Zach on sports

Ask Your Fantasy Football Expert: Shane Hallam

2011-09-12T19:02:00.001-04:00

"This is why you need to watch the games and KEEP changing evaluations. Don't make evaluations fit your preconceived notions!"

Find previous Ask Your Fantasy Expert interviews.

When I first started the interview process, I thought the only way you could get into the FSWA was to show your Steelers tattoo. I haven't interviewed a Steeler fan/fantasy guy in a month and I just pulled off two in a row. Sorry, or if you own a Terrible Towel, yinz having fun yet?

Shane P Hallam (for now, assume the P stands for Pittsburgh) is a draft guru. He writes for Draftcountdown.com, a site that literally counts down the seconds to next April's NFL draft. If there is a draft-eligible college player with a pulse, Shane has an opinion.

All fantasy writers name-dropped will get a link to their Twitter feed. We'll keep with the theme of my questions/comments in Titan blue and Shane's in non blue.

How did you decide to become an NFL draft guru?

Football was always a passion of mine, I’ve been watching it since I was 5 months old. The NFL Draft was always a mysterious conundrum to me. Studying prospects, projecting trades, seeing what teams wanted, I loved reading about it and really loved college football so I took up scouting, reading and talking to anyone with knowledge about the process to get where I am today. It led to writing about fantasy football and the NFL Draft for a few years, eventually ending up with Scott Wright at draftcountdown.com.

How did you get involved with draftcountdown.com? Tell me about the site updates as you ramp up for NFL draft 2012.

A fantasy football friend of mine suggested I check out the site and forum. I began posting in the forum in December of 2005. As I shared my opinions of views as well as writing and doing radio/podcasts elsewhere, Scott Wright took notice and invited me to run the forums and do a weekly "Hot List" article for the site. Now, we are co-hosting a Podcast and I am contributing to the blog. Hopefully the future will bear more contributions to keep growing the site.

How do armchair scouts such as myself watch games differently to get a feel for players?

Keep watching and listening. My first few years of learning how to scout, I sought out opinions I trusted and compared them to tape. I figured out how to see what these scouts were seeing and what small attributes were important for those to be successful in transitioning to the NFL. Find the position that you played or know the most about and start there. Though some say “true” scouts don’t read other reports, I disagree. Read as many scouting reports as you can, compare your notes to them, and ask questions to see why differences exist. I’d also suggest keeping notebooks or databases and take notes as you watch that you can go back to.

What's up with this new podcast you're going to do with the perpetually podcasting Jim Day?

It’s going to be exciting! My first real love was fantasy football and like to share that knowledge to help others as much as possible. Jim does such a tremendous job on blogtalkradio and came to me with the idea to do a Friday night show to help people fill their lineups and make decisions. Add in high profile experts, and I believe him and I have a winning recipe. We are pretty excited for it and hope people will check it out on Friday nights at 8:00 PM EST.

Tell me about your real-life NFL rooting interests.

I was born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. I come from a family of Steeler fans including a father and two older brothers, so it was natural. I was watching games before I could walk or talk. The Steelers have been and will always be a rooting interest for me as a Pittsburgh resident. As a youngster, I liked the Miami Dolphins as well and my favorite player of all-time is still Dan Marino, a Pittsburgh native. [Zach note: Can't hate on the Marino love.]

Where do you live?

Pittsburgh, PA.

Tell me about your day job.

I’m a high school teacher at Keystone Oaks High School in Pittsburgh. I teach English and Social Studies to 9th and 12th graders as well as direct the middle school and high school musical there.

Do you have long-term goals with your writing?

I’d love to one day make a career of it since it is a true passion and there just are never enough hours in the day to watch all the tape I need to and write everything I see in a presentable manner. Hopefully one day I can have the time to do that and continue to perfect my craft.

How do you deal, as an in-demand fantasy expert, with all the league requests? Do you have a limit on leagues?

I don’t limit the number, but more WHERE the leagues are. I like to stick with myfantasyleague.com and Yahoo Sports for fantasy football. I have been roped into a few interesting ESPN leagues as well, but I’m hitting close to 20 this year.

The spouse question: Does your wife/gf/sig other have any issues with your obsession?

Not yet, haha. My girlfriend doesn’t know much of anything about football. Her and I watched the Falcons/Jaguars preseason game in Week 2 actually and I taught her the basics of the game. I’m not sure if that will help or not.

Football or sex: which do you think of more?

Haha man, as much as I’d hate to see it, football definitely occupies my time more.

Who's a player that you absolutely loved but didn't make it? What do you think happened?

Matt Leinart was a player I thought would excel in the NFL with his vast experience in big time college football. He had the poise and accuracy, but just could never make his way to the top. The attitude wasn’t there. I think this proved to me how much intangibles play a part in the NFL and specifically the quarterback position. It was definitely a learning experience.

Tell me about a player you loved from the start who made it big in the NFL.

Mike Wallace has been my success story in terms of scouting. He was a guy I identified after his junior season as to just not catching the break he needed at Ole Miss. Big, strong, fast, and he improved every season. He was better than a 3rd round pick to me and he has proved it.

Where are you on the usual football Sunday? Is there a man cave?

You would be correct, on the couch, watching redzone and any Steeler game that is on.

Tell me about a hobby/interest outside of football.

It may be a complete dichotomy, but I love musical theater and I am a bit of a connoisseur of musicals. I go to almost a dozen high school musicals a year and direct my own at K.O, as well as catch a number of shows in the Pittsburgh Cultural District.

Your public wants to know. What does the "P" of Shane P Hallam stand for?

It stands for many things! In high school, I went by the full name with the “P” and it became a nickname. My best friend actually refers to me as P. That being said, I am 95% Irish, so my middle name is Patrick.

Which fantasy writers are on your must-read list?

Jim Day, Evan Silva, Joe Everett, Cecil Lammey and Sigmund Bloom, Chet Gresham, Mike Clay and Bryan Fontaine, Andy Miley and many more. So many great guys out there, I apologize to anyone I forgot!

Better fantasy experience: Long-term league with friends or fantasy "expert" league?

Fantasy expert league. Nothing like a good challenge, good trash talk, and I LOVE when experts talk about leagues I’m in on their podcasts. It feels pretty big time and the differing opinions are always tremendous.

Tell me about any plugs that you'd like. Podcasts, sites that you write for, expert leagues, anything.

Check out www.draftcountdown.com! We just relaunched for 2012 with a new mock draft, rankings, and I will have my weekly "Hot List" feature coming out every Tuesday or Wednesday. Likewise, Scott and I have the Draft Countdown Podcast every Tuesday night at 8 PM EST. If you need more fantasy football, myself and Jim Day have started the Goaheadscore WDIS Podcast at 8 PM EST on Friday nights.

Thanks to Shane for answering my questions. He'll answer your draft, be it NFL or fantasy, questions on his Twitter feed at Twitter.

Read previous Ask Your Fantasy Expert interviews.

Andy Miley

Jim "Taz" Day

Chet Gresham

Bryan Fontaine

Eric Yeomans

I Hate JJ Redick

Fantasy Douche

Eric from DL Football

Clint Chugg

Matt Waldman Part 1 and Part 2

Chris Wesseling

John Sarmento

Ryan Forbes

Alex Miglio

Cecil Lammey

Ask Your Fantasy Football Expert: Cecil Lammey

2011-09-04T16:58:00.000-04:00

"Had a guy next to me last night that was yelling 'scoreboard bitches!!' in preseason game."

Find previous Ask Your Fantasy Expert interviews.

There are lots of self-made stories in the relatively new industry of fantasy football. Then you have Cecil Lammey, the irreverent host of the footballguys.com podcast The Audible and a fixture of Denver sports radio. While Footballguys.com has plenty of great writers, they have a primary voice, and it's the man who refers to himself as Big Mex.

All fantasy writers name-dropped will get a link to their Twitter feed. We'll keep with the theme of my questions/comments in Titan blue and Cecil's in non-Titan blue.

How'd you get started with footballguys.com?

I was a frequent poster on the message board The Shark Pool at Footballguys. I had been working in radio for a couple of years and had written for sites like Fantasy Football Journal and Gridiron Grumblings. Footballguys did a contest in 2004 where message board members got to compete against members of the Footballguys staff in a Survivor style fantasy league. I lobbied to be selected, was selected, and then promptly started running my mouth.

I said that I would win the league and get hired by Footballguys as a staff member after that. I had lobbied both Joe Bryant and David Dodds to hire me for about a year but to no avail. Well, because of guys like Billy Volek and Drew Bennett I actually beat everyone involved and won the Footballguys board vs staff league. Soon after that I was hired by Footballguys as a part-time staffer. The next year (2006) I was charged with starting a podcast for Footballguys. The Audible was born in March of 2006 and the rest is history.

All right, mister Steeler. Tell me all about your love for the black and gold.

I grew up very poor in the country as a rancher/farmer. I didn’t have many nice clothes, but through a second hand store I was able to get three Steelers jerseys - Terry Bradshaw, Franco Harris, and a long sleeved Lynn Swann jersey. My favorite color is black and I loved running around rodeos with my Steelers jerseys on. In the late 70s the Steelers won 4 Super Bowl titles in 6 years and thus my passion for all things Steelers was born.

Have you been in Denver all your life? How's Mile High living?

I grew up on the state line and my family had land in both Colorado and Wyoming. Our house was actually 20 yards inside the state line on the Wyoming side. However, our mailbox was 3 miles south in Colorado. Because of that I grew up with a Wyoming phone number and a Colorado address. I’ve always lived in Colorado or Wyoming and couldn’t imagine a better place to live. I live in Southwest Denver near Red Rocks and at the base of the foothills to the great Rocky Mountains. I’m not much of an outdoorsman but do enjoy hiking, mountain biking, and skiing/snowboarding from time to time.

I enjoy your work on Denver's The Ticket. How's the sports radio biz treating you?

Great! I started in this business as a regular caller. I did not go to broadcasting school, but instead wanted to be a comic book artist. I did work for Legend Comics back in the early 90s but the company quickly went out of business and my time as a professional artist came to a close. I bounced around from odd job to odd job. I worked at 7-11, was a farmer, and then worked as a machinist making firefighting equipment in Denver.

Working as a machinist, I loved listening to sports talk radio all day. I had no experience in broadcasting and did not go to college for that. I didn't graduate college, but was comfortable doing a job (machining) that I was good at. However, I wasn't happy.

I would call in to Jim Rome, Irv and Joe, Drive Time Sports (Mark Schlereth and David Diaz Infante's show), etc. One day they were talking fantasy football on AM 760 the zone and the guy that was talking was full of it, spitting out bad information.

I called (again) and dropped some knowledge about guys like Musa Smith (LOL). I hung up the phone and went back to work. My best friend was a landscaper up in Ft. Collins who listened after I was off air and the caller behind me said "Wow, that's guys good...you should hire him!" I didn't hear it, but my best friend did. He called me on my way home from work to tell me and I thought "Yeah, they DO need to hire me!"

I remember telling my wife what happened and I said I was going to contact the producer of the show and see if I could make it happen. My philosophy in life is simple: It doesn't hurt to ask.
I thought 'Am I working in radio now?' the answer is no. So if I ask and the answer is still no what does it change??? It changes nothing and is not disheartening as nothing is being taken from me.
I contacted Andy Lindahl, who was the producer at the time and he agreed to have me on as a weekly guest. I did not get any money, but I got something much more important – opportunity. I did everything I could to get my name out there. The work gets you noticed. If you're talented you will get noticed if you work hard.

I have to thank several people, most notably Adam Schefter, Scott Hastings, and Mark Schlereth for helping me out along the way. They're super nice guys who opened doors for me and I will forever be grateful to them.

How'd the audible get together? It seems like you've been working with Sigmund Bloom for a while but Matt Waldman is the relative newcomer.

I was working for Footballguys for a year when Sigmund Bloom was hired. He and I had several great discussions in the ‘Shark Pool’ before he was hired and I knew the guy knew football. When he was hired I called him to congratulate him and finally put a ‘voice’ with the name. We talked like teenage girls for about three hours and had an instant connection. [Zach note: It's a groovy kind of love.] At the end of the phone call I asked ‘Can we do that again and record it?’ The first episode of the Audible we did on speaker phone, recorded to tape, which I then transferred to CD, which I then put on the computer in .mp3 format, then on the server where Itunes could pick it up. That was back in 2006, today it’s much more streamlined. Every show is a joy to work with Sigmund. We interviewed Matt when he worked for another site, and were always big fans of the Rookie Scouting Portfolio. Both Sig and I were elated when he was hired by Footballguys, and soon asked him to join the booth on our Thursday night Live! show.

You talk about your son Liam and his progress as a QB. Does he have the fantasy football bug yet, or does he keep it on the field?

Liam is now in Junior High and they actually have a ‘Fantasy Football Club.’ He’s starting to get the bug, but spends most of his time working on his game. High school teams are already interested in what he can do, and he’s getting tutored from former CU QB Joel Klatt. It’s been a joy to see him grow and evolve as a player. Many ask me ‘does he love football for himself, or because you love it so much?’ The answer is easy: Liam loves the game himself. I would not force the game on him if he didn’t love it. Your body takes a beating in football, and if you don’t love hitting/getting hit then this game is not for you. I was a fantastic roper as a kid/teen and could have pursued a career as a professional cowboy. I was very good at it, but I didn’t LOVE it. If my son wanted to be the best cello player in the state I would do everything in my power to support him. Too many football parents ask me ‘can my son play in the league?’ It’s a silly question, as nobody knows what the future holds. I want my son to have fun, learn life lessons, grow as a player, and grow as a young man. Football teaches you so much about life, and that’s where the value is. Whether or not he plays D1 football, makes it to the NFL, or stops after high school it doesn’t matter to me. I just want him to have fun and enjoy himself, while giving him all the opportunities I can.

The spouse question: Does your wife/gf/sig other have any issues with your obsession?

I’ve always been like this. My wife and I have been together since 1995, married since 1997. Even when I wasn’t getting paid to talk/write about football, when I was a farmer in the country I still followed the game as closely as I do today. I’ve been recording games/preseason games since 1992 CHI v NO. I wanted to see Vaughan Dunbar in his first preseason action and still proudly have that game on tape. Unfortunately Dunbar never lived up to expectations (I loved his game at Indiana). Stacey met me, and has always accepted my love/obsession for football. She’s not a fan, but does watch the Super Bowl with me every year. On Sundays she’ll go shopping while I’m doing pregame and postgame shows.

Football or sex: which do you think of more?

This is a tough one. It’s literally 50/50. I have a healthy appetite for sex and used to refer to myself as a ‘Sexual Tyranosaurus.’ That was until I said that to Bloom, and he said "does that mean you’re a scavenger?" Needless to say I don’t say that anymore. LOL.

How much fun is your annual College All-Star Game road trip? Any stories you'd like to tell?

The All-Star Game road trip is a blast! It’s why I call it ‘The Ultimate Road Trip.’ For three weeks in January I travel to the Shrine Game, Senior Bowl, and NFLPA Game to watch practice and see some of the nation’s best senior prospects. I also get to hang out with my friends like Doug Farrar, Charlie Bernstein, Mike Schottey and others. Several great stories, some I can share, some I can’t (LOL). First off, it’s always humbling when someone recognizes me in the airport or at a restaurant. Still kind of a trip that someone would ask for my autograph. Makes me feel blessed every time it happens. Favorite story I can share was from my first Senior Bowl trip in 2007 with Sigmund Bloom. We had a great time in Mobile, but stopped by New Orleans on our way back to Houston airport (Bloom drove from Austin, I flew into Houston). Bloom was my tour guide and we went to Pat O’Briens to drink a couple of Hurricanes and ended up singing at the top of our lungs to some Billy Joel at the piano bar inside.

How devastating was it to you when Matt Jones, aka Dr. Rockso, left the league?

I sure do miss Dr. Rockso – he became an Audible legend. [Zach note: I miss the little "kakakaka...yeah" that Sigmund used to do after the clip.]

It's time for a more serious subject. When did you discover that you had a weakness for the large running backs? Who were your favorite old-school guys and who in the league now is going to take the mantle?

I wore the #34 in high school for the Pawnee Jackrabbits. The number had special meaning to me because of Walter Payton. I loved Sweetness as a kid and would pretend to be him (or Eric Dickerson) when running with the football on the farm. I even used to carry the ball like Sweetness, which pissed my coach off. I never fumbled the ball though. Final 6-man football note: my best friend Eric Hoffman was my lead blocker and the guy he blocked never tackled me – ever! We’ve gone through the game film, and quickly noticed that Big E always had my back. We were also played Outside Linebackers together. Anyway...back to the question. I loved Earl Campbell as a young kid. William Andrews for the Falcons, Christian Okoye for the Chiefs, Jerome Bettis for the Rams/Steelers. It’s such a sight to see such big men with nimble feet in addition to the power! Football is all about imposing your will, and nothing hammers that point home like a power Running Back. Seeing the replay of Bettis running over Urlacher in the snow still gives me chills.

In three years, what's more likely: Tim Tebow is the starting QB for the Broncos, or will he be working with Kirk Cameron?

Tebow will start in this league. I’ve actually become a Tebow defender even though I’m not a huge fan of his game. I think the Tebow hate is ridiculous. Guys like Merril Hoge declaring him a ‘disaster’, etc. The football gods will make you look silly for such proclamations. We can go back through history and point out several QBs who were longshots, or had ugly throwing motions, the non-traditional QBs who still ended up making plays as starters in the league. Tebow is a project, he always has been. There’s some things to work with and some things he needs to work on. Tebow is a great guy, actually a sweet demeanor, and TMZ won’t ever catch him doing something out of line. Some people have a problem with that, or think he’s a phony. Tebow is authentic, like it or not. By the way, can we please stop making fun of him because he’s Christian??? Why is it that every headline about Tebow has to include something about halos or clipped wings? It’s ridiculous and certainly wouldn’t happen if he were Muslim, Jewish, or Buddhist. His religious beliefs are his own. What matters to me is how he plays on the football field.

What's a non football-related hobby of yours? Did I hear that you have a ranch? I know, not quite a hobby.

I get back to the ranch when I can. The kids love to ride horses and be outdoors. I like to fish when I can. I also like to ride my chopper. If I had more time I would draw more than I do now. I also have written some treatments for superhero movies I would love to shop around Hollywood. One of my favorite characters I’ve created is Suimmortal. An ancient ninja from feudal Japan who is both suicidal and immortal. He’s trying to save the outside world while battling inner demons himself. I also play Gears of War as much as I can. I can’t wait for Gears of War 3 which comes out on my wedding anniversary (sorry honey!).

Which fantasy writers are on your must-read list?

Sigmund Bloom, Matt Waldman, Jason Wood, Gregg Rosenthal.

Of all the fantasy leagues you're in, tell me about the one you want to win the most.

The one I want to win the most is the one I started in 1993. The Colorado Pigskin League. An auction league that is best described as a dynasty hybrid. We have Franchise Players, Restricted Free Agents, and Practice Squad players. I won it last year and want to defend my title this year.

Tell me about any plugs that you'd like. Podcasts, sites that you write for, expert leagues, anything.

Check out Footballguys.com and DenversSportsStation.com – listen to The Audible on Itunes, and listen to my show ‘Ridin’ Shotgun’ on 102.3 The Ticket.

Thanks to Cecil for answering my questions. Follow him on Twitter.

Read previous Ask Your Fantasy Expert interviews.

Andy Miley

Jim "Taz" Day

Chet Gresham

Bryan Fontaine

Eric Yeomans

I Hate JJ Redick

Fantasy Douche

Eric from DL Football

Clint Chugg

Matt Waldman Part 1 and Part 2

Chris Wesseling

John Sarmento

Ryan Forbes

Alex Miglio

Ask Your Fantasy Football Expert: Alessandro Miglio

2011-08-29T07:07:00.001-04:00

"Beware of preseason hype, though, it is much safer to take a proven commodity than a rookie who has a couple of good preseason games."

Find previous Ask Your Fantasy Expert interviews.

My interview this week is with Alessandro Miglio of the up-and-coming site Pro Football Focus. He puts the numbers into context to help readers pick the fantasy team of their dreams. Plus he's your man for office holiday parties.

All fantasy writers name-dropped will get a link to their Twitter feed. We'll keep with the theme of my questions/comments in Titan blue and Alex's in non-blue.

How did you get into fantasy football writing?

Great question, I have no idea! In all seriousness, a little over a year ago I had no serious designs on becoming a fantasy sports writer – mainly because I did not know where I could get my foot in the door, but also because it was something I had not put any serious thought into. Pro Football Focus gave me that chance. As my story below shows, if anyone is serious about wanting to write for fantasy football, Twitter is a fantastic way to make connections and get opportunities.

How did you get started with PFF?

I started following Pro Football Focus’s Twitter feed sometime during the 2010 offseason, and shortly after that I saw a tweet about a writing opportunity. I enjoy writing and fantasy football, so I inquired. Mike Clay, the managing editor of the fantasy side, gave me a shot and I took full advantage. It has been a year since I started writing for PFF, and I count myself fortunate.

How'd you come up with the idea for your recent Draft Steals and White Elephants article? And what exactly do you have against elephants?

As I completed mock draft after mock draft, a picture of draft day steals formed in my mind, and of course the opposite. The funny thing about this article is that it only took me a couple of hours from inception to completion – it was one of those kinds of articles that gets lodged in your mind and will not leave until you finish writing. I burned right through it! As for the elephant… sometimes I leave the metaphor at the door, but the white elephant one felt like it fit quite nicely. If you have ever spent time with an elephant – especially a white one – you know they are jerks.

Tell me about DolphinsBlog.com, and how you stay a true believer when the Dolphins have treated you poorly as a fan recently?

That gives me a good chuckle – it has been a pretty difficult decade, hasn’t it? I have been a Dolphins fan ever since I can remember, growing up with Dan Marino slinging the ball just about until I got to college. A series of unfortunate decisions and some bad luck have made the post-Marino era difficult to watch, but every team goes through that. The Patriots and Jets – both of which have added to the misery – have been laughingstocks in the past, and they will be again someday. I am a diehard; Miami will be back.

DolphinsBlog.com is something that I fell into as a direct result of my work with PFF. Without PFF, I would not have a football Twitter account, and thus I would not have met Chris Hansen – he manages the blog network. Through the power of Twitter my Dolphins fandom was made known, and Chris eventually asked me if I would manage the site. It has been quite the experience for me.

Where do you live?

Beautiful Northern California via Miami and New York City. Hard to beat.

Tell me about your day job.

I work at as a control systems programmer. Basically speaking, I am in charge of making sure the technology in classroom spaces is controlled and monitored properly.

Do you have long-term goals with your fantasy football writing?

It would be great to help PFF Fantasy grow into something big. They helped me spread my wings, and I feel like the site has some serious potential. Long-term aspirations for a fantasy football writer are tricky – the reality is that the odds of hitting the jackpot as a fantasy writer are about as good as the odds of hitting a jackpot. For now, I enjoy the work and will take things as they come In the future.

How do you deal, as an in-demand fantasy expert, with all the league requests? Do you have a limit on leagues?

There is definitely a limit. Last year I was actually only in a few serious leagues because I did not want to bog myself down with the new writing gig. This year I have been invited to a lot of leagues that I have had to politely turn down. Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate the invitations, but I would be doing myself and my fellow leaguemates a disservice if I was in too many leagues. Plus I can only win so much before it starts to get boring.

The spouse question: Does your wife/gf/sig other have any issues with your obsession?

My lovely wife is a good sport about all this. She is a football fan (a Patriots fan married to a Dolphins fan, can you believe it?), and she has participated in fantasy football leagues in the past, so my obsession is not something entirely foreign. I try to keep it balanced, though – she deserves more attention than what I pay to fake football, so I definitely try to give that to her… still a work in progress at times. It certainly helps when I bring home a big money league payout as the champion, though.

Football or sex: which do you think of more?

Oh, man, I hope my wife isn’t reading this. I’ll say football, but only because it’s like a second job now. If sex was my second job, well, then I’d be a pretty happy man. [Zach note: That's a completely different blog.]

Tell a story about a fantasy regret. Bad trade, bad draft pick, move you thought about making but did not, something on that realm.

I think this could qualify as one of the worst fantasy blunders in fantasy football history: trading Arian Foster for Joe Flacco. I will wait for the laughter to subside…

This happened last year, shortly after one of my auction drafts. I had drafted Jamaal Charles, DeAngelo Williams, and Matt Forte, but I had skimped out on quarterback and someone outbid me on Flacco because I did not have enough money. At that point, my quarterback was Big Ben, who was suspended to start the year. With Foster being a "sleeper" at the time, I thought I could afford to trade him. Lucky for me, I won the Vick sweepstakes on the waiver wire and traded DeAngelo for Shady McCoy, so I wound up winning the championship anyway.

Tell a story about a fantasy win. Great trade that worked out.

There are so many, it’s hard to choose! I’ll give you two trade wins from last year: traded Legedu Naanee for Mike Wallace in one league, and Jason Snelling to a Michael Turner owner for Jeremy Maclin in another. The latter one was actually vetoed by the league, which ticked me off, but I got the commissioner to allow it.

Where are you on the usual football Sunday? Is there a man cave?

You are about to expose my dirty little secret: I am usually not watching live football. Being a churchgoing man on the west coast, I found it extremely tough when I first moved out here. I spend a lot of long Sundays at church because I am a sound engineer there and I also play piano from time to time, so I tend to have to do a lot of my football watching on NFL Rewind or DVR. I guess this makes me a football heathen.

Tell me about a hobby/interest outside of football.

Hanging out with my daughter is really awesome, as I have come to realize. I really enjoy reading, and lately I am into science fiction or fantasy. I actually aspire to write a book one day. Photography is something I like to dabble in as well, though I have not spent as much time on it as I would have liked to in recent months. I used to be a much bigger video gamer, and I still enjoy them, but there are so many interesting things that life has to offer that I have toned that part down quite a bit over the years. And then there is music, which I have been involved with all my life from playing piano to being an audio engineer to listening to the Glitch Mob.

Which fantasy writers are on your must-read list?

There are so many that it is tough to pick favorites, aside from the PFF staff of course. I really dig Matt Waldman’s stuff – he is extremely knowledgeable, not to mention a great writer. Sigmund Bloom is another guy who I enjoy reading. Chet Gresham and the guys over at 2 Mugs FF are good for laughs while still giving good information. Someone who has climbed the charts for me is the Fantasy Douche, though his real identity is hidden from me. There are dozens of good or great writers out there, you just have to look.

Better fantasy experience: Long-term league with friends or fantasy "expert" league?

This is my first year really doing any experts leagues, so I will have to get back to you. I really enjoy playing with friends, though, so the experts will have to offer a lot of incentives to catch up.

Tell me about any plugs that you'd like. Podcasts, sites that you write for, expert leagues, anything.

Check out the fantasy section at profootballfocus.com, there are a lot of great minds there. Speaking of which, a lot of those minds created the PFF Fantasy Draft Guide, which is 115+ pages of greatness that you can get for $4.99 (PDF) or $7.99 (hard copy) – really great stuff. You can also check out DolphinsBlog.com ,which is doing well, or some other teams on the blog network – we are slowly getting other teams online. I would also like to thank Ryan over at FootballSickness.com and Bob/Chris from AllPurposeRoto.com for having me on their podcasts recently, check them out!

Finally, a big thank you to you, Zach, for the interview. Love your series, and I am honored to be a part of it!

Thanks to Alex for answering my questions. Here's his work on Pro Football Focus. Follow him on Twitter.

Read previous Ask Your Fantasy Expert interviews.

Andy Miley

Jim "Taz" Day

Chet Gresham

Bryan Fontaine

Eric Yeomans

I Hate JJ Redick

Fantasy Douche

Eric from DL Football

Clint Chugg

Matt Waldman Part 1 and Part 2

Chris Wesseling

John Sarmento

Ryan Forbes

Ask Your Fantasy Football Expert: Ryan Forbes

2011-08-23T22:38:00.001-04:00

"FEMA to helicopter in hair gel, tanning beds, and Heinekens to New Jersey area for earthquake aid."

Find previous Ask Your Fantasy Football Expert interviews.

You'd think that after a dozen interviews, I would have seen it all. Oh no. It turns out that you can take the fantasy football concept and insert anything into a draft. I don't know if there's a better something than beer.

Ryan Forbes is the sane genius behind the 2 Mugs first-annual beer draft. I better get an invite to the next one. Ryan is the stats-cruncher of the 2 Mugs duo while John aka RumfordJohnny sticks to the "strategery" of winning leagues. How did these wild and crazy guys get together? Read on.

All fantasy writers name-dropped will get a link to their Twitter feed. We'll keep with the theme of my questions/comments in Titan blue and Ryan's in not blue.

How did you get into fantasy football writing?

This will be like my 11th year playing fantasy football and I just started writing last season. I joined Twitter right around the start of free agency last year to keep up with all the news, and also started following some fantasy football people. I don’t remember how or why, but I randomly got a tweet from @PYRO_LION at the time. We talked a little more and I started writing for ffpharmacy.com and pyromaniac.com, two sites he was involved with. I still remember my first piece: "10 People You Might Meet at Your Fantasy Draft." It was just a humorous piece, but it helped me to get my foot in the door.

What's the story behind 2 Mugs, the site and the podcast?

My partner in crime, John (@RumfordJohnny on Twitter), and I both pumped out a lot of content for ffpharmacy.com last year. We got to talking more and more and realized we wanted to have something of our own. After a little back and forth in the e-mails, John threw out 2 Mugs Fantasy Football and it stuck: Beer and Football. I bought the domain name the next day and started coding away.

John and I really fit together well though. I’m more of a stathead and he’s the strategy guy, so between the two of us we’re able to release some intriguing content. The podcast is probably my favorite, just because we spend anywhere from a 30-60 minutes just shooting the shit about all things fantasy football. It’s real laid back, uncensored, and we try to occasionally mix in some funny impressions (good or bad).

Between you and Rumford, who would "win" the beer draft?

Well, we did have a 3 round beer draft this year, and there’s no doubt that I won. Did you see John’s picks? He picked 3 dark, malty beers. Malts might put points on the board, but hops win championships.

Tell me about the pain and the sorrow of being a Chiefs fan. Is Todd Haley the long-term answer?

It’s tough to ignore the mentality that Haley has brought into that locker room, and I do think they’ll continue to have success with him running the show. It’s easy to look at how he treated a guy like Bowe when he first came to Kansas City and think "what an asshole," but he helped Bowe take his game to the next level. He did the same thing to Larry Fitzgerald when he was in Arizona, and Fitz will tell you that he gives a lot of credit to Haley into making him the player he is today.

They have a solid young core though (a lot of which was brought in by Herm Edwards) and I’m excited for the future of the franchise. Plus, how many people can say their favorite team’s head coach looks like a meth addict?

Living in Wisconsin, do people still give you crap about Super Bowl 1? Get over it, people. Seriously, what's it like in Milwaukee?

Surprisingly, I don’t get that too much. Milwaukee though has its ups and downs. I love the spring/summer/fall, but the 6 months of winter (ok, I’m exaggerating slightly) really takes its toll on you. The area in general is great though. People automatically think Miller Lite, but Milwaukee, and really all of Wisconsin, has some quality craft breweries.

During the summer, things liven up by the lakefront. Summerfest (the biggest music festival in the world) is an 11-day event that starts at the end of June and has 12 different stages with all sorts of bands and artists. There’s also Irish Fest, German Fest, and every other cultural fest you can think of throughout the summer. Combine that with a little tailgating at Brewers’ games and the nightlife on Water Street—let’s just say there’s no lack of things to do.

Tell me about your day job.

I’m a Software Engineer for GE Healthcare, and work in their CT (Cat Scan) modality. We essentially build and design the latest and greatest CT scanners. My specific job involves writing the software that makes the images from all the data the scanner collects. I love it. I’m on a real high energy team solving some very challenging problems. Plus, I can say I save lives (sort of).

Do you have long-term goals with your fantasy football writing?

My main goal is to just keep doing it. I’m 26 now and continue to realize that the older I get, the busier life becomes. I really enjoy it though and I’m certainly not in it for the money. I’ve never made one dime from my writing.

How do you deal, as an in-demand fantasy expert, with all the league requests? Do you have a limit on leagues?

This year I said I was cutting it off at 7, and I’m in 9. I’m always seeking out new challenges though. The Fantasy Premier League’s new Redraft2 format this year sucked me right in. It starts with 2 conferences of 12 teams each, and then the top 12 teams after week 6 move on to redraft a completely new team to finish out the season. If the league is right and there’s some money involved, I’ll gladly join.

The spouse question: Does your wife/gf/sig other have any issues with your obsession?

I just had my one year anniversary last Sunday, but I have an awesome wife. She’s a pretty big Chiefs fan herself, so that’s a plus. She does think the fantasy obsession (which has also led to a Twitter obsession) is a little crazy. She supports me though, and that’s all I can ask. The other day her mom asked me, "What do you think of Mike Vrabel retiring?" I was a little puzzled (because her mom doesn’t watch any football), but gave her a pretty lengthy answer. She just replied with, "Ok, just checking to make sure you’re ahead of the game."

Football or sex: which do you think of more?

I’d say 81.75% of the days of the year: sex. The other 18.25%: football Sundays. [Zach note: Did you expect anything less from a stat guy?]

Is there one fantasy player you wish your cohorts would stop talking about?

