GiantsFan11

1 Adrian Peterson 2 Maurice Jones-Drew 3 Michael Turner 4 Matt Forte 5 Steven Jackson 6 LaDanian Tomlinson 7 DeAngelo Williams 8 Frank Gore 9 Chris Johnson 10 Steve Slaton 11 Brandon Jacobs 12 Brian Westbrook 13 Clinton Portis 14 Marion Barber 15 Ryan Grant 16 Ronnie Brown 17 Kevin Smith 18 Pierre Thomas 19 Darren McFadden 20 Larry Johnson 21 Marshawn Lynch 22 Thomas Jones 23 Joseph Addai 24 Knowshon Moreno 25 Derrick Ward 26 Reggie Bush 27 Willie Parker 28 Jonathan Stewart 29 Ray Rice 30 Cedric Benson

1 Larry Fitgerald 2 Andre Johnson 3 Randy Moss 4 Calvin Johnson 5 Reggie Wayne 6 Steve Smith 7 Greg Jennings 8 Roddy White 9 Anquan Boldin 10 Marques Colston 11 Dwayne Bowe 12 Wes Welker 13 Terell Owens 14 Tj Houshmandzadeh 15 Chad OchoCinco 16 Brandon Marshall 17 Vincent Jackson 18 Roy Williams 19 Deshaun Jackson 20 Santonio Holmes 21 Braylon Edwards 22 Anthony Gonzalez 23 Antonio Bryant 24 Eddie Royal 25 Bernard Berrian 26 Lee Evands 27 Hines Ward 28 Santonio Moss 29 Devon Hester 30 Jericho Cotchery

1 Drew Brees 2 Tom Brady 3 Peyton Manning 4 Aaron Rodgers 5 Kurt Warner 6 Phillip Rivers 7 Tony Romo 8 Donovan McNabb 9 Matt Ryan 10 Matt Schaub 11 Jay Cutler 12 Ben Rothlisberger 13 Carson Palmer 14 Matt Cassell 15 Eli Manning 16 Matt Hasselbeck 17 David Garrard 18 Trent Edwards 19 Kyle Orton 20 Brett Favre

Yippie Skippy -- I have no questions around Welker, as I looked at his potential he ended up surrounded by guys with questions and in that tier...it is not PPR so I have him in my 3rd tier I have been shy on Colston due to Microfracture surgery (that may change as pre-season goes on)

Are there any big name players that have returned to form after Microfracture surgery? I am seeing quite a bit of chatter about the demise of Reggie Bush (and the rise of Pierre Thomas), why is Colston still top rated if he had the same surgery?

I am struggling with WR tiers this year and would like your input. My struggle is that I see value at the top (top 9 WRs) and I see potential at the end of the starters (WR 19-25)...but there is a big gap in the middle that looks scary (WR 10-19).....Do others see this differently? Tier 1 (all have potential to finish #1 this year) Fitgerald A Johnson Moss Tier 2 (all safe bets to finish top 10) C Johnson S Smith Wayne Jennings White Boldin Tier 3 (all big names with even bigger questions) Colston question = knee surgery (microfracture) Bowe question = will KC score enough to make him worth a high pick Welker Owens question = can Buffalo o-line keep the QB upright long enough for downfield plays, if not will Owens explode Houshmandsadeh question = with all the receivers in Seattle will Housh get enough touches to warrent the spot Ocho Cinco questions....do I have to state them? Vincent Jackson question = was last year a fluke or is he the man in SD Brandon Marshall question = attitude Roy Williams question = will he be a solid WR in double coverage as the team #1 Tier 4 (mostly players with upside potential but could all be very average) DeSean Jackson Antonio Bryant Braylon Edwards Santonio Holmes Anthony Gonzalez Bernard Berrian Eddie Royal

