The first round of mini-camps are over and there is a lot of news relevant to fantasy football and the 07 draft.

• Zach Miller impressed the Raiders staff in the first mini camp under Lane Kiffin and has a real good chance to start. Miller will be a sneaky pick in fantasy leagues if you can grab him at the end of the draft. He should be a threat in the red zone for the Raiders.
• The Panthers appear ready to go forward with Nate Salley as a starter at safety. We thought the Panthers would address the position on Day One of the draft, but they did not. Salley will have to step up his game if the Panthers want to be a playoff team.
• We also thought the Bengals would add a strong side linebacker in the draft. However Cincinnati is going forward with Rashad Jenty as the strong side starter. New addition Ed Hartwell and new starter Ahmad Brooks will give the Bengals an entirely new LB corps that will be responsible for improving a defense that ranked 30th in yards allowed last season.
• 2nd round draft pick Brandon Jackson got the bulk of the carries at RB for the Packers at their recent rookie camp. Jackson will be competing with Vernand Morency for the starting job. The winner could be a fantasy sleeper available in Round 3 or 4 because of an improving Packers offensive line that uses the zone blocking scheme made popular in Denver.
• The Titans will be trying first round pick Michael Griffin at cornerback. The move is surprising - the Titans could have selected Griffin’s All American teammate, Aaron Ross, a natural corner at pick #19.
• We were not big fans of Tyler Palko’s chances for NFL success, but the former Pitt Panther is rightfully ecstatic about going to New Orleans. Sean Payton is one of the top offensive minds in the league and helped turn Tony Romo from an undrafted free agent to an NFL Starter.
• One of the most surprising things to come out of the mini-camps was the news that the Lions are completely altering Drew Stanton’s mechanics. Mike Martz and the Lions staff were impressed with Stanton’s athleticism but felt he needed to change his throwing motion. Stanton will likely not see the field in 2007, but could be the Lions starter in 2008.

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 6th, 2007 at 7:51 pm and is filed under Drew Stanton, Carolina Panthers, Fantasy Football, Cincinnati Bengals, Oakland Raiders, Tennessee Titans, Green Bay Packers, Detroit Lions, New Orleans Saints, 2007 NFL Draft. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.