I’m not a big Pierre Garcon fan. It’s mostly from watching him play…I’ve just never been that impressed. With a healthy Wayne, Collie, and Clark, he’s at best the 4th option on that team and I just can’t justify a 6th round pick for him. We all have guys that will will just never draft, and Pierre is one of those guys for me.

Tell a story about a fantasy regret. Bad trade, bad draft pick, move you thought about making but did not, something on that realm.

In the 2009 semi-finals of my biggest money league, I let my Chiefs fandom get the best of me. I was attending the Chiefs vs. Browns game at Arrowhead and sat Jerome Harrison. Not only did the Chiefs lose because of his 286yd/3TD performance, but my fantasy team also didn’t move on to the finals. I ended up getting third, but I would have beaten the guy who won the league.

Tell a story about a fantasy win.

I’d say it was last year in a dynasty startup draft. This league starts 1 QB, 2 RBs, 3 WRs, 3 Flex, TE, K, D. I managed to pretty much hit the jackpot on a lot of my picks. Matt Ryan, Chris Johnson, Matt Forte, Roddy White, Reggie Wayne, Dwayne Bowe, Austin Collie, and Darren McFadden (among others) led me to a pretty easy championship. Plus it’s a team I get to keep building on every year. I have since moved Matt Ryan and two 1st round picks for Aaron Rodgers as well.

Where are you on the usual football Sunday? Is there a man cave?

The living room is indeed transformed into a man cave. I went to college here in Milwaukee and still have a lot of buddies around. Plus my brother goes to school at the University of Wisconsin which is only about an hour away, so there’s usually no shortage of people at my house.

I’m big into smoking food (I mean come on, it’s a Kansas City tradition) so there’s usually ribs, pork shoulder, or a big ol’ brisket that gets thrown on around 1 a.m. Couple that with a lot of beer and NFL Sunday Ticket and it’s easy to see why I love NFL Sundays so much.

Tell me about a hobby/interest outside of football.

I wrestled starting at the age of 3 all the way through college. It’s an awesome sport that has taught me to bust my ass in everything I do in life. I don’t get on the mats much anymore, but I still like to stay active and lift weights 4 times a week and get out on my bike as often as possible.

On the softer side, I’m an avid gardener. Nothing beats fresh fruits/vegetables that you grow yourself.

Which fantasy writers are on your must-read list?

Prior to last year, before I really came to know a lot of the writers I do today, Rotoworld was the only fantasy site I ever visited. So I really enjoy Evan Silva (his weekly matchups piece should win a Pulitzer), Chris Wesseling, and Gregg Rosenthal. It’s really amazing how Twitter has allowed me to be able to talk to these guys about fantasy football on a day-to-day basis, as well as introduce me to some other great writers. Mike Clay (Pro Football Focus Fantasy) works as hard as anyone and really dives into stats, which being an engineer I love. Matt Schauf’s (formerly of RapidDraft, now with Draft Sharks) Monday followup to the Sunday games is also another gem. Chet Gresham (Razzball) and of course my partner Johnny also put out some great content.

Better fantasy experience: Long-term league with friends or fantasy "expert" league?

I’d have to say the long-term league with my college friends. We used to do the whole draft party thing where we’d all get together, have a "couple" beers, and draft. Since then, a lot of people have moved away. Still, there is no shortage of e-mail threads that rack up 100 replies amongst us in a given day during football season.

Tell me about any plugs that you'd like. Podcasts, sites that you write for, expert leagues, anything.

Of course, visit 2 Mugs Fantasy Football. We’re starting out slow (just debuted in April) with a handful of articles every week, but the goal is to continue to add features, contests, and content every year. I do all the website design so the only time I have to add new features is really during the offseason. It’s a gradual process. And of course, subscribe to our podcast on iTunes. At the very least, give a listen to the first 2 minutes of our Free Agency Recap. I did a nice little "movie trailer" lead-in previewing the Seattle Seahawks’ season that I was pretty proud of. And of course, you can follow John and me on Twitter. I love fielding fantasy questions and talking all things football.

Thanks to Ryan, and I'll be at your place around 12:45 opening NFL Sunday.

Read previous Ask Your Fantasy Football Expert interviews.

Andy Miley

Jim "Taz" Day

Chet Gresham

Bryan Fontaine

Eric Yeomans

I Hate JJ Redick

Fantasy Douche

Eric from DL Football

Clint Chugg

Matt Waldman Part 1 and Part 2

Chris Wesseling

John Sarmento

Fantasy files: One Yahoo in Twelve

2011-08-17T07:55:00.002-04:00

A fantasy football-related blog would be nothing without some self-congratulatory posts about one's own drafts. I got into a work-related league and the draft was last night. Responses ranged from "cool" to "what's football?" I tried to get as many guys in the latter category involved as possible. We had to rush to draft because one guy's wife is due to give birth like tomorrow. He's a big University of Florida fan so I expected him to take Rex Grossman in the first round.

I signed up for Yahoo because I've used it for countless baseball leagues. The highlight was the entire draft page crashing a minute into the first pick. Once we collected ourselves and reconnected, the draft took off. We started with a bang, finishing the first two rounds in ten minutes. I thought the pace would slow, but the entire draft was complete in 84 minutes.

I had pick four and I knew who I was going to get. I debated taking Chris Johnson, even to the point of discussing it with my ever-patient wife. Her response to my worries about holdouts getting hurt was a curt "that sounds like superstition." Yeah, she hit the right buttons.

With the possibility of CJ being a wasted roster spot, I wondered if I would have to reach for another RB in the second round. My first sign that running backs would fall in the draft was the selection of Philip Rivers at 1.07. He did get Darren McFadden in the second round. Running backs falling in the draft would be a theme.

I got LeSean McCoy in the second round. I would have taken him at pick 1.06. In the third I took Mike Wallace over Miles Austin. Miles Austin feels like that good slice of pizza that's good mainly because it's pizza. No excitement there.

Continued strange picks: first team D was Green Bay in the third round. At this point I knew that I could wait on players I liked. The problem with knowing that players are going to fall is that you have to pick someone.

My fourth-round pick was Mike Williams of the Bucs. That felt like stealing money. I had Mark Ingram queued up for that pick and felt fortunate to get him in the fifth. I never expected to get three running backs in the first five picks. What the heck; I assumed that I'd catch up on wideouts later.

In the sixth, the WTF pick was Michael Crabtree. Even if he's completely healthy this would be a reach. I started referring to the guys who made those picks as "stretch". I took Vernon Davis. He was the last of the so-called stud tight ends, although like when I took Jimmy Graham in my keeper, few tight ends went off the board in the next three rounds. Kenny Britt in the seventh? Too soon?

In my last mock draft, I took Josh Freeman and Matthew Stafford at the 8/9 turn. I did not think this could happen in real life. QBs flew off the board until Tony Romo in the fourth round then it slowed down. I could have waited on Stafford until the 10th but I was glad to get a solid QB duo and did not feel the need to take another.

After I took three running backs early, they stayed on the board for ages. Fred Jackson went in the 10th, after Ryan Torain. Jonathan Stewart was pick 10.11. Joseph Addai also went in the 10th. I took Ryan Williams. Lance Moore and Jacoby Ford were my next two picks. I thought about Beanie Wells in the 12th but passed. Eric's going to be so pissed.

I thought the final six rounds would be slow, but again the pace was insane. Kickers flew off the board, as did defenses and receivers I thought would be on few if any fantasy rosters like Louis Murphy and Kevin Walter. I took McGahee in the 13th, Chris Cooley in the 14th, Greg Little in the 15th, Javon Ringer in the 16th, the Rams D in the 17th and scored with Alex Henery as my kicker in the 18th.

Another one of my favorite moments, the bad trade offer, came this morning. Marshawn Lynch and Mike Sims-Walker for LeSean McCoy. Is that two nickels for a quarter, or two dimes?

If holdouts do not continue, I will be starting Josh Freeman, Chris Johnson, LeSean McCoy, Mark Ingram, Mike Wallace, Mike Williams, Kenny Britt, Vernon Davis, the Rams D and Alex Henery. Oh, I see the Eagles are playing the Rams. Yeah, it's time to hit the waiver wire.

Ask Your Fantasy Football Expert: Chris Wesseling

2011-08-14T18:09:00.006-04:00

"Trying not to go overboard, but Julio Jones may be most explosive size/speed package after the catch in NFL. A bigger Nicks/Austin, TO-like."

Find previous Ask Your Fantasy Expert interviews.

There once was a mythical creature called the Kraken. The creature evoked terror in sailors in part because there was no one could get a picture of one alive. I feel the same way about the fantasy football writer who actually makes a living at the craft. It took me 11 interviews, but I have discovered the Kraken. It turns out that the Kraken's quite pleasant.

Chris Wesseling is not elusive because he lives in the deepest depths of the ocean. He's elusive because it's the craziest football offseason on record and he's working reverse banker's hours cranking out the content for Rotoworld. He's one of those guys who probably watched every second of preseason football this weekend while simultaneously posting updates to the site and sending dozens of Tweets.

All fantasy writers name-dropped will get a link to their Twitter feed. We'll keep with the theme of my questions/comments in Titan blue and Chris's in black.

How did you get into fantasy football writing?

I dabbled a bit in free lance work in the late ‘90s, covering University of Cincinnati basketball and a few odds ‘n’ ends on the Reds. After my girlfriend and I picked up stakes and moved to the Savannah/Tybee Island area in 2006, I had a lot of my time on my hands as I went back to school. I started a Dynasty Rankings thread on the Footballguys.com message boards that ended up functioning as the go-to internet home for spirited debate on Dynasty strategy (at over 300 pages and 750,000 views). The thread has withered on the vine of late as I've gone feet-first into Rotoworld, which brings us back to the original question. Gregg Rosenthal, then of Rotoworld and now of Profootballtalk, was doing a casting call for contributors in 2007. I submitted parts of the Dynasty Rankings thread and started the Sons of the Tundra blog. Gregg ran my Dynasty ranks on Rotoworld, one thing led to another, and three years later Evan Silva and I are shouldering the majority of the load on the Rotoworld football beat.

Tell me about your real-life NFL rooting interests.

I grew up in Cincinnati rooting for the Ken Anderson-Boomer Esiason-Anthony Munoz Bengals. The legendary Paul Brown died in 1991. By the late ‘90s, it was clear that I was in a one-sided relationship with his son’s franchise. Paul Brown Stadium was the crash site of unrequited love. Stuck in the football fan’s version of a Catch-22, I broke up with the Bengals [Zach note: You go, girl.] and never looked back. Now my rooting interests lie more in predicting breakout players and teams on the rise.

Where do you live?

Beautiful Tybee Island, Georgia. Often described as Mayberry on Acid, it’s a true end-of-the-road town filled with dreamers, drifters, dropouts, artists, writers, bar flies, fishermen, idlers, runaways, painters, and pensioners. It’s the kind of place where you can belly up to the bar next to a millionaire and a pothead and not know the difference. As Charles Kuralt once said of Key West, "the place has no dignity but much style."

Tell me about your day job.

This is it. I spent a couple of years as a letter carrier in the mid-90s, then a decade as records manager of a prestigious law firm in Cincinnati (the late ‘90s were a boom time for those of us who were under-qualified for office jobs). In between, I racked up enough credit hours to make Blutarsky blush.

Since 2008, though, I’ve gone from free lancing to working full-time at Rotoworld. I’m certainly not in it for the money, but it does allow entrance to the Too Much Fun Club. As Hunter S. Thompson once said about sports writing, "After I first learned that it was possible to sleep late and go to work at Two in the afternoon, and still get Paid for it, I never did anything else."

Do you have long-term goals with your fantasy football writing?

Good question. I suppose the end game would be covering the league as a whole the way Mike Florio and Rosenthal do on Profootballtalk. Mike Miller at NBCSports.com has been great about letting Silva and I pump out general NFL articles when we do get a break from the fantasy side of the ledger.

How do you deal, as an in-demand fantasy expert, with all the league requests? Do you have a limit on leagues?

Definitely a limit. I try to stick to two "experts" leagues per year. I still have a league with my high school buddies going on year 18 or so and another Tybee Bums league with the guys at the local bar Huc-a-Poos.

I also have one Dynasty league in year 13 and another in year three. I’m only interested in Dynasty leagues where the playoffs coincide with the NFL playoffs, which certainly helps when turning down requests. I don’t like getting caught with too many irons in the fire, so six leagues is my limit. Four would be preferable.

The spouse question: Does your wife/gf/sig other have any issues with your obsession?

My eight-year relationship recently went from "living in sin" to "it’s complicated." When we are together, she takes issue with the time crunch more so than fantasy football itself. She wishes I’d spent more quality time enjoying life with her and less time monitoring Twitter for breaking football news. It’s a fair point.

Football or sex: which do you think of more?

We pursue that which retreats from us, right? When you have too much football in your life, you think about sex. When you have enough sex in your life, you think about football.

Tell a story about a fantasy regret. Bad trade, bad draft pick, move you thought about making but did not, something on that realm.

I don’t know about a season-sabotaging trade in particular, but Byron Leftwich sticks out in my mind. I loved his arm, toughness, and leadership coming out of Marshall. I know I had him ranked as a top-10 Dynasty QB for a period of several years -- and clung to hope even after the Jags cut bait. I didn’t realize until it was too late that the elongated throwing motion would kill his career. It’s hard for a receiver to do much after the catch when Leftwich is winding up and throwing darts at his chest instead of anticipating a spot.

Tell a story about a fantasy win. Great trade that worked out.

The Chris Johnson Hype Train in early August of his rookie season ended up as a big fantasy win for anyone who jumped on board. The one that may have worked out best in the long run was choosing Arian Foster as the No. 1 deep Dynasty sleeper in the 2009 Becket/Rotoworld fantasy preview magazine -- a few weeks after Forster went undrafted out of Tennessee.

Where are you on the usual football Sunday? Is there a man cave?

I have a small home office with a big TV (courtesy of the National Football Post’s experts league last season -- Thanks, fellas). Silva and I monitor Twitter and network preview shows for late-breaking news on injuries, depth chart changes, etc. leading up to the 1:00 kickoffs. Both of us usually take a pair of the early games and one late game to cover for news recaps and more in-depth analysis for Rotoworld’s Season Pass subscribers. That wraps up just in time to enjoy NBC’s Sunday Night Football without worrying about taking notes. By the third or fourth quarter, I’ve started research for my Morning After column. That process goes on through the night. Sometimes I catch a few hours of sleep at 3:00 a.m. or so. Other times I just burn the midnight oil until the sun comes up. Needless to say, I’m worthless on Mondays.

Tell me about a hobby/interest outside of football.

I’m an inveterate reader, but my non-football books have been shunned over the past few years. I miss them. I don’t have an ounce of musical talent, but I enjoy the process of finding hidden gems. At 37, I still enjoy playing softball, though my body has started to fight back the past year or two.

Which fantasy writers are on your must-read list?

Rotoworld has been my go-to home for news and analysis since the mid-to-late ‘90s, and nobody beats Gregg Rosenthal and Evan Silva on that score. I also spent a lot of time on the Footballguys.com message boards from the late ‘90s until recently and have a high regard for Matt Waldman and Sigmund Bloom. Mark St. Amant is another former Rotoworld writer (and author of the book Committed: Confessions of a Fantasy Football Junkie), who puts the rest of us to shame for pure writing and humor. More recently, I’ve come to enjoy Chet Gresham’s work on Razzball. I have a love-hate relationship with statistical analysis and those who do too much lamp-post leaning, but Pro Football Focus’ Mike Clay does a fine job of pumping out the relevant info.

Better fantasy experience: Long-term league with friends or fantasy "expert" league?

No question, long-term league with friends. Too much "going through the motions" in expert leagues whereas friends have shared history, inside jokes, and more lively debates. I had one draft just last night where we were bagging on the former commissioner (still an owner) who had mistakenly written "Sleeper = Todd Pinkston"on the back of the draft board for all to see about a decade ago. Another former commish still has dozens of classic voice mails from an angry owner who would call every Monday morning to rant and rave about the performance of his own team. You would have thought this guy was more invested than Steinbrenner. You can't buy that kind of entertainment in an expert league.

Tell me about any plugs that you'd like. Podcasts, sites that you write for, expert leagues, anything.

The Rotoworld Draft Guide, my pride and joy, is now available. Come Week 1, the Rotoworld Season Pass will be active. Much of the work we do at Rotoworld -- including the always updated news scroll -- is free, so be sure to stop by even if you don’t have the money to purchase our premium content. You can also find me on NBCSports.com.

Thanks to Chris for answering my questions. Follow him on Twitter.

Read previous Ask Your Fantasy Expert interviews.

Andy Miley

Jim "Taz" Day

Chet Gresham

Bryan Fontaine

Eric Yeomans

I Hate JJ Redick

Fantasy Douche

Eric from DL Football

Clint Chugg

Matt Waldman Part 1 and Part 2

Ask Your Fantasy Football Expert: RumfordJohnny

2011-08-10T21:16:00.010-04:00

"I'm your Sun-Tzu. I'll help make the enemy come to you, as you leap from a tall branch and smother them with a banana leaf."

Find previous Ask Your Fantasy Football Expert interviews.

You can have your fantasy experts with their opinions and numbers. Give me a man with a clear direction and the ability to hold his liquor. This week we have John Sarmento aka RumfordJohnny of the world-renowned 2 Mugs fantasy site. He's not afraid to drop the occasional f-bomb, m-bomb, or q-bomb (he's that rangy). That's not the point. The point is he brings the fantasy knowledge in his own unique, from-the-hip and occasionally profane manner.

All fantasy writers name-dropped will get a link to their Twitter feed. We'll keep with the theme of my questions/comments in Titan blue and John's in black.

How did you get into fantasy football?

Got into fantasy football in the 90's (yes I'm old). Work league, on a flip chart, guys basement, bad beer. You get the picture.

What's the story behind 2 Mugs, the site and the podcast (coming soon: the breakfast cereal)?

2mugsff.com was born when Ryan Forbes and I met while writing for another fantasy football site. We thought the other site's direction wasn't where we wanted to go, so we opted to start our own site. The podcast was a natural progression. No cereal in the works. Beer on cereal isn't bad though. Best on Apple Jacks.

Who came up with the idea for the beer draft? I think I might leave my fantasy leagues to pursue beer leagues full-time.

Beer Draft was all Forbes' idea. He owns the all the residual rights to "Beer Draft" the Musical.

Where's your tattoo of Brady's face? Tell me about being a Pats fan before they were "cool".

No Brady tatts, not even a Pats logo. Just drunken regret tatts.

What can you tell me about your tiny yet fierce home state of Rhode Island?

Rhode Island is awesome, and the only thing bigger than our state pride is our state taxes. Fuck.

Tell me about your day job.

I work with adults with Autism. Can't say any more than that. H.I.P.P.A.

Do you have long-term goals with your fantasy football writing?

I hope to write a little more than just the answers to this interview...just a little.

How do you deal, as an in-demand fantasy expert, with all the league requests? Do you have a limit on leagues?

In years past, up to 15 leagues. Now that I have a mortgage? Six leagues max. I turn down offers daily. Some for fantasy leagues, some to dip myself in chocolate and rent myself out for parties...sorry @FantasyTaz!

Football or sex: which do you think of more?

I like sex in football equipment. A neck roll is pretty versatile.

Tell a story about a fantasy regret. Bad trade, bad draft pick, move you thought about making but did not, something on that realm.

Kevin Jones. Kevin Jones. Kevin Jones.

Tell a story about a fantasy win. Great trade that worked out.

Kevin Jones...that one year.

Where are you on the usual football Sunday? I assume there's a man cave. And I have to know if you have a designated first beer for the opening Pats game.

Pats gear, Red Zone Channel, scented candles. Guinness usually, because it has vitamins and fart producing properties.

Tell me about a hobby/interest outside of football.

Play the drums, I sketch a little. Mostly I like to do interviews via email attachments for shits and giggles.

Which fantasy writers are on your must-read list?

Chris Wesseling from Rotoworld.com, Chet Gresham & Mark St. Amant from Razzball.com, that Forbes kid from 2Mugsff.com, and IDPWithBee for all of my IDP needs. Basically anyone who didn't have to suck off a horse to get a network gig.

Better fantasy experience: Long-term league with friends or fantasy "expert" league?

Best league experience? Still seeking it, my man.

Tell me about any plugs that you'd like. Podcasts, sites that you write for, expert leagues, anything.

2mugsff.com, and 2mugs fantasy football podcast on Itunes.

Thanks to John, or Rummy, for answering my questions, sort of. Follow him on Twitter.

Read previous Ask Your Fantasy Expert interviews.

Andy Miley

Jim "Taz" Day

Chet Gresham

Bryan Fontaine

Eric Yeomans

I Hate JJ Redick

Fantasy Douche

Eric from DL Football

Clint Chugg

Matt Waldman Part 1 and Part 2

Chris Wesseling

Fantasy files: Intervention time

2011-08-10T21:11:00.002-04:00

America, I need an intervention. I've made some fantasy football transgressions recently and I need to atone. I'll take these one at a time.

I can't stop making waiver moves in my dynasty league. I checked today and I have picked up 11 guys while releasing 11 guys (many the same guys) since our rookie draft in May. In the offseason we're allowed to have 60 players on the roster. We cut to 53 for the regular season. I thought it made sense to use those seven spots for speculative undrafted rookies. There's a good chance that most of these guys aren't going to make a roster, let alone a practice squad. It's a deep class, at least according to my blog buddy Matt Waldman.

Since the lockout, I've bid on the following players: Mario Fannin, John Clay, Chad Spann, Jeremiah Johnson, Darren Evans, Damien Berry, Adrian Arrington, Maurice Morris, Lonyae Miller, Terrence Toliver, and Jaymar Johnson. What's the deal with guys who have inexplicably spelled last names like Toliver and Mathews? I already dropped flavors of the week Mario Fannin and Damien Berry. To pick up these so-called lottery tickets, I've dropped roster chum that were likely cuts like David Buehler, Rennie Curran, and Mike Kafka. I could be prescient with all these guys and have to make cuts of players who might contribute.

My second transgression is something I've never done but is a sad fantasy cliché. I joined a work fantasy league. Not only that, I took on the role of Commish. Yeah, one of my co-workers lingered at my cube too long and my boss showed up. It was all fun and games until he volunteered me to run a fantasy league. Is this a Philadelphia Eagles situation? I've been in dozens of leagues and thanks mostly to association, I can be considered a fantasy insider. In short, I should dominate this league. If I don't win, it's a disaster. I had to look up a few how-to-play-fantasy articles because I'd say a third of this league has never played the beautiful game. I look forward to explaining that a flex position is not something their wives do in a Pilates class.

The upside? There will be beer. There better be.

Fantasy files: Keeper draft post-mortem

2011-08-07T14:22:00.003-04:00

This is normally the spot for interviews with fantasy experts of the highest caliber. Occasionally I backslide into what this blog started as: my own fantasy football journey. When my year begins, there's one weekend that's been steady and sacred for the past decade. That's local keeper league weekend. It started as a draft in a friend's basement and morphed into a three-day odyssey.

To skip directly to my team, click this here button.

We have Thursday activities, Friday activities, and the draft on Saturday. The focus on Thursday is reunion and drinking. Friday is all about poker and drinking. Saturday is drinking and the draft. This year, we reversed the priority on Saturday.

In 2010 we attempted our first off-campus draft and landed in Tunica of all places. It was a complete redraft. It was also a gathering in which Keith Richards might have said "you guys could slow down a bit". The drinking was a priority over the drafting, and the results were shall we say predicable.

We changed things up this year. Draft used to start at 9 in the morning, with a mandated "nap time" between the draft's end and the post-draft party. The post-draft party features families, so we have to behave ourselves. Most of us were hung over anyway. This year we started the draft at noon and decided to go straight to the party Instead of our boisterous penalty shots and ridiculing everyone's pick, no matter how good, we were sedate. Heck, we finished the draft in less than four hours. Usually it's more like five or six, and the last few rounds are particularly painful.

We changed one rule this year, other than cutting out most of the drinking. Last year I suggested that we add a flex position that was WR/TE. One problem with this rule is that we only have four WR slots on the rosters so things get tight on bye weeks. Instead of expanding our small benches, we added RB to the flex. My goal with adding the extra WR/TE slot and making our league PPR was to increase the value of receivers compared to running backs. We were about to go back to RB crazy land.
Enough about our league and my feelings. Let's talk draft. As I thought, there were 12 teams in the first round and 12 running backs went. The shockers were LeGarrette Blount and BenJarvis Green-Ellis going one and two. Congrats to the two former undrafted free agents. Matt Forte went third and Steven Jackson slid to a surprising 8th. The pick before me was Cedric Benson.

I had two guys I really wanted with my 10th pick. I wanted either Mark Ingram or Jahvid Best. Best went 4th. I play introduction music for all the owners in the first round. I sat back, pressed play and listened to the first few notes of "Bridges Burning" by the Foo Fighters. I casually stood up and selected Ingram. My next pick was 3.10, so I could all but take a nap for the next 30 minutes.

I had decided before the draft that Kenny Britt would be my 3.10 pick. He was a no-brainer as a WR2 in my opinion, despite the transition in Tennessee, his recent hamstring issues, and of course his troubles with the po po. I had a dilemma at 3.10, as Austin Collie was still available. He's not unlike Britt in that there's plenty of risk. I don't know if there's another player in the league with a higher risk/reward ratio. I took him. Britt surprisingly was available at 4.03 and I was poised to take him. I paused. I made an impulse buy and took Jimmy Graham. After going on the Twitter Roundtable show a month ago and saying that Graham was too high as the 6th TE off the board, I took Graham as the 6th TE off the board. Half the league seemed to not know who he was.

That's the only pick that could haunt me. It was almost two rounds until another TE went off the board. I took Mike Thomas with my second fourth-round pick and followed up with A.J. Green and C.J. Spiller in the 5th. It was the round of initials. Since almost everyone had locked down their second and third RBs, I waited and took the high-upside PPR guy. After hearing mixed reviews on my pickup of Mathews as my keeper RB, I took Mike Tolbert in the 6th round. In the 7th I took who could have been my starting TE had I passed on Graham in the 4th and taken Britt. I got Chris Cooley.

The league has roster limits. We can only have 3 QBs, 4 RBs, 4 WRs, 2 TEs, 2 Ks and 2 team defenses. That narrows your options later in the draft. I hadn't taken a backup QB yet but I had a plan. I went upside. I got the Giants D in the 8th, Beanie Wells in the 9th, and my first backup QB in the 10th was an actual backup QB in Tim Tebow. I generally wait for my last two picks to take kickers but teams were grabbing them like crazy so I took rookie Alex Henery in the 11th. I'll take the kicker from the Eagles who kicked in Nebraska where they have a bit of winter weather. I shocked the league again by grabbing Vince Young in the 12th. It's embarrassing that he was once a keeper for my team. The main reason for that pick was to make the Vick owner sweat. I finished out with the Rams D (hello, NFC West) and Adam Vinatieri.

The consensus on drafting is that you should have a complete plug and play team after the draft. I drafted knowing that my roster would be fluid. I have Peyton, and feel like he's going to be a starter for 15 of the 16 weeks that I'm going to play. Instead of taking snores like David Garrard and Jason Campbell, neither of whom are locks to start all year, I went with the high-upside backups. Seriously, if Tebow or Young start, they become top-ten guys. If they stay on the bench, I'll have to pick up a waiver guy. Manning does have an extraordinarily late bye week (11). I have time. Ingram, Spiller, Tolbert and Wells have breakout potential. A guy like Cedric Benson has breakdown potential. My WR corps is thin but chock full of youth and upside. Calvin Johnson is the old man of the group. I didn't really need to grab two tight ends so early, especially since Marcedes Lewis went in the 10th round, but with the flex option I could conceivably start both. Graham's still somewhat unproven so I'm glad to have Cooley, and if the great tight end injury run happens again in 2011, I'll be prepared. Defense and kicker are impossible to gauge. At least I got kickers on great offenses. The Giants should get their usual high number of sacks.

My team:

Keepers: Peyton Manning, Ryan Mathews and Calvin Johnson

Draft picks: traded my 2nd, traded for extra 4, 5, and traded up in the 7th

Picks:

1.10: Mark Ingram

3.10: Austin Collie

4.03: Jimmy Graham

4.09: Mike Thomas

5.??: A.J. Green

5.10: C.J. Spiller

6.03: Mike Tolbert

7.05: Chris Cooley

8.03: Giants

9.10: Beanie Wells

10.03: Tim Tebow

11.10: Alex Henery

12.03: Vince Young

13.10: Rams

14.03: Adam Vinatieri

Ask Your Fantasy Expert: Matt Waldman Part 2

2011-08-03T21:20:00.004-04:00

"DeAngelo Williams and Jonathan Stewart, thanks for giving fantasy owners a big F-U this week. I don’t know whether to curse you or cheer for you."

Find previous Ask Your Fantasy Expert interviews.

Most of the time I prefer to receive short answers to my questions. It keeps things flowing at a good pace and you don't feel like you're in the middle of a literary novel disguised as a fantasy football interview. With this week's interview, I was tempted to not post my questions and just post the answers. That's because Matt Waldman gave deep, thoughtful responses to all of my queries. I posted part one of the interview on Monday and this is part two.

How long have you lived in Athens? Tell me about living in a college town.

I've been here 20 years. I came to Athens as a student in the 1990s after transferring from the University of Miami (Go Canes!) to the University of Georgia. I never intended to stay here this long, but I had a full-time job before I finished college and that job became a career for 15 years.

Athens is a beautiful college town with a rich tradition of college football, great restaurants that sport a Parisian-like atmosphere of outdoor dining, and people who take pride in trying to develop and maintain culture. The town is unbearable to drive through during home games, but things calm down around November. As a permanent resident, I truly appreciate the ghost town it becomes during the summer. I like that I can ride my bike to work because time to exercise is at a premium for me nowadays. I'm more of an Atlantan at heart, but Athens has been good for me in many respects. I will always recommend Athens as a place to visit.

Tell me about your day job.

I'm an associate editor at the University of Georgia Terry College of Business. I manage the alumni magazine's production schedule. I also write magazine and Internet features, press releases, and copy for the college. I started this job at the end of 2006 after 15 years as an assistant director for a company that ran call centers in the U.S. I was an operations manager and eventually a quality assurance director.

Do you think your methodologies would translate to an NFL team? Is there any interest in working for a pro team?

Yeah, I think the methodologies would be great for an NFL team. These are best practices adopted by Fortune 500 corporations in various sectors of industry. That said, there's a difference between the system I use and the type of content an NFL team should use within that system. My content is probably vastly more extensive than what an NFL team needs or desires. They want short takes on players because they are covering a ton of talent. I'm more focused. However, I do believe that the way my process is structured is easily tailored to these short takes that a team would desire. Moreover, the methodology is perfect for developing greater accountability and continuous training within personnel departments. Any team that wants to make sure its scouts are on the same page with its coaches and GMs about the what the team wants, what to look for, and how to grade it will benefit. It's also a good system because a team can adjust to changing demands and still keep its individual evaluators educated and focused on what's important.

I have explored the idea of what it would mean to work for a professional football team. I had a former NFL scout tell me that my process would currently be appealing to about 8-12 NFL teams. Other former scouts I've spoken with have agreed that there is a need, but are less sure of a demand. I am certainly open to the idea of working with a team on some level, but it is not my ultimate goal at this time. I have more research to do if I were to seriously consider going into business with football teams as target customers.

Since you are a visible presence in the fantasy football writing world, how does that affect your draft/auction strategy since all of your leaguemates know your takes on every player?

The greatest challenge comes when I'm competing with Footballguys subscribers in dynasty leagues. Even if they don't agree with my takes on rookies, they know more about how I value them than other owners in our league. When it comes to Footballguys staff leagues, there are writers who read my stuff or know a few players I really like, but generally they are so busy doing their own work that it's like drafting in leagues where I'm not a known fantasy football writer.

The most important thing I've had to do to remain a competitive drafter in leagues where I'm a "known commodity," is to remain flexible with my strategy. If I have players I want to target then I have to be willing to reach a little higher or I have to be willing to take less conventional approaches to build a quality team. In this respect, it helps me become a better analyst of the hobby.

If asked, would your wife say that you watch more or less than the 60-100 hours a week you say you put into film study?

We had this conversation last week. I said I watch about 40 hours per week from summer through late fall and then ramp that up to 50-60 during the late fall-early winter. My wife says it's more like 70-80 hours, but I only get into the 70-100 range for very brief periods of time. It's getting more difficult for me to do.

Football or sex: which do you think of more?

Definitely sex, although it has become disturbing how much I think about football.

When you watch NFL games to review for Footballguys, do you do it in your renovated garage?

Yep. The garage was first renovated into a bedroom. Then it evolved into my office. It's my office for my freelance writing, Footballguys work, and RSP study.

Have you always been a cat person?

No. The only cat I ever actively got was a tuxedo cat who I adopted from the local animal shelter almost 16 years ago. He passed last year. Without a doubt the best pet I've ever had, no contest. The others I own were brought home by family throughout the years. I'm an animal lover, but I will probably never have a cat again once our daughter finishes college and takes the two she owns with her. I have my sights set on adopting a pit bull one day, but only when I have enough time to actually devote to a dog.

