Fantasy Coupons

One of the things that I probably haven't gotten across is that my rankings aren't how I think the players will finish the year in terms of fantasy points. It's based on the point at which I'd have no qualms highlighting his name and hitting the 'Draft' button. I use Blogger's list feature to accomplish this. I type a player's name in, hit 'Add' and then shuffle him down until I can say to myself "I'd rather take a chance on him than the guy below him."

For example, I've got Cam Newton ranked such that if I've got most of my roster filled out, including a backup QB, I'll take a flier on him in a later round. The upside of his value justifies drafting him at that point.

This is akin to going to the store with coupons and getting your favorite name-brand products for less. You get early round production for the cost of a late round pick. As such, here's my first stab at laying out what coupons I'll be looking for in my drafts:

QBs

• Ryan Fitzpatrick in the later middle rounds: He had a nice multi-week run last year where he put up some pretty good numbers running Chan Gailey's spread shotgun offense. This year, the Bills will be playing from behind once again and CJ Spiller will have another year under his belt (Fred Jackson and Steve Johnson can catch the ball, too). Hey, checkdown passes to him that go to 'the house' count! Unlike some of the other QBs ranked around him, he's in a fairly stable situation with his coaches. Familiarity breeds success, especially this year.
• Cam Newton towards the end of the draft: see above.
• Donovan McNabb towards the end of the draft: AP will keep 9 in the box and if Percy Harvin doesn't have migraine issues, he'll be a great WR. Donovan finally learned that TEs are allowed to catch last year in WAS, so Schianco will help him out. Home games will be in a dome, plus one away game in DET.

RBs

• Jamaal Charles in the early middle rounds: yeah, it'll probably never happen, but I'm low on all Chiefs now that Todd Haley is back in charge of the O and they've brougt in Le'Ron McClain. I've seen stranger things happen, though. Leading into Michael Turner's first year in ATL, he slipped to an early middle round where someone else scooped him up, which totally made up for the fact he took Larry Fitzgerald with the 6th overall pick. He went on to win the league.
• Ryan Grant, BenJarvus Green-Ellis, Michael Turner, Steven Jackson or Mark Ingram in the middle rounds: All but SJax are 'keep the lead' backs for what should be high-scoring team. SJax, while an injury risk, plays in a dome in the Mild Mild West and doesn't come off the field on 3rd down.
• Felix Jones in the later rounds: I'm hoping people basically just forget about him, because I won't. No, he probably won't be the goal-line back, or even the 'keep the lead' back, but he'll get enough touches to make a 10th round pick worthwhile. Tashard Choice may be on his way out.
• Mike Tolbert in the later rounds: I'm hearing Ryan Matthews isn't in great shape, which I'm hoping leads to more touches for the human bowling ball that is Mike Tolbert.

TEs

• Owen Daniels in the early middle rounds: really came on at the end of last year, proving he's healthy.
• Jimmy Graham in the later rounds: another guy I'm hoping people forget about. I have a hunch he'll be getting some red zone looks that used to go to Marques Colston.
• Todd Heap in the later rounds: I'm hoping people remember him as the injury-prone TE from Baltimore and not see him as a TE whose QB is Kevin Kolb.