Fantasy Football 2009-2011 [AF Elite]

[AYHJA]

How about...

Not only did I find a new member to play fantasy football with us this year...

But she's a girl...And she's hot..! :D And she's fine as hell too...But taken, so restrain yourselves... :D Welcome to AF, ep... :D

[¡ñ±£¿®∆L Ф¶†ïς@п]

Ep...le?

I'll believe, when I perceive it. :?:

But that's great, you are rounding up and considering the season to come... more than I have done as of late.

I was wondering, we really should conduct a roll-call on who is in and who is out from last season. I know erokero85 doesn't really inhabit the boards much, but he participates well enough within the sports forum on occasion, and when this topic was formed, he was among the first to voice his presence.

So, of the eight who participated last year, how many can we say for certain are in for this season? That gives us a rough idea if we can upgrade to a 10-man league this year, or if we still have to replace a few cogs in the engine to even compete in an 8-man tourney.

I think I can send out a mass e-mail to all the members of the ESPN league, asking for them to come participate in this thread to decide on a draft date, opinions, suggestions and the like, or is that not right, TT? Is the league manager the only one who can notify the entire league?

[trashtalkr]

I'm the only one who can send out emails to the entire league. I'll go ahead and do that to get everyone involved in this thread

[¡ñ±£¿®∆L Ф¶†ïς@п]

Wow, the last reply here was only two days ago. Seemed much longer to me.

After reading this article, I was wondering the likelihood of whether or not we could install some form of PPR this year. This is not just myself talking, though, because I've never played in a league that had PPR-scoring before, so it may just be me itching to try it. But, posing a poll on the popularity of it, I'd like to know if others think it could in some way, "equalize" the value of WRs in contrast to RBs in our upcoming draft.

If it indeed proves popular this year, and TT does feel inclined to include it, I think we should start it off minimally, because those opposed to it might need to test it out before initial judgment overrules. Say, for every three receptions, one point is awarded to the player? Does that seem like a good-enough stepping stone to including it?

[erokero85]

I know last year there was a way to email all the other teams, for trades and such, but I think it was like a regular email where you'd have to select everyone, where the league manager had a set "send all" choice.

I know my friend Dan (the guy who took over mid-season) is willing to participate again, but he's not big on forums so he's not gonna join here. But most info can be sent through the ff site anyway. Only prob is, he kinda forgot what his espn "sign in" and password was, so he's trying to figure that out.

Yeah, sorry I don't post much, it's just I joined this forum for the fantasy league, so I'll be here more during the season, but I do check out other parts once in a while. It's just that for some reason I have trouble getting in here, and thus the long time between posts.

On the topic of PPR, if we do add it, I think a tweak to the scoring would be needed. Say the PPR be less than a point, like 0.5, and maybe lower the value of yards, so touchdowns become that much more valuable? Then again, I like the standard scoring since you seem to have a chance to win every week down to the last game without needing 10 td's from you third string wr or 50 fg's from your kicker.

[¡ñ±£¿®∆L Ф¶†ïς@п]

Well, the roll call didn't work as well as I had hoped.

Maybe if we start hashing out details about the tentative draft date, people would be more willing to speak up?

Today marks the beginning of August, so we have about 3-5 weeks, give or take a few days, to set a definite draft date for the league. I'd ask trashtalkr what he thinks, because it is ultimately up to him to weigh the pros/cons of a later start date.

I'd still like to know where everybody else is, and what they think about potential sleepers/studs/busts for this season.
Honestly, this is the first time I'm preseasoning, so the anticipation is killing me more than anything else. Oh, and the silence. :laff:

[trashtalkr]

I've been extremely busy (and out of town) for the past week and a half or so, but when I get back into town (when I'll actually have time), I'll dive in and read all these posts and get the league started up

[AYHJA]

Good, good...Preseason started today... :)

[¡ñ±£¿®∆L Ф¶†ïς@п]

Monday Night Football Pre-Season Thursdays :D :? :sarcasm: :laff:



In order to get people something to talk about, I want to analyze last season's greatest team collapses (regular season), in order of significance, expectations, player/coaching hype, overall win-loss record at their height, and (non-)impact on the playoff picture because of their "down-the-stretch" ineptitude. The list is as follows:


1. The Redskins - Before being embarrassed by Pitt. on Monday Night, The 'Skins held an impressive 6-2 record, Clinton Portis was the league's leading rusher at the halfway mark, and some (ok, only Ron Jaworski) thought that Jason Campbell was in the MVP discussion; what had followed was that the team's O-line eventually collapsed under old bones, Clinton Portis got winded and run into the ground too soon, and JC started throwing INT and getting sacked unmercifully (you could also say they had no viable downfield threat other than S. Moss, 'cause the rookie WRs were no help at all) ... what became of this was an eventual final tally of an 8-8 record, and it opened the doorway to another NFC East wildcard incumbent (to be discussed later on the list more fully).

2. TB Buccaneers - While I wrote the above, wikipedia does a better job describing what ultimately happened to the Bucs in 2008: The Bucs got off to a great start in 2008, with a 9–3 record going into the final month of the season, tied for first place in the division, with a chance at the top seed in the conference. On December 2, it was announced that defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin would be leaving the team after the season's end, for the same job at the University of Tennessee, serving under his son Lane Kiffin, who had just been named the new head coach at the school. After the announcement, the Buccaneers would lose the final four games of the season to finish 9–7 for the second consecutive season. Unlike 2007, it was not enough to secure the division championship, nor a playoff appearance.

