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The Jaguars finished their 2009 campaign just shy of that crucial .500 mark with a 7-9 record.
Jacksonville’s offense wasn’t too great, ranking 18th in the league in total yards per game with 336.6.
However, the Jaguars’ defense came in five spots lower in 2009 in the 23rd spot, giving up 352.3 yards per game.
So, both the offense and defense needs sufficient work during the off season. Knowing the key strengths and weekness of teams is very important to weekly fantasy football owners.

Key Draft Picks:
With six total picks in the NFL Draft, the Jags used four of those six picks on defensive players.
And with good reason, too.
With a defense ranked No. 23 in the league in total yards allowed, ranked No. 27 in passing yards allowed with 235.9 yards per game, and ranked No. 19 in rushing yards allowed with 116.4 yards, it’s no wonder Jacksonville used four of their six picks on defensive players, and most notably, four defensive linemen.
The highest rated defensive linemen the Jags picked in 2010 is DE Tyson Alualu from California. Since the Jags traded DE Quentin Groves, they needed another DE to take his place and work with other DE Aaron Kampman as a pass rusher on passing downs. Alualu had a decent four-year career at California, where he had 187 tackles, 15 sacks, one forced fumble, and one interception. The key number here is Alualu’s number of tackles. He should definitely help the Jags’ poor rushing rank in 2010.
The other notable defensive standout is DT D’Anthony Smith out of Louisiana Tech. Smith had a career much like Alualu’s and his numbers were about the same with 196 tackles, 11 sacks, one forced fumble, and one interception during his four years at Louisiana Tech. He offers the Jags a solid pass rusher and run-stopper.

Key Free Agents:
Jacksonville picked up three free agents in 2010, two of which were defensive players.
The Jags added DE Aaron Kampman from the Green Bay Packers to help solve their defensive struggles. In his nine years in the NFL, Kampman has wreaked havoc on the field with 458 tackles, 54 sacks, and 12 forced fumbles. This was an excellent pickup by the Jags, as he will definitely play a role in shoring up that porous defensive line.
The other defensive player Jacksonville came to terms with is LB Freddy Keiaho the Indianapolis Colts. Keiaho has only been in the league for five years, and hasn’t done much in those five years. Since being drafted from San Diego State in 2005, Keiaho only has 245 tackles, 1.5 sacks, two forced fumbles, and one interception. Even though his numbers are disappointing, Keiaho shows alot of potential and will become a solid defensive player in the near future.

Now that you know what to expect from the Jaguars are you ready for some Weekly Fantasy Football leagues? Head over to the king of Daily fantasy sports.

The Jaguars finished their 2009 campaign just shy of that crucial .500 mark with a 7-9 record.
Jacksonville’s offense wasn’t too great, ranking 18th in the league in total yards per game with 336.6. However, the Jaguars’ defense came in five spots lower in 2009 in the 23rd spot, giving up 352.3 yards per game. So, both the offense and defense needs sufficient work during the off season. Knowing the key strengths and weekness of teams is very important to weekly fantasy football owners.

Key Draft Picks:
With six total picks in the NFL Draft, the Jags used four of those six picks on defensive players.
And with good reason, too.
With a defense ranked No. 23 in the league in total yards allowed, ranked No. 27 in passing yards allowed with 235.9 yards per game, and ranked No. 19 in rushing yards allowed with 116.4 yards, it’s no wonder Jacksonville used four of their six picks on defensive players, and most notably, four defensive linemen.

The highest rated defensive linemen the Jags picked in 2010 is DE Tyson Alualu from California. Since the Jags traded DE Quentin Groves, they needed another DE to take his place and work with other DE Aaron Kampman as a pass rusher on passing downs. Alualu had a decent four-year career at California, where he had 187 tackles, 15 sacks, one forced fumble, and one interception. The key number here is Alualu’s number of tackles. He should definitely help the Jags’ poor rushing rank in 2010.

The other notable defensive standout is DT D’Anthony Smith out of Louisiana Tech. Smith had a career much like Alualu’s and his numbers were about the same with 196 tackles, 11 sacks, one forced fumble, and one interception during his four years at Louisiana Tech. He offers the Jags a solid pass rusher and run-stopper.

Key Free Agents:
Jacksonville picked up three free agents in 2010, two of which were defensive players.
The Jags added DE Aaron Kampman from the Green Bay Packers to help solve their defensive struggles. In his nine years in the NFL, Kampman has wreaked havoc on the field with 458 tackles, 54 sacks, and 12 forced fumbles. This was an excellent pickup by the Jags, as he will definitely play a role in shoring up that porous defensive line.

