East Coast Gambler

I stayed away from a football picks contest against individuals for a while, but since I’m not doing a fantasy football league I figured I might as well.

Meet The Turd.  He’s an Ohio State Buckeyes fan and borderline obnoxious about it.  I’d probably be the same way if I didn’t grow up in a city with 9 professional sports teams and zero major college sports teams or go to a minor Division 3 school.

We’ll be going head to head with 5 weekly football picks.  This week we both happened to choose all different college football games, but we may mix NFL as the seasons go on.  All picks will go up on Friday for those that want some time to process.  I rarely bet that many games at once, so keep an eye on twitter and tumblr on game day for my picks.

All lines are courtesy bet revolution at the time of the writing of this post.  Of course, the lines may move.

ALSO: remember that you can still get a free $10 bet with Bet Revolution. Click this link and enter code EAST10

On to the picks where you’ll notice we both pick a lot of home favorites.
The Turd
MICHIGAN over Connecticut -3
NEBRASKA over Western Kentucky -37.5
Purdue over NOTRE DAME +11
CLEMSON over North Texas -27
FLORIDA over Miami (ohio) -36.5

Marc
TCU over Oregon State -13.5
NOTRE DAME over Purdue -11
ALABAMA over San Jose State -37.5
OKLAHOMA over Utah State -33.5
AKRON over Syracuse +7.5

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Football season is upon us so it’s time to get fantasy football teams in order. I tried my first auction draft and I don’t see myself doing another one. It took over 3 hours! I have little patients so that was VERY annoying.

Once again JMP will be doing weekly NFL picks, but this week he will also begin with his fantasy football position by position preview. Previews continue with Running Back.

ALSO: remember that you can still get a free $10 bet with Bet Revolution. Click this link and enter code EAST10

Due to time constraints, JMP didn’t have time to provide capsules for each player, but we both feel it’s important to get the information out before this weekend where there should be a bunch of drafts.  I’ll add comments where I have them.  Like usual.

Adrian Peterson (MIN)
Chris Johnson
Ray Rice
Maurice Jones-Drew
Michael Turner

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Football season is upon us so it’s time to get fantasy football teams in order. I tried my first auction draft and I don’t see myself doing another one. It took over 3 hours! I have little patients so that was VERY annoying.

Once again JMP will be doing weekly NFL picks, but this week he will also begin with his fantasy football position by position preview. Previews continue with Wide Receivers and will continue for the next few days.

ALSO: remember that you can still get a free $10 bet with Bet Revolution. Click this link and enter code EAST10

There are a lot more viable WRs than there are QBs and TEs combined, so I’ll be brief with my opening remarks.  I’m fairly bearish on the position this year.  There are 3, maybe 4, in the top tier and then it’s pretty much a crapshoot.  That’s why I don’t feel so bad that this list isn’t exactly complete.  You’ll probably notice some omissions.  Some were intentional, some weren’t.  I simply don’t have the time to research the #1 WR in Tampa Bay and rank him accordingly, for example.  Then there are the Jets WRs, whom I don’t think are worth owning, but I’m getting ahead of myself.  Here we go!
Andre Johnson – the clear cut number 1, whether you’re in a PPR league or not.
Reggie Wayne – you could flip-flop Reggie and Randy and I wouldn’t have a problem with it.  I think Reggie benefits from having a stronger supporting cast around him, freeing him up to make more plays.  But that’s just me.
Randy Moss – playing for a new contract, but with a  recovering Wes Welker drawing some of the coverage.
Roddy White – hey, I’m just as surprised as you, but when I ran the numbers and realized that he excelled even during Matt Ryan’s ‘down year’.
Miles Austin – my one concern with keeping him this high is that Dallas’ O line has looked bad this pre-season.
Desean Jackson – Kolb hasn’t looked great, either, and DJax depends on him to throw him the ball in stride so he can run with it.
Calvin Johnson – Has Nate Burleson on the other side, Jahvid Best in the backfield and a Detroit D that will allow a lot of points.  Still, Matt Stafford is in his 2nd year, so I can’t rank Megatron higher.
Brandon Marshall – may not catch 100 balls in a run-oriented offense, but he’ll probably catch 85 or so

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Football season is upon us so it’s time to get fantasy football teams in order. I tried my first auction draft and I don’t see myself doing another one. It took over 3 hours! I have little patients so that was VERY annoying.

