Things you have learned

[Gopher]

Well, almost four weeks... For me, here are the things that stand out to me after watching the first month of NFL play:

 

- Parity. Any given Sunday, anybody can beat anybody. Well, except maybe Detroit. Cincinnati will get theirs (almost beat NYG last week), Houston has looked very competitive despite going 0-3, and the Rams appear to be beating the BIlls. The Chiefs dominated the Broncos, who have been the flavor of the month so far, on both sides of the ball. Last week, we all know what Miami did. Even the Raiders, who were proclaimed by many to be the worst team in the NFL after week 1, are one monumental collapse against the Bills away from being 3-1 (assuming they hold on to their 15-0 lead midway through the 3rd quarter.

 

- Along those same lines, NFL players have a lot of pride, as well as talent... Just because a coach is in jeopardy of losing his job doesn't mean that the team is going to give any less of any effort, or decide to just pack it in. In fact, from what I've seen so far, the teams who have a lot of turmoil within the organization seem to be the ones with a chip on their shoulder... watch out for the teams that everyone seems to be writing off, because they have something to prove. Once again, except for maybe the Lions, although we have yet to see how they'll react to the changes from this past week in their front office. All of the other teams that were supposedly contenders to go 0-16 this year have either won already or proven that they have the ability to compete with very good teams.

 

- There are a handful of solid, consistent tight ends in the NFL, from a fantasy perspective. And, when I say consistent, I mean that they actually show up in the boxscore each week. How many tight ends have we seen have great weeks, only to disappear COMPLETELY the following week? Rosario, Fasano, Stevens, McMichael, etc. OK... forget McMichael, as he has yet to have the big week. This week, it's Zach Miller.

 

- Tennessee has as good of a shot at the #1 seed in the AFC as anybody. Who else has looked good consistently? Denver? On offense, maybe. San Diego? Hardly... no consistency. Indy? Not exactly. Jacksonville is very fortunate they're not 0-4. Pittsburgh will be lucky if Parker OR Ben sees week 10, the way their line has played. And, nobody in the East will win more than 10-11 games. I think the #1 seed is the Titans to lose. Their defense has clearly been the best so far... and that has nothing to do with today, which was nothing special. Minnesota's offense is pretty much inept, although it's better now that they actually have a QB who can throw.

 

- Finally, is it just me, or have the "Is so-and-so hurt or just not playing" posts gotten out of control? What's really sad is that I would be willing to bet that a good portion of the people who are asking have the Sunday ticket, but don't want to spend the time watching the game that they are worried about. I propose a new fantasy rule: No such questions until after said player's game is finished. In other words, if the guy (Jerramy Stevens, for example) produces a big zero for the game, go ahead and ask what happened to him. However, halfway through the first or second quarter, such a question does not deserve a response. These are football games, not video games... Projections don't always work out, and when they do, they don't necessarily disperse themselves evenly through all four quarters.

[whomper]

Never let the first 3 rds go by without drafting a rb

Edited September 28, 2008 by whomper

[LayLow]

Even though every site said this was the year to take a QB early...they were all wrong and taking

 

Cutler

Farve

McNabb

Rodgers

RIvers

 

would have been just as good if not better.

[WaterMan]

Drafting WRs high is good.

[Gopher]

Of course, in the time it took me to type that post, SD and BUF both scored multiple times to take the lead in their games. Still, I stand by my four-week assessment... parity runs rampant in the NFL this year.

[Gopher]

Never let the first 3 rds go by without drafting a rb

 

 

Drafting WRs high is good.

Although some would say these two statements are contradictory, I think they're both very true. If you don't take a RB in the first three rounds, you have to almost have a "perfect storm" scenario, where everything else goes very well, in order to field a competitive fantasy squad. On the other hand, the days of drafting RB/RB (even RB/RB/RB used to be not that uncommon) are over. The same could be said of WR's... don't draft one in the first three rounds, and you're taking a big risk.

