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Thursday Night Observations

• Irrespective of how Josh McCown's thumb x-ray turns out, that a 35-year old journeyman who thrived in ideal conditions over a handful of games last year would succeed in a new offense was always farfetched. Mike Glennon might not be the answer but at least Tampa's asking the right question if he's playing.

• Bobby Rainey fumbled twice in a 56-14 blowout, yet still managed 41 yards rushing, seven catches and 64 yards receiving. The fumbles could help reinstall Doug Martin when he returns, but I think Rainey's the better back and doubt he's going away.

• If someone told you the Falcons won 56-14 and Matt Ryan threw only three TDs, you'd probably expect more than 54 yards, no catches and one TD (at the very end) for Steven Jackson. It seems like Atlanta's taking its cue from the Panthers and Saints the last few years and not really having a feature back.

• If I were drafting today for an NFFC-style, 2-RB, 3-WR, 1-FLEX, PPR, Julio Jones would be my No. 3 player off the board behind only Calvin Johnson and LeSean McCoy. Jimmy Graham would be a close fourth.

• Aside from Jones, Atlanta's fantasy output was fairly disappointing. Not many used their defense, no one used Devin Hester and while Ryan played great and was solid - 286 and 3 - it wasn't proportionate to the team's output. Even Matt Bryant, who attempted and missed a 59-yard field goal before the half, didn't do much, kicking only extra points (when you have eight of them, it's tolerable, I suppose.)

•  Lovie Smith punted down 35-0 in plus territory toward the end of the first half. Even worse, Phil Simms rushed to justify it saying: "You're down 35-0, there's no doubt you have to punt this football." Besides this being tantamount to quitting on your team - something for which a player would get publicly destroyed - it's so illogical I had delete the sentence I wrote refuting it because I felt too stupid writing it. Jim Nance doubled down on this theme when the Bucs were down 42-0 in the third quarter, saying: "I can't believe they're kicking it to Devin Hester again." Right, because when you're down 42, the main thing you want to do is minimize the chance the other team makes a big play in the return game. Who are these people?

Simms actually justified his first remark saying it was a matter of not being embarrassed. But Tampa was down 35-0 and eventually 56-0! The only way not to get embarrassed further was to convert the fourth down and score a TD. The punt, however, was beyond embarrassing - it was borderline disqualifying of the team's brain trust to build a serious contender. (I realize Smith made it to a Super Bowl, but that was one of the weakest teams in history to get there, and bad weather at home against an indoor-dependent Saints team gave them an easy road in the NFC title game.)

After a nice run against the spread the first two weeks my Bucs +6.5 pick was a clunker, but I'd almost always rather lose like that than on a bad call, a dropped pass or an untimely fumble.