On my current draft board I have these two listed 17th & 18th respectively with a very slight edge to Ronnie Brown. I have a tier of RBs that starts with Ryan Grant, Kevin Smith then these two. After that 4 RB tier there is a much deeper tier of 7RBs led by Addai, Ward, McFadden & Lynch. The edge is to Brown because I think he will have more touches than Thomas (I am forecasting Bush will be healthy enough to get touches most of the year...but I cannot predict injury any better than anyone else on this board). Bush is actually my 25th RB at the bottom of the next tier. Having given the edge to Brown, only due to the workload the real question for me is what RBs & WRs are off the board when it is your pick in the 2nd round. I see 9 WRs that stand out above the rest (Fitz, A Johnson, Moss, C Johnson, S Smith, Wayne, Jennings, White, Boldin). Once those 9 are gone the next "tier" of WRs includes a lot of question marks. I would be tempted to grab one of these gusy knowing that I may have to settle with a RB one tier down

First I am going to link to the other Slaton thread where many have voiced an opinion http://www.fftodayforums.com/forum/index.p...howtopic=343111 For me personally I think he has similar yardage this year, but with fewer TDs. Last year he scored 4 of his 10 TDs from short yardage (1-2 yards)...I expect he gets fewer goal line carries this year thus I think 10 TDs is about his ceiling. I believe Peterson, MJD and Forte all have better upside potential....I like Steven Jackson next as his points per game is great, but he has a history of not playing 16 games (a risk I might take)....after those 4 are of the board an argument can be made for Turner (many put him in the top tier, I do not), Slaton, D Williams, Tomlinson, Johnson & Gore....I don't think I would have an argument against Slaton As RB 5-10 in any draft or auction

I am seeing on this thread that Ward had 1400 yards as a "backup" last year. He also touched the ball 223 times in an offense that averaged 5.0 ypc. Tampa Bay had 3RBs last year carry the ball 381 times and combined for 67 receptions. Dunn had 49% of the carries and 61% of the receptions. TB was always a two headed monster as Graham and Williams never played in the same game due to injury This year TB has a 3 headed monster....Why should I assume that Ward gets more touches this year than Dunn did last year? (which is 233 10 more than Ward had in NY). He is also now on a team that had less YPC and less touchdowns. I think for total yards his numbers last year 1400 are the maximum and I expect that to be closer to 1200 due to the lower YPC and the fact that both Graham and Caddy are healthy (for now) Ward has struggled in short yardage situations....I expect that Caddy or Graham will get that role, so Ward's TD potential is limited (I am guessing 6 is about the ceiling). I do not play in a PPR league so Ward is in the 1200-1400 yard with 4-6 TD range for a total of 144-176 point range. I have him as the 22nd ranked RB on my board, but there are a number of guys below him who have more upside potential. If Ward is my #2 back in the 4th-5th round I sure want to pick up a #3 in the next round while the likes of (McFadden, L Johnson, Benson & White could still be there)

I think we all agree there is some form of RBBC in Dallas, we disagree on what that looks like. You are on the clock....you are thinking RB and the following 12 are already selected (Peterson, MJD, Turner, Forte, Jackson, D Williams, Tomlinson, Gore, C Johnson, Slaton, Westbrook, Portis) Below are the viable set of RBs to choose from, where does MBII fit in the group (Jacobs (RBBC), Barber (RBBC), Grant, P Thomas (RBBC), R Brown (RBBC), K Smith, Addai (RBBC), Moreno (RBBC) ) Even in a 10 team league these guys, unless I forgot someone will be peoples RB#2 I have listed them in my preffered order (Moreno might move up if/when he gets into camp)....who on this list offers more upside than Barber and who offers less downside than Barber?

John _Rizzio and I disagree on how Felix and Tashard will get touches.....I would like to hear the thoughts of others. We both see Barber as a viable #2 fantasy back this year

