Squish (268)
E-roc (127)
Shirley (66)
Jeff (53)
Tommy (53)
Mal (51)
Ken (44)
Amir (40)
TJ (29)
Brett Favre’s on a plane headed for Minnesota. Looks like he’s coming back, I guess. Whatever.
Recent Updates Page 2 RSS Hide threads Keyboard Shortcuts
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Matt
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Fantasy Football Tweets
Brandon
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!
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Matt
Glen Coffee’s retirement at age 23 is mind-boggling to me (and I think the smart money’s on him coming back to the game at some point), but in the meantime it makes rookie Anthony Dixon pretty interesting as the new backup to Frank Gore, who’s been less injury-prone as a pro than many expected him to be but will have to shoulder more of the load now. That’s good news in the short-term for Gore owners, but it could turn into a mid-to-late-season boon for those who take a flier on Dixon in the draft. He certainly looked ready against the Colts last night – 100 rushing yards (including a 5-yard TD run) on 21 attempts, plus three catches for 21 yards.
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Brandon
You mean the interesting back-up is Brian Westbrook…who just signed with the 49ers!
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Matt
Well gawsh.
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Matt
See, this is why being a Bills fan and a fantasy football enthusiast are bad for your self-esteem. CBS projects Lee Evans as our top fantasy receiver, with a whopping 828 yards and 5 TDs. After that,
… James Hardy will be Buffalo’s second-leading wide receiver with 24 grabs, 323 yards and three touchdowns. Marcus Easley gets 22 catches, 284 yards and two scores. Steve Johnson, the likely opening-day starter opposite Evans, gets 16 catches, 221 yards and one score.
I need a beer.
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Brandon
Considering his stats through the first two years of his career, they’re certainly taking a glass-half-full view on James Hardy. Talk about a disappointment…for Bills fans. As a Patriots fan, I can’t complain!
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Squish
The Bills are apparently going to score more points this year than I thought they would!
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Matt
I taught my one-year-old son to put his arms up when I say “touchdown” and was all proud of that until I realized that I probably should have taught him “field goal” so we could actually put it to use from time to time.
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Your top five picks
Brandon
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?-
Javier
I missed my live draft and the yahoo auto gave me this (I was #1 seed!):
Chris Johnson
Miles Austin
Sid Rice
Vernon Davis
Felix Jones
Eli Manning
Santana Moss
Malcolm Floyd
Minnesota
Ryan LongwellIt also gave me Matthew Stafford and Dustin Keller which I dropped to add Dexter McCluster and Buckhalter from waivers… I kept Marshawn Lynch because its the only other RB I got!
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Matt
That auto-draft is… crippling. I have to avert my eyes now.
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Brandon
Was it a 12 team league? I’m starting to find that if you’re the #1 pick and take Chris Johnson, it’s important to grab the top QB and WR available for your next two picks (assuming a top tier QB is left) otherwise, you’re left with scraps when it comes back to you for picks 4 and 5.
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Javier
Yes it’s a 12-man league… it turns out that a lot of people couldn’t make the live draft either, so most teams are horrendous as well!
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rob
watch out for the curse Chris j. beware!
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Squish
I’ve been doing actual drafts on rapiddraft instead of mocks since they are free this year and RD has a massive 60 team maximum. I found my best draft so far was the one I did the first week of August when I took some chances. To make things better most of the experts only had regular pre-set rankings rather than their own:
Pick 1.09 – Turner
Pick 2.04 – Wayne (ADP 1.11)
Pick 3.09 – Welker
Pick 4.04 – Peyton Manning! (ADP 2.10)
Pick 5.09 – Benson! (ADP 3.09)
Pick 6.04 – Tony Gonzalez
Pick 7.09 – Harvin
Pick 8.04 – Portis
Pick 9.09 – Breaston
Pick 10.04 – Ben Tate
Pick 11.09 – Arian Foster
Pick 12.04 – Brett Favre! (ADP 8.05)
Pick 13.09 – Massaquoi
Pick 14.04 -Bernard Scott
Pick 15.09 – Sanchez
Pick 16.04 – Manningham
Pick 17.09 – NYG Defense
Pick 18.04 – Ben Watson
Pick 19.09 – Gostkowski
Pick 20.04 – CHI DefenseI’m a little weak at WR especially if Welker isn’t himself but one of the other WRs will likely step up. At QB I’m insane (if Favre plays) and to have two starting RBs (Portis and Foster) fighting over the flex spot, I think I’m in good shape there especially with Benson handcuffed. I’ve had a lot of drafts since then on RD but I’ve yet to come out with a better and deeper team than this.
