Week 7: Halftime Special!

Week 7 is in the can, which means for many of us in FF land, the season is half gone. A good as time as any to take a look at how the season is shaking out. Let's start with the QBs:

Quarterbacks -- "You could have had a V-8!"

Drew Brees (29)
Aaron Rodgers (157)
Jay Cutler (92)
Phillip Rivers (139)
Tono Romo (17)
Kurt Warner (152)
Kyle Orton (Undrafted)
Matt Schaub (128)
Donovan McNabb (68)
Brett Favre (90)

Hmmm...notice anything interesting about this list? Where's Carson? And where's Peyton? And where on Earth is Derek? If you count Tom Brady, 4 of last year's top 10 QBs are completely off the list, and 3 of them have no chance of making it back this year. I'll tell you what, I am almost shocked to see Favre there. Even discounting the fact that we thought he'd be fishing, for the guy to come back, get shipped off to a different conference and brand new personnel and offensive scheme and still be top 10 is just silly. Of course, he did have a 6 TD game that may be inflating his ranking, but hey, he made the cutoff, so he deserves kudos.

What I really like about this list is that it's dominated by late round picks. I love waiting on QBs in drafts, and this year it looks like it paid off. Interestingly, I actually think Drew Brees may be worth the high pick, but this year he's the only one who is. I'm guessing No Homers won't trade him to me, but you never know.

Running Backs -- Value for Money

Portis
Barber
Gore
Bush
Forte (63)
Peterson
Jackson
Turner
Brown
Jacobs

Johnson (99)
Slaton (undrafted)
Tomlinson
Graham
Jones-Drew
Thomas J
Lynch
White (58)
Williams (82)
Julius J (74)

The first thing I notice about the 2008 performance of the RB slot is that the top 20 is dominated by early round picks, all but one of the old stand bys getting picked off by round 4. In other words, you get what you pay for. Forte, Johnson, and Slaton were the best values, coming later. Westbrook and Larry Johnson are looking like bust candidates, but I don't want to give up on Brian yet. Keep in mind this is a very rough cut of the figures. A closer look would reveal, for example, why I think Portis may be the steal of the year: he's consistent. True-to-form, I managed to trade away the number 1 fantasy back for a bag of magic beans.

Now Turner for example, seems to run hot and cold, either delivering knock-out numbers, or coming home empty-handed with a story about the neighborhood bully taking all his candy. Julius Jones and DeAngelo Williams may be the biggest surprises for me, although Girlz was metaphorically shaking her fanny at me while scooping up the lesser of the Jones brothers during the draft. Considering we play 3 RBs, that wasn't too bad. Reggie Bush is a total surprise to me, but gold for some lucky owner. I find Jackson, and the Rams, absolutely fascinating. I still can't decide if this 2 game streak with the new coach is for real. I'd sell high on Ronnie Brown because the Dolphins are just too inconsistent for my tastes. Unlike the story with the WRs.....

Wide Receivers -- It's 3 O'clock, do you know where your wideout is?

Greg Jennings
Andre Johnson
Fitzgerald
Marshall
Santana
Calvin
Roddy
Bernard
Lee
Reggie

TJH
Vincent
Boldin
Terrell
Steve
Mushin
Hines
Eddie
Laveranues
Desean

Braylon, Randy, and Chad couldn't make the party. Neither could Torry, Deion, or any number of heralded wideouts. To be fair, most of the guys on this list went pretty early. Roddy, Vincent, Mushin, Eddie, and Desean seem to be the clear bargains. I think the big question as some of us assess our rosters is: will they keep this up? And the thing is, the question applies to most of these guys. Will Calvin do better as the clear #1 in Detroit? Or will opposing defense feel free to double him now that the other deep threat is gone? And do you really think that Bernard, Roddy, Santana, and Lee will end the year in the top 10? Really? Will the Bengals come out of the doldrums, or should the TJH owners be peddling him like an old encyclopedia set? Will Boldin fully recover from his injury and the wires they just placed in his jaw? Will TO pay off without Romo at full strength? Should you trade him too? What happened to Santonio? I mean, if you've got Hines, you're happy. But can Holmes' drought really last if they want to make the playoffs? Was Monday Night the beginning of the end for Denver? Because that would mean Eddie is toast! And will Reggie Brown and Kevin Curtis' returns relegate Desean to WR4 value? (Please God No!) And let's not forget my very high draft pick Marques Colston who promptly proceeded to be injured and was therefore useless to me for half the season already. I'll trade him! Make me an offer!

