The Best of the Rest: Week Fourteen All-Waiver Wire Team

All Aboard the Blaine Train

The playoffs began Thursday for many of us, and all the work we have put in all season has boiled down to a handful of one-week matchups. During playoff time, the opponent of your player becomes nearly as important as the player himself. I’m not a proponent of benching Julio Jones because he gets Josh Norman twice in the next three weeks. I couldn’t live with myself if he blew up on my bench and a down-the-roster WR I started in his place nets me three points. That’s a bitter way to go into the long, dark offseason. Still, there are instances where we need to get our stream on. Best of the Rest has been here to help you out all season long, and as we go into the playoffs, I still have your back.

QUARTERBACKS
Jameis Winston versus New Orleans (46%)
While Jameis hasn’t done too great recently outside of his five touchdown game against Philadelphia, he has massively cut back on his interceptions, which were his big bugaboo at the beginning of the season. He’s thrown three total since his week four four-interception performance. He takes on a New Orleans squad that is literally the worst against opposing quarterbacks. The last time they yielded only one touchdown was week four against Brandon Weeden. This was also the only time a quarterback only scored one touchdown against them this season. In four of their last five games (including fellow rookie Marcus Mariota), quarterbacks have thrown at least four touchdowns against the woeful Saints defense, and firing Rob Ryan did nothing to fix that.

Ryan Fitzpatrick versus Tennessee (45%)
Over the last four weeks, Fitzpatrick is a top-five quarterback, posting multiple touchdowns in all four games. In fact, he has only not gotten multiple touchdowns in a game he finished once (week four against Miami). Last week he carved up that same Miami defense for four touchdowns. He’s been consistent all season long, and is a top-ten quarterback this season on raw points totals, and that’s with his 3.04 point effort in a week he had to leave due to injury. The Titans have been pretty bad against the quarterback this season, as well. In all non-Thursday Night Football games, they have allowed at least two touchdowns to quarterbacks, and Fitzpatrick will continue that trend Sunday.

Deep Dive:
Blaine Gabbert at Cleveland (4%)
Yo Gabbert Gabbert makes his return to the Deep Dive, and likely for the last time. The part-time 49ers quarterback has posted decent fantasy returns since he took the reins, and has been the #12 quarterback over the last four weeks (a four week stretch that include Arizona and Seattle). He has been consistently 16 fantasy points, which isn’t world-beating, but won’t hurt you. Granted he posted 25 points last week, but needed a 44-yard run and a 71-yard bomb in OT to pull that off. He’s racking up decent yardage numbers with his legs and through the air. He’s a sneaky play to pick up 2-3 points with his legs. If you exclude his 44-yard fluke run last week, he is still averaging 24 rushing yards per game this season, which puts him just 4.4 yards per game behind Colin Kaepernick. His yards per rush are also higher than Kaepernick’s. The Browns, like the Titans and Saints, are dismal against the pass, yielding 16.28 fantasy points to pick-six machine Matt Schaub (!!!). Over their last ten games, only now-benched Nick Foles and now-benched Peyton Manning have dropped fewer than 16 fantasy points on the Brownies, and every single quarterback that has played them since they took on Peyton, then Foles, in weeks six and seven has gotten at least two touchdowns (all but Schaub have three or more).

WIDE RECEIVERS
DeVante Parker versus New York Giants (43%)
Over the last couple of weeks, Parker has absorbed fifteen targets from Ryan Tannehill. Though he dropped from ten in week 12 to five in week 13, those five represent more than 25% of Tannehill’s pass attempts last week (he only threw the ball 19 times). He shared the top-target honor with Jarvis Landry. It’s taken some time for Parker to get going, but now that he is healthy (and Kenny Stills is not), he has become the number two receiver for the Dolphins. He’s gotten 22 targets in his last three healthy games, which means that the Dolphins are looking his way no matter who the offensive coordinator may be. They are taking on a middling Giants defense, who has gotten better recently now that Jason Pierre-Paul has rounded into form. He will get the targets this week, and with two iffy defenses, he will likely be getting targets in a shootout.

Torrey Smith versus Cleveland (35%)
If you believe in Gabbert, you believe that someone other than Shaun Draughn will be getting targets this week. With only one healthy tight end left, that someone will be Smith.  The Myth of Joe Haden is just that now: a myth, and the Browns have yielded six double-digit point performers in their last four games. Smith, for his part, has scored against both AFC North teams he’s played this season (Cleveland and Pittsburgh) as his reunion/revenge tour continues. He’s definitely a boom/bust, desperation play, but if you’re a big underdog, you don’t want the solid 6 points from a usual WR4 or WR5, you want the ability to end up with 15 or more, which is a prospect that Smith gives you. Cleveland has given up six touchdowns to wide receivers in the last three games.

Deep Dive:
Brian Hartline versus San Francisco (4%)
If Hartline had his last few weeks at the beginning of the season, his ownership would be 20x what it is now, but Hartline sits at a meager 4%. With Travis Benjamin banged up and Hartline sopping up a whopping 42 targets over his last four games played, Hartline makes a great sneaky deep dive target, given that he’s out there in almost all leagues. That 10.5 targets per game, by the way, puts him above target monsters Allen Robinson, Jarvis Landry, Larry Fitzgerald and Calvin Johnson. Before shutting down the bears receivers last week, the 49ers were getting torched by the Cardinals receivers, and the Seahawks receivers, and every other receiver to play against them. With Johnny Football under center and no real run game to speak of to salt the game away on either side, this one will be a slug fest, with targets abound for Hartline.

RUNNING BACKS:
Tim Hightower at Tampa Bay (34%)
With Mark Ingram suddenly going down for the season with an injury, it is on C.J. Spiller and Tim Hightower to shoulder the load (no pun intended, Ingram owners). While Spiller has been a more useful option in the recent past, he has had issues picking up the playbook and blitzers this season, which means that the Saints are likely to turn towards Hightower over Spiller. Still, one or the other are worst a roster spot to see what happens this weekend. It will be telling, as Tampa Bay is towards the bottom-third in terms of fantasy points allowed to running backs. This is definitely a roster-and-hold situation and not a start Hightower situation.

