Our friends at Sports Pickle made a joke about 49ers QB Alex Smith in real-time Sunday that couldn’t be overlooked: “I bet other No. 1 overall pick QB busts think Alex Smith has become a total sellout.”

NFL.com analyst Bucky Brooks got some feathers rattled recently in a column he wrote suggesting that Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers shouldn’t be crowned among the league’s elite quarterbacks (Peyton Manning, Drew Brees, Tom Brady) yet. Some of those emotions might get stirred up again as we broached the subject in the Cover Two podcast with Brooks and NFL.com senior writer Steve Wyche.

And we’re down to No. 1. In Elliot Harrison‘s breakdown of the top 20 games of 2010, his gold medal goes to a late-season thriller between the Philadelphia Eagles and New York Giants — that essentially ended the Giants’ playoff hopes and invigorated those of the Green Bay Packers.

If the lockout lingers into training camp, handcuffing your top running backs could become more important than ever.

Big day here at NFL.com. If you happen to run a fantasy league through this site, you likely got an email last night telling you we are officially open for business.

Greetings fantasy enthusiasts, here is what is shaking in the fantasy world on a Thursday. Starting with you, Michael Crabtree.

NFL.com senior analyst Gil Brandt is usually focused on personnel, but his Tuesday chat this week for some reason ended up focusing on predictions for 2011 division winners – and some of the picks may be surprising.

The reality of a condensed offseason means teams are better off looking at their own free agents — understanding their deficiencies, age or injury history — as providing the best options to win.

Tuesday might be just another day for you, but it should be quite eventful for former Titans coach
Jeff Fisher and retired players Tedy Bruschi and Chad Lewis.

Your favorite team stinks under center … and they didn’t get a quarterback in the 2011 NFL Draft. So what is next?

At least seven of the top 10 teams in the 2011 NFL Draft are believed to be in the market for quarterbacks, but where will they end up? We are asking you the NFL.com to submit your theories, hypothesis and tea-leaf readings.

As the combine’s opening day unfolds within the media center, quarterback talk has become an early theme.

The NFL has become a quarterback league, but does that mean that a team in the Top 10 — in need of a quarterback, meaning the Cowboys will probably be out at No. 9 — should feel obligated to draft a quarterback?

With their season on the line Sunday in St. Louis, tensions are running high for the 49ers. It has all led to coach Mike Singletary pulling QB Troy Smith for Alex Smith during the fourth quarter, hoping to pull out a season-extending win over the Rams.

Did Week 14 seem to over promise some great weather games and then under deliver? Like “Star Wars Episode I, the Phantom Menace.” And the only weather game we got was a blowout. But it was the start of the fantasy playoffs for most of you, so lets search through the wreckage.