It's Officially Time to Talk About.....

August 1st the last 5 or 6 years has taken on a new meaning with me lately. It makes it official to start talking about (drum roll please).................................








































Fantasy Football!!!!!

HEE-HAW!!!!

Draft is in T-Minus 23 days.

10 team this year and I hold the #5 pick. There has already been a lot of chatter throughout the office since we picked our draft order a couple weeks ago. And here is what people are saying:

Team 1 - LT
Team 2 - S-Jax
Team 3 - Shaun Alexander (because LJ is a hold out and Gore hurt his hand yesterday)
Team 4 - Peyton (we are a QB heavy league...more on that later)

What am I going to do, who will be there for me to take at 5. Take a chance on LJ? Joseph Addai? Brian Westbrook? Rudi Johnson? Carson Palmer even?

Now considering the assumptions above and I am not naive enough to think teams 3 and 4 are 100% sure this is who they will take. They may just be throwing rumors out there. If LJ actually does hold out, then he will be available at 5 I am sure. But I would assume the Big 3 will be gone. That being LT, LJ, and S-Jax. Gore with a broken hand will not go unless some kind of miracle happens. Gore will make it pass me as well. I am very sure that Peyton is going to go off the board at 4. As I said, we play in a QB heavy league where each TD is 6 points and you get bonus for length of TD pass. So a 27 yard TD pass is 9 points. 1 point for every 20 pass yards, 6 points for the TD and 2 point bonus for the TD being between 20 and 30.

I would have thought Alexander would be to me at 5 and I'd swoop him and get him, but this LJ thing could throw a monkey wrench in.

But I did say I am considering Palmer in the 1st. Sounds crazy I know. But consider this. LT, S-Jax, Alexander, and Peyton are all gone. LJ is holding out, Gore broke his hand. That leaves 3 guys in the next group of RBs. Westbrook, Addai, and Rudi. Which one do you take? Who is better than anyone else? That's why I think Palmer. But I do think Palmer could fall to me in the 2nd round on the come back. So I flip a coin and hope to grab the RB who will be better than all the rest.

Maybe I go crazy and take Palmer in the 1st round, a stud WR in the 2nd AND 3rd rounds (Holt, Harrison, Johnson, etc.) cornering the market on top notch QBs and WRs. Then in the 4th - 7th rounds I pick up all RBs and figure out which 3 to play every week. Guys like Julius Jones, Marion Barber, Duece McAllister, Jerious Norwood, Cadillac Williams, etc. would all be available. We start 2 rbs and 2wrs and 1 UTL player. I could plug in a top tier Qb and 2 Wrs every week and play musical chairs with my rbs. 2 of them are bound to break out from the pack in the middle of the season and if I strike gold with even one of them, I can ride them to the championship.

What team looks better.

QB - Carson Palmer
WR - Chad Johnson
WR - Roy Williams
RB - Julius Jones
RB - Cadillac Williams
UTL - Jerious Norwood

or

QB - Drew Brees
WR - Chad Johnson
WR - Plaxico Burress
RB - Rudi Johnson
RB - Edgerrin James
UTL - Jerious Norwood

I think I'd go for team 1.

I think this may be my strategy this year. But there is a lot of time to go and a lot of preseason football still to go. I can change my mind easily.

By the way, to find out how I decided which players for the above scenarios, there is a web-site that runs mock drafts 24 hours a day all day long. It is a pretty sweet site and you can get a pretty good idea on what guys will be available at what time.

Check it out at fantasyfootballcalculator.com

It isn't exact science as they have some guys rated pretty high and others pretty low. But it's still cool to have a live mock draft and see how things unfold. You can pick an 8, 10, 12, or 14 team size league and participate yourself.

Great way to blow a lunch hour!!!

Enjoy and good luck to all of you in fantasy football this year.