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One Red (Fantasy Football) Paperclip
Brandon
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!
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Ken
My league is pretty intense and we all know eachother well so “trust no one” is a term often lived by. In my league last year, I traded Derrick Mason for Jeremy Shockey, and then Shockey for Vernon Davis straight up. This was right before Mr. Davis went off. I thought it was a pretty slick move because I was making the deal with the Vernon Davis owner before I even had aquired Shockey. This isn’t quite the paperclip story but I was pretty proud of it.
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Dev
This was actually a huge part of my strategy last season. We start 2 QBs, in case anyone wonders why some of these QB trades were viable. Before the season started, I traded Derrick Ward to a RB-starved owner for Vincent Jackson. Out one Tampa RB, I then picked up Cadillac Williams off waivers in hopes he might become the starter. He did, and he had a good first game, so I immediately traded him one-for-one for Joe Flacco. I kept Flacco for a week, then traded him to a different owner for Matt Ryan. Kept Matt Ryan until week 5, when he had one of his best games of the year vs. SF, then proceeded to trade him for Wes Welker, who had missed a few games with injury, right before he exploded vs. TEN is week 6. So overall, I turned the Tampa backfield into Vincent Jackson and Wes Welker, who became integral in my championship run.
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Brandon
That’s pretty solid, have to give you props over Ken, although both are impressive.
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Squish
I wish I had leagues where I could pull that many trades! I’m lucky if 5 trades go through in my average league in a year.
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Brandon
I think right now Dev takes the cake, basically trading Cadillac Williams and Derrick Ward for Vincent Jackson and Wes Welker. Anyone top that? If not, get crackin’ this year! It might actually be easier to do in the preseason, when some of the lesser known guys reputations get blown out of proportion due to extended playing time
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Squish
I can’t say I do much trading in FF given the waiver wire’s treasures but I pulled a fast one in Fantasy baseball league this year. I trade Ty Wigginton (27th ranked 1B) and Francisco Cordero (5th ranked RP) for Adrian Gonzalez (6th ranked 1B) and Dustin Pedroia (10th ranked 2B). I’m not sure if you guys play fantasy baseball (it’s my first year) but either of those trades by itself is highway robbery. Both together has lead my team from eighth in the league to first. It’d only be better if Pedroia wasn’t injured and could live up to his projected 3rd 2B self. To make things better, I’m 3rd in the league in saves without Cordero. I’m still laughing about it.
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Ask the Geeks Open Forum - Preseason
Brandon
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…
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Amir Learner
Keeper Question:
How keepers work in this league – In one of my leagues we are allowed 3 keepers and you would lose draft pick 2 rounds higher and can keep players a max of 3 yearsI’m debating between a few players (I already have Ray Rice, Shonn Greene- we start 1 QB, 2 RB, 2WR, 1RB/WR/TE, K, DST)
- Hakeem Nicks (originally drafted in round 18 so I would give up a 16th round pick for someone who seems to max out around a top 20 WR)
- Mike Sims-Walker (Went undrafted so I would give up a 12th rounder – Looks like a 5th/6th round pick but I don’t really see a huge upside with him)
- Justin Forsett – (Also went undrafted so 12th rounder – he has HUGE upside but its tough to tell in Seattle – also I worry about really skewing my draft board if i keep 3 RBs)Thoughts?
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Brandon
I’m leaning towards Hakeem Nicks, based solely on his potential. You’re stacked at RB, so all you’re looking for at that position is a backup or flex player. You could probably even draft Forsett if you wanted to in the middle rounds if you really want him, but I don’t expect any kind of spectacular numbers for him as he’ll still split some carries with Julius Jones. Sims-Walker is solid, but Nicks (even with the recent knee injury scare) has more potential and is in a more potent passing offense. Keep Rice, Greene and Nicks, then grab a top tier QB and WR (or another awesome RB if you have an early pick) with your first two picks to automatically make your team a force to be reckoned with.
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Amir
Yeah – I think I’m gonna go with Nicks and hope Forsett doesn’t freak out
Thanks!
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John
nice to see you guys again,
im in a league with 12 people with standard scoring (no PPR).
our lineup is QB, RB, RB, WR, WR, WR, TE, K, DEFwhat type of draft strategy should i go with. draft RBs in the first two rounds? I figured I would draft a QB in a later round since it is deep. or should i be drafting WRs in the first few rounds, is RBs as deep as WRs now since more teams are going by committee?
Thanks!