When you're reviewing film, do you have music in the background? I didn't know if your jazz collection was background music for your film study or if you listen to your music 'off the clock'.

When I'm writing I often listen to music. But when I'm studying a game, I'm focused on the game only. I don't listen to music when I doing the research.

If you were a jazz musician, what instrument would you play?

I initially studied jazz performance at the University of Miami. I was a saxophonist. I started playing when I was 10 years old. I no longer play, but as with the desire to own a Pit Bull when life is someday less hectic, I plan to return to playing one day. However, as a writer and analyst of football film I tend to have an obsessive streak. The idea of just practicing an hour or so a day doesn't cut it for me when I used to practice 4-6 hours a day as a music student. The Pit Bull might be more likely than the saxophone. Life's a mystery though, you never completely know.

In your copious spare time, which fantasy writers are on your must-read list?

Best phrasing of an interview question ever for a fantasy writer! At the top of my list are Jene Bramel and Sigmund Bloom. Bramel's work is insightful and he also does a tremendous job studying film to support his thoughts. Bloom's perspective is what I value the most. He communicates his takes really well and I always get a dose of strategy even when he's discussing a player's prospects. Jason Wood is another Footballguys writer I enjoy reading when I have a chance. He has a very no-nonsense perspective and that complements my risk-taking personality well. I also have to mention David Dodds because he's just an expert "gamer". Give him a game, contest, or system and he's going to figure out a way to game it. He also knows football. Recently, I've seen some articles from Bryan Fontaine at Pro Football Focus that I've enjoyed as well. I also like Chet Gresham's style at Razzball.

However, I have to say that I rarely read fantasy writers or when I do, I'm about 3-4 weeks behind what they're writing. Part of this is because I'm working a lot more than I probably need to be, and another part of it is by design. Just like studying players for the Rookie Scouting Portfolio, I don't want other views to influence my opinions or analysis. Sometimes I'll read another person's views in fantasy football with the expressed purpose of analyzing that person's work, but not to develop my own opinion. For the RSP, I don't look at other takes until I'm finished ranking my players.

Tell me about any plugs that you'd like. Podcasts, sites that you write for, expert leagues, anything.

First, thanks for interviewing me.

You can catch me at Footballguys.com where I write my column The Gut Check (subscriber content) and co-host the Thursday night Audible Roundtable with Sigmund Bloom and Cecil Lammey. I recently started a blog devoted to topics that are purely football analysis called The Rookie Scouting Portfolio. There, you can learn more about the RSP publication, find samples and excerpts, and read interviews with scouts and players, and player analysis where I break down film or talk about the evaluation process.

Follow Matt Waldman on Twitter. Your Twitter stream just got 22% smarter.

Read previous Ask Your Fantasy Expert interviews.

Andy Miley

Jim "Taz" Day

Chet Gresham

Bryan Fontaine

Eric Yeomans

I Hate JJ Redick

Fantasy Douche

Eric from DL Football

Clint Chugg

Matt Waldman Part 1

Ask Your Fantasy Football Expert: Matt Waldman Part 1

2011-07-30T13:39:00.008-04:00

"If 85 didn't get freed by September, I wouldn't have been surprised if Ochocinco pulled a Corporal Klinger, donned skirts over his uniform, and ran post routes in drag."

Find previous Ask Your Fantasy Expert interviews.

There are people who have reached a certain level of success and you don't know why. In Matt Waldman's case, you know why he is a big name in fantasy circles. He shows his work. Go ahead, read his annual Rookie Scouting Portfolio. It's encyclopedic in length and depth. Tons of guys and gals give you rankings. Waldman explains why. If you don't agree with him, go watch a few miles of film before attempting your retort. He's not just a man of words. Fitting into the Footballguys-sponsored weekly podcast The Audible with chatty Cathys Cecil Lammey and Sigmund Bloom is no mean feat.

This is part one of the interview. I will publish part two on Thursday.

All fantasy writers name-dropped will get a link to their Twitter feed. We'll keep with the theme of my questions/comments in Titan blue and Matt's in black.

When you started your fantasy football writing career, and especially when you began working on the RSP, did you imagine the kind of impact it would have on NFL insiders/fantasy football folks?

That impact is really gratifying. Writing about football is something I did because it combines two things I love. I try to approach my column and a place where I can explore ways to help fantasy owners get better and my blog as a place to share what I've learned with football fans who want to learn something about the game. It can be statistical analysis, film observation, or experimenting with strategies the average person might be reticent to approach with their own money on the line. I always try to cover subjects I would want to read about. Sometimes I'm successful.

As for the Rookie Scouting Portfolio, I had no clue what direction it would take me. I used to read old scouting publications and use them to learn more about NFL players. Eventually, it occurred to me that these publications weren't as specific about how they graded players as I wanted to see. As a reader, I wanted to understand more about their grading process and specifically how they looked for that they were grading. I thought I had the work experience in my previous career to provide a more thorough report for what I wanted to see as a reader.

I also felt I was developing a reasonably good understanding of skill positions to create a scouting publication for players with a fantasy football angle. I learned quickly that idea was pretty dumb. I still had a ton to learn. I'm still learning every day, but the hubris of thinking I could do what the experts did gave me motivation to try it. I'm grateful for that.

I really had no idea what would come of the RSP. As I began watching film for the initial publication in 2006, I realized I was doing this more for my education than anything else. As spring approached, I felt like I hadn't watched enough players so I wrapped up my studies by renting a hotel for a week that was a few blocks from downtown Athens.

I took a week off work, brought my DVR and PC to the hotel room, and literally spent about 130 hours that week doing nothing but watching film. It was a grueling process, but exhilarating to learn so much from close observation. I thought I would hate football by the time I was through. But the opposite happened. I loved it even more. It develops into an obsession.

When I finished the publication people couldn't believe the detail. I probably had 100 people buy the 2006 RSP that year. But what encouraged me was that such a large percentage of them were raving fans that I decided to give it three years and see what came of it. Plus, I was hitting on players who were drafted late or undrafted and this was encouraging for me. Although the reader base hasn't really grown that much, the people who bought it were loyal and vocal with their support. Writing the RSP has certainly been worthwhile for me as a student of the game and a football writer. Six years into the process, I've been to the Senior Bowl as media, I've had the RSP featured at Footballguys.com and in the New York Times Fifth Down Blog, and I've even had some people with NFL scouting experience purchase it to crosscheck their work.

I'm just beginning to scratch the surface of fantasy football/NFL draft fans who I believe will love the RSP. I'm going to give it another three years to see if it can become a money maker. After that, all bets are off.

You have a detailed methodology for grading rookies. Do you have advice for fantasy footballers to evolve from being YouTube scouts to improving their ability to scout players?

Losing Your Football Innocence. Give it a read and I think you'll find the things I write about there will help people watch the game with a more critical eye. First, take some time to watch football alone so you can rewind, slow down the plays and really analyze what's happening with the player and the players around him. Second, listen to former football players. They are a great wealth of knowledge about their positions and their opponents' positions. Get over the way the guy speaks or his habits that annoy you and listen to what he's communicating. Third, learn about line play. When watching running backs, the first place I look to see how a play is supposed to develop is how the offensive line is trying to block the defensive line. The very beginning place to look are the defensive tackles.

How'd you get to be a Titans fan? As they say in the south, bless your heart.

I was a Browns fan growing up. Most of my family is from Cleveland. When I moved to Atlanta as a 10-year-old I remained loyal to the team until Art Modell moved the Browns to Baltimore. Deep down, I felt like the team that I grew up watching and its hard-nosed play, toughness, and heart went to Maryland. I still see those qualities to this day. Ray Lewis, Ed Reed, and Jonathan Ogden should have been Browns. Ozzie Newsome should have been Cleveland's GM. I wanted to be a Ravens fan, but something felt wrong about making that switch, so I decided to find another team. [Zach note: I told y'all that Matt has good instincts.] At that time I happened to catch a lot of Oilers games on TV. Jeff Fisher was in his first year as head coach and I liked what I was reading about him. Then there was the addition of Steve McNair and Eddie George. The style of play and grit of the players reminded me of the Browns teams I saw in the '80s and I became a fan. Now that those players and coaches are gone I've become a little bit more of a fan of the league, but I really enjoy following the AFC South. I'm an AFC guy in general. That said, I like what the Lions are doing.

If you got the keys to the castle, how would you develop the Titans during this hectic offseason?

I'd bring in a veteran quarterback the same way Jeff Fisher had Chris Chandler starting ahead of Steve McNair during McNair's early years [Zach note: question was asked and answered before the Titans signed Hasselbeck]. I believe most rookie quarterbacks should sit a year or two. The reasons to start them always seem linked to public opinion of the fans or short-term economics. The Titans have enough talent upfront on both sides of the line and the skill positions to win 8-10 games if the quarterback play is consistent and the organization's starters stay healthy. I think Jake Locker needs a team that will be patient with him and let get him acclimated to the NFL as a reserve. If that happens, I think they increase the likelihood that Locker develops into a quality starter. I'm sure quarterback development all depends on the guy, but I think giving a rookie a year to acclimate will help him learn more efficiently once he's on the field.

With the exception of Damian Williams, I'm not a fan of the team's choices at wide receiver. I understand the mentality of searching for this position in the mid-to-late rounds, but I don't like the specific choices made with those players in those draft tiers. I'd rather see more refined players in terms of technical skills. They've invested too much in nice athletes with less refined skills: Paul Williams and Lavelle Hawkins are good examples.

Defensive line has always been a well-coached area, but this front needs to stay healthy as a rotation. If it does than the Titans defense can be decent. I like the second-year CB from UCLA Alterraun Verner as an emerging talent and Cortland Finnegan still has his merits. I'd like to see more improvement at safety. I think this defensive unit could take a huge step forward if it could find a safety with Troy Polamalu's talents. Of course, whose defense wouldn't improve several notches?

Speaking of former Titans, do you think Vince Young be salvageable as a starting NFL QB?

Yes. It's not about skill with Young. It's about attitude and maturity. If Young can devote himself to the craft of quarterbacking the way that Michael Vick has then he could be a productive NFL starter.

Follow Matt Waldman on Twitter. There, your life has already improved. Look for Part Two on Thursday.

Read previous Ask Your Fantasy Expert interviews.

Andy Miley

Jim "Taz" Day

Chet Gresham

Bryan Fontaine

Eric Yeomans

I Hate JJ Redick

Fantasy Douche

Eric from DL Football

Clint Chugg

Fantasy files; Beware of Trader Zach

2011-07-29T19:36:00.001-04:00

My keeper league has made me crazy. I've started referring to myself in the third person, as Trader Zach.

I started with Eli Manning as my QB keeper. That was not sufficient. I had Frank Gore and Darren McFadden at running back. I considered them equal talents with McFadden's inability to stay healthy matching up with Gore's age. McFadden's talent and Gore's track record felt like a wash. I had Hakeem Nicks, Miles Austin, Brandon Marshall and Vincent Jackson at wideout. All four seemed keeper-worthy although Nicks was the stud. I decided to use my two most valuable chips and moved Nicks and McFadden for Peyton Manning. I had plans for Eli.

I started by asking for a third-round draft pick for Eli. It took me a month but the deal was done for a fourth-round pick. After considering the merits of Miles Austin versus Vincent Jackson, I decided to stick with Austin. I offered Vincent Jackson for a fourth and settled for a fifth. The other guy's top WR was Santana Moss.
All the news I've heard since I made my trades focused on Gore's injury from last year and Peyton's neck injury. I wasn't worried about the Gore's injury history and age until the Panthers decided to spend a boatload of money on DeAngelo Williams. Gore decided to hold out. I had to hit the eject button.

I botched a Shonn Greene for Mike Wallace trade, although in the end that might work out in my favor. I made an off-the-cuff counter-offer of Frank Gore for Calvin Johnson. The trade offer was to my dad. He, like any smart fantasy owner, knew the trade was unbalanced. In a phone call he mentioned that he'd take Gore and a second-round pick. I decided I wanted a pick back, and we agreed on his seventh rounder.

Making this deal would take guts. It would leave me vulnerable as my only two running backs on my roster are Shonn Greene and Fred Jackson. Neither are keeper-worthy. I'd have to make one last deal to get that keeper running back.
Scouring the rosters, I saw that one guy had Mendenhall and Forte and three WR2s. I offered him Miles Austin for the running back he didn't want. Forte has more potential in PPR but Mendenhall seems like a lock for 300 carries and maybe six guys can say that in the league. Both are young enough to be keepers at least for another year. He said he'd think about it. I was in.

It's been intoxicating to deal this much. Trading gives you a feel of what other people think about players and it makes a league a ton more interactive. In the end, I will have traded Eli Manning, Frank Gore, Darren McFadden, Hakeem Nicks, Miles Austin, and Vincent Jackson, and my second-round pick. I'll end up with Peyton Manning, Matt Forte/Rashard Mendenhall, Calvin Johnson, and extra fourth, fifth, and seventh-round picks. I traded for extra picks in my rookie draft because I trusted in my ability to pick the right players. In this case, I'll have to find a player of second-round value with one of those three picks. Then again, I could bundle them for a trade up. Trader Zach approves.

Fantasy files; Best week ever?

2011-07-27T22:36:00.001-04:00

Let's face it, fans of faux football: This has been the best offseason ever. What would you rather have, a long, boring free agency in March or this week of insanity? I think Twitter took this week over the top with updates about every 45 seconds today with new signings and rumors nonstop. Most of the news was bad for us fantasy-ers.

DeAngelo Williams re-signs with the Panthers. Boo! Williams drops in value for two reasons. Jonathan Stewart will steal touches and Cam Newton probably will poach a few touchdowns. Stay away from all Denver/Carolina running backs. I might benefit from this move in one league, though.

Sidney Rice to the Seahawks. The wha? He's a high-ceiling guy, but Seahawk fans are going to pine for the halcyon days of Seneca Wallace after watching the Whitehurst/Jackson show.

Santonio Holmes back to the Jets. I'll be honest. I get the same non-fuzzy feelings with Holmes as I do with Vincent Jackson. I'd love either of them on my real team, but on my fantasy team I'll pass at their current price.

Matt Hasselbeck to the Titans: Really not much of an impact. He's still a borderline QB2/3. Kenny Britt and CJ2K don't move. Jared Cook stays in intriguing TE2 range.
Santana Moss and roster churn to the Redskins: I didn't know Donte Stallworth was still in the league. Moss is a WR3, and a pretty unexciting one.

Lots of undrafted free agents sign with the Eagles: The Eagles let Jerome Harrison go, so someone from the youngster pu pu platter of Eldra Buckley (as if), Dion Lewis, Noel Devine, Graig Cooper and Derrick Locke will win the backup job. Or will they? Have fun in your Zealots-style drafts trying to figure out who to target.

My continued pursuit for mid-round picks in my keeper league continues. I started with an offer of a third round pick for Eli Manning and snagged a fourth. I have offers out for Vincent Jackson and Shonn Greene. My poor father thought he had a deal for LeSean McCoy that evaporated and his best remaining RB is Jonathan Stewart. I don't know if Greene is keeper-worthy but he's a better piece than J-Stew. If I manage to get as many as five picks in the 4th through 5th rounds, I'll need some help on what to do with them. This isn't much of a trade on draft day kind of crew. We promised to drink less as this year's draft goes straight into the family-attended post party. Some of us will comply with that request.

Ask Your Fantasy Football Expert: Clint Chugg

2011-07-24T11:49:00.014-04:00

"Denver is asking for a 2nd round pick for Kyle Orton, but will likely only get a 3rd round pick and some shaving cream and a razor since Tebow will use that stuff and Orton won't."

Find previous Ask Your Fantasy Football Expert interviews.

His name is Clint Chugg and he means business. One site is not enough to contain this ball of fantasy football energy. He runs his own site, You Heard It Here First, and writes for Razzball's fantasy football section. He also makes a mean fried calamari. OK, I made that part up. He doesn't do that because he's too focused on football.

All fantasy writers name-dropped will get a link to their Twitter feed. We'll keep with the theme of my questions/comments in Titan blue and Clint's in black.

How did you get into fantasy football writing?

While in prison writing to my mistresses, I really developed a knack for writing about fantasy, if you know what I mean. And I think you do. Once I got out, I decided to incorporate football in with my stellar fantasy writing skills and the love child was fantasy football writing.

Seriously though, I was tired of reading fantasy football stuff on the internet and losing as a result of taking their advice (thanks for nothing, Matthew Berry). If I was going to lose, it was going to be with my own advice. My wife actually talked me into starting the YHIHF blog, and the rest is history. I don’t think either one of us knew it would get as popular as it has become and I’m doing a great job of losing with my own advice so it’s working out really well.

When did you begin the glory that is YHIHF? What made you choose the acronym name?

The blog started in November of 2009. It was sort of a spur of the moment thing. The You Heard It Here First name comes from a group of work buddies. We'd always make ridiculous predictions like "Adrian Peterson will rush for 300 yards and 4 TDs against the Lions today. You heard it here first!" Our lame and nowhere close to realistic predictions were always followed by a "You heard it here first!" and we'd all get a laugh. I just had to name my blog that.

What makes your site cooler than the rest?

Well, "cooler" isn't the word I would choose, but what I think sets it apart from the others is the to-the-point analysis of it, as well as a little bit of humor (or at least what I think is funny) that we try to mix in. Nothing is worse than a not-very-entertaining writer taking 2,000 words to make one point. Over-analysis is devastating to my ADHD and really drives me nuts.

Tell me about your real-life NFL rooting interests.

I grew up in a house where my parents were die-hard Denver Broncos fans. So, naturally, I had to be an Oakland Raiders fan. I was a Raiders fan up until my mom passed in 2006. Ever since then I pull for the Broncos in her honor. She LOVED her damn Broncos.[Zach note: Hard to vote against the mom-inspired rooting interest, but two Broncos fans in a row? I'm almost missing the Steeler guys. Almost.]

Where do you live?

Utah, where there isn't a professional franchise within 500 miles. It's spectacular. Oh, and I only have one wife. Just for the record.

Tell me about your day job.

I'm a Comcast customer service representative. I work in the video and billing departments. So, if you're pissed off that your cable TV isn't working or pissed off that your promotion expired, I’m one of the guys you yell at. In other words, my job pretty much sucks and I’m looking for something else.

Do you have long-term goals with your fantasy football writing?

Not really. It’d be nice to earn a little bit of dough for all the hours I put into this stuff, but I’m not holding my breath. I just love writing about fantasy football and enjoy the hell out of playing it. I just kind of let the opportunities come as they may.

How do you deal, as an in-demand fantasy expert, with all the league requests? Do you have a limit on leagues?

I limit it to 10. I can't do more than 10 and be active. It's just too hard. That number may decline in the coming years as well. I hate turning folks down who invite me, but sometimes you just have to do what you have to do. It's nothing personal and I hope nobody ever takes it that way.

The spouse question: Does your wife/gf/sig other have any issues with your obsession?

My wife, bless her heart, is unbelievably supportive. I spend an unGodly amount of time on this stuff, and my wife doesn’t mind. The only thing that really bothers her is how frequently I check my Twitter feed. I check it a LOT. [Zach note: I can vouch for that.] I want to stay on top of all the football news. My blog is named You Heard It Here First after all, even though by the time I deliver the news you've probably heard it 479 times already. I may change it to You Heard It Here 479th.

Football or sex: which do you think of more?

Football. Seriously the amount of time I spend reading/researching/writing about football is absurd.

Tell a story about a fantasy regret. Bad trade, bad draft pick, move you thought about making but did not, something on that realm.

In 2004, I drafted Kellen Winslow in our rookie dynasty league draft. Another owner offered me Andre Johnson and Tom Brady for him. I was set at receiver and Daunte Culpepper was my QB. I turned the offer down and holy Moses do I regret that. [Zach note: I never get offers like this.]

Tell a story about a fantasy win. Great trade that worked out.

In 2006, I traded my 8th overall rookie dynasty league pick for Tom Brady (to the same owner in the previous question). He used that pick to select Chester Taylor (who was available since he wasn’t on a roster). Taylor was starting for Minnesota that year, so it seemed fair at the time, but obviously things worked out well for me in the long run.

Where are you on the usual football Sunday? Is there a man cave?

My arse is firmly planted on the couch in my living room with my eyes glued to the NFL Red Zone channel. Sometimes we have friends/family over, but now that everyone is starting families of their own, that’s becoming more and more rare.

Tell me about a hobby/interest outside of football.

I’m an avid Texas Hold ‘Em poker player. We (friends and family) have tournaments all the time. I’m also a big music buff, having gone to over 50 concerts. I also enjoy doing yard work. Go figure.

Which fantasy writers are on your must-read list?

Damn. That's a tough one. There are a lot of great writers in this industry. I read almost everything Chet Gresham writes (about fantasy football). The guy's humor is fantastic and his fantasy advice is even better. I also enjoy reading Dave Richard's stuff. Ryan Burns doesn't write about fantasy football as much, but I think he's a fantastic writer as well. I would say those three guys are the three I read the most, but I read a lot of other people's stuff. Too many to name.

Better fantasy experience: Long-term league with friends or fantasy "expert" league?

With no disrespect to the fantasy experts, I have to go with friends. It's just more fun to play with guys you grew up with. It's a brotherhood of sorts. Even if they move out of state, you can always keep in touch and have an awesome fantasy football season.

Tell me about any plugs that you'd like. Podcasts, sites that you write for, expert leagues, anything.

You Heard It Here First is the site I own and write for, and Razzball is a site I've started writing for recently. Phil Gentile of iHateJJRedick [Zach note: Never heard of him.] and I plan on doing a few podcasts in the next few weeks. Of course you can always follow me on Twitter, and YHIHF needs a lot more love on Facebook. [Zach note: Never heard of it.]

Be sure to check out YHIHF's new writers, who are Eye of the Gator and Jimmy Nall.

Thanks to Clint, more Eastwood than Howard, for answering my questions. Follow him on Twitter.

Read previous Ask Your Fantasy Football Expert interviews.

Andy Miley

Jim "Taz" Day

Chet Gresham

Bryan Fontaine

Eric Yeomans

I Hate JJ Redick

Fantasy Douche

Eric from DL Football

Fantasy files: Motorboatin'

2011-07-23T18:51:00.003-04:00

My first podcast appearance was a fun experience. At least I knew I was going to be on a podcast. The second time was not quite the same.

I listen to piles of podcasts, mainly fantasy football of late. The first and still best is The Audible. You have the sports radio guy in Cecil Lammey, the die-hard film buff in Matt Waldman, and the all-around fantasy know-it-all in Sigmund Bloom. Cecil occasionally throws in sound clips. His new favorite references motorboating.

All men know what I'm talking about when I say motorboating. Think Wedding Crashers. In the show Cecil insists it refers to his deep love of larger running backs like Jerome Bettis, LenDale White, and the Lion rookie Mikel Leshoure. The verb comes out as "motorboating" a running back. If you think about it deeply, you get disturbing images. The point is not to do that.

The wife and I are discussing taking a trip to Italy in the spring. One city she wants to visit is Venice. She showed me a brochure last week referencing, since the city's short on roads, that all travel packages include a complementary motorboat ride. We both thought that was unintentionally hilarious. Remembering my connection with the audible, I tweeted Cecil this thought: As we looked at a brochure for an Italian trip that started with "complementary motorboat transfer to your hotel", I thought of @cecillammey.

Once again, using the term "motorboat" attached to a guy has bad connotations. Early in this week's podcast he teased motorboat. I thought there was no way that my comment out of the many he certainly receives on a weekly basis would be the one singled out. It was. About 57 minutes and 30 seconds into the podcast, Cecil read the tweet to his co-hosts and it got the longest, loudest laugh of the show.

Motorboating has never been so satisfying.

Fantasy files: First swipe at keeper strategery

2011-07-22T20:45:00.001-04:00

It's 15 days until my local keeper draft and I do not have a strategy. I'm trying to offload Eli Manning and Vincent Jackson for mid-level draft picks to stock up. So far I have heard nothing from my leaguemates.

My roster: If nothing changes, I will start with Peyton Manning, Frank Gore, and Miles Austin. That's two injury risks and a guy who once dated Kim Kardashian. I draft in the 10 hole due to my semifinal appearance last year. Our starting lineups are QB, 2RB, 2 WR, 1 TE, D/K and a flex. The flex was WR/TE, making a WR/WR selection with my 1/2 picks interesting. We're voting on changing the WR/TE flex to RB/WR/TE. If that's the case and we can start up to three running backs, our league reverts back to going running back heavy. This does change the strategy. Note that this is a PPR league. If I have the 10th pick and say seven of the nine picks behind me are running back, I could panic and take the eighth best RB or I could go with the third best WR. I could counter the entire league by taking two WRs in these slots, locking up that position.

The eighth best RB or the 20th RB total scored 189 points last year. The third best WR or the 15th WR total scored 217 points. Yeah, the PPR format really changes things up. Even with the keepers taking the top 12 (or so) players off for QB, RB, and WR, maybe going with Matt Waldman's upside-down draft strategy would work. I'd get, say, Brandon Marshall and Mike Williams with my first two picks. By the time my third-round pick comes up, 29 running backs are off the board. Half the teams in the league have three RBs and I have one. I'd have to decide between guys like Joseph Addai, Marshawn Lynch, and Mikel Leshoure. I just Lepuked on my keyboard.

I went with Addai and Leshoure with my 3/4 turn picks. It's going to be very tough for me to pass on a RB with that first pick. Maybe it's the shiny object that the position represents. I don't believe in my ability to mine two pieces of gold out of the three RB roster slots I have left when I have dregs from which to select. Now if I can trade for those extra mid-round picks, I'd be able to hold onto an extra player or two until the season starts and depth charts start to shake out.

Fantasy files: Seeing past the hype

2011-07-21T21:18:00.002-04:00

If there's one good thing about tonight's news that the players might not ratify the new CBA, it's that I will not have to read another article about Ryan Mathews. I understand that Mathews broke a lot of fantasy teams last year. I know that he finished the year strong with a three-TD game against the Broncos to end the season. He scored a lot of touchdowns in a short amount of playing time. Just shut up.

Certain players are getting too much attention and hype. Perhaps this annoys me solely because I would like to obtain said players in my upcoming keeper draft. If Mathews is there with my 1.10 pick in a keeper league (one QB, RB, and WR kept per team), yeah, I'll probably take him. But if one more bastard talks about his long runs and deep, soulful eyes I might have to start tweeting about the debt ceiling or So You Think You Can Dance to maintain my sanity.

Tim Tebow's on this list too. Did you know, as countless articles have told me, that Tebow was the top scoring QB in the season's final three games? Why yes, I do realize that the sun's coming up tomorrow morning. Listen, gents. I have Peyton Manning in this keeper league. Because of this, I do not need to concern myself with a backup QB until most teams have selected a guy. Tebow would be the perfect backup in that if he blows up, he's trade bait, and if he sucks like an evangelical Christian trying to back up his beliefs with facts, he goes onto the waiver wire in the sky. Now he's probably in the middle of the QB2 pile and I'm going to end up with Jason Campbell.

I'll list some players besides Mathews and Tebow who are getting too much attention. Jacoby Ford has superstar potential, but not with punks like Jim Day taking him in the 6th round of mocks. Austin Collie and the Amazing Technicolor Concussion is another one. I know he was the #1 scoring PPR receiver when he got injured. He scored 40+ points on my dad's fantasy roster. Losing to your dad in fantasy football is worse than the Titans losing to the Broncos last year at home in what was most likely Kyle Orton's sole career comeback victory.

Did you know that Arian Foster played with a torn meniscus last year? All I know is he was steamed crap on my college fantasy team for almost four years and when I drafted him in my keeper league last year, the pick was ripped off the board because we have a four RB limit on our rosters. I've heard about 100 versions of the "Dwayne Bowe scored 13 touchdowns in nine games and can't maintain that pace". Are you sure? You mean this guy isn't Jerry Rice? Jimmy Graham inexplicably is in the top six of the deepest TE class I've ever seen. Sure, he can do it, but knowing the Saints you'll bench him for his 2 TD game and start him for his two-catch game.

No one's talking about Chris Johnson and how he was a top-five RB even though in half of his carries he got tackled as soon as he touched the ball because the Titans' offensive line forgot how to run block last year. We'll just let it slide that the former Titans' offensive line coach is now the head coach. Bruce Matthews came over from Houston so what you saw from Chris Johnson last year will be the floor for the rest of his career. No more screen passes with his back to the defense, please.

Take a look at guys who had low TD numbers last year. Chris Cooley caught a career-high 77 passes. He only had three touchdowns so he finished a somewhat blah seventh in TE scoring. He's not seeing fewer targets with the Redskins having nothing at wideout. And the good news about bad quarterbacks, which the Redskins promise to have in abundance, is they are more accurate on short throws. Brandon Marshall is another target. In his career he's never been stabbed by a girlfriend or wife during an NFL season. He averaged eight touchdowns in his last three Denver seasons. In Miami he had three in 2010. Expect him to reach closer to his 100-catch standards this year with at least six scores.

Ask Your Fantasy Football Expert: Eric from DLF

2011-07-16T17:50:00.009-04:00

"I have a feeling I won't be able to keep up w/ my timeline once FA actually hits...gonna be exciting."

Find previous Ask Your Fantasy Expert interviews.

With great power comes great responsibility. One man controls the Twitter feed for the dynasty fantasy football Web site Dynasty League Football, or DLF. Eric Dickens wields that power wisely. The best Twitter users combine their own content with highlighting the quality work of others. Eric is a retweeting/favoriting fool. Not a real fool, mind you, because who would want to talk to one of those?

Let's move on to the interview, shall we? All fantasy writers name-dropped will get a link to their Twitter feed. We'll keep with the theme of my questions/comments in Titan blue and Eric's in black.

How did you get into fantasy football writing?

I had been the commissioner for a local keeper fantasy league for several years and just got bored with setting lineups and waiting for the outcome. So I started picking a game of the week and writing a prediction article to go with it. From there, I just continued more writing for the specific league until I stumbled across DLF. I asked if they would consider letting a novice like myself write from time to time and they were just waiting for someone to ask.

You're a writer/Twitterer (lots of ers there) for DLF. How did the site get started? What's the goal of the site? Who are these crazy hotshots?

The site was actually started over 5 years ago by the three co-founders of DLF, Jeff Havelack, Ken Moody, and Ken Kelly. You can find out more about them here. The goal of the site is to be the premier source for dynasty league fantasy football information, strategy, and conversation. We want a dynasty owner to be able to have a place they call home and have access to the information they need to truly create a dynasty.

We appreciate the "crazy hotshots" label, but actually the account has been on Twitter for a while now, just under-used. Back in late March I began working as the Twitter voice for DLF and haven't looked back. My main goal is to not piss too many people off with my constant tweeting. [Zach note: that's Chet's job.]

Tell me about being the Twitter voice of DLF.

I love it! Interacting with crazy fans of both fantasy football and NFL teams lends itself to great conversation and debates. I try to use the account to do two things; help dynasty owners discover the DLF site and provide fantasy football information that gives them an advantage over their league-mates. The forum at DLF is an invaluable resource and the best forum I've found on the internet (and believe me, I've been surfing it since Al Gore invented it back in the 90s).

One of your first efforts with DLF was an interview with fantasy football legend Matt Waldman. How was that experience?

It was incredible. Matt is extremely gracious with his time and football knowledge. He made it easy on me and provided some insightful info you can only get from watching tape like a madman.

You've been "pimping" a Dynasty Essentials Guide for a couple of months. Sell me and my audience in the low dozens on it. What does this guide provide?

A better question is what doesn't it provide. In all seriousness, it's over 230 pages of dynasty football goodness that will pave the way for many championships. It covers everything from separate rankings for contending versus rebuilding teams, team capsules on all 32 teams, cheat sheets, dynasty debates, strategy articles, rookie rankings, IDP rankings, etc. At $6.99, the Dynasty Essential Guide may be the best investment you could make as a dynasty owner.

I’ve been talking it up on Twitter quite a bit, but frankly I don’t really want my league-mates to buy it for competitive reasons. If you are new to dynasty or been doing it for 10+ years, the DLF Guide is a great resource.

All right, enough about the site. Let's talk about Mr. Eric Dickens.

Tell me about your real-life NFL rooting interests.

I hesitate to say anything, because ultimately dynasty football shouldn’t have anything to do with who you root for. When I’m speaking as the twitter voice of DLF, I try to remain as impartial as possible. [Zach note: Wuss] When I’m not in that role, I’m rooting for the Denver Broncos. I fell in love with them when I was 4 years old and the rivalry it created between my dad and I probably fueled the fire. [Additional Zach note: now I pity you. Wait, the Broncos beat the Titans last year. Never mind.]

Where do you live?

I live in Liberty, Missouri which is a suburb of Kansas City. I've lived here my whole life with the exception of a couple of years spent in Chattanooga, Tennessee. When I look in the crystal ball though, I can see myself twittering from a beach in my near future.

Tell me about your day job.

I currently work in the insurance business, while going back to school to become a high school history teacher and coach. It took me a few years working in the corporate world to figure out my passions in life.

Do you have long-term goals with your fantasy football writing?

Absolutely! Long term, I'd love to have more time to write while teaching, especially with summers off. I would love to get paid for it, but if that never becomes a reality, I'll just "suffer" doing it for fun. Dynasty fantasy football is my thing, so DLF is a perfect fit for me as a writer/contributor.

