Fantasy Football

Here we are football fans, just a little more than a week away from the start of another NFL season. It seems like decades ago to us football junkies that the New York Giants sprang the big upset, knocking off the previously undefeated New England Patriots.

But now teams are fine-tuning their schematics, as well as their rosters, and will play one more meaningless exhibition game before the real deal gets under way the first week of September.

For those of you still preparing for your draft, here are a few things to keep in mind:

Go running back in the first couple of rounds. There are fewer standout ball carriers than there are quarterbacks. In a couple of drafts I participated in over the weekend, guys like Marc Bulger of the St. Louis Rams, newly-named graybeard starter Kurt Warner of the Arizona Cardinals, New York Jets new gun slinger Brett Favre, Seattle veteran QB Matt Hasselbeck and San Diego signal caller Phillip Rivers were all selected in the mid-to-lower rounds, meaning that you can get a competent QB late. That’s not always the case with running backs.

The most frequently-rated top running backs are: Ladainian Tomlinson of the San Diego Chargers, Adrian Peterson of the Minnesota Vikings, Steven Jackson of the St. Louis Rams, Joseph Addai of the Indianapolis Colts, Marion Barber of the Dallas Cowboys, Ryan Grant of the Green Bay Packers, Brian Westbrook of the Philadelphia Eagles, Frank Gore of the San Francisco 49ers, Larry Johnson of the Kansas City Chiefs and Reggie Bush of the New Orleans Saints.

Other solid performers include: Clinton Portis of the Washington Redskins, Fred Taylor and Maurice Jones-Drew of the Jacksonville Jaguars, Ronnie Brown of the Miami Dolphins, Willis McGahee of the Baltimore Ravens, Marshawn Lynch of the Buffalo Bills, Earnest Graham of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Lawrence Maroney of the New England Patriots, Willie Parker of the Pittsburgh Steelers and ex-Saluki standout Brandon Jacobs of the New York Giants.

Up-and-comers to consider would be Darren McFadden of the Oakland Raiders, LenDale White of the Tennessee Titans, Kevin Smith of the Detroit Lions, Selvin Young of the Denver Broncos, Matt Forte of the Chicago Bears, Jon Stewart of the Carolina Panthers, Rashard Mendenhall of the Pittsburgh Steelers and Michael Turner of the Atlanta Falcons. What’s unique about Turner is that he spent the last few years as Tomlinson’s caddy in San Diego, so he’s no young pup, but he has carried the mail quite effectively this preseason.

Finally, a few golden oldies that might be worth picking in the later rounds…Thomas Jones of the New York Jets, Edgerrin James of the Arizona Cardinals, Maurice Morris of the Seattle Seahawks, Justin Fargas of the Oakland Raiders, Ricky Williams of the Miami Dolphins, Rudi Johnson of the Cincinnati Bengals, Jamal Lewis of the Cleveland Browns, Ahman Green of the Houston Texans, Warrick Dunn of the Atlanta Falcons or Ladell Betts of the Washington Redskins.

I would probably go wide receiver in rounds three and four. You could always go quarterback in three or four also, depending on how heavily you weight the scoring with quarterbacks. There is an abundance of high-end pass catchers led by Randy Moss and the slightly injured Wesley Welker of the New England Patriots. It’s hard to quarrel with Reggie Wayne of the Indianapolis Colts or Terrell Owens of the Dallas Cowboys.

And then there’s that shy young man in Cincinnati named Ocho Cinco, oh yeah um Chad Johnson, along with his teammate T.J. Houshmandzadeh. Larry Fitzgerald and Anquan Boldin of the Arizona Cardinals are splendid at nabbing the pigskin as are Torry Holt of the St. Louis Rams, Roy Williams of the Detroit Lions, Andre Johnson of the Houston Texans, Braylon Edwards of the Cleveland Browns and Brandon Marshall of the Denver Broncos.

A few other can’t misses include: Steve Smith of the Carolina Panthers once he returns from his two-game suspension for fighting with a teammate; Marques Colston of the New Orleans Saints; Plaxico Burress of the New York Giants; Santana Moss of the Washington Redskins; Derrick Mason of the Baltimore Ravens; Javon Walker of the Denver Broncos; Hines Ward of the Pittsburgh Steelers; Jerricho Cotchery and Laveranues Coles of the New York Jets; Greg Jennings and Donald Driver of the Green Bay Packers; Kevin Curtis of the Philadelphia Eagles and Marvin Harrison of the Indianapolis Colts, again as long as he is healthy.

