11Alive's Fantasy Football Blog

Fantasy football is not about your favorite teams. It’s not about your favorite players. It’s not about who played at what college or who used to be on which squad. It’s about one thing:

How many fantasy points will a player get you?

Now, there are guys I won’t take in fantasy drafts for various reasons, most notably because I’ve been burned in the past. Frank Gore, Steven Jackson, and Terrell Owens are three such guys (though I almost drafted TO last night in one of my alumni leagues). But I don’t have a personal stake in any of them.

I’ve been a Dolphins fan all my life — since before Marino was on the team. I particularly despise the Patriots, and I don’t much care for the Cowboys either. But that won’t stop me from drafting Wes Welker, Tom Brady, Marion Barber, or Nick Folk. And even though I’m a fan, I’m not going to automatically draft Pennington, Ronnie Brown, Ted Ginn, or Anthony Fasano.

I do have a token Dolphin on all my teams — usually a receiver taken in the last round or Chad Pennington as my backup QB (he has favorable matchups midseason) — but I don’t go out of my way to pick anyone I actually like.

On Tuesday night, drafting with my fraternity brothers, I couldn’t help but shake my head in dismay as two extremely-capable fantasy footballers made statements I simply could not understand:

• SETH: Seth arrived late to the draft and the computer auto-picked his first few players. He ended up with, among others, Jets RB Thomas Jones. Like me, Seth is a huge Dolphins fan, but unlike me, when he saw he had Jones, he sent up a storm of expletives about how much he hates the Jets and is going to get rid of Jones. Now, I wouldn’t have drafted Jones this year — I think by midseason Leon Washington and Shonn Greene will be sharing RB duties for the Jets — but Seth didn’t give a reason like that. He just went on a tear.
• DAN: Dan went to FSU before joining me at UCF for his graduate degree. He is a huge fan of FSU football and makes an effort to draft at least a few guys who played at FSU. I suggested he draft someone — I can’t recall who — and Dan said “I can’t draft him; he’s a Gator.” Seriously? You’re going to give up a high-upside sleeper choice for someone whose biggest draw is that he went to the same college as you? Really? Really?

Homers and haters tend to miss out on great players because they can’t see themselves drafting Cowboys, or Giants, or Patriots, or Jets, or Steelers, or Bengals, or any of the other 26 NFL teams they really love or really despise. And it’s a huge mistake they’re making. Pass on Marion Barber because you’re concerned about his time-share, or draft Santonio Holmes because you think he’ll be a legitimate deep threat. But don’t draft with your heart. You’ll lose every time.

The first time I ran the 11Alive fantasy league — one of them, that is, because there’ve always been two — I lucked into the first draft position and got LT, then swung around the serpentine and got Brady and (I believe) Reggie Wayne coming the other way. It was a good year — the year Brady broke all those records. Good deal for someone just hoping for 25-30 touchdowns.

This year, I’m in two leagues: one run by show producer Rich Hardwick, and one co-run by meteorologist Chesley McNeil and reporter Matt Pearl. The draft order was picked yesterday.

I got last.

For the first time in my entire fantasy football career, I’m picking last in the first round.

According to ESPN’s most recent rankings, the 12th player to be taken should be Drew Brees. Ahead of him: Andre Johnson, Frank Gore, Larry Fitzgerald, LT, Chris Johnson, DeAngelo Williams, S-Jax, Matt Forte, MJD, Turner, and AP. Now, I’m not under any circumstances taking a QB in the first round. I’m sure someone will, but it won’t be me.

The question is: who will fall to me at the 12th (and 13th) picks? The people in this league know their stuff, so I’m not planning on seeing Johnson or Gore taken in the first round. If I want a top-flight RB in the first round, my pickings will likely be pretty slim — I’m thinking Steve Slaton, maybe Gore, Marion Barber, and Brandon Jacobs. Of those guys, I know which one I’m targeting.

My saving grace might be that there’s some Eagles fans playing in this league, so Westbrook is likely to go earlier in the first round than he probably should.

Once I draft both 11Alive leagues — the other one drafts Sunday afternoon — I’ll talk a little more about my draft strategy, but for now, I have to figure out who my 12th and 13th picks are going to be… and who I’m going to target when the serpentine comes back around to me at the end of the third.