With the announcement earlier Wednesday morning that Braylon Edwards had been traded to the New York Jets, we figured we'd fire up a mini-version of the value machine. We'll take a look at the shift in value for all fantasy relevant players on both the Jets and Braylon's former team, the Cleveland Browns, who is effected.
Braylon Edwards - Tough choice here (please note sarcasm). It wasn't possible for his value to fall any further. I do think this trade really helps him, due to his attitude. He's a selfish player who wants to be in the spotlight and there's no bigger spotlight than New York. I believe he falls in line due to the fact that he's out of Cleveland, in New York and playing for a winning team. We'll place him in WR3 territory for now, with the chance to move up to WR2 by season's end.
As the season nears, FanHouse's fantasy football team decided to put our heads together for another set of updated positional rankings. In this installment, we'll hit up the thoroughbreds.
The thing that sticks out to me, when viewing the running backs for this season, is what a muddled mess the group is. I stared at a group of about 15 players -- those ranked from six to 20 -- for probably 45 minutes while tinkering with how to rank them. Some will pan out, and some will end up being viewed as busts. May the force be with you. (Last Updated: 8/27/09)
The proliferation of mock drafts as well as their offspring, the ADP (average draft position), have given fantasy football players three new approaches to uncovering values come draft day. Whether or not you take fantasy football seriously, the ADP is officially protocol in draft prep. Evaluating this list of fantasy football ADPs provides three distinct strategies that can lead to finding some gems at bargain prices.
The first involves the simple idea of hubris: that you yourself know more than everyone else. In other words, owners can assess the current ADP levels and determine if the broader fantasy football playing market has under- or over-valued particular players. In doing so, owners can determine where they think they can pick up steals on the cheap, catching the fantasy landscape by surprise.
For those who may use a different term or are new to fantasy football, "handcuff" is the term used when you own insurance for one of your players in the form of owning his real-life backup. It's usually a running back, but you could conceivably handcuff a quarterback. The theory is that some or all of the production is automatically replaced should you lose a high draft pick to injury, meaning you need to insure a high draft pick by grabbing his backup.
With Fantasy Football season ready to kick in high gear, FanHouse is here to preview each and every team -- one per day until we've done them all.
Meet the ... Offense in transition. With a new head coach along with rookies at quarterback and time-sharing running back, the best work of the Jets' offense will be in 2010 and beyond. They'll look to win with defense and taking care of the football in 2009, and you know that doesn't bode well when it comes to garnering massive amounts of fantasy points.
There are finds to be had on any team, but no Jets should be taken in the first three rounds of your draft -- and that's being conservative.
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?
FLORHAM PARK, N.J. -- Thomas Jones showed up Wednesday and worked out for two days with the rest of the Jets. He wore a tight white T-shirt with the sleeves cut off, and everybody noticed.
"I said, 'Welcome back, Eddie George,'" guard Damien Woody joked, "because he's just so big. He looks like he's been down in South Beach pumping a bunch of iron."
Jones had been skipping the voluntary portion of the Jets' off-season workout program because he wants the team to restructure his contract. But after his agent met with Jets GM Mike Tannenbaum last week at the owners' meetings in Fort Lauderdale, Jones decided to reverse course and join the team for this week's optional OTAs. The Jets, who have not shown any interest in restructuring Jones' deal, are hoping the change of heart his permanent.
The Jets have been playing hardball with Jones, going so far as to draft Iowa RB Shonn Greene in the third round of last month's draft as a way of telling Jones he could be replaced. When Rosenhaus met with Jets GM Mike Tannenbaum earlier this week at the NFL owners' meetings in Fort Lauderdale, it doesn't appear as if he got any satisfaction, according to Cimini:
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- Drew Rosenhaus is apparently mad as hell, and he's not going to be constrained by Twitter's 140-character limit. The Twitter-happy NFL superagent, who stopped by the owners meetings at the Ritz-Carlton here Tuesday to meet with some teams about some clients, doesn't give the impression of a man who believes those meetings went especially well.
Usually, Rosenhaus uses his Twitter account as a way of putting out 140-character fluff press releases about his clients: "______ is in great shape and is going to have a huge year for the ______s in 2009." Something like that. But this morning, he fired off a series of tweets venting about NFL owners who don't spend all the way up to the salary cap and the double-standard that allows teams to cut players but doesn't let players renegotiate deals in progress.
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- Despite numerous twitter updates that indicate he's in the building, I have been unable to locate agent Drew Rosenhaus. It appears, however, that Mike Tannenbaum was more successful.
Tannenbaum, the Jets' GM, is here at the meetings along with Jets owner Woody Johnson. One of Rosenhaus' clients is Jets running back Thomas Jones, who has been skipping the team's voluntary workouts this spring due to dissatisfaction with his contract. But Rosenhaus' latest "tweet" gives a strong indication that he met with Tannenbaum Tuesday and the situation has been addressed:
With the announcement earlier Wednesday morning that Braylon Edwards had been traded to the New York Jets, we figured we'd fire up a mini-version of the value machine. We'll take a look at the shift in value for all fantasy relevant players on both the Jets and Braylon's former team, the Cleveland Browns, who is effected. 
- Tough choice here (please note sarcasm). It wasn't possible for his value to fall any further. I do think this trade really helps him, due to his attitude. He's a selfish player who wants to be in the spotlight and there's no bigger spotlight than New York. I believe he falls in line due to the fact that he's out of Cleveland, in New York and playing for a winning team. We'll place him in WR3 territory for now, with the chance to move up to WR2 by season's end.
As the season nears, FanHouse's fantasy football team decided to put our heads together for another set of updated positional rankings. In this installment, we'll hit up the thoroughbreds. 
The proliferation of mock drafts as well as their offspring, the ADP (
For those who may use a different term or are new to 
With Fantasy Football season ready to kick in high gear, FanHouse is here to preview each and every team -- one per day until we've done them all. 
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. 
FLORHAM PARK, N.J. -- 
As we all know from 
