Hey, here's a novel concept: a rookie wide receiver who actually wants to play.
With all the talk about Michael Crabtree and his contract negotiations with the San Francisco 49ers, it's easy to forget about a guy like Tennessee's Kenny Britt, drafted out of Rutgers. According to reports in the Tennessean, Britt will be activated from the PUP list Friday and should be ready to play in the Titans' second preseason game, Aug. 15 against Tampa Bay. "He is handling the workload and has responded to what we are doing," coach Jeff Fisher told the paper. "We feel like based on what we have seen so far timing-wise it will all fall into place for him next week."
Britt has been struggling with a hamstring injury but has been in camp, learning the playbook and getting familiar with his new teammates, a stark contrast to Crabtree. Even if he were to sign on the dotted line today, he'd still have a huge uphill climb in terms of readiness for the season and repairing a fractured relationship with his likely quarterback. As Alex Smith told ESPN.com: "I haven't spoken to him since the summer. It's something I haven't thought about, to tell you the truth. We're pretty focused on the guys we have here right now. I'm not worried about it."
That's why, regardless of the relative assessment of their talent, Britt's fantasy value is on the rise and Crabtree's is just about ready to sit out until 2010, even if the rookie doesn't decide to go that route himself.
• Kyle Orton got a taste of what life in a Broncos uniform will be like, getting booed by several fans during a controlled scrimmage at Invesco Field at Mile High on Thursday. Orton threw two picks, which didn't sit well with some of the 13,000-plus fans in attendance. Still, he brushed it off, telling the Denver Post, "[I] made some mistakes, did some good things, got some things to learn from." One of the things fantasy fans can learn from the workout was that Orton, not Chris Simms, took the majority of snaps with the first-string offense and seems to have developed a nice chemistry with Brandon Stokley. While nobody is going to be mistaking that combination for Tom Brady and Wes Welker anytime soon, it does bear watching over the preseason to see whether Stokley might not be a super-sleeper for 2009.
• Mark Sanchez appears to have a leg up in the New York Jets' quarterback competition. The rookie signal-caller went 9-of-16 for 70 yards in a scrimmage Thursday, working with the first-team offense, and four of his incompletions were very catchable drops, according to the New York Post. Coach Rex Ryan was impressed: "Sanchez did well. We all wanted to see what he could do. We wanted to see poise and accuracy, and he showed it."
• Matt Hasselbeck left Thursday's practice with a big bag of ice on his arm, and he couldn't be happier about it. New head coach Jim Mora is changing up the offense a bit, including a lot more of the shotgun formation, which has delighted Hasselbeck to no end. "We've done some shotgun here in the past, but we really didn't practice it. You like to practice what you're going to do in games. We're making everything realistic and situational. You've seen a lot on [third-down] situations, we just go gun right away, because that's what is realistic. So it's been good," the quarterback told the Tacoma News Tribune. A happy quarterback with a receiving corps that includes T.J. Houshmandzadeh, Nate Burleson and Deion Branch? It's early, but this Seattle offense appears to have plenty of fantasy upside.
• Norv Turner doesn't seem to be listening to his running backs. According to the San Diego Tribune, LaDainian Tomlinson and Darren Sproles want to experiment with a formation in which both backs are in the game at the same time, but the coach wants no part of it. "We look at it," Turner said. "The more playmakers you get on the field, the better off you are. The problem with it is, as I've always said when I've been asked this almost everywhere I've been, is one of them has got to block, and one of them has got to block some pretty physical people." Sounds as though Turner is simply scared that one of his two backs will get hurt, leaving him with only one back to rely on. Given Tomlinson's recent injury history and the Sproles' diminutive size, perhaps Turner's right. But from a fantasy standpoint, let's hope the two backs can persuade him to give it a try, at least on a limited basis. The more touches Sproles can get on a regular basis, the better.
