August 28, 2008

Not only do I run this site, but I've been the commissioner of two very competitive, very old office leagues.  My current one is so old that only four of the twelve owners still work in the office.  If you are the commish also, these are some things you can do to spice up it up.

1. Have teams pre-pay their transactions.  Started this last year as I was sick of chasing owners down in January for the cash they rolled up in transaction fees during the season.  Owners can buy as many as they want, but once they’re out, they’re out.  It changes the dynamics of the game a little as you have to stay within your transaction budget, you think a little more about what you’re doing.  Also allows you to pay out right after the season ends.

2. Determine your draft and/or waiver wire order in different ways.  My league uses keepers so it makes sense to use last year’s record to determine draft order.  Teams with the worst record probably have the worst keepers and should get a shot at a higher pick.  But if you run a seasonal league, the draft order is a blank slate.  You have owners bid on the #1 pick, $75 entry fee for the #1 pick, $70 for #2.  One year, I put every team’s name in a clothes dryer, let it run for half an hour and pulled out names lotto style.  I’ve always dreamt of having all team owners run a 50-yard dash right before the draft started, draft order determined by order of finish.

3. In conversation, refer to other owners only by their team name.

4. Add some crazy rules.  This one was in use when I came into the league; we give 10 points if a tight end kicks an extra point.  This will never happen, but I can’t say that I haven’t rooted for it.

5. Come up with interesting punishments for violation of team rules.  I had an owner tank the last game of the season.  We chose not to boot the guy, but the following season his team name was changed to “My Little Pony All-Stars” and he was referred to as such in conversation.

6. Put up a fake blog, send out to your entire league and have them follow your bad advice.  Not that I’m doing this here, just an idea.

Does your league do anything different?  Talk about it at the What Do You Say forum.

August 15, 2008 

August 10, 2008

Why I’m Not Crazy

If you’ve been keeping up with the Top Stores on this site, or if you’ve read my player rankings, you’ve noticed I have some serious man-love for Willis McGahee this fantasy football season.  New Ravens OC Cam Cameron has a history of riding his #1 running back.  He coached Tomlinson from 2002 to 2006 and while head coach of the Dolphins last year, got Ronnie Brown off to a Pro Bowl season before he went down with a season ending injury.

Cameron does not substitute in a third down back and uses his regular guy at the goal line.   This is all great for the fantasy football owner.  In the time of the running back platoon system, every down backs are harder and harder to find.

I’ve been participating in mock drafts over at fantasy football calculator, and get flamed pretty good when I take McGahee as the fifth or sixth running back.  To this point, my Cameron/McGahee theory has been just theory, but yesterday I watched the first half of the Pats/Ravens pre-season game.  

I’m not crazy.

McGahee has been hurt this August but should be fine by the time the season starts.  Ray Rice started in his place.   In the first three drives of the game, the Ravens ran 28 plays.  Rice touched the ball 11 times; six rushes, four catches and one dropped pass.  Rice played in third down situations and of the four passes thrown to him, three were designed plays, just one was a check-down.  That’s 40% of offensive plays that he was part of the offence, including one catch on third down.

Last year McGahee did have a solid 1,400 total yards and 8 TDs, but I say his numbers with this new offensive scheme should hit 1,800 yards, 12 TDs, if he stay healthy.  Just in case, you’ll want to grab Ray Rice in the late rounds.

August 9, 2008

Wendy Nix can take a vacation

Now that we're past the soap opera phase, it's time to consider the on field fantasy football ramifications of the Brett Favre saga. 

