My Fantasy Football Team

At first glance, my fantasy football team was a power house - in spite of me getting to the draft 30 minutes late.  When I got there, my pre-draft rankings had already helped me automatically draft Drew Brees, Larry Fitzgerald, Vernon Davis, and Jermichael Finley.  Being late actually put me at a disadvantage though because I didn't get to settle into the process like I would have liked to.

I ended up drafting Sidney Rice and Santonio Holmes as a stater and backup respectively, but didn't realize that both of them were injured.  So, I had to pick up new free agents to replace them:  Kevin Boss and Josh Morgan.  I also moved a player out and picked up Correll Buckhalter.  These new players aren't probably on many people's fantasy teams, but here I am with them.  Hopefully I can trade Boss since I don't need 4 tight ends on my team and I also have Anthony Fasano of Notre Dame.

I was late picking up running backs, mostly an affect of drafting later in the first 2 rounds, but I did end up with decent picks:  Marion Barber and Pierre Thomas.  I also have Kevin Smith of Detroit, who could do well if that passing game and offensive line do well, and LaDanian Tomlinson of the Jets.

Here is a full listing of my team:

Starters
QB - Drew Brees
RB - Marion Barber
RB - Pierre Thomas
RB - LaDanian Tomlinson
WR - Larry Fitzgerald
WR - Joshua Cribbs
TE - Vernon Davis
TE - Jermichael Finley
D - Ravens
K - Janikowski

Other Bench Players
QB - Eli Manning
RB - Kevin Smith
RB - Correll Buckhalter
WR - Josh Morgon
TE - Anthony Fasano
TE - Kevin Boss
D - Tennessee

So, I have some very clear weaknesses:

1.  I'm too heavy at Tight End.
2.  I'm very weak at Wide Receiver (unless Cribbs blows up).
3.  Running back is iffy since Barber has to split time and Tomlinson - who knows?

My obvious strengths are:

1.  QB
2.  Fitzgerald
3.  Vernon Davis and Jermichael Finley are 2 of the top 5 TE's in the NFL.
4.  Janikowski is the only kicker that was a 1st round pick.
5.  Ravens and Titans defenses are strong.
6.  If my running backs hit, I'll be hard to stop.

Fantasy Football - Top 20 Wide Receivers

I compared NFL.com and ESPN.com to my Top 20 WR picks.  Here are the results.
 

My picks are somewhat based on last year's production by each player, but I also took into consideration each team's quarterback, running backs, and other wide receivers.  If I thought a particular team was likely to run the ball very successfully, then I might not have rated the wide receiver as high for fantasy purposes.  Similarly, if a team had more than 1 top-level wide receiver, I might have rated the fantasy player on my list differently as a result.  Lots of factors go into rating players for fantasy football.  I won't go into all of them here.  At least, you have 3 lists to choose from if you want to use this for your fantasy draft.

Top NFL Fantasy Picks

Running Backs - The most important fantasy football position.

1.  Chris Johnson
2.  Adrian Peterson
3.  Maurice Jones-Drew
4.  Michael Turner
5.  Ray Rice

Wide Receivers

1.  Andre Johnson
2.  Miles Austin
3.  Sidney Rice
4.  Randy Moss
5.  Calvin Johnson

Quarterbacks

1.  Drew Brees
2.  Tony Romo
3.  Peyton Manning
4.  Aaron Rodgers
5.  Matt Schaub

Tight Ends

1.  Vernon Davis
2.  Dallas Clark
3.  Jason Witten
4.  Tony Gonzalez
5.  Jermichael Finley

Team / Defense

1.  49ers
2.  Saints
3.  Cowboys
4.  Jets
5.  Broncos

Kickers (sorry - had to add them)

1.  Nate Kaeding
2.  Matt Prader
3.  David Akers
4.  Rob Bironas
5.  Ryan Longwell