Isaiah Crowell versus San Francisco (25%)
Unlike Hightower, Crowell finds himself in a plus matchup this weekend, as the 49ers are the worst in the league at stopping the running back (a far cry from the last few years when run defense was their hallmark). Excepting week one’s strange outburst of competency, every single starting running back has gotten at least nine fantasy points against the San Francisco run defense, including 17+ fantasy points to every single running back they’ve faced on the road. Crowell has gotten some carries recently, to mixed results, but if you’re this deep in the running back ranks, you’re desperate as it is.

Juwan Thompson versus Oakland (6%)
A much better option given the situation in front of him is Thompson. C.J. Anderson and Ronnie Hillman are both banged up and neither is a lock to play Sunday. If one of them is out, the timesplit that has developed in Denver will go partially towards Thompson. As Anderson and Hillman shuffle in and out with injuries, Thompson may be able to get a hold on the situation. This is definitely a one-week desperation option, but still an option.

TIGHT ENDS
Vernon Davis versus Oakland (46%) / Owen Daniels versus Oakland (31%)
While Daniels dropped a goose egg in their earlier matchup, we can’t really hold this Broncos offense to the same standard we did the Manning-led Broncos that broke all rules for how terrible and inefficient an offense could possibly perform and still win games. The Raiders are still among the worst against tight ends, but not the absolute worst (New Orleans took that spot). With the Broncos suddenly moving it up and down the field under the guidance of Brock Osweiler, whichever tight end is starting for Denver is a great fantasy option for you this weekend.

Deep Dive
Will Tye at Miami (4%)
Over the last couple of weeks, the Giants have eschewed passes to non-Odell Beckham wide receivers in lieu of targeting Tye. He’s gotten 12 targets over the last couple of weeks, turning in solid returns of 7.4 and 7 fantasy points in both games, entirely on the ground. Miami is middle-of-the-road against tight ends this season, but haven’t done anything to stop tight ends that actually receive targets. They’ve played five tight ends that received seven or more targets, and three of them have scored touchdowns and they are all averaging 6.6 receptions and 85 receiving yards per game. Tye is a decent fill-in for Rob Gronkowski owners who missed out on Scott Chandler.

Best of the Rest: Week Thirteen All-Waiver Wire Team

Jay Cutler says "Start me. Or don't. Like I care."

The Bye weeks are over and we are on the precipice of the playoffs. As such, your rosters should be solidified by now. If they aren't, this week's Best of the Rest has your back! There is a mix of one-week and rest of season options below, so please enjoy.

QUARTERBACKS
Jay Cutler versus San Francisco (46%)
I don’t do ranks, but if I did, Smokin’ Jay would be top three this week behind a suddenly furious Tom Brady-led Patriots team and Cam Newton taking on eleven guys the Saints scraped off Bourbon Street masquerading as a defense. He takes on a 49ers team that has been absolutely dreadful on the road this year, a team that is set to break all records for defensive ineptitude away from Levi’s Stadium. I won’t go into deep depths with Jay Cutler, but here are some sobering facts about the 49ers defense (I say this as a 49ers fan).

Quarterbacks in 49ers road games:
314.4 yards, 2.4 touchdowns, 0.4 interceptions for 23.74 fantasy points per game.
In the “not Nick Foles” category
All QBs have totaled at least 290 yards rushing and passing
All QBs have thrown multiple touchdowns
The 49ers are averaging one interception every other game on the road.

Since Cutler was injured in Seattle, he has played decently: no game under 200 passing yards and 1.5 touchdowns a game. Nothing spectacular, but solid. He’s still a good quarterback, and he will feast on the 49ers’ secondary Sunday

Alex Smith at Oakland (30%)
Smith has played extremely well at Oakland in his tenure as a Chief, passing for over 260 yards per game in his two games there and tossing seven touchdowns in those two games. He’s played solidly recently, and remains a middling option who won’t hurt your team. He’ll provide steady fantasy points. With the running back situation a mess, Smith will frequently turn to Travis Kelce Sunday, and the Raiders are absolutely terrible at defending the Tight End. Nothing flashy, nothing spectacular, but Smith is unlikely to hurt your fantasy squad.

Deep Dive:
Blaine Gabbert at Chicago (2%)
This one is rough because there are only two quarterbacks under 10% ownership that are actually starting, Gabbert and Matt Schaub. So, we aren’t exactly working with a ton of options here. This play is based on the fact that the Bears are likely to end up going up big and playing prevent defense. This works into the hands of the 49ers’ dink-and-dunk offense. Expect a lot of yardage and underneath plays to the running backs and tight ends. Gabbert hasn’t lit the world on fire but he has been competent. This is a complete desperation play but Schaub can’t stop throwing interceptions, so…

WIDE RECEIVERS
DeVante Parker versus Baltimore (26%)
Parker has been in and out of the lineup this season, but in the games he played a decent amount of snaps, he’s averaging 8.5 targets a game. With Kenny Stills out and the Dolphins going up the legendarily awful Ravens secondary, he should get peppered with targets again. He hasn’t gotten empty targets like Jordan Matthews, either, he’s converted seven of them for 120 yards and a touchdown. The Ravens have given up 20 games of over 7 fantasy points to wide receivers so far this season, which means that number two receivers have been feasting against them. Parker may start heating up, so he’s a great speculative add as well as a one-week option.

Eddie Royal versus San Francisco (19%)
This is with the caveat that he actually plays Sunday. He is officially listed as questionable on the injury report, but Martellus Bennett is falling out of favor and Marquess Wilson is out for the game. Royal will be the number two receiver against a 49ers defense that has gotten destroyed by wide receivers on the road this season. For Royal’s part, he’s been a solid option when he plays and the receiving corps is depleted, which may be the case Sunday.

