Two years ago, running backs were the aces of fantasy football. With a draft board full of ball hogs such as LaDainian Tomlinson, Larry Johnson and Steven Jackson, everyone knew the smart thing to do in the first round was to take a stud running back.
Last year more people began breaking the rule and going wide receiver or quarterback in the first round, searching for the next or drafting the actual Tom Brady. Well, with the infamous injury, the new era of drafting sizzled out a bit, losing some of it's momentum going into 2009.
It seems like there is a bit of confusion this year. Is Adrian Peterson a sure thing? He didn't even lead the league in fantasy points last year, some guy named DeAngelo Williams (yeah I know who he is, I drafted him and then traded him away during his hype thinking that's all it was - and I still think that's all it is) topped the league in scoring for running backs. Number 2? A rookie! Matt Forte was second in scoring. Note - please disregard the last blog entry saying not to draft rookies in Draft Tip #4. Some idiot wrote that. So going back to the original point of this paragraph, the days of good old, never-doubted, #1-pick-is-LT are gone.
There is something shifting the land of the NFL. Mike Shanahanism. The man that would send out literal armies to man the running back position made it really tough to be a fantasy owner. There are teams with dual threats, tri threats, quad threats (freakin Patriots), and threats to be named later. The aforementioned Adrian Peterson? Still dealing with that pesky Chester Taylor stealing carries. To finish out this new point, just look at the third highest scoring running back of 2008: Maurice Jones Drew. Not even 1000 yards rushing (824), but had 14 total touchdowns and pulled in 565 receiving yards. And he only started 3 GAMES!
So something is going on out there in fantasy land, and we're going to dive into numbers a bit more here and see if we can figure it out together. Note that I haven't taken a real position on this debate yet because I'm still crunching all these numbers. Considering that Drew Brees outscored everyone and Andre Johnson scored over a dozen points more than leading RB DeAngelo Williams, let's look at the following possible first six rounds.
Each of these half-mock drafts are selected players that would likely be available from a 5th or 6th draft position in a 10-team league with 1 QB, 2 RBs, and 3 WRs starting:
Rd | Pos | Player | Pts* | Pos | Player | Pts* | Pos | Player | Pts* | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | RB | Tomlinson | 275 | QB | Brady | 423 | WR | Fitzgerald | 320 | ||
2 | RB | Gore | 240 | WR | Cal. Johnson | 265 | RB | Gore | 240 | ||
3 | WR | S. Smith | 250 | WR | S. Smith | 250 | QB | P. Manning | 380 | ||
4 | WR | Housh | 230 | WR | Housh | 230 | WR | Housh | 230 | ||
5 | QB | Warner | 360 | RB | McFadden | 185 | RB | McFadden | 185 | ||
6 | WR | B. Edwards | 218 | RB | Bush | 180 | WR | B. Edwards | 218 | ||
Points: 1573 | Points: 1533 | Points: 1573 |
Rd | Pos | Player | Pts* | Pos | Player | Pts* | Pos | Player | Pts | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | WR | Fitzgerald | 320 | RB | Tomlinson | 275 | WR | Fitzgerald | 320 | ||
2 | WR | Cal. Johnson | 265 | QB | Brees | 388 | RB | Gore | 240 | ||
3 | WR | S. Smith | 250 | WR | S. Smith | 250 | WR | S. Smith | 250 | ||
4 | QB | A. Rodgers | 375 | WR | Housh | 230 | RB | R. Grant | 210 | ||
5 | RB | McFadden | 185 | WR | A. Gonzalez | 225 | WR | A. Gonzalez | 225 | ||
6 | RB | Bush | 180 | RB | Bush | 180 | QB | Romo | 330 | ||
Points: 1575 | Points: 1548 | Points: 1575 |
* - Point totals are based on 2008 fantasy points in particular players' slot
Sorting through these numbers, we see that 1) There isn't much difference between any way you might draft, and 2) The old theory of going running back - running back in the draft is still justified.
But we do learn now that it isn't all so neccesary to draft two running backs first. So let's look at a few more stats here to try to figure out what to do with this 2009 draft.
Pos | Avg Pts - Starters | Avg Pts - Bench | Difference |
---|---|---|---|
QB | 350 | 250 | 100 |
RB | 280 | 180 | 100 |
WR | 275 | 175 | 100 |
Well, in a way, we have proved a point with all of this somewhat nonsense. There aren't many reasons to stick with the old ways of grabbing the running backs early. In fact, we have pretty much proven that one can draft whichever way he likes (without dipping into the tight end, kicker, or defense pool too early) and not see a big difference in point totals.
After all of these numbers, my advice for 2009: Draft with your gut instinct.
And if you don't have a gut instinct, you'd better stick around and keep reading these blog posts.
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