Sorts of Sports

Fantasy Football 2010 Preview

Details: Created on Tuesday, 31 August 2010 23:13; Written by ZZ

With a little over a week before the NFL season commences, SOS wanted to give you a primer for any of your upcoming fantasy drafts. Whether snake or auction, ten or twelve teams, flex or no flex, take a look to see how to best prepare for draft night.

aaron-rodgers

General Rules to Live (or Die) by:

Kicker and Defense: Wait! There is very little statistical evidence to suggest that going after one of these before the last two rounds, or for more than $1 in auctions, is worth it.
Tight End: If you can’t get your 3^rd WR or Flex Spot, then upgrading to the Gates/Clark tier isn’t a bad idea. Otherwise, there is plenty of value at less of a price with the Shiancoes, Millers, and Daniels’ of the world.
Running Back and Wide Receiver: Make sure to evaluate their projections based on the points systems for your specific league (ESPN has this feature). When it comes down to deciding between your 2^nd WR or a middle-tier RB, this type of analysis can be very helpful. Don’t get caught up in the old philosophy of trying to get two top running backs right away either. With injuries and platoons becoming all too common in today’s game, your pick/money could be wisely spent on a higher tier WR or top-flight TE.
Quarterback: Either you are going to get a top-7 guy and not have to worry all year, or you’ll have to take two guys from the rest of the pack and hope that one of them gets hot. Your choice.

Quarterbacks

There are really three ways to break this position down: The Smoking Hot Older Sister, The Under-the-Radar , yet Promiscuous Younger Sister, and The Other Sister. Stick in the first two groups, because after that, the results could be remedial, at best.

The Smoking Hot Older Sister

Absolutely cannot go wrong with any of these four, in order:

Peyton Manning
Drew Brees
Aaron Rodgers
Tom Brady

Under-the-Radar, yet Promiscuous Younger Sister

All three of these guys are capable of 4000/30 type years, and if they had a more consistent track record, they wouldn’t have to be as promiscuous to get attention:

Tony Romo
Matt Schaub
Philip Rivers

The Other Sister

After the top-7, its low risk, with a possible savant in the group (see Favre, B. 2008-2009 campaign):

Brett Favre
Joe Flacco
Carson Palmer
Everyone else

Running Backs

The running back position is as complicated as it has ever been given platoons and the threat of TD vultures. The way I see it, there are eight guys who you can count on all year to give you double digit points. Get one of these and then fill out your starting backfield with one of the young guns listed below. After that, add as much depth as you can, including platoon or specialty guys who could possibly take over the starting job by midway through the season.

T(D) Bone Steaks

Double-digit fantasy points week in and week out – Tommy Callahan guarantees it, and if you don’t believe him, you can take a look up a butcher’s ass:

Adrian Peterson
Chris Johnson
Maurice Jones-Drew
Frank Gore
Steven Jackson
Ray Rice
Michael Turner
Ryan Grant
(DeAngelo Williams is a top-10 back so I would be remiss to not mention him with this group, but I am not a fan, especially with Jonathan Stewart lurking behind him – see below).

Young Guns

While these six guys are not the proven point machines like the backs listed above, they should all be featured in their offenses and could be very high level number two backs on any championship squad:

Rashard Mendenhall
Shonn Greene
Knowshon Moreno
Jamaal Charles
Ryan Matthews
Beanie Wells

Charlie Sheen > Emilio Estevez

All 5 of these guys have brothers in their backfields at the moment, but I think they will be outscoring all of their counterparts once the season is said and done:

Jonathan Stewart
Ahmad Bradshaw
Donald Brown
Felix Jones
CJ Spiller

Wide Receivers

It seems like every year there are top-20 scoring receivers who seemingly come out of nowhere. While I implore you to stay on top of the waiver wire for this trend, take a peek at some potential low round (price) guys that I already found who could be your next Miles Austin or Vincent Jackson. However, don’t underestimate the power of getting three of the fifteen players listed below right off the bat. Doing this could limit a lot of the waiver wire scrambling in the first few weeks, and give you the most potent receiving corps in the league.

Child, Please

The groups below are the most stable receivers on the market. And they probably spent part of their offseason running routes and catching passes rather than trying to find “The Ultimate Catch” with TO and B-Twice (speaking of B-Twice, since no one knew who he was when they introduced him on the dating show, this year could be his time to shine since no other Minnesota receiver wants to be healthy enough to play with Big Brett – see below):

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