Early Season Review: Part 1

It's early season review time. Sure, Week Three is a bit early to start thinking championships but everyone can smell it, this is a year of big changes in the NFL. For one, Tom Brady and the Patriots are sinking, and old fantasy stalwarts are fading away. The top three quarterbacks in the land? Philip Rivers, Jay Cutler, and Aaron Rodgers. The top running backs are Marion Barber, Michael Turner, and Reggie Bush. And how is Brandon Marshall the top receiver despite playing just two games? Because he's the second coming, that's how!

And most of all, the Chunky Monkeys are in last place. What?! Read on for details. Let's go!

Dirty Birds (2-1)
The reigning co-champs have started off their repeat effort quite nicely. They might even have been undefeated if not for a WK1 four point loss to Ante Up. They haven't collectively suffered from a post-championship letdown but that's mainly due to the efforts of new QB Jay Cutler. Cutler has been averaging 30 points a game to start the season and has emerged as this young season's best player.

The rest of the squad hasn't exactly come of the gates on fire. Larry Fitzgerald and Adrian Peterson have been averaging about a dozen points each but Steven Jackson, Braylon Edwards, and Wes Welker have been disappointments so far. With Tom Brady's injury, Welker's stock has dropped dramatically. Perhaps the Birds chose, yet again, the wrong receiver to trade away? Rookie RB Felix Jones has some promise but he's squarely the number two behind Marion Barber. Still, until someone knocks them down a few notches, the Birds have started off the season right.

Buffy (2-1)
Roger's team has moved up near the top of the standings on the strength of two close wins. A ten pointer versus the Monkeys in WK1 (Don't they always beat the Monkeys?) and a one point squeaker versus the Jammers last week. Led by the smash mouth running of Marion Barber (21 pt avg) and support from Roddy White (11 avg) and Antonio Gates (9 avg), Buffy is looking pretty good in the early going. They'd be doing downright great if they hadn't suffered through two weeks with Carson Palmer at the helm. Backup Philip Rivers tallied sixty five points in the two weeks Palmer was totaling five. Now it's Rivers versus Palmer as both had excellent third weeks.

Willie Parker did just get injured but Jamal Lewis and/or Lendale White should be able to pick up the slack. It might actually be better for Buffy because aside from Parker's Week One 31 point explosion, he's done nothing. Is it fair to call Torry Holt's best days over and done with? Can this Buffy stalwart find his game for one last great season?

Ante Up (2-1)
For awhile there, Ante Up was undefeated and blowing the socks off opponents. Then came last week's 97 point drubbing at the hands of the Fat Jubas. You read that right, ninety seven points. Has there been a larger margin of victory in our history? Whatever, chalk it up to an aberration. Ante Up has been playing well aside from that.

Brian Westbrook (17 avg), Reggie Wayne (13 avg) and Ben Roethlisberger (17 and 15 for two weeks) have given the team solid performances all around. Last week was a killer though. Westbrook got hurt, Big Ben got annihilated and then hurt, and the team put up only forty total points.

The injury to Westbrook won't hurt that much though, as Jae had wisely bookended Correll Buckhalter. Even then, young backs Jonathan Stewart and Steve Slaton have shown flashes of promise with Stewart racking up the TDs while Slaton slashes for yards. Again, great drafting this year. Ante Up has been winning with a balanced attack and while Donald Driver and Anthony Gonzalez could step up their games a little bit, they've been doing decent. The big question will be who replaces Roethlisberger as the quarterback? As of this writing, no QB has been selected off the waiver wire yet.

Tiiite End Jammers (1-2)
The Jammers have not been having a lucky go of it. They started off with a five point victory in WK1, then a loss despite scoring over a hundred in WK2, and then a one point collapse in WK3. Things look really good for the Jammers though, as their roster seems to be quite deep. The passing attack of Tony Romo (23 avg) and his army of receivers leads the way. That mob includes Marvin Harrison, Dwayne Bowe, Lee Evans, Chris Chambers, Brandon Lloyd, Justin Gage, and Deion Branch.

Chambers and Bowe are proving to be top tier receivers, both averaging more than a dozen points per game. The team is still waiting on a solid third receiver to emerge, and the hope is that it's a return to form by Marvin Harrison. If he can't pull it off, there's surely someone who can among this plethora of talent.

Clinton Portis and Joseph Addai anchor the running game and they've been okay, but not amazing. If they can kick it up a notch, the Jammers have everything else in place for a march up the standings. Now if only Lady Luck would give them a break.

Chunky Monkeys (1-2)
I've been waiting to write the following sentence for seven years: "The Monkeys are in last place!" Okay okay. Cheap shot. But seriously, when Goliath slips, even for an instant, it's news worthy. When the Monkeys lost in WK1 to arch-nemesis Buffy, it probably marked the first time they'd ever been under 0.500 in their history. A 130 point performance in WK2 quieted the critics but then they sputtered in WK3 with a weak performance and yet another loss. What's going on here? The Monkeys have never been in last place, or even anywhere near last place.

Nobody should get too excited here because Evan's not going anywhere this season. They still have one of the best rosters in the league and added even more weapons through the draft. RBs Matt Forte, Chris Johnson, and Julius Jones have all outperformed LaDainian Tomlinson (more an indication of his slow start, but still). The pre-season question of "Who will fill Larry Johnson's shoes?" seems to have been answered pretty quickly. Credit Evan's savvy running back drafting eye.

To be honest, the Monkeys are still putting up points, albeit inconsistently. Peyton Manning, LaDainian Tomlinson, and Terrell Owens have had up and down weeks. Manning especially has been less than stellar and looks like he's still injured. Then again, Anquan Boldin already has four TDs on the year (19 avg), rookie Matt Forte is the truth (19 avg), and almost everyone else on the roster averages at least ten points a game, excepting Edgerrin James and the highly disappointing Chad Ocho Cinco. Would Evan have traded LJ away in retrospect? Should he have just held onto Brandon Marshall?

While many people are rejoicing at the Monkey's slight downfall, they're also keeping quiet because this is a machine that's just starting out slowly. No way Manning, Owens, and Tomlinson don't pick it up soon. Add in Boldin, Forte and whoever can step up, the Monkeys might just as easily go undefeated the rest of the way. For now though, the peasants rejoice!