Fantasy Football 2004 Discussion and Advice (1 Viewer)

There has been some fantasy football discussion leaking into the NFL 2004 Season thread (I've been one of the guilty party), so I thought I would start this thread to keep the discussions separate.

I've been through one draft already, with my money league's draft being next week. I have the #4 overall pick in that draft. I already know the first three players that will be taken -- Tomlinson, Holmes, and Ahman Green.

So, at #4 I've narrowed my choices down to either Shaun Alexander, Deuce McAlister or Clinton Portis. Right now I am leaning heavily towards Alexander. He gets the ball a lot, catches passes (we get a point per reception), scores a bunch of TD's, and is playing in a good offense.

My other draft, a keeper league with salary cap that we just started this year, looks like this:

QB: Trent Green, Leftwich, Delhomme
RB: Ahman Green, Edge, Chris Brown, Wheatley, Davenport, Antowain Smith
WR: Santana Moss, Koren Robinson, Charles Rogers, Donte Stallworth, Ashley Lelie, Rod Gardner

There is no required tight end, and we have individual defensive players (who I will not bore you with).

For what its worth, Deuce catches more passes (69 vs 42 for Shaun in the regular season last year, although it was 47 vs 59 the previous year) and doesn't have anyone like Maurice Morris around to take away any goal-line touches (Aaron Brook's redzone interceptions do that job). As for "getting the ball a lot", Alexander had 326 rushing attempts and Deuce had 351. Deuce's TD numbers were down last year, but I haven't heard anyone who doesn't think he'll turn that around. Personally I'd go Deuce, Shaun, and then Clinton unless the Redskins O-line shows some serious improvement before next week.

Brad

Shaun is in a contract year. This is something to consider.

I'm in a free for all draft coming this week for 2 leagues. I'm not sure where I draft yet so I'm gathering information and trying to see what I can do.

Last year I had 2 star running backs and had Favre as my QB. I had nobody at receiver and then there was the Ravens D

Given the way the league is this year I'm going to have to search for some sleepers like Chris Brown or Quinten Griffin or something along those lines. Thank god for NFL network. Some nights there is 1 game on, some nights 2 games.

Brad,

Deuce is definitely a consideration for me at #4. The one thing that scares me about him, though, is that the Saints seem to go in the tank late in the season every year, and that's playoff time in FF. As for Alexander, I'm not worried about Morris stealing carries -- I think Alexander will get the vast majority of the carries, and I can handcuff Morris to him as a late pick to protect myself in case of injury. Deuce doesn't really have a good handcuff. So, I see Morris as a plus.


Shane, those young "sleeper" RB's will probably go in the late 3rd and 4th rounds. Chris Brown, Quentin Griffith, Kevin Jones and Lee Suggs are going there in the drafts I've seen. I'm hoping I can grab one of them, but I pick in the early 3rd round and late fourth, so I would probably need to take one early with my 3rd round pick.


Sounds like my team last year. I had Green, Edge and Domanick Davis at RB, Trent Green at QB, and nothing at WR -- I got Chris Chambers in a trade for Donald Driver halfway through the season that gave me one decent receiver. I ended up in 2nd place in my 6 team division.

That's a fair argument, and here's some more supporting data for picking Alexander.

Seattle Schedule Weeks 14-16
@ Minnesota
@ NYJ
vs Arizona

New Orleans Schedule Weeks 14-16
@ Dallas
@ Tampa Bay
vs Atlanta

I think the Jets D will be much improved, but Alexander is definitely the back you want if you get to the Super Bowl. I just don't see the Cards D getting up for a week 16 game when they've been mathematically eliminated from playoff contention for six or seven weeks (or maybe I underestimate Coach Green). I don't know if Tampa Bay's rushing D will still be solid now that Lynch and Sapp are gone, but it will probably be enough to slow down the Aints.

Brad

Brad, good call on the schedules for both Alexander and McAlister. I had not looked at each's opponents for those last few weeks, but I did take into consideration that Alexander plays in a much weaker division defensively than Deuce. Six games vs. SF, Arizona and St. Louis are a lot more appealing than six vs. Carolina, Tampa and Atlanta.

Scott. I am in the same boat as you are as far as a 4th pick. I think Alexander is a good choice.

I started up a 20-team league in Yahoo! Fantasy Football. 19 spots are currently open.

There will be an online draft at Sat Sep 4 7:00pm EDT, but if you can't be there, you can just pre-rank your players and they'll draft for you in absentia.

If you want in, click here. Then 1) sign-up or login, 2) click on 'Join a Custom League', and 3) use these:

League ID#: 505306
Password: doubledip

The name of the league is "HTF NFL Deathmatch".

Oh, and good luck to everyone in their "money" leagues. I have an afternoon draft and an evening auction on the 29th. Can't wait for Week 1.

