Good old fashioned nightmare fuel

Had a dream last night that I drafted way too many running backs (Laurence Maroney, Cedric Benson and Brandon Jackson among them), the only WR I had was Steve Smith and I had no TE nor defense. This ever happen to any of you?

Deconstructing an Expert: Yahoo's Brad Evans

Michael Harmon's been quiet lately over at FoxSports, but Brad Evans has graciously stepped up as my new victim. His article here has two main inconsistencies.

• His statement "the disparity between (Peyton) Manning, the second-ranked fantasy QB in FPPG, and brother Eli Manning, the 15th best producer, was a meager 28.2 percent" makes no sense because of his use of the word 'meager'. Look, I'm a Giants fan; I know what Eli's all about. 28.2 percent is a BIG difference regardless of who the other QB is, but with Eli, you pretty much know he's useless after about week 8. So really, he's about 50% of what Peyton is, not 28%.


• Brad goes on to state that you shouldn't take Peyton in the first round (and take a RB instead) because the drop-off from the best RB to #15 is 52.4 percent. Okay, well, that's all well and good, but Brad totally forgot his fact from earlier in the article that Peyton is going between 6th and 7th in most drafts. HE'S NOT GOING #1 AND THUS SHOULD NOT BE COMPARED WITH TOMLINSON. Rather, he should be compared with the RBs he has ranked 6 and 7, which are Frank Gore and Willie Parker. Factor in Gore's injury problems and the change in O-coordinators in SF along with Parker's inability to run on the road last year AND the new spread O in PIT this year and, yeah, I think I'd take Manning (or Brady, or Palmer) there.

Of course, this all depends on your draft. If you start 2 QBs in an 8 team league where passing TDs are 6 points, you HAVE to get a stud QB with one of your first 3 picks (I'm assuming someone like Bulger will slip to early in the third round). In larger leagues where passing TDs are 3 or 4 points, yeah, you can wait a bit. If you've got the 6th or 7th pick in a large league (10-12 teams) where passing TDs are still 6 points, well, then you'll have some quick decisions to make based on where your first pick is and what you think will be left when round 2 snakes back to you.

Oh, the final nail in Brad's coffin: he's still got Vick ranked #11. 'Nuff said.

"Significant" changes in some rankings

While I'm sure I could augment the lists to the right as to why I move a certain player up or down, it would probably make the list harder to read. Plus, sometimes I just tinker and it's kinda hard to justify moving a guy one or two spots in either direction. Maybe if I got paid like some 'experts' out there, I would. But I do this for free while I don't have the baby on my lap.

Anyway, a couple changes that bear mentioning: I redid the 'middle-ish' tier of QBs after reading enough about JP Losman to realize I was short-changing him a bit. While I was at it, I remembered Leinart and Cutler are only going into their first full years as starters, while Big Ben has actually, you know, WON A SUPERBOWL (although he tried his best not to!). I thought about doing likewise for Lee Evans based on some reading, but after seeing my actual rankings, I feel he's fine where he's at.

I also decided to actually FOLLOW one of my 'principles' and downgrade Brett Favre based on my "you never want a guy in his 'he lost it' year" belief. Of course, Brett lost it a couple years back, but I'm sure he could get even worse, considering they'd be hard pressed to bench the poor old guy.

I also finally split Jerious Norwood from Warrick Dunn, as the latter is having back surgery which will sideline him for 3-4 weeks.

Bringin' the noise, but not the funk...

I know it's been a month since I posted but it's tough to hold down a 9-to-5 job and then come home to a 5 month old baby girl and a wife who's in dire need of a break. And since lil' Maggie doesn't like sitting on daddy's lap while he blogs, posting has been scarce.

But now that the fantasy 'experts' are turning more of their attention to football again, I need to get my head back in the game. You'll see I've taken my shot at ranking some players by position. The RBs may be skewed a bit based on the first draft I have coming up where there's a 1 point reception bonus, so pass catching RBs get a bump.

You'll also notice the poll, which I'm hoping you'll vote in (it's a cheesy way of figuring out if anyone's reading!). The idea came from one of the FFB mags I picked up. The recent trend these past couple of years is that each has an article espousing taking players a round or two early. I decided to take things one step further and ponder if you should really factor in bye weeks. Personally, I'm getting a little tired of a 8-10 week window in the season where I'm starting at least one backup b/c someone better is on a bye. Wouldn't it be better to get this period over with ASAP? I'd like to know your thoughts. All 3 of you :)