FanHouse Nfl Position Rankings

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.

Last season, the consensus top two picks pretty much anywhere you looked were Shayne Graham and Nick Folk. Folk's average draft position was utterly insane -- going as high as the 10th round in some leagues. Folk ended up 23rd in kicker points, while Graham ended up 30th.

Even though I'd rather outlaw the kicker from fantasy for life, I can't make you do that, but I will say absolutely do not draft one until the last round. This position should be an afterthought because there is simply too little predictable method to the madness.

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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 2007, the Steelers and Ravens were awful fantasy defenses while the Chargers and Seahawks soared. In 2008, the reverse was true.

While there are always a few constants, predicting fantasy defenses is a fickle business. Thus, you needn't be drafting any before you have all the starting skill positions -- everything but kicker -- filled on your fantasy team. It's the easiest way to safeguard against a wasted pick.

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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.

While we gave the nod to Antonio Gates, the truth is there is a clear-cut top four of elite fantasy tight ends who are damn near interchangeable. You could draft any of the four first and you'd get no argument from us. Each will be a very valuable part of a full-throttle offensive attack and will not hurt your fantasy team in this relatively shallow position.

If you don't get one of the elite guys, don't fret. There's a quality selection of tight ends worthy of starting in most leagues. This isn't just the Gates and Gonzalez show anymore. Thus, you shouldn't consider anyone here until Round 4 at the absolute earliest.

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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.

Thus far, we've examined our incredibly early yet still relevant fantasy football rankings for quarterbacks and running backs. At the top of both positions, our staff reached a consensus. Wide receivers were a completely different story. Andre Johnson and Larry Fitzgerald nearly split the vote, while Calvin Johnson garnered one vote for the top spot as well. There was also a very clear divide between the top eight and the next tier -- which means you need to get one of those eight in the early rounds.

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?

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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.

Was last season the year of the quarterback or what? You still had the old reliables like Drew Brees, Peyton Manning, Kurt Warner and Donovan McNabb doing their thing, but a whole new crop of passers have elevated themselves. Aaron Rodgers, Philip Rivers and Jay Cutler led the way for the youth movement. You could have even waited toward the end of your draft and landed stud QBs in Matt Ryan and Tyler Thigpen (who would have been waiver-wire fodder). Team all that with Tom Brady's Week 1 injury, and we had a really interesting season. Let's see how they fall out presently for 2009.

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With the first pick of the 2009 NFL Draft, the Detroit Lions surprised nobody by inking a deal with the former Georgia Bulldog quarterback, Matthew Stafford. Long before the draft began at 4 pm this afternoon, Detroit and Stafford agreed on Friday night to a six-year deal worth $78 million with $41.7 million guaranteed.

While most young quarterbacks might be tempted to pull the Elway and start singing, "I gotta get out of this place, if it's the last thing I ever do," Stafford, on the contrary, seems genuinely excited to be a Lion and up to the challenge of turning this team around under his leadership. This, combined with a pretty savvy contract by the Lions that puts a lot of that $78 million in incentives based on playing time, looks like a recipe for success. So, the question remains, does Matt Stafford have fantasy value for the upcoming season in Detroit as a rookie?

The word on the street is that by no later than Friday morning, the NFL will announce that Marshawn Lynch will be suspended for the first three games in the 2009 season.

Obviously, for fantasy owners, this is a nightmare. Fortunately, Roger Goodell's pimp justice hand is strong and swift, so we can all at least prepare for the bad news well ahead of time. Unless you have Lynch in a dynasty league, in which case, well, I'm sorry.

It's been a pleasure watching one of my favorite fantasy players make a national name for himself in these playoffs, as Larry Fitzgerald has gone absolutely bonkers in three games. In fact, his last two regular season weeks were huge as well, so he's on a five-game run during which he's caught 31 passes for 650 yards and 10 touchdowns.

It's worth pointing out that sometimes postseason success can carry over into the next season -- in the form of causing him to get routinely drafted far too high in fantasy football.

The season just ended yesterday, but that's no excuse to stop thinking about fantasy football. Remember, it's never too early (wow, flashback). Obviously you are now thinking about keepers -- don't worry, we'll have bunches of dynasty diaries over the next couple weeks -- and looking ahead towards the elite players.

This season was certainly the year of the passer. In Fleaflicker standard scoring leagues, the top seven overall scorers were quarterbacks, including Matt Cassel. Chad Pennington and David Garrard in the top 15, and Tyler Thigpen was 16th. This is overall, guys. This is also why we warned against picking quarterbacks too early at the beginning of the season. I'll take this opportunity to warn against that again. Do not pick a quarterback in the first round. You only have to play one, and -- as you can see -- there are easily 12 serviceable starting quarterbacks.

Running back, on the other hand, has the moneymakers. I'm stubborn, and I still believe in RB-RB for the first two rounds. Even if you disagree, you at least need to get one within the first two rounds. So you'll notice the top 10 is full of them.