I Found out I'm drafting late in one of my leagues(I'm in 2). I'm picking 14 out of 16. Should I reach for a late round RB or just grab a QB like Culpepper/Manning?

I've found out that I'm not too good at drafting in the later half of the round. I guess the good part is that I get another pick just a few picks later..

I was thinking either top flight WR/QB then looking at Running back 2nd and 3rd round from guys like Chris Brown.

Any ideas/suggestions?

Scott, ya realise there are already two HTF leagues?

What's the scoring like in your league for QB's -- do you get the same points for passing TD's as running TD's? Also, do you start just one QB?

If it's a one QB league, I would be inclined to go after a stud WR over Culpepper or Manning. There are lots of quality QB's out there -- you can pick up Trent Green, Matt Hassleback or Pennington several rounds later. I doubt Moss will be available at #14, but you may be able to get Harrison or Holt. If all three are gone, that probably means there is a good RB still available.

After drafting QB's in the first round a couple of times, I have completely given up on that strategy. One year I traded 1st round pick Culpepper (I had Pennington in his breakout year) and ended up winning the league in a runaway. I'm a firm believer in taking 2 RB and one WR with my first three picks. We start one QB, one RB, one WR and three OFF Flex (RB, WR, TE) in a 12 team league.

I kicked ass in my money league (drafting second out of 12):

1) LT
2) Henry
3) Hollywood
4) P. Price
5) J. Smith
6) Q. Griffin
7) Bulger
8) Crumpler
9) TB Def
10) J Garcia
11) Drew Bennett
12) Buff Def
13) Jul Jones

I think Henry and Griffin were absolute steals at those spots. Question though: The guy that drafted #1 regrets not getting Horn (we're all in New Orleans, so he's a fan) and is considering a Holmes/Chad Johnson for LT/Horn trade, though I may have to throw in Crumpler. Think it's worth it?

Both of my leagues go:

One QB
2 Rb's
2 WR's
1 Wr/TE
Kicker
Defense

It appears unless I see a quality RB, to go for a top shelf WR, then grab a RB or 2 later(2nd and 3rd rounds), then a QB. That sound like a sound idea?

The older league I'm in is a bit more predictable but I'm not sure where I draft yet. The league I'm drafting late in right now is a new one and is much more unpredictable(to me atleast).

I was very happy with my QB's, and I didn't pick one until the 7th round. Most people pick a QB in the first four rounds, then get a backup in the 8th-11th, so I always opt to go with a strong WR corps and take the slight QB dropoff.

Abso-freakin-lutely. Holmes is a TD machine. CJ is an incredible talent and Carson Palmer actually looks like he might not suck. See if he'll throw his TE into the trade as well. After all, what's he going to do with two TEs?

Brad

I was thinking the same thing Brad. A lot of people are higher on LT than I am, and was fairly dissapointed with my draft spot as I think 2-6 is pretty much going to have the same amount of talent. As soon as the league goes up on Yahoo, I'll propose the trade (and I think he picked up a mediocre TE in the late rounds that he would just drop).

If you are going to wait until the 4th round to take a QB, you may as well wait a little longer and take some more WRs and RBs. I got Trent Green in the 7th round last year, and also picked him up in round 7 this season in a keeper/salary cap draft. After Culpepper and Manning, the next batch of 6-8 QB's are so close that you can wait. I would be happy with Favre, Pennington, Green, Hassleback, McNab, Vick, Bulger, Brooks, McNair or Brady as my starting QB if I could load up on RBs and WRs first. If you wait and grab one of these guys, you can turn around and use your next pick on a quality backup like Carr, Garcia, Brad Johnson, etc. for those weeks you may be concerned about a bad matchup. Or, if you're lucky, you may be able to grab two of the guys in that first list.

A couple of guys in our league always bite way too early on McNab and Vick, who have yet to outperform QBs taken much later like Pennington and Green.

The only difference in your situation, Shane, is that you are in a 16 team league (mine is 12). That means 16 guys, instead of 12, looking for a starting QB. Based on that, you may want to pull the QB trigger in round 5 or 6.

My gawd...and you're debating...why now ???
Dude, Jump on that faster than a bird on a june bug.
I had Holmes in both of my leagues last year and he is a point scoring monster. Many weekends he had 2 or 3 tds by halftime ! nothing like seeing that ticker on Fox at the half and seeing Holmes 2 TDS scroll by.

Look at KC's game plan for the conference championship last year...try to outscore the Dolts, and they nearly did !

LT is on the weakest team in the league and although he may rack up some points, Holmes on the KC machine is a much better prospect.

If at the end of the year (barring injuries) I am wrong...heck, I'll eat a june bug !

I did not. I figured if there were already an HTF league, it would have been mentioned in this thread. Argh.

So I'm an idiot. Nothing new there.