Ikea & Your Fantasy Roster

Football season is here! The city of Atlanta was invaded this weekend, not by the North, but by Clemson and Alabama fans. I went to my favorite burrito place Saturday afternoon to get a snack. Outside in the parking lot of the shopping center, there were dueling SUV’s—one flying Clemson flags and the other flying Alabama flags. Inside the restaurant, there was a booth of Orange and a booth of Crimson. 8 fired up football fans about 10 miles from downtown eating burritos and talking trash. Seeing these fans has gotten me fired up for the NFL this week.

After eating, I went to the Ikea store in Midtown. Wow, that was an experience. I had no idea the store was that big and popular. The store is a melting pot and a giant tourist attraction. Of course, after navigating some more Alabama fans, I bought some stuff. Buying from Ikea is like drafting for Fantasy Football. Everything looks stylish and fits great together in the store, but once you get the furniture home you can find flaws. You really can mess something up if you do not follow the directions. On Fantasy draft night, your selections look pretty good on paper, but in the days leading up to the season, all kinds of things happen to make you question your roster.

Here are some of the team cuts, suspensions, coaches’ decisions, and injuries that have affected fantasy rosters in the past few days:

Ken Whisenhunt named Kurt Warner the staring quarterback for the Arizona Cardinals. Warner was not even drafted in my Dallas League! For this blog, I was checking his status, and I was shocked to discover he already has been nabbed off the waiver wire. I did not know we even had a waiver wire until after week 1. I texted the commissioner, but have not gotten an answer. Clearly, the commish is asleep at the wheel. Knowing him, it is probably girl trouble. An indication of how competitive this league will be this year is that Leinart was not drafted until the 125th pick as a back up for Carson Palmer.

Brandon Marshall’s suspension reduction has increased his value a ton. The 3 game suspension would have been a quarter of the fantasy season. Instead, after winning his appeal, he will miss 1 game, but have to give up $52,000 in salary. Even with the suspension looming, he was drafted 37th in my Dallas League. The question is who will be the starting wide receiver opposite Marshall? Either Darrell Jackson or Eddie Royal should benefit from playing opposite Marshall. Brandon Stokely, the Broncos 3rd wide receiver, plays mostly in the slot, so his production is likely to stay the same.

Probably, the best value pick of my Dallas League draft was J.T. O’Sullivan at number 179. Almost “Mr. Irrelevant”, O’Sullivan is the San Francisco 49ers starter for opening weekend. My guess is he gets a few starts to prove he is the right guy. Plus, O-Coordinator Mike Martz will give him every chance to succeed. He could be this year’s Derek Anderson at the QB spot. Also, I like Arnaz Battle to emerge as a viable back up at wide receiver for Fantasy owners.

Fantasy owners who drafted Rudi Johnson high in the draft are kicking themselves. Johnson was cut yesterday by the Bengals. Although the Texans and others are interested in Johnson, his fantasy value has dropped. If he does catch on with another team, do not even consider playing him for a few weeks. The fight is now on for the top spot in the Bengals’ backfield. Chris Perry has been named the starter, but Kenny Watson is the better back. Watson should be the eventual starter with Perry filling the 3rd down back role. For fantasy owners, Watson is more valuable because he will get the goal line carries.

Every Fantasy owner knows that some running back is going to score lots of fantasy points for the Denver Broncos. Who will start for the Broncos? That picture has been fuzzy this pre-season. Anthony Alridge had over 100 yards in the last pre-season game, but he was injured and is on the reserve / injured list. Fantasy owners with Selvin Young and Andre Hall are happy, because the value has gone up for both of these players. Instead of 3 guys splitting carries, Young and Hall should share the workload.

I am not very high on Plaxico Burress this year, but great news for Fantasy owners—Plaxico has practiced three straight days. The ankle appears to be fine. This guy does not like to practice, but he is a nightmare match-up for NFL cornerbacks. He is huge and a great target near the goal line. However, I think he is going to be one guy affected with a Super Bowl hangover. Although last year, Randy Moss skipped the pre-season and everyone knows how that turned out!

Two years ago, Chad Jackson, the former New England first round draft pick and recent final victim, caused a near riot during one of my drafts. One of our owners wanted to draft Chad Johnson, but drafted Jackson by accident. A flurry of instant messages was the result. After commissioner intervention, the guy ended up with Chad Johnson. By cutting Jackson, Jabar Gaffney’s value went way up as New England’s 3rd receiver. Hopefully, the Pats will play Ben Watson (I have Watson in both of my leagues, talk about commitment) in the slot and throw him the ball more this year, especially near the goal line!