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I’m comfortable writing off Ochocinco at this point. I just don’t sense he’s going to do anything. They’ve got Hernandez, Welker, Branch, Gronkowski. I think they’re set. Ochocinco isn’t the receiver he used to be. I don’t envision him morphing into the kind of player he was four years ago. He doesn’t have the speed anymore to take the top off a defense. I would cut bait (though I’m not a big Hester fan either).

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Without knowing exactly how your league is structured, I would be looking to stick Manning on injured reserve and release Collie. I’d rather have the roster spots to work with other players. By the time Manning is healthy (if he’s healthy), Indianapolis will be eliminated from play consideration. I don’t envision him coming back in December to start the final four games for a 4-8 or 5-7 team. As supporting evidence, think of all the years the Colts clinched playoff positioning. They pulled Manning as quickly as they could. They even had the chance to go undefeated a few years ago and yanked him. He’s done; he’s not playing. (And with Manning out of the mix, Collie becomes just a run-of-the-mill No. 3 receiver on a bad team.

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He didn’t catch any of the four balls thrown his way. I don’t see it as a problem going forward. He looked solid in the preseason. He has far more downfield ability than Anquan Boldin. I don’t see much difference between those two. Boldin should catch more passes, but Evans might finish with just as many yards and touchdowns. Evans was in a walking boot in August and again on Wednesday, so he’s dealing with some kind of ankle issue, but I don’t think it’s a big deal. He practiced fully on Thursday. Assuming he practices fully again today, he’ll be one of the top 30-35 receivers on my board this week.

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I don’t think his overall value is particularly high. He’s the No. 3 receiver in New Orleans; he’ll be No. 4 when Colston returns in a month. I have nominal interest in Henderson as a fill-in for the next few weeks, but it looks like the Saints will get Lance Moore back this week. He’s practicing. In my opinion, that downgrades Henderson from a guy who’s one of the big waiver wire guys to target this week to just another warm body. Meachem and Moore should be the main receivers in that offense. With Henderson, you’re talking about an outside receiver who’ll hit a long play once in a while.

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There’s guesswork involved here. The stuff leaves my computer, but I’m not really sure how you guys use it on your end. Do you readers like the page with all of the projected numbers? Or are you going off the cleaner, simpler page where the players are listed with first and last name? My guess is that hardly anybody uses or cares about the page with all of the numbers. All of the guys who are so number-driven that they care about those pages (I think) would probably be more interested in the projected stats in the Excel file you can download at the website (it comes as part of your subscription). The Excel file is really far, far better. With the pdf, you’re looking at compiled numbers. For quarterbacks, for example, you might see Michael Vick at 300 yards per game and 2.50 TDs. In the Excel, the stats are itemized; you might see him at 240 passing yards, 59 rushing and 1 receiving, and the TDs would be broken out in 1.75 passing and .75 rushing. Or, you might be more interested in season totals, you could on a separate tab and look at all the stats in that format. Or maybe you don’t like that we’ve projected Vick to miss 3-4 games and you want to start at the projected totals if everyone were to play 16 games. Also factor in that with the Excel, you can actually work with those numbers, sorting and re-sorting them and manipulating the data and whatnot. The big drawback with the pdf, I think, is that it slows down the process. All that stuff needs to be formatted and laid out. When I decide, around noon on Tuesday, that the product is “finished”, it takes close to an hour to get everything ready to go – all the lists have to be prepared and formatted. Sometimes during that hour, some news will break, then the whole deal has to be scrapped and started over. If we ditch those number-driven pages of the pdf, I think I can get you to the product 20-30 minutes faster, and I’ll free up more time to actually scout and look at teams, rather than doing busy work. But I will run it by the readers. I put an explanation in the next issue of the redrafter, and we’ll see what the other guys says.

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Absolutely. The game is changing. It’s flag football now. The quarterback is king like he’s never been before. But I don’t think that dramatically changes the way you approach our little game. It still comes down to trying to accumulate difference makers at the key positions – QB-RB-WR. There is still scarcity at running back. At quarterback, we’ve just changed to baseline – it used to be you had to find a quarterback who’d deliver about 23 TDs at worst, now the bar has been raised to about 27-28. If you start three receivers, that might be the most undervalued position.

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If you’re looking at just touchdowns, I will go with Green-Ellis. I expect the Patriots will score about 19-20 rushing touchdowns this year, and he’s their main option inside the 3. I expect he’ll probably knock in about a dozen touchdowns. If you’re looking at yards, then it becomes more of a tossup; Greene should get more carries and yards. Neither one is much of a pass catcher. On my official board, there’s very little difference between these backs. For me personally, I think Green-Ellis is the slightly better pick. His value gets dinged a little bit because of the risk-reward possibility that the Patriots start working in Stevan Ridley or Shane Vereen. But I don’t see that happening in 2011. I would rather carry the risk and have Green-Ellis on my team.

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It’s a sneaky thought. We know the Dolphins won’t be able to run all year, so Henne will be chucking it to Marshall and Bess. He also was an active runner in the opener, wasn’t he? But I will stick with Manning. Definitely a better player, and he’ll definitely still be in the starting lineup in November.

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Sounds good to me. According to my stat projections, there’s a bigger difference between Manningham and Wayne than between Rodgers and Brees. You team just improved by about a half point per game.

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In a standard-type league, I’ve got them as similar in value. In a PPR format or TD-only league, Tolbert grades out higher.

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No. Kevin Walters has a shoulder injury, so Jacoby Jones should start for 2-3 weeks. I will take that 2-3 weeks of production over the sack-of-beans potential that Manning returns and energizes your roster. I think Manning is done. With Delone Carter, we’re talking about a No. 2 tailback and goal-line guy, which also puts him ahead of Manning on my board.

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