Fantasy Football

So, as shitty as our fantasy teams appear to be for the remainder of the season, it appears we were right about Marc Bulger (In fact we were right on with just about everyone on that list). And I don’t know if you noticed or not, but there is an epidemic of quarterbacks being used as the scapegoat for everything wrong with a team, and the epidemic was probably a long time in the making. The coach is usually the first to unreasonably get the ax so it was only a matter of time before the most important position on the field saw some of that unfair scrutiny effect his status on the team.

Right now if we look at top ten draft picks from the first ten years, very few of the quarterbacks taken have panned out to be even starters, much less in pro bowl contention. Currently, and this is just off the top of my head: Matt Leinart, Vince Young, Byron Leftwich, Alex Smith and even JaMarcus Russell (whom we’re already convinced is a bust) were all supposed to be leading their teams to the playoffs, and every single one of them is either playing on a bottom feeder or is currently a backup.

I think there are parallels here between how quarterbacks have panned out over the years and the futility of taking a quarterback too soon in your draft. I, of course, advised taking Tom Brady with the first overall (still stand by it because his numbers were so exceptional the year before). I guess the question is, how are we supposed to have any faith in a quarterback for fantasy purposes if every NFL team is so uncertain in who is going to help them produce wins? They tend to have a lot more on the line than you and I.

It's good to know that my team can go winless every year from here on out and I won't have an entire American city cursing my very existence.

I imagine in most fantasy drafts, Brady and Manning went one and two, and Drew Brees along with Tony Romo went three and four. Obviously the latter two are having better seasons than the former, so why is the common consensus in fantasy football so regularly incorrect? My argument would be that it is all subjective and no one (including us) really has an inkling as to what he is talking about, but really it might play to your advantage in situations like this to go against the tide.

There is no rhyme or reason why Romo seems to have improved on this season or Jay Cutler or even David Gerrard and Derek Anderson have gotten so much worse. But there were mounting reports about the reliability of Brady and Manning’s health, now Brady is done for the season and Manning limps around in the backfield like the gimp from Pulp Fiction. But unlike running backs (whose season output generally seems foretold) and to a lesser extent receivers, quarterbacks often go well above and below their seasonal expectations. This is all dependent on your league structure and whatnot, but if you are confident enough in your starters at other positions and have six bench spots, you can use at least two of them on additional quarterbacks.

Right now in our league, a guy drafted Eli Manning in the seventh, Kurt Warner in the tenth and Aaron Rodgers in the fourteenth. It may have seemed ridiculous at the time, but his team hasn’t been effected negatively by it in any way and now he has trade bait for two teams desperate for an upgrade, despite how tenuous the performances of his quarterbacks are. This is in direct contrast with me: I went for Peyton Manning in round 1 and despite having the last pick in the first round, I clearly should have gone with another wide out or even a running back (despite my past declarations to the contrary). Because while having the type of season Manning is having has been adequate to date, he is now an injury risk and his numbers pale in comparison to those of Tony Romo, Drew Brees and even Aaron Rodgers.

If I had taken, say Terrell Owens with that pick, gone with Eli Manning or Donovan McNabb in later rounds (something I was toying with), my team would look a lot more impressive, especially now that Marques Colston is out for the near future and probably won’t return to his pro bowl form (though Jeremy Shockey being out helps emphasize the need for his speedy recovery).

Obviously this isn’t gospel, if you think drafting a quarterback in lieu of a reliable running back is your best option, then by all means. But if one of those annual top four or five is unavailable to you, and you were bitten by the Tom Brady bug this year thus souring you to the concept of drafting a quarterback as well, don’t take someone like Larry Johnson or Stephen Jackson who we all know will put up paltry numbers just because every draft board says you should. Go with the receiver, because a top ten receiver is always reliable, so long as it isn’t Braylon Edwards, who was my second round pick.

Fuck you Browns, fuck you proper with a chainsaw.