It's fantasy football season... finally!

Welcome back everyone! Man what a week! I had 2 drafts, the NFL season opened up with a great game and now the Bulldogs are off to an early lead against Wisconsin. I have a lot to cover today so let’s get right into it. Let’s start with my draft on Tuesday.

The Ace Trohpy Fantasy Football League
This is the first real fantasy football league I ever played in. My first job was working at Ace and like any good employer, they invited their new employee to participate in the company fantasy football league. That was 10 years ago. This is a pretty simple, yardage only league. It’s not my favorite format, but I enjoy getting together with these guys every year and have a blast at our live draft which is held at a local Italian restaurant. I’ve won this league 2 times I think (maybe 3 times, I can’t remember for sure, but definitely 2). In years past, my team name was Oprah’s Book Club, but the OBC simply didn’t get it done last year and I went on to my worst year since my first at a dismal, pathetic, and embarrassing 5-8. Looking to get a fresh start and get back to my winning ways, I decided to change my team name to “Keep the Change Ya Filthy Animal!” It’s a Home Alone reference and one of my all-time favorite movie lines. With a new name in tow, I was now ready to have a strong draft and this being only a 10-teamer, I was confident that it would be. One of the unique things about this draft is that after every 2 rounds you redraw draft cards so it can make things very tricky. I don’t like that rule at all, but hey it’s not the end of the world. Luckily I was able to pick toward the middle of the rounds for most of the draft so I was able to maintain consistency. Also, this draft only goes 13 rounds then after week 5 we have a supplemental 5 round draft to complete our rosters. Here’s how my draft went, keep in mind that this is a yardage only league…

Round 1 – DeAngelo Williams
Round 2 – Andre Johnson
Round 3 – Jason Witten
Round 4 – Reggie Bush
Round 5 – TJ Houshmandzadeh
Round 6 – Eddie Royal
Round 7 – Knowshawn Moreno
Round 8 – DeSean Jackson
Round 9 – Donovan McNabb
Round 10 – Carson Palmer
Round 11 – Jonathan Stewart
Round 12 – Robbie Gould
Round 13 – Chicago

Potential Starting Lineup
QB – Palmer or McNabb
RB1 – DeAngelo
RB2 – Bush and sometimes Moreno
WR1 – AJ
WR2 – Housh, DeSean, or Royal based on matchups
TE – Witten
K – Gould
D – Chi

Rotobowl
Last night, I had what I call my “big draft.” The draft is known as Rotobowl. It’s considered one of the most competitive fantasy football leagues and has the grand prize of $30,000 and 2 tickets to the Super Bowl to back it up. There are about 430 teams that compete in Rotobowl and here’s how it works. You play in your individual league weeks 1-11 so basically you get to play every other team once. If you finish #1 in the regular season, you receive a birth into the main event. In addition to finishing atop your league, you can earn a birth into the main event by finishing 1, 2, or 3 in the league playoffs which are held in weeks 12-14. Once you make it to the main event they take 3 scores for your final score…

1. your weeks 1-14 average
2. your week 15 score
3. your week 16 score

At the end of week 16, the team with the most points wins the $30k and 2 tickets to the Super Bowl. So the stakes are nice and high, just the way I like em. This is my third year doing Rotobowl and the last 2 years, I’ve had my own team and I’ve also shared a franchise with Nick. This year I decided to forego the team on my own and focus in on the team with Nick. Two years ago, in our first year Nick and I had a team that finished just outside of the money. I think we placed 17th overall. This year we’re looking to take it down!