Jets

The Jets were sorry last year.  They took a huge step back from Eric Mangini’s 10-6 debut season going 4-12.  And four wins weren’t even all that impressive with two coming over the 1-15 Dolphins and one over the 4-12 Chiefs.  Why were they so bad?  Chad Pennington’s 86.1 passer rating wasn’t horrible; better than fantasy starters Derek Anderson (82.5), Phil Rivers (82.4) and Eli Manning (73.9).  After rotator cuff surgery, Pennington had problems throwing the ball downfield but was at least affective in a short passing game.   I say that the bigger problem was the Jets porous pass protection.  Jets quarterbacks were sacked 53 times last year, 9.4% of the time they dropped back to pass, third worst in the league.  In comparison, Favre was sacked just 19 times or 3.2% of pass attempts.  The line wasn’t helping the running game either.  Thomas Jones averaged just 3.6 yards per carry in 2007, the worst among the NFL’s 23 1,000 yard rushers last season.

To bolster the line the Jets signed seven time Pro-Bowl guard Alan Faneca and ex-Pro Bowler Damain Woody.  Favre should be protected and the running game should improve.  But when looking at Favre’s 2007 numbers and trying to figure out what 2008 will look like, I don’t think the Jets line will perform to the level that the Packers line did last year.

Another big factor I see is that Favre is dropping into a completely different offensive scheme with just four weeks until the first game.  Favre played his entire career in the model West Coast offence; Jets OC Brian Schottenheimer’s offensive scheme has more influence from the Air Coryell school.  Favre would likely thrive in this system, if he had been with the team since spring mini-camp.  It’s had to teach old dog new tricks and with a completely different system of reads, keys and terminology, I think it’s going to be a struggle for Favre out of the gate, maybe longer.  Had he gone to another West Coast team like Tampa Bay, I don’t think this would have been as much of an issue.

The biggest reason I don’t think Favre will be a very effective fantasy football quarterback this season is that frankly he is an old dog.  Steve Young, Dan Marino and John Elway hung it up at 38.  Brett will be 39 years-old in October, and had been all ready been showing signs of age.  He was a below average fantasy QB in 2005 and 2006 and I think that last year was his swan song season.  There will be a lot of better options in 2008.  I will not be adding him to my QB rankings as a player you’ll want on your team.

And don't forget, Favre is on the cover of Madden '09.

As for how this affects the rest of the Jets player rankings, I have Laveranues Coles listed as a #2 or high #3 WR.  I’m not going to change that; he should get his share of yardage and TD’s as a downfield threat.  I think that defenses will respect Favre more than they did the Jets QB tandem last year, and with the improved O Line.  I’m going to move Thomas Jones up from “Don’t Bother” to “Best of the Rest” in the RB rankings.

Green Bay

I’ll be blunt.  Green Bay’s going to suck this season.  Aaron Rodgers, while in his fourth season as a pro, is basically a rookie.  The Pack has a bear of a schedule going up against top defenses Chicago and Minnesota twice each, Jacksonville, Tennessee, Indianapolis and Dallas.  You want no part of Rodgers on your fantasy football team this year.  I’m not going to change the rankings of Driver, Jennings or Ryan Grant; I all ready had Aaron Rodgers figured in as the starter when I made my determinations.

July 14, 2008

On July 14, 1789, 600 Parisians stormed the Bastille prison beginning the French Revolution.  Today, I hooked up a fantasy football forum while sitting in my underwear.  No less an achievement.

So the forum is up and can be accessed here and on the side bar to the left.  As our Parisian brothers and sisters resented the royal and bourgeoisie, I resent the coverage of fantasy football in the media. 

Oh really, L.T. should be the #1 player on my board.  Thanks for the insight.

Tom Brady is going to throw a bunch of touchdowns this year.  Super.

What this site is about and what we should be discussing, is what we know, what we see, what are our rules and superstitions.   Never draft a Lion.  Never take a QB before the 5^th round.  No matter what a degenerate gambler you are, never place a bet on a fantasy football game.

This is what I what to know and this is what I want to hear from you.  So post away gentle reader and as the French would say, Généralement, les gens qui savant peu parlent becoup, et les gens qui savant beaucoup parlent peu.

July 10, 2008

Yes, this is fake, but so is fantasy football. If this video makes the rounds a little more watch Suisham move up some daft boards.