Updates from brandon RSS

  • Our 2010 fantasy football teams

    Brandon 11:10 am on 9/02/2010 | 5 Permalink Reply
    Tags: , , league of champions

    With the drafts having taken place recently for the two most important fantasy football leagues that Matt and I take part in, I figured it was worth sharing who we ended up with. In case you were curious, we’re in a keeper league that uses a RB/WR flex position, as well as a “League of Champions”, which uses pretty standard scoring.

    I love my keeper league team, which could prove to be unstoppable, thanks in large part to my keepers from last season – Ray Rice, Jermichael Finley and Mike Wallace! As for my League of Champions team, I was definitely not prepared for the hardships that come along with the 11th pick of a 12 team draft. After drafting Rashard Mendenhall and Tom Brady with my top two picks, it was a LONNNGGG, painful wait before those next two picks. I’m putting a lot of faith two risky wide receivers with Housh and Edwards, but maybe Jacoby Jones and Legedu Naanee will step up and relieve those my worries (one can hope, right?!)

    Anyways, feel free to leave any questions/comments you have…

     

  • Yahoo! Fantasy Football app for iPhone updated for 2010

    Brandon 9:32 am on 8/31/2010 | 3 Permalink Reply
    Tags: ,

    I was starting to get worried that my Yahoo! Fantasy Football app for my iPhone was going to say 2009 all season long, but thankfully they’ve finally released the 2010 update. Log into the App Store and download the update if you have an iPhone and use Yahoo! for your fantasy football leagues!

     

  • NFL leaders through week 3 (of the preseason)

    Brandon 2:29 pm on 8/30/2010 | 0 Permalink Reply
    Tags: , , max komar, , ryan mathews,

    Here are the leaders through the first three weeks of the preseason…which are the most important weeks. Week four could possibly jettison some 4th stringer up the ranks, but that shouldn’t impact your thoughts on him going into the fantasy football season. In terms of the numbers, you can see Aaron Rodgers, Tom Brady and Peyton Manning are already in mid-season form. Arian Foster Matt Forte and Ryan Mathews are showing that they may be the real deal as well and at this point, both make solid RB2′s to start the season. As for the receivers, the only guy worth drafting is a tight end…although Max Komar is a pretty cool name guys worth drafting are a tight end and MAYBE Jabar Gaffney…but even he’s a stretch.

    preseason3_new

    (Stats via NFL.com)

     

  • Free 2010 Fantasy Football Cheat Sheet

    Brandon 10:11 am on 8/26/2010 | 20 Permalink Reply
    Tags:

    While searching for a free cheat sheet online to use as the basis for my own rankings, I realized that most websites don’t put them in a format that is great for using as a draft day list. So, while I was putting together a really quick cheat sheet for reference during my upcoming drafts, I wanted to share it with our readers to use at least as the basis for their own cheat sheets (it’s a Google Docs spreadsheet):

    FFGeekBlog.com’s 2010 Fantasy Football Cheat Sheet

    Keep in mind that I threw this together in about half an hour and didn’t take painstaking effort to make sure all of the wide receivers in the 40-60 group (for example) are exactly in the order I’d draft them. Most of the players atop the lists are close to how I would pick them in a standard league though.

    If you see anything crazy on the lists that doesn’t make sense or have left out important players, please let me know so I can update it ASAP!

     

  • Ask the Geeks - Preseason Edition

    Brandon 8:47 am on 8/26/2010 | 1 Permalink Reply
    Tags: , , ,

    As the season nears and league drafts are taking place daily throughout the next couple weeks, we figure it’s time to get the Ask the Geeks posts started. We begin with a great question about a couple of reality show stars in Cincinnati:

    JV Prep Squad asks:

    Word is TO might get more nods this year than Ochocinco. I’m tempted to place TO higher in my list of wide receivers than Ochocinco. Is this a good move?

    Brandon says: While the difference in their average draft positions is starting to decrease (check out where they went in the Yahoo! Friends and Family league draft) due to T.O.’s performance in the preseason so far, you still need to target Ochocinco first. He’s been with the offense for years and has chemistry with quarterback Carson Palmer. I’m guessing that T.O. is seeing a lot of action in the preseason because Palmer is trying to develop this same chemistry with him. Both players will see plenty of targets when the season starts and Owens could provide the distraction to defenses that T.J. Houshmandzadeh did a few years ago…when the man formerly known as Chad Johnson put together some great seasons.

