The This and That of Fantasy Football

Week One

Ladies and gentlemen, it’s time to get down to business. Although I love fantasy football and it’s a lot of fun, I like a lot of you play to win. That means you have to seriously study your craft if you want to be a champion, and if you have to be willing to devote whatever hours necessary to study your roster, the matchups and the free agents available in your league.  

One of the first things I want to tell you is scan your league’s free agent quarterbacks and pick one up, especially if you only have two on your roster. You have to be prepared if your starter goes down and then your backup either gets hurt or is ineffective. Trust me when I say that you don’t want to be in a situation where you desperately scan the waiver wire and then have to pick up a young, unproven guy like Charlie Frye or Alex Smith and start him. So grab a player like Kerry Collins (who probably is available in your league) or David Carr (who really shouldn’t be available). Collins will likely be the starter in Tennessee sooner rather than later, especially since he just got to Tennessee and the Titans are already talking about benching Billy Volek. Don’t confuse your opinion of a player if negative, with what his real fantasy value is. How many times have you heard someone call Collins a bum? Well, last year he averaged 250.6 passing yards a game with 20 TDs and 12 interceptions. Anything wrong with that for a bye-week fill-in or a third-string QB on your fantasy roster? I think not. Ben Roethlisberger is already out for the Steelers, and quarterbacks like Bulger, Palmer, Culpepper and Warner have injury concerns. I always draft at least three quarterbacks. In one of my leagues, I have Peyton Manning, a true iron man among quarterbacks, but you never know. So I have Jon Kitna and David Carr as my backups. I think Kitna is going to have a great year considering where he was probably drafted in most leagues. He has Roy Williams and Kevin Jones out of the backfield as his main targets, and the last time he started in 2003 for the Bengals, he threw for 26 TDs and 15 picks to go with 3,591 yards passing. Not too shabby. It took Carson Palmer to send Kitna to the bench. He’s definitely not a buster. I like having Carr as my third-stringer, because he has shown flashes like his 3,531 yards passing in 2004, and he’s one of the best running quarterbacks in the league. Last season, Carr rushed for a career-high 308 yards and a TD. In 2002, he ran for three TDs. Carr will put it all together very soon and will be forced to throw more with Domanick Davis done for the year and inexperienced players for the most part trying to replace him.

Whether it’s week one or week 13, you can never stop scouring the free agents in your league. Last season, in one of my leagues I made the championship game, but I lost to a team with Shaun Alexander. Losing to a team with Shaun Alexander is not surprising. But, what helped that team win just as much as Alexander’s TD prowess was the fact that he picked up David Garrard to play QB for him, because his starter for most of the season Donovan McNabb, was lost for the season after playing in week 10. Garrard passed for 292 yards and a TD and rushed for 40 yards in the championship game against me. The owner I am referring to also picked up Samkon Gado as a free agent. Gado had three 100-yard games over a five game period and scored five TDs during that same span. In week 14, Gado helped this champion owner to be with 171 yards rushing and a score. I attempted to pick up both players, but the owner I am referring to had a higher waiver rank and beat me to them. Pick up players even when you don’t need them to keep them off other rosters. You should be able to look at your roster and have a hard time cutting anyone, because you can see the contributions that player either provides or could possibly provide. If you can look at your roster and cut a couple players easily and not even think have to think about whom to cut, then you need to improve your roster. Some examples of players you can pick up just in case they may be of value down the road are LaBrandon Toefield, Jerious Norwood,  Verron Haynes and Doug Gabriel. With Greg Jones (knee) out for the season, LaBrandon Toefield is Fred Taylor’s backup. Everyone knows Fred’s injury history, and he has only scored six TDs the last two seasons, as the Jaguars have never had a problem pulling Fred out at the goal line. Norwood showed enough that the Falcons traded T.J. Duckett. If Dunn was to get hurt, Norwood’s value would catapult. As Willie Parker’s backup, Haynes would be in a great position if he received playing time as well in the Steelers’ run heavy offense. Gabriel immediately becomes Tom Brady's number one wide receiver target after being traded from the Raiders. With Deion Branch listening to horrible advice and costing himself more and more money every day, that leaves Troy Brown and Reche Caldwell as the other wideouts, and Gabriel is much better than either.  

Thursday Night Game

Dolphins over Steelers – Without Roethlisberger (appendectomy), the Steelers will not be able to stretch the field, and Willie Parker will be negated by an aggressive Dolphins’ defense. The Dolphins concluded last year with six straight wins, and with the arrival of Daunte Culpepper will be fired up. That said, I don’t think Culpepper is a good starting option against a stout Steelers’ defense that only allowed 198 passing yards a game last year. Don’t expect big things from Ronnie Brown either against the Steelers’ run defense that allowed 86 rushing yards a game last year. In one of my leagues, I’m starting Thomas Jones against soft Green Bay over Brown.

Panthers over Falcons

Buccaneers over Ravens

Patriots over Bills

Bengals over Chiefs

Rams over Broncos

Browns over Saints

Jets over Titans

Eagles over Texans

Seahawks over Lions

Bears over Packers

Jaguars over Cowboys

Cardinals over 49ers

Colts over Giants

Washington over Vikings

Chargers over Raiders

Email your questions to pechacek2@comcast.net