Deep Dive:
Brian Hartline versus Cincinnati (1%)
Last week’s deep dive makes another return. He’s quietly become the number two receiver in Cleveland over the last few weeks, totaling 31 targets in the last three games he’s played. He’s turned this into over 70 yards twice and two touchdowns another time. He’s hauled in 14 targets in the last two games combined, so he is especially intriguing in PPR. The Bengals are middle of the road against wide receivers, but have had bad showings recently, giving up 9 or more fantasy points to receivers six times in their last four games. At 1% owned and no Bye weeks, he’s an extreme desperation play, but also an intriguing DFS option.

RUNNING BACKS
Antonio Andrews versus Jacksonville (48%)
Andrews has taken the majority lead in Jacksonville, and performed decently on Thursday Night Football against Jacksonville a few weeks ago. He’s averaged 4.2 yards per carry the last couple of weeks after his disastrous eight attempts for one yard debacle, so he’s running well. Jacksonville has given up over nine fantasy points to running backs eight times this year. He’s freely available, and is a lead back, so if you’re in a pinch, you could do worse.

Charles Sims versus Atlanta (28%)
One of the running backs that got double-digits against Jacksonville was Sims. He’s had his carries scaled back, and was disastrous in his four touches last week, but he is still at 4.4 yards per carry on the seasons and he’s worth as good a shot as any. Sub-50% owned running backs are a bleak landscape, so banking on the Falcons’ terrible running back defense and Sims busting one long is your best bet if your on-roster RBs aren’t doing the trick.

Terrance West at Miami (2%)
In his first game with Baltimore, he got seven carries and pulled off 37 yards with those totes. That is a good yards per carry, but West isn’t the type of back that will break out for any sort of longish run. If sub-50% running backs are bleak, imagine how bad it is to be scraping under 10%? It’s rough. This is banking on West and Javorius Allen splitting reps and West making maximum use of his. He’s not a great play, but the best of the sub-10% running backs.

TIGHT ENDS
Jacob Tamme at Tampa Bay (35%)
The Falcons put Leonard Hankerson on injured reserve this week, so there are 6-8 targets per game up for grabs in Atlanta. Tamme is already averaging over 7 targets per game over his last four games, and with extra looks to sop up, his production will see a boost. Tampa Bay doesn’t give up a ton of points to the tight end position, but Tamme torched them in week eight to the tune of 10 catches for 103 yards and a touchdown. He’s available in just about 2/3 of leagues, so Rob Gronkowski and Jimmy Graham owners who whiffed on a replacement can easily look towards Tamme this week to fill in.

Austin Seferian-Jenkins versus New Orleans (28%)
The Legend of ASJ grows, as he has been cleared for contact, and he was dominant in the one game he’s played so far this year. He isn’t a strong bet to play this weekend, but is definitely worth a stash for the playoff run. Do it before anyone else does, and if he plays this weekend, temper your expectations. He went for 110 yards and two touchdowns in week one, but was hurt early in week two and hasn’t played since. He’ll need to shake off the rust, but could win seasons down the stretch for you.

Deep Dive:
Will Tye versus Jets (1%)
The Jets have been dominant against the tight end this season, but they haven’t really shut down any great TEs. Only Charles Clay and Rob Gronkowski got more than five targets this season, and Gronk smashed to the tune of 108 and a touchdown (Clay had over 10 yards a catch on his five catches). Tye has gotten 21 targets over the past three weeks, and with the beleaguered Jets secondary doing everything they can to stop Odell Beckham, Jr without Darrelle Revis, things should open up for Tye underneath.

San Francisco Giants Free Agency Primer

Pictured Above: Every Dodger Fan's Worst Nightmare

Major League Baseball’s free agency period started, and the Giants are expecting to be pretty big players in the market this hot stove period. They’ll definitely have some holes to fill. Let’s take a look, position by position.

Position                Catcher
Free Agents       Bleak
Team Status       Set
Free Agency       Highly Unlikely

The Giants’ most popular (and dreamiest) player is their catcher, which is exceedingly rare. Buster Posey isn’t set to become a free agent for another two presidential campaign cycles. He’ll be locked up until 2023, and for 2016, he’ll take the lions’ share of catching duty. He won’t work there full-time, since his backup, Andrew Susac is showing extreme competence on Posey’s DH or 1B days. Susac isn’t going to be a free agent until 2021, so unless he gets traded (unlikely), he and Posey will be sharing backstop duties for the next few years. Hector Sanchez is a perfectly serviceable catcher to stash in AAA in case of injury. He isn’t spectacular, but his usage is ideally rare.

This is good, as the free agent crop of catchers is pretty bad. The most appealing free agent, Matt Wieters, is going to be a 1B/DH hybrid in a few years and is fresh off Tommy John Surgery. Catchers age extremely poorly, so it’s difficult to find a great one in free agency. The Giants are set with Posey/Susac/Sanchez for the forseeable future.

Position                First Base
Free Agents       Top-Heavy
Team Status       Shallow
Free Agency       Middle-Tier Depth

Technically, the Giants have one first baseman on the roster, and that is oft-injured Brandon Belt (I was very careful to word it that way and not “injury prone”), but Posey plays a fair amount of first base (42 games in 2015). Kevin Frandsen, Nick Noonan and Joaquin Arias all saw multiple games at first in 2015. The Giants have a glut of decent infielders, and they plug them in at first base in a pinch. Behind Belt and Posey, it’s more of a committee. This seems to be by design, as the Giants will have a logjam in a few years when they need to start preserving Posey’s knees by moving him to first more and more. Belt is a free agent in 2018, and that’s likely the last season that you see Posey behind the plate and Belt in a Giants uniform. For now, the Giants will likely re-sign Kevin Frandsen and stash him in AAA, to backup both first and third in case of injury.