     

  • Brandon 9:22 am on 8/25/2010 | 14 Permalink Reply
    Tags: , ,

    Houston Texans TE Owen Daniels is saying that his scan and MRI indicate that his repaired knee is 100% and ready to go.It would be great to get at least a glimpse of him this preseason, but even without one, I think he makes a great draft pick based on the fact that he’s currently going as around the 8th to 10th tight end and could end up with top 4 numbers.

     

  • Sidney Rice to miss half the season

    Brandon 12:13 pm on 8/24/2010 | 11 Permalink Reply
    Tags: , ,

    In case you haven’t yet heard, Minnesota Vikings wide receiver Sidney Rice has had hip surgery and will miss upwards of half the 2010-11 NFL season. Obviously that means you probably don’t want to draft him for your fantasy football team…at least not until the last couple rounds, if you must. With Percy Harvin suffering with migraines, this means that WR Bernard Berrian and TE Visanthe Shiancoe (and Javon Walker?) will most likely be Brett Favre’s top targets heading into the season. Draft accordingly!

     

  • NFL leaders through week 2 (of the preseason)

    Brandon 9:44 am on 8/23/2010 | 3 Permalink Reply
    Tags: ,

    Here are your offensive leaders through two weeks of the preseason. We’re now seeing some of the fantasy football cream rise to the top now, with draft-worthy players Carson Palmer, Matt Forte, Ryan Matthews, Greg Jennings and DeSean Jackson all making the lists. Keep an eye on San Francisco running back Anthony Dixon though, who at a minimum will probably be the mandatory handcuff to Frank Gore.

    preseason_leaders_2

    (Stats via NFL.com)

     

  • Cedric Benson vs Matt Forte: What have you done for me lately?

    Brandon 4:10 pm on 8/20/2010 | 7 Permalink Reply
    Tags: , , ,

    Remember when Cedric Benson was the Matt Forte of the Chicago Bears? He was a running back that everyone had given up on and we all chuckled when he was signed by the Bengals. He then proceeded to put up very average numbers over the 2008-09 season for the Bengals, finishing with 747 yards (3.5 ypc) and two scores. That same year, the new kid on the block in Chicago, replacing Benson, rushed for 1,238 yards (3.9 ypc) and eight touchdowns to become the next up-and-coming fantasy football star. That kid was Matt Forte out of Tulane University.

    Fast forward to the 2009-10 season, where the roles were reversed. Forte hit a sophomore slump, finishing with under 1,000 yards and only four touchdowns, while Benson barreled his way to 1,251 yards (with a solid 4.2 ypc) and six scores.

    Now, as we all prepare for the 2010-11 fantasy football season, it seems that no one cares about either of these players beyond one season ago. Just a few notes on the two players…

    • Cedric Benson has never played a full 16 game season.
    • Matt Forte has never NOT played a full 16 game season.

    • Cedric Benson has 37 receptions, 296 receiving yards and 0 receiving touchdowns over the past two years.
    • Matt Forte has 120 receptions, 948 receiving yards, and 4 receiving touchdowns over the past two years.

    • Cedric Benson has had four “average” seasons as an NFL running back.
    • Matt Forte has had one “average” season as an NFL running back (sophomore slump?)

    I just find it odd at how these two players are looked at going into this season. Someone feel free to change my mind if you want/can. Until then, I’m hoping to snag Forte as a sneaky, mid-round pick in my league drafts.

    Update: Just found a blog that shares my pseudo-optimism in Matt Forte this year. In his post Don’t Nap on these 10 SLEEPERS!, John Charles of Fantasy-Football-First.com writes about Matt Forte:

    Analysis: This time last year some were making the debate that Forte was worthy of the # 1 pick. He had a disappointing season in which he finished #18 for fantasy running backs. He averaged 10.2 points a game. Would you take 10 points a week out of your RB2 position? I would. I think he improves on that a bit this year and could average 12 points a game which should put him in the top 15.

    Strategy: Fantasy football owners have a short term memory so the thought of Forte being a first round bust last year will be fresh in their minds. Mock Drafts have him going in the 4th-6th round and being the 21st running back selected. I am targeting a 4th round steal and it might be hard to pass him up in the 3rd round.

     

  • What has Danny Amendola been doing?!