How do you deal, as an in-demand fantasy expert, with all the league requests? Do you have a limit on leagues?

This is a great question. Up until now, I haven't had people banging down my door, although I have been asked a few times more than Fantasy Douche. Recently, with the DLF account, I've had more requests than I can possibly say yes to. I've had to say "no" more times than I care to, limiting myself to just three dynasty leagues and my local redraft league I've been a part of for years. I've also recently joined a crazy upside-down redraft league called "Race to the Bottom" headed up by EyeoftheGator.

The spouse question: Does your wife/gf/sig other have any issues with your obsession?

Yes, my wife is not the biggest fan of dynasty football, although it was just a few years ago she met me in the fantasy Super Bowl as the clear favorite to win it all. Now that you mention it, maybe the two Super Bowl losses in three years to her husband was the breaking point. Actually, she's very supportive of my passion, while being equally disdainful of the time it takes away from the family.

Football or sex: which do you think of more?

They say a tie is like kissing your sister, but can we all agree that we root for overtime anyway? I'm not sure what that means, but back to the question, can I say both?

Tell a story about a fantasy regret. Bad trade, bad draft pick, move you thought about making but did not, something on that realm.

I passed up a trade early last summer where I would have given Greg Jennings for Vernon Davis, Mike Wallace, a 2nd-round pick, and a future 1st-round pick. Okay, so enough about that.

Tell a story about a fantasy win. Great trade that worked out.

One of my personal favorites occurred early last year where I gave Mike Sims-Walker and Beanie Wells for Roddy White and a future 1st-round pick. Roddy helped lead the way to a dynasty championship.

Where are you on the usual football Sunday? Is there a man cave?

Actually, kind of the opposite of a man cave. If I stay home, it's a family room in the attic with the flat-screen TV on as well as my laptop open beside me. The man cave is still a few years off. Luckily, I have plenty of buddies with man caves that live close.

Tell me about a hobby/interest outside of football.

Hold on, other than sex? Seriously, I really enjoy almost every sport, but not to the level of football. I get pretty involved with March Madness, but sports are the main hobby, outside of time with my kids.

Which fantasy writers are on your must-read list?

I could probably fill several pages with names, but some of my very favorites are Matt Waldman, Bryan Fontaine, Sigmund Bloom, Chris Wesseling, the aforementioned Fantasy Douche, and of course the fellas at DLF.

Another shoutout should go to Fantasy Taz, who has been extremely kind to me and DLF, as well as supporting anyone wanting to get into the field of fantasy football. All the guys at Pro Football Focus do a tremendous job as well. Two of my recent favorites are Rumford Johnny and Ryan Forbes, who manage to be incredibly insightful and wonderfully crude at the same time.

Better fantasy experience: Long-term league with friends or fantasy "expert" league?

While a fantasy "expert" league may provide better competition, there's nothing like the ribbing and trash-talking of a long-term league with friends. Especially if the league includes your wife.

Tell me about any plugs that you'd like. Podcasts, sites that you write for, expert leagues, anything.

The site you'll find me spending most of my time at is DLF, but we do have a new sister site that makes it very easy to find tons of fantasy football info with just one click, Fantasynewsnetwork.com.

Other than DLF and FNN, you'll hopefully be hearing from me on a few podcasts in the near future, including Jim Day's Twitter Roundtable, the Big F'n Dynasty Show, and 2MugsFF podcast.

Thanks to Eric for answering my questions. Follow him on Twitter.

Read previous Ask Your Fantasy Expert interviews.

Andy Miley

Jim "Taz" Day

Chet Gresham

Bryan Fontaine

Eric Yeomans

I Hate JJ Redick

Fantasy Douche

Ask Your Fantasy Football Expert: Fantasy Douche

2011-07-10T13:34:00.013-04:00

"It's fun to check the adsense in my RSS feed and count how many ads for Summer's Eve are running."

Find previous Ask Your Fantasy Expert interviews.

A name says so much, especially when trying to forge an identity in the fantasy football realm. One of the newest voices in the biz, Fantasy Douche, debuted in May and shortly will have 100 posts, all of them chock full of fantasy goodness. Unlike the rest of my interviewees, Fanatasy Douche would like to avoid a real name. For purposes of this space, I'll refer to him as Mr. Douche.

All fantasy writers name-dropped will get a link to their Twitter feed. We'll keep with the theme of my questions/comments in Titan blue and Mr. Douche's in Bruce Wayne black.

How did you get into fantasy football writing?

I realized that I was obsessive about the research end of it and a lot of that research was going to waste because I didn’t even want to talk to my league mates about what I was finding (competitive reasons). So I figured I needed some outlet for my thoughts. I think it also helps to have to put your thesis down in writing as it makes you demand more from yourself. I basically figured it was a good outlet that would make me better at managing my own team.

Tell me about fantasydouche.com. Reasoning for the name and the concept behind the site.

The name’s primary purpose is "let's not take ourselves too seriously here".

The concept behind the site is basically that the more you think about fantasy sports, the more fun it is. So why not take that to its ridiculous extreme and write investment theses for each player.

Tell me about your real-life NFL rooting interests.

I seriously don’t have any rooting interests. I don’t have a team. I think I actually end up rooting for teams and guys who I think are getting a raw deal from the press. Going into the Super Bowl I was very pro-Green Bay because I didn’t want Aaron Rodgers to endure what LeBron James is going through right now. I didn’t want to have to hear X number of more years of "Well, Brett won a Super Bowl and Aaron can’t win one."

You're very analytical in your approach to fantasy football. How do you combine the stats with the content-y goodness that will help your readers succeed with their teams?

My whole outlook basically boils down to "get a discount". Get a discount when you draft, get a discount when you trade. Get something for less than its inherent value and you’ll be ok. So all of my analysis is based on getting to that point. I think too many fantasy players try to predict the future perfectly, instead of relying on just getting things cheaply. Most of the time when you try to predict the future too perfectly, you end up pricing yourself out of upside (see Ryan Mathews and CJ Spiller last year). You have no cushion for things to go wrong. Because fantasy football is based on having an imperfect view of the future, we have to make sure we have some margin of error.

Where do you live?

California.

Tell me about your day job.

I use a pseudonym because I do have an actual career that I wouldn't want to affect with my fantasy sports writing. I will say that I am in an investment related business that requires a lot of the same analysis as fantasy football.

Do you have long-term goals with your fantasy football writing?

My long-term goal right now is to get more stuff right than I get wrong. My analysis has worked for me because I only have to draft the top 10 or so value ideas that I come up with. But if you're writing about every player, that's a lot more to handle. So for now I just hope I get more right than I get wrong. I believe that if you study enough, you can pick out the value situations, so I just try to do that.

How do you deal, as an in-demand fantasy expert, with all the league requests? Do you have a limit on leagues?

I haven't received a single invite to be in a league. So thanks for underlining my failure in this department. I am now going up to the top of the building and jumping off. [Zach note: You're welcome. Listen, fantasy experts reading this. Why would you not want to take on Fantasy Douche? For shame.]

The spouse question: Does your wife/gf/sig other have any issues with your obsession?

When she walks by and sees me with the spreadsheets open, she just rolls her eyes. She says I have to go to the bar on Sunday to "root for my guys". She comes to the bar sometimes but she brings a book.

Football or sex: which do you think of more?

I don't think about either of them as much as I think about world peace and how children are the future. You know, constructive shit like that.

Tell a story about a fantasy regret. Bad trade, bad draft pick, move you thought about making but did not, something on that realm.

I have one that's been haunting me for a few years. Before DeAngelo Williams went on his legendary run in 2008, I saw that his schedule was going to be cake (I want to say pre-Week 9). I had Larry Johnson and knew that the guy who owned DWill would do a deal straight up DWill for LJ. But I played the other owner with a regular season pot on the line in the same week that LJ had a really easy matchup. So I didn't make the trade because I was afraid that LJ would have a huge week against me (which was probably not that likely anyway).

DWill's entire career looks different because of the run he went on at the end of 2008.

Tell a story about a fantasy win. Great trade that worked out.

My favorite is when a trade that I get a lot of shit about turns out to be the good side of the trade. In a keeper league that I'm in I got a lot for LT as the wheels were starting to come off the bus. I also did something similar last year in the preseason when I traded Randy Moss and got Jamaal Charles in return (Charles counts as a very late round pick in this league and Moss was counting as a 2nd round pick). I think when I drafted Arian Foster last year I got the "a little early for sleepers" comment as well.

Where are you on the usual football Sunday? Is there a man cave?

I like to go to a bar where every game will be on and I don't have to make any food. There's nothing like getting the check at the end of the day and realizing you had breakfast, lunch and dinner at the same place.

Tell me about a hobby/interest outside of football.

Two words. Needle point. Or is that one word? Needlepoint. Needle point. I can't decide which one looks right.

Which fantasy writers are on your must-read list?

I like the Football Outsiders guys a lot. I also like the FootballGuys a lot too. For me it either has to go very numbers based, or very scouting based. I like the numbers because they make sense to me. I like the scouting because it's something I'm not capable of so it fills a void. I find the Lammey/Bloom/Waldman podcast to be very entertaining if for no other reason than you know you'll get at least one Lammey porn reference per podcast.

Better fantasy experience: Long-term league with friends or fantasy "expert" league?

Sure wish I knew... sure wish I knew.

Tell me about any plugs that you'd like. Podcasts, sites that you write for, expert leagues, anything.

Just fantasydouche.com. Almost all of the articles are free for a few days, so you can read everything on the site if you're just diligent about checking regularly. The only things that require a subscription are the draft guide and archived content. I'm also thinking about summarizing all of the posts into an ebook that would be free to subscribers and that non-subscribers could buy through Amazon for a couple of dollars.

Also, if you want a free Season Pass there are a few easy ways to get one by supporting the site. You can either support the site on Twitter, or write the best comment of the day. Rules for those promotions are available at this link.

Thanks to Douche, Mr. Douche for answering my questions. Follow him on Twitter.

Read previous Ask Your Fantasy Expert interviews.

Andy Miley

Jim "Taz" Day

Chet Gresham

Bryan Fontaine

Eric Yeomans

I Hate JJ Redick

That Podcasty Feeling

2011-07-03T13:32:00.003-04:00

I a fan of podcasts. When I discovered a few years ago that Adam Carolla had a radio show and that its contents were dumped into itunes every day, I was hooked. Pretty soon thereafter I discovered The Audible, and my podcast life would never be the same.

I gave fantasy writing a whirl in 2005 with one Jim Day. It was a one-year experiment, and I discovered that while I enjoyed the writing, there were plenty of others who did it better and I decided to be a consumer of the content.

In the past two months, I entered the arena again. There are enough fantasy writers out there, and the audience numbers are in the millions. My blog vision was to interview the writers/experts, possibly get to know a little of the person behind the opinions, and get into this vast fantasy football community.

Last night was the pinnacle. Jim invited me on his podcast, the Twitter Roundtable. I started listening to the show when Jim and Andy Miley co-hosted. It was a chaotic but fun two-hour show. Andy moved on, and shortly will have a podcast of his own.

I wasn't sure if I was up for the roundtable portion of the show. Sure, I play in two long-running leagues and consume half a dozen fantasy articles a day, but I'm no expert. The open slot was for the second hour so I took it. At the last minute, Jim had an opening in the first hour so I jumped on the opportunity.

It was a sputtering start. I had my answers prepared for Jim's questions and called in. While I was on hold, I decided to test my mute button. It disconnected me. I got back on and Jim introduced me.

I think there was one question about the blog before Jim hit me with a question on Mike Vick. I responded quickly but Jim took over. From listening to thousands of hours of podcasts I know that three seconds of silence sounds like five minutes. There would be no silence with Jim in the room. I wasn't going to interrupt, which meant my chance to talk would be brief.

Things were a bit more organized during the second hour when Jana and Scott from Fantasy Sherpa and the 4th and Inches podcast (woo hoo, another podcast to listen to) joined the call. Taz and I got into an argument about Vernon Davis versus Jimmy Graham. Jim mentioned that Davis didn't have a QB and I tried to counter with Jim's long-running man-crush on one Alex Smith. I couldn't get a word in against the wily veteran.

One thing I learned from this experience was that I've been very cautious in my ranking of players this year. I give a lot of weight to guys who have done it before. One key to fantasy success is to diversify and take chances. I drafted Hakeem Nicks in the fifth round of a redraft last year and he was fairly unproven. I have the 10th pick in a keeper league, and taking Ryan Mathews/Jahvid Best is looking more and more intriguing.

It was a hectic 75 minutes. I was nervous for the first five minutes, especially when the focus is on me and my tiny blog. After that, when I knew the questions and had good answers, I relaxed. A couple of my canned humorous responses fell flat. Mentioning that I own a Pacman Jones jersey got a few laughs, along with my reference to Tom Brady and Tony Romo being "cute". As usual, I'm funnier when it's off the cuff.

The best part about throwing myself back into the fantasy scene is the feeling of community. Because just about everyone doing it does it because of passion, there aren't a bunch of rivalries or bad feelings. People who are in it are in for love, or a mental imbalance.

Thank you for your time and attention. Stay tuned for the next Ask Your Fantasy Football Expert, starring the man behind the site ihatejjredick.com.

Ask Your Fantasy Football Expert: Phil from ihatejjredick.com

2011-07-01T18:40:00.006-04:00

"Baltimore's Best Sports Blog. The only time we cheer for the Yankees is when they play the Steelers."

Find previous Ask Your Fantasy Football Expert interviews.

For this episode of Ask Your Fantasy Football Expert, we're going to try a slightly different direction. I'll ask pretty much the same questions because I'm lazy, but this fellow is a different kind of cat. He has a site dedicated to fantasy football and other subjects. The sound you just heard was Andy Miley's howl of protest.

This week features the mad genius behind the site ihatejjredick.com. Phil was kind enough answer my questions.

All fantasy writers name-dropped will get a link to their Twitter feed. We'll keep with the theme of my questions/comments in Titan blue and Phil's answers in Baltimore, not Pittsburgh black. There's a difference.

How did you get the idea for ihatejjredick.com?

I was writing part time for another site and needed a name for their sports blog. I asked some coworkers and one of them suggested "I Hate JJ Redick" since it was a college site and people in Maryland vividly remember what he did to the Terps while he was at Duke. The name just stuck. I think it definitely grabs people's attention but hopefully people stick around to actually read the stuff on the site. I don't think I've ever actually written anything about the guy.

Tell me about your real-life NFL rooting interests.

Well I'm a diehard Ravens fan. Was never a huge football fan until they moved to Baltimore but I’ve been hooked ever since. Don't own any purple camo and I plan on keeping it that way. I’m diehard but I'm not a homer. If a player does something stupid or the team isn't playing well I'm going to voice my opinion.

Are you in Baltimore?

I'm about 15 minutes outside of the city. Halfway between Baltimore and Annapolis.

From a guy who learned all he has about Baltimore from The Wire and Ray Lewis, what's a selling point for an out-of-towner?

Honestly if I wasn't from Baltimore I would never visit. Not that it's a bad city but there isn't really anything unique that draws in tourists. That's why I love it. If you aren’t from here you won't understand the culture of Baltimore. It's a complete blue collar city that loves to drink and watch sports. Federal Hill, Canton, Fells Point are some great areas for restaurants and drinks.

Tell me about your day job.

I train midget wrestlers.

Do you have long-term goals with your site?

The long-term goal is to make it my full-time job. I want I Hate JJ Redick to be the site people visit for everything. Sports coverage, fantasy sports, movies, music, tv, food, gaming, hot chicks, etc. Basically a virtual version of Maxim that doesn't suck.

Who picks your Dynasty Database players?

I pick them. I try to find players who will contribute not only in 2011 but beyond. On Twitter when you are talking to fantasy football experts all day all sleepers seem like no-brainers but we want to help the average fantasy football owner win their league. Bottom line.

The spouse question: Does your wife/gf/sig other have any issues with your obsession?

Yea she dreads football season. My trick is to let her do whatever she wants the other 36 Sundays a year so when football season rolls around I can relax and not worry. She is pretty understanding once I tell her any money I win will be spent on her.

Football or sex: which do you think of more?

Oddly enough I think of sex with footballs a lot.

All right, as a male I have to ask, what gave you the idea of Six to Midnight?

A majority of our readers are male so as a fellow male I know how much we love to stare at attractive, semi-nude women. The Six to Midnight spot has become very popular but we are always looking for suggestions. The term Six to Midnight comes from Jonah Hill in Forgetting Sarah Marshall.

Tell a story about a fantasy regret. Bad trade, bad draft pick, move you thought about making but did not, something on that realm.

Don't really remember this but my biggest fantasy regret according to Yahoo's records was taking Joseph Addai over LT back in 2007. I guess I thought after his monstrous 2006 that LT would struggle. Man was I wrong.

Tell a story about a fantasy win. Great trade that worked out.

When Adrian Peterson was a rookie I had a feeling he would be a stud. I got laughed at for drafting him in the 4th or 5th round but I wanted him and didn't want to lose out. 1,300 yards and 12 touchdowns later they weren’t laughing much.

Where are you on the usual football Sunday? Is there a man cave?

No man cave yet but I'm working on that...literally. I'm writing a piece for the site about my ultimate man cave. I'm pretty easy to please. Just give me my Sony Bravia, some beers, my iPad, some pizza or Chinese food, and I'm a happy man.

Tell me about a hobby/interest outside of football.

Well I love traveling, trying new things wherever I go. The site takes up most if not all my free time but it's worth it. I love writing and entertaining people. Hopefully people like reading it as much as I like writing it.

Which fantasy writers are on your must-read list?

I love the guys over at CBS Fantasy Sports. They do a great podcast that actually entertains me unlike Matthew Berry who can talk for an hour without saying a damn thing. Chet from Razzball is great. So is Clint from You Heard It Here First Fantasy Football. Just discovered All Purpose Roto and Go Ahead Score. Really great sites. Bryan Fontaine from PFF is also great. Plus I love just talking fantasy football with Ryan Burns from Football Sickness. Guy knows his shit.

Better fantasy experience: Long-term league with friends or fantasy "expert" league?

That's really tough…..I've been doing a league with friends that can’t be beat. I've known these guys literally since kindergarten so it’s really cool. We do the draft live poolside at my friend Mike’s place which turns into an all day drinking, eating, shit talking fest. The competition isn't as good as the "expert" league but it's a lot more fun and that's what fantasy football is all about.

Tell me about any plugs that you'd like. Podcasts, sites that you write for, expert leagues, anything.

I Hate JJ Redick is about to launch a new redesigned version of the site that's going to look sweet. It will be easier to read and allow us to fully customize it.

We'll have a section for Sports, one for Fantasy Sports, and one for College Sports. Then our "Behind The Bleachers" section, which is where our female bloggers will post stuff. The "Six to Midnight" category is our weekly tribute to beautiful women. Finally, I'm really excited about our "Off The Court" section. That's where our posts about movies, music, TV, tech gadgets, Food Porn, etc. Should be up and running in a few weeks.

Thanks to Phil for answering my questions. Follow him on Twitter.

Read previous Ask Your Fantasy Expert interviews.

Andy Miley

Jim "Taz" Day

Chet Gresham

Bryan Fontaine

Eric Yeomans

Ask Your Fantasy Football Expert: Eric Yeomans

2011-06-22T21:37:00.019-04:00

"Speaking of delusional, I drafted Aqib Talib in the IDP-only experts league. My team will be able to compete in shootouts."

Find previous Ask Your Fantasy Expert interviews.

While most of the fantasy experts I've interviewed so far are old enough to have a shot at getting Social Security, I reached high and young for my latest interviewee. Eric Yeomans is a recent college graduate and a Canadian. Also unlike the previous fantasy football folk, Eric has ventured out into other fantasy sports.

All fantasy writers name-dropped will get a link to their Twitter feed. We'll keep with the theme of my questions/comments in Titan blue and Eric's in Dirty Bird black. That reference will make sense in a couple of questions.

How did you get into fantasy football writing?

I got into writing last summer during the NFL preseason after I realized that I knew more than these so-called experts.

I realized I have been playing for a while now, and have seen many different experts' opinions and I disagreed with some of what they were saying, as most people do. So I decided to just start my own writing so that I could express my own views and opinions, and hopefully help anybody who was willing to listen to some of my wild and crazy predictions.

After I started writing, I was offered a spot in one of Chet Gresham’s expert auction mock drafts as kind of the amateur outsider. After that, Mike Clay of Pro Football Focus was looking for IDP writers, and I jumped on the offer. As you know, I've been there since.

Tell me about your real-life NFL rooting interests.

I’m a big Atlanta Falcons fan, which started back in the days of Jamaal Anderson and the Dirty Birds. I jumped on that bandwagon when I was eight years old, and haven't looked back.

Let me get this straight. You write fantasy football, hockey, and baseball? I get the hockey thing since you're in Canada, but baseball too? Tell me how you do it all.

Haha well if you were to ask Mike Clay, or Evan Marx and Alan Harrison over at The Fantasy Fix, I definitely struggle to find time some weeks. But they’re all really understanding of my schedules and commitments, and are great guys to work for.

I kind of get swept up by either one or two of the sites, and really focus on those during the busy times of their respective season, but I’m really trying to work on balancing my work at all four of the ones I’m currently at.

With baseball, that sport has always really been my passion my whole life. Plus I’m a huge numbers geek, so I just love the level of statistics that it goes into.

Where do you live?

Great question. I’m currently homeless (no joke), as I’m back and forth between Vancouver and Calgary right now. So make sure you think twice before you tell the homeless man on the street that you have no change to spare, because he could be able to offer you some pretty solid fantasy sports advice in exchange.

Tell me about your day job, although it sounds like you just got out of college.

That’s right; I just wrapped up university schooling. I have a double major in finance and economics from Simon Fraser University, which is the first university from outside of the United States to be a part of the NCAA. And for any employers out there currently hiring, I’m available!

I’m actually exploring some opportunities right now in Vancouver, and hope to get into a finance role somewhere. Then I can really become a legitimate fantasy football writer, as I’m sure you’re aware that a majority of the industry works in the business/finance sector.

Do you have long-term goals with your fantasy football writing?

Long-term, I’d love to be offered a position that would allow me to concentrate solely on writing. Realistically though, I plan on landing a position that will pay me enough to make it worth my time to write, and can allow me to buy a cup of coffee every morning.

How do you deal, as an in-demand fantasy expert, with all the league requests? Do you have a limit on leagues?

I’m just learning to deal with that now I guess, and we’ll see how it ends up. I’ve found that regardless of the amount of leagues I’m in, I usually end up only having one or two that I really spend a lot of time on, and the rest just kind of get pushed to the wayside. I still make sure I’m competitive in all, because there’s nothing worse than the team with no owner, but I can admit to not putting my full effort into some of my leagues.

I don’t know if I could see myself in more than 6-8 leagues of any sport, because as you mentioned, I’m involved in all of the four major sports (baseball, football, hockey, and basketball). At some points in the year I need to be able to make time for three different sports with multiple leagues in each. It definitely adds up.

The spouse question: Does your wife/gf/sig other have any issues with your obsession?

Oh my girlfriend hates it, but still supports it. My flight was delayed on the day of one of my drafts last year, and started while I was driving home, so I had her on the phone and talked her through the auction draft. So for all of you in that league, you got out-drafted by my girlfriend who wanted to draft Ryan Grant and Jamaal Charles, because she thought their names were cool.

Football or sex: which do you think of more?

Haha I have no comment, but I think my friend Ludacris can best answer that question: "I wanna get you in the Georgia Dome on the fifty yard line while the dirty birds kick for three."

Tell a story about a fantasy regret. Bad trade, bad draft pick, move you thought about making but did not, something on that realm.

I don’t have any regrets, I never make a mistake haha.

I was in a football league last year that I ended up winning, but the whole season was spent in regret of leaving a significant amount of money on the table in an auction. I had budgeted a portion of my money to the IDP players and ended up getting them at an extremely discounted price midway through the auction. It was in a deep, 18-team league, and my WRs were really thin. I always looked back at the draft and saw how I could have been able to draft Hakeem Nicks with my leftover cash, and that haunted me the entire year.

Tell a story about a fantasy win. Great trade that worked out.

A great win came in the league I was just speaking of. Needing WR help, I traded Tony Romo for Brett Favre and Marques Colston on the eve of the Randy Moss to Minnesota trade. We all know how that turned out for both quarterbacks, so it basically ended up me just getting Marques Colston for nothing, in hindsight. I then went on to win a Shaun Hill/Rex Grossman-led championship, in the ugliest fantasy football win in history.

Where are you on the usual football Sunday? Is there a man cave?

I wish! Unless you consider the 8x15 dorm room I’ve been living in for the last four football seasons a "man cave" (which my girlfriend says it smells like sometimes). [Zach note: My man cave smells like a combination of sandalwood, jasmine, and the blood of my fallen enemies.]

In Canada, you don't get the greatest football coverage, so I usually had Fox or NBC on during whatever games were on and it was background noise while I was working on my various school projects. It’s tough to stay on top of fantasy leagues, fantasy writing, and school work while working a part-time job, so I had to kind of multi-task like that.

Tell me about a hobby/interest outside of football.

You can have a hobby/interest outside of football?

Which fantasy writers are on your must-read list?

[Zach note: Eric brown-noses the four fantasy experts previously interviewed in this space. As my grandpappy once said, flattery will get you everywhere.] Andrew Holm and Chris Carbonell. All for various reasons that there's not enough time to get into.

Better fantasy experience: Long-term league with friends or fantasy "expert" league?

Anybody who answers expert league is a liar. At times the level of competition is definitely a lot more challenging, but I also think lots of experts tend to fall into a level of group think about different players and strategies that leads to some interesting draft results.

Playing with a group of friends is far more enjoyable, as the competition becomes personal, you can have interesting and embarrassing side-bets, and the trash talk knows no bounds.

I've been fortunate enough to build some good relationships with many in the industry like Jim, Andy, and Chet, and consider leagues with them to fall into the friends category. But I still host my annual football league that's been running since I started playing fantasy sports, and nothing has been able to come close to beating that experience.

Tell me about any plugs that you'd like. Podcasts, sites that you write for, expert leagues, anything.

With the NFL season looking like more and more of a possibility, I’m going to be getting back into my weekly Monday Morning Cornerback and Pick-Six articles at PFF. Also make sure to get your hands on that PFF draft guide, where I offer some insight on quarterbacks and tab Mark Sanchez and Chad Henne as strong back-up quarterbacks with breakout potential. Along with that craziness, I also write the occasional piece that goes against the grain, like labeling Aaron Rodgers a bust and why you should avoid the entire Green Bay offense this year, and have a tentative piece in the works about why you should own Beanie Wells, which is awaiting the opening of free agency.

In terms of expert leagues, the one I’m most excited about and will be the most interesting to follow is the PFF IDP-only Experts league, which has some of the best IDP gurus in the industry playing in that. No offensive players, only the defensive side of the ball. It should be fun.

Thanks to Eric for answering my questions. Despite the lack of "eh" in his answers, I still believe that he's authentically Canadian. Follow him on Twitter.

Read previous Ask Your Fantasy Expert interviews.

Andy Miley

Jim "Taz" Day

Chet Gresham

Bryan Fontaine

Ask Your Fantasy Football Expert: Bryan Fontaine

2011-06-19T10:13:00.013-04:00

"The Patriots (2004) now have the longest championship drought amongst the Boston sports teams."

Find previous Ask Your Fantasy Expert interviews.

Bryan Fontaine? More like Bryan Fontastic. Some fantasy writers tell you what you already know. Kenny Britt is a moron. How rich and compelling. Bryan is going much deeper, using his statistical know-how to dig up this year's Peyton Hillis or Brandon Lloyd.

Half of the dynamic duo that is dynastyblitz.com and Dynasty Editor/Senior Writer for the stats-heavy site Pro Football Focus, this insurance company manager by day lives for the pigskin. If writing wasn't enough, he recently launched Quick Snap, a series of short podcasts targeting important fantasy concerns.

Bryan gave me a lot of words, so let's go. All fantasy writers name-dropped will get a link to their Twitter feed. We'll keep with the theme of my questions/comments in Titan blue and Bryan's in Boston Bruin black. Yeah, we're going all bandwagon.

How did you get into fantasy football writing?

I figured I was spending so much time and effort on my own rankings that I should share what I came up with so others could benefit. It all started with my own blog RookieBlitz.com back in June 2009 and it has just taken off from there thanks to Twitter for the most part. Working with Jim Day helped get my name out there and then later working with Mike Clay and Andy Miley.

Tell me about your real-life NFL rooting interests.

I have been a lifelong New England Patriots fan. I do not think I have missed many games since 1993 when we had Drew Bledsoe at QB. The Packers have always been my second favorite team, especially in the mid-90’s when they seemingly went head-to-head with the Cowboys each year in the playoffs.

According to Miley, you are also from New Hampshire. Do you not like being warm?

I absolutely hate winter and I hate snow. [Zach note: Could have fooled us.] However, I would take snow and the cold over hurricanes, floods, earthquakes and anything else mother nature could throw at us.

You're huge at Pro Football Focus, but you also decided to start your own fantasy site, dynastyblitz.com with Andy Miley. Are you on multiple sites to reach a larger audience, or are you trying different things with the sites?

Great question. I am a self-proclaimed stat geek. Everything we do at Pro Football Focus is stats-oriented and it is a great fit for me. Having Dynasty Blitz is a great place to share my NFL Draft thoughts and have more freedom to write about many other things. Andy and I had some fun covering the college all-star games this year, and for some reason our reviews of the ESPN All-Star Challenge drew in tons of traffic.

How do you make a story that's so stats-centric like your recent The Hillis Factor and The Lloyd Factor a must-read for fantasy geeks such as myself?

As I mentioned earlier, I am a stat geek. I am not the best writer in the world, but I think I do a good job with rankings and finding a new way to measure common stats. Last year I came up with the metrics of targets per snap and fantasy points per opportunity (FP divided by pass routes run and rushing attempts). What I always try to do instead of just throw tons of stats at the wall and see what sticks is try to find things that are actually useful to fantasy owners.

Tell me more about the Quick Snap podcast series. What made you want to host a podcast with your PFF cohorts?

The Quick Snap podcast is a new feature. Podcasting is becoming more popular for fantasy football diehards and there are tons of great shows out there already. Rather than try to compete with the 30- and 60-minute shows, I wanted to create a show that people could listen to on the fly and get relevant information quickly without having to wade through banter and time-fillers. I am the main host of the show, but as you mentioned, we have the flexibility to bring in other staff writers to talk about their area of expertise.

Do you have long-term goals with your fantasy football writing?

Not particularly. I certainly don’t do it for the money (starting my third fantasy season of writing I’ve earned $0.00). I think it would be cool to get a check someday for something I wrote. I have never tried to compete with the top experts who can write about football for their career, especially since it’s just a hobby for me. I do not think I am the best out there and I try to stay humble, but I do hope that my work can help some people out there win league championships.

How do you deal, as an in-demand fantasy expert, with all the league requests? Do you have a limit on leagues?

I do try to limit the leagues I participate in but I don’t set a limit. I have had the chance to compete with some people I consider the best in the business the past few years. I am more selective in the leagues I join now. People try to gun for me in the non-expert leagues I am in. If those same people only knew that there is not much difference between them and myself as they think.

The spouse question: Does your wife/gf/sig other have any issues with your obsession?

My wife knows and understands my obsession with football. She also happens to be one hell of an editor and proofreads a lot of what I write before I publish it. She has her own team in our local redraft league and she really gets into it.

Football or sex: which do you think of more?

Sex. [Zach note: Finally an honest guy.]

Tell a story about a fantasy regret. Bad trade, bad draft pick, move you thought about making but did not, something on that realm.

I love rookie drafts, it one of the reasons I have been playing in multiple dynasty leagues since 2004. Most of my bad moves revolve around players I was completely wrong on. Some players I thought were going to be superstars: Craig "Buster" Davis, Brady Quinn, Brandon Jackson, Brian Brohm, Donald Brown, Anthony Gonzalez etc.

Tell a story about a fantasy win. Great trade that worked out.

Probably too many to remember but in one dynasty league, I traded Vince Young for Aaron Rodgers back in July 2008.

Where are you on the usual football Sunday? I assume there's a man cave.

Most often, my wife and I watch NFL Redzone together with the laptop streaming fantasy scores. Who could ask for anything more?

Tell me about a hobby/interest outside of football.

Football consumes most of my available free time but my other big interest is movies. I grew up reading Marvel Comics, so I love all the Marvel movies the past few years. I have already seen Thor and X-Men: First Class this summer. To further prove my geekiness, I just pre-ordered the Lord of the Rings Extended Edition Blu-ray box set.

Which fantasy writers are on your must-read list?

My favorite writer is easily Matt Waldman; I will read anything he writes. Some of my other favorites include Sigmund Bloom, Matt Schauf, and Chris Wesseling. Even if I did not work with Mike Clay at PFF Fantasy, I’d follow all of his stuff. Nobody works harder than him.

Better fantasy experience: Long-term league with friends or fantasy "expert" league?

I would have to say long-term league with friends. While expert leagues are fun, most experts are in way too many leagues and lose interest once their team falls out of contention or after the draft has occurred. I would rather trash talk with friends when I see them. I probably focus most of my effort on my home redraft league than any other I am in.