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Brandon
It all depends on your draft position and what players are left at that point. Looking at the top players this year though, you’re most likely going to want to pick up a top tier running back with your top pick. After that, if another top tier running back is available, you might consider them, but otherwise grabbing a top flight receiver and QB in rounds 2 and 3 could work out for you.
I can’t tell you that there is a specific strategy that is going to be the best, as over the past few years the RB-RB-rest of draft strategy has been eroded due to running back by committee situations. Good luck though!
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Marco
DeSean Jackson or Calvin Johnson or Reggie Wayne? non PPR
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Brandon
It’s hard to vote against Reggie Wayne, even if he’s the old man out of the group. He’s the safest pick, having Peyton Manning throwing him the ball instead of Kolb or Stafford and he’s coming off a solid season. The other two are probably higher risk/reward players though. Don’t be too disappointed if any of them fall into your lap during the draft.
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Amir
I’d have to agree and say Wayne is probably the best of the bunch – he’s definitely the safest. While DeSean Jackson might put up some monster numbers he depends on the big play too much – if that gets taken away he’s basically useless (check the distances of his touchdowns they are all monsters and thats where he gets all his points) – I’m also kind of high on the Lions this year (yes the Lions)
so – Wayne > Calvin Johnson > DJax
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Matt
Yeah, Wayne’s probably the safe pick, but if Jackson’s healthy, he’s got the highest ceiling of the bunch. I’ve always loved Calvin Johnson’s potential but he hasn’t lived up to it yet, which means he could be a bargain this year in some drafts if he falls further than he should.
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Lep
Jackson prob also has the lowest ceiling, and i highly doubt he’ll repeat his 8t’d of 50yds or more preformance…
IMO, Jackson is the risky pick and Wayne is the safest, but I’d probably go with Calvin, a little risk, while still being pretty safe. Wayne is getting older and has 3 young talented recievers around him now, but has been consistent throughout his career. Detroit can only get better with Stafford having another year under his belt, and adding Best won’t hurt their running game. Burleson should also help CJ with a few less double teams. I think at the end of the year, Calvin will be at the top of that list.
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Jimmy
RB Position – we have 2 RB and a WR/RB position
I have Chris Johnson, Ryan Grant, Marion Barber, and Jahvid Best.
Besides CJ, who should I start at RB and WR/RB?
Should I pick up Tim Hightower and drop Barber?-
Brandon
As your starters, I like the upside of Grant and Best a bit more than Barber. However, I’ve heard (specifically on Maurice Jones-Drew’s fantasy football radio show) that Marion has put in extra work in the off season to return to his “Barbarian” status and could be a sleeper as long as he can fend off Felix Jones and Tashard Choice. Hightower still has Beanie Wells to compete with and is in a worse offense, so he’s by no means a better choice than Barber at this point. To your original question though, start CJ, Grant and Best (as long as he’s deemed the starter to begin the season.)
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Jimmy
I am stuck in an 8-man league without a stud QB.
I have E Manning, K Kolb, and M Stafford.
Who do normally go with? Or do I try to pick up someone else?-
Brandon
It’s a bit early to tell at this point, but you should be fine with those guys. Manning will be solid and a good fall back, while Kolb and Stafford show you what their made of in the preseason and first few weeks of the regular season. What quarterbacks are on the free agency list though?
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Jimmy
Available QBs – B Favre, B Roethlisberger, K Orton, J Campbell, D Garrard, V Young, M Hasselbeck, M Cassel, C Henne, and M Sanchez.
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Brandon
Given those options, I’d stick with who you have for now, although Brett Favre is an interesting option depending on whether you think he’ll play this year or not
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Matt
New here, have a keeper question. In a 14 team league, standard scoring, where we play QB RB RB WR WR W/R/T TE K DEF. I’m drafting 11th. We can keep one player from the final roster by giving up a pick two rounds before they were drafted (no keeping 1st or 2nd rounders). So my best options are Vernon Davis for a 13th round pick or Michael Crabtree for an 11th round pick. Which would you choose?
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Brandon
Hmm, it’s almost a toss up here. I say go with Vernon Davis though, to ensure that you lock down the TE position with WR-caliber guy. It’s a bit risky, as you’re asking him to put up similar numbers to last year (doubtful he’ll have 13 TD again), but with only two WR slots, I’m sure you will be able to fill those with other guys earlier in the draft that would equal the numbers Crabtree will put up.
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e-roc
Booyah for football season… I’m getting sick of seeing baseball highlights on Sportscenter…
Draft question (picking from the 3rd position)… Just like the previous two seasons, I’m in a high-scoring, very-QB and WR-friendly league…. That being said, with the 3rd pick this year (2nd pick last year), I’ll probably have a shot at either Chris Johnson or Drew Brees… My question today is, do you believe in the Madden curse? I just got my copy of Madden as a happy reminder of the Curse….
