Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Fantasy Football 2007-08


It’s that time of year again…


No no no...not the State Fair…Not August & September pennant races…


It’s THAT time of year again…


Fantasy Football is here!


This past weekend, 11 of us got together in the Kinsky basement for the annual Woodbury Fantasy Football league draft.


This is the first year that we are all college students. Previously, only 4 of us were college students but the other guys have graduated and will be attending college. Upon coming home this summer, I found out that about 86% of their graduating class was going to the same university (University of Minnesota-Duluth). Does that even count for college? I mean, when you leave high-school to grow up on your own and meet new people, and then 200 kids from your graduating class join you on that exact same journey?


Anyway, each year that goes by, our draft starts to look more and more like the Academy Awards. On paper, it seems like it should take about 2.5 hours and somehow when 11:30 rolls around you start to think, “When and where did this go wrong?” Maybe we need an orchestra to start playing music when things start getting a little long to hurry things up.


It’s an auction style draft where we go around in a circle and throw out player’s names to bid on. If you are confused, just think of what the Jets have been doing for the past 5 years and that’s what we do.


This year, I believe that we finished somewhere around 3.5 hours. I could be wrong, but when you have 5 guys to pick and only $5 left…it starts to get a little long.


Here is my team and some information about each player. Give some feedback on what you think of my team and anything else interesting pertaining to fantasy football/NFL.


QB’s : Peyton Manning & Philip Rivers. Manning has been Mr. Fantasy for the last couple years. He has endless receivers and a solid running back this year. He sees the field very well and rarely makes mistakes. He was my QB last year and only two weeks did he not do so hot. In a 16 week season, that’s pretty good. Rivers was my back-up last year and did well. He broke out last year by throwing for 3,388 yards, 22 TD’s and 9 INT’s. It killed me some weeks because both Manning and Rivers had good match-ups. But as usual, the smarter side of me went with Manning. Both will have a great year.


RB’s : Steven Jackson, Marshawn Lynch & Lorenzo Booker. Jackson is my bread & butter. This guy is ranked #2 behind LT in just about every fantasy magazine across America. He rushed for 1,528 yards and 13 TD’s and had 806 yards REC with 3 TD’s. In Scott Linehan’s great offensive scheme, Jackson will get a lot of carries again this year. The O-line has improved and with the usual targets of Holt and Bruce, I’m looking for Jackson to have another great year. My prediction is that he will be better than LT this year, maybe even MVP. Yeah…I said it.

Lynch is another great back. He is getting some big praise around the NFL before his rookie season officially starts. He runs hard and fast and can hit the holes hard. He may only be a rookie, but he’ll have solid fantasy value as Buffalo’s feature back. Booker…well…let’s just hope that Ronnie Brown needs a breather here and there because I could really go for Booker coming up big this year.


WR’s: Calvin Johnson, Bernard Berrian, Jerricho Cotchery, Brandon Marshall, Kevin Walter, Michael Jenkins. At this point, if you haven’t figured out the gaping hole in this team….HERE IT IS! Other than Johnson and…well Johnson…I don’t have much confidence in my WR corps. Cotchery and Berrian could have solid seasons but they both have to catch balls from iffy QB’s. Marshall will be catching passes from Jay Cutler and could have a surprise season. He learned from Rod Smith all of last year and Mike Shanahan is looking for big things from him this year. Kevin Walter was a filler pick. I’m going to be frank…I had no idea who he was before I picked him. But you better believe that if he has a good year that I’m going to act like I knew what I was doing.


Fantasy Football Golden Rule # 1 : ALWAYS ACT LIKE YOU KNOW WHAT YOU’RE DOING…even if it was crystal clear that you did not and it was just pure luck.


TE’s: Vernon Davis & Greg Olsen. Davis should have a break out year. He was hurt last year and Alex Smith has grown by leaps and bounds as a QB. Other than Antonio Gates, Davis is my pick for best TE of the year. Olsen still has to prove himself as a rook. But according to my buddy’s brother…”Urlacher says that he’s the best TE he’s EVER seen…”


DEF/K: Matt Stover, Miami & Green Bay. Stover kicks about 5 FG’s a game and his leg has yet to fall off. Accurate kicker with a questionable red-zone offense (this = good for kickers). Miami D was solid last year. Jason Taylor returns and is the cornerstone of this D. The pass D needs to come up big this year in order to take Miami to the top of the D standings. Green Bay added defense in their draft this year and the improvements are there. This is clearly my back-up pick but watch for Nick Barnett and AJ Hawk to get 300 tackles a piece this year.


So that’s my team for the 2007-08 Fantasy Football season. From time to time, I will be giving updates on how the team is performing this year. Again, please leave your comments, musings or “what an idiot” comments about my team.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

How on earth did you manage to to get Manning and Jackson? Is that even possible?

Anonymous said...

I have no idea...



I bid $34 for him and got him and Peyton. So it looks like it will be a good year

Anonymous said...

Good words.