NFL Rookie Report (after almost 4 weeks)

St. Louis’ Donnie Avery was targeted 7 times yesterday—but had just 3 catches for 22 yards. What impressed me most was his one and only carry of the game that went for 37 yards for a touchdown. He looked really fast and his score provided the Rams with their first 1^st quarter points of the season—as well as their first lead this year. It didn’t last though. Although Steven Jackson had a big day going over 100 yards and a scoring a touchdown himself, perhaps utilizing Avery more would help—the Rams are ranked at the bottom of the league in rushing offense (29^th) and not too far ahead in passing offense (25^th). Trent Green cannot be the answer and clearly Scott Linehan wasn’t either. It should be interesting to see what happens as Jim Haslett takes over the team for the interim. And Avery is someone to keep watching. He was the first receiver taken in the 2008 NFL draft so someone thought he was worth it.

DeSean Jackson had some big plays for Philadelphia last night and some really bad plays. Good passes by McNabb at times contributed to that—and poor passes by McNabb at times hurt him. He had the first touchdown of his NFL career (as we all know, it would have been his second, but he dropped the first one in premature celebration against Dallas). Sure Jackson made some mistakes (like fumbling a punt on his own 24 yard line)—but these guys need to be humbled every now and then. After that, he looked somewhat hesitant on punt returns and let the next one bounce past him to give the Eagles poor field position on the 4-yard line. Ironically, this guy was a great punt returner in college as he holds the Pac-10 record for the most punt returns for touchdowns (6). However, most of his brilliance came in 2006—four of his returns went for touchdowns that year. In his first two years at Cal he had almost a 20% rate of returns for touchdowns. But last year he didn’t have a single return for a touchdown after the first game of the year. Perhaps it was due to teams kicking away from him—or partially because of Cal’s monumental collapse, losing six of their last seven games. But the Eagles got to see both sides of Desean Jackson last night—the confident, cocky player—and the uncertain one who makes mistakes and fails to make plays. Luckily for them, having watched this guy play for three years in college and the first few games this year—I think he’s the former.

Another rookie in that Bears v. Eagles game was Matt Forte. While his numbers weren’t good this week—in fact, his worst numbers yet—his plays were great. Especially at the end of the game, he was able to get crucial movement and first downs for Chicago. He also has established himself as a receiver. After Reggie Bush and Steven Jackson, he’s next on the list in terms of backs who are looked to for the passing game. Of course, Kyle Orton is going to need to stop overthrowing the ball so much if those numbers are going to improve.

For Houston, rookie running back Steve Slaton was targeted 8 times and had 8 receptions. So in a week like this where Houston struggled to run the ball against a pretty decent Jaguar rush defense (of course, when you’re Houston weeks like this happen all of the time. They’re just 22^nd in rushing offense and have the second least number of rushing touchdowns in the league). With that said, Slaton is getting most of the carries so I expect that number to improve as the Texans find some balance and get their passing game going. They did that this week and lost by just three points—their smallest margin of defeat all year. Andre Johnson hasn’t helped matters by being completely unreliable the last two weeks-- catching just around 25% of balls thrown his way. Either he will help out the offense or perhaps Slaton will become even more involved. Not sure if next week is the week for the passing game to flourish though when the Colts come to town with the 2^nd best passing defense in the league. However, Slaton may be the key as Indianapolis also happens to hold the 2^nd worst rushing defense in the league.

Perhaps somewhat expected, Tennessee’s Chris Johnson had his least productive game moving the ball against Minnesota’s 4^th best rushing defense in the league. He had just 61 yards. However, he did earn his first two rushing touchdowns of the year and his NFL career (not his first touchdown though as that was a reception in Week 1). Again—somewhat expected since when it comes to rushing touchdowns, the Vikings defense is one of the worst. According to Fantasy stats so far this year, Johnson is bordering on being a number one back. Of course—a lot can change over the next few months. I might wait to start him next week against Baltimore until I see how the rookie Rashard Mendenhall handles the Ravens Defense tonight.

Denver’s Eddie Royal—who happened to be just the 3^rd best receiver at Virginia Tech last year in receiving yards per game—has led the Broncos in receiving yards in two of their four games this year. This week he had his second 100+ yard game. He has two touchdowns already and I like his chances to score next week against Tampa Bay.

Jonathan Stewart may not get a lot of carries for the Carolina Panthers with DeAngelo Williams there (he’s averaging just 11 per game). The good news is that it looks like he’s at least splitting carries with Williams and he already has four touchdowns on the year. That’s the second most in the league—and tied with LT.

If Dallas wasn’t sure how to lose a game (other than allowing Tony Romo to be distracted by Jessica Simpson), they learned last night—just don’t run the ball...at all. Rookie Felix Jones didn’t have a single carry in the game. While Jones is simply there to complement Marion Barber—he can’t do much if Barber himself is only getting eight carries, as he did on Sunday against Washington. From a fantasy perspective, Jones will be helpful as long as he continues to score and make the most of the few carries that he does see.

As for the guy who ran ahead of Jones at Arkansas, Darren McFadden was impressive in the first two weeks. But a toe injury has decreased his production the past two weeks and his yards per carry have declined. With Justin Fargas out that leaves Michael Bush, who technically isn’t a rookie, but was recovering all of last year on the PUP list from the broken tibia injury that sidelined him for his entire senior season at Louisville (other than the first game) and ended his college career. But it looks like McFadden and Fargas are expected to return after next week’s bye so it will be important to keep an eye on how and when Bush is used.

Finally, on Monday Night Football, we have Rashard Mendenhall for the Steelers against a Raven’s 3^rd ranked rushing defense that hasn’t allowed a touchdown in two games. And Joe Flacco faces the 6^th best passing defense that has only given up two passing touchdowns this year. At least we’ll find out what these rookies are made of tonight. By the way, I hate the Steelers and the Ravens so other than scouting fantasy players, there's not much for me to enjoy tonight.