Fantasy Football Pre-Season TE Rankings & Tiers (August 11, 2009)

What we're doing here is looking back at last week's TE Rankings and commenting on anything we see changing.

• Jason Witten (1st, Tier 1) He's actually the 3rd TE coming off of the board in most drafts right now. I think that's kind of crazy but people love their Gonzo and their Gates. If you can get Witten as the 3rd TE draft that's pretty sick value. He is the #1 target in the Cowboys' offense. Neither Gonzo or Gates can make that claim at this point.
• Chris Cooley (6th, Tier 3) He actually had career highs in catches and yards last year, he just couldn't find the endzone. So there's really no reason for a fall off but watch out for Fred Davis. He was a 2nd round draft pick last year and could be used with Cooley in more 2 TE sets. This might actually hurt Cooley a bit though as he probably will be asked to block more. But Cooley will remain Campbell's safety net.
• Brandon Pettigrew (12th, Tier 5) The reports out of Lions camp are not good. Pettigrew has consistently been hurt and has not been anything special when on the field. I wouldn't discount him entirely but I'm not sure if he's going to be draftable in 10 team leagues at this point. He might come up and the season progresses so keep him on your watch lists.
• Derek Fine (Not Ranked) He got some looks in the Bills' first pre-season game and a move to the no-huddle offense should get the TE more involved. There might be some value here but I don't see a lot of TD's. Much will depend on how the Bills' o-line comes together. If they struggle the TE will have to stay in and block a majority of the time.
• Alge Crumpler (Not Ranked) I was sure he was done but there he was in the Hall of Fame Game. He looks like an offensive lineman. But he can still move a bit and has good hands. In other words, I'm not sure that a Titans' TE is draftable in 10-team leagues. If you need a bye-week fill-in just pick one off of waivers and hope.
  

Fantasy Football Pre-Season QB Rankings & Tiers (August 11, 2009)

What we're doing here is looking back at last week's QB Rankings and commenting on anything we see changing.

• Tom Brady (5th, Tier 2) Everybody loves Tom Brady. He hasn't missed a practice and he still has Randy and Welker plus Joey Galloway and Bill B's boy Greg Lewis. Don't really think Brady is an injury risk but the track record of QB's coming back from multiple ligament tears (Rivers last year doesn't count) is not good for at least the first 10 games back. And don't sleep on the Patriots desire to run the ball. If Maroney is healthy and Taylor stays fresh Brady might not get nearly the pass attempts he needs to be a top 3 QB. We're not raising him to Tier 1 yet.
• Philip Rivers (6th, Tier 2) This is more of a hunch thing than anything else but I just don't think the Chargers will pass nearly as much as they did last year. Their defense should be much better, their division is weak and a healthy LT is screaming for the ball. If the Chargers are a very good team Rivers' stats will probably suffer a bit. It might not be the worst idea in the world to handcuff LT and Rivers. Neither will kill you and one of the two should always have a very good game.
• Kurt Warner (8th, Tier 3) The news that Matt Leinart could lose the #2 job actually helps Warner. It's pretty much official that Warner is THE GUY barring injury or catastrophe. The Cardinals o-line should continue to gel and improve so this should bump Warner up to Tier 2.
• Jason Campbell (16th, Tier 5) You gotta love the Redskins. On one hand you hear reports about how good Campbell looks, but then you hear about how awesome Colt Brennan looks. Not buying the latter. The Redskins drafted 3 recieving weapons in the second round last year. If just one of them produces something it will help Campbell a ton. Plus this is the first time since Campbell was in college that he gets to stay in the same offensive system. The Redskins o-line is a mess now but if they get it together Campbell could make a run at being a lower-level QB1 or at least a very nice QB2.

Again this is just a quick look. What do you think? We didn't downgrade McNabb yet because he absolutely will get his pass attempts. But if the Eagles don't get their o-line straightened out by Week 3 of the pre-season McNabb could drop an entire tier.

Welcome to the Fantasy Football Preview, 2009 Style

Here's the deal. We're starting with rankings, then we're going to dissect and update the rankings, then bitch some more. And you're going to be loving it. We feel this is the most constructive way to get a feel for how your fantasy draft is going to shake out this year. Kill?

Here's the deal with rankings over here. The positional rankings are our best shot at predicting who (barring any injuries, yeah right) will score the most fantasy points at each position. The tiers in the positional rankings represent a spot where we feel that there is a large gap between one player and the next lowest player on the list. Players on the same tier are generally expected to perform at a similar level. These types of rankings are helpful when you are targeting specific positions in your drafts, not just necessarily the best player available.