The other defensive player Jacksonville came to terms with is LB Freddy Keiaho the Indianapolis Colts. Keiaho has only been in the league for five years, and hasn’t done much in those five years. Since being drafted from San Diego State in 2005, Keiaho only has 245 tackles, 1.5 sacks, two forced fumbles, and one interception. Even though his numbers are disappointing, Keiaho shows alot of potential and will become a solid defensive player in the near future.

Now that you know what to expect from the Jaguars are you ready for some Weekly Fantasy Football leagues? Head over to the king of Daily fantasy sports.Fantasy factor offers the best weekly fantasy football league around. It is founded by fantasy sports experts and had the best bonuses and prizes over. Play fantasy football now!

Catcher-Miguel Olivo (Colorado Rockies)

In 2009, Minnesota Twins catcher Joe Mauer dominated daily fantasy baseball league rankings behind the plate in an MVP season. This season, three backstops have been more productive in fantasy numbers than Mauer. Olivo is hitting for a high average while producing solid power numbers in 2010. The 32- year-old is hitting .311 with 12 homers and 43 runs batted in through July 22nd.

First baseman-Miguel Cabrera (Detroit Tigers)

Cabrera holds a slight edge over St. Louis Cardinals first baseman Albert Pujols at this point in the season. He ranks about third in overall daily fantasy baseball league standings among all batters. Cabrera is in the running to win baseball’s Triple Crown in more than 40 years. He ranks in first or second in the American

League in average, home runs and runs batted in.

Second baseman-Robinson Cano (New York Yankees)

Cano is putting up exceptional numbers for a middle infielder. In addition to a .333 batting average, he has scored and driven in more than 60 runs. Cano is the only middle infielder to rank in the top 10 among all fantasy hitters.

Shortstop-Hanley Ramirez (Florida Marlins)

While Ramirez is the top fantasy shortstop for the second straight year, his numbers have regressed a little from 2009. He has scored and driven in more than 50 runs this year. Ramirez has a nice combination of power and speed based on his totals of 13 home runs and 20 stolen bases.

Third baseman-Evan Longoria (Tampa Bay Rays) Longoria is just ahead of New York Mets third baseman David Wright in the daily fantasy baseball league rankings at the hot corner. He is hitting over .300 with more than 60 runs batted in and scored for his club in 2010.

Outfielder-Carl Crawford (Tampa Bay Rays)

Crawford is the top overall hitter in daily fantasy baseball league rankings this season. He leads the American League with 71 runs scored while ranking second in stolen bases with 33. While he has hit more than 15 homers just once in his career, Crawford has already slugged 11 long balls in 2010. He will likely end up with a batting average above .300 for the fifth time in the last six years.

Pitcher-Adam Wainwright (St. Louis Cardinals) After ranking about eighth in daily fantasy baseball league pitcher ratings in 2009, Wainwright is the top hurler in 2010. He ranks in the top 4 in the National League in wins, earned run average and strikeouts this season.

Using a good mixture of these hot players in your Daily Fantasy Baseball league at fantasyfactor.com will give you the best chance to win and go home with some money today!

Fortunately, I’ve had my share of championships and have enjoyed them tremendously. After one of them, my 10-11-12 year old team doused me with many different colors of an athletic beverage. One of my player’s mothers asked me if it feels terrible. I was sticky, slimy and multi-colored from head to toe, including my glasses. I looked at her in honest disbelief and replied that it doesn’t feel terrible at all and it feels great! Being a very competitive coach, what mattered to me was my kids were celebrating their championship victory and not hanging their heads.

OK, so we all enjoy winning and I’ll put myself at the top of the list. Now I want to switch gears for a moment and let’s forget about winning, home runs, shutouts and all the other things our outstanding players accomplish. I want to share with you a story about Nick, a 12 year old I coached back in 2002. I knew Nick off the baseball field and knew he was a great kid with great parents. That’s why I drafted him that year and in future years as well. We went to the batting cages about three weeks before our season began. I had never seen several of the kids swing a bat, including Nick. I had my clip board in hand to jot down notes as to what I need to work on with certain players. I watched Nick and after only one or two of his swings, I saw a glaring weakness. Nick had this long and looping swing and was over matched by every pitch. He was constantly late on every single pitch. I jotted this down. I mentioned this to Nick, a very intelligent kid. We went to the cages a couple of more times and he is still long and looping to the baseball. I am not getting through to Nick.

Our regular season begins and Nick is struggling big time. After about ten games Nick is hitless for the year. Hitless as in 0-20 for the year. I’m coaching third base and Nick is up. He has a count of 2-2. For about the hundredth time, I call out to Nick to be short to the ball. I then actually demonstrated it to him as if I were swinging the bat. Nick is a right-handed hitter and the pitcher throws him a fastball over the outside portion of the plate. With this lightning quick motion, Nick throws the head of the bat directly at the ball. It almost looked like a quick karate chop. He hits a seed into the right-center field gap and gets a stand up double. I can’t describe the great feeling I had. Remember, this is a great kid who had been severely struggling at the plate. Nick is standing on second base and looking toward home plate with his usual humble look on his face. I called out to Nick. Before he completely turned his head toward me, I could already see a very, very huge grin. When we are making eye contact, I wave my right fist in the air and shake it three or four times. Nick, who is usually refined and quiet, shakes his fist back at me so aggressively that I honestly thought he could have injured his right shoulder. Really, I give you my word.