Bryan declined multiple opportunities to get additional plugs. It could be because he's a nice guy, or he already mentioned them all and needed to get back to stalking Danny Woodhead. Find him on Twitter.

Click to read previous Ask Your Fantasy Expert interviews

Andy Miley

Jim "Taz" Day

Chet Gresham

Ask Your Fantasy Football Expert: Chet Gresham

2011-06-11T16:12:00.013-04:00

The following quotes are from the same man.

"I'm never one to miss the opportunity for a poop joke."

"I've always thought if there is a God then it is probably a flathead catfish burrowed down in the mud of some Kansas river."

Find previous Ask Your Fantasy Expert interviews.

When you think Chet, you think rugged good looks, deep soulful eyes and creative facial hair. Or you think of the character from Weird Science played by Bill Paxton. Chet Gresham is the main fantasy football writer for Razzball. With a name like that, the content has to be good. It's quite good. You have your analytical writers who throw stats and spreadsheets your way. You have your writers who like to throw in pop-culture references and be a stand-up comedian all the time. And you have Chet, who manages to combine both in an entertaining yet informative fashion.

We'll go back to the original font style for this one. Titan loser blue for me and manly black for Chet.

How did you get into fantasy football writing?

Well, the one good thing about fantasy writing is anyone with a fifth of a brain can do it (and sometimes less). So if you have an opinion and can spell opinion, then you can usually find a venue to spout that opinion. I started over at Sporting News forcing my opinion on others in the forums and then started my own crappy little blog and then eventually started writing for Razzball.

I like how you effectively combine humor with fantasy goodness in your columns. How did you figure out your writing style?

I think reading Grey Albright (real name redacted to protect the innocent) gave me permission to just let go. He founded Razzball, which started as just fantasy baseball and I found the site and was so entertained by his writing that I stuck around. I probably tried a little too hard to be funny in the beginning, which is the death of funny, but I think I've found a happy medium now.

Tell me about the Razzball setup, because I’m not intimately familiar with the history of the site and all that jazz.

So Grey started it and asked if anyone was up for heading a football site under Razzball and I thought I'd give it a shot. So we have baseball, football and now basketball sites. Curling is in the works.

Tell me about your real-life NFL rooting interests.

I try to stay neutral as far as my rooting interests in fantasy and in my writing, but underneath it all I'm a die-hard Steelers fan. Since moving to Chicago I have had a love/hate relationship with the Bears. I'm not sure why, but I've found myself rooting for them of late. It doesn't feel right.

Kudos to you for breaking the trend and going with the summer mustache. There should be a question in there somewhere, but I'm trying out to be a sideline reporter.

I'm a slave to fashion.

What gave you the idea for the Twitter 101 article?

I see a lot of people making fun of Twitter, saying things like, "I don't care what you ate for breakfast or how often you walk your cat!" so I just wanted to show that it's a lot more than that and you can actually learn something, especially about fantasy football.

Tell me about your day job, unless you actually are Doc Holliday in which case, I apologize.

I have a few of them. Besides gunslinging lunger dentist I teach college English and work for a non-profit here in Chicago. Both take away from my true love of bird watching.

Can you tell me more about the bird-watching? I like hearing about interests outside of football.

Birding was an obsession of mine for a long time. I broke the record for most bird species seen in one year in Kansas (yeah, it's a thing). I also put 40k miles on my car that year! I don't bird that hardcore anymore, but I know more about birds than I do football! And my summer job (for some reason they don't pay teachers much in this here U.S. of A.) is working outdoors restoring native vegetation in Lincoln Park so I get my bird fix that way as well.

With your English-teaching ways, do you do any non-fantasy writing?

Yeah, I got my MFA in Poetry at Columbia College Chicago (where I teach now). I still write poetry, but fantasy writing has taken up a lot of my time recently. [Zach note: read two sample poems here and here.] I sometimes throw some poetic devices in my fantasy writing to humor myself.

Do you have long-term goals with your fantasy football writing?

Not really. I've had a lot of fun with it and continue to. If it stops being fun I think I could walk away fairly easily. If it leads to more, that's cool too! But you can't get into this for money or you will die penniless and be thrown into a shallow grave if you're lucky.

Football or sex: which do you think of more?

I'll go with Rex Ryan and put the two together.

Which fantasy writers are on your must-read list?

Grey for baseball is my favorite fantasy writer period (but I doubt he's ever heard of Peyton Manning). For football I really enjoy checking out my friends on Twitter. There are too many to name them all here, but I like Chris Wesseling, Evan Silva, Matt Schauf, Sigmund Bloom, Mike Clay, and Jim Day to name just a few.

Better fantasy experience: Long-term league with friends or fantasy "expert" league?

I'd probably lean expert league since most of my real friends are poets and birders instead of football fans.

Tell me about any plugs that you'd like. Podcasts, sites that you write for, expert leagues, anything.

If you are into Chicago Sports check out Third Coast Sports and of course stop by Razzball. You can see what I'm up to by following me on Twitter.

Much thanks to Chet for taking the time to answer my questions and my follow-ups. I owe you a slug of rotgut if ever we meet. There will be another interview next Monday. Thanks for reading this week's edition of Ask Your Fantasy Expert.

Click to read the Ask Your Fantasy Expert interviews with Andy Miley and Jim "Taz" Day.

Fantasy files: Incremental gains

2011-06-11T09:19:00.003-04:00

Check out my interviews with real fantasy experts Andy Miley and Jim Day. Next Monday's Ask a Fantasy Expert interview will be with Chet Gresham of Razzball.

If I have an Achilles heel in my local keeper fantasy league, it's quarterback. I can't seem to draft a good one. In year one, which was the learning curve year, my priority first-round draftee was Mark Brunell. I picked up Kordell Stewart in the final week for the championship game. If fantasy teams retired numbers, I'd do it for him. When we had our first redraft, I waited until the eighth round and got Elvis Grbac. I had nothing and spent the entire offseason badgering the Daunte Culpepper owner to trade him. I got lucky when he inexplicably traded for Vick and I had an opening.

Redraft number two yielded me Jake Plummer. After three years of torment which had me keeping the likes of Vince Young and Derek Anderson, I finally pried Philip Rivers from another owner during his breakout year. He gave me a memorable year and a half and ended my embarrassing playoff-free run.

In the last redraft, the league went QB-crazy. I could have picked Rivers with the third pick in the second round. I waited, got Eli in the 7th. Eli's not bad, but while he seems to improve every year, he's never cracked the elite.

When you have trouble breaking a fantasy tie, let another factor do it for you. I have Darren McFadden and Frank Gore on my roster. Gore was a first-round pick and McFadden was my first waiver claim. That really doesn't matter now. McFadden has the youth but he's been injury-prone, did this just once and the team drafted a similar back in Taiwan Jones. Gore has been beastly since 2006 but can't finish a season and his injury really derailed my 2010 season. McFadden looks like a guy I could keep until our next redraft while I would need to draft a potential keeper for Gore.
At WR I have Hakeem Nicks, who looks like a top-five guy for a while, Miles Austin, Vincent Jackson, and Brandon Marshall. All three of the alternatives could be keepers and should put up great PPR numbers in 2011.

Another owner had Peyton Manning and Matt Ryan. They also have nothing at RB and WR. I thought why not throw a rare two for one deal. I offered Nicks and McFadden for Manning. I waited. Man did I wait. When you send a tweet nowadays, you feel out in the cold if you don't get a response in seven minutes. Five days later, I got the response. I was in.
If you have a weakness, find a way to counter it. I can't draft QBs or prefer not to draft them super early. Therefore, I have to trade for them. I took Peyton over Drew Brees recently because Peyton's track record is longer. 30 TDs is his floor, while when the dearly departed Eli gets 30 TDs, he has a party. Peyton also gets Austin Collie and Dallas Clark back.

Make incremental gains with your fantasy team and you will improve. Peyton over Eli is a few points per game. Peyton over Eli means instead of taking a backup QB early, I can wait until around QB22-24, which gives me a shot at a better supporting cast. I think Gore will outscore McFadden this year. The 49ers have a virtual disaster at QB but so they did last year as well. They also had two first-round rookie linemen who should improve. Losing Nicks will be a blow. His injuries are a concern. For now, Austin is my keeper at WR. The optimist can say that his numbers dipped when Romo was hurt. The pessimist says that Dez Bryant and Jason Witten will eat at his numbers. I can't love his eight games with four or fewer catches, including six with two, although only one of them came with Romo at QB.

I still have Eli as a final trade chip. One owner has Carson Palmer as his top returning QB. I should go make an offer right now.

Fantasy files: Is Britt Cheech or Chong?

2011-06-09T21:27:00.002-04:00

If you want some real content, check out my interviews with fantasy football legends Andy Miley and Jim Day.

Yeah, I'm angry at Kenny Britt. Take a look at his Pro Football Reference page and you see that he plead guilty to reckless driving on Wednesday and got arrested again on Thursday. Look at the page a little closer and see that on opening day 2011, assuming there is an opening day, he's still going to be 22 years old. Jake Locker is older than Britt.

Age does not justify stupidity. He's living a Cheech and Chong movie according to the arrest reports. The first time he ran from the cops. If he were a normal citizen, the felony charges probably would have stuck. He's a star athlete so the charges were reduced. That's a factor in him getting in trouble again without a doubt.

Is Britt the next Pacman? I think Pacman's behavior was more concerning, since they involved people getting shot at strip clubs. For all of Britt's off-field issues, none of them have included violence. All that has been involved to date is immaturity.

He'll probably get suspended. Remember how Dwayne Bowe found his next gear as a pro after attending Larry Fitzgerald's camp last year? Britt sure needs some tough love like that. While the rest of his teammates are attending makeshift practices, he's smoking his way through the summer.

One impressive note from the practices is that 7th round draft pick Zach Clayton chose to practice with his semi-teammates rather than join his Auburn national title squad at the White House. Clayton was the third DT drafted by the Titans so he has an uphill road to climb to make the roster. You better believe that Cam Newton and Nick Fairley were in Washington. Their roster spots are secure.

I joined one of Taz's countless mock drafts to keep the fantasy blood circulating. I got the 12 spot. When a draft is going somewhat slowly, it's good to have two picks in a row. At the first turn I took Larry Fitzgerald and Rashard Mendenhall. There were better PPR options like Matt Forte and Darren McFadden but I felt like Mendenhall is the man in Pittsburgh. He may only catch 15 balls but 320 carries and 10+ touchdowns can be written in ink. Fitzgerald had a disappointing 2010. He still caught 90 passes. At the turn you have to anticipate what the league's going to do in the 23 picks before your next selection. At the 3/4 turn I initially thought of going QB/TE. Antonio Gates was quite tempting. Since only Aaron Rodgers and Mike Vick were off the board, I thought about taking Brees but went with the steadier hand in Peyton Manning. I took Wes Welker and let Gates go. I feel like TE is deep and I knew a ton of wideouts would go before my next pick. In the 13 picks since I selected, five wideouts have gone. Also three tight ends, three QBs, and just two running backs have gone. Waiting on my RB2 might work out in the end.

There's another Ask Your Fantasy Expert lined up for next Monday. I've enjoyed the process so far. My audience went up from mid single digits to double digits, so that's promising. Triple digits is the goal.

Ask Your Fantasy Football Expert: Jim Day

2011-06-06T22:22:00.003-04:00

"That's why I love the roundtable, so people can get different opinions and discuss them and at the end of the show everyone can acknowlege that I'm right."

Last week's Ask Your Fantasy Expert interviewee Andy Miley had me beat with 8000+ tweets. This week's victim, Jim Day, has more than 18,000 tweets.

Let's talk about Taz. Fantasytaz aka Jim Day aka the Pompatus of Love has been in the fantasy business for a decade. If you listened to him last year, and if you pay attention to fantasy football at all, you can't miss him, you would have known about Hakeem Nicks. If you want to join an unusual fantasy league like his Udder Chaos and draft a tight end in the first round, talk to Jim. He's taking his fantasy content creation to the next level with his work on goaheadscore.com. His weekly Twitter Roundtable podcast brings together a great group of fantasy experts every Saturday night.

I'll let Taz speak for himself. As usual, I will link all referenced fantasy writers to their Twitter feed. If nothing else, through this series you are going to get a lot of "must read" fantasy writers.

To honor Mr. Day, I'll post all questions in Titan blue and answers in the darker yet inferior Giant blue.

How did you get into fantasy football writing?

In 2001 I was spending a lot of time at Xpertsports.com and got to know many of the people that not only hung out there, but that also ran the site. One day they asked me if I wanted to help them by posting news. With 2 months I was also writing articles for them and I was hooked.

Tell me about your real-life NFL rooting interests. Is it possible to love and hate a man as much as you do Eli Manning?

I am definitely a diehard Giants fan and have been since I started watching and playing football. As far as Eli goes, he has had some very good moments for Giants fans, but more often is the pass that is thrown like a wounded duck. If you are an NFL QB you should be able to throw a consistent spiral.

Tell me about your Twitter Roundtable, which is every Saturday night (www.blogtalkradio.com) from 9-11 p.m., Eastern Time. How did it start, why did you go with the roundtable format, and what are some of your favorite memories with it so far?

Well the Roundtable started as written articles with a solid group of contributors from Twitter like Andrew Garda, Matt Schauf, and a few others. This was also right when I started doing podcasts on Blog Talk Radio, so I decided that I would turn into an hour show with 3 revolving panelists each week. Some of my favorite memories are from debating players with Greg Kellogg and William Del Pilar, two guys I followed very closely when I was first playing the game.

Did you retire yet? Either way, tell me about your day job, you know, when you were writing fantasy articles instead of working.

I am retired as of 2007, but before that I was the Global Service Director for a biotech company called Celsis. I did this for over 15 years.

Do you have long-term goals with your fantasy football writing?

Not really. Sure I would love to take my stuff to the next level, but with the proliferation of FF Experts, it is getting harder to be noticed by the right people. Basically I do this mainly for the love of the game and the fact that I love to debate football, if anything else ever comes of it, then so much the better.

How do you handle being in more leagues than Antonio Cromartie has kids without there being adverse consequences to your health/sanity?

It's all about focus; all on football, none on anything else, lol. I love everything about fantasy football and by playing in as many leagues as I do, I get the chance to try every format of the game and also try to bring new formats to other people.

The spouse question: Does your wife have any issues with your obsession?

None. She has always been great about me doing Fantasy Football as much as I do. It beats the old days when I hung out at Go Go bars and got drunk... just kidding...

The Whiz is dead. Long live the Whiz. Tell me about your new site goaheadscore.com.

Well as you stated, I am no longer doing anything over at the Whiz, I just got tired of being a 1-man show. Simon Shepherd is the brains behind Go Ahead Score (GOAS) and we started talking back in February when I started the Draftmaster leagues. He is an excellent coder and the one thing I have been searching for. We started to look for ways to work together with both the Whiz and GOAS involved, but the more we talked, the more we realized that our talents seemed to be a perfect mesh. We started talking and soon after that, he asked me to join him over at GOAS full time. We have a lot of great things going on, including a Draft App that will be out shortly. Our site is a perfect platform for integrating with myfantasyleague.com. Once you register with GOAS you have complete access to any draft you are doing on MFL. It will also tweet your picks for you if you add your twitter account. We have a lot more tools and tricks coming that I think will really start to showcase just what Simon can do.

Football or sex: which do you think of more?

Between those 2 and beer, it is clearly a 3 way tie, but the absolute best is when you can combine all three.

Hey, Taz said 3 way. OK, I will move on.

Tell a story about a fantasy regret. Bad trade, bad draft pick, move you thought about making but didn’t, something on that realm.

I don't think I have ever made a bad trade, except maybe when I traded you Peyton Manning in Z17. Once I let Peyton go, my team never recovered.

Quick digression: Taz and I were in Zealots 17, a dynasty league that started so long ago that I got Matt Schaub and Michael Turner in the initial rookie draft. After the 2006 season he traded me Peyton Manning for LaDainian Tomlinson. Manning led me to the next two league championships. We both left the league after the 2010 season.

Tell a story about a fantasy win. Great trade that worked out.

I took over a Zealots Dynasty team that was simply atrocious. It didn't even have one starting running back, but the rest of the roster was just as bad. I went on a trading rampage before the season began and was able to turn that team around in a single season. The next year I took it to the playoffs. I love that feeling.

You're a master home-brewer as well. Tell me about this hobby.

It is just another thing I love to do. Started out as a little hobby kit and quickly grew. I now make up to 11 different varieties for different occasions or time of the year. I have a Cherry Porter which is my favorite right now.

If you have a choice between 50-yard-line seats at the Super Bowl when it's at whatever the new Jets/Giants stadium is called, would you rather be there or at home watching it in your man cave?

Absolutely home watching it. I have big party for the SB every year and we have a lot of fun. No waiting in line for warm, expensive beer, or the bathrooms afterwards, lol.

Which fantasy writers are on your must-read list?

I have so many that I really like to follow but Matt Schauf, Andrew Garda, Matt Waldman, Herbie Teope and Mike Clay are all guys I make sure to read.

Better fantasy experience: Long-term league with friends or fantasy "expert" league?

Easily a long term league with friends. Fantasy "experts" can be real prima donnas at time, lol.

Is it true that you left Zealots 17 because you were tired of losing to me?

Absolutely. It had nothing to do with the watering down of talent at Zealots as a whole.

Tell me about any plugs that you'd like (not hair plugs, dude). Podcasts, sites that you write for, expert leagues, anything.

Really the best way for anyone to follow me is on Twitter as @fantasytaz, but if you don't use Twitter, you can now have the next best thing with www.Twitterfantasyfootball.com. It is another site that Simon and I have started. Basically it takes all the best tweets from lists that we have compiled and combines them all into one site. You can go there and search for any team or specific player and any tweet that is about them will show up. It is a great tool for keeping up with all the great information on Twitter without having to actually watch your timeline all day.

Thanks Taz for taking the time to chat with me. I'll post another interview next Monday. Thanks for reading this week's edition of Ask Your Fanatsy Expert. Keep your underwear-based tweets to yourself, please.

Ask Your Fantasy Football Expert: Andy Miley

2011-05-30T21:20:00.018-04:00

"I can't hate on anyone loving football."

If you know Andrew Miley, you love him. Let me take a deep breath before I cover the sheer volume of fantasy football goodness that Miley has produced. Miley is the co-founder of dynastyblitz.com. While he has written for goaheadscore.com, razzball.com, and profootballfocus.com, his latest article and "big break" is a featured article on footballguys.com. Two things stand out about Mr. Miley. He's a tireless fantasy football follower. I thought I was obsessive with 5000+ tweets to my name. Miley's at 8,000 and counting. He responded to my questions at 1 a.m. on a Saturday. He's also great at responding to queries including a few of my own.

To prove that he's more than a pretty face, Andy currently is raising money for Autism research in his nephew's name. Go to dynastyblitz.com for more information and to donate. Andy promises to run the 5k race if he can raise $1,000. If I know one thing about fantasy football writers, it's that they are also world-class athletes. Maybe that's just world-class athlete-watchers.

I asked Andy some questions about his background, current projects and hopes for the future. Andy lives in Maine.

Quick note: Any time that Andy name-drops another fantasy writer, I'll link to that writer's Twitter account. Play Six Degrees of Andy Miley (think Kevin Bacon) and you could connect him to any fantasy football writer alive. All questions will be in Titan Blue and all answers will be in Steeler Black.

How did you get into fantasy football writing?

I have always been a budding writer and after tweeting Jim Day back in December 2009, he invited me on his show to talk fantasy. I got feedback that my ideas were good and I wrote an article about dynasty trades. I sent it to Jim, Mike Clay, Bryan Fontaine, and Joe Everett. They all really liked it and asked me to write more.

Tell me about your real-life NFL rooting interests. A Steeler fan not living in Pittsburgh? Peel me off the floor.

My father was a die-hard Browns fan. I liked to oppose him so at age 5 I became a Steelers fan. They were dressed in black and were hated by everyone. I loved them especially after that.

What do you do as a day job?

I am an Estate Revenue Agent which means I write reports about dead people and what their assets were when they died.

Do you have long-term goals with your writing?

I want to join the FootballGuys family and make a secondary income from that. Bry (Bryan Fontaine) and I have a lot of fun with dynastyblitz.com right now though.

Since you are such a popular guy, you end up in a bunch of fantasy leagues. Is it hard to give that many leagues your attention or do you think you can be in a lot of leagues without any drop-off in results?

I am actually cutting my leagues down to 9 total with only 2 free leagues. I have a lot of the same players and/or teams. I follow every NFL nugget I can get ahold of anyway.

The spouse question: Does your wife/gf/sig other have any issues with your obsession?

Tara is great. We are getting married next summer. She is in two leagues as well with one of them being my dynasty league that I commish. She loves nature and I love football and the gym. It works.

How did you and Bryan get hooked up to start dynastyblitz.com?

Bry and I meet thru (Jim Day aka Taz's) Twitter Roundtable and we met half way between his spot in NH in Portland, Maine. We knew right then we wanted to work together.

You write for a lot of sites. How do you find the right fit for your writing style?

Trial and error as my voice isn’t for everyone. I write legal documents for work. When I write for myself, I want to have fun. Some sites are a bit more serious than that. I have issues editing myself and I need a kind hand sometimes.

Can you do Twitter a favor and stop changing your handle?

I think I will remain @AndrewMiley until I am caught in the #Rapture so no promises.

Football or sex: which do you think of more?

Football from age 40 (I’m 41 now).

Tell a story about a fantasy regret. Bad trade, bad draft pick, move you thought about making but didn’t, something on that realm.

I dropped Miles Austin a week before he went off. I held onto him since week 10 the year before and I got sick of waiting.

Tell a story about a fantasy win. Great trade that worked.

A friend of mine two years ago was so worried about Wes Welker that he tried to trade him for the rookie 3.1. The owner with the 3.1 didn’t want him coming off injury. I traded my rookie 3.4, 3rd rd 2011 pick, and Earl Bennett to make it fair.

See that, folks, Andy uses his Sith powers for good, not evil.

Which fantasy writers are on your must-read list?

Matt Waldman, Cecil Lammey, Greg Cosell, Adam Caplan

Better fantasy experience: Long-term league with friends or fantasy "expert" league?

Long-term team with friends, but not some of those long-term friends are the experts.

Thanks Andy for the time. Once again, find Andy on Twitter and his site DynastyBlitz.com.

Fantasy files: Transition from dynasty to keeper

2011-05-28T14:43:00.001-04:00

As the post rookie draft free agency period cools down, it's time for me to take a break from my dynasty team. The sum total of my moves is below:

Adds (veterans)

Mike Vick

Marques Colston

Osi Umenyiora

Adds (rookies)

Cam Newton

Taiwan Jones

Bilal Powell

DeMarco Murray

Jacquizz Rodgers

Vincent Brown

Marques Colston

Denarious Moore

Jordan Cameron

Osi Umenyiora

Casey Matthews

Colin McCarthy

Jaiquawn Jarrett

Quinton Carter

Drops/Traded

Josh Johnson

Josh Freeman

Mike Thomas

Javarris James

Tony Scheffler

Alterraun Verner

Starting lineup, week one will be something like Mike Vick, Matt Forte, Peyton Hillis, Ray Rice, Marques Colston, Hakeem Nicks, Sidney Rice, Chris Cooley, Rob Bironas, Jason Babin, Osi Umenyiora, David Harris, James Harrison, Mario Williams, Dashon Goldson, Charles Tillman, and Jaiquawn Jarrett. The downside of picking up 12 rookies is that it's going to be hard to find veterans to prune, especially if the offseason is compressed any longer.

It's time to move onto my other team. In six weeks or so we'll have to announce
keepers in my local keeper league. I'm fairly set with Eli, Frank Gore, and Hakeem Nicks as my keepers. I might be able to pawn off Darren McFadden on one of the RB-weak squads. Or I could try to get a higher draft pick for Frank Gore who's great when healthy but only once has played the full 16 games. RB is a tough spot especially with two starters and only four roster slots. With bye weeks it's almost impossible to play the handcuff game.

I feel fine with Eli as my keeper QB. He's a steady player who's going to give you 16 games. He had 4000 passing yards for the second year in a row and exceeded 30 TD passes for the first time in career. He did throw a career-high 25 interceptions, and it only seems like all of them came off Nicks' inconsistent hands. His fantasy rank in the past six years has been 5, 10, 13, 13, 10, 9. With 12 teams it seems like having a guy who always finishes around 10th isn't a competitive advantage. Knowing that he's going to end up there is an advantage.

I'm not sure if I am willing to part with Gore and make McFadden my go-to guy. Now, with the addition of a WR/TE flex position last year, the value of running back dropped. The switch to PPR gave a higher advantage to the wideouts and the running backs who catch passes. McFadden finished eighth in RB scoring last year in 13 games. Gore finished 18th in 11 games. McFadden averaged 21 points a game to Gore's 18. McFadden had 10 TDs compared to Gore's 5. The main difference between the two is age. McFadden will be 24 this year and Gore's about to turn 28. McFadden could be a keeper through our entire five-year cycle while Gore might have one more year as a keeper candidate.

At WR I feel I have no choice. Miles Austin, Brandon Marshall, and Vincent Jackson could be top-12 guys but few players have the upside and skill of Hakeem Nicks. I have to find a dance partner for one of those three other guys. If I could get an extra draft pick or two this could be the best draft ever. If it actually happens.

Fantasy files: The continuing story of Trader Zach

2011-05-24T21:15:00.000-04:00

I have to shake things up to make my dynasty league more interesting. In a league that had zero regular-season trades last year, I have stirred the cobwebs. I picked up Vick and draft picks for Josh Freeman, feeling strong in my conviction that I I could get value out of those picks to offset Freeman's longer career tail. It took three attempts but it went through. I thought dangling Peyton Hillis for the 1.01 or 1.02 rookie would work. It did not. I then attempted to trade up to my dad's 1.04 pick from 1.06. That didn't work out when he wanted three of my acquired picks. I traded away my 1.06 pick in Mikel Leshoure in exchange for Marques Colston and two draft picks.

I failed in an offer of Chris Cooley for Jimmy Graham. Who knew a fifth-year senior who caught 17 passes would be one of the hottest dynasty tight ends?
Finally I got a couple of offers. My favorite owner who tries to pawn off the players he's going to release for a late draft pick offered me Chester Taylor for a 2012 fifth-rounder. He tried to get Taylor for a second-rounder last year. I showed him. I traded my second-round pick for Jerome Harrison. After complaining on the message board about Mario Williams' move to linebacker, he offered me a 2012 fourth-round pick for Williams. He tried to lowball me on Sidney Rice last year and Michael Crabtree this offseason. I'm not sure if we've ever consummated a trade, but it's always interesting.

Last night I browsed through the rosters looking for DL bargains. With Williams moving on I have not much at defensive line. On a whim I offered my dad Mike Thomas for Osi Umenyiora. Thomas wasn't going to start for me except for bye weeks. I could see him becoming a Derrick Mason or Donald Driver type. He could be a Brandon Stokley too. Umenyiora gives me a surefire top-ten DL, and I needed that.
I got greedy and followed up the offer, which was accepted so fast that I thought I probably could have asked for more, with an offer of Jason Babin for Derrick Morgan. That was not accepted.

The general dynasty advice is to treat it like the stock market. Diversify with youngsters and veterans. Including our auction period, I have added ten rookies, and will have eleven this time tomorrow night. At the same time I replaced Josh Freeman with Mike Vick, added Marques Colston, dropped Mike Thomas and picked up Osi Umenyiora.

The key to making trade offers in your league is twofold. In one part, you try to improve the team while at least giving the appearance of helping the other team. You are also building relationships with your leaguemates. It's more fun to know your enemy, in a matter of speaking.

Fantasy files: Winding down

2011-05-18T20:58:00.002-04:00

I have the 46th pick in my rookie draft. With pick 42, I took Denarius Moore of the Raiders. I now have Jacoby Ford and Denarius Moore, and Ford's already a home-run guy to start as a WR3. Here's my draft to date:

1.12: DeMarco Murray

2.06: Cam Newton

2.10: Bilal Powell

2.12: Vincent Brown

3.06: Jacquizz Rodgers

4.06: Taiwan Jones

5.06: Denarius Moore

5.10: Hmm

6.06: Double Hmm

I have not drafted any IDPs yet and the weakness of my team is on the defensive side of the ball. I'm in real trouble at DL because I'm losing Mario Williams. Perhaps MFL will grant me a stay since Williams will be a stand-up rusher on run downs and a 3-4 end on pass downs. I have to assume that he's moving on, which leaves me with Jason Babin, Charles Johnson, and Matt Shaughnessey. All three were free agent pickups. Even if Babin re-signs with the Titans, he's a one-year wonder and the team has a new defensive philosophy that may or may not feature his pass-rush skill set. Johnson and Shaughnessey are guys you hope to have as a DL3, a bye week fill in. I balance that with the fact that defensive ends rarely contribute as rookies. I'm probably better off taking a flier on a veteran. Also, my home-run pick Da'Quan Bowers went the pick before mine.

I have options at LB. With Mario Williams making the switch, I have him, James Harrison, and David Harris as starters. Let's forget that I had Barrett Ruud, Kirk Morrison and Lawrence Timmons at one point and got rid of them all for a pittance. Colin McCarthy is still on the board. So are Jonas Mouton, Casey Matthews, and Kelvin Sheppard. Heck, Missouri guy Aldon Smith is still out there. I feel like I can wait.

Other than Patrick Peterson, no one's taken a defensive back yet. Jaiquawn Jarrett and Quinton Carter are both possible top-ten guys at safety.

I've drafted four running backs and there still are great guys left. Stevan Ridley, Johnny White, Jamie Harper, Jordan Todman, Evan Royster and Allan Bradford are there. Damn. AT WR we still see Dwayne Harris, Niles Paul, Jerrel Jernigan, Jeremy Kerley and Ronald Johnson. Jordan Cameron and DJ Williams are tempting at TE.
I'm facing one player showdown that a lot of rookie drafters are seeing. I could take tight end Jordan Cameron or defensive end Cameron Jordan. Let my Cameron go.

I took my biggest need and selected Jaiquawn. I put Titans LB Colin McCarthy number one for my sixth-round predraft. The rest of my big list will fill out my pre-draft want list. We'll be up for auction time once this draft is over with tons of talent on the board. Since I had so many rookie picks, my roster is at the max of 60 so I will have to drop some ballast to pick up any more guys. I'm sure NFL veterans love being called fantasy ballast.

Fantasy files: Walking the thin line

2011-05-16T21:01:00.001-04:00

My dynasty rookie draft is in the third round. I'll complete my quick narcissistic story about my latest pick and move onto the important task at hand.

When the draft started, I had five picks in the top 30. Once I got to pick 30, I had made five selections albeit not the exact ones that started with. I already discussed my Mikel Leshoure trade. My target player at 1.12 was Delone Carter, although I would be happy with Randall Cobb or Demeco Murray, who I selected.

How soon things change in the league. Marion Barber was a key component to my dynasty team, first as insurance for Julius Jones and in his second year a fantasy force of his own. He is done in Dallas. The idea of Felix Jones as an every-down workhorse seems gone. Pity Tashard Choice, who I thought was a steal in the fourth round of the 2008 rookie draft but has not emerged with even a small portion of a RBBC. Murray seems like the guy.

I tormented over my 2.06 pick. I put one name down and even posted a comment before withdrawing. I put another name down and took a breath before hitting the send button. I finally put the first name back and rehashed the comment and Cam Newton was mine. I had moderate interest in Blaine Gabbert or Colin Kaepernick. Gabbert went at 1.08 and Kaepernick wasn't worthy of the 18th overall selection. I had an WR and RB in mind with the pick but saw the upcoming 2.10 and 2.12 picks and felt like if I missed on my first choice that I'd get the second. I thought the following about Cam. He was a star at Blinn Junior College and Auburn without what you'd call star-level talent surrounding him. Notice how many members of the Alabama national champs were highly drafted? Auburn had Newton and Nick Fairley. That's it. Newton may not have much receiver talent at Carolina but he's used to it. And as the face of the franchise, the team is going to develop an offense around him. If you want a comparison, Tim Tebow went 3.03 in our draft last year. If you want a better one, Jimmy Clausen went 1.12 in our rookie draft last year. Hells yeah I think Newton's better than Clausen. All Clausen has is Newton's number.

I also knew that the owners selecting between 2.06 and 2.10 had QB issues. Jake Locker and Kaepernick went in those three picks.

The RB and WR I targeted at 2.06? I got Bilal Powell at 2.10 and Vincent Brown at 2.12. I thought about Torrey Smith but he's a stinking Raven. I'm not completely anti-Raven as Ray Rice is one of my key players. I don't want to make it a habit.

Let me wash away the self love with some serious talk from the point of view of commissioner. Being a fantasy football commissioner is a less respected position than janitor, teacher, or Republican presidential hopeful. You do all of the work and take all of the crap. With that in mind, you have the leeway to put the smack down on your fellow owners, but only to a point.

The IDP selections in our draft to date have fallen in a familiar fantasy hole. The issue with rookie drafts, and one that the veteran so-called shark can take advantage of, is that the less prepared owners seem to assume that a higher drafted player is automatically better. That's why Von Miller is going to be the first linebacker drafted even though his real NFL value is going to be less than his fantasy value.

