There's no denying the popularity of fantasy football drafts. Many of you will be participating in more than one between now and Labor Day, including those of you who sign up for the People's League (hint, hint). If you go to a million Web sites, you will probably get a million different strategies and pointers for handling your draft. We at the People's Pigskin would like to offer one tip at this time:
Treat the autodraft option the way you would your seat cushion on an airplane: something to be used only in an emergency.
Earlier tonight, I was involved in a live draft for another league. I arrived in the draft room about a half-hour in advance. A few of the players arrived just a few minutes before the scheduled start.
Some never arrived at all. They relied on their pre-selected player lists and the autodraft option.
The results speak for themselves. In the fifth round, one of the auto-drafters picked Sidney Rice. This would have been a fine pick last week, before we learned that he might miss the first half of the season. In the seventh round, that auto-drafter picked Vincent Jackson, who is facing a three-game suspension and may miss even more time than that.
Now, if you have to use the automated draft option because of a family emergency or something, go over your list verrrrrry carefully. You don't want to be the one starting this guy because your list was out of date.
Showing posts with label Vincent Jackson. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Vincent Jackson. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Saturday, July 31, 2010
Fantasy Preview Review - USA Today
Our look at the fantasy football magazines now dominating the sports section of your favorite newstand continues with one of the best-known titles in America.
USA Today 2010 Fantasy Football
Vital stats: $7.99, 144 pages, 354 offensive and 75 defensive players ranked.
Top 10 picks: If you're in a 10-team league, USA Today's experts (including recruits from at least a half-dozen other Web sites) say the first round of your draft should look like this: Chris Johnson, Adrian Peterson, Andre Johnson, Drew Brees, Steven Jackson, Larry Fitzgerald, Peyton Manning, Michael Turner, Maurice Jones-Drew and Ray Rice.
Intriguing nugget: Sigmund Bloom and Jason Wood of Footballguys.com are targeting Donald Brown as a steal, because he's a second-year running back who didn't live up to expectations last season. "Most people move on to the new flavors of the month at the position, but Ray Rice, Jamaal Charles, and Rashard Mendenhall were members of a lot of championship teams" last year.
Head scratcher: The section on quarterbacks starts with a list of the top 50 players available at that position. However, thanks to some fuzzy math, the section that follows that list has two quarterbacks ranked 42nd: Ryan Fitzpatrick (who appears on the list) and JaMarcus Russell (who does not).
I'm not sure which is a bigger head scratcher -- the fact that there's two quarterbacks ranked 42nd or the fact that someone thinks there are nine quarterbacks worse than Russell. That includes Colt McCoy, who also appears in the section with a rank of "NR."
Kicker rule obeyed? Again, the USA Today experts did not conduct a mock draft. David Dorey of TheHuddle.com advises players not to draft a kicker until the very last round. "Anything earlier is as optimistic as e-mailing Jennifer Aniston and asking her out on a date."
However, two pages after saying that, Dorey offers a system for those who want to carry two kickers on the roster: "You can make weekly decisions that can net you an extra three points. Just pick whichever kicker is more likely to be on a winning team that weekend."
(If anyone here plays in a league where you can get an extra pick in the final round of your draft, feel free to leave a comment explaining how.)
Prediction likely to go wrong: That Vincent Jackson will be a top 10 fantasy wide receiver this season. Here's USA Today's assessment: "Jackson has even pushed ahead of TE Antonio Gates as a scoring threat. Jackson continues to upset the team with his immaturity, which could lead to a short suspension, but that's the only thing going against him. Make him your No. 1 receiver."
For the moment, let's set aside the three-game suspension Jackson is facing for his second DUI guilty plea (probably not anyone's definition of a "short suspension," anyway). Unless he and the Chargers kiss and make up quickly, he could end up missing the majority of the season through a holdout. If that sounds like a No. 1 fantasy option to you, maybe you need to lay off the wine.
We'll be back with the weekly NASCAR predictions.
USA Today 2010 Fantasy Football
Vital stats: $7.99, 144 pages, 354 offensive and 75 defensive players ranked.
Top 10 picks: If you're in a 10-team league, USA Today's experts (including recruits from at least a half-dozen other Web sites) say the first round of your draft should look like this: Chris Johnson, Adrian Peterson, Andre Johnson, Drew Brees, Steven Jackson, Larry Fitzgerald, Peyton Manning, Michael Turner, Maurice Jones-Drew and Ray Rice.
Intriguing nugget: Sigmund Bloom and Jason Wood of Footballguys.com are targeting Donald Brown as a steal, because he's a second-year running back who didn't live up to expectations last season. "Most people move on to the new flavors of the month at the position, but Ray Rice, Jamaal Charles, and Rashard Mendenhall were members of a lot of championship teams" last year.
Head scratcher: The section on quarterbacks starts with a list of the top 50 players available at that position. However, thanks to some fuzzy math, the section that follows that list has two quarterbacks ranked 42nd: Ryan Fitzpatrick (who appears on the list) and JaMarcus Russell (who does not).
