The Reality Of Fantasy Football - Week Two 2011 Fantasy Recap

While people love pickup columns, it's also important to look back at last week's results when evaluating your fantasy roster, and that's what the Reality of Fantasy Football is all about.

Unfortunately, I lost half of this column and it's companion piece about the real life implications of each game to computer problems, so this is going to be a little shorter than usual, and definitely a shorter introduction than I'd like...

Fantasy Football Pickups And Drops Week Three 2011

Doing things in a bit of a different order this week, this fantasy pickup column is coming before my week two game reviews because last weeks page views showed this column was most popular.  Have to give the people what they want, and what you all want seems to be my amazing fantasy advice.

Last week in this column, the recommendations included Ryan Fitzpatrick, Ben Tate, and Devery Henderson, who all turned in strong games in week two and are now owned in too many leagues to be recommended in this column.  Hopefully we can hit on a few solid names again this week to keep your rosters in tip top shape moving forwards.

As always, the cut off for available players for the purposes of this column is the 50% owned mark.  While other guys around 70 or 80% owned might be better options, they should be owned in all active leagues already, so I offer only players below the 50% mark...

Fantasy Football Pickups and Drops Week Two 2011

You should have already read my Reality of Fantasy week one recap column and if you haven't go do that before you start here in the pickups and drops column.

This column is going to be very straight forward.  I'm simply going to go position by position and offer my pickup recommendations, listed in the order I would pick them up.  Then each position will have a section of guys who are owned in more than 50% of leagues that I would be comfortable cutting for the guys on the pickup list.  At some positions the lists will be longer than other positions, and the lists will vary greatly from week to week.  These fringe players only need a slight uptick or downtick of value to make them rosterable or unrosterable, so some of these players are going to bounce back and forth from rosters to free agency all season long.

All that out of the way, onto the content...

Fantasy Football 2011 Tight End And Defense Rankings

All the rankings you needed for you draft were released last week.  Quarterback, running back, and wide receiver rankings are all already available, and here comes the last pair of lists, tight ends and defenses.  I'm not going to bother to rank kickers, because it's just stupid.  There is also going to be minimal explanation of the defensive rankings, because you should be taking them in the second to last round.  I'm going to explain in a column this week why streaming defenses is generally the best way to go.

Here come the rankings...

Fantasy Football 2011 Wide Receiver Rankings

Because time is running out before the weekend, the wide receiver, tight end, and defense rankings are all going to have far less explanation than the quarterback or running back rankings.  However, they are just as thought out and prepared as the lists were all made together.  Just don't have time to explain them all and get these rankings out at a good time.

So because of that... right onto the receiver rankings... Keep in mind that these rankings are for standard leagues, not PPR...

Fantasy Football 2011 Running Back Rankings

And we're back.  After the quarterback rankings dropped yesterday, I'm back here today with my running back rankings.

As you may expect after yesterday's quarterback rankings, these running back rankings aren't going to look like your average fantasy draft list.  Don't worry about how to integrate these lists yet.  I'll be releasing a integrated top 200-something list with a guide on how to draft from it, on Friday.

Anyways, right onto today's list...

Fantasy Football 2011 Quarterback Rankings

Been tinkering with these lists over the last week or two, and I'm finally ready to start rolling out my fantasy rankings at each position this year.  I am going to start with the quarterbacks and roll right on through to defenses before I release an overall rankings list/cheat sheet on Friday.

If you have already had your draft, I don't want to hear any complaints.  You are a moron for scheduling it so early in the offseason.  The earliest your draft should be held is the last weekend in August, and in a perfect world you'd do it a few days before the Thursday opener.  There is no reason for drafting earlier than that.  You're just going to see your players get hurt during the season, ruining a league's integrity for no good reason.

Now... Onto the list...

Michael Vick, Fantasy Football Super-Bust

A.K.A Two thousand words on why I won't be drafting Michael Vick this year.

Fantasy Football 2011: Buccaneer Bargains

Football is back.

Thank God.

Football news is going to be coming fast and furious soon, and  I'm going to have opinions on as much of it as possible.

For now I'm just going to talk about fantasy drafts.  I've already written about The Marshall Faulk Strategy this year, and I'm going to write more draft strategy pieces soon.  I will also release rankings as soon as free agency shakes out.  Today I'm going to write about a group of players that are currently being drafted too low.  They all just happen to play for the same team...

Fantasy Football 2011: The Marshall Faulk Strategy Is Coming Back

First off, I haven't been reporting on football news because outside of a hard to predict or judge draft without free agency, nothing has happened.  I'm assuming though, that of course there will be a full season of football played this year.  There is no reason to believe there won't be football.  Don't listen to the media and every little detail they give predicting they won't be football.  Panic sells in the media.  There will be a full season of football this year, and I'd also be willing to bet we'll be up to an 18 game season in the next few years.

That said, while I'm not reporting on football news until transactions start happening, I'm going to be talking about fantasy football still.  I want to have something similar to a ESPN's draft kit full of information, ready for everyone to get ready to draft across a bunch of articles that can help everyone from newbies to ten-year vets like me.  It's obviously impossible to debate overall rankings on players until free agency happens, but there are still things to discuss.  There are players who have fairly set values because of their overall stable offenses.  Most of the major players on teams like the Eagles, Packers, and Colts for example are all locked up through next year, so I'll be able to talk about those types of players.  And of course, I can always do what I'm doing today and discuss draft strategy.  Now that the draft has happened, we know the talent that will be there in the league.  Free agent shifts will change opportunity for individual players, but it's fairly easy to see which positions are deep, and which are shallow.

Today, I'm going to be writing about my favorite draft strategy year in and year out, and one that should be more prevalent with everyone this year due to the weakness at the running back position...The Marshall Faulk Strategy