 

I think we'll start to see more of a mix in the next few years, where maybe 50% of the first two rounds is RB's, with about 40% WR's, and the other 3-4 picks made up of QB's and possibly a TE, depending on scoring. The first two rounds will no longer be dominated by RB's, at least as much as in the past. However, I think you still almost have to grab one in the first 3 rounds.

[tomfin2000]

I've learned that matchups are more important than ever when picking your starting lineup. The days of "Always start your studs" are rapidly coming to an end, because quite frankly, there aren't many studs left.

[darin3]

Never let the first 3 rds go by without drafting a rb

While this might be true for many, one of my best teams this season (2-1, and up this week) did not have a RB drafted in the first FOUR rounds. My first RB was Stewart. Then waited until the 8th for Julius Jones. My saving grace, really, has been the drafting of Chris Johnson in the 15th.

[Delicious_bass]

Well, almost four weeks... For me, here are the things that stand out to me after watching the first month of NFL play:

 

- Finally, is it just me, or have the "Is so-and-so hurt or just not playing" posts gotten out of control? What's really sad is that I would be willing to bet that a good portion of the people who are asking have the Sunday ticket, but don't want to spend the time watching the game that they are worried about. I propose a new fantasy rule: No such questions until after said player's game is finished. In other words, if the guy (Jerramy Stevens, for example) produces a big zero for the game, go ahead and ask what happened to him. However, halfway through the first or second quarter, such a question does not deserve a response. These are football games, not video games... Projections don't always work out, and when they do, they don't necessarily disperse themselves evenly through all four quarters.

Amen! Could not have said this any better myself.

 

Unbelievable the number of people around here that go Crisis Level 10 when their player doesnt show up in the scoring. Football is a 60 min game. There are multiple players involved. No offense plans to go to one player on every play or even every series. Just because a guy doesnt have any stats doesnt mean he's dead or you missed some crucial news prior to gametime. And even if it did, what's the difference? Once you start him, you cant take it back. Really doesnt matter to know until all scores are final, does it? And if your panties are just burning to know if your guy is playing, go to NFL.com, click on the GameCenter for that game, then go to Complete Play-by-Play. It has each and every play that was run and you can see if your guy is being targeted or not.

 

One more thing I propose is for people to take a look at the threads that are already going to DO NOT start a new thread each time something new happens for a player or team. Honestly, do we need 3 LJ threads? 3 Favre threads(5 TDs! 5TDs! 6 TDs!) Fer Christs sake! How many Chris Johnson threads are there on the first page? Seriously, if you have something worth reading, people will read it in one of the ongoing threads. You dont need to make a new one every 5 minutes to ask a silly question or point out something blatantly obvious!

Edited September 28, 2008 by Delicious_bass

[TDFFFreak]

That Andre Johnson is single-handedly trying to take down all of my fantasy football teams, yet I still hold out hope that he'll turn it around.

[John Crapper]

Never draft most of the same guys in most of your leagues.

 

I'm tired of hearing my friend bitch week after week about colsten and brady, amongst others...... he fails.

 

Edit: Oh, and projected points mean Jack Schmidt, although I did learn that my 1st FFyear

Edited September 29, 2008 by John Crapper

[joeyb7]

Todd Heap still sucks.

[Savage Beatings]

I am dumb and have no business trying to run a Fantasy Football team.

[splotchman]

I have a knack for benching Chris Johnson every week he goes off and playing him when he gets ZERO TDs..

[piratesownninjas]

- Finally, is it just me, or have the "Is so-and-so hurt or just not playing" posts gotten out of control? What's really sad is that I would be willing to bet that a good portion of the people who are asking have the Sunday ticket, but don't want to spend the time watching the game that they are worried about. I propose a new fantasy rule: No such questions until after said player's game is finished. In other words, if the guy (Jerramy Stevens, for example) produces a big zero for the game, go ahead and ask what happened to him. However, halfway through the first or second quarter, such a question does not deserve a response. These are football games, not video games... Projections don't always work out, and when they do, they don't necessarily disperse themselves evenly through all four quarters.

[Kid Cid]

Both the Philly D and the Dallas D suck.

