Fantasy Football is Won on Tuesdays

Its not too late to get in a Fantasy football league. You can play for free at a number of different sites. From veteran to novice these sites have something for everyone. It used to be unless you were a die hard you stayed away from fantasy football because of the learning curve and because the veterans would make you feel like a moron. A rite of passage that is not for everyone. Then there was the time factor. Fantasy Football used to be life consuming but now the services have made them so easy to play that they can be a hobby instead of a career.

There are leagues that you pay to play in and they usually serve a specific audience, have a specific feature such as prizes or have a proprietary system. We are going to look at three of the top free services. These have everything you need and won’t leave you feeling cheated. I will look at , MSN/Fox and CBS SportsLine.

I must first disclose that I participate in all three of these leagues. I have found these three to be the cream of the crop of the many free services out there including some big names you may notice missing. If you want the quick analysis, you really can’t go wrong with any of these three. If you want a more in depth look, read on.

What they have in common is that they give you options right from the onset. You can join a private league of you and people you know or join a public league. You can look to match interests and/or skill levels. You can choose to let the system automatically draft your team or play in a league that lets you have a manual draft.

You can expect great articles and expert analysis from all three sites. They all offer tons of sortable stats both past and present. They all have things like injury reports and weather.

All of them let you communicate with the other players in the league some how whether it be a message board, optional IM or you can choose to display your email. They all allow trades and picking up free agents from the waiver wire.

FOX Sports on MSN has come a long way in a few years. Just a couple seasons ago they had some technology issues that almost made me dump them but I’m glad I stayed. They have a fun mascot builder for creating you team logo as well.

CBS SportsLine has a great interface and lets you do a bit more customizing to the look and feel including the site and team logo.

has always been an innovator and this year is no different. They are using some of that great Yahoo! technology to let you do so much more, so much easier. You can drag and drop players around, which I have to say is very user friendly and very cool.

The real test of the three really comes down to game day. Here is where the analysis breaks down a bit. Hands down, the best game day interface I have ever used is on . The problem is that it is usually free for only the first couple weeks and then they hit you up for $9.99. IMHO, it is worth every penny but as this article is about free services I’ll say the best game day interface goes to CBS SportsLine but really its a distant second. Fox is not far behind CBS.

I do play on all three services as I like the variety but if I had to choose just one, it would be Yahoo! They have consistently had the best technology and best user experience. Yes, I would also pony up the ten bucks for StaTracker® as that greatly enhances my game day experience and come on, its ten bucks, thats like less than 15 cents per game I’ll watch with it running.

In any case, if you haven’t signed up, get moving. Click here to sign up for

-Chris

Legal: Copyright © 2007 CBS Interactive, Inc. All rights reserved. SportsLine is a registered service mark of SportsLine.com, Inc., Copyright © 2007 FOX Sports Interactive Media, LLC and its related entities. All rights reserved., Copyright © 2007 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved.

We discussed QB’s in a separate post now on to the rest of the offense.

RB’s

Travis Henry to the Broncos. Watch out. I’m not exactly breaking news when I say he will put up big numbers. The Broncos have a proven system and it is made for a North/South runner (bye bye Tatum). Travis will do well

Reuben Droughns to the G-men. He will no doubt spell Jacobs to give the big man a breather but I just don’t see big enough numbers to make my team.

Thomas Jones to the Jets. Big year.

Tatum Bell to the Lions. Look to see where Tatum is in your league and see if you can get him on the cheap. He is going to have some time in the spotlight while they figure out what’s what with Jones’ foot. Meanwhile, Bell may end up being the starter for year on an explosive team.

TJ Ducket to the Lions. I don’t think he will get the same number of red zone touches that he got in Atlanta so I just don’t see him as Fantasy Viable (FV)

Sammy Morris to the Patriots…..Yawn.

Dominic Rhodes to the Raiders. Dominic, fire your agent.

Willis McGahee to the Ravens. This could be a solid year for MaGahee but I see no surprises.

Kevin Barlow to the Steelers. Willie is still the man

Ahman Green to the Texans. I like Green but if he were on my team I would dump him while he still has any value. People act like David Carr was what was wrong with the Texans. Domanick Davis put some good numbers here in the past but Ahman is a little long in the tooth and the Texans will be playing from behind.

Keyshawn Johnson Retired. Just give me the damn remote control.

