Sweet, Sweet Fantasy Baby

Well joy to the world the NFL season starts tonight. I’ve had 3 fantasy drafts in the past 5 days and feel like a break is needed. No real time to figure out who should sit and who should start. I’ll start off with saying that our Sports as Life draft went fairly well - Yahoo has a new format and it took some time to get used to it but it worked out pretty good.

I must confess though, that I broke my rule of knowing the league. Maybe it was because the draft was scheduled for a long weekend, maybe because I was drinking, maybe because I was falling asleep watching the Rider game or maybe it was because this is the one league where there is no money involved. Whichever it was I didn’t realize there was no flex position (rb/wr). So now I’m looking at my week 1 matchup against DH and not liking it.

I have Westbrook (starter), Thomas Jones, Brandon Jacobs, Jamal Lewis & Chis Perry. All starters with no real committee situation, so initially I’m looking at this and thinking I came away pretty good. However, week 1 Jones, Jabobs, Lewis or Perry - who starts??? Lewis is playing against Dallas so I’ll let him sit, Perry is going against Baltimore so he can sit as well but Thomas Jones plays Miami and Jacobs plays Washngton. With a flex position it becomes a little easier but in this league having 5 quality running backs for 2 spots... let’s just say I’m already looking to trade.

Anyway, this week you're probably starting all of your top picks and the later round pickups will be sitting on the bench unless in the 12th round you picked up a great sleeper, say like Warner... Booyah. Warner against SF... I’ll take his 2 fumbles for his 300+ game with 2-3 Td’s. Really though week 1 you don’t have much information to go on. Injuries are out there but were they sitting out preseason cause they are hurt or because they didn’t want to get hurt??? Either way you start them until you hear otherwise. There are new offenses, defenses but you really don’t know. How will Favre do when he plays more than 2 series??? How about the Colts missing Jeff Saturday and Peyton has been sitting. They have an aerial attack and timing is everything... will they have it week 1 ??.

This is a real quick one this week because of the unknowns.

Bench
RB - Any Houston,Tennesee or Seattle RB.
-In addition to that, any Seattle player should be sitting except for Def. Too many questions with the offense right now. If Hasselback is your only QB he’s not going to deficate in your bed but he won’t make it either.
-Oakland RB’s - Mcfadden may be great this year - I would put my money on Forte or Stewart being the most productive rookies, but… who knows?? This week though unless you have to I wouldn’t start Mcfadden. Fargas is still listed as the starter and well I’d wait to see how things are going to work out there.
Carolina RB’s – I unfortunately have Deangelo on 2 of my teams. Stewart was supposed to come in and get the starting job but Deangelo played great in the preseason while Stewart was out. Now the coach might alternate series with them. So again with these 2 wait a week if you can to see what’s going to happen.

Other positions
- If your QB is without his top target, maybe look somewhere else. Delhomme and Cutler could both have huge years but with Smith and Marshall suspended who are they throwing to??? If you can sit these two for the first week do so.

Starters
WR - Look at Isaac Bruce to produce this week, he knows the Martz system. He’s the top wr in the lineup and SF is playing Arizona which will be a shoot out. He may also do nothing cause he’s like 46 but he’s got the potential.
- Another WR who may not even have been drafted in deep leagues is Jabar Gaffney. The Pats play the lowly Chiefs so you know that Brady will toss a couple of TD’s. You have to think defense will have a plan for Welker and maybe even moss, so that leaves the #3 guy (Gaffney) with a chance to shine. I hope Brady throws no TD’s as 3 games this week I’m playing the team that has Brady.
TE - there’s a lot of good ones out there that will give you 60-70 yds and maybe a TD. However, there are a few undervalued TE’s that I would consider putting in, not so much on a weekly basis but because it’s week 1 and some new offenses. Aaron Rodgers when he’s getting chased by allen will look for Donald Lee to bail him out. While TJ and Ocho Cinco, (now that that is his actual name may have to call him something else … loco cinco ??) were resting Palmer found a new target in Ben Utecht. Playing against the Ravens may not be the best matchup but it’s one I would consider. Favre likes throwing to TE’s and though Baker is the starter I would be trying to pick up Dustin keller. In that same game the biggest target for Pennington will be a Jersey boy named Fasano, though he’s a real sleeper.
QB - I already mentioned Warner... last year I believe he threw for over 400 yards and 2 td’s against San Francisco and he still has the same weapons so a must start. Pennington and Favre could both put up some numbers this week, both wanting to prove something so I would start either of these guys.

Other tid bits of information:

St Louis has their O-line back and a running back (though he hasn’t played with them in the preseason). Things might be looking up if you own Bulger or Jackson or Holt. Here’s the thing though, they play outside and for some reason they’re terrible once they get outside of the dome. Don’t expect big things from anyone this week, though Bulger would be the only one I’d sit.

Indy - I mentioned earlier the concerns with them, but how about this: Week 1, primetime, and home opener in the new stadium, I expect big things from the Indy players. So if you picked up Harrison in the 5-6th round as your #3 guy, make sure he’s in the game.

Good luck with the toughest week to predict.