    Brandon 2:12 pm on 8/20/2010 | 0 Permalink Reply
    Tags: danny amendola

    As part of my research for the blog, one of the RSS feeds that I subscribe to is Rotoworld.com‘s Fantasy Football Headlines, a resource many of our readers should probably also use. Anyways, today I learned something very interesting about kick-returner extrordinaire Danny Amendola’s off-the-field (or on-the-field?) activities…

    Let be known that this type of behavior has in no way affected the fact that he’s on my Yahoo! public league team, a league that features a scoring system that makes kick returners comparable to the top running backs :-)

     

  • Another record season for the Patriots?

    Brandon 10:47 am on 8/20/2010 | 0 Permalink Reply
    Tags: aaron hernandez, brandon tate, , , , , ,

    I don’t want to jinx them or anything, but things have already looked great for the Patriots this preseason. With a healthy Wes Welker in the fold, along with a contract-inspired Randy Moss, Julian Edelman, rookie Aaron Hernandez and healthy Brandon Tate, this passing game should be absolutely dominant. Even the rookie tight end touted for his blocking, Rob Gronkowski, racked up 38 yards and a score last night! Will Tom Brady rack up 50 touchdowns like he did in 2007? Maybe not. But he could get 49 :-)

    Obviously you’re drafting Brady, Moss, and Welker, but now I bet you see Edelman and Hernandez taken in the later rounds of most drafts…especially keeper leagues. In the leagues out there that reward for kick return yardage, Brandon Tate makes for an interesting pick as well.

    Even the running game was going on all cylinders, with the old-man-tandem of Fred Taylor and Sammy Morris combining for over 100 yards and two scores on just 17 carries! Where you draft any of their running backs is another story though. This is the ultimate running-back-by-committee situation and one you should probably stay away from unless absolutely necessary.

     

  • Brandon 8:29 am on 8/19/2010 | 4 Permalink Reply
    Tags: ipad,

    Anyone courageous enough to try their fantasy football league draft on an iPad? Seems pretty risky to me. Maybe at least have your laptop next to you just in case! [FantasyFootballCalculator - Mock Draft on your iPad]

     

  • Brandon 3:32 pm on 8/18/2010 | 3 Permalink Reply
    Tags:

    Jets TE Dustin Keller could be a sneaky later-round draft pick if you miss Clark, Gates, Davis, etc http://espn.go.com/blog/afceast/post/_/id/16497/scouts-inc-te-keller-jets-go-to-guy

     

  • Brandon 11:49 am on 8/18/2010 | 9 Permalink Reply
    Tags:

    I might end up regretting it, but right now I’m on the Matt Forte bounce-back bandwagon http://bit.ly/aEZGK5

     

  • NFL leaders through week 1 (of the preseason)

    Brandon 10:43 am on 8/18/2010 | 0 Permalink Reply
    Tags: , , julian edelman,

    Here are your offensive yardage leaders through the first week of the preseason. Keep in mind that the Bengals and Cowboys have already played two games. Also note, you should not draft any of these players, except Aaron Rodgers, Julian Edelman and possibly Bernard Scott.

    2010_preseason leaders

    (Stats via NFL.com)

     

  • Fantasy Football Tweets

    Brandon 12:17 pm on 8/17/2010 | 0 Permalink Reply
    Tags: ,

    Matt and I have run a Twitter account (@FFGeekBlog) along with the blog for a few years now, but to be honest, we really haven’t done a whole lot with it besides link to our blog posts. This year we’re hoping to change that and have already started by watching the account more vigilantly, responding to fellow fantasy football tweeps and re-tweeting the most important, breaking news.

    Along with this, we’re looking to further integrate Twitter with our site so that readers can see what everyone is talking about in regards to fantasy football. We’ve added a new page to the site called Fantasy Football Tweets (I know, very original!) that is currently home to two Twitter widgets and can be found at the top right of the page. The first displays all of the most current tweets about fantasy football, from bloggers and everyday fantasy team managers alike. We’ll be scanning this off and on to see if we can offer help to some random managers out there (and hopefully gain a few followers in the process!)

    The second widget is home to tweets by fantasy football bloggers. At the moment, there are only 5 or 6 blogs that have made the cut (including our own, of course), but we’re always looking to add more accounts to the widget. If you feel like your blog should be listed, just shoot us an e-mail or tweet and we’ll take a look at your recent updates. If they meet our satisfaction, we’ll be sure to add you to the widget!

    Let us know if you have any suggestions on the new page!