The free agency market is top-heavy, with masher Chris Davis leading the way and aging Justin Morneau, Steven Pearce and Mike Napoli following him up. If the Giants don’t go after Frandsen, a familiar face (Travis Ishikawa) could make his way back onto the roster as a backup. Kyle Blanks as a OF/1B platoon option is also on the table. The available players don’t match the Giants’ roster needs, especially since it’s one player teams would actively want and a bunch of retreads.

Position                Second Base
Free Agents       Decent-to-okay
Team Status       Deep
Free Agency       2B-only unlikely

Second base this year is highlighted by a handful of top names and a bunch of okay guys that are definitely top-30 at the position but not ideal.  The top free agents at the position, Howie Kendrick and Ben Zobrist, will probably re-sign with their current teams on shorter deals. In a perfect world, the Giants will get Chase Utley to complete my Chase Utley and Hunter Pence on the Giants fan fiction from 2006, but I doubt it will happen.

The Giants have a glut of young talent coming into their own at second base, with Buster Clone Joe Panik leading the way. Kelby Tomlinson likely played his way into a 25-man spot last season given his versatility, and Nick Noonan is also in tow. Barring injury, however, Panik is the only player the Giants will need manning second for the near future. The Giants will probably pick off a middle-tier multi-position guy like Kelly Johnson or Sean Rodriguez as a bench bat out of this group.

Position                Shortstop
Free Agents       Likely to be overpaid
Team Status       Gold Glove!
Free Agency       Don’t need it

Shortstop free agents are a lot of “named” talent that has struggled recently. It’s headlined by Ian Desmond, and rounded out with Jimmy Rollins, Alexei Ramirez and Steven Drew. These guys all have one thing in common: they’re old. Desmond is the youngest of those four and he’s 30. The list thins out quickly, as former Giant Joaquin Arias is a top-ten free agent option at the position.

Brandon Crawford is one of many home-grown talents on this team, and he had been a glove-first bat until this year. He finally broke out with the bat and he, ironically, finally hit well enough to get a Gold Glove nod. Behind him are a couple of super-platoon guys with Ehire Adrianza and Matt Duffy. Duffy will be playing third, but Adrianza is likely to be Crawford’s true backup. The Giants are basically set at short stop and they probably won’t be ponying up any cash to the available options, except maybe Joaquin Arias. The Giants can’t quit him.

Position                Third Base
Free Agents       Awful
Team Status       “Third base can never die, only the players who play it. OH YEAH!”
Free Agency       Oh Dear Lord

The Giants like to have a lot of super platoon players. They love it so much, they make career first baseman Brandon Belt a 1B/LF. Their third basemen, in turn, tend to end up at other positions (Duffy played a lot of 2B in the minors, as well). They will likely use some of their free agent cash on a multipositional player to fill this hole. Their ties to Ben Zobrist make sense here. Free agency is a disaster, with the cream of the crop being some mix of David Freese, Mike Aviles and… Juan Uribe?!

Position                Outfield
Free Agents       Plentiful
Team Status       Desperately need
Free Agency       A target

The Giants were racked with injury in the outfield in 2015, but Angel Pagan was actively detrimental to the team when he wasn’t injured. Desperation showed when the Giants made a move for Marlon Byrd towards the end of the year and every time Brandon Belt ended up in left field. It’s odd that the Giants declined Nori Aoki’s option, but all indications are that they intend to re-sign him once his concussion symptoms clear. Hunter Pence should be completely healed from his various injuries, and should return to his iron man ways (2015 was the first time since 2007 that Pence played fewer than 150 games).

The free agent market is plentiful at all levels. There are massive stars available, with Yoenis Cespedes and Jason Heyward testing free agency. There are solid everyday contributors available as well, like Dexter Fowler, Ben Zobrist and Alex Gordon. The Giants have been tied to Zobrist because they are reportedly enamored with his multi-position eligibility. With the lineup shuffling Bruce Bochy has had to do over the last couple of seasons, can you blame them? The Giants could also get a fourth-outfield type, like a Gerardo Parra or a bounce back candidate like Denard Span. There are a ton of options at outfield, and the Giants are expected to dive into the market headfirst.

Position                Starting Pitcher
Free Agents       Oh, so many
Team Status       Oh, so desperately needed
Free Agency       Top priority

The Giants pitching staff in 2015 was a disaster. They were a combination of has-beens and broken down former stars, but they were mostly paying off their debts from rewarding the staff pieces that brought them three titles in five years. Now, however, Mike Leake, Tim Lincecum, Tim Hudson and Ryan Vogelsong are all coming off the books, which clears a whopping $43,000,000 off the books just from the pitching staff alone.

Three “name” free agents have already linked, two of them superstars, lopping the top right off the market. David Price defects from Toronto to Boston and Jordan Zimmermann completes the Zimmermann-Scherzer Swap as he heads to Detroit to fill out their pitching staff. Two of the top free agents still remain: Johnny Cueto and Zack Greinke. Cueto appears to be linked to the DBacks, Dodgers, Red Sox, Giants and Cubs (per Jon Heyman). He’s already rejected an offer from the DBacks at $20 million a year over 6 years. The Red Sox won the Price Sweepstakes, so that leaves the Giants, Dodgers and Cubs.

Greinke is also tied to the Giants and Dodgers, so now that the Price and Zimmermann dominos have fallen and the market has been set, that means that the Giants are in position to get one of the two Tier 1a free agent pitchers on the market. If you figure they throw $25 million a year at one of those two, it should get it done. For my money, I hope it’s Greinke. Greinke is notably cerebral and the idea of him donning the Orange and Black solely to figure out how to pitch to the dimensions of AT&T Park is the magical concept.