3. Dallas Cowboys - The Dallas Cowboys entered the 2008 NFL season with high expectations. With a lot of returning talent on both sides of the ball, many predicted the Cowboys would make a run to the Super Bowl. They started strong, they had such pro-bowl stars as Tony Romo, Terrell Owens, Jason Witten, & Marion Barber, yet they had mixed results of "streakiness" throughout the season - they won their first 3 games, then went on to lose the next 4 of 6 games entering their bye; some of this can be attributed to Romo's hurt hand, but after he came back, rallying yet another 3-win streak, the Cowboys lost their final 3 of 4 games, especially in a disheartening 44-6 loss within the final week of the regular season to Philadelphia, which would have ultimately resulted in the victor claiming a playoff wildcard berth. For "America's Team", Dallas has not had positive end-of-the-season success in the past five years.

4. Denver Broncos - In what was arguably 2008's weakest NFL division, it seemed as though the Denver Broncos were the one shining spot. They were high-flying, gun-slinging, points-racking, and were overall, one of the more highly-potent offenses in the entire league; the problem was, the Broncos had absolutely no semblance of what could be called a "defense", Champ Bailey was not himself, and the hurt RB-carousel of 5-8 different starting running backs did not aid their efforts at all. Yet, despite the surrounding problems, the Broncos held a four-game lead in the AFC West division entering the homestretch of the season. Even with this crutch, it could not save the ultimate fate of Denver, who ended up just shy of the playoffs yet again, due to a final season re-match against San Diego, and the overall results of their campaign was a mediocre 8-8 record.

5. New York Jets - Though they did improve upon their 4-12 record from the year before, 9-7 wasn’t the year the Jets envisioned upon bringing Favre into town. After a series of wins and losses to start the season, the Jets appeared to have turned the corner in week 8 as they began a five game winning streak that included a victory over their long time rival, the New England Patriots. Unfortunately, the Jets (and notably an elder Favre) then fell apart, losing four of five down the stretch and missing the playoffs. The hype for the team's showing after the Patriots smashing (it was a lucky win anyway) was so strong, fervent, and ridiculous for a period of two weeks afterwards, that there were National(!) headlines that deemed them the next successor to the SuperBowl, aptly entitling the "would-be" contest the "Subway" Super Bowl - yecgh.

6. Buffalo Bills - Buffalo Bills quarterback Trent Edwards has been somewhat of an enigma the past couple seasons. There have been times when he’s absolutely brilliant (who has seen this?) , and other times when he looked completely lost on the field. Part of the reason for this is because the Bills have typically only had two options on offense in that they could either run the ball or throw to wide receiver Lee Evans. Perhaps this is the reason that they ranked in the bottom quarter of the league in total yards gained per game (24th overall). The Buffalo Bills finished the season last year 7-9, which happened to be the exact same record they had in 2007. However, after notching a 5-1 start, the 7-9 record posted in 2008 can be seen as nothing other than a disappointment.

7. Green Bay - After going 13-3 and going to the NFC Title Game in 2007, the Packers looked to establish a new identity in 2008, as a changing of the guard occurred with Brett Favre giving way to Aaron Rodgers. Rodgers played very well his first year starting for the Packers, and in comparison, posted nearly identical statistics as the freshly traded Brett Favre had his final year with the Packers. The team as a whole, however, could not finish their contests and lost 7 games by 4 or less points; in what seemed to be a good showing starting 2-0, then 4-3 entering their bye, the Packers ended up winning only two more games, resulting in a 6–10 record overall. The reason for the team's poor record was attributed mostly to the numerous injuries on defense that regularly kept six or seven starters off the field at various times throughout the year, yet refused to mention Favre or Ryan Grant's struggles.


Honorable Mention:
The Patriots - The New England Patriots had high hopes heading into the 2008 season. They were coming off a 2007 season in which they completed the first ever 16-0 regular season in NFL history, but lost the Super Bowl to the New York Giants. In the season opener, quarterback Tom Brady, the NFL's MVP in 2007, suffered a knee injury and missed the remainder of the season. Backup quarterback Matt Cassel replaced Brady. Cassel's start in Week 2 was his first start in a game since high school, and he led the Patriots to a win, which extended the Pats' regular season winning streak record to 21 games before an embarassing loss the next week ended the streak (v. Miami). Although Cassel had a steep learning curve to overcome, he finally hit his stride around mid-season, and at the end of it all, the unheralded backup led the team to an 11-5 record, and due to unfortunate tie-breaking circumstances/ranking, the team failed to reach the playoffs.



What do you guys think? Do you agree, would you switch a few of the rankings, or did I leave off any deserving (flailing) team?

[trashtalkr]

Sorry it's taken me so long to get in on this discussion. I added PPR (Receptions and Rushes to make it fair) at .5 points per carry/reception. You can check out the new scoring system in the league settings:

http://games.espn.go.com/ffl/tools/leag ... eId=462297

Anything else? I want to try to set a draft time soon....