I'm not sure which is a bigger head scratcher -- the fact that there's two quarterbacks ranked 42nd or the fact that someone thinks there are nine quarterbacks worse than Russell. That includes Colt McCoy, who also appears in the section with a rank of "NR."
Kicker rule obeyed? Again, the USA Today experts did not conduct a mock draft. David Dorey of TheHuddle.com advises players not to draft a kicker until the very last round. "Anything earlier is as optimistic as e-mailing Jennifer Aniston and asking her out on a date."
However, two pages after saying that, Dorey offers a system for those who want to carry two kickers on the roster: "You can make weekly decisions that can net you an extra three points. Just pick whichever kicker is more likely to be on a winning team that weekend."
(If anyone here plays in a league where you can get an extra pick in the final round of your draft, feel free to leave a comment explaining how.)
Prediction likely to go wrong: That Vincent Jackson will be a top 10 fantasy wide receiver this season. Here's USA Today's assessment: "Jackson has even pushed ahead of TE Antonio Gates as a scoring threat. Jackson continues to upset the team with his immaturity, which could lead to a short suspension, but that's the only thing going against him. Make him your No. 1 receiver."
For the moment, let's set aside the three-game suspension Jackson is facing for his second DUI guilty plea (probably not anyone's definition of a "short suspension," anyway). Unless he and the Chargers kiss and make up quickly, he could end up missing the majority of the season through a holdout. If that sounds like a No. 1 fantasy option to you, maybe you need to lay off the wine.
We'll be back with the weekly NASCAR predictions.
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
When Does Football Season Start Again?
If you're a fantasy football fan, the answer is "It's started already! Where have you BEEN?"
Last week the People's Pigskin received an invitation to join a league for the upcoming NFL season. And this week, your local stores have received its first shipment of (drumroll, please) fantasy football preview magazines.
The People's Pigskin will offer some in-depth reviews of the major magazines over the summer. But for now, it's time to ask one major question: Why print your fantasy preview less than a week after Memorial Day? Bear in mind that as I type this:
* Brian Westbrook is still looking for a National Football League team to call home for this season.
* So is Terrell Owens.
* Vincent Jackson has yet to sign his contract tender from the San Diego Chargers and is reportedly making veiled threats about skipping this season altogether.
* And if you have any insight as to what Brett Favre plans to do between now and Christmas, do everyone a favor and let the Minnesota Vikings know, because they don't seem to have the first clue.
Has any of this uncertainty convinced the fantasy "experts" that maybe they should wait to put out their magazines? Here's a snippet from ESPN's fantasy preview, one of the first ones out of the gate, about how their experts compiled their player rankings for the 2010 season:
"A mere two days after the NFL draft, our stable of fantasy experts sequestered themselves in a bright-but-windowless room in Bristol HQ, next door to the 'War Room,' where ESPN's pro analysts gather to watch the games on Sunday."
The NFL draft ended on April 24. That means the ESPN experts were compiling their rankings on April 26 -- a mere four months and two weeks before the start of the regular season.
I'm not saying you should take your brand-spanking-new fantasy previews and use them to mulch your garden. But I am saying that if you take them to your fantasy draft, you should take along a salt shaker, because you may need to take their advice with more than a grain of salt.
We'll be back with a peek at this week's NASCAR venue.
Last week the People's Pigskin received an invitation to join a league for the upcoming NFL season. And this week, your local stores have received its first shipment of (drumroll, please) fantasy football preview magazines.
The People's Pigskin will offer some in-depth reviews of the major magazines over the summer. But for now, it's time to ask one major question: Why print your fantasy preview less than a week after Memorial Day? Bear in mind that as I type this:
* Brian Westbrook is still looking for a National Football League team to call home for this season.
* So is Terrell Owens.
* Vincent Jackson has yet to sign his contract tender from the San Diego Chargers and is reportedly making veiled threats about skipping this season altogether.
* And if you have any insight as to what Brett Favre plans to do between now and Christmas, do everyone a favor and let the Minnesota Vikings know, because they don't seem to have the first clue.
Has any of this uncertainty convinced the fantasy "experts" that maybe they should wait to put out their magazines? Here's a snippet from ESPN's fantasy preview, one of the first ones out of the gate, about how their experts compiled their player rankings for the 2010 season:
"A mere two days after the NFL draft, our stable of fantasy experts sequestered themselves in a bright-but-windowless room in Bristol HQ, next door to the 'War Room,' where ESPN's pro analysts gather to watch the games on Sunday."
The NFL draft ended on April 24. That means the ESPN experts were compiling their rankings on April 26 -- a mere four months and two weeks before the start of the regular season.
I'm not saying you should take your brand-spanking-new fantasy previews and use them to mulch your garden. But I am saying that if you take them to your fantasy draft, you should take along a salt shaker, because you may need to take their advice with more than a grain of salt.
We'll be back with a peek at this week's NASCAR venue.
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