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While some of the young quarterbacks struggled in week three of the preseason, I do not believe that will be the case for Colin Kaepernick. Harbaugh has kept Kaep restricted for limited plays, and rightfully so, as the 49ers do not have the same depth at backup they did a year ago. Speaking of their quarterback depth the 49ers did trade for and land Seneca Wallace to compete against a handful of others. Those include BJ Daniels, Colt McCoy, and Scott Tolzien. In my view BJ Daniels will be kept as the third string quarterback for his upside and how well he played a week ago. The backup role will come down to McCoy, Tolzien, and Wallace.

Kaep should play the entire first half and I believe he will be eager to showcase a show. 39 is a light number especially with the backup quarterback role on the line in the second half. Daniels will likely sit, but the other three should see two to three crucial drives each, with their job riding on leading the team to points.

So far in two preseason games the Vikings have scored 13, and then 16 points respectively. For the 49ers they’ve scored just 6, and then 15 points respectively. Low outputs, but I think the play here is the over in the third week. It’s a big change to for starters to see extra series on the field from one to three in the first few weeks. They’ll make proper plays to get this game off to a 13-10 score in the 2nd quarter. In the second half I expect things to open up from the offenses as noted above. Not just the quarterbacks from San Francisco have their jobs on the line, several skill position players do.

It’s the preseason where defensive game planning for the most part is geared towards the success of the first half starters. The second half is more wide open and I expect the skill position players battling for the remainder spots to outshine the defensive backups.

Take the over on 39 points.

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The season-ending injury to tight end Dustin Keller is already rearing its ugly head. Clearly, Miami needs to identify a target at receiver to fill in even more as a possession receiver. Saturday the Dolphins settled for three field goals in which they dominated the Buccaneers in yardage by almost 2 to 1. Yet, they lost not all just because of their red zone inefficiency (three costly turnovers) but it’s something that cannot be overlooked.

Charles Clay who is supposed to be the tight end to replace Keller had another putrid outing with just one catch against the Buccaneers. Tight end is vital for any young quarterback. This is a sticky situation for Miami entering the season, and will put added pressure on the perimeter for Miami’s receivers. It also will allow the linebackers to cheat up more in the box to stop the run, as Clay has not shown to be a quick outlet safety valve in preseason action.

One positive Saturday was the play of Brandon Gibson. A free agent bolstered addition to the Miami receivers along with Mike Wallace seems to be emerging quickly. Tannehill looked for Gibson quite often Saturday. The pair should have had two touchdown connections. One was dropped by Gibson in the back of the end zone. It was in an awkward spot where Gibson looked to have lost his concentration because he was trying to land his two feet without being crunched by defenders and also avoid the bottom of the field goal post. The ball went in his hands and as his shifted his body to land his feet the football slipped out.

At least a few drives later Gibson redeemed himself with a short four yard touchdown catch right before halftime.

He finished the evening with a Dolphin high five catches for 43 yards. Do not be too alarmed by the yards per catch. In the regular season Mike Wallace has proven throughout his young career that he is one of the best deep threat receivers in the NFL. That won’t change and that is going to allow Gibson to develop even more with a high amount of under route catches. He will be Miami’s new Davone Bess and critical to the Tannehill having a reliable possession receiver.
Gibson should have fantasy owners thrilled in PPR leagues. His projected 50 or so catches should jump by at least an extra fifteen, and maybe five to six touchdowns. Not a fantasy starting wide receiver, but a receiver you can insert against a team like the Patriots, or for a bye week fill in. His catches each week make him a borderline fourth receiver in deep leagues.

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College football is less than a week away from kickoff. You’ve analyzed teams schedules, heard about new recruits and upper classmen ready to step up, now it’s time to make your final decisions on college football totals. I’ve got a few for you listed below. Come back tomorrow when I’ll have more totals for the NFL season.

Arizona State: Over 7.5 Wins -145
This already has a sharp read on the season win totals as you’d be paying fairly hefty for -145. Maybe try and find an online book or sportsbook that is offering 8. The worse that could happen there is a push. You have to like the way this team finished last season with a come from behind win against Arizona and then a blowout win over Navy in the bowl game. They return a solid group all around, including defensive tackle Will Sutton. Sutton, will hear his name called on NFL Draft Day as a first round pick, unless he has a disaster 2013 season. I don’t anticipate that happening as second year head coach, Todd Graham, has installed a fast pace aggressive style on both sides of the football. Look for Taylor Kelly to settle in more, and for the Sun Devils top tier backs in DJ Foster and Marion Grice to continue to be one of the more dynamic one-two backfields in college football. The Sun Devils have a tough four game stretch weeks three thru six against Stanford, Wisconsin, USC, and Notre Dame. I believe they’ll exceed in win three of those four, before the easy stretch of their season.