Jamal Lewis to the Browns. Both the player and the franchise will become rejuvenated with Lewis leading the league in rushing and leading the Brown to a division title….ok, just kidding. Dump him

WRs

Ashley Lelie to the Niners. Look for Lelie to put up similar number to what he did in Denver. What that means to me is the week I start him he lays a goose egg while scoring 20 fantasy points from my bench the next

Joe Horn to the Falcons. Coulda Woulda Shoulda. He will still but up decent numbers as Harrington’s primary receiver. The problem is he’s going to see a lot of double teams until/unless a true non Tight End secondary receiving threat emerges.

Moss and Stallworth to the Pats. WOW. Are you kidding me? New England was a place of redemption for Cory Dillon. Will Moss take the opportunity? I say yes and I would be thrilled to have either of these gentleman on my roster this year.

And the rest…

Keep an eye on:

Marcus Robinson could shine in Detroit with all the ball they have flying around the motor city.

Drew Bennett could have a good season on the Rams where the average age of a wide receiver is 53.

Dennis Northcutt to the Jags. Time to figure out whether it Cleveland was holding Northcutt back from jumping into that next tier of receivers or whether what you see is what you get. The Jags certainly need the next Jimmy Smith to step up. I think Northcutt is worth a chance.

TEs

The are some opportunites at Tight End.

Daniel Graham to the Broncos. I say take a shot on him if you have a crappy TE and an open slot. He was at the top of his game when Ben Watson can into New England and made him the forgotten man.

Randy McMicheal to the Rams. Boy this one looks great on paper. We’ll see.

Until next time.

-Chris

Lets look at how QB changes in the offseason will effect our fantasy teams. First, a fond farewell to Drew Bledsoe as he concluded his fine career.

Qb’s acquired to help keep the bench from floating away include Patrick Ramsey in Denver, Jake Plummer in TB, Brad Johnson in Dallas, Anthony Wright for the Giants and Tim Rattay in Tennessee. Nothing against these guys but unless a major injury downs the starter, these guys aren’t worth a second thought and certainly not even the deepest of opening day benches.

Then there is Josh McCown. He may end up starting without an injury but frankly, who cares. Stay away from a QB in silver and black. Kelly Holcomb might not see the ball all year in Philly even when, oops, if McNabb goes down.

There is one other second stringer acquisition that may be worth a gamble if you have a slot and weak backup QB. David Carr may be worth that slot. Jake Delhomme has been inconsistent of late and if things were to get tough in Carolina, Carr could see some PT. Even if it is because of an injury, Jake may not be able to get his spot back. Carr has skills and may be able to showcase them if he is actually allowed to throw from the standing position instead of his back. Carr is my sleeper pick of the bench warmers.

Thats a good segue to Carr’s former team, the Texans. Matt Schaub, Micheal Vick’s old backup in Atlanta is getting the starting nod for Houston. To bad for him and all the Falcons fans out there that he didn’t stay where he was. He is a quality QB who deserves his shot. As for Fantasy Value, Schaub is a solid number 2 QB that if for some reason is not drafted, would be a good pickup.

Moving right along. Speaking of Atlanta. They picked up Joey Harrington to replace Shaub and now he is the starter there. I’ll be honest, I’m not a big Harrington fan so I am advising caution here. If I got stuck with him in an autodraft, I would hope he had an early good week and sell when the stock was high.

On to the last of the QB moves. Jeff Garcia has moved down to Tampa and up to starter. His stock has risen so you may not get a steal here but if you can, do it. He will at least be a fantastic number 2 QB and depending on who your other guy is could a part of QB match up rotation where you play the guy with the best match up for a given week. TB has not had this good of Quarterback in a while and this guy is a winner.

-Chris

Well, look north of this post at the header and you can see what the letters stand for. What the words mean is that you can hope the players you get in the draft get you to the championship or you can take matters into your own hands.

Lets face it, I’ve had teams that I looked at right after the draft and knew it was over before it started. I once had a team that looked perfect on paper on week one. A couple year ending injuries later that team had middle of the pack written all over it.

To me, next to winning the championship, taking a team that should come in 8th and then finishing 4th with it is the most exciting thing that can happen. Building an overachieving team is what its all about for me.

It used to be all about the trades. You know, feel out the other owners and find their weaknesses and exploit them in a favorable trade. Not necessarily always the feeble minded ones but the likes of guys who calls his team Joe’s Giants. They are always a good candidate for for a Plaxico Burress for Rudi Johnson trade.

Rules have evolved over the years and now even fair trades are shot down by co owners’ vetoes. That got really annoying and even though trades are still important, as is the draft and starter selection, they are but three of the four horseman of Fantasy success.