Now that you know what’s at stake, allow me to introduce ourselves. My name’s John and his name’s Nick, but you have to call us Double Dragon! Picking from the 8th spot, here’s how our draft went…

1.8 Michael Turner
2.5 Reggie Wayne
3.8 Kevin Smith
4.5 Santonio Holmes and his 30 points
5.8 Pierre Thomas
6.5 Phillip Rivers
7.8 Beanie Wells
8.5 Lee Evans
9.8 Mike Bell
10.5 John Carlson
11.8 Willis McGahee
12.5 Joey Galloway
13.8 Heath Miller
14.5 Matt Cassel
15.8 Malcolm Kelly
16.5 Danny Ware
17.8 Mike Goodson
18.5 David Clowney
19.8 John Carney
20.5 Saints D

Here’s a link to the whole draft if you’d like to take a look at it, http://football4.myfantasyleague.com/2009/options?L=71182&O=17

Week 1 we'll be starting...
QB - Rivers
RB1 - Turner
RB2 - Smith
WR1 - Wayne
WR2 - Holmes - 28.1 points
WR3 - Evans
TE - Carlson
Flex 1 - Bell
Flex 2 - Miller - 14.4 points
K - Carney
D - Saints D

Overall the draft was tougher than I thought, but we're pretty happy. No QBs went in the first 20 picks or so which was a little unexpected. We have a nice balance of studs, high upside players, and quality backups.

These last few weeks have been a grind. I don’t think I’ve ever been this focused on fantasy and my teams have reflected it. My goal is to win all of my leagues, obviously, but that is no easy task. Drafting is often the easy part as the regular season can be killer; monitoring free agents, avoiding injuries, making good trades, and selecting the right starters are all keys to a successful fantasy season, and all can be quite the headache. I will be doing all these things and will also find success by following my 2 major fantasy football rules.

RULE #1 – DON’T BENCH YOUR STUDS!
Last Wednesday, I was sitting in class and I got a text from a good friend who has his fair share of fantasy experience saying, “I think I’m going to start Willie Parker over Chris Johnson this week” With both of them facing tough defenses (Parker vs Ten and CJ3 vs Pit) neither was looking very favorable. The rest of the conversation went something like this…

jg: Are you crazy? Never bench your studs! What’s the point of drafting Chris Johnson in the 2nd if you’re not going to use him?!
My misled friend: Willie Parker is at home.
jg: I don’t care if the game is being played on Mars, you don’t bench your studs.
My misled friend: Still, I think I’m going with Parker
jg: I said what I had to say, it’s your team.

After this initial conversation, I further tried to convince my friend that he was making the wrong decision by asking him if he knew that last year when the Titans and Steelers played, that Willie Parker had a whopping 3 points and CJ3 had 19. Still to no avail, he went with Parker. And how did Willie Parker do? Well let’s put it this way, after Thursday’s game they changed Willie Parker’s nickname from “Fast” to “Run right into the pile for a little more than 1 yard per carry for a total of 19 yards and 1.9 points and 1 catch for 5 yards and 1.5 points for a grand total of 3.4 points in another disappointing performance” Willie Parker. Now, CJ3 didn’t do too much better, 68 total yards and 1 catch for 11 yards and a total of 7.8 points but that’s still a difference of 4.4 points. Yes, that’s not a lot but I know of fantasy horror stories where owners have been knocked out of their fantasy playoffs by .01 points, so every point is important. I hope my friend can still make it out of this week with a win, but if not, that’s a bitter way to start your season. So unless your studs are hurt and ruled out or on a bye, then dance with the girl you brought, and never bench your studs.

RULE #2 – WHEN YOU GET TOO CUTE, YOU GET SCREWED
Take the approach of keeping it simple when you select your lineup. If you get too cute, you’ll end up trying to be too creative with your lineup and you end up screwing yourself out of points and eventually wins. I’ve told this story once, I’ll tell it a million times. In 2002, my friend and I had a deadly team that was rolling on a weekly basis. Funny thing about this story, is that the friend that I had this team with is the same friend I was just talking about in the Rule 1 section. Anyways, our team is on fire! We make it to our fantasy super bowl and we got too cute. Our QB that year was Jeff Garcia and he was good for about 20+ points every single week, well in week 16 of that year, the Niners had already clinched a playoff spot so Garcia wasn’t expected to play more than a half. Our other “cute” choice was to play Broncos starting QB Brian Griese against the Raiders in what was supposed to be a shootout. Well that week Garcia ended up playing the whole game, passing for 256 yards, a TD and an INT for a total of 15.8 points which was below his average that year, but it would have been enough for us to win that week, had we stuck with him. I think we ended up losing by like 8 points that week. How did our cute pick Brian Griese do? Well you probably guessed it, he sucked up the joint. Griese ended up getting hurt in the 1st half of the game, but before he did, he was kind enough to throw for 48 yards and 2 INTs for a grand total of 0.4 points. We got too cute and it cost us our fantasy championships. Let our mistake save you from such disasters this season.