Notre Dame Under 8.5 Wins -135
Sorry that this is another one that you’ll pay the price for playing but it’s going to cash in. Notre Dame is a little bit over hyped going into this season with heavy questions surrounding the quarterback position. I’m not a believer in Tommy Reese and I believe this team will succumb to some unexpected out of nowhere losses. Remember their loss to Syracuse and South Florida as heavy favorites in years past? That may happen again this year. All it takes is one demoralizing loss for the team to come down to Earth mentally. Once that happens tough games like Arizona St, Mich St, USC, Stanford, Oklahoma, and even Pittsburgh will be adjusted by the oddsmakers. I would not expect Notre Dame to win half those games. They’ll be unranked after the tougher part of their schedule in mid-October.

USC Under 9.5 Wins -140
Three in a row that you will have to suffer from the juice to get your money’s worth. I’m sorry but USC proved a year ago that they are the must inflated team in college football right now. They continually were credited in the polls even though they kept losing. Their talent is still there, but they are struggling with scholarship losses to maintain a healthy team. With high question marks surrounding their starting quarterback in Kessler or Whittek the team may be in for a second straight year of turmoil. They have a relatively easy start to their season, but watch for a surprise hiccup against Utah St, September 21st. Much like last year when USC started 6-1, and then lost five of their last six, I think they’ll have good fortune early on and then fade as injuries and better teams come up on their schedule.

Other College Plays I Like:
Washington Under 7.5- -125
Nevada Over 6- +110
Stanford Over 9.5- Even
Louisville Under 10.5- -115
LSU Over 9 +120

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It’s a troubling sign when you’re rotating NFL teams with more velocity than Peyton Manning’s football throws over twenty yards. Felix Jones is a name but does he fill a need for Pittsburgh? He is on his third team in less than a season now, and obviously did not show enough for Philadelphia to consider him worth keeping. They traded him away to Pittsburgh for a former undrafted linebacker.

Pittsburgh is not sure how to handle the current injury to Le’Veon Bell so they insured themselves just in case. With a backfield that already consists of LaRod Stephens-Howling, Isaac Redman, and Jonathan Dwyer, the move is a bit peculiar.

This automatically negates one of the three running backs, and I believe that to be Isaac Redman. I wrote an article just a few days ago on the Steelers running back situation, and believed Redman was the odd man out amongst the three then. With four to worry about now, Redman is downgraded even more.

As far as Jones being a sleeper and taking on a big role for the Steelers, I do not believe that will happen. Jones has struggled through a vast amount of injuries after showing promise as an speed back a few years ago in Dallas. The job as a starter in Dallas did not last long as DeMarco Murray ran away with the job, and proved to be much more effective.

Jones proved the notion that a smaller back has a tough time taken on the heavy-duty role. Games that he had carries above ten he struggled and was ineffective. His yards per carry dwindled and his injury-risk skied as he was not durable. But when you lessen the amount of carries he receives to be between five and eight, he can produce heavy damage. He is that change of pace back that is a true home run threat when the burden is not solely on him.

With Demarco Murray’s injury woes last season the Cowboys began to lean more and more on other backs, instead of Jones, relegating Jones to a third running back. Dallas made it clear when they drafted former Oklahoma State running back Joseph Randle that they were not pleased with Jones run efficiency nor his 3.6 yards per carry last season.

His role in Philadelphia would have been third back behind McCoy and Brown, and will be his role as a Steeler. Pittsburgh must quietly have concerns on LaRod Stephens-Howling’s health. He did miss week two’s preseason game and has missed practice this week with a strained knee.

Pittsburgh can ill-afford to rely on the tandem of Dwyer/Redman as they did last year. I doubt Jones will get a significant amount of carries for Pittsburgh. Opportunity does have a weird way of knocking on someone’s door. Jones may get that in Pittsburgh where injuries have become prevalent and the need for someone to step up is there. The max I would expect from Jones is a game or two in which he is the primary ball carrier. Something we have seen in Dallas just as recent as last year, in which he still showed no fantasy value.

This signing should have no fantasy committal value. Take a wait and see approach before you consider a roster move for Jones, even in PPR leagues.