Waiver wire magic is the name of this game. Taking risks and picking up gold in the ground instead of the jewelry store. Studying who is available and the order of the waiver selection will not just cover your bye, it will take your team and you to the next level. Stay tuned for a for a season full of prospecting.

Today we will complete the post started yesterday and look at the AFC offseason head coaching changes. Again as a reference point is a chart of the changes:

Lets start with the biggest news which may end up also being the least impact. San Diego made the move to go with Norv Turner over Marty Shottenheimer. Poor Marty, he only built this franchise up to have it taken from him when it seems to be on the verge. The thought process seems to be that Marty can get you to the edge but can’t close the deal.

So they decide to go with Norv who has proven consistently to be one of the best Offensive Coordinators the game has seen. He has also proven the Peter Principle on two other occasions, one with Washington and one with the Raiders. Maybe these were just poor teams or maybe Turner is best focusing only on offense and not the organization.

Whatever. This move baffles me but all the same, why would anyone rock the boat on a team that seems poised to win it all. If Rivers can perform this year as expected San Diego will certainly be a top contender. All that being said, for all intents and purposes, it will be hard to notice any change in Souther Cal.

Impact Level (1-10): 1

On to the Dolphins and Cam Cameron coming to town. It will be hard to weed out his impact with an actual quarterback now in town again. They used to have a decent QB in Miami several years back. I’m not sure what became of that fellow.

Cameron, like Turner has a sharp offensive mind so it will be interesting to see what he does with this group. He seems to have some talent to work with a hyped RB in Ronnie Brown, Good QB in Green who he has worked with before and a couple of decent receivers. They have a good defense so any improvement in offense will be felt.

Impact Level (1-10): 8

On to Pittsburgh. Its sad to see Cowher go and it seems that any replacement would be a lessor coach for the team or at least a lessor personality. Then again I vaguely remember feeling the same thing when Chuck Noll retired. The Steelers have had success in grabbing a young talented guy and sticking with him.

Tomlin will have to suffer through the comparisons for a while but he seems like the right guy for the job. He’s young and defensively minded. With Bruce Arians, last years wide receivers coach taking over as offensive coordinator there will be some continuity there. I would think that Willie Parker is the skill player that could be affected one way or another by this new coach

Impact Level (1-10): 3

On to Oakland. Let paint a picture. A young lad watched as Lester “the Molester”Hayes circled over the line of scrimmage to approach the Philadelphia Eagle Wide Out closely and then circle back to just over his own side of the ball. As Jaworski barked out signals Hayes dipped his body low with hands extended and seeming dripping with stickum…

I could go on with stories burned into my mind from The Snake, to Madden, to Ted Hendrix, to Marcus Allen , to Jack Tatum to Bo Jackson and on and on. A great franchise in ruins. Ok, back to the point of it all. It doesn’t matter who the coach is this year, they are going no where fast. They can’t even sign their number one pick. Good luck

The Raiders were always filled with characters and comeback stories and just plain rebels. You either loved the Raiders or you loved to hate them. They say indifference is the opposite of love, not hate and let me tell you I have a great indifference for the Raiders. Al Davis must of lost his mind some years back.

The Raiders have lost their identity, their talent, their hope and they suck. There, I said it. Good luck to you Mr. Lane Kiffin. Maybe Al will give this guy an actual shot to turn this team around, but I doubt it.

Impact Level (1-10): 2

-Chris

Let examine the offseason head coaching moves in the NFC and how this my affect team strategy and thus skill position performance in Fantasy Football. We will examine the AFC in the next segment. Lets begin by recapping who is out and who is in just in case you missed it.

Lets start in Arizona. Ken Whisenhunt should be good news for everyone at and in Arizona but at the skill positions its a mixed bag. I would expect a mored controlled game from Leinart and so less interceptions but probably less yardage if Whisenhunt brings more of a run focus. Boldin and Fitzgerald will still have good stats but less in the yardage column as well. The really good news is for Edgerrin James who will undoubtedly have a better year. Do I want him as my starter….No. Do I want him as my third back out of the gate…Hell Yes. He will be worthy of a starting spot by mid season and would be an excellent bye week replacement assuming a a decent match up for Arizona that week.

