1. The Pain Train
QB - Robert Griffin III, Philip Rivers
WR - Julio Jones, Reggie Wayne, James Jones, Justin Blackmon, Darrius Heyward-Bey, Kenbrell Thompkins
RB - LeSean McCoy, Frank Gore, Eddie Lacy, Roy Helu
TE - Jermichael Finley
K - Stephen Gostkowski
DEF - Chicago
Gabs starts the season with a strong team. On paper. If they can stay unhurt. Big, big if. Like I mentioned before, McCoy burned me last season with his injury, and I eventually dumped him off to Eric, luckily. Frank Gore? He was old a long time ago. He's just waiting to break. Gabs evidently planned for this by picking up Eddie Lacy, but that's a big question mark as well. Reggie Wayne? Old. RGIII? Who knows how his knee will recover. But, as of right now, Gabs has a strong team. He's got a strong set of WRs, and one of the stronger RB duos in our league. They just have to keep it together and avoid the injury bug, and Gabs could go places this season.
2. E-San's Nifty Team
QB - Michael Vick, Tony Romo
WR - Dwayne Bowe, Mike Wallace, Stevie Johnson, DeAndre Hopkins
RB - Doug Martin, Reggie Bush, Le'Veon Bell, Fred Jackson, Shonn Greene
TE - Antonio Gates
K - David Akers
DEF - Cincinnati, Baltimore
I'm sticking with my prediction as Eric being a favorite this season. While his QB and WRs are weaker than Gabs's, he's got a nice duo of RBs - probably the best RBs to start in our league right now - but the rest of them are looking iffy, especially now with Le'Veon Bell injured. His WRs hold promise, but with all of them teaming up with new QBs, it's hard to know how that will play out. I tend to think of the 4 WRs he has, at least 2 of them will be reliable, which is all you can ask for in a 3-WR, 12-team league. Can Vick be the Vick that he used to be? I'm going to go with yes. Because we all know Eric doesn't want to be starting Tony Romo on a regular basis. Or at all, really.
3. Choux AKA Sweet Buns
QB - Russell Wilson, Carson Palmer
WR - Victor Cruz, Eric Decker, Mike Williams, Michael Floyd, Kendall Wright
RB - Arian Foster, Rashard Mendenhall, Chris Ivory, Mark Ingram
TE - Jimmy Graham, Martellus Bennett
K - Robbie Gould
DEF - St. Louis
Drafting from the beach, Aaron manages to put together a pretty good squad. Sure, he reached for Russell Wilson pretty early, but I think Russell will be eventually prove to be worth it this season. Aaron's got the best TE in Graham, one of the best RBs in Foster, and some WRs who are hard to complain about in Cruz and Decker. It looks like Mendenhall may start come week 1, but Aaron might be sweating bullets if he has to reach to his bench for RBs. We shall see. Aaron has a way of working the system so he gets all the ridiculous waiver wire picks. Don't ask me how he does it, but if he can pull it off again this season, it'll definitely play to his favor.
4. Terrific Tortoises
QB - Tom Brady, Ben Roethlisberger
WR - Calvin Johnson, Roddy White, DeSean Jackson, Miles Austin, Rod Streater
RB - Stevan Ridley, Lamar Miller, BenJarvus Green-Ellis
TE - Owen Daniels, Jordan Cameron
K - Phil Dawson
DEF - Denver, Green Bay
I was pretty impressed with David's picks this season. Starting it off on a good foot by picking up Calvin Johnson, he was able to supplement his WR corps with Roddy White (who may not end up being so great, but still not bad) and DeSean Jackson (whose success or failure may depend on Vick, but still not bad). I'd say a healthy Miles Austin can do some damage as well. Best starting WRs in our league? Yeah, I'll buy that. He's got a reliable QB, but the big question marks will be at RB. Stevan Ridley should be ok.. maybe. But Lamar Miller? BenJarvus Green-Ellis? One is a rookie on a team that kind of sucks, and the other is an old RB who will most likely get out-played by a Tarheel named Gio. But hey, at least he didn't pick Jimmy Graham and Chris Johnson as his Round 1 and 2 picks this season. Go, David - I'm rooting for you.