WEEK 1 MATCHUPS
AntSports $50 Early Draft 11 FFL
FantasyFootballMMA.Blogspot.com

QB - Aaron Rodgers

RB1 - Brian Westbrook   

RB2 - Frank Gore

WR1 – Hines Ward – 18.3

WR2 – Laveranues Coles  

WR3 – Josh Morgan  

K – John Carney  

D – Dallas Cowboys

VS 

Cobra Kai
QB – Matthew Stafford
RB1 – Correll Buckhalter
RB2 – Willis McGahee
WR1 – Derrick Mason
WR2 – Wes Welker
WR3 – Larry Fitzgerald
TE – Antonio Gates
K – Rob Bironas – 5.5
D – Pittsburgh Steelers - 9

In this league and a lot of my leagues, I’m goin to roll with a K and D by committee approach. This week I like John Carney from the Saints to get some decent points against the Lions in what should be a shootout. At defense, I like the Cowboys to rack up points as they harass the slow Byron Leftwich and the Bucs. Cobra Kai has a pretty scrappy lineup this week. Hopefully I get the production I’m expecting from my guys so that I don’t get taken out by such a makeshift team.

The Fantasy Empire
FantasyFootballMMA.Blogspot.com 
QB – Phillip Rivers 
RB1 – Adrian Peterson 
Flex – Reggie Bush 
WR1 – Marques Colston 
WR2 – Anthony Gonzalez 
WR3 – Eddie Royal 
K – John Carney 
D – Dallas Cowboys 

VS

Kevin’s Team

QB – Aaron Rodgers

RB1 – Chris Johnson – 7.8

Flex – DeAngelo Williams

WR1 – Chris Chambers

WR2 – Lee Evans

WR3 – Tony Gonzalez

K – Mason Crosby

D – Philadelphia Eagles

I’m glad that Chris Johnson came up small this week. That gives me an advantage at RB as AP and Bush are both facing favorable matchups and should be able to put up about 20 points each.

Ground & Pound
FantasyFootballMMA.Blogspot.com 
QB - Aaron Rodgers 
RB1 – Ronnie Brown 
RB2 – Ray Rice 
WR1 – Reggie Wayne 
WR2 – Steve Smith 
WR3 – Braylon Edwards 
TE – Antonio Gates 
Flex1 – Leon Washington 
Flex2 – Mike Bell 
K – Ryan Longwell 
D – Dallas Cowboys

VS

Genesis

QB – Trent Edwards

RB1 – Reggie Bush

RB2 – Brian Westbrook

WR1 – Laveranues Coles

WR2 – Wes Welker

WR3 – Ted Ginn

TE – Dallas Clark

Flex1 – Lance Moore

Flex2 – Mushin Muhammad

K – Robbie Gould

D – New England Patriots

Genesis always goes for PPR guys so his lineup is stacked with them. If some of them can come up small then I should be able to move past him.

