Dear Fantasy Doctor X.

How the "Blogger" league was won...

By Garth Gregor.

This year a bunch of fantasy football writers got together to form the First Fantasy League Annual Blogger(FLAB).  This was a 12 team Yahoo seasonal league with standard settings, 6 team playoff, and Points Per Reception.  We sent one of our newer Maniaxs writers into the draft and came away with the following:

1) LaDainian Tomlinson. LT and number one was pretty much a no-brainer this year.

24) Edgerrin James. Edge looked and played like the 18th best running back for most of the season.  Twelve straight running backs were selected in the first round as none of the "experts" wanted to burn a first round pick on Peyton Manning.

25) Reggie Wayne. Selected as WR1 in this PPR league. Harrison, Smith, Holt, TO, and Chad were already gone in that order.

48) Hines Ward. WR2 as running backs were still looking pretty thin.

Things really went to pot...

49) Jeremy Shockey. Jumped up for solid tight end that ended up having exactly one good game.

72) Matt Leinart. Some sort of voodoo computer virus caused our writer to select quarterbacks Leinart and Smith with back to back picks. Nerves?

73) Alex Smith. Whoops!!!  Both were off the team by week 5.

96) Terry Glenn. Hot off a 70 reception, 1047 yard, 6 touchdown 2006, Glenn might finally make some noise in January. Needless to say, he was gone after week 1.

97) Julius Jones. Starting running back for Dallas did not seem like the worst rb3 in the world.

120) Gregg Jennings. Flicker of light in Jennings who went off in the second half just in time for the run to the fantasy playoffs.

121) Reuben Droughns. Blech...

144) Marty Booker. See pick 121...

145) Oakland DST. Only came up with 2 fantasy points against hapless Lions in week 1 starting for the Maniaxs.  They were benched in week 2 only to put up 14 points against Denver. 

168) Matt Bryant. When all was said and done this kicker had a good year. I have never seen him drafted before and neither has Yahoo.

169) Gregg Olsen. Could be a sleeper in 2008 but in 2007 he certainly was not.

192) St. Louis DST. They did not last past week 1 in favor of Indianapolis Colts DST.

193) Eric Parker.  See pick 144...

My acquisitions:
All this team did was make acquisitions. We were forced to play the four-headed monster of Griese, Schaub, Losman, and McNabb at quarterback. We rotated defenses weekly based on matchups and rotated kickers and tight ends almost as often. Then there were key pickups at running back adding depth to the bench. During the playoffs, Edge, Kenny Watson, and Aaron Stecker were all sitting.

No free-agent acquisition was bigger than Green Bay Packer RB Ryan Grant. I am betting that Grant took many fantasy rosters deep into the playoffs. We started Grant and LT for the last part of the season with great success. They solidified the skills position wide receivers of Wayne, Ward, and Jennings and just about every other position was up for grabs. In fact only those 3 receivers, LT, and Edge survived the season. Of the 17 players drafted, only 5 players were on the championship roster.

  Regretful Drops: None in particular.

Lesson learned:
The Maniaxs ended up with 52 moves, almost doubling the next closest manager. This was partly due to injury and partly due to strategy. Rotating defenses weekly accounted for many of those moves and our problems at the quarterback position. All told, Micromanagement, rotating defenses weekly, and a little luck can overcome a tough draft and/or injuries. Don't just settle for making the playoffs, go in and make some noise against the favorites. The Maniaxs finished the last 10 games 8-2 including the victory and are the proud winners of the First Fantasy League Annual Blogger(FLAB).

Check out the league. 

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