fantasy football

i'm not a fad follower, let me tell you, but i admit it - i play fantasy football. after dismissing the idea for years (why would i want to root for non-patriots?), last year a co-worker finally talked me into trying it (obviously before i became a sahd). actually, i think playing fantasy has made me a better fan. i know so much more about the league than i did before. i appreciate the strenghts and weaknesses of my pats more than i did before.

my rookie year in fantasy spoiled me. i had watched the the pats' offseason moves, acquiring welker, moss and stallworth and correctly predicted a banner year for tom brady. i drafted him, welker, gostowski and the patriots dst and cruised to the playoffs at 13-1-0, only to lose the league championship.

this year has been harder. i ran 4 teams in 4 leagues this season. using the same off-season/pre-season predictive method i guessed that the jets offense would be much improved, and drafted thomas jones and lavernues coles in all leagues. i also went for marion barber, michael turner and deangelo willliams. i picked up welker and gostowski again in three leagues. i started the year with pats and panthers dsts, but went to the jets dst after the pats terrible first showing against the dolphins. qbs were kind of an afterthought, but i was lucky enough to pick up jay cutler in late rounds and matt cassel off of waivers. i shuffle my lineup a lot. i'm quick to play the waiver wire. last year this netted me ryan grant and adrian petersen (the good one). this year my big waiver score was eddie royal.

on the whole, i had a solid draft and didn't lose any significant players to injury for most of the season. in 4 leagues, 56 total games i was a cumulative 33-22-1. i was at least .500 in all leagues. as of this weekend, i had already qualified for the playoffs in one league, and needed a win to get in the other three. sadly, i did not win out, and only 2 of my teams made the playoffs.

half the game is knowing when to play who. i would have won another dozen games across my 4 leagues if i'd played the right guy at the right time. like last week, when i started marion barber over deangelo williams and left 22 points on the bench. i had added and dropped kevin walter 4 different times, but never managed to play him on one of his huge days. it goes like that sometimes.

the lineups for my playoff qualifiers are very similar. my flagship unit, patriot act, has at qb jake delhomme (vDEN) and chad pennington (vSF) and i don't know which to start. i have marion barber and thomas jones at rb. my wrs are welker, coles, terrel owens, marques colston and lance moore. te sheffler has been spotty this season. my kicker is john carney and my dsts are jets and panthers. my second qualifier, patriot act iii has a marquis qb in jay cutler. i have jones and deangelo williams at rb. my wrs in this league are second rate, with eddie royal, mushin muhammad, braylon edwards (total bust this year), vincent jackson (who i failed to play this week when he had 20 pts) and jericho cotchery. my te is the serviceable rookie john carlson who has a great matchup this coming week (vSTL). my kicker and both dsts the same as the flagship team. if anyone reads this blog other than my wife, and cares to offer opinions as to whom i should start, i'd appreciate the advice.

so yeah, i guess i'm hooked now. i'm daddy x, and i'm a fantasy football addict. wish me luck.