Top Five Fantasy Football Picks

Grantland.com had a contest this past week about writing a fantasy football article to compete for a chance to write for them. And because I am a fantasy football master (here's where you snicker) I decided to enter.

The following is the article I wrote as an entry. The assignment was to write no more than 750 words on your top 5 fantasy players for the upcoming year, and one sleeper pick as well. Since the article would most likely have not seen the light of day otherwise, I decided to dust off the ol' Romote Control blog, and post it here.

 Enjoy

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Mark Sanchez, Kevin Kolb, Blaine Gabbert, Christian Ponder, and Brandon Jacobs.

Ok, now that I have your attention, I will now write about my top-five fantasy players of the 2012 season.

At number five on this list (that’s right I made it into a countdown for added suspense) is our only quarterback, Aaron Rodgers. Now, before you say “wait, what about Brady?” “..Brees?” or (if someone in Detroit is reading this) “..Stafford?” And yes, the three of them had amazing 2011 seasons for sure. But Stafford is far from a guarantee to duplicate those numbers and has had injury problems in the past. Brees is missing his head coach for the whole season, not to mention defenses will soon recognize that they need to focus on shutting down Graham and Sproles in order to force Brees into poor decisions. And Brady? Well, he is as cool as they come..I don’t really have anything to steer you away from Mr. VMAN magazine. All three of those guys will probably have phenomenal years, but I’m taking Rodgers first. Here’s why: Of those four quarterbacks mentioned, only Rodgers has had a QB rating +100 in each of the past three seasons. He is the definition of consistency, and the safest bet among the elite fantasy QB’s.

My number four player is Maurice Jones-Drew, with the caveat that he actually plays this season and quits his holdout. MOJO is a supremely talented back and a tremendously versatile weapon. However, as he resides in Jacksonville, he is a weapon with little around him, sort of like Michael C. Hall on Dexter especially in the past two seasons. He also has carried quite the bulk of the load for the Jaguars the past few seasons, and while I do not expect it this upcoming season, he could be due for a breakdown in the near future (best guess is in 2014). Your first pick should be as worry-free as possible. MJD will likely have a great season. However, as far as the elite four running backs go, Jones-Drew is probably the one I worry about the most.

Number three on my list is a guy who looks a lot like MJD: Ray Rice. Rice was on my fantasy team this past season and carried me to a championship.  Rice led the NFL in all-purpose yards from scrimmage with 2,068. He essentially has no one to split carries with this season, since Ricky Williams retired a year after Willis McGahee left for Denver. (No word on which long-time AFC East running back the Ravens plan to spell Rice with this year, although I hear Laurence Maroney’s available.)  Look for Rice to have a very similar season to his ’11 campaign, with Flacco incorporating him often in the passing game.

Number two is LeSean McCoy.  McCoy is just 24 years old, and Mr. Everything in the Philly offense. Shady carried the rock 273 times last season and rushed for 1307 yards and 17 touchdowns, despite losing a good number of carries to his own quarterback.  With defenses beginning to figure out Michael Vick, look for McCoy to get an increased number of passes his way this year too, as no one loves a good screen pass more than Andy Reid.  

The top spot on this list belongs to Arian Foster of the Houston Texans. I cannot really explain what it is that makes Foster such a fantasy monster. Perhaps the best way to rationalize it is this: Last season, Foster missed four games, three to a hamstring injury in the beginning of the year and the fourth sitting out a meaningless Week 17 game. Without playing in a quarter of the season, he STILL finished as the fourth-best fantasy running back.  While he has the quite underrated Ben Tate backing him up, Foster is still the closest thing to a lock in fantasy football.  Foster also benefits fantasy-wise from a need to run the ball in order for his team to win (whereas the Eagles and Ravens can win games with Vick/Flacco, the passing game, and their defense). 

Finally, since I haven’t mentioned wide receivers this whole time, one sleeper for this season is Titus Young. Matthew Stafford has proven this past season that he can throw it to more people than just Megatron, as he developed nice rapports with both Young and Brandon Pettigrew in addition to Charles Johnson. Look for the second-year wideout from Boise State to have an even bigger year in 2012.

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