Not only do we shovel out insane amounts of hardcore fantasy football information, we put that advice into action in our Expert Fantasy Football Leagues. These are leagues where we battle it out against some of the best Fantasy Football Sites on the Web.
Read All: Proven Winners In The Industry
“I am just blown away by the aggressiveness of this site on a daily basis… Not even a sniff of training camp and someone is already thinking about week 1 [player projections]… Awesome… totally awesome.”
- chuckeycharles, April 18, 2008
Read All: Customer Testimonials
Thoughts? Who is getting too much respect, who not enough? Who do you agree with and why?
I think Cutler and Delhomme both deserve a bump, as does Clinton Portis. Cutler was only in his 2nd season last year and demonstrated extreme potential. Delhomme has proven that he could do it in the past, he just needs to get back into the swing of things. He’ll produce big as the season moves on. He won’t necessarily explode like the first few games of 2007, but he’ll get back up there.
Portis has been a lock for 1600/10+ each season he’s been in the NFL, aside from 1. With his outstanding conditioning and his ability to catch out of the backfield as well as play a workhorse role, he definitely is a cut above 2c already.
Jamal Lewis probably deserves a bump as he had more yards after contact last year than any other RB in the NFL. He isn’t the 2000-yard RB from before, but the guy is a brute playing behind a brute OL with more than enough of a passing attack to keep defenses honest.
Add Chris Johnson to the list of “dudes who will start off a bit slowly but pick it up as the year progresses”
Nice work Kethnaab.
Not sure I agree with Rodgers. I don’t get into predicting injuries to justify a player’s ranking and I think he’s got plenty of mettle to deal with the pressure with the surrounding cast he has. Not saying he sets the world on fire, but he’s a more worthy QB 2 than a lot of the guys I see in Tier 4.
Agree with Keth on Portis… he’s never a sexy pick but gets the job done.
Et tu, Smitty? Even you have dropped McGahee because of the overblown knee thing.
It isn’t that I’ve dropped him all that much, these are our staff average rankings with some minor tweaks. I Tiered McGahee where he is because he doesn’t have Rice handcuffed to him… if that was factored in, he would be higher. Alone, that is a good tier and good placement. You can probably get him a lot later than where he is slotted up above, though.
As for Rodgers, I see your point, but I rank guys based on injury all the time. Sometimes it can burn you, but injury striking Rodgers isn’t going out on a limb… the guy has been hurt more than once in his short span of games played, whereas Favre steps in and gets hammered on a weekly basis for years. He is also going to take some serious hits – that has already started. I have no beef with anyone not factoring injuries when ranking guys, but I do it. Sometimes it’s easier than others… with Rodgers and Selvin Young, it feels like a lock to me… or close to it, at least.
Great topics, X! Those are on the minds of many.
I think Leinart is ranked too high. I estimate that there is no more than a 70% chance that he keeps the job and I don’t think he’ll be that much more effective than last year if he does. You’ve also got some risk from the Boldin situation. I put him at best at the low end of Tier 4 and would be inclined to take Campbell, VY and Rodgers over him as. If you do a full scenario analysis on this guy with conditional probabilities, I don’t see how he’s anything close to QB12 in any format. BTW, I also think this is a risk for redraft owners taking Fitz as a top 5 WR off the board. He had i think 1 TD from Leinart in 8 games (maybe it was 2, not sure)
I also don’t understand why everybody is so high on Delhomme this year. He had a few solid games to start last year before he got hurt, but so what. What I see is A. Smith out 2 games, and B. a big deal made about the return of Muhammad and the addition of Hackett when in fact the WR2 position and TE position have been wholly fanatsy irrelevant in CAR for the entire Fox era (recall the excitement over Mushie derives from his big year in 2004 when Smith was injured for virtually the whole year) and C. despite varied needs on defense, the first round pick being spent on an RB when there arguably was already a 250-carry capable back on the roster and a trade back into the 1st round to shore up the OL. I’m in a PPR league and I’m staying away from this team unless DeAngelo comes very cheap.
My comment/question for Smitty on the Seattle RB situation …. do you really think Mo Morris should be above JJ on an absolute basis (no question given the ADPs that Mo is the value pick) I see this as an ugly RBBC with probably fewer carries overall than in the past given that SEA will move the ball less and be playing from behind more due to their offense being in shambles generally.
Also Smitty, why is Campbell an IC? Is he not fully healed? I like him as a great QB2 this year.
Good questions. Morris has the slight inside track on the starting job, at least some reports suggest. It’s close, though. I’d rather have Morris at this point, but if you asked me that a month ago I would have said Julius. It could be a RBBC all year long, though.
Injury concerns (IC) don’t always mean that the player in question is extremely banged up right at that moment. Campbell had some hamstring issues back in May-June, and while that seems to be behind him, I think most question his ability to stay healthy. Everyone sees the upside in him, he just has to stay on the field. I hope he does, as he could then take a huge step forward.
I appreciate you doing this Smitty..I’m anxiously awaiting the WRs and TEs, as I draft this coming weekend. Thanks again.
I’ll see what we can do about rushing the TEs/WRs.
3 questions Smitty, on the topics or RBs …. how do you see the Ricky/Ronnie situation playing out and where do you see the value, if at all, in Cincinnati? Also, any thoughts on Kevin Smith?
ctrencher, I’m not a fan of the Ronnie/Ricky situation this year, but it just comes down to value. It always comes down to value. I’d rather have a stronger RB2 this year than that combo, I’ll just say that. If I could get Brown via trade at the cost of a 5th-rounder, sure, I’d be interested, but past that I just don’t like the risk with that situation. Brown could bounce back next season in a major way if all goes well this season.
As for the Cincy situation… that’s even more cloudy. Anyone with Chris Perry should just sit and hope for the best. Past that, it’s tough to invest anything in that situation. If Perry could stay healthy, he’d produce. Will he, though? If you do want to head in the direction of starting a Cincy runner in 2008, you have to have both Rudi and Perry. If one only has Perry, don’t give up too much for Rudi, though.
I think Kevin Smith is the guy in DET, but he is quite raw. Tough to count on him as anything more than a flex in 2008. Plus, being that he is starting for the Lions right out of the gate, you have to expect him to start slowing up near Week 10-12. The best formula for rookie running back success is starting the rookie off slow and — Then, come Week 4-5, unleash the beast! Getting that Week 1 start usually always leads to hitting the old rookie wall.