The Giants will still need another rotation arm, but a #3 to go with Greinke (hopefully) and Bumgarner. There are quite a few on the market, but they all carry question marks. Whether it’s the iffy arm of Hisashi Iwakuma or the corpulence and age of Bartolo Colon, or the Yovanigallardoness of Yovani Gallardo, they’ll all have the baggage of uncertainty. The Giants feel like a perfect suitor for Gallardo, apropos of nothing. Given their ups and downs of their rotation last year, however, I wouldn’t be surprised for them to pull down a more consistent, if not flashy, arm like John Lackey or Doug Fister (assuming he bounces back).

The Giants are set to be major players in free agency this season, likely making one flashy splash, a moderate signing and a bunch of depth signings. They have a good nucleus of offense, but they need to work on their pitching consistency and depth. Both of these things absolutely murdered the Giants last season. And it’s an even year, so they pretty much have to.

A Requiem for a Team: The Death of the 49ers-Seahawks Rivalry

Once the face of the franchise, Colin Kaepernick just may have taken his last snap for San Francisco

It was a chilly, but sunny, September 11th at Candlestick Park, the 49ers were slated to take on the Seahawks in the first game of the Jim Harbaugh Era. We ended up with several extra tickets (thanks to the generosity of a future in-law), and one went to a friend who had a tangential interest in football. During the pregame tailgate, we had a good laugh when she donned her San Jose State University sweatshirt. It was blue. But that’s the Seahawks’ color! We all had a good laugh. That was the last day that 49ers could have a good-hearted laugh about the Seahawks.

The 49ers won the game, mostly due to riding Ted Ginn, Jr. kick return and punt return touchdowns. Jim Harbaugh was 1-0, and he had bested two former players (Doug Baldwin and Richard Sherman) who have shown they can carry a grudge, and his former college coaching rival Pete Carroll, who definitely carries a grudge. Nobody realized that day that a rivalry was born. Both teams rose to prominence alongside each other, to the point that there hasn’t been an NFC Championship Game that hasn’t featured at least one of these teams since that day.

In fact, two seasons ago, it featured both of them, and it was that day that the fortunes of the two franchises diverged. With 8:52 left in the fourth quarter, NaVorro Bowman and Patrick Willis converged on Jermaine Kearse, who had just caught a pass. He slipped free of Willis’ grasp, and Eric Reid came flying in to complete the tackle. The force of Reid’s hit pushed Kearse into Bowman’s knee, causing a catastrophic injury that cost Bowman all of 2014 and impaired him for half of 2015. Right up until that moment, the two franchises seemed destined to be NFC heavyweights, battling it out for the right to represent the conference in the Super Bowl. Instead, the 49ers franchise started down a path towards obsolescence that was completed Sunday at Seattle.

The 49ers’ losses have been well-documented. From the time Bowman was carted off the field at Century Link Field in January 2014 to the time he walked off the same field Sunday, the 49ers no longer had on their active roster (including Glenn Dorsey, who was placed on season-ending IR Monday):

Mike Iupati, Jonathon Goodwin, Anthony Davis, Vernon Davis, Colin Kaepernick, Frank Gore, Anthony Dixon, Ray McDonald, Glenn Dorsey, Justin Smith, Patrick Willis, Aldon Smith, Tarell Brown, Donte Whitner, Andy Lee, Kassim Osgood, Michael Crabtree, Perrish Cox, Carlos Rogers, LaMichael James, CJ Spillman, Kendall Hunter, Darryl Morris, Bubba Ventrone, Craig Dahl, Kyle McDermott, Will Tukuafu, Dan Skuta, Daniel Kilgore, Adam Snyder, DeMarcus Dobbs, Colt McCoy, Eric Wright, Nick Moody, Joe Looney, Jon Baldwin and perhaps most importantly, Jim Harbaugh, Vic Fangio and Greg Roman

This isn’t about the personnel losses, this is about the personality lost. For the last few years, fans could circle the matchups on their calendars, looking forward to going to battle with their bitter rivals. Unfortunately, this is no more. The 49ers and Seahawks matched up Sunday, but it had none of the flavor of any of the matchups in the past. Even when the 49ers travelled to Century Link Field for their annual blowout, there was still a sense of nerves as two heavy weights matched up.

The 49ers have not only fully fallen from grace, they have also shut the door on all the main components of the 49ers/Seahawks Rivalry Era. After canning Jim Harbaugh, watching Patrick Willis and Justin Smith retire, releasing Aldon Smith and failing to retain Frank Gore, they traded Vernon Davis for pocket lint and placed Colin Kaepernick on season-ending IR with an eye towards steeply discounting his associated paraphernalia after moving him for a third-round pick in the offseason. The 49ers have moved onto full-on rebuilding mode, even though they won’t admit it.

This aura of defeat surrounded the 49ers/Seahawks matchup Sunday. It was a matchup that had none of the flavor of past matchups, with the Seahawks dominating with two rookies in Tyler Lockett and Thomas Rawls and the 49ers being led by the trio of Blaine Gabbert/Shaun Draughn/Vance McDonald instead of Kaepernick/Gore/V. Davis. It didn’t feel like a Seahawks-49ers matchup, it felt more like a Dolphins-Cardinals or Jets-Cowboys or two other teams that don’t care about each other.

There were no fiery outbursts from Richard Sherman, there was no shots to a grimacing Jim Harbaugh. There were no big hits… well that isn’t true. There was a big hit on Thomas Rawls that shook Tramaine Brock to his core and another big hit that Eric Reid laid on Doug Baldwin. Baldwin caught a ball and was about to score when Eric Reid laid a vicious tackle on him that upended Baldwin and sent him flailing. It was the type of play that in years past would lead to some jawing between the teams and impassioned posturing. Instead, Baldwin and Reid tripped over each other to pat each other on the head to show there were no hard feelings. To be clear, I think sports fights to be pretty dumb, with football fights being the dumbest (punch a guy in full head-to-toe armor… sure), but there was nothing there. Nothing. It was two teams headed in opposite directions and a hit that was clean, but both players implicitly knew that they were delaying the inevitable. There was no way the 49ers were going to stop the Seahawks from scoring from inside the five (and they didn’t).

