Jets vs Bengals: What to watch for.

Hopefully the rain gods show us mercy and hold off tonight so the Jets can play their second preseason game against the Bengals. There are a lot of story lines to watch out for tonight and I'm just going to mention a few.

1.) Plaxico Burress makes his Jets debut. I’m not expecting big things from Plax tonight maybe 2 catches, one in the red zone for a TD. It will be interesting to see how his legs are; playing in an actual NFL game is the only way to get your legs back. Having said all that, it will be interesting how the ball is spread around between Holmes, Plax, Mason, and Keller. The Jets have awesome weapons on offense and I’m interested in what plays Schotty is going to call tonight, I think it will work out well, especially in the red zone.

2.) How will LT look? Last year LT came out in the pre-season and looked like an absolute beast, taking away the starting job of Shonn Greene. This week I’m looking forward to what LT has left after slowing down at the end of last year, which is important to me because I’m not completely sold that Shonn Greene can stay healthy a full season/ be the feature back. In last week’s game LT didn’t get much work, 1 carry for 4 yards to be exact, but I expected as much in his new role as a 3^rd down back.

3.) How good are the Jets other RBs? Let’s say my skepticism is right, and Greene misses a couple weeks, I want to make sure we have solid running backs behind LT. Again, with Greene out this week Bilal Powell and Joe McKnight look to get more playing and I have to say I like what I saw from both in the game against the Texans, granted it was against 2^nd stringers.

4.) The Rookies Mo Wilkerson and Kenrick Ellis. Both had solid games vs. Texans, but neither really jumped out and said, whoa look out for this kid, granted it was their first NFL game ever. I’m particularly interested in watching Ellis, who with Sione Pouha out will get more snaps with the 1^st string.

5.) The Aaron Maybin experiment begins. "He served a hard, 2-year sentence in Buffalo and just got his release papers." Our always out-spoken LB Bart Scott strikes again. The guy was a bust in Buffalo and has justly been given the Vernon Gholston tag, both of whom have yet to record a sack. Jets fan will be interested to see if Rex can get anything out of this kid, who unlike Gholston, actually sounds like he loves the game of football. All the Jets need him for is to fill Jason Taylor’s role from last year as a situational pass rusher, it was a nice low risk/high reward kinda deal.

6.) Most Importantly, Mark Sanchez. This observation goes without saying. The kid looked nice against the Texans, whose defense also looked great against the Saints (love that kid Brooks Reed), but that’s a very small sample size. This week he’ll get more snaps and we can have a better look at Captain Sanchize, and like I mentioned above, it will be interesting to see how the offense will look with these new targets and Tom Moore’s influence on Jets OC Brian Schottenheimer.

MMA Rankings: Light Heavyweight

MMA Light Heavyweight Rankings

1. Jon Jones (13-1)- Jones hasn’t been in a fight where he hasn’t completely dominated his opponent. Many thought that would not be the case heading into his championship fight with Mauricio “Shogun” Rua, but Jones made the person who many believe is the greatest light heavyweight of all time look like an amateur. Jones next fight will be against Quinton “Rampage” Jackson at UFC 134 on September 24th.

2. Rashad Evans (15-1-1)- Rashad is coming off an impressive TKO victory over Tito Ortiz and after a 15 month layoff, Evans looked as impressive as ever. Evans is now the clear cut number one contender after the Jones, “Rampage” bout concludes, so for right now, the biggest possible fight at light heavyweight is Jon Jones vs. Rashad Evans.

3. Quentin “Rampage” Jackson (32-8)- Coming off of two wins, “Rampage” is in a position to regain the light heavyweight title after losing it to Forrest Griffin back in July of 2008. Jackson didn’t look amazing against Lyoto Machida or Matt Hamill, but he did enough to win and with “Rampage”, you have to remember that there are fewer more dangerous fighters than him. If Rampage can tap into what made him great in Pride, then Jones might be in trouble.

4. Mauricio “Shogun” Rua (19-5)- He drops to number four from one due to the fact that there are so many question marks regarding his health. Rua’s cardio against Jon Jones coming off knee surgery was sub par to say the least and “Shogun” has a history of cardio problems following knee injuries (see the fight against Forrest Griffin/Mark Coleman). Rua now has a rematch against Forrest Griffin at UFC 134 in Rio, on August 27th. If “Shogun” wins that fight, then he is right back in the title picture, but if he loses, then Rua’s best days are probably behind him for good.

5. Lyoto Machida (17-2)- After back to back (some would say back-to-back-to-back) losses to “Shogun” and “Rampage”, Machida scored a karate kid-esque knockout over in MMA legend Randy Couture. The light heavyweight division is stacked right now, and Machida is quickly making his case for a title shot. After “Rampage” and Evans, he is next in line without a doubt, but he’ll probably have to fight once more in the meantime.