I had pick 3.06, and two of the picks ahead of me in the round were Ryan Kerrigan and Patrick Peterson. In the Zealots draft ADP that I check more often than my e-mail, Kerrigan has been taken in the end of the fourth round. In fact, where he was taken was the highest slot of any Zealots draft to date. Ditto Patrick Peterson, who my good friend commented as "talent". Oh, he is talent. As a rookie cornerback he's sure to be targeted by the mostly mediocre QBs of the NFC West. He is a great kick returner. He's still a freaking cornerback who might get 50 tackles and interceptions are hard to predict.

I could make fun of their picks and "school" them on finding the IDPers who are in the best position to succeed. This is harder to figure than the offensive guys. When drafting offensive rookies, you pretty much look at the depth chart. When looking at defensive players, you need to know the scheme. Is the safety going to play in the box? Is your DE going to be in a 4-3 or 3-4 scheme? Will your linebacker see a lot of blockers? I almost never know the answer to these questions, which is why I look at expert cheat sheets. Thanks again, footballguys.com.

Instead I keep my big Commish yapper shut and quietly rejoice with Jacquizz Rodgers falls to 3.06.

Come on, fellow drafters, we still have some first-rounders on the board. Get the lead out!

Fantasy files: Trader Zach

2011-05-15T10:08:00.001-04:00

Follow the Zealots 34 rookie draft.

Trader Zach is back. While I think that the main reason I'm pushing so many trades in my dynasty league is to improve my squad, part of the reason is that trades dried up in this league and I'm trying to get a little intrigue going.

I started with the pre-draft deal for Mike Vick that netted me a late first and second-round pick. I wanted those picks because of the depth at RB in this year's draft. Last year owners took LaGarrette Blount in the fourth round since such a small number of RBs were drafted. This year is different. There were 24 drafted running backs and at least half a dozen are still around by the fourth.

My next trade offers were failures. I offered Peyton Hillis for the 1.01. The counter was Ray Rice and Rice is one of those guys I'm not going to think about trading for at least two years. I offered Hillis for the 1.02. In an unfortunate turn of events, the owner of the 1.02 called while I was at the mall trying to update my wardrobe. It was an extended call during which my wife steered me to the underwear section and mouthed "can we leave yet?", which is normally my line. He counted with 1.06, 3.06 and Michael Bush for the pick. Since the owner of the 1.01 told me that he needed to get a RB with that pick, I knew that A.J. Green would be the guy. I thought the price too steep and countered with 1.06 and 3.06. He made the pick, which meant no deal and I wondered if, for the price of Michael Bush, I turned down a ten-year All Pro. Those are trade regrets for you.

I had the 1.06 and didn't know what to do with it. The predicted top five went (Ingram, Green, Thomas, Jones) went, although not in the predicted order. I sat at 1.06 with the obvious pick of Mikel Leshoure and the thought that one of the guys I might want at 1.12 would not make it to the end of the round. Because I don't like to quit, I made a trade offer to the Chargers for the pick. The Chargers have Jahvid Best. The Chargers' owner lives in Germany. When I made the offer it was the middle of the night over there. I picked Leshoure and figured that if he wanted to deal for a player instead of a pick, he'd still be interested.

That's a strangeness of trading rookie picks. Oftentimes you can trade a pick, but if you select the player the other owner wants, he's reluctant to deal. It's like the mystique of having the pick is worth something extra. Funny thing is the offer I made him was Marques Colston and his 2.10 pick for Leshoure. The counter-offer was Colston, the 2.10, and the 5.10. I took the deal.

I now have three second-round picks. Considering that our rosters are set at 60 but we have to pare down to 53 on opening day, I'm going to have to make some decisions regarding my veterans. I may have to pull a Belichick and trade for some 2012 picks.

My two trades did make my team older, so having the infusion of rookies will help. I finished third in my division but fourth in overall points. I do have three solid RB starters and with Colston my wideouts are good to great. With Romo and Vick at QB, I should be protected from injury at the position.

Fantasy files: Color me impressed

2011-05-13T22:49:00.002-04:00

Ask and you shall receive. After manually keeping up with a few Zealot rookie drafts, one of my leaguemates sent me a link. That's just beautiful.

My work here is done. Oh what the heck, let's keep looking at results.
Guys who have been drafted in the top three at least once: Mark Ingram, A.J. Green, Julio Jones, Ryan Williams, Daniel Thomas, Mikel Leshoure, Blaine Gabbert.

When I said Von Miller was taken at 1.05, that wasn't his highest slot. He's been taken at 1.04.

Other surprising top ten picks in at least one draft: Torrey Smith (7), Kendall Hunter (6), Jake Locker (10), Vincent Brown (9), Christian Ponder (7).

Here are some top-ten guys taken a lot later: Shane Vereen (18), Greg Little (16), Jon Baldwin (17), Randall Cobb (21), Delone Carter (24), DeMarco Murray (17), Cam Newton (20), Torrey Smith (30).

Here are some top-ten guys taken a lot later: Shane Vereen (18), Greg Little (16), Jon Baldwin (17), Randall Cobb (21), Delone Carter (24), DeMarco Murray (17), Cam Newton (20), Torrey Smith (30).

When I made fun of the Prince Amukamara pick, here's why: He was taken at 3.01. His average draft position after three selections is 4.05, so his other selections were fifth round or later. To be fair, only a handful of leagues are in the third round so far.

Man I love this stupid, simple site.

With hours to go until my rookie draft's first pick, I decided to make some bold trade offers. I offered Peyton Hillis for the 1.02 or the 1.01 pick. I offered Chris Cooley, who I've loved like a brother, for Jimmy Graham. I am making a move to transform my team with eight and possibly nine rookie picks.

Fantasy files: One man's opinion

2011-05-11T22:24:00.000-04:00

"You said that man wasn't stealin' your love, he was only borrowin'" I'm Gonna Getcha Back, Eli "Paperboy" Reed

I'm doing some stealing of rookie draft results, but I'll share them with the masses. There's nothing worse than anonymously tearing people down on the Internet. When I look at the Zealots rookie draft results so far, I find it hard to resist the siren call.

I am prepared for at least the first three rounds of my draft. I do not believe every drafter is the same. There used to be a fine Zealot who would look up every ongoing rookie draft and put a link in one thread. He's taking the year off. I went into the 60 leagues and looked for active drafts. I found six active drafts. Zealots 5, 7, 24, 32, 42, and 49.

It's useful to find out a player's average draft position, and to see when guys are taken way too early or tragically late. Before the draft it seemed to be a toss-up between Mark Ingram and A.J. Green for the top slot. In Zealots you can start three running backs, or four wide receivers. So far there is no love for Green, at least at the top slot. In my six drafts, Ingram went #1 four times. Julio Jones went in the fifth and Daniel Thomas went in the other.

Daniel Thomas looks like the Julius Jones of this year's rookie RB class, if it's not Roy Helu. It is important to draft a guy who's actually going to play. Just know when you're passing up on a superior talent for a short-term starter. He went #1 in one draft, #2 in another, and #5 or 6 otherwise. He might not make it to my 1.06 slot.

Head scratchers to date are the following: Von Miller at 1.05. Von Miller might be the #5 rookie linebacker. It's interesting that there's a draft slot bias to people's picks. Before the draft, few people outside of the Titans draft war room had Jake Locker over Blaine Gabbert. Locker went ahead of Gabbert in one of the drafts and I'm sure it's because Locker was a higher pick. Miller may be a superior talent, but it's hard to say if he can get consistent sack numbers in a 4-3 defense.
Colin Kaepernick at 1.08 is the next one. He has tons of upside with Jim Harbaugh at the helm. I do like him in the late second/early third but this is a big reach. If you're thinking of getting Roy Helu with your second-round pick, think again. I expect him to have a better NFL career than Tony Hunt or Maurice Clarett, but that's about it.

Guy who took Greg McElroy at 2.08: If you don't get help at Charter, get help somewhere.

Cam Newton's probably getting drafted lower than any other #1 overall pick in a while. Even JaMarcus Russell was a rookie first rounder most of the time. No one took him in the first round. The 2.01-2.06 area is his sweet spot.

I'm kind of surprised that the earliest slot for Greg little was 1.07. He seems like the WR3 in this class. Ryan Williams dropped to 1.06 in one draft. That's not happening in my league.

Speaking of this crazy QB class, Gabbert and Newton are the most popular guys, but in one league Christian Ponder is the top pick. He might be the best QB in this class, but he doesn't scream fantasy winner. No one compared to Chad Pennington is winning you a trophy.

As for IDPs, most of the drafts are still too early. Prince Amukamara at 3.01 was precious. If you want Mason Foster or Nate Irving, you're going to have to use a late second or early third-round pick. I don't know if I can pass on those lower tier running backs.

Fantasy files: No when to say when

2011-05-09T19:56:00.002-04:00

I'm elbow deep in mock drafts. I sent my league a message letting them know that it's go time when everyone posts on the message board. Am I ready? Probably not.

In yesterday's post, I considered a trade offer from my dad. After listening to the latest Audible Thursday night podcast, which featured lots of hot running back talk, I could not get rid of my 1.12, 2.06, and 3.06 even for the tempting package of Julio Jones and his hands of butter.

The best part about a mock draft is that it's not real. The worst part is you subconsciously let the other teams in your mock pick guys that you don't want. It's a good way to see your draft prejudices.

My eight picks in tonight's attempt were Mikel LeShoure, Delone Carter, Blaine Gabbert, Greg Salas, Alex Green, Dion Lewis, Da'Quan Bowers and Akeem Ayers. The offensive depth is so great that I couldn't consider going IDP until the fifth round. There seems to be quality linebacker depth this year. The problem is I just lost Mario Williams to the LB corps. I don't know if it's wise for the Texans to move their Pro Bowl defensive end to outside linebacker, but that is what is happening. Williams used to be my only quality DE. This year's DE class is fairly suspect and of course this is IDP football so I can find some help on the waiver wire.

Will I actually draft four running backs? I might. A starting wideout probably will have a longer career but with three starting slots and Peyton Hillis a ticking time bomb with his Madden cover, I'll need reinforcements. There are plenty of guys in this year's draft who will start as a backup or will partake in a time share.

I don't love 1.06 so I will be open to a trade when the pick comes up. Knowing my league, I'm going to make that selection. There aren't a ton of Belichicks in this league. My guys like to stay put.

Fantasy files: No deal is simple

2011-05-09T07:12:00.002-04:00

I spent a weekend in Nashville visiting the folks. I thought that in between visiting the Ryman Auditorium and Brown's diner that I'd make a trade offer to my dad.

My only successful attempt to bond with my dad over the past decade involves having him join two of my fantasy football leagues. It provides us with endless commentary over players, teams, and deals made and lost. In the time that we've been in leagues together, he has one title to my zero and gets the best of me on a regular basis.

I still consider him a neophyte to the hobby. I asked him in passing if he'd be interested in trading down from 1.04 to 1.06 in our upcoming rookie draft. While I was gauging interest, I really wanted the relative sure thing I thought would be the pick. At 1.06 I'm looking at Daniel Thomas and Mikel LeShoure. At 1.04, considering that we can start three running backs, I felt like getting Julio Jones was a lock and the two-spot move was worth it.

The question is the price. Moving up two slots in a draft that has 12 per round seems like a cheap proposition. I initially offered to trade my second-round pick for his third and that was the start of negotiations.

My father, seeming only tangentially interested in my offer, sent me a doozy the following morning. He offered me the 1.04 along with the 4.04 for my 1.12, 2.06, and 3.06. This wasn't quite what I had in mind. I apparently had sold the sixth pick as worthless.

Last week I did a mock with the extra picks I acquired in the Vick deal. I had five picks in the top 30 and enjoyed the possibilities. If I make this deal, I get two picks in the top six, and only 2.12 between that and the fourth round. Other than hoping for some mid-tier RBs or WRs to drop, this deep class would pass me by. In exchange I get two guys who with some luck will be starters for the next five years and perhaps beyond. That wily dad.

Fantasy files: The Dealmaker

2011-05-04T22:08:00.002-04:00

My dynasty league is slipping, and I know why. In years past as I prepared for the annual rookie draft, I cursed my fellow owners for their multiple trades as I had to organize the draft picks as a result. There were at least a dozen deals and in one case a single draft pick changed hands three times, returning to the original owner.

This year was different. I looked and saw that there were a paltry three trades involving rookie picks. In a dynasty league, the only way to acquire new talent is through the rookie draft, free agency, and waivers during the year. The pool is as deep as a quarter on its side for running backs, quarterbacks, and wide receivers if you don't count the rookie draft. If you find yourself short in these positions, you have to deal.

I got an offer, or a tentative offer, from my suddenly Tampa Bay Lightening-obsessed friend Brian. He wanted Josh Freeman. Funny enough, in our rookie draft two years ago I had pick 2.08 and he traded up to get ahead of me in the draft. I assumed that he, as a Bucs fan, was going for Freeman. He took Kenny Britt, and we had crossed obsessed fan streams as I ended up with Freeman. I wasn't exactly bowled over by Freeman, as I considered him the 8th best QB in the Big 12 his junior year. He grew up a lot in a year.

Did I mention the offer? Brian was smart enough to pick Mike Vick off waivers in the last year of his prison term, and before last year offered him to me as a joke for practically nothing. I passed. Something clicked as he offered me Vick plus extra considerations for Freeman.

At first glance, Vick plus anything for Freeman seems like a bounty. Vick was the number three overall scorer in our league. Anyone ranked that high is usually not for sale. Then again, Freeman was number eight, scoring about 2.5 fewer points per game. He was born in 1988, so he will not turn 30 until after the 2017 season. Vick will be 31 before this season starts, and he might have five more years in the league. With that in mind, Freeman's worth more than Vick.

I made a trade offer. I have Romo and the Vick/Romo combo platter seems good enough to get me by for the next three years. It's hard to project much further than that. Whether Brian bites and the rookie picks I'm trying to get out of him lead to productive guys, well, that's another gamble altogether.

Fantasy files: Rookie draft time

2011-05-03T21:42:00.000-04:00

While I think that grading each team's NFL draft results is dumb, I can't help but read. I don't take the thoughts seriously but I want experts to like the Titans' picks. Most of these guys can't even get a playbook.

The NFL draft means nothing compared to my upcoming rookie draft in Zealots 34. As a primer for the draft I started looking at every team's roster and their possible needs. The 1.06 spot feels like a weak place. Before the NFL draft I was convinced that AJ Green, Julio Jones, Mark Ingram, Ryan Williams and Mikel LeShoure would be the first five picks, leaving me taking a second-tier guy like Randall Cobb. Since LeShoure went to the Lions, a team that drafted Jahvid Best early next year and will expect him to get the majority of touches, he might drop.

This year's Julius Jones could be Daniel Thomas. I speak ill of Jones who has done me no harm save destroying a few of my fantasy teams. Daniel Thomas will jump in rookie rankings because he could be the starter in Miami. In fantasy football it's a dangerous move to take the guy who has a better chance of starting immediately over the better talent who will need more time. After all, you're getting these guys for the duration of their career, even if that career turns into a Kenny Irons, Chris Henry (the RB), Artose Pinner or Tony Hunt.

The running backs get a lot more context after the draft than before. Unlike the wideouts, who can be second options but still valuable fantasy performers, it's hard to get excited about a committee guy or obvious backup. LeShoure went to the Lions. Let us not forget that while Best was the only RB in my dynasty league to have a 50-point game, he's going to get nicked up. Daniel Thomas and Roy Helu, Jr. moved up in a big way by going to teams with starting spots that are open. The Patriots had two fantasy-worthy running backs last year. What does the addition of Shane Vereen and Stevan Ridley mean? Alex Green was the man in Hawaii's spread offense. Now he could be the eventual starter in Green Bay. The Packers alone intrigued by picking up a RB, WR, and TE, all who could light it up.

The Cowboys had three running backs who have posted 100-yard games, yet they drafted Demarco Murray. The 49ers have Frank Gore but took Kendall Hunter. Darren McFadden had a great 2010, yet the Raiders took the fastest RB in the draft in Taiwan Jones. Delone Carter is an interesting long-term prospect for the Colts. Jamie Harper could become the new LenDale White for the Titans, only with actual athleticism. Bilal Powell can hang around and be Shonn Greene's backup. Dion Lewis followed LeSean McCoy and now could back him up. Jordan Todman goes to the Chargers, and the history of Chargers' RBs makes him intriguing. Jacquizz Rodgers can be everything Jerious Norwood was not. Can Johnny White get any touches with Fred Jackson and C.J. Spiller in town?

The receivers are the usual grab-bag of talent versus opportunity. Is Julio Jones worthy of a top-five pick since he might be the third option in Atlanta? What about A.J. Green going to a team that might start a rookie QB? Jonathan Baldwin was the surprise third guy taken. Most experts think he had a poor senior season. Titus Young is fast but he's no DeSean Jackson. Greg Little plays for the Browns and was suspended all of last season. Randall Cobb might be the #6 guy on the depth chart for the Packers, but we are talking about the Packers. There are the small-school guys like Jerrel Jernigan, Edmond Gates, and Cecil Shorts. There are the sleepers like Denarius Moore and Niles Paul.

At least in dynasty we know that the rookie QBs have time to develop. I still think Gabbert is the best bet. Maybe Cam Newton will have a Tebow-like impact since he's destined to start. Ponder, Locker, Dalton, and Kaepernick are all lottery tickets. Ryan Mallet might slip and is worth a look. Later round guys like Ricky Stanzi, Nathan Enderle, T.J. Yates, Tyrod Taylor, and Greg McElroy are free agents at best.
The tight end class is weak. Henery the kicker for the Eagles could be a top-five guy as a rookie, but like in the NFL, drafting a kicker always seems like a waste.

The most clutchness evah

2011-05-01T22:30:00.002-04:00

You'd think that when you hear the word "clutch", you think of Joe Carter's World Series-winning home run or Eli's drive to win the Super Bowl. You'd be wrong. Those two wannabees wish they climbed the Mount Everest I scaled last night.

I had my fantastic friend Donald Funk, otherwise known as Dr. Funkenstein, for a night of Wii since the rest of my loser friends prefer to spend time with their families. I had rounds four through seven of the NFL Draft on TiVo and they turned me down like I was a pariah.

That's not important. What's important is my feat. As usual Don and I played head-to-head games and as usual I got too competitive and smacked him around a bit. I do not mean that literally. Don did once hit me with the controller when we played tennis but that's my fault because I'm right-handed and he's left-handed. Now I make him play in the next room.

We were playing the new Mario game, and we were trying to finish up a board. In this fantastic Mario world you have to finish a set of boards before you save. There's not much risk here because we play in tandem and if one guy dies, there's the option to continue. The downside is when both guys run out of lives at the same time, you reset to the previous save point. I'm not sure why when this happens that it feels like a true setback, like in middle school when my fighting fish my mom named after Len Bias died.

We were on the last board, the castle. You struggle through lava and fences with spikes and weird bony critters that you can't ever fully kill. Then you face the big purple boss. The first two times I went through I was like John Elway in the Super Bowl against the 49ers. I wet myself and died quickly.

Don and I made our way through the vertical board. He fell on the spikes, terrible way to go, and it was just me. The only problem was I was on my last guy. And I was little Mario. You can get a mushroom, my least favorite food, to grow into big Mario but I always lost my mojo before the end and was small Mario. I made it through the red doors with no expectation of victory.

If I jumped on the head of the big purple boss three times, we got to save and I was victorious and we could call it an evening because let's be honest, it was eleven on a Saturday night. If the big purple boss jumped and I was on the ground, I'd get stuck and he'd shoot me with the emasculating pink lightening. Otherwise he spun around like a turtle on cocaine and was invincible.

I jumped in with no fear or self-consciousness like Donald Trump. I got the first one. I retreated and jumped at the right time. I avoided the rolling turtle. I made the second jump. At this point my mind told me that it would be super unclutch, like Eli Manning any other time but that Super Bowl, for me to die just then. These are the brain cells I'm trying to kill when I drink. I kept my composure, avoided the guy for a few more seconds and made my final jump. I was victorious.

And that was how I beat the big purple guy. BTW, Don and I beat that board at his house months ago but we were at my house so we had to start from the beginning. Does this make the feat less impressive? Hard to believe I could pull that off.

Draft Me

2011-04-30T16:22:00.002-04:00

It seemed like nonsense that the Titans would take a QB not named Blaine Gabbert with their first-round draft pick. Gabbert and Cam Newton were considered, at least in drafting terms, the top two guys. There was such a low chance that either would be available at 8 that it was laughable even to consider talking about it. When the 8th pick came up, Gabbert was available and like the trained monkey I am I wanted the Titans to draft him. They took Jake Locker.

Andy Dalton lost seven games in four years as a college starter. Locker lost six games last year, and needed a three-game winning streak just to finish 6-6. I do respect him and his Washington teammates for beating Nebraska in the Holiday Bowl. In two games against Nebraska last season, Locker went 9-36 passing. That is not a typo. Luckily, the always awesome Music City Miracles posted this video.

He's a really likable guy. I think Vince Young was plenty likable but he assumed that he was great and didn't need to work hard to maintain that in the National Football League. I am convinced that Locker will work as hard as he can to be an elite QB. I'm not convinced that he will. You can say that I'm a bit more of a skeptic than when Vince Young was drafted.

The team smartly used a majority of their draft picks on defense. You have two linebackers, which means the end of the Stephen Tulloch most likely. I would say bye to Will Witherspoon even if he's going to be a two-down guy.

Jamie Harper from Clemson is an interesting pick. He feels a bit like Chris Henry, a guy with great measurables who didn't have much college production. At least Harper's a fourth-round compensatory pick who's going to struggle to make the field instead of a second-round pick who was an obvious reach. A fourth-rounder should make the roster but isn't going to be expected to start, especially with Chris Johnson and Javon Ringer already on the roster. It is a bit of an admission that letting LaGarrette Blount go last year was a mistake.

Titans talk: Just say no to the stretch move

2011-04-27T21:06:00.002-04:00

I've made bad examples and posted poorly thought out opinions before. Tonight will be no different.

Before we start, it's game seven between the Penguins and the Bolts/Lightening/Devil Skates and in Atlanta, it gets no TV coverage. Even baseball could find homes for their lousy early round games. Not hockey? They couldn't stack things up in the off chance that there would be more than two Game Sevens on the same night? Nope.
There is a common refrain in drafting, like don't drink a bottle of Jaegermeister during your fantasy football draft, unless you happen to be in a hotel conference room in Tunica and how often is that going to happen? The refrain is simple. Don't draft solely for need. Everything has to be in context.

It's going to be harder than usual this year. In a normal year teams would have taken care of a few perceived holes through the magic of free agency. The Titans would have Kevin Kolb, or Billy Volek, or even the corpse of Marc Bulger. They would have a "wily veteran" thus making their #8 overall pick less of a bull's-eye than it currently is.

Music City Miracles put together a nice article today making the claim for Andy Dalton. I like their moxie. They simply stated that if rumors are true (pause for hysterical laughter), and the Titans are actually deciding between Nick Fairley and Andy Dalton, they have to take Dalton for one reason. That reason is that QB is the most important position on the field.

The Titans might have disproven the "elite QB" argument two seasons ago had LenDale White, Alge Crumpler, and the back judge not slathered Crisco on their hands before kickoff. Even if it might not be technically true, having a top quarterback is important. I don't think the team should reach for one.

I don't think any of the quarterback prospects are worthy of the eighth overall pick in this draft. If you ask personnel men to rank the prospects, I think you'd see the top QB in the 20s. There are a lot of intriguing skill sets but no "can't miss" guy. You know, like Ryan Leaf.

Because so many teams have nothing at the position and without free agency or the ability to trade can't trade for Carson Palmer or Donovan McNabb dreaming of the 1 in 100 shot that either can return to their glory years, desperation's going to set in. Ryan Mallett and his super strong arm will look pretty tempting to the Vikings or Dolphins. Surely Jake Locker, whose overall college accuracy was like Vince Young trying to throw a screen pass, can get better as a pro. Colin Kaepernick without a doubt can rise up to the higher level of competition and dominate with that skinny frame. Andy Dalton can make those deep outs even though his arm strength is more Chad Pennington. Christian Ponder can avoid the injuries that plagued him in college. Like the bad boyfriend in college, scouting departments will book on the fact that these players can change.

A reach in the draft is like using the "stretch move" on a date. You might get a laugh but you're not getting closer to your gal. It actually worked with my wife, but that's the last recorded success of this maneuver in history. Trust me, I'm a blogger.

I don't believe in hoping that a player can fix all their problems at the NFL level. I think that the possibility of an Andrew Luck or a Matt Barkley in next year's draft seems better than this year's crop. Sure, I've said that I would take Gabbert to the Titans at 8. He probably won't be there and let's be honest. He wasn't dominant in the Big 12 last year.

I think that Andy Dalton at 8 would be a moronic pick if it's purely based on need. Maybe he's Drew Brees in disguise. It did take Drew Brees a long time to become elite, and one team had to give up on him for it to happen. No matter where the glaring weaknesses are, the Titans have to go with the best player at the spot. End of story.

First-round wish list

2011-04-26T08:10:00.001-04:00

The NFL draft is two days away. I still have a very fantasy-centric view of things. I do not know how the various offensive and defensive linemen stack up. I could name maybe three draft-eligible linebackers. One thing I know is who I want the Titans to take.

I'm sure the brain trust in Nashville is waiting for my blog post so they can breathe easier. After carefully considering the options, here's who I would like them to take.

Nick Fairley: Despite all the negative press, talk of his "one-year-wonder" status and the generally bust-tastic nature of the position in the first round, I'll take him. If he's available at 8 and the Titans, who hired his defensive line coach, pass, you know the red flags were for real.

Da'Quan Bowers: According to reports, either he had knee-replacement surgery or the kind of minor clean-up half the league has to endure on an annual basis. Once again, I trust the scouts. If they think he's worth the risk, he'll be an excellent bookend.

Julio Jones: The Titans had to be thinking about the excellent Alabama receiver before the Kenny Britt Cops moment. Great receivers will help whatever rookie or free agent QB the Titans sign. You know Jones can block downfield. And unlike Nate Washington, he can catch the ball.

Blaine Gabbert: I was public about wanting Kolb over Gabbert. Well, free agency is only a wish and a dream at this point. I believe that Gabbert will be a top-half starter in the league by 2012. This year will be a redshirt for him.

This week in hot Titans draft talk

2011-04-18T10:12:00.001-04:00

I hate how people mis-use the word "unique". A reference will be to a "very unique" player with a "unusually unique" skill set. Listen, unique means unlike any other and requires no adverbial adornment.

I'll process my thoughts on Kenny Britt since the news cycle is finished with him for now. If the Titans' draft board was in any way affected by his arrest, Mike Reinfeldt doesn't deserve his extension. The team is more aware of Britt's issues than the fans. They saw his lack of conditioning last year. They're aware of off-the-field issues that we don't even know about. The franchise has their best WR corps since the Mason/Bennett days. It's still bottom half in the league and if Julio Jones is available at the eighth pick, they should seriously consider the move.

Should the team's draft plans change because of the lack of free agency? If free agency continued as usual this offseason, otherwise known as the unoffseason, the Titans would have signed a QB or two by now. When there's a labor deal and free agency resumes, the team will still need to sign a QB or two. Even though QB is the most visible position on the team, there shouldn't be a feeling of desperation. The teams that trade up in desperation to get one of the second-tier QBs will be taking a huge risk. I don't want the Titans to be that team.

I really believe that 2011 is going to be a rebuilding year for the team and the draft is the first part of it. Next year's offseason will be critical since Munchak and Friends decided to keep the Fisher system intact. You can't make major changes to offensive/defensive philosophy when you can't talk to the players.

House of Cards

2011-04-12T07:44:00.002-04:00

I knew I was in for a doozy of a nostalgia trip when I opened the first box.
I picked the worst time in recorded history to do two things. One was start investing in the stock market around the tech bubble and again in the past three years. The other was "investing" in baseball cards in the early 90s.

It was the worst of times, and the best of times if you were a little OCD. The baseball card industry started to blow up right around the time when I started to pay attention. In the 80s, you had Fleer, Donruss, and Topps. That was it. When the late 80s hit, a new kid came on the block called Upper Deck and all bets were off. By 1993 every card company started producing multiple sets of cards and the 50-cent pack was a thing of the past.

I started collecting around the time that the White Sox were good for the first time since 1983. Bobby Thigpen, Robin Ventura, Jack McDowell, and of course, Frank Thomas, came up during this time. Thigpen was my first favorite player but he was quickly replaced by the young slugger. Until the mid 90s, I tried to collect one of each Frank Thomas card that hit the market. I bought his 1990 Leaf rookie at its peak value of $60. Now it might fetch $10. For years I tried to collect one of each of his cards, and last night's digging proved it.

I explicitly told my parents that if they couldn't find someone to take the cards off my hands that they could toss everything. My parents listen as well as I do and the result was my dad unloading about 100 pounds of cards on me this weekend.
I assumed that I would look upon a pile of crap and immediately push it all to the curb for the trash man to dispose of. It's never that easy. The first box I opened had some baseballs. I found two autographed baseballs, one of Nolan Ryan and the other of Michael Jordan. I found a certificate of authenticity for the Ryan one. The Jordan one is a less pretty autograph but certainly more rare. It's probably going to find a home in my Man Cave.

My favorite box contained my best Frank Thomases (the big black guy who played for the White Sox, As and Blue Jays in the 90s/00s, not the white guy who played for the Pirates in the 60s). Proof that I indeed collected all of his cards was here. I had an MTV Rock and Jock softball game card, a couple of Jimmy Deans, a Donruss McDonalds MVP, and couple from gas station giveaways. When he came up, Thomas was the happiest guy in the world who also was a power hitter who took walks. He got surlier as his career continued, injuries mounted, and the White Sox let him go after winning a World Series without him.

This is not reflected in my collection. I do not have a card past the year 1995. At that point in his career he had two MVP awards and you could count on him hitting .300, walking 100 times, hitting 30 home runs and knocking in 100 runs. Anything was possible, except for any of these cards being worth a dime over what I paid for them.

Fantasy Baseball Weekly Update: Showing the father-in-law the ropes

2011-04-09T15:40:00.002-04:00

I tend to agree with the theory that dumping a player in fantasy a few games into a 162-game season is lunacy. I'm in two leagues this year, and I did not pay attention to baseball nor play fantasy baseball last year, so I really have no idea who's good or bad.

In the league I set up, we have six teams. That makes the waiver wire so full of talent that there is no reason to reach or project on a player. You should have a stud at every position.

Here's an example: In last Sunday's eight-team draft, I had to leave and the draft had passed the 15th round. I needed a 3B but it was obvious that everyone else in the league had drafted one. I waited and got Aramis Ramirez in the 16th round. He'll be fine for me.

The first league has my heart, or at least about 1% of it, while league number two is just because my friend Don asked me to join. In week one of this league, which is like a week and a half, I had three guys go on the DL and one lose his appendix but not go on the DL. I consider that high so early in the season. I created a no-bench league but smartly planned on five DL slots. I may fill all those slots eventually.

I didn't realize that Chase Utley had a half-season injury. I had to scramble and pick up Gordon Beckham, who's been really good. I knew that Brad Lidge would be out for a while so I picked up Joe Nathan as a replacement. So far, so good. My final move was to pick up Edwin Jackson when Ubaldo Jimenez injured a cuticle. It sounds like the kind of injury you get when you get a pedicure. NFL guys do not miss games due to cuticles.

After saying that beating my first-week opponent would be like beating an infant at chess, the gauntlet was thrown. I'm up 8-2, but things change quickly in the wild world of fantasy baseball.

League two drafted last Sunday. We don't officially start until Monday, which is the beginning of "week two". Sorry Phil Hughes, but I heard twice on Twitter that your velocity is down. I trust Twitter. I dropped Madison Bumgarner pretty much sight unseen to pick up Jordan Walden, who I hear should close for the Angels. I have no idea. I figured with ten pitcher slots that I could get an edge on my opponents by trying to get four closers.

The funniest part of league two was my father-in-law. I tried to get him into league one, but it took him so long to sign up that by the time he set up a Yahoo account, it was too late. I got him in the second league and it took half a dozen Facebook messages to tell him how to log into the league. It's a pretty easy setup for the first-timer to fantasy since the computer drafted for him and there's no bench so he doesn't have to fiddle with the lineup. Honestly, all he would need to do is put guys on the DL. I would assume at least four messages to get him through that process. Perhaps with some people, it is too late to teach them the basics of an online fantasy league. I'll be entertained if nothing else.

Twitter unleashed

2011-04-08T20:12:00.004-04:00

I'm a big fan of Twitter. Sure, I'm seeing Facebook on the side, but Twitter knows that I'm just stringing Facebook along. One of my favorite Twitter traditions is the follow Friday, or #FF for the hashtag-savvy.

I have been poor to keep up with follow Friday for the past couple of months, so I am going to make today's blog into a longer version.

I've been a fan of Andy_Miley since we was Anakin. Let's face it. Mr. Miley has changed his Twitter identity a lot. He's not a fan of brand consistency. What he does is follow fantasy football on his new site Dynasty Blitz. I'm going to link to his latest article to show the love, and yes Andy, I finally can say love without giggling like a schoolgirl.

I am also a huge fan of Bryan Fontaine. He is the partner in crime with Andy on Dynasty Blitz. I had him review the rookies I projected would make fantasy impact in 2011 in my manuscript Pride of the Lions. He's a nice fella.