Fast forward to the predictable result, the Seahawks manhandle the 49ers. There are no fireworks, there is no flash, no pizzazz, no post-game rant or dance from Richard Sherman. The cameras flashed to Sherman, Marshawn Lynch and another Seahawk chatting it up on the sidelines. Obviously they were excited, they had climbed another rung in their search for a playoff berth, but there was none of the passion that we had grown accustomed to over the last few years. It was over, the 49ers/Seahawks rivalry died not with a bang, but with a 200+ yard effort from an undrafted rookie and a game that was never even competitive.

The 49ers and the Seahawks were destined to be one of the greatest rivalries in football, but their fortunes diverged in the NFC Championship Game last January. The 49ers have descended to the depths of the league, a laughingstock whereas the Seahawks have escalated to powerhouse status. They are gunning for their third-straight Super Bowl appearance, and it doesn’t look like the 49ers and Seahawks will be facing off in the playoffs again anytime soon.

I still go to games with my fiancée’s family, the same core group of tailgaters that saw the rise of the 49ers-Seahawks rivalry. Before each game, we would toast to the team before entering the stadium. We invoked the Harbaugh family cry, which became the 49ers rallying cry: “who’s got it better than us? Nobody!” On Sunday, I turned to my fiancée just before kickoff and lamented, “alright, let’s get this over with.”

The battle cry has been replaced with a white flag. 

You Don’t Have to Believe in the Sacramento Kings

Every move the Kings made this off-season was met with stifled laughter at best and outright guffawing and derision at worst. How can this team, owned by a meddlesome technocrat, built by a first-time GM, coached by a legend coaxed out of a cushy TV gig, and headed by a head case superstar, possibly be successful? Every time the Kings made news, their actions were framed by this narrative in the national media.

Granted, they made a lot of unconventional moves. They traded two massive contracts, their first round pick, a future first round pick and the rights to swap two further first round picks to the Philadelphia 76ers for an end-of-roster guy, some draft rights and a massive hole in the salary cap. They threw eight figures Rajon Rondo when nobody else was vying for his services.  Vlade gave Seth Curry a player option for his second year on a small contract, which means it’s likely he only exercises it if he isn’t playing well. They traded Ray McCallum for a Spurs second-rounder, which means for essentially nothing.

They also shored up the bench with Quincy Acy, Marco Belinelli, Kosta Koufos and Caron Butler. They also drafted an incredible defensive force in Willie Cauley-Stein. They also jettisoned two of their biggest albatross contracts to give them roster flexibility in the future. But that isn’t funny, so nobody cares. The national media will only look at the Boogie of it all, the powder keg situation that they won’t believe no longer exists between Cousins, Rondo and George Karl. Zach Lowe put them at five in his annual League Pass rankings for the rubbernecking factor, to watch the Hindenburg in slow motion.

Nobody wants to believe in the Kings, and that’s fine.

Before the introductions in their season opener, Sleep Train Arena was filled with a supercut of audio clips of pundits mocking the Kings’ moves. Players were named specifically. Fuel was added to the fire, and the flames stoked. It’s clear where the 2015-16 Kings are getting their drive. As owner Vivek Ranadive put it:

“It’s an ‘us against the world’ mentality.”

The Kings can’t turn around without finding prime bulletin board material. They aren’t turning away from the criticism, they’re leaning into it. They’re embracing it. They’re a team of ill-fitting head cases and underperformers, or so you say.

They were one of the best starting lineups in the league last year, and their bench let them down. They vastly improved their bench. They had one of the most tumultuous head coaching stories last season, and they settled with a Hall of Famer as their leader. They still have a top-three big man in the league in DeMarcus Cousins and a dynamic scorer in Rudy Gay. There is a lot to be excited out about this team, but nobody wants to see it.

In their opening game, the Kings fell down early to the Los Angeles Clippers, going down double digits based on numerous turnovers. All the work done, for nothing. Same old Kings. But they showed they weren’t the same old Kings. They came storming back and made it a game, they lost 111-104, but it was closer than that, as they even took the league in the fourth quarter. They ended up losing to a team that will be in the race for the Western Conference Finals, led by a modern-day Stockton and Malone. They showed that the moves may not have been rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic, a Titanic that was declared by those outside the team. These Kings have a direction and a purpose. These Kings will get to the playoffs.

They don’t want your belief, they want to earn your respect.

Playing Catch-Up with the 2015-16 Sacramento Kings

The Sacramento Kings get started Wednesday night with the last home opener at Arco Arena Power Balance Pavilion Sleep Train Arena Arco Arena. There were an incredible number of off-season roster moves, so here is a primer on everything that changed with the personnel on-court between last season’s tipoff and this year.

First, the outgoing players.

Here is the final list of players who wore a Kings jersey last season:

Sim Bhullar                                          Andre Miller
Omri Casspi                                        Quincy Miller
Darren Collison                                 Eric Moreland
DeMarcus Cousins                           Ramon Sessions
Reggie Evans                                      Nik Stauskas
Rudy Gay                                             David Stockton
Ryan Hollins                                        Jason Thompson
Carl Landry                                          David Wear
Ray McCallum                                    Derrick Williams
Ben McLemore

Current free agents:

Sim Bhullar (contract ended at end of 2014-’15 season)
Reggie Evans (contract ended at end of 2014-’15 season)
Quincy Miller (signed to Detroit NBADL affiliate February 2015)
David Stockton (waived by Kings in October 2015)
David Wear (contract ended at end of 2014-’15 season)

Free agents, signed elsewhere:

Ryan Hollins (one-year, $1.3 million with Memphis Grizzlies)
Andre Miller (one-year, $1.5 million with Minnesota Timberwolves)
Derrick Williams (two-year, $8.8 million with New York Knickerbockers)

Trades!

