At this time last year Chris Johnson was a rookie who was keeping his head down and hoping to just get noticed for his speed on the field.
But with a 1,228-yard rushing season under his belt, Johnson is ready to make a name for himself, as he showed when he announced he has a new nickname -- "Every Coach's Dream."
The New York Knicks and New Jersey Nets, picking at No. 8 and 11, respectively, are busy preparing their teams for next summer's free agent class, trying to add complementary pieces now for the new stars they are hoping to attract.
The Toronto Raptors, at No. 9, are trying to make sure that free-agent-to-be Chris Bosh, doesn't go anywhere in 2010. All three teams should be able to get decent players where they are picking. In the Atlanta Division, the Knicks are the most likely of the three to trade up to get what they want.
FanHouse's crack squad of savvy fantasy football personnel put our five heads together and amassed consensus rankings for non-keeper, standard scoring leagues. We'll update as the season gets closer, but this is our "incredibly early yet still fun" version.
In an otherwise jumbled mess, there is one thing we know about the running backs when it comes to fantasy football drafts: Adrian Peterson is easily the class of the position. After that, there appears to be a large clump of running backs who have a good chance to excel this season. If you think the old school fantasy football "running back-running back" draft strategy (drafting a running back in each of the first two rounds) is truly antiquated, ask yourself the difference between a Frank Gore and Marion Barber tandem in your backfield as opposed to Ronnie Brown and Jamal Lewis. Is it worth taking a wide receiver, then, before a Barber type?
One of the secrets to successfully navigating a fantasy football draft is sorting through the noise that comes out of the various media sources and uncovering the hidden values. Every season, fantasy football pundits will sway the general consensus in a particular direction, making forgone conclusions that cause a good percentage of players to rethink what they already know, thus causing some stalwart players to become significantly underrated. Over the next couple of weeks, Fantasy FanHouse will provide a rundown of our perceived five most underrated players at the key fantasy skill positions, starting today with the five most underrated running backs.
The Tennessee Titans finally broke down and drafted wide receiver in the first round, and he's a dynamic talent. Kenny Britt, a Rutgers product, has the physical tools to be a star receiver in the NFL. There are some questions about his attitude, but it's hard to imagine the Titans not doing their due diligence on a kid after the fiasco they just went through with PacMan Jones (to be fair, it's apples vs. oranges: Britt doesn't have any legal issues, just is seen as arrogant by some). I have faith in Jeff Fisher and Kerry Collins to bring this kid along properly.
So, what does Britt's addition mean to the rest of the Tennessee offense from a fantasy perspective?
With the draft approaching, we ignore projections and identify the dream scenario for each team in a series we call The Perfect Draft.
The Oakland Raiders are coming off their sixth straight losing season and will be entering 2009 with their fifth different head coach in seven years.
For the second consecutive offseason, the Raiders have spent a gargantuan amount of money on cornerbacks Nnamdi Asomugha and Chris Johnson, and punter Shane Lechler. The Raiders also find themselves in their customary spot in the top 10 of the NFL draft, and their biggest need is pretty obvious.
Chris Johnson's rookie season was better than anyone could have hoped, as he rushed for 1,228 yards, was second on the team in receptions and proved to be one of the best big-play backs in the league.
But he might be even more useful in 2009.
The Titans had come into the season planning to use Johnson in multiple ways, including splitting him out as a wide receiver. But when the season rolled around, Johnson was so good at tailback that they scrapped the plans to use him as a Swiss army knife and made him a scalpel instead.
Over the last few years the idea of Miguel Tejada moving from shortstop to third base has come up on a number of different occasions. As Tejada gets older teams fear that the 34-year-old -- who turns 35 in May -- Tejada will start to lose some of his range at short, and would be better off at third where it's more about reaction time than range.