What do you guys think? Alternatively, I may go out on a HUGE limb and grab Andre Johnson (big plays = big points)… I really like guys like Ryan Mathews, Beanie Wells, and Tony Romo as my 2nd & 3rd picks…
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Squish
Unless it’s a two QB league I’d think that Brees would be around by your pick in the second round. I think you’ll probably end up with MJD or AP. I think grabbing AJ is a bit premature at pick 3. Let’s remember that WRs are the least consistent group from year to year. Instead, something like 1.AP 2. Brees 3. Colston, Steve Smith (either) or Welker is far better in my opinion.
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e-roc
Thanks Squish. I did some analysis based on last year’s scoring system and I definitely agree with you on going with a RB… I think AP is a “no-brainer” if he’s there at 3, but then the question of MJD or Ray Rice becomes an issue. We’ve altered scoring to give RB’s 0.5 pts PPR (1 PPR for WR & TE). I think they’re both good options. What do you think?
Thoughts on the Madden curse??
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Brandon
If the decision is between Ray Rice and MJD, I think I’m leaning towards Rice slightly. Especially if the team trades Willis McGahee! But yeah, at the 3 spot you have to go with a top tier RB that you can plug in all season long and not worry about him.
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Squish
I’ve never paid much attention to the Madden curse. Player’s regularly get injured multiple times a season so it’s easy to prove it is true. I think Brees will be just fine but I just don’t see him matching his numbers from the last two years.
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Brian
Love to hear your thoughts on my draft if you have a minute. It’s a 10 man league using pretty standard format (non-ppr, only wrinkle is 6pts for passing TD). I had the 8th pick.
1st (8) Andre Johnson WR (all previous 7 picks were backs)
2nd (13) Aaron Rogers QB
3rd Mendenhall RB
4th Jennings WR
5th Moreno RB
6th Finely TE (was the 7th TE taken, happy to land him given Rogers as QB)
7th H. Nicks WR (had MSW and Jahvid Best targeted here with Nicks, but they went with the two picks before me)
8th CJ Spiller RB
9th Johnny Knox WR
10th Ricky Williams RB
11th Roethlisberger QB
12th Kaeding K
13th Thomas Jones RB
14th BengalsOverall once the first 7 picks were RB’s I decided to try to get good QB-WR strategy and then stockpile backs that I felt had potential to be RB1 type. Figuring if I have 5 in the barn, I hope 2 will shake out as clear RB1′s. Is that sound?
I am already regretting my Roethlisberger pick. I should have just went without a backup QB for the beginning of the season since Rogers wont have a bye till Week 10. I think it was a bit of a knee jerk reaction. I had targeted Eli Manning as a backup in the 10th round, but he was taken the pick before me, so i went with Ricky figuring Ronnie has a good chance of getting injured again. Immediately after there was a run on 5-6 QB’s so I took Ben. Probably a waste of a pick and could have gotten more value here with high ceiling type RB or WR, right?
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Brandon
This team seems pretty solid actually, with my only worry being Knowshon Moreno with your 5th pick. If the team actually commits to a workhorse running back AND he’s healthy to start the year though, it could work out for you. You’re heavily invested in the success of the Packers passing game, but I guess there are worse teams out there
Roethlisberger might be a solid backup actually, considering he’ll already have been back for a few weeks by the time you need him. However, keep your fingers crossed that Aaron Rodgers stays healthy for the first half of the year!
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Brian
Hey man thanks for taking the time to check it out. Love the site and as a new guy to FF appreciate the feedback.
Moreno: Yeah I think it was a bit of a panic pick. Backs were being taken like crazy even past the first round so I decided to try to get high ceiling guys even if they had questionable situations. Moreno I had on my team last year and was aware of the frustrations, but I saw glimpses of a fanstasy workhouse so I figured he was worth a shot. Technically he was probably a bad value at 5, but he was the 20th back picked so considering that i guess I am ok with it. Like I mentioned I went with the hope that if I have 5 question mark backs, I can gamble that 2 backs will turn into RB1′s. The tough part will be knowing who they will be week-to-week, haha.
Packers: Yes I am aware that I am married to them this year. It become a running joke whenever anyone drafted a packer player, they politely asked me if I wanted to trade for them immediately afterwards, haha. I have been thinking about picking up Owen Daniels who’s still out there to give me some balance when GB plays a tough D, but not sure I want to carry two TE’s at the start of the season.