Once again JMP will be doing weekly NFL picks, but this week he will also begin with his fantasy football position by position preview. Previews continue with Tight Ends and will continue for the next few days.

ALSO: remember that you can still get a free $10 bet with Bet Revolution. Click this link and enter code EAST10

I thought long and hard (heh, I said ‘long and hard’) about leaving tight ends for last and declaring the position the most important one this year.  It is for me, but I play in one league where only the TE gets a PPR bonus and in another all-PPR league where I just convinced the commish to add a WR/TE flex (which I promptly filled with Brent Celek after taking Dallas Clark as my ‘regular’ TE).  Still, most of your leagues are probably different, so here I am, doing the TE rankings second.  Here we go…

Antonio Gates – as recently as 3 days ago, this slot belonged to Dallas Clark.  I drafted Dallas before the pre-season even started and now I start hearing about how he’s not practicing nor playing.  So Gates takes over the #1 spot, as Rivers will look to him much more now that VJax is gone.
Jermichael Finley – I’ve seen a couple of Packers pre-season games and they’re using Finley the way the Colts used Clark  last year.  He vaults all the way to #2.

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Football season is upon us so it’s time to get fantasy football teams in order. I tried my first auction draft and I don’t see myself doing another one.  It took over 3 hours!  I have little patients so that was VERY annoying.

Once again JMP will be doing weekly NFL picks, but this week he will also begin with his fantasy football position by position preview.  Previews begin with quarterback and will continue for the next few days.

ALSO: remember that you can still get a free $10 bet with Bet Revolution.  Click this link and enter code EAST10

It’s the most wonderful time over the year!

Welcome back to another year of fantasy football!  It was a long off-season for me, as I wallowed in finishing 3rd in one league (out of and 5th out of 12 in another (good enough to make the playoffs, but I lost in the first round).  I enjoyed the real NFL playoffs purely as a fan and then bided my time until the NFL Draft and free agency.  That’s when I got back to work.  Over the next few days, you’ll see how all the changes affected my rankings, but for now, let’s reiterate the driving principals I play by:

1)      The ‘experts’ write in order to get paid.  If they all write the same things, then they’ll lose their jobs, so they each try to be cute and different and that’s why some still think you should take MJD if you have the first pick.  Experts who work for ESPN/Fox/CBS/NBC are doubly worse, as their networks show NFL games and so they have to say nice things about all players.  I’d much rather trust what I see with my eyes or, at the very least, read in an independent blog.  It was this realization that turned me from a fantasy also-ran into a force to be reckoned with!

2)      Big players make big plays in big games.  A tweener who becomes the ‘start of the week’ has a decent chance of flopping.  Call this the ‘MNF test’.  If you can’t bear to watch your benched player shine on Monday night, then you’d better start him.

3)      Keep your ‘dumb observables’ down.  People remember the stuff you do, both good and bad.  That said, dumb waivers moves are better than dumb trades.

4)      It takes luck to win a title.  It takes skill, or rather the lack thereof, to lose it.  Don’t be so ‘skillful’ that you sabotage your chances.

Let’s get started, shall we?  I don’t want any of these articles to run too long, so I’ll start with QBs as there aren’t as many viable alternatives here as there are at other positions (and, no, kickers and Ds don’t count as ‘positions’).
Aaron Rodgers – last year I said I wanted to see one more good year from him before moving him up.  I saw a GREAT year from him so he vaults to #1.  He can pass, he can run a little bit, he can play in the cold and his team may not have anything locked up by week 16 so he may have to play.  Can’t say that about…

Peyton Manning – I had him #1 as recently as last week, but then I saw the stats about Aaron’s running prowess and Peyton’s proclivity to sit during the fantasy playoffs.  Naturally, I learned this b/c I was paying extra special attention since I drafted him with my first pick in one of my leagues!  So, I’ll make the playoffs and then have to start Chad Henne.  Can’t wait!

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I was away when Hard Knocks premiered on HBO.  My favorite team, the Jets, are the subject of this years edition and I have mixed emotions.  I love the extra insight into how the team operates, but I also don’t think this helps the team – and may hurt the Jets chances at a Super Bowl.

Rex Ryan was clearly the highlight of the first episode and this speech about “One Goal” sums up why, it seems, everyone likes him.

Also, if you’re ready to bet on the NFL season the free $10 bet offer is still good at Bet Revolution.  Go here and use code EAST10.

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