Are You Ready For Some Football?

It’s in the air…..can you hear it? The crack of pads echoes throughout every training camp. The oohs and aahs from fans in attendance are heard daily as great catches are made, awesome hits are felt and coaches’ bellows of encouragement rain down across the practice fields. Yeah…it’s time.

For many of us, football is way more than a sport or a game. It is akin to religion. And, if you are like me, there are few better ways to “practice your faith” than being involved in fantasy football. As a self-described football junkie, I read everything I can about the sport and do my best to share this learned knowledge with whomever I can. It’s what makes participating in fantasy football fun – testing your football mettle against others every week. Many of you know how and where to begin this journey but still there are novices among us deserving of the chance to revel in their fantasy football self-worth. So let’s get started now….

As with any fantasy league, the draft establishes so much as to what each “owner” believes to be the most important pieces to a successful season. Every league offers up scoring nuances that affect the way certain skill positions should be selected. For our purposes today, let’s use the most common practice of valuing skill positions at a certain $ amount, i.e allowing $100 for quarterbacks, $50 for tight ends, etc. If your league does not use this method but rather allows owners to draft players regardless of proposed value, the following still applies.

This year appears to be best suited for taking running backs early in the draft. The value is top heavy with the likes of Chris Johnson/Tenn and Adrian Peterson/Minn but great numbers can still be had by a hand full of others like Ray Rice/Balt and Maurice Jones-Drew/Jax. Further down in the draft you can realize some good production from the likes of ‘sleepers” like Michael Bush/Oak and Donald Brown/Indy. As far as quarterbacks go, the usual cast of characters continues to reign supreme. I have Drew Brees and Aaron Rodgers at the top of my list but again you will still find nice numbers a little further down in the pack with Peyton Manning/Indy and Tom Brady/NE. As far as players to watch out for, give Joe Flacco/Balt or Kevin Kolb/Phi a try. Both have multiple weapons to use and an opportunistic defense to get them the ball often. For my money, I’d stay away from Matt Hasselbeck/Sea and Matt Leinart/Ariz. The Seahawks are missing too many skill players and when Anquan Boldin left for the Ravens, teams will be better suited to doubling up on Larry Fitzgerald and thus hampering Leinart’s ability to put up significant numbers this year.

Wide receivers are plentiful and a general rule of thumb is to select multiple “starters” to spread out the talent as opposed to going top heavy with a true #1 and lower value picks to round out your roster. To that end, I would recommend three players that could offer the best production for the cost/place selected – Michael Crabtree/SF, Johnny Knox/Chi and Jeremy Maclin/Phi. If you find yourself stuck, stay away from Lee Evans/Buff (who’s getting him the ball) and Steve Smith/Car (ditto). Tight ends are like wide receivers in that you’re getting value from picks 1 through 10 so don’t rush to grab one early on. I like Brett Celek/Phi (Kevin Kolb’s road roommate) and Vernon Davis/SF as big time values at this position. Also, give a look to Zach Miller/Oak who could easily surprise with Jason Campbell under center this year.

Kickers are a crap shoot and I’ve seen all kinds of theories on how to make a pick. Some will tell you to go for teams that often bog down in the red zone aka Philadelphia thus giving the kicker more field goal attempts, while others will go with kickers from teams whose defenses lead the league in turnovers, the idea being that their offenses will start with better field position and have less to move to get into scoring position. My take is far less complicated. I almost always go with the kickers who are proven commodities year after year. Nate Kaeding/SD and Rob Bironas/Tenn come to mind.

We could go on and on discussing the relative merits of every skill player and still not come up with the perfect roster. That’s because every week brings new match-ups, player injuries and team byes that have to be considered when you decide who to “start” and who needs to “sit”. We’ll talk more about this next week. For now, remember the following: You can’t win your fantasy league in the preseason, but you sure can lose it then. Take your time, do due diligence to your football acumen and above all, have fun.

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