[NYCDOG]

Historical performance is not indicative of future performance this year. It's amazing how many highly touted RBs, WRs and QBs with a visible track record of production have horribly underperformed so far this year for a variety of reasons. The top ten or so players leading their respective positions so far are far from household names.

 

Secondly, but unrelated, to address Delicious Bass's comment, I think there is a difference between "Crisis 10" posts and those that put forth a legitimate question or those that are merely a light-hearted statement. If a starting running back with no history of sharing carries is not in to start the first, let alone first and second, series, then I think it is a legitimate question to ask if something happened to that particular RB. In contrast, it WOULD be annoying if someone just looked at their Yahoo Stat tracker and saw that their player had no points and then posted a panic thread as a knee jerk reaction without doing some diligence on their own. To equate the two is a bit lazy and inaccurate IMO.

[piratesownninjas]

That playing in 6 leagues may be 1-2 too many.

[piratesownninjas]

Secondly, but unrelated, to address Delicious Bass's comment, I think there is a difference between "Crisis 10" posts and those that put forth a legitimate question or those that are merely a light-hearted statement. If a starting running back with no history of sharing carries is not in to start the first, let alone first and second, series, then I think it is a legitimate question to ask if something happened to that particular RB. In contrast, it WOULD be annoying if someone just looked at their Yahoo Stat tracker and saw that their player had no points and then posted a panic thread as a knee jerk reaction without doing some diligence on their own. To equate the two is a bit lazy and inaccurate IMO.

That doesn't explain Robert Meachum.

[Grits and Shins]

Even though every site said this was the year to take a QB early...they were all wrong and taking

 

Cutler

Farve

McNabb

Rodgers

RIvers

 

would have been just as good if not better.

 

It is NEVER right to take a QB early ... NEVER ... if you have paid any attention at all you would have heard many of use here telling this to anybody that would listen.

[Bill Swerski]

Even though every site said this was the year to take a QB early...they were all wrong and taking

 

Cutler

Farve

McNabb

Rodgers

RIvers

 

would have been just as good if not better.

 

I took Brees in the 2nd round and that's been working out pretty well for me.

[jpxx02]

I have a knack for benching Chris Johnson every week he goes off and playing him when he gets ZERO TDs..

 

 

 

I have the same problem...I did not start him this week and he went for 2 rush td's and good stats....when i do play him he dont do squat

[Delicious_bass]

Historical performance is not indicative of future performance this year. It's amazing how many highly touted RBs, WRs and QBs with a visible track record of production have horribly underperformed so far this year for a variety of reasons. The top ten or so players leading their respective positions so far are far from household names.

 

Secondly, but unrelated, to address Delicious Bass's comment, I think there is a difference between "Crisis 10" posts and those that put forth a legitimate question or those that are merely a light-hearted statement. If a starting running back with no history of sharing carries is not in to start the first, let alone first and second, series, then I think it is a legitimate question to ask if something happened to that particular RB. In contrast, it WOULD be annoying if someone just looked at their Yahoo Stat tracker and saw that their player had no points and then posted a panic thread as a knee jerk reaction without doing some diligence on their own. To equate the two is a bit lazy and inaccurate IMO.

You mean like you did with Meachem?

 

And while I agree it was a little odd that Leon got the start, he has gotten about 1/3 of the offensive plays as Jones this year(per NFL.com). To suggest Jones has no history of sharing is "a bit lazy and inaccurate IMO".

[NYCDOG]

That doesn't explain Robert Meachum.

 

I don't know why I bother but here goes. Go back and look at the Robert Meachem post. It says "The Robert Meachem Experiment looks like a failure at this point". "Everyone on the entire offense has a reception except that bum. I hope I eat my words, but Moore looks like the flavor of the day."

 

Do you really equate that to a "OMG what's wrong with Robert Meachem!!!" or a "Where is Robert MEachem!!!". If you can't see the difference in my statement and the latter two, then subtlety is really not your specialty, especially given the fact that I later posted that I was just venting my frustration, not panicking about him. You need to learn to read between the lines a little.

[kpholmes]

You mean like you did with Meachem?