Fantasy Football

Given that many people have either had or will have their fantasy drafts in the upcoming couple weeks, we are going to spend the rest of this week doing player rankings. Today we’ll do three top five lists all revolving around receivers. This post is dedicated to the five best, then we’ll post the top five sleepers, top five value picks, and finish it with five to stay away from. It isn’t terribly original, but we got on this blog too late to exhibit any originality this close to the start of the season.

1) Randy Moss
Speaking of a profound lack of originality, Randy Moss is our selection for the best fantasy receiver in football. It’s unoriginal for a reason though: If you break the single season record for touchdown receptions, short of having an arrow shot through your knee before the season starts, you’ll be considered the best option at your position going into the draft.

2) Braylon Edwards
This might be a little presumptuous, but we like the 16 touchdowns he posted last year, we think the addition of Donte Stallworth should actually open things up for both of them, and we can’t think of any reason this offense would regress. It all depends on how scarred he was from that blog forum on Costas Now.

3) Terrell Owens
He seems to be the consensus #2 this year in fantasy, but he drops far too many passes and with the absence of a proven second receiver on the Cowboys, we could see him slipping a little this season. On the other hand, and It’s only training camp, but he looks remarkably poised and motivated on Hard Knocks. We have one rule of thumb, when you cry on a national stage in humiliating fashion, you have to redeem yourself in some way in the following calendar year. Owens looks prime to do so on the football field.

4) Steve Smith
He would be at #2 if it weren’t for the two game suspension that was handed down after he broke his teammates face for no reason at all, that probably trumps Gus Ferotte’s self-induced concussion from a few years ago in terms of football meathead-ery. Short temper and all, we think he is prime for a big comeback year assuming Delhomme can stay healthy and is similar to his old self. Remember, when Moss was wasting away in Oakland and Owens was…doing whatever Owens was doing his second season in Philly, Smith was unequivocally the best receiver in fantasy football.

Mr. Smith may have picked the wrong line of work.

5) Reggie Wayne
With and aging Marvin Harrison now living a publicly lawless lifestyle (Come on, he doesn’t celebrate in the end zone, he has to be a stand up guy!), Reggie Wayne makes his official ascension into the number one slot on this team. It has been speculated about for years, and it will finally happen this season (You could argue that this happened last season, but it would have been by default with Harrison out for the majority of the season). Still, with Manning’s health a potential issue, Wayne’s stats could see a tremendous decline.

Just for the hell of it, the rest of the top ten:
6) Houshmandzadeh: Still better than Chad Johnson, though frail like Yao Ming.
7) Marques Colston: Would be in top five if not for acquisition of Shockey and rise of second year receiver Robert Meachem (more on both of them later).
Wes Welker: Stone cold reliable, and with Stallworth in Cleveland, Brady will be forced to dump to him out of a lack of options more often.
9) Andre Johnson: Would be higher if it weren’t for his seemingly never-ending strand of injuries. Would be higher if we had any faith in him playing all sixteen weeks.
10) Larry Fitzgerald: Probably the opposite of Welker in terms of reliability, but has a Reggie Wayne like ceiling.

You may recall that last year there was a shortage of healthy, reliable running backs. We could experience something similar in 2008 with wide receivers, making it all the more imperative to snag one of the top ten receivers available. Keep that in mind if you have an option between any of these guys and Edgerrin James and Willie Parker.