Overall rankings ARE NOT necessarily the order we think each player will finish the season in overall in fantasy points. Overall rankings are use to predict DRAFT POSITION. For instance, in many leagues QB's are the highest scoring positions, but you're probably not taking Drew Brees with the 1st pick even though you think he'll end up being the highest scoring player. Sounds real freakin smart right? AP (or Tuner, or whoever, well not really whoever but we're not arguing over the top couple RB's right now) will have more trade value and perceived value than Brees. Plus you maybe able to get him with your second pick depending how things shake out. You have to consider that thee is expected to be a large difference between AP and the number 7 RB. In most leagues there will be much less of a difference between the number 1 QB and the number 7 QB. Unless Tom Brady goes all Tom Brady on us. Again. The overall rankings are a draft tool not a Draft Bible.

These rankings are meant to reflect a 10 team (non-PPR, non-keeper) league that starts 1 QB, 2 RB, 2 WR, 1 RB/WR Flex, 1 TE, 1 D/ST, 1 K with a six man bench. 6 points for a rushing/receiving TD, 4 points per passing TD, 1 point every 10 rushing/receiving yards, 1 point for ever 20 passing yards.

We're not doing D/ST or K rankings yet because it's pretty pointless. After the third pre-season game we will do D/ST and K tiers but don't hold your breath and don't waste a draft pick before the last 2 rounds on a D/ST or a K unless your scoring settings warrant it. And most don't. Don't be that guy.

Please feel free to bitch, nitpick, hate, all that good stuff on our rankings. That's how we get a feel for what people are thinking. But keep in mind, no matter how good of an arguement you make (or how good he was in Madden) we're not putting Vick in the top tier of QB's, or moving up that undrafted player you saw score 3 TD's at training camp last week.

One last note, you should not be drafting money leagues yet. The weekend of the 3rd week of the pre-season is the earliest I would recommend drafting any league that costs you dough. Shit, last year our draft happened about 30 minutes after the Cardinals announced Kurt Warner would be the starting QB. I grabbed him in round 10 (14 team league) and he ended up being a top-5 overall player for the season. So get as much info as you can. You might not really care who ends up the starting QB in San Fran but what if he blows up? Stranger shit has, and will continue to happen.

Fantasy Football Pre-Season TE Rankings & Tiers (August 3, 2009)

August 3, 2009
Pre-Season Rankings

TE

TIER 1
1. Jason Witten
TIER 2
2. Tony Gonzalez
3. Antonio Gates
TIER 3
4. Dallas Clark
5. Owen Daniels
6. Chris Cooley
TIER 4
7. Greg Olson
8. Dustin Keller
9. Zach Miller
10. John Carlson
TIER 5
11. Visanthe Shiancoe
12. Brandon Pettigrew
13. Brent Celek
14. Kevin Boss
15. Jeremy Shockey
TIER 6
16. Heath Miller
17. Bo Scaife
18. Mercedes Lewis
19. Anthony Fasano
TIER 7
20. Desmond Clark
21. Donald Lee
22. Martellus Bennett
23. Ben Utecht
24. Randy McMichael
25. Billy Miller
TIER 8
26. LJ Smith
27. Brad Cottam
28. Jared Cook
29. Leonard Pope
30. Todd Heap

Fantasy Football Pre-Season WR Rankings & Tiers (August 3, 2009)

August 3, 2009
Pre-Season Rankings

WR

TIER 1
1. Andre Johnson
2. Calvin Johnson
3. Larry Fitzgerald
TIER 2
4. Reggie Wayne
5. Randy Moss
6. Steve Smith
TIER 3
7. Roddy White
8. Dwayne Bowe
9. Greg Jennings
10. Anquan Boldin
11. Wes Welker
12. Brandon Marshall
13. Roy E Williams
14. Terrell Owens
15. Marques Colston
TIER 4
16. Vincent Jackson
17. DeSean Jackson
18. Santana Moss
19. Antonio Bryant
TIER 5
20. Santonio Holmes
21. Jerricho Cotchery
22. Kevin Walter
23. Lee Evans
24. Hines Ward
25. Bernard Berrian
26. Chad Ochocinco
27. Anthony Gonzalez
28. TJ Houshmandzadeh
29. Braylon Edwards
30. Lance Moore
TIER 6
31. Derrick Mason
32. Laveranues Coles
33. Devin Hester
34. Donald Driver
35. Eddie Royal
36. Torry Holt
37. Michael Crabtree
38. Steve Breston
39. Kevin Curtis
TIER 7
40. Joey Galloway
41. Percy Harvin
42. Chris Chambers
43. Donnie Avery
44. Nate Washington
45. Josh Morgan
46. Miles Austin
47. Steve Smith (NYG)
48. Ted Ginn Jr
49. Earl Bennett
50. Chris Henry
51. Muhsin Muhammad
TIER 8
52. Nate Burleson
53. Mark Clayton
54. Bobby Engram
55. Domenik Hixon
56. Issac Bruce
57. Greg Camarillo
58. Patrick Crayton
59. Hakeem Nicks
60. Justin Gage