Big Ben: I like having Ben, as I think once he’s back I got great value for him, I just am not sure if it would have served my team better to add another back to the stable and then pick up someone like Alex Smith later. This is all assuming that A Rogers as an ironman, but lets face it, if Rogers goes down in the first half my season is basically done for, haha.
Thanks again, love the site.
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Brian
What do you think of Knox? I got a lot of bad feedback with that pick.
I like him in the Martz offense and you know Cutler is gonna let it fly. I was rather surprised nobody was as high on him as I was.
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Brandon
I like Johnny Knox this year, especially as your 4th receiver in the 9th round! Don’t give a second thought to the haters
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O Fantasy Football Geeks, where art thou?
Brandon
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!
- The Hazean – Fantasy foot ball galore
- Fantasy Football Librarian – Find all the resources you’ll need to dominate your fantasy football league
- Fantasy Football Fools – There’s always next week
- Fantasy Football Goat – Ideas for Your Fantasy Football Success… and Anything Else NFL
Go Patriots!
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Shirley
Congratulations to Matt on the new baby and to Brandon on getting married. Looking forward to the new posts! Love this blog.
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Brandon
Thanks Shirley!
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Jacob @ Fantasy Football Fools
Thanks for the plug, Brandon. It’s good to see life coming back to the fantasy football blogs again, and I’ll keep an eye out for when you guys start running at full steam.
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Ask the Geeks: Collecting League Fees
Matt
Andrew asks:
Hi, I am trying to set up a FF league with some of my buddies from college. Problem is, we are all located in different places, which makes money collection very difficult. What site do you recommend for our league  so that we could collect the money through a service such as paypal? Thank you for your help.
There are a number of services out there that offer to help with fee collection, but I’ve never felt compelled to use any of them. Collecting league fees can be a pain no matter how you slice it, but I don’t see how a third-party service will make things so much easier that I’d be willing to pay a fee for their service. If you want to give one a try, take a look at WePay, which launched this spring with some venture capital funding and received a positive writeup in TechCrunch.
For the keeper league that I commish, I collect via check or PayPal (which no longer charges any fee for personal transactions) and then dump all the money into a secondary savings account that my wife and I have had forever and never touch. This league has been together for a long time, and guys are always pretty good about getting their fees in before the draft with minimal kneecap-bashing on my part. For a new league, you’ll want to make it abundantly clear that there are repercussions for not getting league fees in on time – for example, you could lock down add/drop privileges for anyone who hasn’t yet paid until they do. Just make sure to clearly define those rules ahead of time, and be obnoxious enough about it so that nobody can claim they didn’t know the rules.
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Brian
I haven’t used this one yet but there is a site called Leaguesafe.com
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Lee
I did a post on league safe last year or the year before, signed up, but never used it because there wasn’t a seamless way to actually pay for our league service (Myfantasyleague.com) out of the money pool. I think they work with MFL on that now.
I have always used Paypal.
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AixelSyd
LeagueSafe has a mechanism that will directly pay MFL leagues. Start from your MFL league, and look through the menus for a link to LeagueSafe. It has an automated process that migrates your league data to LeagueSafe.
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Dean
Problem with league safe is that you can’t use paypal which I think is the easiest way to collect. You have to use e-checks or credit cards.
I did a quick review of the site on my website http://www.officepoolguy.com. if interested.
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First fantasy football team of the year and draft results
Brandon
As I mentioned previously, last night was my first fantasy football draft of the year, as I traditionally sign up for a Public league as soon as Yahoo opens for sign-ups. Anyways, I just wanted to share the team I ended up with. You’ll notice this league has an interesting twist, as it’s a 12-team league with no Defense or Kicker, but with extra position players. I’ll add some analysis later this evening if I can, but just know that this draft was done with a beer, no cheat sheets and the primary purpose of giving people an idea of how the drafts might go this season…
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Sean
WHAT? You drafted Roddy White over the REAL Brand Marshall? HOW?
Love Steve Smith being drafted immediately after… Steve Smith.
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Brandon
Hah, had to go with Roddy White due to quarterback concerns in Miami. I guess Chad Henne can throw the long ball, but that’s not always B. Marshall’s specialty.
However, now that the draft is over and I’m looking at the accumulated points for players in the league according to the scoring rules, it breaks down like this:
1. Quarterbacks – WAY above the rest of the players. Glad I got two solid starters and one decent one to play in the flex spot!
2. Receivers that return kicks – Return yardage is HUGE apparently. I just picked up Danny Amendola of the Rams, since he would have scored 130 points last year under these scoring rules, while Roddy White only had 129! Good thing I’m stocked on kick returners like Jacoby Jones, Darren Sproles, Amendola, and Brandon Tate (assuming he returns kicks for NE.)