6. Phil Davis (9-0)- It might be a little premature to rank Davis this high, but like Jon Jones, it would be silly to overlook someone who shows flashed of dominance in every fight. He hasn’t finished top guys in the fashion that Jones has quite yet, but a win over Antonio Rogerio Nogueira is huge for someone so early in their career and Phil Davis wasn’t exactly a massive underdog against Rashad Evans before he had to pull out with an injury. 2012 could be Davis’ year to push his way to he top of the division.

7. Dan Henderson (27-8)- The old man still has it. Since winning the Strikeforce light heavyweight championship, Henderson is yet to defend the belt, however, he did score a second round TKO in a mega-fight against Fedor Emelianenko. Henderson’s Strikeforce contract is up sooner than later, and it wouldn’t be surprising to see him in the UFC making a run at their light heavyweight belt. He might be turning 41 in a few days, but “Hendo” still poses a problem for any opponent he faces.

8. Forrest Griffin (18-6)- Since the Anderson Silva debacle back in August of 2009, Griffin has quietly been on a two fight winning streak with wins over Tito Ortiz and more recently, Rich Franklin. Griffin’s next challenge will be a rematch against “Shogun” next weekend in Brazil and if Forrest can pull off another upset, then he propels himself right back into the title picture.

9. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira (19-5)- Nogueira was set to fight Rich Franklin at UFC 133, but the bout was scrapped. Nogueira is coming off back-to-back losses and badly needs a win to stay relevant in the light heavyweight division. His boxing background gives him the ability to stand toe-to-toe with anyone in the division and his jiu-jitsu is second to none in the division as well. Nevertheless, he needs a win as bad as anyone else in the UFC.

10. Gegard Mousasi (31-3-2)- Once was one of the biggest prospects in MMA, but after a loss to Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal, his stock dropped a little bit. However, since the loss, he has won three of his last four and the draw was a fight where he had a point taken away from him against Keith Jardine. Mousasi is only 26, and can be a force in the division for years to come, but he needs to get back on the map with a big win. Also, if anyone is interested in a pointless/random fact; Mousasi and Fedor have the same win/loss record at 31-3.

NFL Season Preview: South

NFC South

Saints (2010: 11-5) (Proj. 11-5)- I’m kind of only saying they’ll be good because ESPN thinks they’ll be good. Drew Brees is a top 5 QB and the Saints have a dynamic running game. Their defense is suspect, but that hasn’t been too big a problem for them pver the past couple of years. Losing to the Seahawks was pretty embarrassing though

Falcons (2010: 13-3) (Proj. 10-6)- For the Falcons it’s all about getting pressure on the Quarterback. Fans can be heard yelling at their games: “Pressure the Quarterback FalcoNs”. That, and their new and improved receiving core should help get the Falcons back to the playoffs after an amazing year in 2010

Bucs (2010: 10-6) (Proj. 8-8)- Apparently Josh Freeman is really good. Maybe he’ll be a breakout star and the Bucs and Falcons can switch places. I wouldn’t be surprised

Panthers (2010: 2-14) (Proj. 2-14)- How does the team with the worst record in the league the previous year, get stuck with the #1 hardest schedule? There’s no reason to believe they will be any good this year and luckily for all the 3-13 teams, they won’t be taking Andrew Luck, but maybe they’ll regret it in five years. Or maybe Cam Newton will be Michael Vick 2.0

Is Phil Hughes the Yankees White Knight?

About week or 2 ago I was listening to 1050 and they were having people call in to get their opinion on who the Yankees 5 starters should be, because at the time there were a lot of questions about the rotation outside of CC and Colon. Many listeners said that they didn't trust Hughes to come back to the form he had in the 1st half of last season.
Fast forward 2 weeks, with Garcia on the DL, Hughes has been looking very good. In his past 4 appearances, Hughes is 3-1, that blemish however, came in a bullpen appearance against the Red Sox, a game the Yankees wanted, badly. But since, Hughes has looked good and last nights game he was topping out his fastball at 93 mph, more importantly he consistently stayed in the 91 mph range. But what made last nights performance impressive, was the mix of change-up's, cutters and the occasional curveball.
With Colon looking like he is running out of gas, AJ being AJ, and Nova being very inconsistent, Hughes is arguably the Yankees 2nd best option behind CC. That's a huge turn around from two weeks ago when Yankee's fans wanted Hughes to be optioned back to Triple A. Hughes will be coming into the post-season fresh and I believe will have a huge impact on what Girardi's rotation for the playoffs will look like. Remember folks, in the playoffs pitching wins games, just ask Andy Pettitte.

