Fantasy football

Fantasy football season is a great time of year. This year I am in four different leagues and I am anxiously awaiting my drafts to begin. I have one with college friends, one with high school friends, one with work friends and one with church friends. There is a little overlap but not too much.

This year will be a year of firsts. I am in my largest league ever with 16 teams. Our teams are going to be pretty thin but I think it will benefit me since the larger the league, the more it helps to have experience and time to commit to the league. Rookies and part timers will have a hard time competing in that league.

I am also participating in my first auction draft which I have wanted to do for a long time. I am nervous because I don't know what to expect. My biggest fear is over spending on a couple players leaving the rest of my team lacking.

As I am preparing for my first draft Monday night I have been reading about the death of the running back, running back strategy. Basically this means that you take running backs with your first two draft picks. The "experts" say that this is the year to draft a WR or QB in the first two rounds but I couldn't disagree more.

In my most competitive league, the first two rounds contain 24 players and typically 20 or more at Running backs. The reason why everybody takes them early is because there is such a lack of depth at that position and it is usually more predictable. I made the mistake of picking Manning one year in round 1 and was left with a huge hole at RB all year. I don't want to be that guy again this year.

Quarterbacks and Wide Receivers are typically a dime a dozen and tough to predict from one year to another. I will go out on a limb and say that Tom Brady does not finish the year as the top QB. And maybe Randy Moss will catch 20 plus touchdowns again but I doubt it. I hope all the rookies in my leagues follow the experts and leave all the good RBs for me while they are drafting Jehuu Caulcrick in the middle rounds trying to fill their second RB spot.