Fantasy Football

[dgan]

Since everyone (ok, not everyone) is buzzing about the beginning of Fantasy Football seasons, thought I might as well start a thread and see if anyone wants to discuss it.

I came in last in my league last year, so I got first pick - LaDanian Tomlinson - I'm probably the preseason favorite in my league of 10 owners, so we'll have to see if everyone stays healthy.

Fantasy Football rules!!!!!!!!

[DanTheMan]

I was in two leagues last year. Came in first in one and third or something in the other. (If you're not in first, what does it matter.)
In the league I'm doing a team with my wife, we also go LT. So I'm hopeful. We have Vick as the QB. I'm slightly disappointed in that because always gets hurt. And to make matters worse, Joey Harrington is my backup. Some work is needed.

[dgan]

LOL! Yeah, that QB duo is going to keep you on the Pepto this season. Still, a ton of upside. I've always been a Harrington fan, even when he played at Oregon. I still think he has the talent to have a Brees-type breakout year, and he has a ton of talent around him. Also, he should have a longer leash now that Garcia broke his leg. So if you got Harrington in a later round, I think that's a good pickup.

Last year, I drafted McNair and Volek (his backup). Jeff Fisher drove me nuts - basically ruined my season - because he wouldn't declare who was going to play each week. McNair would be listed as doubtful and play, be listed as probably and not play. It was a mess. So this year I drafted Trent Green and I reached a bit for Brett Favre...took him in the second round. But at least it's a virtual lock that I'll have a starting QB each week.

We have a 20 round live draft. Do you have a live draft? How many rounds?

[DanTheMan]

I tried a live draft once, but it takes too long. I did it at work and kept getting interrupted with "work". Apparently, they didn't realize I had something else going on!

Your QB situation sounds pretty good. I had Trent Green 2 years ago and he was often unpredictable. He'd do great one week and then quite poor 2 weeks in a row. This might be his year, though.

I also have Kevin Jones and Tiki Barber for RB's, too. I hope Tiki is okay. He's known for fumbles. Today's a big day!

[dgan]

Yeah, I'm still trying to sort out what happened to the Big Ten yesterday. Oh well. Time for the Pros.

Tiki could be gold. He was actually one of the top 5 fantasy backs last year, and he seemed to solve his fumbling problem. We'll find out if he is top notch again, or if he goes back to his 800 yards, 5 Touchdown years.... Kevin Jones is a stud. That guy won't let you down, if he stays healthy of course.

Our draft takes about 4 hours - and our undivided attention. I know how that work stuff interferes with.....oh wait, there's my phone ringing now.....

[DanTheMan]

Well, Culpepper did me in on Sunday. What an awful day he had! Oh well, there's next week. (Patrick Ramsey? No, I can't go there yet.)
On my other team, I'm depending on Michael Vick to save me in tonight's game against the Eagles.

[DanTheMan]

Okay, help me out here, dgan.
I have to decide between 2 defenses: NE against CAR, or CHI against DET. I'm leaning to NE, but they didn't do well last week and CHI did. What say you?

[cree8ivone]

Well this is the first I've seen of this thread... Sorry I'm late to the party. Actually this is my first year trying out fantasy football, so I'm even more "late to the party" than you know.

We had a live draft, 16 rounds. It took an hour and a half because 6 people didn't show. They got what they got.

Since, I was new to the whole thing my draft was a little different. I went with QBs, WRs, TEs, and D/ST first, thinking the runningback thing was overrated. Oops! I also thought I would need backups at every position so I drafted two kickers. DOUBLE OOPS!

I am doing ok so far. I've got Peyton Manning, Marvin Harrison, Deion Branch, the Steelers D/ST, the Ravens D/ST and Tony Gonzalez. I won the first game, barely. But I really need running backs. Nobody seems to want to trade with me though... hmmm.

[DanTheMan]

I've decided to go with the Bears Defense over the Pats. Pats have some injuries and Bears play Detroit's young offense. Go Bears!

[dgan]

Yeah, Dan, that's a tough call. I would call it a toss-up. Usually, when I have a tight decision for a roster spot, the team playing at home gets the nod - so I would agree Chicago would be my starter. If they can get back to creating turnovers like they did last year and the year before when Mike Brown and Urlacher were healthy, they should put up good fantasy numbers. Defenses are finnicky.

My first week was one step above disastrous. Favre lost his best receiver, Trent Green played horrifically, and the best fantasy player in the whole league - Willie Parker - was sitting on my bench. Oh well, that's how the fantasy football bounces. Week 1 means nothing - I've learned that over the years.

Cree! Great to have another FFL activist! My rookie year of Fantasy Football, I drafted Tim Biakabatuka in the 2nd round......oops. Running Backs have extremely inflated value in most scoring systems, so you'll see that it's pretty normal for everyone to select running backs early. Still, if you're able to get players such as Manning and Gonzalez while everyone else is selecting Lee Suggs and Najeh Davenport, your getting a steal. It's a fine line between taking the best player available and being stuck without any good running backs.