Impact Level (1-10): 8

On to the Cowboys. Full disclosure. I loved LT (Lawrence Taylor that is) growing up and so I came to love Bill Parcells as well. It pained me to see him in Dallas and I am glad it is over although it was also painful seeing him on set with with so much makeup he looked like an Oompa Loompa with a white outline. Wade Philips will undoubtedly continue to focus on defense. Hard to say whose numbers change though. The bigger story here is Romo and how he recovers from the end of last year. I don’t see Philips messing with much here

Impact Level (1-10): 2

If you could measure the level of happiness of head coaches the year after they were fired, Jim Mora would surely be near the top of that scale. Bobby Petrino’s ability to impact this team has been bitten in the back side. Offseason problems will dog Petrino all year long. I’d bet he…..OK I’ll stop now. For the record to calm the PETA crown, I love animals and have a whole houseful of them so get over yourself, its a freakin joke

Seriously, Petrino has been dumped in a no lose situation. If the Falcons suck, it will be Vick’s fault. If he can pull off a decent season he will be seen as a genius. The skill players will be affected by Vick and therefore Harrington, much more so than Petrino. He has a sharp Offensive mind and it will be/would have been interesting to see what he would have done with Vick.

Impact Level (1-10): 4

Overall, for Fantasy Football purposes, the NFC will be affected much more by player movement than by Coaching movement but the Cardinals may be a team to keep an eye on.

-Chris

I’m quite sure I have pissed off many of you with this headline. Why is it, every year there is a diehard crowd of college football aficionados who proclaim the next coming with some super stud or studs entering the NFL? And there is always a quarterback mentioned. WHY? Name three rookie QB’s who had impactful numbers from a fantasy perspective. Individual games, sure but seasons, no. I’ll take a solid second string veteran journeyman over an erratic rookie any bye week.

Let’s look at the other positions. Running back is the one exception when a rookie can be impactful. The thing about RB is that when it happens it is seldom a surprise as this is the spotlight position in JV (college ball ;-). The real problem here is that the guy who will run the best in the NFL generally goes to the crappiest team so that despite a lot of talent, they will have little supporting cast and probably be playing from behind and thus passing.

Receivers and Tight ends? It seems there are always a couple rookies that come from nowhere to put up decent number but these guys seem to happen at random. I’d like to meet the guy who predicted Marques Colston’s year. Ok, kickers. They don’t count. There is no “game” for them to learn they kick the frickin ball.

My rules are simple. I don’t waste time scouting rookies in college, in combines, in training camp or in the preseason. I don’t scout rookies. Weeks played in the NFL show a rookie’s worth. Sometimes a guy will come out of the blue and have one, maybe two good weeks then he is shut down. This happens because there is limited scouting and preparation on them. Once they have a game, every team in the league builds a book on them and shuts them down.

The point is, yes you can find exceptions to everything above but wasting time on rookies when it could be spent on experienced player opportunities is not a wise move. For every rookie gem you discover and pick the rest of us will have a field of diamonds on our bench ready to take us to the championship

-Chris

I’m still in panic mode. I watched part of the Chicago - Indy game last night as background noise. I try and stay away from preseason games as they poison the mind of Fantasy owners. They poison your mind because you end up seeing a young guy perform a heroic catch and convince yourself you have just discovered the next Jerry Rice. Well, this is preseason and the fourth safety on the depth chart was covering him and ….. you get the picture.

Preseason wipes away your memory of last season and that too is a bad thing. I’m more concerned about how c played at crunch time last year than what he did against a second string defense. Wait… bad example since in this case he performed about the same.

Note to self: A) Look for early season QB controversy in Chicago B) Take Grossman out of my draft list C) Pickup Griese IF I have a spot to kill and there are absolutely no good QB on the FA list. There is a decent chance that when he gets a starting job that he will put up consistently acceptable numbers for my starters bye week.

I digress. Back to Preseason and Fantasy Football. I think many people would argue that this is a showcase for the up and comers and rookies. I say blah-blah-blah. If you, up and come, during the pre-season it means nothing. Show us something in week 1 if you want a spot on my roster. As for rookies, that’s a separate post.

The value of Preseason for the Fantasy Football owner is to serve as a reminder to sign up for your leagues, change your ring tones and start blocking off the calendar for Sundays, Mondays and the occasional Thursday. Watch too closely or take it too seriously can only lead to trouble. Find out who is playing for who this year by searching the web, not by watching the epic battle between Jared Lorenz and Kyle Boller (no offense …. ha an unintentional pun).

-Chris

Holy crap the 2007 Fantasy Football season is almost here! Shear excitement in one moment and panic in the next. Panic because, as in every year, I am woefully under prepared at this stage of the game and the season has crept up on me. I don’t know about you but outside of football season I have a life so there is a barrier I cross over at this time of the year and there is no going back.

First thing first, a Todo list:

1) Who am I?

2) What the hell does FFIWOT mean?

3) What to expect

4) Interpret the off-season

-Chris