MMA Rankings: Heavyweight

MMA Heavyweight Rankings

1. Cain Velasquez (9-0)- Cain is coming off a shoulder injury that has sidelined him for the better part of the past year. Nonetheless, he’ll make his return at UFC 139 against #2 heavyweight Junior dos Santos.

2. Junior dos Santos (13-1)- Shane Carwin vs. Dos Santos was expected to surely end in a knockout, but in his last two fights, Junior has been unable to finish his opponent. Fortunately for him, he has won back to back lopsided decisions. Dos Santos vs. Velazquez is going to be a rivalry for many years to come at heavyweight.

3. Brock Lesnar (5-2)- Yes, he’s 5-2 in his career and has been sidelined with an injury, but he did lose to the current champ and there hasn’t been a ton of activity at the top of the heavyweight division in the past few months, so Lesnar backs into the number three slot. He was scheduled to face Junior dos Santos after season 13 if The Ultimate Fighter wrapped up, but due to his illness returning, he was unable to. It was a fight where many considered him the favorite as well. Lesnar is rumored to be fighting Alistair Overeem at UFC 140.

4. Alistair Overeem (35-11, 1 No Contest)- The only thing keeping Overeem out of the number three spot was his lackluster performance against Werdum. However, it’s hard to deny how dominant Overeem has looked since his transition to heavyweight. What’s keeping him out of the number one slot is the lack of top notch competition he has fought in order to look as dominant as he has. That is all about to change though, as Overeem is apparently deep into negotiations with the UFC after an abrupt end to his career in Strikeforce.

5. Fabricio Werdum (14-5)- His big win against former number one heavyweight Fedor Emelianenko doesn’t seem to hold as much water considering the “Last Emperor” is now coming off his third loss, but Werdum did enough against Overeem in his Strikeforce grand prix fight to still be a top five heavyweight.

6. Antonio Silva (16-2)- After a loss to Werdum back in November of 2009, Silva has managed to run off three wins including a second round stoppage of Fedor. Silva has the potential to move into the top tier of heavyweights and a win in the Strokeforce heavyweight grand prix would be a perfect start.

7. Frank Mir (15-5)- They weren’t pretty, but Mir’s back to back wins against Mirko “Cro Cop” Flipovic and Roy Nelson have kept him afloat in what usually tends to be a shallow heavyweight division. On a side note, I am SO SORRY for that AWFUL pun. I should be shot for that last sentence, and didn’t intend to type it, but after I realized it, I had to leave it. Mir is always lurking around the title picture, so if he can pull off one more win, he might be looking at a number one contender fight some time soon.

8. Shane Carwin (12-2)- It’s hard to just put Mir over Carwin due to the fact that Carwin beat Mir, but Carwin hasn’t looked good in his past two fights and even though they were against the number three and number two ranked heavyweights, he still lost and didn’t look so great in doing so. No one has heard anything about Carwin’s next fight, but he is always dangerous and can end a fight at any time. That’s what happens when you hit like a truck.

9. Sergei Kharitonov (18-4)- Ever since he handed Overeem his only loss as a heavyweight, Kharitonov’s stock has been rising. Yes, he suffered a setback against Jeff Monson back in April of 2009, but he has a good enough hands to put a lot of quality heavyweights down quickly. Kharitonov will now advance to the semi-finals of the Strikeforce heavyweight grand prix to fight the #10 best heavyweight; Josh Barnett.

10. Josh Barnett (30-5)- After testing positive for steroids for a third time and singlehandedly bringing down an entire MMA organization, Barnett made his return to MMA after an 11 month hiatus. He defeated Brett Rogers by submission in the quarterfinal round of the heavyweight grand prix and will now face Sergei Kharitonov.

Jon Jones Workout Videos

I wish I thought of that idea first, but unfortunately Yahoo beat me to it. It's still a pretty cool feature that Yahoo has been doing for awhile now and this week features UFC light-heavy weight champ Jon "Bones" Jones.

The videos can be found HERE and they show everything from some crazy exercises Jones does, to his diet/nutrition program, to his really weird meditating thing he does before his fights. Then again, he is probably the most dangerous man on the planet right now, so if I was going to fight anyone I would probably mimic Jones' every move.

In his first title defense, Jones will take on Quinton "Rampage" Jackson on September at UFC 135.

Fantasy Football 2011: Ten Draft Commandments

All of my friends know I love rap, in particularly Biggie, and he had a song in 1997 called the “Ten Crack Commandments”, one of my favorites, but I’m not here to give you advice on how to run your dope game. I am, however, here to give you some tips to use on draft day to help win you that elusive fantasy football championship. “And if you follow these rules, you’ll have mad bread to break up”.

I like this tier sheet, I would make a couple changes but for the most part it’s very niiice. (Just a not I’m not a huge Vick fan, sophomore slump anyone?)