No fantasy football list would be complete without the tireless FantasyTaz. Taz does at least 700 podcasts a week and once in a while, he lets Andy talk. He also put together the Draftmaster series of mock fantasy drafts that have kept a lot of us from going into a lockout-related funk.

Three guys who may not need any more fans but deserve attention are the regular hosts of the Thursday night Audible show. Cecil Lammey does the sports talk thing full time and is a heck of a show point guard. Sigmund Bloom brings the thunder with great takes. Matt Waldman is the rookie guru with his recently published Rookie Scouting Portfolio. I might like him slightly more because he's a Titans fan and lives in nearby Athens. They're all good people.

JerodMSF is a die-hard Indiana fan. Anyone can be a fan of a program that's on top. Indiana basketball does not qualify. He still shows the love the way an emotionally stunted sports fan should. He's also a White Sox fan. His photo stories, including today's hilarious One Win Hunting, are worth your time. The dude might like Photoshop a bit too much.

I really don't know what BradonSPORTS does besides irritate people. He's strong with the opinions on the upcoming draft. I'm honest that I do not know much about the rookies. Others are not so modest and Brad points that out on a regular basis. I told him that the Panthers should draft Cam Newton and run the triple option with Jonathan Stewart at fullback and DeAngelo Williams at RB. Are you telling me that it wouldn't terrify defensive coordinators a bit?

The only Titans blog I visit on a regular basis (first Web site to pop up when I'm at work, sadly) is Music City Miracles. Follow TitansMCM because I said so.

My last follow of the day is Chetrazzball. He's depressed like the lot of us because it's baseball season but that doesn't stop him from Tweeting like a sugar-addled teenage girl. Plus the name Razzball is bad-arse.

Coming up small in the big one

2011-04-06T07:28:00.000-04:00

Butler did something no school outside the power conferences in college basketball had ever done. They entered the NCAA tournament and after one game, wore their dark uniforms indicating that they were the underdog. They kept winning. They won ten tournament games in two years, and in only three of them were they considered the favorite.

On Monday night, that all evaporated. The team spit the bit, choked, performed well below expectations in a historically bad shooting performance. They couldn't hit the water if they fell off a boat. It was a constant stream of insults about the game on Twitter. UConn was forgiven because they had a few stretches of competence and prevailed.

Butler took a 25-19 lead and were outscored 34-16 the rest of the way. Their dream, along with the hopes of the neutral observers who had fallen in with the underdogs, was extinguished.

Sports can carry us on a wave, and more often than not we end up crashing on shore and forget the ride. There were 68 teams in the tournament and Butler finished second, but the result of that final game practically nullifies their run to get to the championship. Is that right?

I'm thinking back to my personal experiences with frustration. The 1986 Miami Hurricanes had Heisman Trophy winning QB Vinny Testadaverde, a great defense, and only needed to beat Penn State to take the title. Vinny had an epic fail a generation before someone came up with the term. He threw five interceptions including the final one with 18 seconds left at the goal line.

I could do a blog post just on Titans failures. Kevin Dyson's inability to break the tackle of a so-so linebacker left the team one yard from a potential tie in the Super Bowl. Fans don't forget the team's incredible run just to get to the big game. First-round losses to the Ravens twice are more prominent in fans' memories for games that wiped out the achievements of a fantastic regular season.

There are two with the Missouri Tigers. During my sophomore year Melvin Booker led the team to an undefeated conference record. They got to the Elite Eight and faced Arizona. This is the singular moment in which a Missouri team was the higher seed in an Elite Eight game. Arizona blew out the Tigers by 20. It wasn't close. The football team had a number one ranking heading into the Big 12 title game against Oklahoma three years ago. If they won, they would have played for a national title. Instead the team scored a season-low 17 points and lost by three touchdowns. The margin of victory led to stinking Kansas getting an Orange Bowl berth and Missouri played the mighty Arkansas Razorbacks, the sixth-best team in the SEC, in the Cotton Bowl.

In the year 2000, I had seen my White Sox in the playoffs twice. Both times they were defeated fairly soundly. 2000 was different because they finished with the top record in the American League. They went quietly into that good night, getting swept by the Wild Card Mariners. At least the team came through five years later.

I can't imagine that Butler fans will let this single-game performance tarnish the team's achievement. There were plenty of "they won't be back" comments. While there are good odds that it won't happen again, that's exactly the odds they bucked this season. I'll be rooting for them.

Fantasy Baseball: Drafting with Air

2011-03-30T19:56:00.000-04:00

I had high hopes for my fantasy baseball league. I really did. I wanted to get involved in a 2011 league. The downside to it all was that I set up the league on Sunday night and set the draft for Wednesday. Another slight issue was that I only invited the folks in my local keeper fantasy football league. I got six guys and I was on the verge of eight. Talking my father-in-law through the pages to get him signed into Yahoo was tough enough. The ultimate frustration was when I found out that by the time he got accepted, it was six minutes past the deadline for him to join my league.

We were going to draft a fantasy baseball league, a head-to-head league, with six teams. I set the league up for eight playoff teams. I'm going to play each of my five opponents four times. It was too late to change and I was locked in.

The draft started at 7. It was over at 7:26. Two of the six drafters showed up and one was my dad who had another league to draft in starting at 7:30. My dad's in more fantasy baseball leagues then me. He'll be semi-retired in a few months so he has nothing but time. I picked my players but my heart wasn't quite in it. With a total draft load of 120 players, everyone's going to have an all-world squad and MVP candidates are going to be available on the waiver wire. I had the number one pick, and by the time the final choice came to me, I took the Flying Hawaiian in Shane Victorino. It was the 120th pick and I took the 73rd overall ranked player. In a normal 12-team league, he's an 8th rounder probably.

Here's my team, because I'm like that:

C: Matt Wieters (16.06, 96th pick)

1B: Albert Pujols (1.01)

2B: Chase Utley (11.01, 61st pick)

SS: Alexei Ramirez (12.06, 72nd pick)

3B: Alex Rodriguez (2.06, 12th pick)

OF: Matt Holliday (4.06, 24th pick)

Justin Upton (6.06, 36th pick)

Ichiro Suzuki (8.06, 48th pick)

Utilities: Billy Butler (13.01, 79th pick)

Shane Victorino, (20.06, 120th pick)

Starting pitchers:

Roy Halladay (3.01, 13th pick)

Tim Lincecum (5.01, 25th pick)

Clayton Kershaw (7.01, 37th pick)

Ubaldo Jimenez (9.01, 49th pick)

David Price (10.06, 60th pick)

Max Scherzer (14.06, 84th pick)

Chris Carpenter (15.01, 85th pick)

Relief pitchers:

Jonathan Broxton (17.01, 97th pick)

Brad Lidge (18.06, 108th pick, and we have DL slots)

Matt Thronton (19.01, 109th pick)

What a beaut. I hope DL spots get cleared up by tomorrow so I can make my update.

Zach on Fantasy: Dynasty trade offer featuring Crabtree

2011-03-29T21:33:00.000-04:00

I only need a little bit of engagement. I had a trade offer in my dynasty league, and it got the fantasy juices flowing.

There was a problem with the trade right off. I have one owner in our league who is very keen on buying low. He also takes advantage of our emotions. When Sidney Rice was injured, he made a lowball offer (3rd round rookie pick and Jabar Gaffney). I wasn't offended. I respected him more for the offer. He got Vincent Jackson last year July for a pittance. The pittance was Arian Foster, Steve Slaton and a fourth round draft pick. Yeah, the trades don't always work out for him.

I had to think about the offer. It was Michael Crabtree for a two draft picks. It was pick 1.11 and 2.11 for the disappointing 49er. I took Crabtree two rookie drafts ago at 1.02. My RB options at that point were Donald Brown and Chris Wells. I can't say I made the wrong decision. Still, Hakeem Nicks at 1.08 has turned out to be the more valuable selection. It's hard to get value off the second overall pick.

Taking league scoring into effect, Crabtree finished 37th last year. I would have predicted lower. We can start up for four wideouts so Crabtree is a potential starter. I benched him a lot for the likes of Mike Thomas and later in the year, Sidney Rice. If you want a true measure of Crabtree's value last year, note that Anthony Armstrong, a guy I picked up off waivers, scored two fewer points than Crabtree last year.

I couldn't make the deal. It seems like a deep rookie draft, if not top-heavy. The 11th pick might net me a QB, the third or fourth WR, or the sixth or seventh RB. The second round pick would go to a high-rated IDPer or a shot-in-the-dark WR or RB who might not make a roster. Crabtree's still young, as he entered the draft as a redshirt sophomore. If he had exhausted his college eligibility, he'd be a rookie this year.

I thanked Tick for his interest and moved on.

With the 8th pick in the first round, the Tennessee Titans select...

2011-03-23T08:02:00.002-04:00

The Titans have the eighth pick in the first round. As much as I want them to trade for Kevin Kolb with that pick, that's not going to happen. I could see them maybe trading their 2012 #1 for him in hopes of it being a pick later in the round.

Titan fans have to get nervous about the pick because of recent history in the top ten. We have the back-to-back whiffs of PacMan and Vince Young. Both players weren't complete busts, yet you have to expect a solid consistent starter if not All-Pro material out of such a pick. With those criteria, they did not hit.

The team's been great with picks later in the round. The four years since Vince have yielded Michael Griffin, Chris Johnson, Kenny Britt and Derrick Morgan. Albert Haynesworth was a mid first-round selection.

Naturally we want to know if this is going to be a bust pick or a boom pick. Ask me again in 2015. What I do know is this draft lacks a true obvious number one pick. In mock drafts I'm seeing the Titans end up with guys who in other mocks are the number one overall pick. Nick Fairley was once considered "fair game" as the number one pick. He's been slipping. The Titans have Auburn DL coach Tracy Rocker on board to assist with the transition. Defensive end Da'Quan Bowers is another potential number one overall pick who could slip. Missouri QB Blaine Gabbert is another possibility, although I'm pretty sure that he won't slip. If Julio Jones ends up taken ahead of A.J. Green, there's a chance Green would slip to eight. In short, the Titans are going to get a very good player at that pick.

One player I haven't seen dropping is Von Miller of Texas A&M. The Titans could use an outside linebacker but it's not going to happen in the first round.

The latest Scouts Inc. top 32 player list has an astounding 13 defensive linemen, and the Titans certainly could use help in that area. It also means that the position could be in play for the second round.

Losing my NFL and Draftmaster update

2011-03-20T08:50:00.002-04:00

I'm going to make a quick and obvious statement about the lockout. It's a statement that the owners and the players don't want to hear, but they should. I can live without it.

There are a ton of elements to your life that you think essential that you can live without and you have. Remember life before the Internet? No, it wasn't in black and white. Remember having the standard definition boxy TV without 200 channels? You were fine. We can survive without the entertainment outlet. There are others.
The NFL wants us to believe that we can't live without them. The truth is it can't live without us.

Quickly, I'll cover my team in the Draftmasters 28 league. I don't know how the rosters are supposed to eventually shake out, and I'm not even sure how many rounds are in the draft. See, NFL, I'm starting to fall out of love. There better be a pot roast, some Fat Tire and peanut butter gooey cake for dinner when I get home.

My picks:

1.04: Chris Johnson (RB1)
2.09: Mike Vick (QB1)
3.04: Mike Wallace (WR1)
4.09: Marques Colston (WR2)
5.04: Dallas Clark (TE1)
6.09: Fred Jackson (RB2)
7.04: Pierre Garcon (WR3)
8.09: Mike Thomas (WR4)
9.04: Chris Ivory (RB3)
10.09: Sam Bradford (QB2)
11.04: Donald Brown (RB4)
12.09: Jason Hill (WR5)
13.04: Marion Barber (RB5)
14.09: Brent Celek (TE2)

I know you're jealous. How could I lock up the Jacksonville WR corps like that? It's almost unfair. The usual upside with taking a QB early is that you can wait on your backup. With Vick, it's smart to get reinforcements with the odds of injury at almost 100%. I feel good about my QB and TE, but I'm unsure about the WR group and the RBs seem really weak.

OK NFL, if I come home and you're wearing the Warren Moon Oilers throwback and nothing else, we'll forget that this ever happened.

Friday Night Lights Pilot: Great Show, Lousy Football Ending

2011-03-07T21:20:00.002-05:00

OK, so let me see if I get this correctly. In the first game of the first season of Friday Night Lights, the following scenario happens. The team's superstar QB, on the verge of signing with Notre Dame, throws a duck of a pass. As he makes a very QB tackle on the defender, he gets paralyzed. He also causes a fumble while getting paralyzed that his team recovers. In with them so far. In comes the completely inexperienced backup. We'll let it pass that this team, supposedly ranked number one in Texas, does not have a touted backup. This is a drama and we need to beat some odds. This QB comes in and with three minutes to go manages to look like absolute ass throwing the ball but the team still scores on a shovel pass (actually a good play call) and a run.

The team gets the onside kick with less than a minute left. That's fine. Then with no time outs (more on that later), they run the ball and the guy dives out of bounds at the 30 of the opponent. Even though his body lands out of bounds, the clock starts again like in college when a team gets the first down and the chains are moved. There are seven seconds left, so if the team had a time out they would have called it. The QB calls a play and snaps the ball with one second left. Nobody from the defense is blocked. He has to avoid three rushers, runs backward a long way and launches the ball. The defense must have rushed most of their defenders, since a receiver runs past everyone and catches the ball around the 30-yard-line, which is where I thought the ball was snapped. He scores the winning touchdown.

The characters and the drama and the setting were nailed so well that I'm willing to overcome that crazy scenario. I still have 20 episodes left in season one. I bet die-hard fans who are watching the final season wish they were where I was.

Back in the fantasy game

2011-03-06T10:45:00.001-05:00

I'm going to give some props to a wily fantasy football veteran known as Taz. I've relaxed my usual year-round grip on all things fantasy. With the potential lockout and the relative quiet leading up to the draft, I've enjoyed not paying close attention to the football goings-on. I couldn't help but notice that Taz kept tweeting about a series of drafts called the Draftmaster. Tons of people do mock drafts, although this is kind of early to start on 2011 leagues. He added a new draft seemingly every day. I sent him a message asking him to add me when he got to Draftmaster 46. Finally he asked me to join Draftmaster 28.

I signed up for this mock draft or draft-only league with the following personal rules. I was going to draft "from the hip". That meant that I would draft based on other lists that I could find instead of my own and more often than not, draft based on feel than need.

I got pick number four in this 12-team draft. The picks before me were Adrian Peterson, Arian Foster, and LeSean McCoy. I can still recall trying to sneak a pick of Foster in the last round of my in-person draft last August and watching the pick get ripped off the board due to positional limits. My how things change in a year. This is a PPR league and other than that, I'm blind to the actual rules of the league. I took Chris Johnson in round one without hesitation.

In the second round, I went with Vick. Last year when you took one of the "elite seven" quarterbacks, you felt like you could wait a long time to get your backup. With Vick and his high probability of injury, I can't really do that. I do have the fastest team in the league with the addition of Mike Wallace in the third. I think I have the fastest QB, WR, and RB in the National Football League.

The league is drawing me back into the fantasy football world, and the best thing about these Draftmaster leagues is that you draft with fellow fantasy football nerds who are also on Twitter. Fantasy nerds of the world, unite!

With my 500th post, Zach on Sports hopes the Titans select...

2011-02-24T21:40:00.000-05:00

I had in mind a much more grand personal statement with tonight's blog. Let's face it, though. It's Thursday night and I'm plum tuckered. I'd love to talk about me and the year of putting myself out there. Instead I'm going to make one plea to the Tennessee Titans, because I know they read this blog like Jeff Fisher practices not answering questions at a press conference.

This is not a bold statement by any means. It is a statement that comes from my careful consideration of the circumstances. Despite a 1-7 finish, the Titans aren't far away from being a contender. I do believe that. They are missing one small detail. They don't have a quarterback.

It's a bad offseason to have no quarterback since there's that pesky labor situation which means any new QB will not be able to officially work with the new offensive staff. Every team's going to have that situation, and let's face it, there are a lot of franchises in need of a quarterback upgrade.

I don't think the Titans should reach for what is perceived as an elite QB option in this year's draft. I already covered this in my previous blog. They shouldn't grab Blaine Gabbert or Cam Newton. There just aren't any finished products at the position. There are tantalizing skill sets to be sure. You just don't know how they're going to end up and you won't know until many years in the future. It took us five years to discover that Vince Young wasn't the answer and many fans think that he still could be. I don't want a project when a really good offensive line, an elite running back and great receiving options are present.

I want the team to trade for Kevin Kolb. I understand that the odd new-car rules of the draft make it too prohibitive to trade the number eight overall pick for Kolb. Honestly, I don't get it. Here's what I mean by the new car rules. A new car drops precipitously in value once you drive off the lot ,and so do top-ten picks. They get veteran money with a solid 50% chance that the player isn't going to live up to expectations.

Here's why I think that Kolb can be the guy. He's started in the NFL. That's a bonus compared to a guy like Gabbert or Newton who don't even have that much college starting experience. He's been successful. Yeah, he's had some stinkers like Week 17 last year when I started him in a fantasy matchup in which I got pulverized. Guess what; there aren't guarantees even with experienced guys. He was a four-year starter in college. Notice how most elite quarterbacks in the NFL came out as seniors? The top options this year are mostly juniors and that usually doesn't work out. Kolb could be the Titans' Matt Schaub, only maybe Kolb will be able to actually win games instead of throw a lot of empty yards.

The Titans only should pass on picking Kolb up with the number 8 pick if they know a stud defensive lineman will be there. It's a deep DL draft so there should. We need a guy who can make a Jevon Kearse like impact or become an Albert Haynesworth, minus the head-stomping and the road rage.

And I think the team could get Kolb for less. Their second-round pick might do since it's the 40th overall, or even next year's #1 which should be a middle-round pick at worse if the team has a QB. When you have options and one is clearly the best, you need to strike. There aren't any other veteran QBs available who will be worth more than a Kerry Collins. It's been fun, Kerry.

Can't take Blaine to Nashville

2011-02-21T21:59:00.000-05:00

As a fan of an NFL team, when is it safe to transfer from "critical" to "uncritically optimistic"? This is how I feel about Blaine Gabbert. Let's be honest. This team is going nowhere in 2011. I can see the offense being decent even without a QB more "seasoned" than Rusty Smith. There are pieces there that any decent veteran QB could make tough to defend. Do I include Kerry Collins in the serviceable veteran category? Sadly, yes.

Gabbert has the tools to be an All Pro. I don't mean just a Pro Bowler after seven QBs drop out. I mean a quarterback considered one of the top two or three guys in the league. The tools are off the charts. He has the arm strength, the ability to throw on the run, and the flat out ability to run the ball. That's where I stop with the positives.

Let's recall his final important college throw. It was third and moderate. Missouri trailed Iowa all game but had rallied to a 24-20 lead. One first down and the team was in field goal range and could start thinking about running down the clock. Gabbert rolled to his left. He is a right-handed QB. As he flushed toward the sideline, the nearest wideout took on his defender like he was blocking. Gabbert threw the ball to the defensive back who ran all the way back for the game-winning score.

This is not how you want your college career to be defined. You'd rather it be defined by an upset win over then-number one Oklahoma, or in a road win at Texas A&M. The throw was absolutely moronic, and that's the memory of Gabbert that I can't shake.

The mental side determines who makes it in the NFL. There are more talented guys than roster spots. It doesn't always look that way when guys like Brian St. Pierre manage to start a game. The last QB the Titans took in the first round arrived in the league straight off an MVP performance in the national championship game. We found out that Vince did not have the mental side down. He couldn't handle adversity nor could he remember the plays at times. The Titans can't afford to make that kind of mistake. Heck, the year before they drafted Pacman Jones and passed on a decent guy named Aaron.

I see a deep but possibly tools-heavy group of quarterbacks in this year's draft. I feel like the Titans would be better served by taking one of a deep crop of defensive linemen. It sounds like double-talk here but Missouri defensive end Aldon Smith is another possibility. He's equally raw as a redshirt sophomore, but a duo of him and Derrick Morgan sounds pretty solid. The team's going to need a good pass rush against the great quarterbacks of the AFC South and David Garrard.

Low point for Titans? Keep falling

2011-02-09T07:35:00.001-05:00

There have been low points during the Titans' 11-season run in Nashville. I'm not sure what kind of darkly humorous thought it is to contemplate that the team firing a coach who's undergoing cancer treatments isn't the low point.

I contend that the worst moment by far was when the team locked out a former MVP quarterback because he was under contract and the team was paralyzed with fear that he'd get hurt and there would be grave salary cap implications. There was a strange passive-aggressive the guy likes me but he'll pull my pigtails instead of talking to me vibe to the whole situation.

This and the ongoing feud between Jeff Fisher and Vince Young has numbed me to the point that the team firing a coach who continued his duties despite undergoing cancer treatments last fall doesn't affect me as much as it should. Like I've tweeted, the Titans can't hurt me anymore.

They can befuddle me. This has been the strangest offseason to date. You could see the salary-cap issues coming. You couldn't see Bud Adams looking at Jeff Fisher and Vince Young and saying "I choose me".

It is counterintuitive to say that the franchise is going another direction when the new head coach is from the former regime. You'd think that he would want to keep some of the other staff he's worked with for years but it looks like there will be an entirely new coaching staff for 2011, minus the head guy. There have been reports of Bud Adams wanting to "go cheap" with this year's coaching staff. He's already paying one coach, offensive coordinator, and defensive coordinator, the latter two due to Jeff Fisher's double secret probation extensions last fall. The only silver lining here is that Heimerdinger gets paid in 2011 and keeps his medical coverage. A lot of coaches who aren't under contract for 2011 will not get these benefits if the lockout occurs and persists.

As fans, we're always waiting for the low point. The low point means that the team has nowhere to go but up. With the team interviewing guys for positions that are already held, like Dave McGinnis' linebacker gig, that means the bottom is not in sight.

In Defense of Jeff Fisher

2011-01-29T09:31:00.000-05:00

Yeah, I've bashed Jeff Fisher. I'm not afraid to admit it. You get to the end of a long relationship that's clearly dying and you can't think of anything but the negative. Once you're out and get some space, which in today's world is about 72 hours, you realize that it wasn't all bad. Today's post is about the "wasn't all bad."

Look at what Jeff Fisher accomplished that no coach in the NFL will ever have to deal with for the rest of the history of the league. He coached a team that had four different home stadiums in four years. They played the lame-duck year in Houston followed by a traffic nightmare in Memphis and one year in Vanderbilt Stadium, which is bad karma if nothing else, followed by what was then Adelphia Stadium.

He's been called the master of the 8-8 season. Yeah, five 8-8 seasons in 16 years, plus two 7-9 efforts, is a lot. The 8-8 seasons are a product of the multiple moves and a team that he rebuilt twice. Plus his 2006 and 2010 seasons are two of the craziest 8-8 seasons ever. These seasons started 0-5 and 0-6 and the second half was an insane in-season turnaround. One of these seasons gave the franchise momentum and the other led to his demise.

When he took over for Jack Pardee, the team had just completed a remarkable seven consecutive playoff berths with a 3-7 record that makes Fisher look like Bill Belichick. The team scrapped the run-and-shoot offense and went with Fisher's three yards and a cloud of dust.

The key to that turnaround was hitting those early draft picks when they got them. The drafting of Eddie George and Steve McNair gave the team young offensive talent. In 1999, when the team finally got a home of its own, the franchise's first Super Bowl bid was the result.

This was the golden age of Fisher. The team made the playoffs four out of five years and never could recapture the magic (some call it luck) of their 1999 run. It ended suddenly as the team had to pay the piper for some bad salaries and it was time for Fisher's second rebuilding campaign.

Transitioning from a borderline Hall of Fame running back to the next guy isn't as tough as finding that new quarterback after your previous guy was run out of town. The Titans couldn't afford McNair in 1996 so they traded him to the stinking Ravens. Enter Vince Young. And the much less heralded late addition of Kerry Collins. These were the quarterbacks that would lead to Fisher's much more brief second golden era.
It started with the crazy comebacks of 2006. The defense took over in 2007 and the team made the playoffs for the first time in four years. The team was one Chris Brown fumble from winning that wild card game in San Diego. I'm convinced of that.

The following year was one for the ages. After losing Vince Young with an injury and a tantrum, Kerry freaking Collins and a young man named Chris Johnson helped lead the team to a 13-3 record and home field advantage in the playoffs. Yeah, the loss was tough. I, as many NFL fans, wish that the Titans had the right to choose their playoff opponent. The Steelers got the 8-8 division winning Chargers while the Titans had to face the Ravens and the officials couldn't see an expiring play clock.
2008 should have been the stepping stone to another continued run of greatness. The run ended quickly. The defense couldn't recover from the loss of Albert Haynesworth and Kerry Collins was as inconsistent as he was steady in 2008. Fisher couldn't right the ship until it was too late. An 8-2 run somewhat salvaged the season but fans had seen this trick before. Restlessness began.

2010 was a nightmare. The defense improved enough and made key turnovers early. The offense was led by a rejuvenated Vince Young. Despite the 5-2 start, we could see cracks in the armor. The defense stayed on the field too long. Kenny Britt looked like a monster one game and got injured the next. Chris Johnson wasn't getting those highlight-reel runs and more often than not got hit before he could start running. Young was pulled from a horrorshow performance against the Steelers. In the end the Steelers were the only team the Titans played all year who won a playoff game, so a schedule that looked tough really wasn't.

The team finished 1-8. It was another long losing streak for a coach who had a lot of them. It was time to go. Remember, as much as fans like to bash him, as for as much ammo as they have, Fisher made it for more than 16 years and no coach in franchise history has made it longer than five. It's doubtful that the next guy will come close to Fisher's accomplishments. I mentioned earlier how hard it is to replace a beloved franchise QB. It's about ten times harder to replace a franchise coach.

Post Championship Game Thoughts

2011-01-24T20:33:00.001-05:00

One thing I know for sure in the wake of the Cutlerkneegate, or the frowniefacegate, is that Jay Cutler will not replace Drew Brees in all of the post Super Bowl MVP commercials next year. Brees is rooting for the Steelers because Ben Roethlisberger is not taking over those snoring NyQuil commercials, even though having Roethlisberger in an empty bed might be more appropriate than the married Brees.

I found a comment by Mike Lombardi in the shockingly short Sports Guy podcast to be telling. He mentioned that quarterbacks now have to be somewhat mobile. This is, of course, because the mobility of Roethlisberger and Aaron Rodgers made the difference in key plays of the game. Of course last year's Super Bowl featured two of the least mobile QBs in history in Drew Brees and Peyton Manning. They can be mobile inside the pocket, and having historically good accuracy doesn't hurt.

I sympathize with the Twitterverse. We are all emotional creatures and got sucked in to the whole "why is Cutler not playing" debacle. Today was mostly full of apologies, which means that Tweeps are nicer people then the gen pop. I don't know what it is about the 140-character format that makes people more prone to look at old posts and say "my bad". Maybe it's because posting a Tweet is as easy as sending a text or a chat message to a friend before realizing that you sent it to the wrong friend.

Subjects pass through Twitter like waves in the ocean. The day before the playoff games, multiple people reported that Dick LeBeau was in the last year of his contract. Titan tweeters said "why not us?" That's exactly what a 70-year-old assistant wants to do, take on a rebuilding project. Yeah, he'll stick with his all-world linebacker corps.

I thought it would be funny for Eric Mangini to sign as the Titans' defensive coordinator and a week later decide to take a better contract with the Eagles.

The Super Bowl is going to be a two-week referendum about whether Ben Roethlisberger has been reformed. I'm still glad that I dumped his jerseys in the trash after his Milledgeville incident. It's not whether he was guilty or innocent. It's the situation he put himself in. It's sweet that he points to the sky after touchdowns and is apparently engaged. While I think you can fundamentally change as a person, it's a painful, long process and something that a quarterback in the National Football League generally pushes to his underlings. He's a really good quarterback who was as fortunate that he was drafted by a team that already had a good foundation as Mike Tomlin was. Yeah, Tomlin's bad ass, but he took over a team that won a Super Bowl less than two years prior. Let's have a little balance.

And what is it with the Packers looking like the '99 Rams for a quarter and a half and falling apart for the rest of the game? They're a big tease to their fan base. I wouldn't be surprised if the Steelers led 24-0 at the half again and the Packers rallied to tie. It's the kind of game that would surprise no one. And it would suck to have the first Super Bowl overtime since I have it in my manuscript that takes place in the 2011 season. This season already murdered the plausibility of Vince Young as Super Bowl MVP. Yes, that's why they call it fiction.

Final doubleheader de futbol

2011-01-23T11:17:00.002-05:00

Here are my quick thoughts on today's games. We have three of the most successful franchises in NFL history and the Jets. To be fair, the Jets didn't exist until 1963, and they are the only team of the four not to lose a Super Bowl.

If my memory of yesterday's brief foray into pre-game madness on the NFL Network is correct, the Packers have 12 "World Championships", the Bears have 9, and the Steelers have 6. The Steelers have to lead the NFL with today being their 15th AFC title game. That's 15 times they've been one of the top two teams in the AFC in the 41 years that there has been an AFC. The Steelers by far were the top beneficiaries of switching leagues when the NFL and AFL merged. Could you imagine the Steelers and the Cowboys battling it out for the NFC crown for the entire decade?

When I saw that it was their 15th AFC title game I thought "man, they really blew it a lot". That's one way to look at it. They are 7-7 in league championship games, including a rough stretch during the Cowher years in which they seemed to host the game almost ever y year and found a way to lose. Of course, when the Steelers get to the big game, they almost always win it. It's best to lose before the big game, as fans of the Vikings and Bills might suggest.

The Packers have three road wins during the regular season and are looking for their third straight road playoff win. They struggled a bit on offense in Philly compared to the onslaught in Atlanta. The difference, besides Atlanta pass-rushers being unable to tackle, was the elements. A cold Chicago should even things up a bit, and the Bears have the "little things" edge. The Packers are more talented, but a boatload of injuries has left them without the depth necessary to compete on special teams. So, the Packers' punter should kick the ball out of bounds or as high as the speakers in the new Dallas stadium every time to force a fair catch.

The Jets played a special game last week. When it comes to underdogs on a roll in the playoffs, we've seen both sides. We've seen teams get breaks and play over their heads, only to falter at the end of the race like the 1999 Titans, and we have a team that keeps the momentum going all the way through like the 2007 Giants. And we have the 2006 Steelers, who didn't exactly bring their A game but faced a team that played even worse in the Seahawks. The Jets aren't going to implode. After beating the Peyton Mannings and the Tom Bradys, they aren't going to suffer from stage fright.

I made a major step in my progression from manuscript to novel yesterday. I have written the first draft of a manuscript with the main theme being a year in the life of a fantasy football league. I recently put together a 2011 draft that will be the basis of that season. I shared my draft with the excellent Bryan Fontaine of Pro Football Focus, rookieblitz.com and dynastyblitz.com. I didn't want to miss on any rookies or veterans. My two "whiffs" were having Ryan Broyles coming out when he decided to go back to Oklahoma and I had Tony Gonzalez retiring. I guess Tony G doesn't want to retire without a playoff win.

Rooting for failure

2011-01-17T18:15:00.002-05:00

As I continue to rocket my way to my late 30s, I learn new things about myself every day. And what happens is that I start actually paying attention. Naturally, I tend to "learn" from mistakes.
Yesterday was the last of two days of the best football we're going to see for a long time. The two-day doubleheaders of Divisional round playoffs in the National Football league are hard to beat. There are enough games to dilute the attention on any one. It practically fills two days, and with one game at a time the fan gets to concentrate, which is hard to do on an average NFL Sunday with up to eight games going on at once.
Did I mention the drinking? On Saturday I shared a mini keg of Newcastle with my friend Don. I thought we'd empty the keg by the beginning of the second game at the rate we started while watching Steelers/Ravens. It lasted exactly as long as it needed to. On Saturday I felt under control. I was at home. I grilled for the first time in almost a week. We had some spinach dip. I was certainly rooting against the hated Ravens but I was rooting for the Steelers and the Falcons. When the Steelers pulled it out I was happy, and when the Falcons fell apart, I felt bad for my many Falcon friends but I witnessed an incredible performance by Aaron Rodgers, so I had nothing to complain about.

On Sunday I went to my friend's house. The opener was Bears/Seahawks, and who besides my wife wants to see that Certs blue jersey-wearing team from Seattle in the Super Bowl again? It was a blowout from the start, and adding some interest was Greg Olsen's first TD since Don picked him up in our playoff fantasy draft. The game was such a laugher that we spent half of it playing the Super Mario game on Wii. I'd say that we combined for about 30 continues and finished one level. That game is tough.

The last game was the highlight of the entire weekend. Here's the tale. I have a friend that we'll call Paul. What I say about Paul only has to do with his deep love for the Patriots. When the Patriots won their first Super Bowl, he reacted the way that a long-suffering fan should. He was happy beyond words and we were happy for him. In the next few years, the Patriots won every close playoff game and suddenly became the top franchise in the league. Paul's continuing rants about the Patriots and his anti Peyton Manning stance gradually shifted into a shrill sound like a car alarm that wouldn't go off. The peak of this was the "perfect season" in 2007. Tom Brady finally got his due with his first MVP and the team was called the best ever. Paul did not have to speak for us to feel the vibes of superiority. What we forget as fans is that we have about .001% to do with our chosen team's success. Yet when they do have on-field success, we act like we were the ones making the key block or catching the game-winning touchdown pass. I don't know how I'd react if the Titans went from being, well, the Titans to a multiple Super Bowl winner.