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The title of this article should be your pre-season week three chant. The Jets are going to have the media-eyes centered on their preseason matchup today against the New York Giants. It’s the perfect tune-up dress rehearsal for both teams, as they do not have to leave their facility to do so. A great luxury for a game that is done annually in preseason. Geno Smith gets the title as starter in this one, but for all intensive purposes it’s just a showcase. Jets fans and the coaching staff pretty much know Smith is going to need a bit more time before being thrown into the fire. From the Giants stand point Tom Coughlin has not been happy with the Giants inconsistent preseason play.

Both first team defenses were rolled over in week two of the preseason by fast pace offenses (Colts, Jags). Defense should not be an area these two teams struggle, and you can believe it was stressed in practices this week by both coaches. I expect the heightened competition between Smith/Sanchez to cause extra nerves for both quarterbacks. Expect a low-scoring first half, and for defense to control the scrimmage in this one.

When it comes to the backups entering the football game, neither David Carr/Ryan Nassib has been impressive for the Giants, failing to lead the team to touchdown drives in the first two weeks of preseason so far.

Besides a two year stretch in 2009 and 2010 this preseason series has sailed under every other year since 2002.

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There is no secret fantasy football has taken off exponentially over the last several years. For those of you that just became interested over the last three to four years, you probably have done standard leagues for the most part. More than likely you’ve been approached a few different times to partake in an auction league. If you said yes this year here are some basic tips for success.

Back in the day even before standard draft leagues, leagues that use to be popular were salary cap leagues. They’re still around, but dwindling down to fantasy football extinction (head2head.com still is very popular) but smallworld, sandlot, and others around years ago have fallen of the earth. I, myself have not done a salary cap league in over five years. The basis of a salary cap league is kind of how an auction league is based. Salary cap leagues would give you an X amount of dollars (salary cap) and each player would be given a dollar value based on his skill set.

So back in the day in a $200 salary cap league, high stars were likely in the 50 to 65 dollar range. Fantasy league roster spots were similar to today and salaries will shift throughout the season. The fun of it was that you could gain dollars if you bought an athlete low, and use that to bolster your roster. I’d say if you have not done one of these leagues and want to join one this year head to sportingnews.com. They probably have one of the best free salary cap leagues around.

What really has taken over the dollar strategy leagues is auction leagues. People like to have self control and auction leagues put you in that position off the bat, just like standard draft leagues. I’m sure after three or four years being in a standard draft, you’ve seen a mistake or two from someone inexperienced in a fantasy football draft.

That laughter you had then, and mistake pick you capitalized off of might be staring at you for your first auction draft.

Here are four basic tips to have success in your auction league

You Have Money, Spend It. Don’t Be That Guy/Gal
Your given an X amount of dollars to spend. When it’s all said and done you typically do not want to have dollars left over. If you do, you were over cautious and missed out on depth and better profile players. At the end, if you’re the one buying consecutively you know you did something wrong. Just because you have the most amount left and can outbid everyone, means nothing because you didn’t partake in the majority of the auction.

Let’s compare the bid wars show on A@E as an example. If you came to bid on a storage unit and waited, waited, and waited, and then the last two units shown you decided to bid on, you’re left with a limited upside and more than likely duds. Bid early with everyone else and manage your money as the draft goes.

Have a Strategy
The main purpose of an auction league is that you have full control of each and every player you can get. For the most part you should be able to control 70% of your roster outcome, especially the cream of the crop. Sure, you might have to outbid aggressively for a couple of players, but that’s the cost of having a sure-fire top notch athlete. Go in with an aggressive mindset that you’re going to get seven to ten players. You’ll be surprised how many of those athletes you end up with.
Use Common Sense
This goes hand and hand with strategy, but you need common sense when piecing together a roster. You’re the GM, and you have to surround your team with high caliber automatic high ceiling athletes, middle-tier, and value based with potential. If you lack the common sense to envision a team with prospects along with stars, than you’re in a world of hurting. You need to spread out your dollars and picture yourself as a GM taking risks and outplaying the other ten to thirteen fantasy owners in your league. Remember, these aren’t computers automating selections. Have a mind, and outthink as if you were on the poker table.
Your Team is Assembled, Now Manage It
Just like in professional sports, a draft with talent looks good on paper. Ironing out the rough spots (bye weeks, injuries, poor performance) needs to be a daily and weekly focus for you. If you end up like a NFL coach or GM that is too trustworthy of his talent, you’ll fall flat on your face. You need to be prepared to dump players that don’t perform, go for a couple of trades, and out bid league owners on certain waiver wire acquisitions. Don’t fall asleep at the wheel once your draft is over. Wake up and smell the coffee on the players that are dragging your team down. Even if you’re doing well early, there are other owners pushing to outpace you before season’s end. Outsmart them and ensure your team is not going to falter.