I'll say this about WRs and QBs, it's my impression that this year an active owner would have had a fair shot at picking up decent value if he was vigilant. Less so with RBs. You know I was going to get Donnie Avery this week, but for some reason thought I had better value on my bench....and someone snapped him up!

Good Luck with the rest of the season!

Is it too late to undrop Derek and Braylon?

Looks like I was wrong about the Browns. It happens. As some of you saw last Monday night, the Browns are back! Of course that doesn't help the thousands of fantasy owners who dropped Derek outright and traded Braylon for scrap metal. At Week 6, this has to be one of the latest "sleeper" discoveries you'll ever see. I'll tell you what a cute thought exercise is though: do you sell high now and try to get someone you want even more, or just hold on and hope that the Giants game wasn't just a head fake? Personally I like Schaub, Ryan, and Orton if they're available. As for Braylon, my intuition tells me that his owners will overvalue him now, making a trade unlikely. It's almost halftime!

No Helmets No Pads: Not Again!

Another week of action in the No Helmets and can you believe it, the new guy grabbed another golden doughnut! @#$%^&*! Since we're quickly coming up on halftime (next week) I'll take the time to crunch of a few numbers and make a more substantial post (You know, like I used to last year.) It's too bad you can't get funky stats like Points Against in the league, because based on what I saw last year, your won-loss record in FF is as much a product of the weekly match-ups as it is the team you drafted. But seriously, if right after the draft, you had told me that a certain team would be 6-0 in our league, I would have laughed myself silly. We still have a lot of parity as the 2 teams that were 1-4 seem to have won their games this week, so about 8 of the teams are within 2 games of completely changing places, and everyone's still in the playoff hunt! Outstanding!

Players I worry about:

TO and Jason now that Tony's out for FOUR games!! Aaaargh!
All Browns
Larry Johnson, hmm... All Chiefs
Ryan Grant
All Bengals
All Raiders
All Patriots
All Rams, maybe, just maybe minus Jackson
All Seahawks
Earnest Graham (Warrick is stealing his touches!)

Signs of Life
Peyton
Andre
Berrian
Falcons
Saints
Orton

All-Star Team

Drew Brees, No Homers
Clinton Portis, cantwinagame
Marion Barber, Girlz
Frank Gore, Minnesota Americans
Greg Jennings, Girlz
Larry Fitzgerald, Minnesota Americans
Roddy White, cantwinagame
Jason Witten, Minnesota Americans
Matt Prater, Minnesota Americans
Tennessee, Cellar Dwellar

Greg Jennings? Roddy White?! Tennessee? And who, other than a rabid Broncos fan, actually drafted Matt Prater? As usual in FF there have been plenty of surprises this year, but I still think that in terms of pure surprises, injuries, and other disappointments, this year takes the cake. I think it's worse than last year. Anyway, hope your teams are doing well! And seriously, if you're 0-5, I hope you're in a keeper league, otherwise it's going to be a loooong season.

Stop Me Before I Draft Again!

I think this is scheduled for 10:30 PM Eastern Time, Saturday night (OCT 4). Almost literally the last live draft Yahoo will be allowing this year.

Pigskin Redemption (ID# 706843)
Password: carson

Settings are QB,WR,WR,WR,RB,RB,RB,TE,K, DEF and some performance bonuses and stingy defense scoring; almost identical to No Helmets. Only 1 trade allowed, and NO PLAYOFFS! Obviously this is for the certifiably addicted, or those of you who really did have ridiculously bad luck in your draft, which, by the way, seems easier this year than normal. Around dinner time it'll be opened to the public if enough of the usual characters don't show up.

Oh and there's a (good) mystery prize for the winner.

Second Chance League

Are you 0-4? Did you manage to draft Braylon Edwards, Tom Brady, Chad Johnson, Steven Jackson and Laurence Maroney? Don't you wish you could take back that 2nd round pick you wasted on Ryan Grant? Are you sorry you missed your shot at Matt Forte or Desean Jackson? Well maybe a Second Chance League is for you. Yahoo will terminate the live drafts as of this coming Sunday, so if you're looking for redemption, the clock is ticking. Friday or Saturday is good for me.

HA!