Let me give a brief explanation as to why Running Backs become so valuable:

Most leagues start 2 running backs and only 1 quarterback. Since there are approx 30 reliable starting quarterbacks in the NFL, the difference between quarterback #10 and quarterback #25 is not that great. On average, the #10 QB will only score a couple more fantasy points a week than the #25 QB.

In contrast, Running backs are more scarce. Many teams have some sort of "shared" backfield, where they split time between backs. Also, running backs tend to get injured more often so it is beneficial to have several on your roster, making free agent pickups after the draft nearly impossible. This means there are only about 15 running backs that are considered every down backs, that don't share significant time. If you can land one or two of those guys, you can still get a starting QB in round 3 - whereas, as you discovered, you may not get a reliable running back in round 3.

The difference between the #10 RB and the #25 RB may be several points per week. For example, the difference between Pennington and Bledsoe is much smaller than the difference between Dillon and Henry. Therefore, everyone wants to draft solid running backs early because they can always get serviceable quarterbacks and receivers in the middle rounds.

Some leagues try to diminish this natural inflated value on running backs by adding a second QB or, as we do in our league, add an 'Extra' position player - an extra slot where you can start another QB, WR, or even a third RB if you want. Even still, the emphasis on Running backs in the first two rounds still exists.

What makes this difficult for rookie FFL owners to believe, is the fact that (as a general rule) QBs score more points that RBs do. So you would think you'd want to draft a Manning or Culpepper first. But it is supply and demand that drives the draft - it is better to have two good players, rather than a great one and a bad one.

Ah...I could talk FFL all night, but I see everyone is sleeping. I'll let it rest there for now.

[cree8ivone]

yea i'm strong at every position except running back. i'm even strong with reserves.

our league doesn't have an extra skill player. we have QB, 2RB, 2WR, TE, D/ST, and K.
in my research before i drafted, i saw that some defenses earned more points over the course of the year than most running backs. so i thought that getting good defenses was just as important. however i did not take into account that my roster each week only had one defense and two running backs. even a really good defense doesn't offset two solid backs, so i'm stuck scrambling for running backs.

the ultimate kickin the pants about the whole thing... i'm a big Pittsburgh Steelers fan and i had the option to pick up Willie Parker as a FA for two weeks during preseason. i waited because i thought they were just resting Bettis for the regular season and Parker would be 3 string at best. TRIPLE OOOOOOOPPPPPPSSSSSS!!!!

fantasy football is fun but i'm the obsessive type, which is why i have avoided it up until now. i truly do not have the time in my life right now to obsess over it. i need to find a good group of players and just let it ride or i'll miss doing something i'm supposed to be doing. LOL

thanks for the info, dgan. i will try to put it to good use.

[DanTheMan]

You may not want to do this Cree, but keep an eye on what players get hurt. You can often pickup a good RB because their main one got hurt. Also, you may want to trade your QB for a RB and a lesser QB. Someone in your league probably has an awful QB situation but 3 good RBs.
I know what you mean about obsessing. We don't want to end up like dgan, here.

[dgan]

Who, me?

Yes...I am just a bit. My wife will tell you I'm married to her from February through August, and married to football from September through January. It's not true of course...I mean, there's the NFL draft in March and the summer mini-camps....

That's the great thing about Fantasy Football though, Cree. Being "hands-on" doesn't make you successful. I am by far the most active owner in my league, and I came in last in 2004. Go figure.

So don't feel like you're going to miss something. Sure, Carson Palmer might get injured and some hawk in your league will snatch up Jon Kitna (pro-bowler just 2 years ago) before you even know what happened. That's OK. Moves like that usually don't make or break a season. So just sit tight, maybe try to work out a trade in your free time, and let your team do the work for you.

And speaking of Parker, I drafted him in the 15th round because he's the only RB they have under 30 I think. But I didn't start him week 1 - big mistake. I am starting him this week instead of Brett Favre (as my extra player) - yeah, that's probably going to come back to bite me too. Oh well....*squeezes eyes shut* dontobsessdontobsessdontobsessdontobsess...

[cree8ivone]

I've got Brett Favre on my bench because I have Peyton Manning as my starter.

DOH!!!

Who in their right mind could have predicted that Manning and Harrison and the Colts would only eek out 10 points this week? Nobody. And who in their wildest dreams could have imagined Farve going nuts for 3TDs the week after losing his best receiver for the year? Nobody.

The only player I have with double digits in points this week is my kicker, Jason Elam with 10 pts... Unbelievable.

"dontobsessdontobsessdontobsessdontobsess... " - this needs to be my new saying.

[DanTheMan]

I did all right this week even though Culpepper stunk again. I played the Bears as Defense and they did awesome.