So here are my Ten Draft Strategy Commandments:

(Based on a league w/ 1 QB, 2 RB, 3 WR, 1 TE, 1 Flex, 1 D/ST, 1 K)

Rule 1: Don’t draft a QB in the 1^st round, unless you want to waste a pick. In the NFL there are 32 teams, in our fantasy leagues there are 12 teams, meaning there are only 12 starting QBs in your league. There is also a lot of good depth at QB that can be had at later rounds. According to fantasyfootballcalculator.com the Average Draft Position (ADP) in a 12 team league of Matt Schaub, Matt Ryan, and Ben Roethlisberger are 60.4, 62.5, and 72.1 respectively. Basically that means you can fill your roster with 2 (or 3) RBs and a WR before getting your QB. It’s an awesome strategy that some people don’t like, but I love.

Rule 2: Draft a backup QB, please! QB’s are easily hurt, it happens all the time. But don’t draft a backup with a high pick. Draft a high upside guy like Mathew Stafford or Mark Sanchez who won’t be starters but both have huge potential, especially Sanchez. He has a bunch of offensive weapons and the playbook has opened all the way up for him this year, Rex Ryan is saying it’s your time to shine kid.

Rule 3: Why O Why would you draft a TE before you have filled your RB, QB, and WR’s. Ok, I couldn’t think of a shorter title, but the rule remains, draft a TE after your other roster spots are filled. The TE position is grossly deep and you don’t want to draft a TE with a high pick, which most people do, wasting the pick on the likes of Gates, Finley, or Clark. All of the aforementioned were injured at some point last year. You can take that pick and invest it in a RB who could easily get 200 fantasy points for you. In the later rounds you can always look to Keller, Hernandez, Gronk, or Jimmy Graham.

Rule 4: Draft a whole lot of running backs. Like the old saying goes, you can never have enough of a good thing. In my personal league, RBs are king because QBs only get 4pt/TD so your RBs are the key to winning, even if your league format is QB 6pt/TD. However, 2^nd or 3^rd tier RBs are harder to predict because they touch the rock often, raising their injury risk. It’s nice to have a choice at RB, especially your flex position. Not to mention, you might hit the jackpot with a late pick that turns out to be this year’s Arian Foster.

Rule 5: Watch out for crowded backfields. Head coaches jobs are to win football games, not get our fantasy player 20 points a game. Therefore stay away from backfields that have a few good RB’s. I love Ryan Mathews, yes even after last year’s debacle he’s got great skills, but I wouldn’t waste a high pick on him because Mike Tolbert is there to take away touches, especially in the Red Zone. I would also say the same thing of LeSean McCoy; the iggles didn’t bring in Ronnie Brown to get water.

Rule 6: Always fill a RB/WR/TE spot with a running back. This rule is based on pure logic. Would you rather fill it with a player who gets 5-10 targets a game or a player who rushes the rock 15-20 times a game? I’ll put money on the RB getting 15 touches a game to give your team more points. If you follow Rule 4, then you’ll have a plethora of RBs to choose from.

Rule 7: Know your ADP’s. Average Draft Position. I mentioned ADP in Rule 1, and I’ll go into it more in depth with this rule. Say that you’re in love with Kevin Kolb now that he has Larry Fitzgerald to throw to, and you think he’s prime for a breakout year, but you don’t know when to draft him. Look at your websites ADP. I use yahoo, and they give the ADP in the actual draft, everything now-a-days is right in front of you. According to fantasyfootballcalculator.com, in drafts Kolb is going in the 9^th round, if you want to reach for him in the 8^th or 7^th, that’s cool, just don’t any earlier than that otherwise you’re wasting a pick on someone who could have been had in later rounds.

Rule 8: It’s iight to reach. If you like a player, like the example I mentioned in Rule 6, you can reach for him, just don’t reach too far. If you like Kolb that much, get him but be mindful of what round you’re taking him in.

Rule 9: Don’t take a D or K until the last 2 rounds. Yea sometimes defenses have amazing games, but most D’s do, so there’s really no point in picking one up where you could have had a break out WR or RB instead. Same thing goes for K. For the most part, D or K won’t win the week for you.

Rule 10: Mock draft, be flexible, and don’t outsmart yourself. Like they say practice makes perfect. Mocking can help you understand ADP better and you will develop some tactics. But that leads me to this, BE FLEXIBLE, in your league some players will be better or worse draftees than the people you’re mocking with, so the plan you have and the players you want might not be there. But because you know your ADP’s and did a lot of mock drafts you will know the next best player for your team. Don’t outsmart yourself by taking too many risks, which usually backfire. Play it smart, stick to your strategy and adjust when you need to adjust and you will have a nice squad.

Happy Drafting Everyone and Good Luck!!!