Sunday, September 10, 2006

Fantasy Football: Week 1

I decided, on a whim, to join a fantasy football league. Fox Sports has free leagues you can join. We're deep into week 1, and while I'm winning handily (currently 46.1 to 6.4), I have a few concerns, and after today I'm going in to 2 weeks where I face the teams who look the best (next week's opponent is currently up 89.9 to 10.9). Due to family responsibilities, I missed the draft and my team was picked randomly, though I did get a few of the people I wanted.

First, the good news. The league's scoring rules allow you to select individual offensive players but an NFL team's entire defense. I drafted Baltimore, as requested, who had an amazing day against the Bucs. I had a feeling the Ravens defense was going to be underrated -- they picked op one of my favorite Ducks, Haloti Ngata, and I'm hoping that a strong D-line will free their LB's to help more on pass coverage. Today, they've provided more of my fantasy score than my entire offense combined.

Now, on to the offense:

My QB position is weak. Kerry Collins got off to a rocky start today, but he's starting to fight back. I'm going to give him another week at least, but I'm tempted to drop Jake Plummer from my bench and go shopping. I was stupid enough to drop Hasselbeck based on reports that he wasn't healthy, and I'm kicking myself for it.

My WR corps is direct from the Seahawks, and while they were disappointing today, I think they'll pick up steam as the season progresses.

Running Backs are Michael Turner (the Chargers play later) and Mike Allstott, who had a mediocre day, but considering he was playing against the Ravens, I'll reserve judgement. I do have Maurice Morris on the Bench, so if need be I can make a switch.

Tight ends don't strike me as being as important in fantasy football as in real football (where they also block, etc.), but I have Todd Heap (who played well today) and George Wrightster on the bench. I traded away Justin Peele (my favorite TE in real life) for a receiver, Burleson.

Kicker: I benched Josh Brown based on fantasy scouting reports that said Janikowski was looking improved, and then he ended up being the only Seahawk to score. I'll have to watch the SD-Oakland game and make some decisions.

I definitely think QB is my weak position, but unfortunately most of the good ones are taken at this point. We'll see what I can pick up this week.

My Son is a Luna-tic

The Lad's love of the book Goodnight Moon has transformed into an obsession with the moon in general. He points at it on every page of the book. When outside or looking through a window, he is always looking for the moon, and he's become very good at spotting it, even in daylight hours. I think I'm going to encourage this particular infatuation -- books about the moon, etc. Maybe by the time he's an adult, he'll actually be able to travel there.