Super Bowl 42 was the peak of everything. There was no doubt that the Patriots would roll. T-shirts had already been printed and books were ready to ship calling this the team of the ages. This was the first time that Don and I ganged up to openly cheer against a team. We had no doubt that the Giants would lose, especially when the Patriots scored on the opening drive. We were incorrect and the improbable comeback led to a level of joy almost as spontaneous and innocent as when Paul watched that Vinatieri field goal go through the uprights. We were happy for another team's, and friend's failure and I think it damaged us a little.

Paul's had another good season. He just won our fantasy football league title for the first time. The key move that propelled him was a questionable trade that gained him one Tom Brady. I suggested a Week 17 Bowl for every team with the top scorer getting a free draft weekend in 2011, and he won. The Patriots were gods on earth again, winning despite trading Randy Moss and having two undrafted free agents as their key running backs. Not only that, the team has six draft picks in the first three rounds of next year's draft. They were really skilled and really smart. It's like that quote from Spaceballs. "That's why evil always triumphs. Because good is dumb."

Another factor in our mood was my choice of drink. I went all beer on Saturday. On Sunday I exhausted my beer stash by the second quarter of the game. The Jets had the first interception of Brady since I was a zygote, only they didn't get any points off the turnover. It seemed like the offensive hounds would be unleashed at any moment. Don offered wine. I accepted.

The wives arrived around halftime for the traditional meal. Sometimes we eat after the game but on this evening we ate during the game. The wine flowed. As Brady stood in the pocket for what seemed like ten seconds and still couldn't find anyone, we knew something weird was going on. We became brash with our alcohol and started talking smack about our poor friend Paul and the Patriots. Neither of us have any interest in the Jets winning. I grew up a Dolphins fan and the Jets always felt like their key rival. But on this day, we wore green in our hearts. We cheered the great plays by the Jets and cheered the failures of the Patriots.

I found that while it's enjoyable in the short term to cheer against a team (and at the same time, drink way more than a normal human being should), there's no lasting good feeling that results. I have, as they say, a sharp tongue, and I can say some nasty things in the right mood, or yesterday, the wrong one.

Maybe it's my entire attitude toward football that's changed this year. I started taking Titan losses in a healthier way. Instead of gnashing my teeth and losing sleep, I learn to let it go. Today, when I had the opportunity to post dozens of tweets with the tone of "Suck it, Patriots!", I calmed down. Sure, it was incredible that the Jets kind of dominated a team that beat them by 42 about a month ago. It's wild that the Packers won three road games during the regular season and now they are favored to equal that number this week. Jay Cutler, hosting an NFC Championship game? Unpossible. The Steelers are in their fifth AFC title game in a decade, and the key is they aren't playing the Patriots. The Jets are in conference title games for consecutive years for the first time ever. And the Pats have lost three playoff games in a row.

Wait a second, that was negative. I never thought about my friend Judd who's been a life-long Jets fan. He has to be pretty happy. The team might be not so rootable with their never-ending trash talk and unusual off-the-field hobbies. They were coached up this weekend. And I'm glad I was present to witness all the glory. Maybe next time I'll be less of an ass.

And I'm hung over like you can't believe, so karma came back to bite me in the end.

Wii Resort: Shoot the ball

2011-01-13T21:45:00.000-05:00

I'm a simple man. I like simple video games. Don't give me the X Box controller with its 48 buttons. That's why I'm a Wii kind of guy.

My new obsession during our Coldlanta spell has been Wii Resort. My parents bought the game a while back and let me borrow it because they never play it. I'm a huge fan of the 100-pin bowling. What could be more simple than that? You hold the controller and move it forward like you would an actual bowling ball. It's not as heavy, obviously. I couldn't even imagine the automatic pin setter for a 100-pin alley. Plus it would be an entire bowling facility wide.

That's not my obsession. I've been playing the basketball game. It's the three-on-three pickup game. My favorite old-school Nintendo games were Ice Hockey, in which you picked the skinny fast guy, the medium guy, or the slow fat guy. The slow fat guy beat up the small skinny guy if the slow fat guy could catch him. I also have the original Tecmo Bowl, in which you select one of four plays and have two buttons to press. One switches your player and the other throws the ball. Easy.

In this basketball game, it's your Mii character plus two of your "friends" against a team of three. You hit the A button or the directional button to pass to one of the other three players. You hit B to shoot and you move the controller in a shooting motion. Ideally you want your player to have some space between the defender, because the defender can jump really high to block your shot. It's simple.

You pass, and pass some more until your player has space and takes the open jumper. If your player doesn't have space, you have a few seconds from when you press B until you shoot. You can try to fake your defender into jumping early so you can wait for the player to fall and you can take your shot.

It's like the old Madden or college football games in which I found my favorite five or six plays and ran them over and over again. I'd wait for my player on the wing to separate from the defender, pass and shoot. When on D you can thrust your controller (how naughty) forward to try to steal. If you don't steal, you either lose your balance or fall down. If you fall down, the opponent gets an open look.

In all Wii games like Wii Sports, the goal is to win enough to earn points and get to the Pro level. Sadly the rewards at Pro level aren't great. In the old Wii Sports bowling game you got a sparkly bowling ball after you won. I played this game probably 30 times and just reached the Pro level. I'm afraid of playing again because if I lose my score could go below 1000 and I lose the pro ranking. I think this kind of obsession is the only reason why I haven't won the Pulitzer for my great American novel.

Peyton is the Nail

2011-01-02T22:27:00.001-05:00

Peyton Manning makes a heckuva nail.

I expected the Titans to lose today. They had nothing to play for and the Colts had everything at stake. A win meant a division title, seven in eight seasons, and a three seed for next week’s wild card playoff game.

The teams were evenly matched. In two games, the Colts outscored the Titans by five. I know the Titans scored on the last play of the first game to cut a nine-point lead to two. The Titans were one fourth-and-one attempt from having a shot to win that game.

In the opener the Colts scored three pretty quick touchdowns and after that, the defense tightened. The reason why that was possible is that Peyton’s missing his main targets. Dallas Clark’s making more plays than Jacob Tamme. Blair White doesn’t always know where to go when Austin Collie does. It’s harder to sustain drives because Peyton has to know where his guys are going all the time. So every time the Colts had a chance to put the game away, the Titans shut them down.

In a throwback to the team’s 5-2 start, Michael Griffin recovered a fumble in the final two minutes and ran the ball back into field goal range. The 5-2 Titans would have put the game away. They’d get the TD or run the clock down and Bironas would kick the field goal. Nope. Not the 1-8 Titans that finished the year. Kevin Matthews, the center who was a practice squad guy two weeks ago, flubbed the snap to Kerry Collins. The Colts got the ball back and by Manning or by ref, they were getting in field goal range to end it.

I don’t think the Colts have what it takes, just like every team that dispatched the Titans starting in San Diego. Look at the teams that beat the Titans. You have the Dolphins, the Redskins, the Jags, the Texans, the Chiefs, and the Colts twice. Only two of those teams are in the playoffs, and the Chiefs/Colts might be underdogs at home next week.

Chris Johnson was the kind of dynamic running back who was the 2009 Offensive Player of the Year. He only did it for one drive, but it was the game-tying drive. Too many times was he hit in the backfield, only to see more blue-clad defenders if he got past the first guy.

I wonder if the plethora of teams searching for a new coach might make the Titans think twice about jettisoning Fisher. I would think this is a plum job to pick up for the right coach, as this team easily could have gone 10-6. If the Titans can find their Mike Tomlin, and Tomlin wasn’t the obvious choice at the time, there isn’t going to be a long rebuilding period. My first recommendation would be to sign Kerry Collins to an incentive-based contract. Then they’d draft a QB of the future in the first or second round. Let someone else get Vince Young. No, the Titans will not get a draft pick for him. I’d offer Randy Moss a contract, but only if the new offensive coordinator (assuming new coach means new coaching staff) agrees to put him on the other side of Kenny Britt. We might need to rename him Kenny Brittle. Pay Chris Johnson. I’ll get to the rest but I’m watching two teams play for the NFC West title who could beat the Titans by a field goal.

Requiem for a Titan

2010-12-30T19:00:00.000-05:00

I have to admit. Last Sunday's performance by the Titans was beyond anything I had expected. Did you think Kerry Collins still had the fastball to give someone a concussion?

William Hayes was one of the breakout candidates of 2010. With Kyle VandenBosch and his mean-looking contacts hitting the road to Detroit, Hayes needed to step up. He was injured in the preseason, tallied 1.5 sacks in limited snaps and finished his year by getting concussed when Kerry Collins threw the ball away. Here's the teaching moment. Pay more attention to the game than Vince Young paid attention to Jeff Fisher.

Sunday's game was fantastic if you're a long-suffering fan of the Kansas City Chiefs. Every fan of the Chiefs is long-suffering. I was in Kansas City when they broke a 20-year-plus streak of not winning a playoff game. I watched them go from horrible to just good enough to lose in the playoffs. After they let Marty Schottenheimer go, the team had a brief flirtation with quality with Dick Vermeil. They couldn't stop Peyton Manning in a home playoff game. In fact the team's gone 0-3 with a bye in the playoffs. So all in all it's probably a good thing that they're playing in the Wild Card week. The Ravens or Jets are going to have a tough first-round contest. I expect the Chiefs to show up more than the Bengals did last year.

As a fan of the Titans, I have to say that I'm disappointed by the team's performance. Last year's team should have been better than 8-8 but an 8-2 finish obscured the start. The 2008 team was much better than expected but a first-round choke as bad as a David Buehler extra-point miss tarnished the whole experience. 2007 was a logical progression from 2006, despite Vince Young's backsliding. The team had a dominant defense, which the NFL seems to be lacking this year. 2006 was fun despite the putrid start and the nightmare scenario of Derrick Mason, Steve McNair and Samari Rolle playing for the Ravens.

The 1999 to 2003 seasons were great despite the playoff failures. Neither the Buffalo nor the Jacksonville fan bases have recovered from losing to the Titans in the 1999 playoffs. Sadly, with the probable dismissal of Jeff Fisher, the team's about to become the Jaguars or the Bills. With no coach and no quarterback, it's hard to see any sunshine upcoming for the team.

Sunny moments for 2010 were the brief resurrection of Vince Young the passer, Marc Mariani the transcendent kick returner, Jason Babin turning his career around despite him being a key reason why they lost the Washington game, Kenny Britt as a long-awaited number one wideout, and the signing of Randy Moss. Oh, the signing of Randy Moss. Moss was woefully underused until the return of Kenny Britt, after which he became indistinguishable from Lavelle Hawkins. For weeks the coaching staff explained that Moss and Britt both played the split end spot, so they couldn't get both on the field at the same time. Man, if the 70s Steelers had just played Stallworth and Swann at the same spot. That is so indefensible. That's almost as bad as people whining about growing deficits before continuing tax cuts that the nation can't afford.

I can't even finish a paragraph about bright spots for the Titans without going negative. Anterraun Verner was a bright spot. He was a turnover machine, and when he stopped getting them, the team started losing like they were the 2008 Detroit Lions. Michael Griffin seemed to overcome a sub-par 2009. The linebacking corps as a whole was a disaster. The team couldn't shake free a few bucks to hold onto Keith Bulluck? OK, Stephen Tulloch was a tackling machine. He's not bad. The team needs new outside linebackers. If Jason Jones could stay healthy, I'd say sign in long-term. Tony Brown was injured most of the year.

It's possible that the team will enter 2011 with none of the 2010 QBs. Collins is a free agent and is ready to retire as the worst 40,000-yard passer in league history. Jay Cutler, you have your work cut out for you. Vince Young is in the last year of his contract and probably needs new scenery to win. Either he has to have a coaching staff that's 100% behind him and will tell him that the crowd booing him is really saying "VinceBooyah" or he has to accept that he's not in Austin anymore. Rusty Smith seems like a guy who doesn't have the skill set to stick around. Maybe his second offseason is off the charts and he becomes a backup type.

Chris Johnson could have the most disappointing 1400-yard season in league history. He never felt like the threat he was last year and took too many hits in the backfield. Seriously, the offensive line moved Amano to center and Harris plugged in at guard and it never worked.

The end is near

2010-12-19T21:01:00.001-05:00

The dream is dead. Again. For the third straight year, I will not be champion of any of my fantasy leagues.

In my local keeper league, I used to think of my division as the NFC East. It's a tough, rugged division and no game is a gimme. After today's result, I'm trading up. Our division is the SEC. In the past three years, the other three teams in my division won the title. This year was my turn. I started 8-2 but finished with three straight losses. Last week's win and top score in the league gave me confidence. I faced off against the same team that beat me in last year's semifinal. What made the loss even tougher was that the opposite semifinal was a 59-50 suck-fest while I lost 102-91.

We had our typical rollercoaster game. I had a lead as big as 15 but it evaporated quickly. I was pissed at Eli Manning early but it's hard to argue against four touchdowns. Miles Austin scored a short touchdown but was pretty much underwhelming. Vincent Jackson was great as Vernon Davis was disappointing. I led by three points after the 1 p.m. games.
I had Darren McFadden and Knowshon Moreno while he had Roddy White, Wes Welker, and Danny Woodhead. Moreno got hurt early and McFadden only kept pace with White. At the moment I'm holding onto a 3-point lead and he has the tiebreaker edge. I might hold the lead through the first quarter but I'm not hopeful.

I also lost my z17 semifinal. My juggernaut squad failed to score a touchdown outside of Peyton. It's sad to end the season like this but it's a bit of a relief to not have to worry about the game and watch a scoreboard all afternoon when I should have been sleeping and kicking this cold.

Congrats to the Titans. They started and finished their home slate with impressive wins. Ignore what happened in the middle. The team has a very outside shot at a playoff game, but I really don't want to see the Jets, Steelers, or Ravens at LP Field in January. I'd rather watch the games on the trusty HD at home.

I would like to see Philadelphia travel to Atlanta for the NFC Championship game. It's been too funky a season for us to get a simple 1/2 championship game two years in a row, right?

Fantasy files: Playoff narcissicm

2010-12-18T09:52:00.000-05:00

It's time for an overdue Zach on Sports narcissistic rant about my fantasy playoff teams. What good are playoff teams without a little bit of self-congratulation?
In my local keeper league, I played a team that had not made a roster move all year. He started Carson Palmer, Antonio Gates, Randy Moss, and Percy Harvin. You could say that I won comfortably. It's just an ego thing when you lead the league in scoring during the regular season. When get the top overall score in the playoffs, you feel like a championship could be upcoming.

This week I play a division rival. I had two waiver selections. One was Alex Smith to take Brett Favre's place. I had high hopes for Favre and only started him once. I thought he'd be a big scorer against the Lions and he put up 11 points or so. Good riddance. My other pickup was a guy who burned me two weeks ago. I picked up Vincent Jackson in a key matchup against the same guy I'm playing this week. He left after three plays and my hopes for a comeback victory were dashed.

Here are the matchups:

QB: Eli Manning versus Philip Rivers; I'll be lucky if Manning gets half the 28 points that Rivers scored. I'm seriously considering starting Kerry Collins instead.

RB: Knowshon Moreno and Darren McFadden versus Ray Rice and Danny Woodhead; I don't expect 42 points for McFadden again. I'll lobby to have Denver/Oakland as the full-time game on TV for the 4 p.m. games since that's the only game with fantasy relevance. Rice isn't scoring touchdowns this year. Woodhead is.

WR: Miles Austin, Vincent Jackson, and Hakeem Nicks versus Wes Welker, Roddy White, and Lance Moore; Jackson obviously paid off. I'd like a couple of "double touchdowns" between Nicks and Eli. Miles Austin has fallen off big-time since Jon Kitna took over. Welker's a PPR machine. I'll be watching Sunday night's game and probably crying the entire time. Roddy White has been a monster but he has not scored a TD in four weeks. I bet the streak ends this week. Lance Moore just scores touchdowns. If anyone gets single digits, as this is a PPR league, that's trouble.

TE: Vernon Davis versus Kellen Winslow II; I wave the white flag on this one. I'm not sure how Davis got one catch but to me that's the singular reason why the 49ers lost on Thursday night. That and their inability to notice that Vincent Jackson was the only viable receiver on the Chargers' roster.

K: Dan Carpenter versus Garrett Hartley; Both guys will play in the elements. I don't know; we're talking kickers here.

D: Ravens versus Giants; For all of the suckage the Ravens displayed last week, they did score two defensive/special teams touchdowns. The Giants will get more sacks.

The CBS "projections" give me a slight edge. They also tell me that Vernon Davis will score 16 and Vincent Jackson will score 13. That's a total of 29 and I got 35. I'm ahead of the curve.

I'm also in my Zealots 17 semifinal against a team that scored 190 points last week. 190 points in a Zealots league is pretty good. He has Brady, although I bet a lot of teams have Brady this week. Actually in this game and in my local keeper league it's Brady versus Manning. This is as it should be.

Peyton Manning is my no-duh starter. So are Michael Turner and Adrian Peterson. My crisis is among wide receivers. I have Dwayne Bowe, Greg Jennings, Percy Harvin, Reggie Wayne, Mike Williams (Bucs) and Mike Wallace. Four can start. Jennings and Bowe have possible backup QBs playing. I'm starting Wayne, Jennings, and Bowe for sure. Yeah, Bowe has one catch for three yards the past two weeks. I'm playing the studs. Harvin has a rookie QB. Wallace has a tough matchup and an injured QB. I'm going to try Mike Williams.

You know what? Scratch that. I can start two tight ends. I'm going with Owen Daniels and Jacob Tamme. The Titans can't cover the TE and Tamme's been solid since taking over for Dallas Clark.

I'm benching Jared Allen at DE. I've done so for most of the second half of the year. I'm going with Charles Johnson and Trent Cole. Patrick Willis already played. I have to keep Cameron Wake in my lineup. I'm taking Desmond Bishop over Lance Briggs as my LB3. Bishop should be on the field a lot.

Atogwe, Chung, and Delmas are my three DBs. Due to injuries and the Thursday night game, those are my only three options.

Double championship game? That would be nice.

Day of Personal Infamy

2010-12-05T20:41:00.001-05:00

Sunday, December 5 is a day that will live in personal infamy. I went to sleep at midnight Central time. I was alone in the guest bedroom at my parents’ house. I had agreed a couple of weeks ago to visit for a Titans’ game. I had the lowest expectations heading into a Titans’ game ever.

I had a dream that I was talking to my grandmother. In the dream I had a rare moment of insight and asked her if there was anything she wanted to pass onto me. She talked about running away to marry her husband, although I knew that wasn’t the real story. I couldn’t remember much of the details other than having the presence of mind to ask a question. I guess that was the point.

She died around midnight, so the dream probably happened around the time that she passed over. Alice Pert was 97 years ago and had finally given up. She had no food or liquids for four days before her body finally shut down. My dad has been relatively silent over the whole ordeal, which is about the same reaction that I would have. Us Laws absorb, and what we absorb comes out when it’s ready to come out. The following morning was full of phone calls making funeral plans and listening to condolences.

We trudged on as families do and went to the Titans’ game. On Saturday it was in the 50s and would have been a pleasant game-day experience. On Sunday it was in the 30s and snowing for most of the day. “Football weather,” as my dad said.

The Titans showed their usual amount of effort. My mom insisted that the defense gave up because they’re trying to get Jeff Fisher fired. I don’t think that. In the National Football League, each person is a corporation. There is a feeling of team unity but most everyone is playing as hard as they can. I saw the Jaguars kickoff unit and everyone looked like a serious athlete. These were the men on the edge of staying in the league. No, the defense didn’t give up. They were undermanned and struggled to do basic things like tackle. The score was 14-0 midway through the second quarter which meant the game was over. We stuck around. Kerry Collins kept underthrowing the ball when he had the wind at his back. There was no way that he was making a fourth-quarter rally against the wind. We left after an interception with four minutes to go.

I had on four layers. As we walked up the hill to head back, I pulled a hood over my head. It snapped the right arm of my frameless glasses. They had developed cracks in the last month and I had to get through December before getting replacements. It’s going to be a difficult month.

We drove home and didn’t talk about the funeral. We didn’t talk about the Titans. We had a tough week ahead of us. We’ll be in Pittsburgh later in the week assuming that we can get the body from Vegas to Pittsburgh. It’s going to be an impromptu family reunion, which should be slightly more fun than watching bad football in the snow.

Fantasy files: Starting strong

2010-11-30T08:09:00.000-05:00

My local keeper league is getting on my last nerve. I've chronicled my strange history in this fantasy league. I was great at the start and had a bad four-year stretch that ended when I got the final playoff spot last year and defeated the number one seed. This year was our once in five years redraft and I did really well.

Proof in the pudding was my 8-2 start. I led the league in scoring and had the best record. There was no doubt that my team was elite. My WR trio of Marshall, Austin, and Nicks was tough to beat. I had RB injury issues to start but Darren McFadden and Frank Gore held me up most weeks. Eli Manning wasn't an elite QB but well worth the seventh-round price.

In Week 11 it started to fall apart. Marshall and Nicks got injured. We have one WR bench slot so I was forced to start two tight ends. Unfortunately, Dustin Keller did not continue his early-season hot streak. Vernon Davis has been a top TE but as tight ends go, is inconsistent.

My ace in the hole was Vincent Jackson. Ideally he'd be a great WR4 and fill-in starter. In Week 12 I had to start him. He made it three whole plays.

I was in deep trouble going into Monday night. I needed 58 points to win and had Gore, Vernon Davis, and the San Fran D. I thought I had a chance. Gore's injury ended that chance. I started Gore and McFadden this week. They scored 18 points. My backup RBs, Moreno and Freddy Jackson, scored 49.

There are two lineup dilemmas for the fantasy owner. Not enough choices or too many. I now have four borderline elite running backs and picking the right one is like selecting winning lottery numbers. I'm fine with Eli at QB. Now I have to pick up a WR with the 11th waiver slot and this guy has to start for me next week. I'm 8-4 and need a win or a loss by the second place guy in my division to win my division title. I may not get Nicks back this year and Brandon Marshall hasn't been a difference maker this year.

8-2 feels like it could end 8-6. It's not quite what I had in mind when the season began.

Titans pregame pep talk

2010-11-28T09:51:00.001-05:00

When the Titans head to Houston this afternoon, it will be a battle of desperation. The Titans and Texans started the season with such promise and now look at the high probability that one of them will finish last in the AFC South. It's the kind of result that gets coaches fired, or coordinators as scapegoats. The Titans are in a tough spot with a rookie QB and a team reeling from last week's on and off the field soap opera. Mike Heimerdinger will coordinate despite taking part of the week off to start cancer treatments. Yeah, I'd say that Titan fans are a long way from the post bye new car smell feel they had right after the bye week.

The Titans can win. The Texans have no pass defense and crumble like day-old bread at the first sign of pressure. Here's what needs to happen for the Titans to win:

1. Randy Moss gets ten targets. Rusty Smith targeted Moss three times in about two quarters of action. Moss needs to get involved early. Shall I suggest a wide receiver screen to start things?

2. Chris Johnson needs 15 touches in the first half. This depends on how the defense performs, of course. After his giant early season workload things have eased off. Note how the Titans have done in those two games.

3. Rusty Smith needs easy reads. If we believe what Fisher leaks to the press, Vince Young needed a scaled-down playbook, so this shouldn't be too difficult.

4. Marc Mariani needs to make a play. I can't ask for a touchdown, but continuing his field-position-shifting ways would be nice. Titan special teams have been excellent this year.

5. Take chances. Go for it on fourth down a couple of times. The team doesn't have to go all-in but there needs to be a sense of urgency.

6. The defense needs to create turnovers. Verner's almost-interception in OT was the kind of play the defense made routinely before the bye. The Texans can't have sustained drives or the depleted defensive line will wilt.

7. If the front four can't get pressure like last week, you have to blitz. The Titans barely touched McNabb last week. Schaub is going to complete more than 60% of his passes with all day to throw.

8. Key on Foster. The Redskins had a great day running the ball. The Texans have an All-Pro back. This is not a good matchup.

9. No matter how Rusty does, do not put Chris Simms in the game. His job is to look interested when Heimerdinger talks to Rusty between offensive series. Simms = gasoline on fire.

10. If all else fails, run on the field in Colts uniforms. It worked for Fisher last year.

The Titans: A soap opera not worth watching

2010-11-23T09:01:00.000-05:00

I'd love to sit this one out. The current situation between Jeff Fisher and Vince Young is a little too soap-opera-y even for the greatest reality show in TV, the National Football League. But I have to see this one through.

I'd like to hear from Steeler fans from the 60s or Patriot fans from the 60s to the year 2000. These were long-suffering fan bases that finally got to see the light. In the case of Steeler fans, they got to see the light six times, with a rough patch for about 20 years in between. Patriot fans watched bad team after bad team with the occasional flicker of hope that was always dashed.

How many flickers can a fan base endure before jumping ship? The playoff run leading up to Super Bowl 34 was unexpected and fun. Losing a game with home-field advantage throughout the playoffs, which the Titans did twice in the past decade, was somewhat less fun. Losing a game on a dropped fourth-down throw to a shockingly open Drew Bennett was tough. The rebuilding process after the salary cap purge of 2004 made it clear that players often become figures on the balance sheet. Steve McNair in a Ravens jersey was especially tough to bear.

We were rewarded for our patience with the 2006 run with Vince Young, who we believed literally could do anything on the field. 2007 was nice with a playoff return although the defense could bail out the offense only so much. The resurgence of Kerry Collins in 2008 was a revelation, along with a smallish but tough rookie named Chris Johnson.

As I watched Graham Gano miss a potential game-winning field goal at the end of regulation, I said out loud "I wish the Ravens kicker did that in 2009." The Redskins expect a Florida State kicker to be clutch? Gano needed six attempts to make four field goals but he got his chances.

The Titans had so many missed opportunities in Sunday's game. I was certain that they would score on the opening drive after a nice Chris Johnson run. On the next play Vince ran, didn't secure the ball and fumbled. Even after Marc Mariani ran a punt back for a TD, nothing felt right. The defense couldn't stop the Redskins. McNabb rarely was pressured. The secondary couldn't cover. Even when the Redskins handed opportunity over, the Titans couldn't convert. McNabb hit Stephen Tulloch so perfectly on the Redskins' only TD drive that he dropped the ball. That was a momentum-changer and potentially a pick six. Twice the Titans got inside the ten-yard line and twice they were denied. When there was a holding call on first and goal at the three, they should have put Bironas in there on second down. The crowd actually started chanting "Randy, Randy, Randy" because Vince refused to even look his way. On third and goal the slow eyes of the fan saw Randy breaking free but Vince was in the grasp of a defender.

I didn't see the play in which Vince hurt his thumb. I just saw him walking off the field. When Rusty Smith came on the field, I tried my "This one goes to eleven" joke in honor of Smith's number but you can't try sophisticated humor at a football game. You can only communicate with other fans in grunts, high fives, and yelling anatomically impossible suggestions to the ref.

Rusty Smith is a sixth-round rookie. Do not compare him to Tom Brady. Brady was on the practice squad his entire rookie year, had an entire offseason to absorb the playbook and got his shot in his second year. He also failed to rally his team in his first start. Smith hit Nate Washington on a long pass and appeared to hit Moss for a touchdown, but Moss was called for pass interference. Blame Roddy White for that one.

Vince Young came back out of the locker room like a conquering hero. He threw some test passes to Justin Gage. It was obvious to fans that he was coming back. He never did. We were subjected to the kind of he said/she said shenanigans that adults should leave behind after high school.

It's hard to put into words how pathetic the Titans' effort as a team has been the past two weeks. In Miami, the Dolphins were down to their third string QB and for a few plays in the third quarter, exclusively ran the Wildcat formation that's been all but mothballed this year. Everything worked against a suddenly toothless defense. The same third-string QB who played pitch and catch with Anthony Fasano like it was practice could generate no offense against the Bears the following week. The same Eagles team that the Titans barraged a month ago scored eight touchdowns against the Redskins. Missing two starters in the secondary, that same defense kept the Titans from getting into the end zone.

It's hard to blame the defensive line. They've been playing with a couple of cards short of a full deck most of the year. Rookie Derrick Morgan tore his ACL. Jason Jones left early with an undisclosed injury. Dave Ball and Jason Babin can only do so much. Babin can blow a game for the team, as we found out in OT.

The defense made plays in the first two months of the season. In overtime, they appeared to make another one. On second and 22, McNabb spied Santana Moss (you know, the good Moss) to the left and hit him on the sideline. Alterraun Verner stuck an arm out. The ball bounced into his hands for what looked like the game-winning interception. There was a scrum after the play. The ref threw a flag. There was a personal foul penalty. If it was on the Redskins, the Titans could put Bironas on the field on first down to kick a short field goal. If it was on the Titans, they'd be out of field goal range but would only need a first down or two to get into Bironas range. The scoreboard operator then did something unusual. We only see replays when the play goes in the Titans' favor. When it's controversial in any way and the other team could challenge, we never see it. We saw the replay of the interception and the ball clearly hit the ground. It was OT so the replay was initiated by the refs. It just seemed weird. We would be fine because the Redskins would have third and 22.

The personal foul was on Jason Babin and only happened during the continuation of the interception play. If the ball had been called incomplete, there would have been no penalty. No matter. It was first down at the 42 instead of third and 22 at the 27. There was a roughing the QB penalty the following play. Witherspoon hit the very top of his helmet on the very bottom of McNabb's facemask . If the QB doesn't even fall down, can you still call it roughing? The Redskins were going to score. It was inevitable.

The long walk up the hill and ride home was made even worse by the postgame departure of Vince Young and comments from Jeff Fisher that clearly stated that injury or no, Young was no longer the starting QB. Frankly, it doesn't matter if you're on Team Fisher or Team Young. These two can't work together. They just can't. And this season is over even though the Titans are a game out of first place in the division with five divisional games to go. The only drama left is whether Chris Johnson can muster another league rushing title.

I'd hate to see the Titans run through the division, win a home playoff game and lose in the last minute to the Jets, Ravens, Steelers, or Patriots. That would be one disappointment too many.

The amazing 2008 rookie RB class

2010-11-15T22:22:00.000-05:00

What do they say about people who do research? Those are the people who aren’t sure of themselves. Wussies.

As this year’s rookie running back class fades into mediocrity, we look back two seasons. I wanted to look at the 2008 rookie running back class, which might be the best in history. I’m going to use my Zealot rookie drafts as a guide.

The number one rookie pick was Darren McFadden. He was a total disaster in his first two years. Nine weeks into the 2010 season, McFadden is the number two running back in points per game in my PPR league. He’s making powerful runs and speed runs. He’s even making the Raiders respectable, which was impossible until this year.

Number two was Jonathan Stewart. J-Stew has not become the uber stud that he was as the number one high school running back going into college. He did get 1000 yards last season after a DeAngelo Williams injury. Owners drafted Stewart in the fourth round this year anticipating another Williams ouchie. This happened but Stewart was injured as well. He’s going to be the bell cow RB for the Panthers next year. That might mean something if the Panthers can finally get a passing game going.

Number three was Rashard Mendenhall. He looked like a bust until taking over for “used to be fast” Willie Parker and getting 1000 rushing yards last year. He was a late first-round pick this year in fantasy drafts and probably will be a second-rounder next year.

Number four was Kevin Smith. OK, so Smith has already been replaced by a first-round RB in Jahvid Best. Smith was good for about a year and a half before tearing his ACL. He’s going to have to make his name on another team.

Number five was Matt Forte. Forte was the rookie star of this group. His second year was less good. He’s on pace for another sub-1000-yard season, although he has 30 catches. He’s been a middling fantasy producer.

Number six was Felix Jones. Jones has not become the superstar some thought he could be. He’s the lead back for the Cowboys and could become an RB2.

Numbers seven and eight are the guys who make this draft class spectacular. Chris Johnson was taken a slot after Felix Jones (d’oh). He has a 2000-yard season. Johnson’s having a “disappointing” season which means he’s the number five ranked running back. Ray Rice was quiet his rookie year then led all running backs with 78 catches last year. He’s looking like a perennial top-ten guy.

Jamaal Charles was number nine. He leads the league with six yards per carry. He had 1000 rushing yards in the last eight games last year. He’s not terrible.

Ryan Torain was a second-rounder in my league. He had one start as a rookie, disappeared after an injury then came back this year to start a few games for the Redskins this year. I know he’s no stud, but Maurice Clarett was once taken in the second round of a rookie draft.

Steve Slaton was a third rounder. He’s pretty much invisible this year but he did have a 1000-yard rookie season and was drafted ahead of Chris Johnson in fantasy drafts during his second year.

Other drafted rookies include Mike Hart (scraping the bottom), Tim Hightower (60 catches last year), Jacob Hester (not so much), Tashard Choice (a few 100-yard efforts in his rookie year), Jalen Parmele (still waiting), Marcus Thomas (released), Jerome Felton (moved to fullback), and the final pick, Justin Forsett.

And there was one guy who wasn’t drafted and was picked up for the waiver minimum. That guy was Peyton Hillis. I kept him on my roster and he’s kind of paid off a bit this year.