3. Running backs and wide receivers not returning kicks
4. Tight ends
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e-roc
First of all, I love that it’s Fantasy Football season again.
Secondarily, nice draft! I probably would’ve gone after another RB instead of Alex Smith in the 10th round… It was interesting to see who were the Top 5 players off the board.. Our league is very QB-point heavy, so Brees arguably will go #1 overall.
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Brandon
e-roc, this league is also VERY quarterback heavy, so I’m actually glad I grabbed Alex Smith before all of the half-way decent QB’s were gone. Just for comparison sake, last year, Smith would have had 232 points, while Chris Johnson would have only had 222! I didn’t realize it was this lopsided until after the draft, so I’m glad I got that third quarterback.
Don’t worry though, in our normal leagues with “normal” scoring, things might be a bit different
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Amir
Shouldn’t you have drafted QB/QB since QB is so heavy and you start 2 of them?
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Brandon
In retrospect, maybe that would have been a good idea, but I think I ended up with decent enough options at the QB position along with my Chris Johnson pick. Not that excited to hear Roddy White’s name brought up in the recent Mike Vick drama, but I don’t think he’s being implicated of anything so it should be all good.
I do like some of the ideas behind this league. Having no kicker and no defense takes a bit of randomness out of the weekly match-ups. Also, having more QB/RB/WR/TE adds more variety between the top-tier players some teams have and the scrubs that other teams roll out. Maybe I can convince my real leagues to consider some of these options this year (hint, hint…Matt?)
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Squish
Nice to see you guys back in the game again! I’m currently in a tough spot in a keeper league and would appreciate some help. It’s a league where the starting spots are:
2QB
3WR
2 RB
1 TE
1W/R
1 K
1DEF
1DB
1DLMy problem is that the 3 QBs I ended the season with last year were Warner, Mcnabb, and Alex Smith. Not exactly the best keeper material lol. The big issue is that I have great keepers at a lot of other positions. I can keep five players.
ATM, the choices are these:
McNabb
Vincent Jackson
Andre Johnson
Roy Williams
DeAngelo Williams
Kevin Smith
Turner
Brent Celek
Owen Daniels
Jared Allen (DL)It seems pretty simple at first glance but the league is setup so that the keepers you take are your first picks. If you take less of them, you get to pick while other guys are taking their keepers. In addition to the 5 regular keepers, you can choose to keep players from the rookie draft. I never use the rookie portion of the draft to grab rookies so I have none of those. Most teams have If I take only 4 keepers and leave Mcnabb out there, I would definitely be able to nab Ryan Matthews. Obviously I’d be way over stacked at RB but I would have a hell of a lot of trade bait to perhaps procure a few top level guys. In addition, most teams already have 2 good QBs and it’s likely I could draft McNabb later in the draft.
So what I’ve been thinking is:
1st – Turner (Keeper)
2nd – AJ (Keeper)
3rd – DW (Keeper)
4th – Vjax (Keeper) – (if he decides to play this year)
5th – Ryan Matthews/Any other good players not kept (Last season I got DeAngelo Williams in the 6th because I was the only team without a rookie keeper)Any advice? Should I just play it safe and take McNabb?
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Ken
Hey guys. Can’t wait for this season of FF football. I see Fitz went in the 2nd round for your draft. I was curious to see how far he’d drop without Warner in the picture. Seems like he still has value in most drafts
I’m joining a keeper league as an expansion team. Myself and two other players are given 3 keeper picks before the draft from the 3 rosters of players who won’t be in the league anymore. I traded my 4th round draft pick for S. Rice. So I have to pick two keepers. The draft snakes and I got my picks back to back
I’ll be picking Matt Shaub for sure, and then my other viable options are:
Brett Farve
Eli Manning
Ricky Williams
Ronnie Brown
Anquan BoldinI’m a little torn on my 2nd pick. Keep in mind, minus the rookies, the top 10 RB are already locked up through the keeper system. So I’m leaning towards taking RIcky or Ronnie just to secure myself some sort of decent RB, but to me neither of those guys are actually 2nd or 3rd round material.
What do you guys think? Should I take the RB, say Ricky? Or should I lock up a very solid backup QB with Eli. Take a risk and grab farve to have two top QBs that I could leverage for a trade down the road. Boldin’s in there but I don’t see much of a point in making him a keeper pick.