I would like to see some analysis of the skills for the 3RBs Who is the best receiver (who will be on the field for 3rd down)? Who is the best up the middle runner (who will be on the field when Dallas is ball controlling)? Who is the best short yardage (who will get the short yardage carries)? Who is the fastest...who will get the change of pace touches? Who will be used on special teams thus limiting carries? I believe Barber is the best in short yardage, ball control and receiving...I expect him to get the majority of the touches. I believe that Felix's speed will get him some special teams work and a few touches a game. Choice did very well last year when Barber was hurt..he will likely get 2-3 series per game and will be a great fill in if/when Barber is banged up. I am predicting that Barber gets 60% of the carries and 80% of the RB receptions and most of the goal line work I am predicting that Choice gets 30% of the carries and 10% of the receptions I am predicting that Jones gets 10% of the carries and 10% of the receptions and special teams work. Last year the three backs ran the ball 360 times. I would not be surprised to see a 20% increase here and that number go up to about 430 carries. For the first 11 weeks Barber got 80% of the carries then he got hurt...this year I see him getting a smaller percentage, but if the 3 are healthy there should be more carries to go around. I see no reason for his stats from last year (1302 yrds and 9 TDs) to change if he stays healthy...and the ability to not have more than 25 touches per game (last year he had 25+ touches 7 times) should help to keep him healthy. With about 15 RBs off the board it is definitely Barber time. Choice should be one of the higher rated "hand-cuff" or backup RBs since he will shine if Barber gets hurt (and only then does he have fantasy value). What I struggle with is why Felix Jones is rates so high. Yes he will have a couple of long runs, but he will also have a lot of days where he puts up a fantasy goose egg....I am not big on drafting the speedster who will get <6 touches per day to try and break a long one

I think the three wildcards seem to be Benson, Rice & White and to a lesser extent Thomas. K Smith and R Brown seem to be pretty consistently ranked as good RBs on bad teams. I think it will be important to see the varience on these players settle down prior to my auction such that the "right" value for the players can be determined 1) Benson was a flake and a washout in Chicago, but he seemed to do OK in Cincy last year once he got the job. People either remember Chicago Cedric or want to have faith in the guy we saw in the last 1/2 of last year 2) Rice is the "hype" player of the off season and he is sliding into the top 20 RB rankings. I personally still see both McClain & McGahee getting their touches, not sure why Rice is so much ahead of other RBBC RBs 3) White was the touchdown vulture to Johnson's yardage last year. We all know that White came into camp slimmed down this year and some believe he will get more touches and some don't 4) On Thomas the question is whether or not Bush is still a threat or an afterthought? The results so far are mixed: My rankings: Thomas, Brown, Smith as one tier and Rice, White and Benson as a tier lower Cyclone 24 responded with: Brown as a round 2, Thomas, Smith as a round 3 and Rice, White & Benson as backups with the edge to Rice (he and I are similar) Skittles responds with: Thomas 4th Tier, Rice, Brown, Smith, Benson in 5th Tier and White in the 7th tier Pronghorn would take Benson much lower than the rest of us Corky76 is high on Rice, not as high on Thomas and thinks White will be an afterthough MTSKIBum would take Benson ahead of White & Rice

1) Pierre Thomas...I have seen him ranked as high as #15 and as low as #21 (I have him 16th) 2) Ronnie Brown....I have seen him anywhere from 15 to 26th (I have him 17th) 3) Kevin Smith...I have seen him from 15th to 24th (I have him 18th) 4) Lendale White...I have seen him 19-32nd...I have him at 27th 5) Cedric Benson...I have seen as high as 18th, but I have him 28th 6) Ray Rice....I have seen him ranked in the low 20s, but generally in the low 30s These are all players I am interested in determining their correct ranking amongst RBs as they might be either steals or rip-offs in an auction based on where others value them. Knowing which players will be overpriced may help with earlier (higher ranked) RB decisions. Thanks

I will give a few examples this year of the impact of contracts 1) Lendale White has reportedly worked hard in the off-season and has lost 30+ pounds to gain speed. I believe this to be tied to the fact that he is in a contract year and hopes to get a signing bonus payday as some teams feature back 2) There are reports that Willie Parker disappointed with last season has worked hard to regain the speed that made hime a break out player a few years ago. Again, I believe the off-season dedication above and beyond what he has done the last couple of years is tied to the potential signing bonus 3) When is the last time Chris Henry went 12 months without being arrested? His good behavior is likely motivated by the extra $$ he might get if he loses the badass reputation I am not saying that Chris Henry will suddenly become Larry Fitgerald, but if he was more dedicated this off-season it is likely to boost his numbers.