5. Unicorn Burps
QB - Aaron Rodgers, Matt Schaub
WR - Demaryius Thomas, Antonio Brown, Anquan Boldin, Lance Moore, Sidney Rice
RB - Alfred Morris, DeMarco Murray, Ahmad Bradshaw, Christine Michael
TE - Jermaine Gresham, Julius Thomas
K - Josh Brown
DEF - New England
David sticks with his best bud, Mr. Rodgers, who will probably have another productive year. He also managed to pick up a pretty decent set of WRs, but fails to put together anything resembling a RB duo that would intimidate. Maybe I have bitter feelings from how DeMarco disappointed me last year, but let's just say I wouldn't want him starting on my team. Overall, though, I don't think David can complain too much about how his draft - he's got a good base of players to work with.
6. Spider Pig
QB - Matt Ryan, Alex Smith
WR - Larry Fitzgerald, Tavon Austin, Golden Tate, Torrey Smith, Greg Little, Brandon Lafell
RB - Jamaal Charles, Chris Johnson, Giovani Bernard, Bryce Brown, LaMichael James
TE - Vernon Davis
K -
DEF - Houston
Luke is banking on some RBs to go down or kicked out this season (Law Firm - probable, Shady - probable, Frank Gore - probable, but James probably wouldn't replace him at this point), because his starting RBs are going to go down (Charles - possible-to-probable) or fall flat (Chris Johnson - yes). A good strategy? Sure. A sustainable strategy? Possibly. A strategy that will be free of stress? He wishes. But when is fantasy football not stressful? Never. Especially when you're out to defend your title. I think this year will prove whether Luke has the managerial umph needed to repeat and potentially set himself for a three-peat (sorry, I'm getting ahead of myself now). Right now, his team is pretty average. He's got a good QB, a questionable group of RBs, and a waiting-to-blow-up-or-bust set of WRs (Austin is a rookie, Tate, Little, and Lafell have yet to prove themselves, in spite of the hype that surrounds them). For now, this seems like a good spot for the defending champ. For now.
7. Pinchers of Peril
QB - Andrew Luck, Andy Dalton
WR - Brandon Marshall, Randall Cobb, Hakeem Nicks, Cecil Shorts, Aaron Dobson
RB - C.J. Spiller, David Wilson, Daryl Richardson, Shane Vereen
TE - Brandon Myers, Rob Housler
K - Dan Bailey
DEF - Pittsburgh
I went the WR route this year, not wanting to be sorely disappointed when I draft 2 RBs in the first 2 rounds and they both end up disappointing. Spread my eggs. To be honest, I'm not too thrilled with my team. We'll just see how it goes. I'm predicting RBs woes again, with probable WR woes as well as QB woes. I just can't win, can I? Even with the name change...
QB - Cam Newton, Joe Flacco
WR - Pierre Garcon, Steve Smith, Greg Jennings, Brian Hartline, Andre Roberts
RB - Adrian Peterson, Matt Forte, Ronnie Hillman
TE - Tony Gonzalez, Fred Davis
K - Matt Bryant
DEF - San Francisco, Tampa Bay
Poor Jeff, evidently forgot about the draft. Yahoo ends up drafting for him, but lo and behold, he does not end up with the worst team in our league. It helps that he already started out with Adrian Peterson. But ok, even from there, Forte isn't a terrible RB2. Cam is a question mark, but he's proved himself to be a worthy starting QB the last two years. Jeff's got a good defense, a pretty good TE, but.. oh, WRs... so sad. Pierre Garcon - lives and dies by RGIII's knee. Steve Smith - hasn't been the explosive WR I once knew him to be. Greg Jennings - no Rodgers = no success. Brian Hartline, Andre Roberts - must I continue? WR will be his Achilles heel this season. He can overcome it, he just won't be able to rely on Yahoo to do it for him.