Sure, I remember many details of important playoff victories and championship victories. Who got the big hits, who pitched great, who made game saving defensive plays, etc. But I remember Nick’s seed to right-center like it happened five minutes ago and not seven years ago. If you are into baseball coaching, maybe you have a player similar to Nick on your team. I promise you that helping that player will be at least as rewarding as any playoff or championship victory.

And believe me, I love to win as much as anyone you will ever meet!

About Author
Larry’s very user friendly eBooks cover 320 topics on playing excellent baseball. ANY baseball player, coach or parent who wants to help their child will be fully equipped! Some FREE baseball tips on hitting and FREE baseball pitching tips are available at Larry Baseball.com

In researching information for this article, the latest data for the presentation of the highest salaries in the NFL is for the 2008 season. It should be noted that this list changes from year to year. Also, the salary cap imposed by the NFL commission increases from year to year. The salary cap is the amount of money an NFL team can spend on salaries for their players per year. The salary cap has progressively increased year by year since its inception back in 1994.

The NFL salary cap, as negotiated by the players Union in the current collective bargaining agreement, is 62.24% of all football related revenue divided by 32 teams. For the 2009 season that figure is 128 million dollars.

The following shows the steady increase in salary cap since 1999:

Salary Cap Per Team for NFL Player Salaries by Year:

2008 $116 million

2007 $109 million

2006 $102 million

2005 $85.5 million

2004 $80.5 million

2003 $75 million

2002 $71 million

2001 $67.5 million

2000 $62.2 million

1999 $58.4 million

As the salary cap increases, so does the salary of players. The real question is how is the money distributed to players. There is a type of salary distribution model that teams use which is not known to the general public. What is known is that the top 20 salaries for 2008 only had a couple of quarterbacks. Yet the highest paid player for 2008 was quarterback Ben Roethlisberger. So who were the highest paid NFL players for 2008. The following table tells it all:

TOP 20 HIGHEST PAID PLAYERS IN 2008

1. QB Ben Roethlisberger, Pittsburgh $ 27,701,920

2. DE Jared Allen, Minnesota $ 21,119,256

3. WR Larry Fitzgerald, Arizona $ 17,103,480

4. QB JaMarcus Russell, Oakland $ 16,872,400

5. RB Michael Turner, Atlanta $ 16,003,840

6. G Chris Snee, N.Y. Giants $ 14,890,000

7. CB Asante Samuel, Philadelphia $ 14,145,000

8. WR Randy Moss, New England $ 14,006,720

9. T Flozell Adams, Dallas $ 14,005,760

10 .DT Tommy Kelly, Oakland $ 13,978,480

11. WR Terrell Owens, Dallas $ 13,731,560

12. WR Bernard Berrian, Minnesota $ 13,705,000

13. T Michael Roos, Tennessee $ 13,505,520

14. C Jeff Faine, Tampa Bay $ 13,105,760

15. DE Will Smith, New Orleans $ 12,950,000

16. QB Tony Romo, Dallas $ 12,886,600

17. G Travelle Wharton, Carolina $ 12,850,000

18. DE Antwan Odom, Cincinnati $ 12,800,000

19. CB Terence Newman, Dallas $ 12,611,240

20. RB Marion Barber, Dallas $ 12,522,400

Lets examine the concept of salary in the NFL a little more closely. As previously stated, how teams pay their players and the value they place on them is known by only a few, including the player agent. It is interesting to note that having high salary players does not necessarily mean success to the team.

A case in point. One of the most successful NFL teams over the past ten years has been the New England Patriots. Yet only one player from the Patriots is in the top 20 for 2008. That is wide receiver Randy Moss. Yet Oakland, over the past ten years, which has two players in the top 20, has not seen the success that the Patriots have had. As a matter of fact, they have not even come close.

Also, you can see five players from the Dallas Cowboys in the top 20 list for 2008, yet they have not been in the Super Bowl since 1995 (Super Bowl XXX). It appears that the New England Patriots like to spread their money around to their players, so that one or a few players do not get an enormous salary while the rest of the players make a fraction of that amount. Randy Moss may be an exception to this rule.