A couple of young’ns to keep an aye on are: Dwayne Bowe of the Kansas City Chiefs; Early Doucet of the Arizona Cardinals; Justin Gage of the Tennessee Titans; Ted Ginn Jr. of the Miami Dolphis; Anthony Gonzalez of the Indianapolis Colts, not the ancient but productive tight end for the Chiefs; Devin Hester of the Chicago Bears; Santonio Holmes of the Pittsburgh Steelers; Donald Avery of the St. Louis Rams and Calvin Johnson of the Detroit Lions.

If it’s quarterbacks you like, there are plenty of them. There isn’t the depth here there is at wide receiver, but the talent level is not bad at all. Everyone starts out with Tom Brady of the New England Patriots and Peyton Manning of the Indianapolis Colts. Pick your poison. Both are Hall of Famers in waiting. The only question is health for both. As things stand now, it would appear that both will be in the starting lineup when the season opener gets under way, so don’t hesitate to pick high with these two champions.

The next level of talent would focus on guys like Tony Romo of the Dallas Cowboys; Carson Palmer of the Cincinnati Bengals; Drew Brees of the New Orleans Saints; Donovan McNabb of the Philadelphia Eagles, Eli Manning of the New York Giants and the aging Brett Favre of the New York Jets.

Knocking on the door of stardom are David Garrard of the Jacksonville Jaguars; Matt Schaub of the Houston Texans, Derek Anderson of the Cleveland Browns, if he’s healthy; Ben Roethlisberger of the Pittsburgh Steelers; Phillip Rivers of the San Diego Chargers; Jay Cutler of the Denver Broncos; Jason Campbell of the Washington Redskins; Tarvaris Jackson of the Minnesota Vikings and Vince Young of the Tennessee Titans.

Hoping to make an impact are: Matt Ryan of the Atlanta Falcons; JaMarcus Russell of the Oakland Raiders; Aaron Rodgers of the Green Bay Packers; Brodie Croyle of the Kansas City Chiefs; Kyle Orton of the Chicago Bears; and Joe Flacco of the Baltimore Ravens - the same Flacco who led Delaware to a playoff victory at SIU late last fall.

Finally, there are those wily veterans who have posted good numbers in the past, but are either a little long in the tooth, have been prone to erratic play or have been battling various injuries. It would not be wise to hold more than one of these seemingly past-their-prime performers on your Fantasy League roster: Kurt Warner of the Arizona Cardinals; Marc Bulger of the St. Louis Rams; Matt Hasselbeck of the Seattle Seahawks; Jake Delhomme of the Carolina Panthers; Jeff Garcia of the Tampa Bay Bucs; Jon Kitna of the Detroit Lions or Chad Pennington of the Miami Dolphins.

The biggest washout to date? That dishonor falls squarely on the shoulders of Arizona Cardinals quarterback Matt Leinart, who has been beaten out in the preseason by old man Warner. How is it that this former USC standout has failed to put it all together. Too much partying perhaps? At least, that’s what some NFL insiders are saying. Unless he gets his career righted, Leinart could rival Ryan Leaf, formerly of the San Diego Chargers, as the biggest QB bust in years.

As for tight ends, nobody really cares because they score so few fantasy points. But of the lot, San Diego’s Antonio Gates is far and away the best if healthy. Jason Witten of Dallas, Tony Gonzalez of Kansas City, Dallas Clark of Indianapolis, Chris Cooley of Washington, Ben Watson of New England, Heath Miller of Pittsburgh; Eric Johnson of New Orleans and Kellen Winslow of Cleveland merit special mention.

Oft-injured Jeremy Shockey, now with New Orleans, is capable of putting up some numbers. LJ Smith of Philadelphia and Alge Crumpler, now with Tennessee, are good targets as are Owen Daniels in Houston and Randy McMichael in St. Louis.

If you’re looking for a kid to crack the top 10, that might happen with the likes of Tony Scheffler in Denver; Marcedes Lewis in Jacksonville; Leonard Pope in Arizona; or the highly regarded Vernon Davis in San Francisco.

Finally, on the offensive side of the ball, we have the placekickers. This is a fairly unpredictable category for Fantasy League owners because some of the best kickers ever can go into a slump. Ideally, you want to pick someone whose team has a difficult time putting the pigskin in the endzone. The most effective Fantasy League performer last year was Rob Bironas of the Titans. He figures to be a solid pick again this year.