February 2015:
Traded: Ramon Sessions to Washington Wizards
Received: Andre Miller

July 2015:
Traded: Carl Landry, Nik Stauskas, Jason Thompson, 2018 first round pick, swap rights for 2016 & 2017 first round draft picks to Philadelphia 76ers
Received: Duje Dukan, rights to Arturas Gudaitis & Luka Mitrovic

Traded: Ray McCallum to San Antonio Spurs
Received: 2016 second round pick

So that’s everybody who was on the squad in 2014-15 that no longer wears a Kings jersey. Only six of the 19 2014-15 Kings are still on the active roster (Gay, Cousins, McLemore, Collison, Casspi and Moreland). Let’s take a look at your 2015-16 Sacramento Kings!

The Incumbents:
DeMarcus Cousins, PF/C
Mercurial, generational talent. Has repeatedly made attempts to rein in his now-famous temper. He’s easily a top-fifteen player in the NBA, but many fear his inability to control his outbursts will stunt the Kings’ ability to succeed. He gets knocked for his defense, but he is actually a great defender. To whit, a few surprising statistics: Cousins was second in the NBA in defensive rebounds per game, and was one of only two players (with Anthony Davis) to average 3.0 blocks + steals and 20 points per game. The Kings truly will go only as far as Cousins will take them, as he is one of the best-rounded players in the league and given the season is fewer than two months after his 25th birthday, Cousins has nowhere to go but up.

Rudy Gay, F
The trade that brought Gay to Sacramento was the first big head-scratcher of the new regime, and many people never got over it. In his time in Memphis and Toronto, he got a reputation as a low-efficiency chucker, and those outside the organization panned trading bits and pieces to get a player of Gay’s talent. In his time in Sacramento, Gay has been the best version of himself. His eFG% is the highest of his career without taking any fewer shots. He’s getting his, but his shots are better in Sacramento. He has a now-below-market-rate contract that will prove to be a steal. He is the premier scorer to Boogie’s elite talent.

Omri Casspi, SG/SF
On his second stint with the Kings, Casspi has become more of a mascot than a real player. Sure, he contributes a bit, but his main talent is running around like a person with his hair on fire. He’s Boogie’s personal headband straightener and the backup small forward. Like I said, he has a high motor but he epitomizes the Kings’ tradition of going too fast for your own good and things subsequently getting sloppy.

Ben McLemore, SG
Ben, Ben, Ben, Ben… Hyper-athletic and can dunk out of the gym. He took a step forward last year after an up-and-down rookie campaign. Coming out of college, he looked to be a dynamic scorer, but his energies have slowly moved towards being an athletic defensive wing player. He takes way too many outside looks for his talent level, which could quickly find him on the bench if Marco Belinelli proves to do the same thing but at a much higher clip. Reports out of Kings camp are that McLemore is “behind the curve,” which could mean that my favorite King since Peja may find himself coming off the bench anyway.

Darren Collison, G
A really, really good point guard last season who I once called “the platonic ideal of a backup point guard.” He sure showed me, averaging 16 points, 5.5 assists and 1.5 steals in just about half the season before he went down with injury. It looks like he will start the season as the backup, which means that he’ll be the sixth man (doubly so if Belinelli starts).

Eric Moreland, PF/C
Moreland was a Summer League standout last year that had his 2014-15 campaign cut short with a labral tear in his left shoulder. A bigger Omri Casspi in that he is high energy and low efficiency. He’ll be fighting with Quincy Acy for minutes behind Cousins, Willie Cauley-Stein and Kosta Koufus. He is a definite upgrade from Ryan Hollins in this same position in 2014-15.

The Free Agents:
Rajon Rondo, PG
When many people point to why this iteration of the Kings won’t work, one of the names that comes out of their mouth is Rajon Rondo. Rondo was an incredible point guard in his day, turning the big three of Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen and Paul Pierce into the big four. He was traded to the Mavericks part-way through last season, and it ended in disaster. He and head coach Rick Carlisle feuded, and Rondo was benched and forgotten while the Mavericks were bounced from the playoffs. People point to that as a reason why he won’t work with George Karl in Sacramento. Here’s the thing: he wanted to come here, he wanted to play with Boogie. He wants this. He was traded to the Mavericks, he didn’t want that. Rondo is famously difficult to work with if you get on his wrong side, but the Kings are exactly the side he wants to be on. His pass-first mentality is almost to a fault, and will give up open jumpers to get the assist. This will be frustrating, but he’ll make some sweet passes to make up for it. People will want to point to his time with the Mavericks as the new Rondo, but in the first 22 games (with Boston), he was averaging 8.3 points, 10.8 assists, 7.5 rebounds and 1.7 steals per game.

Marco Belinelli, G/F
A journeyman with his sixth team in eight seasons, Belinelli is a three-point specialist and a scorer first and second. His defense is a bit suspect but when he’s draining dead-eye threes, Kings fans won’t care. He has a low career PPG because he is only averaging just under 23 minutes per game. Offseason interviews with George Karl indicated he craved a shooter like Belinelli, so I expect him to get a good amount of run. Unfortunately, it appears as though this will come at the expense of Ben McLemore.

Kosta Koufos, C
If Darren Collison is the platonic ideal of a backup PG, Koufos is the same for a big man. He’s a beefy plus defensive player who will knock opposing players on their rears, given the opportunity. He grabs rebounds and gets the shots given to them. He played for a few years under George Karl, so he likely made his way back to Karl’s tutelage, where he averaged a double-double per 36 minutes played. A hard worker but unspectacular in any way, he will be getting the starting nod as rookie Willie Cauley-Stein works into game shape. He’s a high-floor, low-ceiling guy.