The problem is that every time somebody's brought the idea up to Tejada, he's said no. Well, Miguel recently returned to Astros camp after the Dominican Republic was eliminated from the World Baseball Classic. He had been playing third base. It seems that Tejada may have discovered he liked playing third because now he's telling everybody he's totally cool with moving there if the team wants him to.
Because the NFL season never ends, we present our 2009 Offseason Roadmaps for front offices to navigate through the summer.
The 2008 season might go down as one of the most bizarre campaigns in the history of the Oakland Raiders. Lane Kiffin and Al Davis clearly didn't get along, while Kiffin pulled off the impossible task of making Davis look like a sane, rational person.
A team spokesperson nearly decked a beat writer; the punter was, reportedly, punched out by a defensive lineman; and the team on the field finished with a losing season, failing to win more than five games for the sixth consecutive year. Just a disastrous season in every way imaginable.
After a drama-filled Day 1 of the NFL combine -- thanks entirely to Andre Smithmagically disappearing -- Sunday has been more about the important on-field stuff: a bunch of guys in tights running 40 yards at a pop. Because, as even casual fans know, the correlation between straight-line speed and NFL success is off the charts.
Of course, that doesn't keep teams from falling in love with players who bust out sub-4.4 40s. Last year, Chris Johnson ran an impossibly fast 4.24 at the combine and parlayed that into a first-round pick courtesy of the Titans. This morning, wide receivers Darrius Heyward-Bey (Maryland) and Percy Harvin (Florida) turned in times of 4.32 and 4.37, respectively.
At this time last year Chris Johnson was a rookie who was keeping his head down and hoping to just get noticed for his speed on the field.
The New York Knicks and New Jersey Nets, picking at No. 8 and 11, respectively, are busy preparing their teams for next summer's free agent class, trying to add complementary pieces now for the new stars they are hoping to attract. 
FanHouse's crack squad of savvy fantasy football personnel put our five heads together and amassed consensus rankings for non-keeper, standard scoring leagues. We'll update as the season gets closer, but this is our "incredibly early yet still fun" version. 
One of the secrets to successfully navigating a fantasy football draft is sorting through the noise that comes out of the various media sources and uncovering the hidden values. Every season, fantasy football pundits will sway the general consensus in a particular direction, making forgone conclusions that cause a good percentage of players to rethink what they already know, thus causing some stalwart players to become significantly underrated. Over the next couple of weeks, Fantasy FanHouse will provide a rundown of our perceived five most underrated players at the key fantasy skill positions, starting today with the five most underrated running backs. 
The Tennessee Titans finally broke down and drafted wide receiver in the first round, and he's a dynamic talent. Kenny Britt, a Rutgers product, has the physical tools to be a star receiver in the NFL. There are some questions about his attitude, but it's hard to imagine the Titans not doing their due diligence on a kid after the fiasco they just went through with PacMan Jones (to be fair, it's apples vs. oranges: Britt doesn't have any legal issues, just is seen as arrogant by some). I have faith in Jeff Fisher and Kerry Collins to bring this kid along properly. 
With the draft approaching, we ignore projections and identify the dream scenario for each team in a series we call The Perfect Draft.
Chris Johnson's rookie season was better than anyone could have hoped, as he rushed for 1,228 yards, was second on the team in receptions and proved to be one of the best big-play backs in the league.
Over the last few years the idea of Miguel Tejada moving from shortstop to third base has come up on a number of different occasions. As Tejada gets older teams fear that the 34-year-old -- who turns 35 in May -- Tejada will start to lose some of his range at short, and would be better off at third where it's more about reaction time than range.
Because the NFL season never ends, we present our 2009 Offseason Roadmaps for front offices to navigate through the summer.
After a drama-filled Day 1 of the NFL combine -- thanks entirely to Andre Smith magically disappearing -- Sunday has been more about the important on-field stuff: a bunch of guys in tights running 40 yards at a pop. Because, as even casual fans know, the correlation between straight-line speed and NFL success is off the charts.
