In news that is no longer new to most, Drew Brees has finally signed with New Orleans to the tune of $100 million over 5 years, $60 million of which is guaranteed. Obviously this is huge news for both Brees and the Saints but how does it relate to fantasy? Well, for 2012 it’s looking good for the guys who do that whole ‘catch the ball’ thing down in NO as Darren Sproles, Jimmy Graham and Marques Colston now retain their value from last season. Long term, the whole Bounty Gate really put a damper on New Orleans contract talks with Brees as it pretty much put them over a barrel. It’s not going to happen any time soon, but that contract may come back to haunt the Saints long term. Big contracts for one guy usually means smaller contracts for other guys due to salary cap issues. This might have an effect on young players such as Graham looking for ‘greener’ pastures with another team if the Saints can’t splash the cash New England did on Rob Gronkowski. In the end, though, we play fantasy football for the year at hand not something down the road so until it matters, let’s just all be thankful the Saints are back to being fantasy football heaven for us players. With that said, let’s take a look at other moves and news impacting our 2012 season…fooled! I wanted to remind you of a little contest we’re doing this year called The Next Great Fantasy Football Writer. Clicking on that link will magically transport you back to June 15th of this year when the whole contest kicked off, what you get if you win, and why it’s just a cool thing to do. If you’d like to participate – you don’t have to be part of every round to win so starting with round three won’t hurt your chances – please take a look at the topic for round three which is due by this Sunday, July 22nd. Alright, now we’re back on for realsies…
Mike Wallace – Unlike Brees, Wallace is still an unhappy camper as far as contract issues are concerned with the Pittsburgh Steelers. Doesn’t he understand I’m banking on him playing this year in our 2012 Fantasy Football Rankings? With Pittsburgh having stated their team is going to be an aerial attack-first team for 2012, Wallace could be in line for a big year. However, he still needs to learn the new offense that Todd Haley is implementing and that’s hard to do without attending training camp. It’s like you trying to ace your college spanish 101 class despite not having attended. But teacher, I watched Encino Man  over and over to get my spanish down. Es muy bien! That’s you trying to explain your lack of studying and finding a way to blame Pauly Shore for your shortcomings. Looking back, I have to say I’m impressed with your effort but Wallace isn’t going to fare as well if his contract talks keep stalling.Â
Dez Bryant – Remember how I said in the top 20 wide receivers for 2012 fantasy football that I wouldn’t be drafting this guy because he’s puerile? Well, it’s not like I could foresee the future but I could look into a troubled past and see he was someone who I couldn’t count on off the field. Sadly, he didn’t prove me wrong. On July 14th, Dez misinterpreted LL Cool J’s ‘Mama Said Knock You Out’ and assaulted his own mother. It’s not clear whether or not he’ll be suspended coming into the season – odds are that he won’t – but that doesn’t mean you should be wasting a draft pick on him. Currently going as the 19th WR off the board over at yahoo and 44th overall, ahead of guys such as Brandon Lloyd and Antonio Brown, I say the question marks off the field are enough to warrant avoiding him in most drafts unless his stock drops dramatically.
Marshawn Lynch – As most fantasy owners like to see, Lynch was seen weaving his way through Oakland earlier this week. Unfortunately, he was in a car on Interstate 880 and was arrested for suspicion of a DUI and not playing the Raiders. Unlike Dez, there could very well be a league suspension handed down to Marshawn due to his past transgressions. Those wanting to go Beastmode with their 21st pick in a yahoo draft this year might want to wait a bit to see what comes of this situation.
Kenny Britt – The man who seems to forever tantilize but never gives you a full season went under the knife for the second time in the last year, undergoing arthroscopic surgery on his left knee. Notice I said left. His first surgery was for a torn ACL/MCL in his right knee. If he had a middle knee, it might have problems too. As I mentioned earlier in the summer in a write up about Kenny Britt and guys coming off of injuries in general, don’t buy into the hype. It appears this was one of those I got right, even though I really wanted to be wrong given his draft price of WR21 and 47th overall in yahoo drafts. This news pushes Nate Washington back into the spotlight as a WR1 threat for the Titans and puts him on your radar for fantasy purposes, along with Kendall Wright if he can nail down the second wide receiver position for Tennessee and if you’re into that whole rookie nookie thing.
Adrian Peterson – Man, what’s with all the downer news after Brees? I feel like a fantasy football obituary over here. There are rumors of the Purple Jesus starting the year on the PUP list and that Toby Gerhart will at least be the starter for game one of the regular season. You multiply that by 4 and you have my reasoning for AP in my rankings and my early season love for the Valhalla Warrior…yes that is my Toby nickname and yes I will keep forcing it until it works. If you’re spending your 18th pick off the board in a yahoo draft on AP, you’d best be willing to pony up on pick 127 with Gerhart. Ya hear, son?
So I’m sure you’re wondering why I’m referencing all these yahoo rankings while also referencing mine and I have not one but TWO good reasons for it. The first reason is we’ll be starting our Razzball Commenter Leagues next week and we’ll be using yahoo for our fantasy football league signups instead of ESPN this year. The article will go live on Tuesday with regards to all the details so if you’re interested in being a commish or just playing this silly little game with us, stay tuned! The second reason I bring up rankings comes from our friends over at FantasyPros. Ever since the dawn of time, we humans – and fantasy sports players – have been looking for a leg up on the competition. Whether it was scouring for food, in search of shelter, or searching for a pick-up line that actually works at a bar, we are always trying to ‘win’ whatever it is we’re doing. Call it a biological imperative. Well if you’ve been looking for that competitive edge that will put you over the top in your fantasy football leagues, I’m here to help as I direct you to someone else’s tool…hrm, that didn’t sound very appropriate. Just as fire and the wheel were important in the days of early Man, I’m here to talk to you about the Cheatsheetwizard from FantasyPros as a draft day savior for the modern day fantasy football (idiot?) savant. I’m not gonna lie, I wasted days on this website, much to the anguish of my wife and annoyance of my boss. They clearly didn’t understand the importance of prepping for your fantasy football draft like we do. Just to give a snippet of what this can provide you, you get the consensus of over 60 expert rankings in both standard and PPR format, the ability to remove the rankings of experts you don’t want to see, allows you to run various mock draft simulations based on various scoring and roster settings and – this is the big kicker – allows you to synch your actual drafts with most of the major sites that provide leagues, including yahoo. See that? I only gave you one sentence and you’re already rushing off to grab it! Of course, I timed the article perfectly as now I am done and you’re free to go peruse it. Go check that link out or ‘click dee advert on dee right hand side’ if you’re a fan of Musical Youth. I can assure you, it’s worth your time.