This team concept of salary distribution that the Patriots employ falls in line with the team concept they have set for their players when it comes to playing football. The Patriot’s organization believe that it requires a team effort to win football games, and not the superior effort of only a few players. Maybe that is one of the reasons the Patriots have been so successful over the past ten years. And lets not forget that the Patriots is one of the best managed teams in the NFL. Part of that management is proper salary distribution. Team owner Robert Kraft and head coach Bill Belichick seem to know what they are doing.

In any case, NFL player salaries continue to increase year by year. Today the lowest rookie makes a bare minimum of $285,000.00 (at least for 2007). In terms of all professional sports, the NFL players are the highest paid. This is why so many college players seek to get into the NFL. But it should also be remembered that the average length of a career for a player in the NFL is only 4 years. So obviously a player needs to make all he can during that short career. The question is are the players worth these very high salaries.

A persons salary is dependent on one major factor. That is how many other people can do the job they are doing? The fewer the number of people that can perform a particular job, the higher the salary. Not to many people can play in the NFL. Also, the players do deserve most of the revenue that is produced simply because, without the players, you would not have any business entity. And since fans are willing to pay the high ticket prices, then I would have to answer the question that yes, the players do deserve the salaries they receive.

Every year, fans watch their teams with the hope that their team will reach the Super Bowl, or in some cases, simply end up with a winning season. And in the end, we really do not care to much about a players salary. As long as we enjoy watching our team play, we will continue to pay high ticket prices.

So to conclude, there are really two basic reasons why NFL players can make millions of dollars per year. First and foremost, fans are willing to pay high ticket prices to see their team play. Secondly, not to many people can play in the NFL. This results in a high demand for their skill. Lets face it, not to many people have the skill of a Tom Brady or a Ben Roethlisberger. So as long as the demand for tickets remains high, players will continue to enjoy a high income.

Information sources for this article:

Sources: payscale.com, usatoday.com, historyforkids.org

About Author
Thomas Sullivan, the author of this article, is a web developer and publisher who lives in the Boston, MA area. He is the creator and webmaster for NFL Merchandise, an online store for the NFL fan, located at the site New England Patriots.

This is a combination of the best NFL Fantasy Player Files. Each video contains a different NFL player doing a cool move whether its passing, catching, or kicking the football. I ordered the videos from good to the best.

Steroids are a dark mark on the legacy of baseball. By no means is baseball the only sport that has been infected with the disease of performance enhancing drugs. Sprinters have tested positive long before any baseball players were even thought to have been using steroids. Professional football locker rooms have been infected with all manner of performance enhancing drugs since the late 1970′s. What hurt baseball more was the way that steroids were brought to light, and how players continue to be exposed as performance enhancing drug users.

Baseball in the mid nineties seemed to be forgotten. After a long and painful labor dispute a large portion of baseball’s fan base were turned off. Attendance and television ratings were way down and it appeared that baseball might fall to the level of NHL hockey. Yet, there is something that brought fans back in large numbers. The home run. The most exciting play in baseball. Nothing is more exciting than seeing a hitter crush a long fly ball which screams over the outfield fence. During the late 1990′s the home run was back, and the fans were watching. Legendary home run records were being broken, and the ultimate home run mark, of 715 held by Hank Aaron and once by Ruth, was being approached and challenged. The problem is that baseball came back and is now once again popular due to performance enhancing drugs. Baseball, in a way, owes the illegal narcotic for its success.

One of the problems with baseball’s spoiled blood bargain with steroids is that they are sending mixed signals to all those training to be a future ball players. Baseball has been forced to support anti-steroid campaigns, but it still has a culture of encouraging upcoming players to gain a pharmaceutical edge. Future prospects are faced with a tough decision of gaining an edge through steroids or watching teammates who are using outperform them on the field. The decision is still being placed on prospects and high school athletes because baseball refuses to draw a hard line in the sand banning illegal and harmful performance enhancing drugs. The current policy of three strikes and your out is laughable at best. There are hardly any long term repercussions if a player is found using.

What baseball needs to do is to support healthy supplements. There are supplements on the market that will help a player to add muscle mass, and improve their physical conditioning. Creatine is an excellent example. Creatine hasn’t been proven to have any long term medical side effects. Creatine is a substance that is naturally produced in your body. It is also not a steroid. Creatine just helps players to lift weights more often, without suffering such drastic lactic acid build up in their muscles which causes soreness. Many people are reluctant to take any supplements fearing that the supplement will become banned and they will be retroactively guilty.

If baseball would come out and support the healthy training drugs, like Creatine, and ensure people that they won’t be punished for searching for a legal performance edge; then it would lessen the pressure that players feel to either take no supplements at all, or go all the way to using illegal performance enhancing drugs. Competitive people play baseball, and they are looking for an edge. They shouldn’t fell afraid to use legal supplements to train. If baseball wants to get the steroids out of the game, then they need to help young players know just what they can take to get an edge.

Great Compilation Of The Best Football Players Today