Fantasy Football

UPDATE: This is why I was hesitant to start doing this so early in the summer, but as you’ve probably heard by now, Derrick Mason has announced he’s retiring. This was unexpected. Even though he’s been in the league for 12 years, he’s coming off a 1,000 receiving yard season on a shit offense. It’s not going to surprise me if he pulls a Favre (though obviously it would be less dramatic), but for the time being he is gone and isn’t likely to be back with the Ravens. In other words, as disparaging as this post was about their fantasy prospects, multiply everything by about three. The running backs might actually increase in value, though; since their best receiver is now their tight end.

If there was ever a team whose fantasy output was in direct contrast to their winning percentage, it’s the Baltimore Ravens. Maybe I’m simply bitter, because in my first year playing fantasy football I drafted Jamal Lewis third or fourth overall, and, well, you can probably tell which year I’m referring too.

But there is no denying the lack of offensive firepower on this team. Never have I seen an organization rely so heavily on tipped passes on offense and defense swaying games in their favor, most notably in the late, great, Steve McNair’s last season (he was integral but his fast ball had disappeared and he was well past his prime). Outside of that, since winning the Super Bowl they’ve relied on Jeff Blake (also well passed his prime when he carried Cincy to 8-8 for, like, an entire decade) and Anthony Wright, but mostly in spite of being a regular disappointment, Kyle Boller has been their starting quarterback. Not once did he break the top 28 QB’s in the league.

But now they have Joe Flacco out of the university of Delaware. Never mind that Flacco couldn’t beat out Tyler Palko at Pitt (who? Exactly) thus forcing his transfer to the I-AA school and that nothing was asked of him last year besides “don’t turn the ball over regularly, especially not in crucial situations”, the entire world has convinced itself that Joe Flacco is going to be a star. I imagine him to be a star in the same way I expected Weebay to give up Namond to Colvin. (my apologies, I had to force in one Wire reference and link in this post).

It would make sense for this to be a Wolverines jersey, but its not Balmer fans.

If you couldn’t tell, I’m a tad more skeptical. It could be because I hate the Ravens and their very existence with every fiber of my being, or because I didn’t think much of Flacco when he was coming out of college. But if you look at his numbers and his QB ranking from last season, I feel like there’s validity to my concerns. To be quite honest, I’m not sure that from a fantasy perspective, Joe Flacco is any better or worse than Chad Pennington. I’m not sure which player that’s supposed to be an insult towards, but I do know that I want as few fantasy players on my roster that are teammates of either guy as possible.

Anyway, he’s only one player out of a plethora of guys you don’t want on your team. Shall we commence? We shall…

Can’t Miss (for what one could reasonably expect): Well, if you insist on drafting a Baltimore Raven for a fantasy league with less than twenty teams in it, and that Raven isn’t the defensive unit, we can’t emphasize enough that that person absolutely has to be Derrick Mason. He sort of had a breakthrough last year — his first real productive season since leaving the Titans for Charm City– playing with a quarterback that has a mildly accurate deep ball (we’ll give Flacco that much). He caught 80 passes for over 1,000 yards receiving and 5 TD’s. Not exactly pro bowl numbers but it’s the best and most reliable you’re going to find amongst this sad bunch.

Tread Lightly: Can I just put “the whole roster except for the defense” and be done with it? No? Well let me give you the reasons: all the running backs have talent but there are simply too many of them (McGahee, Rice and McClain) and they’re all too comparable in talent to expect any of them to stand out, we’ve already explained in great length why you don’t want Flacco on your roster, and while Mark Clayton sounds effective in principal, in practice he’s a nightmare; he’s stats have gone down every years since 2006.

Dark Horses: All you’re going to get from me is one of their running backs is valuable should at least one other be incapacitated. McGahee, McClain and Rice are all perfectly capable, and could all be 2nd round picks on the right team. But since they all have to share carries, you’re looking at best cast scenario being (this is just off the top of my head)…maybe seventh or eighth round? That would probably be McGahee, and even then you’re getting better value taking McClain or Rice later, because it stands to reason they’re going to receive comparable PT to the expected starter.

I’m not sure what to make of Todd Heap or if he’s even on the team anymore, so we’re ignoring him. I do know that LJ Smith is on the roster, and while he was a cross to bear in Philadelphia, Baltimore thought enough of his skill set to sign him and should be taking plays/looks away from Heap. But yes, this is Baltimore’s fantasy makeup for the 2009 season. I could be unbelievably and embarrassingly wrong, but if you’re looking for a total skeptics point of view as it pertains to the Ravens, you’ve come to the right place my friend.

Tomorrow: Hard Knocks‘ very own Cincinnati Bengals.