NFL Pre-Season Notes: San Francisco at Chicago

With fantasy football drafts occurring en masse over the next two weeks, it is time to look at the pre-season games and jump to conclusions.  This is Week Three of the NFL's exhibition season and starters are playing into the 2nd half.  Here are some notes on Thursday's San Francisco 49ers / Chicago Bears tilt.  (Oh, the '80s were a loooong time ago.)

San Francisco 49ers:
QB J.T. O'Sullivan has won the starting QB job over Alex Smith.  If Mike Martz can bring his favored offensive style to Left Coast, then JTO will be an excellent 2nd QB or a #1 for those who waited one round too long to take Eli Manning.  To think, Smith was taken #1 overall while Aaron Rodgers slipped into the 20s.  Now Smith has lost his job to a journeyman while the Green Bay Packers jettisoned one the the games' greatest QBs to let Aaron Rodgers start.

While I'm a sure one of the 49ers's WRs will be making starts during the bye week portion of this year's schedule, I really have no idea if any of them will be a reliable week-to-week starter even in deep leagues.  Jason Hill caught four balls for 94 yards.  A second-year receiver from Washington State, his next regular season reception will double his career total.  Rookie Josh Morgan has the challenge of overcoming the rookie WR hurdle.  Neither looks worthy of a draft pick any earlier than the last round before fantasy teams begin selecting their Defense and kicker.

Chicago Bears:
Wow.  I wouldn't touch any player on this team with the exception of rookie RB Matt Forte.  Even he will have a hard time getting drafted on any of my teams as I am not willing to take him in the 5th round barring a draft strategy that has me taking RBs for the first time in the 3rd round.  Otherwise, the lack of a viable passing attack should keep Forte bottled-up.

Thank God most fantasy football leagues don't penalize Defenses for its team's W-L record.  If they did, the Bears wouldn't have two draftable entities.