Thanks
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Mal
good to be back ffgb, and nice draft Brandon. My first question this year is- do you guys know of a way to practise a live draft? Any websites out there? So I guess a dummy draft
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Brandon
Fleaflicker.com has a Mock Draft feature. Not sure it allows you to customize the league though, but it gives you a decent idea of how the rounds will work out.
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Yahoo Fantasy Football leagues open for sign-up
Brandon
So naturally I had to sign up for a league with a live draft…TONIGHT! The league is named “only the best2″, so the assumption is that I have my work cut out for me. My team name for the year will be Real BrandonMarshall, since Yahoo cuts the name off at 20 characters and Will the real Brandon Marshall please stand up? wouldn’t fit.
At first glimpse, a few of the changes Yahoo! Fantasy Football has implemented this year include:
- Message Board update e-mail notifications – Could be useful for leagues with very little trash talk, so you don’t have to constantly check when no one is posting any messages. Might end up being annoying for leagues where there is constant chatter though.
- Emphasis on Team Slogans – For some reason there’s a whole tab devoted to Team Slogan changes, in case you were someone who enjoys that kind of thing. Currently, I have mine set to “Whoop. There it is.” Quoting the classic Jock Jams tune.
I’ll attempt to update this list as I navigate the site a bit more, but will definitely have it updated once the draft is over.
Update: Here’s the draft room. Same as last year if I’m not mistaken…
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It's aliiiiiive...
Matt
After a much-needed break from the fantasy football blogosphere over the offseason, we can’t help but be drawn to all the intriguing noise coming from the NFL this spring. (Shortened preseason schedule? Yes please!) Brandon’s getting married in a month so his time might be a bit limited over the short term, but we’re ready to get this thing going again.
Brandon and I have been talking about a few changes we’re planning on making this season to make the blog more useful to our readers and fun for us to manage. To us, the best part of running this site is the discussions we have with commenters, so we’re going to continue to improve that aspect of the site as best we can. We’re also going to focus more energy on weekly positional rankings – we get so many Ask the Geeks questions along the lines of, “Who would you start this week, Player A or Player B,” and positional rankings would help answer some of those (but not all of them, of course, given flex positions and wacky scoring systems).
So anyway… Vince Young FTW.
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Lee
Welcome back!
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Squish
Congratz on getting married Brandon!
I agree about the questions and comments being the best part of this site. I can’t wait to get back into FF mode.
We’ll see how the season plays out this year. I’m currently in 3 fantasy baseball leagues (my first year playing) and I’m not sure how that will play out with football coinciding for awhile. To make up for it, I’m well into my draft prep. How do you guys feel about Ronnie Brown this year? I think he’s my ray rice for this season.
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Matt
If you’ve got Santana Moss on your keeper squad… bad news.
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2010 NFL Draft starts tonight!
Brandon
In case you’re living under a rock, we just wanted to remind you that the first round of the NFL Draft is tonight, with the second and third rounds on Friday, while the final rounds will be on Saturday. Here’s hoping the Patriots put their 12 draft picks (four in the first two rounds) to good use. There are a lot of holes to fill and the Jets and Dolphins aren’t taking it easy this off-season!
P.S. I’m still trying to decide how I feel about the Patriots signing Torry Holt. Hopefully he’s not the next Joey Galloway!
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Brandon Marshall traded to Miami Dolphins
Brandon
It’s a sad day when a player with your name (you’re obligated to root for him right?) is traded to a division rival of your favorite team
There’s no way I will be buying a Brandon Marshall – Miami Dolphins jersey!Anyways, I have to think that this move makes Chad Henne a viable fantasy quarterback next season…although it would still be best to have him as a back-up until you see what he’s capable of with a serious wide receiver in the mix. The Broncos passing game is downgraded tremendously unless Eddie Royal can figure out how to play football again. Poor Brady Quinn…just when he thought he might have a chance to succeed.
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rob[from kc]
looks like all the New England coaches are snake bit when they leave the fold. GO CHIEFS!
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Brandon
Why would the Jets let a fairly-productive Thomas Jones go and then sign LT? Tomlinson has mentioned publicly that he’s OK with being a third-down specialist…something the Jets already have with Leon Washington! Am I missing something here? Thomas Jones could have split carries with a potentially fragile Shonn Greene, while Leon Washington handled third down duties. If they get LT now, they get an aging running back who will split carries with Leon Washington on third down? Please explain.
P.S. Hello, Patriots? Instead of just watching a bunch of your guys leave in free agency, how about you make some moves to help a team with some serious holes at this point?!
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Matt
OK, this is pretty funny.
