King Morland » Fantasy Football

Miller Lite Becomes the Official Beer of Fantasy Football…Wait, What?

andrew — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 20:58:48 +0000

How does this even happen? Nobody owns Fantasy Football, although apparently Yahoo! Sports thinks it does. I found the below picture on Facebook today and immediately wondered why anyone would think they could sell an official sponsor of Fantasy Football.

Theoretically Bud Light could become the Official Beer of Fantasy Football by ESPN.com or even NFL.com, both big players in the fantasy football universe.

What’s next, Coors Light becoming the Official Beer of Checking Your Fantasy Team Constantly on Sundays?

**UPDATE** Miller Lite is apparently also a proud sponsor of Fantasy Draft Week on ESPN.com

Fantasy Football 2009: Where Are We Now?

andrew — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 16:17:31 +0000

We’ve completed six weeks of fantasy football and using Yahoo! standard scoring, who is our top fantasy producer? Not many would have guessed that it is Houston Texans’ quarterback Matt Schaub, fresh off of 392 yard, four touchdown performance against the Cincinnati Bengals, bringing Schaub’s yearly totals to 1,810 yards and 14 touchdowns, the latter of which lead the NFL (he trails Pittsburgh Steelers’ quarterback Ben Roethlisberger in yards by 77).
Granted, there were plenty of fantasy writers who predicted that Schaub would have a solid season, but there weren’t many who thought he would be better than Drew Brees, Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, Philip Rivers and Aaron Rodgers. Obviously the season is far from over, but after six weeks, it’s interesting to see who the top producers are at each position. While some players who have had bye weeks are probably not at the top of the list, it’s interesting to see who has been able to produce despite the byes.

Quarterbacks:

1. Matt Schaub

2. Ben Roethlisberger

3. Tom Brady

4. Joe Flacco

5. Peyton Manning

6. Drew Brees

7. Aaron Rodgers

8. Brett Favre

9. Kyle Orton

10. Jay Cutler

Flacco has also been a tremendous surprise so far in 2009, especially given that many fantasy analysts heavily stressed Ray Rice, La’Ron McClain and Willis McGahee going into this season because of the Baltimore Ravens’ run-happy offense. But there is Flacco in the top five.

Brett Favre and Kyle Orton are also surprise attendees in the top-10, especially in front of 2008-fantasy star Jay Cutler.

Running Backs:

1. Adrien Peterson

2. Maurice Jones-Drew

3. Ray Rice

4. Chris Johnson

5. Ronnie Brown

6. Thomas Jones

7. Cedric Benson

8. DeAngelo Williams

9. Michael Turner

10. Ahmad Bradshaw

Bradshaw is the biggest surprise on the list given that Brandon Jacobs came into the season with expectations of double-digit touchdowns. But so far this season, the Giants have relied more on Bradshaw, who is paying dividends for those who grabbed him late in their drafts.

Wide Receivers:

1. Andre Johnson

2. Steve Smith

3. Randy Mos

4. Hines Ward

5. Reggie Wayne

6. Larry Fitzgerald

7. Marques Colston

8. Mario Manningham

9. Roddy White

10. Chad Ochocino

The biggest surprise on this list is Steve Smith, mostly because it’s the Giants’ second-year wideout and not previous top-fantasy performance Steve Smith from the Carolina Panthers. Mario Manningham, also with the Giants, is another surprise, especially considering that the Giants have two receivers in the top-10 and yet Eli Manning is only the 12th best fantasy quarterback to date (and is less than four points ahead of David Gerrard).

Tight Ends:

1. Owen Daniels

2. Dallas Clark

3. Heath Miller

4. Antonio Gates

5. Kellen Winslow

6. Brent Celek

7. Visanthe Shiancoe

8. Tony Gonzalez

9. Vernon Davis

10. Chris Cooley

Not too many surprises here, except maybe that Jason Whitten is not on the list, with only 259 yards and a single touchdown so far in the season. The Cowboys passing game continues to struggle in 2009 and Whitten has taken the biggest hit to his fantasy production.

I am ignoring kickers and defenses because we all should; they are all basically the same, don’t try to say otherwise.

So there you have it. Matt Schaub is the top fantasy producer through week six.

Or is he? KingMorland.com will conduct a comprehensive study on week-to-week fantasy production to be sure that Schaub is actually the real-deal. It’s easy to have 14 touchdowns when 11 of them come in three games; did those three weeks beat out the other top competitors? Come back another time and find out for sure.

Basic 2009 Fantasy Football Preview

andrew — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 20:21:46 +0000

I was going to write a full fledged preview (and still might), but I figured I’d start with rankings instead. The lists below are how I think the Top 20 will look at the end of the season:

Quarterbacks

Drew Brees
Aaron Rodgers
Tom Brady
Philip Rivers
Peyton Manning
Tony Romo
Matt Schaub
Donovan McNabb
Jay Cutler
Matt Ryan
David Gerrard
Trent Edwards
Kurt Warner
Ben Roethlisberger
Kyle Orton
Matt Cassel
Eli Manning
Brett Favre
Jake Delhomme
Joe Flacco

Running Backs

Matt Forte
Maurice Jones-Drew
Adrian Peterson
Donald Brown
Chris Johnson
DeAngelo Williams
LaDanian Tomlinson
Frank Gore
Brian Westbrook
Brandon Jacobs
Michael Turner
Steve Slaton
Kevin Smith
Steven Jackson
Clinton Portis
Pierre Thomas
Ryan Grant
Ronnie Brown
Marion Barber
Beanie Wells

Wide Receivers

Calvin Johnson
Larry Fitzgerald
Andre Johnson
Steve Smith
Randy Moss
Greg Jennings
Roddy White
Marques Colston
Anquan Boldin
Vincent Jackson
Reggie Wayne
Terrell Owens
Dwayne Bowe
Eddie Royal
Wes Welker
T.J. Houshmandzadeh
Chad Ochocino
Lance Moore
Hines Ward
Bernard Berrian

Tight Ends

Jason Whitten
Tony Gonzalez
Dallas Clark
Antonio Gates
Greg Olsen
Dustin Keller
Chris Cooley
Kellen Winslow
Visanthe Shiancoe
John Carlson

Defenses

Pittsburgh Steelers
Tennessee Titans
New York Giants
New York Jets
Baltimore Ravens
Chicago Bears
San Diego Chargers
Washington Redskins
New England Patriots
Indianapolis Colts

Kickers

They are all the same.

Fantasy Problems…

andrew — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 16:54:00 +0000

So did the New England DEF give up 4 points or 10 points yesterday?