9. Charlotte Hornets
QB - Matthew Stafford
WR - Dez Bryant, Andre Johnson, Wes Welker, Emmanuel Sanders, Rueben Randle
RB - Trent Richardson, Darren McFadden, Darren Sproles, DeAngelo Williams, Bernard Pierce, Isaiah Pead, Pierre Thomas
TE - Kyle Rudolph
K - Justin Tucker
DEF -
Looks like Abraham took a page out of Justina's book, but instead with RBs. It may be a smarter move in his case, though, seeing as how he has Trent Richardson and Darren McFadden starting... and Darren Sproles and DeAngelo backing them up. His lone bright spot is at WR, where he's got some big names (Dez Bryant, Andre Johnson, Wes Welker) as well as some potential breakouts (Emmanuel Sanders, Rueben Randle.. especially if Nicks gets hurt again).
10. Password is Taco
QB - Colin Kaepernick, Sam Bradford, Eli Manning
WR - Vincent Jackson, Jordy Nelson, Josh Gordon, Malcom Floyd
RB - Marshawn Lynch, Steven Jackson, Andre Brown
TE - Greg Olsen, Jared Cook
K - Blair Walsh
DEF - Arizona, New York Giants
I wonder if Justina has enough QBs. She might need a 4th, just in case. I'm not sure what happened with her draft this year - was she even present? - but Justina's team is looking a little sad right now. I don't really know where to start. All those QBs... I don't even know where to start. Marshawn is the only player I really like on her team. Oh, and Greg Olsen. But that's only because he's a Panther.
11. You've Changed Bro
QB - Peyton Manning
WR - A.J. Green, Kenny Britt, Ryan Broyles, Denarius Moore, Vincent Brown, Percy Harvin
RB - Ray Rice, Ryan Mathews, Jonathan Stewart, Jonathan Dwyer
TE - Rob Gronkowski, Zach Sudfeld
K - Sebastian Janikowski
DEF - Minnesota
Duke decides to go the "old and falling apart" route in his inaugural season. Ok, let's see... Peyton Manning - old (but good... but old), A.J. Green - hurt, Kenny Britt - previously hurt, Ryan Broyles - previously hurt, Percy Harvin - hurt, Jonathan Stewart - hurt, Rob Gronkowski - hurt, etc. etc. At full steam, his team could be dangerous. Right now, they're just.. old and falling apart.
12. Jen Wong's Team
QB - Drew Brees
WR - Marques Colston, Danny Amendola, T.Y. Hilton, Chris Givens, Alshon Jeffery
RB - Maurice Jones-Drew, Montee Ball, Ben Tate, Danny Woodhead, Vick Ballard, Knowshon Moreno
TE - Jason Witten
K - Matt Prater
DEF - Seattle
Poor Jen. Asked her to join the league and now she's at the bottom. Call it initiation. David Li had to go through it, right? And look where he's at now.. 3 seasons later. :) But I think picking Brees in the first round may end up biting Jen in the rear, because now she's stuck with MJD (who isn't a terrible option for RB if he can stay healthy), and Montee Ball (not even sure if he's starting yet) as starting RBs; Colston (too inconsistent, too many highs and lows), Amendola (will it work out with Brady?), and T.Y. Hilton (could be her most consistent WR, sadly) as starters. Granted, she has some sleepers on her team (Givens, Jeffery, Tate if Foster gets hurt, Woodhead if Mathews goes down), but sleepers are called sleepers for a reason. Hey, at least she's got a good Defense.
These are the best team pictures! I was going to use Password is Taco as a placeholder until I could come up with a better team name, but with that team picture, how can I change it?
ReplyDeleteI JUST MIGHT GET ANOTHER QB OKAY.