FantasyFootballMMA.Blogspot.com 
QB - Aaron Rodgers 
RB1 – Ronnie Brown 
RB2 – Ray Rice 
WR1 – Reggie Wayne 
WR2 – Steve Smith 
WR3 – Braylon Edwards 
TE – Antonio Gates 
Flex1 – Leon Washington 
Flex2 – Mike Bell 
K – Ryan Longwell 
D – Dallas Cowboys

VS

Rhymenocerous
QB – Tom Brady
RB1 – Felix Jones
RB2 – Derrick Ward
WR1 – Larry Fitzgerald
WR2 – Greg Jennings
WR3 – Calvin Johnson
TE – Dustin Keller
Flex1 – Laurent Robinson
Flex2 – Felix Jones
K – Kris Brown
D – San Diego Chargers

Rhymenocerous’ team is similar to mine in the sense that we both have stud QBs and WRs. Hopefully my advantage at RB and TE should be enough to get me the win.

Ace Trophy (Yardage Only)
FantasyFootballMMA.Blogspot.com 
QB – Carson Palmer 
RB1 – Reggie Bush 
RB2 – DeAngelo Williams 
WR1 – TJ Houshmandzadeh 
WR2 – Andre Johnson 
TE – Jason Witten 
K – Robbie Gould 
D – Chicago Bears 

VS

Assbags

QB – Peyton Manning

RB1 – Marion Barber

RB2 – Chris Johnson - 6

WR1 – Lee Evans

WR2 – Larry Fitzgerald

TE – Greg Olsen

K – Stephen Gostkowski

D – New York Jets

The Assbags has a decent team. Chris Johnson could have been deadly but only getting 6 leaves an area where I might be able to gain some points on him. I have an advantage at TE and TJ should be better than Evans. I like my chances, but this matchup will be close and in yardage only leagues, anything can happen.

Rotobowl
FantasyFootballMMA.Blogspot.com 
QB – Phillip Rivers 
RB1 – Michael Turner 
RB2 – Kevin Smith 
WR1 – Reggie Wayne 
WR2 – Santonio Holmes - 28.1 points 
WR3 – Lee Evans 
TE – John Carlson 
Flex 1 – Mike Bell 
Flex 2 – Heath Miller - 14.4 points 
K – John Carney 
D – New Orleans Saints 

VS

Team DR

QB – Kurt Warner

RB1 – Thomas Jones

RB2 – Chris Johnson - 7.8

WR1 – Larry Fitzgerald

WR2 – Vincent Jackson

WR3 – Terrell Owens

TE – Visanthe Shiancoe

Flex1 – Nate Burleson

Flex2 – Correll Buckhalter

K – Rob Bironas - 5

D – Dallas Cowboys

I think we have an advantage at RB, a slight disadvantage at WR, but Holmes 28.1 puts at even, maybe even slightly better. I think we’re even at TE, but we have the advantage at Flex. Anything can happen at K, but 5 is not very much from Bironas, so hopefully Carney can get at least 10 to give us an advantage at K. I’m not wild about the Saints D, but they are playing the Lions and rookie QB Matthew Stafford so they should be able to force a few turnovers and maybe even chip in with a defensive or special teams TD. The Cowboys have a favorable matchup so our defenses may be a wash.

SURVIVOR POOLS

This year I'm in 2 survivor pools. In the Zebrapool.com Survivor Pool, you pick 1 team per week to win. The catch is you can't pick the same team twice, it's kind of tricky. The other survivor pool I'm in works like this.. you pick 8 teams to win next week. If someone hits all 8, then they win the prize. If no one hits on 8, then the prizes carry over week to week until someone hits 8 games in one week. 

Zebrapool.com

My week 1 pick - New Orleans Saints to beat the Detroit Lions

Teams picked - Saints (Week 1)

8-A-Week Survivor Pool

1. Minnesota over Cleveland
   
2. New Orleans over Detroit
   
3. Cincinnati over Denver
   
4. Seattle over St. Louis
   
5. New England over Buffalo
   
6. San Diego over Oakland
   
7. Baltimore over Kansas City
   
8. Dallas over Tampa Bay
   

That’s all for now everyone, check back later this weekend to see how I did! Thanks again for reading and as always, YOU PLAY TO WIN THE GAME!

-jg-