Quincy Acy, PF
The once and future King, this is Acy’s second stint in Sacramento after he was traded in a salary dump following the 2014 season. Acy’s high energy, big beard and bigger dunks made him a fan favorite the first time around, and he’ll do the same thing this time. He’s moved down the bench from the last time he was here (thankfully), but he should still produce some posterizing moments with his athleticism.

Seth Curry, G
Brother of NBA MVP Seth Curry and guy-who-makes-fake-brother-of-Steph-Curry commercials awkward. He is a poor man’s version of his brother. The Kings curiously signed him to a two-year deal despite him getting almost no other buzz. He blew up Summer League, but so did Ray McCallum. Ideally he gets almost no minutes, because that means something bad has happened to Rondo and/or Collison. At some point this season he’ll have a ridiculous sixty-second stretch of like three three-pointers made.

James Anderson, G/F
A former Spurs first-round pick, but had the unfortunate distinction of playing shooting guard and small forward, which was all gummed up. He hardly got any time in San Antonio (about 11 minutes per game), but got 29 MPG last season for a tanking Philadelphia team. He did very little with that time. There are rumors that he could end up starting over McLemore to get Belinelli to be the scorer of the bench. That’s silly.

Caron Butler, SF
Butler’s best years are long behind him, and he is on the team mostly as a mentor. There will probably be long stretches where he barely plays and times when he will be unavailable for back-to-backs. The former All-Star will provide the Kings with the vaunted veteran leadership, but is firmly behind several players in the SF depth chart.

The Draftee:
Willie Cauley-Stein, PF/C
Defensive monster, UK Wildcat like half the Kings. Reportedly was the player that Cousins wanted, which is why it was immensely stupid that national pundits called his draft pick one to replace Boogie. He is a defensive monster in college and has the athleticism to stop slower guards in a pinch. He isn’t great defensively, but his offensive rebounding and defense are why he was drafted. He will fit in perfectly next to Cousins and will crack the starting lineup when it becomes clear to the team that he can’t keep him out of the lineup. He’ll be fun to watch, at least.

The Trade:
Duje Dukan, PF
Rights acquired in the big ol’ Stauskas for salary relief trade.
I know literally nothing about Duje Dukan. Here is what ESPN has to say:
“Dukan signed a two-year, partially guaranteed deal with his first-year salary fully guaranteed (and $200,000 for the second year), which gives us an indication Sacramento intends to keep him on the roster for the entire season. Having said that, expect him to spend some time down in Reno, as he's an extremely raw prospect, having played fewer than 1,000 minutes in his entire collegiate career. He has got good size and a decent shooting touch, but as it is, he's not ready to contribute on the NBA level, and there's a good chance he'll be receiving a membership card to the "stretch bigs who don't actually shoot all that well" club (32 percent from college 3-point range, 25 percent on 2-point jumpers last season).”

Cool.

The Kings had tremendous overhaul this season, and many think there are too many off-court issues to have any success on-court. In any evaluation, this is the most exciting team since the Webber-Vlade-Peja years. Personally, I see them as the eighth seed and an over-.500 record. They’re going to send Arco out with a bang.

Yahoo! is Already Better at the NFL than FOX, CBS & ESPN

Yahoo! Sports paid $20 million to have exclusive rights—outside of Buffalo and Jacksonville markets—to stream the Bills/Jaguars extra-early London game today. Anybody who has used Yahoo! Fantasy Sports services has had their hearts fill with dread as the servers were down at 9:55 AM on a Sunday Morning. I expected more of the same, given that Yahoo! also had trouble bringing me Community earlier this year. As I type this, I’ve watched the entire football game in HD with limited stuttering and buffering.

I live on the west coast, so this was an early game for me. Last night I saw that you could stream the game directly from the Yahoo! Fantasy Sports app. So I intended to test this… I’m an early riser but being up and coherent at 6:30 AM on a Saturday was going to be a stretch. As I awoke this morning I fumbled for my cell phone and headphones that I left on my bedside table. I opened the app and there was a button for the game, I hit it, fully expecting to sit and wait for it to buffer. The feed popped up immediately, and after gaining its footing, in full HD.

After I got my act together, I switched to my computer. The feed popped up on the Yahoo! home screen, no sign in, no nothing. It was right there. No BS.  I like to run a feed on one half of my screen and work on the other half. Work is usually Twitter/posting on a sports forum. This usually involves a bit of finagling the size of the stream in the other window. Yahoo changed size immediately.

I’m watching and there is a regular commentating crew going on, spouting the normal platitudes about who wants it more and about how a person is a “coaches’ coach” or a “players’ player,” or other pointless nonsense. Then I was alerted to the Fantasy stream. I like fantasy, I play & write about fantasy, I thought it would be fun just to be something different.

It took the game to another level. They didn’t say who they were, but from what I could gather, it was Brad Evans and a couple of Yahoo bloggers. Cursory research could have found me their names, but this isn’t well-researched sports opinions. This alternative commentary track was like a Mystery Science Theater 3000 take on the Jaguars best attempts at giving the game away.

Whether it was repeatedly calling out Jaguars cornerback Dwayne Gratz, cheering big hits and touchdowns or the gem “Blake Bortles gonna do what Blake Bortles gonna do” after a Bort interception, the Fantasy audio feed kept me glued to the game. It was early, part of me wanted to go back to bed when the Jags were running wild on the Bills. The only thing that kept me watching was the commentary. It took me, as a half-awake disengaged watcher to someone actively excited to watch the game. It was incredible, like I was watching the game with a group of friends instead of next to a sleepy feline through headphones to not wake up my fiancée.

Overall the Yahoo! experience can only be described as a complete success. The streaming was great, the commentary was exceptional. My only gripe is that there wasn’t great integration of statistics on the feed page, but that can be easily remedied.

I sincerely hope there’s more of this in the future.