 yards around 2003. The Bucs stuck with Gramatica until midway through the 2004 season. After being cut he was picked up by the Indianapolis Colts exclusively for kickoffs later that year. Gramatica claims that he had been suffering from a torn abdomen muscle that was surgically repaired between the 2004 and 2005 offseason, but did play with any team during the 2005 season. At the start of the 2006 season Gramatica was signed by the New England Patriots and competed with then rookie Stephen Gostkowski, but lost and was cut. Eventually he ended up with the Dallas Cowboys after Bill Parcells had released an inconsistent Mike Vanderjagt. Gramatica may well be fully healed and back to his once Pro-Bowl form, but only time will tell. Taylor Mehlhaf is a big leg rookie out of the University of Wisconson. Mehlhaff played quarterback in high school and is considered a solid all around football player, despite being undersized for most any position besides a kicker at 5-10 and 184 lbs. Mehlhaff had a very high touch back ratio in 2007 with 42 of 76 kick offs resulting in touch backs. He has kicked in poor weather conditions and is able to hit field goals from 50+ yards out. Mehlhaff had some accuracy issues early in his college career hitting only 70% of his field goals as a freshman, but improved every year and in 2007 made 21 of 25 (84%) with a long of 51 yards. Some have said that he had a slow approach on college game film prompting Mehlhaff to spend considerable time trying to improve that for scouts in the offseason. Only time will tell if Mehlhaff has the mettle to be an NFL reliable kicker. Mueller and Payton have said that it is possible that the Saints could carry two kickers on the roster, as they did for the 2006 season. If Mehlhaff wins the job hands down, look for the Saints to keep only one, but if Mehlhaff shows promise, but doesn't win the job outright, the Saints may keep both with the hopes of developing Mehlhaff during the season. Sun, 13 Jul 2008 21:28:27 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/289936 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/289936 Here are the rankings for kickers going into the 2008 season. To be honest, don't expect me to update or change this list very much between now and the beginning of the season. I just don't care that much about kickers, and neither should you. In standard scoring leagues last season, the difference between the top kicker (Mason Crosby) and the fifteenth ranked kicker (Neil Rackers) was only 35 points, which comes out to a little over 2 points a game. I don't know about you, but there weren't that many games in my fantasy team's season that were determined by 2 points or less. The majority of the kickers at the top of these rankings are on teams that score a lot (Patriots, Cowboys), or teams whose offenses are OK but can't get it into the endzone on a regular basis (Titans, Redskins). If the team can't even almost score on a regular basis, then you will find their kicker near the bottom of the rankings (Dolphins, 49ers). Anyway, don't draft a kicker until your very last pick, if at all. I'd rather pick up an additional "sleeper" pick and wait until the beginning of the season to figure out which player I should drop in order to fill that "K" roster spot. The only exceptions to this rule would be leagues that force you to have all positions filled at all times, and leagues where you have to pay some type of fee per transaction. Fri, 11 Jul 2008 07:26:21 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/289014 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/289014 Tonight, I'll be representing MVN in an expert fantasy football mock draft at one of our partner sites, Mock Draft Central. The site was created to give any fantasy junkie the chance to participate in multiple mock drafts in order to prepare to out draft their league foes when the real draft came around. If you're into fantasy sports at all, it wouldn't be a bad idea to check this site out. It will definitely give you the opportunity to see if that guy you think is a sleeper pick truly IS a sleeper. In the spirit of being prepared to 'represent,' I tallied a list of top 5's at the QB, RB, TE, WR, and K positions. Let's see how I did... Mon, 30 Jun 2008 12:38:56 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/284218 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/284218 Full Disclosure: I (Joel Stubblefield) hate the New England Patriots. I'm not sure why, but the overall smugness of the entire organization is really annoying to me. So what can be said about the 2007 season for the New England Patriots that hasn't already been said? Contributing greatly to my overall happiness, they didn't win the Super Bowl. But, they did complete a perfect 16-0 regular season, and had some incredible performances fantasy football wise. In fact, if you owned Tom Brady, Randy Moss, or Wes Welker in many leagues, you had quite the season. Brady, perhaps my least favorite player on the planet, was absolutely surgical last year. His final numbers of 398 completions, 4,806 yards, and 50 touchdowns were simply filthy. Moss managed a bounce-back year of epic proportions, harkening back to the days of purple and gold in the Metrodome and totaling 98 receptions, 1493 yards, and 23 touchdowns. Welker? What's 112 receptions, 1175 yards, and eight touchdowns? Paltry compared to Moss. Of minor disappointment, however, was Laurence Maroney, who likely cost you a first round pick, finishing with 835 rushing yards and six touchdowns. There's reason for excitement for Maroney owners in keeper leagues, however, as we'll get to later. Make sure to read more of what Bruno Boys Fantasy Football staff writer Joel Stubblefield has to say about the New England Patriots and their fantasy football worthy players heading into the 2008 season by clicking below... Thu, 26 Jun 2008 00:59:34 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/282487 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/282487 Since joining the world of sports journalism, we, the Bruno Boys, have felt the family welcome us with open arms. With that being the case, we'd like to introduce you to our "wacky uncle," Dave Dameshek, host of "The Dave Dameshek Show" airing weekdays on 710 ESPN – Los Angeles from 4 to 7 p.m. Dameshek not only knows his sports, but also his comedy. Don't believe us, just ask Jimmy Kimmel, who Dameshek used to write for on "The Jimmy Kimmel Show." Dameshek was kind enough to take time out of his busy schedule and help the Bruno Boys out by answering some fantasy football questions we threw his way. So, enjoy our "wacky uncle" Dave Dameshek below. Make sure to read more of Bruno Boys Fantasy Football co-owner Mike Whooley's interview with Dave Dameshek for even more fantasy football insight heading into the 2008 season by clicking below... Wed, 18 Jun 2008 01:19:48 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/279248 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/279248 On a cold, wintry night in Denver, eight fantasy football experts gathered for one of the first Mock Drafts of the 2008 season. They represented a wide variety of backgrounds and companies, each bringing a unique perspective to the drafting process. The league starts one quarterback, two wide receivers, two running backs, one tight end, one flex (wide receiver or running back), one kicker, and one defense. The league is scored using a standard Yahoo scoring system, with the only exception being all receptions count for one point. Now, onto the results! Fri, 15 Feb 2008 12:48:06 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/144110 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/144110 Super Bowl 42 is over, as well as the Patriots' chase for perfection. The underdog Giants accomplished what no other team could do: They beat the undefeated Patriots. The G-men were the first NFC team in history to enter the playoffs as a Wild Card and go on to win the Super Bowl. New York's defense was astonishing. Eli Manning refused to fold under the pressure and led his team to victory in the final minutes. While it wasn't a high scoring affair, this game managed to live up to its hype. Even in a sensational game, there were some "Cellar Dweller" moments. Wed, 06 Feb 2008 00:59:00 -0500 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/128278 http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article/128278