Other top-notch leg swingers based on past performance are: David Akers of Philadelphia; Josh Brown, now with St. Louis; Shayne Graham with Cincinnati; Jason Hanson of Detroit; Nate Kaeding of San Diego; Rian Lindell of Buffalo; Neil Rackers of Arizona; Matt Stover of Baltimore; Robbie Gould of Chicago; Stephen Gostkowski of New England and Adam Vinatieri of Indianapolis.

After that, it’s a crapshoot. Just make sure you pick a starter.

Later this week, we’ll talk defense as I break down for you the top linemen, linebackers and defensive backs in the game…at least in the eyes of us Fantasy League owners.

Fantasy Football Chatter

By John D. Homan

Training camps are opening throughout the league this week and that can only mean one thing – the return of Fantasy Football, ladies and gentlemen.If you clicked onto this Web site, you’re probably either a Fantasy Football fanatic like me or you’ve heard of the game and would like to learn more. As a longtime player, I will do my best to throw out a few helpful hints both leading up to your Fantasy drafts and concerning potential player acquisitions after the National Football League season starts.

Did you know, for example, that the Washington Redskins are about to acquire Miami Dolphins defensive end and “Dancing With The Stars” great, Jason Taylor, for a second-round draft pick in next April’s draft? It’s a move necessitated by a season-ending knee injury to Washington defensive end Phillip Daniels.

My experience in Fantasy Football dates back more than 15 years. An ardent fan of the St. Louis Cardinals or “Big Red,” I was devastated when the team moved to Phoenix in 1988 and couldn’t get behind the Gridbirds after they left. A couple of years passed, and while I still thoroughly enjoyed watching and covering prep football and Saluki football, I lost some interest in the game at the professional level.

About 1990 or 1991, however, a friend turned me onto Fantasy Football and my life hasn’t been the same since. Now I look forward to living vicariously through others.

Now each game on Sunday has meaning because one of my players will be out there whose sole purpose is to score points

– for me and me alone.Furthermore, I can track that player’s progress almost instantaneously via computer. The Internet is indeed a wonderful thing!

At present, I serve as commissioner over one 12-man league (The Herrin

League) and one eight-man league (The Great Eight). Last week, the team owners in our 12-man league held what we call our Pre-Draft Party at my house in Herrin, where we drew numbers from a hat to determine our drafting order for next month.

We also kicked around rules changes at this meeting, so that when the big draft day comes (Sunday, Aug. 24), we’re ready to hit the ground running. It should also be pointed out that large quantities of food are essential for any gathering of the guys.

For those novices among us, there are two predominate types of Fantasy Football leagues

– head-to-head and total points.We use a combination of both. As commissioner, I take the owners who will draft No. 1 through 6 and make that one division and No. 7 through 12 a second division. I then use a 12-team scheduling format (1 vs. 12, 2 vs. 11,

3 vs. 10, etc.) to break down our 17-week schedule of games.

In our 12-man league, head-to-head record is secondary to total points or the cumulative points your team scores over the grind of a 17-week season.

In the Great Eight, however, head-to-head record determines our overall winner.

Once I schedule the games and set the divisions, owners can do some trash talking on our Web site’s chat forum leading up to the start of the season.

The Internet service we subscribe to is Rotowire, although others use CBS, ESPN, Yahoo and Fox.

Scoring systems vary.

We assess points for both offensive and defensive players, while some leagues draft a team defense. The reason we draft individual defensive players rather than team is to prolong our draft and play a key role in trade discussions. Sometimes, it’s easier to make a deal if you throw in a high-performing linebacker, lineman or defensive back.

While quarterbacks, running backs and wide receivers are awarded six points each when scoring a touchdown, there are ways to score more points with a single play. Interceptions, for example, are worth 10 points in our leagues.

And if you return that interception for a TD, it’s 15 bonus points. A fumble recovery for a TD is also good for 15 points, but it’s the kick return for a touchdown (35) where you earn the most points because there are so few.

We also award six points for a sack and three points for a solo tackle or assist. Running backs get one point for every 10 yards amassed on the ground and five bonus points if they break the 100-yard barrier in the game, as well as one point for every catch they make. Receivers get one point per catch and one point for every 10 yards accumulated through the air.

Quarterbacks get one point for every pass completion above 50 percent and one point for every 20 yards of passing yardage.

Placekickers can also be of great value to your team. Forty-yard kicks are eight points, for example. The only players who really can’t score points in our leagues are the offensive linemen and punters.

Next time we gather, I will discuss the different types of drafts and how you can make your draft into a special event that you will savor for the rest of the year.

john.homan@thesouthern.com
351-5805