     

  • Your top five picks

    Brandon 3:26 pm on 8/12/2010 | 6 Permalink Reply
    Tags:

    As the draft for some leagues has already come and gone (and some are quickly approaching) I was interested to see the kinds of teams people are ending up with. For the moment, let’s just focus on the top five picks for your team, so that people can get a good picture of what the foundation of their team might look like from a given draft position. Just give the number of teams in the league, your pick number, as well as any crazy rule variations that could affect how the draft went (e.g. QB touchdowns worth 10 points, etc.) To get things started, here’s the top five picks from my Yahoo! public league draft a while back:

    Number of teams: 12
    Draft number: 1
    Rules: 2 QB’s (plus you can start another in the flex spot), tons o’ points from QB and kick returners – don’t ask why the league is set up like this…that’s why it’s a public league I guess!

    1 (1): Chris Johnson (RB-TEN)
    2 (24): Tom Brady (QB-NE)
    3 (25): Roddy White (WR-ATL)
    4 (48): Jay Cutler (QB-CHI)
    5 (49): Joseph Addai (RB-IND)

    Probably not the best example :-) Anyways, how are your drafts going?

     

  • One Red (Fantasy Football) Paperclip

    Brandon 3:33 pm on 8/09/2010 | 6 Permalink Reply
    Tags:

    I’m sure many of you have heard the one red paperclip story at this point. In case you haven’t though, over the course of 2005-06, Kyle MacDonald made a series of 14 one-for-one trades to upgrade from a single red paperclip to a house!!! It was a pretty amazing concept, made even more amazing by the low number of trades he actually had to complete for the house. Anyways, recently I read about Steven Ortiz, who also made 14 trades (his were through Craigslist) to upgrade from an old cell phone to a 2000 Porsche Boxster S. Pretty crazy stuff…and you probably can see where I’m headed with this.

    Has anyone ever executed a series of trades in fantasy football to upgrade from Mr. Irrelevant to say…Mr. Peyton Manning?

    In the leagues I usually play in, all of the managers A) know each other too well and B) think everyone is out to screw them over just for kicks. Unfortunately, this leads to very few trades. However, there has to be some leagues out there were trades happen a lot more often. Does anyone have any stories where they were at least able to upgrade a few tiers on the draft board through a series of one-for-one player trades?

    Hopefully this will spur some managers out there to give it a try and see if they can, for example, turn Patrick Crayton into Randy Moss or Louis Murphy into Miles Austin. I figure the first few trades might not be too difficult, but at some point you may have to prey on a team manager with a certain favorite team-bias (trade Anthony Gonzalez to the Colts fan, etc.) Good luck!

     

  • Ask the Geeks Open Forum - Preseason

    Brandon 10:36 am on 8/04/2010 | 28 Permalink Reply
    Tags: ,

    Going along with my previous post, I figured it would still be nice to give our readers a sounding board for their preseason questions/comments/concerns going into their league drafts and such. One of the ideas that Matt and I had discussed previously was to make the Ask the Geeks feature a more integral part of the site. In that spirit, here’s an open forum for you to add comments with any questions you may have for the Geeks (or any other reader who wants to share their insight.) Hopefully this will allow us to quickly respond to specific questions, while continuing to work on the blog’s future. So anyways, consider the forum open…

     

  • O Fantasy Football Geeks, where art thou?

    Brandon 9:31 am on 8/04/2010 | 3 Permalink Reply
    Tags:

    As the 2010-11 football season quickly approaches, I’m sure many of you have noticed that the FFGeeks have been disappointingly quiet. We regret not having been able to share our preseason rankings or team previews for the upcoming fantasy football season, but it’s not due to our lack of interest in fantasy football. Over the past year or so, both of us have had some major, life-changing experiences, including a new baby for Matt (recently celebrated his first birthday) and myself getting married just about two weeks ago! I’ve also moved into a new house a few months ago that demanded a lot of work, in case those excuses weren’t enough :-)

    Anyways, Matt and I have been in discussion about possible changes to the site, but we’re still trying to work out the details. At my wedding we discussed a few of these ideas briefly (I wonder if Matt remembers?) and need to put some more thought into them before deciding the direction we’ll go in for the upcoming season, as well as in the future.

    In the meantime, please checkout the websites of a few of our fantasy football friends to get your information, but keep an eye out on our RSS/Twitter/Facebook streams so that you can be first to see any changes we make to the site!

    Go Patriots!

     

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