Bruno Boys Fantasy Football

I’m in a lot of fantasy football leagues – despite my best efforts it grows a bit every year. Last year’s seven is now nine…yup, nine leagues. It makes even my mom shake her head in disbelief. That’s when you know it’s bad. I play in some leagues with friends, some with strangers, some with fantasy football experts, and one 96-team league (divided into 6 conferences, don’t worry, I’m not that nuts!). So suffice it to say, juggling the various leagues keep me pretty busy. But, it occurred to me the other day that I really have access to a substantial amount of data, and I started wondering if the current leaders in all of my leagues have any players in common. Are there any magic bullets this year? The “if you’ve got X, you’ve got a championship on your hands” kind of players? I tend to think that much of fantasy football success depends on weekly lineup management and less on magic bullet players…but call me intrigued nonetheless.

I took a look at the rosters of the current #1 teams in all of my leagues (my 9 leagues plus the other 5 conferences in that 96-teamer, so a total of 14 leagues), and I found that there were some interesting repeat all-stars. Keeping in mind that I’m just looking at a one-week snapshot here and several teams could have drafted Owen Daniels, Ronnie Brown, or Anthony Gonzalez and since altered their lineup to reflect those now out for the season, I think there are still some intriguing patterns that emerge. Several players showed up on two rosters, but I thought the players that showed up on at least 3 rosters were the most interesting of all. I also added in the number of fantasy points they have accumulated so far in a standard scoring leagues using CBS Sports. So here you have it – and if you have multiple of these players on your roster, and you are not in 1st place, we need to talk.

3-TEAM ALL-STARS

Steven Jackson, RB, St.Louis Rams (147 points)

Ahmad Bradshaw, RB, New York Giants (81 points)

Vincent Jackson, WR, San Diego Chargers (120 points)

John Carney, K, New Orleans Saints (89 points)

New Orleans Saints D/ST (191 points)

4-TEAM ALL-STARS

Joseph Addai, RB, Indianapolis Colts (138 points)

Reggie Wayne, WR, Indianapolis Colts (145 points)

Hines Ward, WR, Pittsburgh Steelers (107 points)

5-TEAM ALL-STARS

Dallas Clark, TE, Indianapolis Colts (108 points)

Austin Collie, WR, Indianapolis Colts (67 points)

First off, if you’ve got some Colts on your team, turns out you’re pretty money. What I find really interesting here is the Austin Collie factor. If 36% of top-ranked teams have Collie on their roster, what does that say? Well there’s basically a snowball’s chance in hell that anyone here actually drafted Collie, so folks with Collie are clearly good at working the waiver wire; and then riding that hot hand while Collie was peaking in October. Plus, these owners are not willing to part with Collie in case he starts to show a flash of his October brilliance again – and perhaps his Week 12 performance of 4 receptions for 70 yards is a sign of what’s to come.
Ahmad Bradshaw has a similar story – back in August he was seen as a savvy grab in mid to late rounds of the draft for those who kept up with fantasy football trends over the summer. And obviously several owners are still holding onto Bradshaw in hopes that he’ll come back and return to his summer sleeper potential.

Meanwhile, owners who were able to snag Joseph Addai (ADP 42.5) and Hines Ward (ADP 68.1) in later rounds have really benefited from solid numbers from those guys week after week, while still filling out their rosters with other high performers. Neither Addai nor Ward was expected to really show much of anything this season, and were more likely to fade away into fantasy oblivion. Not so my friends. So my take is that owners who drafted these two guys are skilled drafters willing to take a bit of a gamble.

Then you’ve got guys like Reggie Wayne, Steven Jackson, Dallas Clark, and Vincent Jackson who are just incredibly good players. I give thanks to Reggie Wayne every week – somehow the dude is able to come up with enough points or a TD (or bless him, both!) to make a significant contribution to my team each week.

Finally, you’ve got the random, unexpected category of Saints players: Carney and the Saints D/ST were likely not on the top of anyone’s draft board, and yet they’re both proving to have a top notch 2009 season (particularly that Saints D/ST). Those owners were either great at prognosticating a major turnaround for the Saints defense, or were again savvy waiver wire workers and risk takers.

So, in the end when it’s all said and done, I think this group of players represent owners who 1) take a risk every once in awhile on players that others think are washed up 2) make sure they grab a guy who is as close to a sure thing as possible 3) work that waiver wire like nobody’s business and 4) know which guys are worth hanging onto as the season goes on in case they show a late season flash of brilliance.

Now that set of advice might just be the real magic bullet. Just a little something to keep in mind come Draft Day ’10. It’s never too early to be thinking about the future; here’s to the 2010 season prep already, my friends!

To see other articles written by the Fantasy Football Librarian click here…. A Librarian’s Touch Archives

The Bruno Boys are pleased to once again welcome guest columnist, Sara Holladay, back for her feature,A Librarian’s Touch, for the 2009 season. The woman behind the web-site, Fantasy Football Librarian, Holladay is someone all fantasy owners should be well familiar with if they want to win their league’s title as she provides some of the best fantasy football insight and resources found around the web!