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Matt
If Steve Breaston doesn’t get a chance to start somewhere in the NFL next season, it’ll be a shame. He led the team in receiving with 125 yards and was utterly unstoppable in the 4th. His one-armed catch (while a cornerback was getting amorous with his other arm) was just plain nasty. Bob Young of the Arizona Republic thinks the Cardinals might finally be figuring out that they’re at least as good a team without
hisBoldin’s whiny ass as they are with it. -
Thanks from the Fantasy Football Geek Blog
Brandon
With all regular season fantasy football leagues now finished, Matt and I just wanted to thank all of our great readers for their comments and for helping us reach record traffic levels for a third straight year. We already have plans at a site redesign this offseason, so hopefully the site is even better with the next revision. If you have recommendations for next year, please feel free to reply to this post and we’ll add them to the list of potential changes for the next version of the site. Hopefully everyone held their own in their league and maybe even a few of you won thanks to some of our advice. To everyone who continues feeding their addiction with some playoffs fantasy football, good luck…and to everyone else though, we’ll see you next season!
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Chris
Keep up the great work! It’s appreciated.
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Squish
Thank you guys! You have a very unique FF site that I really enjoy. I’m already looking forward to next year!
I finished the year with .644 overall win percentage. Managed to pull down 7 championships and 12 top 3 finishes out of the 15 teams I had. The $380 total winnings on the year makes it well worth the time I spent.
Oh well, looks like it might be time to try fantasy golf again…
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Tommy
Thanks for the help guys.
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TJ
Will be back here next season, you guys have been great. This was my first year playing FF, and I nearly won our Superbowl (only lost because I missed Sjax’s wk16 scrub, by minutes, that hurt.) Thanks for the help, I learned a lot from you guys. Hope you’ve got lots of pre-draft thoughts posted here come August.
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EightManFront.com
This is a really cool site with great info. I can’t wait to see the redesign for 2010!
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ryan
great advice all year guys, really excited to see what you have planned for next year!
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j
this is where i go to get all the goodies for fantasy…great site. the recurring posts (players of the week, etc.) should have quick links up top so you can jump right to them without scrolling all the way down and searching for them
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Brandon
Thanks j. I can’t elaborate too much right now, as we don’t even know 100% the direction the site is headed this year, but hopefully we’ll be able to provide enough content to help you manage your teams this year. We’re not sure right now that we’ll be doing the same, weekly posts, but we should have some kind of equivalent to help you out. Keep checking back for updates!
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Playoff Fantasy Football Options
Matt
I’ve never been a huge fan of playoff fantasy football. If real fantasy football is chess, playoff fantasy football is checkers. Or Candyland.
Nevertheless, sometimes you just aren’t ready to let the fantasy football season die. If that’s you, there are a few sites where you can get your fix. If I’m going to spend any time at all on one of these, there’d better be a decent payoff that I can pretend I might win, so I’ve listed the prizes for each here. (More …)
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e-roc
@Matt – I could use some Geek-insight at WR this week… Please help me pick three from the following:
a) D. Aromashodu (@DET)
b) D. Bowe (@DEN)
c) H. Nicks (@MIN)
d) J. Gaffney (v. KC)I just don’t want to end up picking a dud….
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Matt
Will do tomorrow man – sorry but I’m managing two PokerStars tourneys at the same time…
remind me tmrw if I forget.-
e-roc
Welp. The CORRECT answers were (a), (d) and (e) – Other. Fortunately I did start (a) and (d). Patrick Crayton would have been the Other money pick. Not Nicks…
Also, I was THIS CLOSE from starting McGahee over MJD…..
At any rate, thank you Geeks for another good season. I retained #2 in the points race (should have finished #2 in the playoffs as well), which pockets me $200…
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Matt
Sorry man, my memory’s about as useful as a hairbrush to Ving Rhames…
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rob[from kc]
I would go with everyone but Bowe. He seems to suffer from the drops just as bad as the other kc grief receivers.
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e-roc
Thanks. He actually had a decent game last week against a solid Cincy DEF….
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rob[from kc]
yes This is true but it is amazing what no practice can do for the chief’s receivers. We fans here in kc learned many years ago to never allow a chief to be in the position of making you or breaking you. You have been warned. lol good luck
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e-roc
Didn’t go with Bowe, but it looks like I should have picked up the KC defense!
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Brandon 9:46 am on 8/18/2010 Permalink
Zippity Doo Da, Zippity Ay My oh my what a wonderful day…
Who’s worse, Favre or LeBron?
Squish 6:10 pm on 8/18/2010 Permalink
Definitely LeBron since he’s not old enough to blame his antics on dementia.