Fantazzle Fantasy Football Games – 2009 Wide Receiver Rankings

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Fantasy Football Wide Receivers – Overall
I saved the best for last. I feel the strongest with my fantasy football quarterback and tight end rankings, but I also feel they are relatively easy and straight forward. Running backs are easily the hardest this year due to the continuing trend of playing time splits. Wide Receivers are not an easy bunch to rank, but I feel I got a solid understanding of how to approach them. Its simply this: if you don’t have one of the first ~five picks, go for two WRs and then stock up on RBs. I like the Tier 1 (T1) and T2 guys to produce at a top level and give you little risk (barring injuries that you cannot predict). I would also recommend going WR, QB and WR. I know this is dangerous in the running back category, but think about it like this – if you go that route, you are taken care of every week at those positions (you can find a 3rd WR if you start 3 later in the draft or even on the waiver wire). Besides the first ~5 RBs, you are taking a risk with anyone you pick. Steven Jackson, Clinton Portis, Brandon Jacobs, Pierre Thomas, the list goes on. How confident do you feel that you have a 100% sure thing? At WR, your looking at Larry Fitzgerald, Calvin Johnson, Reggie Wayne types as your #1. You feel pretty confident about them right? Do you foresee any of these guys going down with an injury like Portis, Westbrook, or Jacbos? And what about the second round? Greg Jennings, Steve Smith, Roddy White types. Do you foresee any of them stinking it up like Pierre Thomas or Steve Slaton could? I don’t. I think your risk is reduced significantly going this route. Of course, your RBs are now weak, BUT the way to make up for it is to draft ~4 guys in rounds 4 thru 7. And a backup or two and/or major upside guys later in the draft. Here’s who you may get: Derrick Ward, Julius Jones, Kevin Smith (maybe), Ray Rice, Beanie Wells, Thomas Jones, etc. You gotta believe that you can play matchups for the first two weeks and then have a better picture of which two of the crew are going to pan out. I’m not saying this is w/out risk and its painful to actually do during draft day (believe me, I know from experience), but it makes a lot of sense.

It really all boils down to reducing your risk with your first 2 to 3 picks and finding your DeAngelo Williams, Michael Turner’s in the later rounds. By picking 4 to 5 RBs then, you are looking for 2 or more to work out while your WRs dominate.

Fantasy Football Wide Receiver Scoring
Standard. 6pts TD; 1pt every 10 yards; -2pts fumble (no points for receptions)

TIER 1 Fantasy Football Wide Receivers
1 Randy Moss – Clear #1 given his upside. You can knock him down to ~#5, but I’ll take potential.
2 Larry Fitzgerald – Wow, is he on a lot of magazine covers.

TIER 2 Fantasy Football Wide Receivers
3 Calvin Johnson
4 Andre Johnson
5 Marques Colston – He’ll come back strong.
6 Greg Jennings
7 Roddy White – Back to back big years cements him as a major fantasy force.
8 Dwayne Bowe – See Roddy White.
9 Steve Smith
10 Reggie Wayne – I worry a little about Indy’s #2 holding Wayne back a bit.

TIER 3 Fantasy Football Wide Receivers
11 Anquan Boldin – Tier 3 due to current injury concern.
12 Wes Welker – Back to ’07 levels. He’s the #1 Tier 2 in PPR leagues.
13 Chad Ochocinco – He’s a bit risky due to Carson Palmer. I’d try to avoid unless he falls too far.
14 Terrell Owens – Wait until next year to drop lower due to tantrums.
15 Roy Williams – He’ll return to ’06-’07 stats.
16 Vincent Jackson – Hasn’t quite proven he’s the MAN. He’s close though and could be a bargain at #16
17 TJ Houshmandzadeh – #2 WR? I dunno…that’s seems like a trendy statement. Lots of upside.
18 Eddie Royal – Could be a steal. Too risky for me.
19 Santonio Holmes

TIER 4 Fantasy Football Wide Receivers
20 Brandon Marshall – Heh..what can I say? Anything would be a complete guess.
21 Braylon Edwards – No way he is worse than last year.
22 DeSean Jackson – He’s gone too early in most drafts. The Eagles will spread the ball too much.
23 Bernard Berrian – Lots of 20pt games. Lots of 2pt games.
24 Anthony Gonzalez – He’ll have the opportunity, but not sure he has the talent.
25 Lance Moore – Major upside. He’s been a steal in nearly all drafts.
26 Donald Driver
27 Lee Evans

TIER 5 Fantasy Football Wide Receivers

28 Laveranues Coles – TJ Housh did pretty well as the #2….
29 Devin Hester
30 Kevin Walter
31 Santana Moss
32 Nate Burleson – I like Nate a lot. He’s got the talent and a healthy Hasselback.
33 Percy Harvin
34 Derrick Mason
35 Torry Holt – Playing on grass scares me more than him losing a step.
36 Chris Chambers – There’s an outside chance that Chambers is the #1 WR in San Diego.
37 Steve Smith – Who knows…. This could easily be Domenik Hixon here.
38 Donnie Avery – He’s got skillz, but his team is really really really bad.

TIER 6 Fantasy Football Wide Receivers
39 Isaac Bruce – He’s not being drafted in most leagues…
40 Kevin Curtis – Two years ago, he had ~1,100 yds and 6 TDs.
41 Antonio Bryant – This is really low, but last year was a fluke.
42 Steve Breaston
43 Domenik Hixon – Switch with #38 if you’d like.
44 Justin Gage
45 Hines Ward
46 Bryant Johnson
47 Robert Meachem-  I like his potential. If you got an extra bench spot, put him on it for a couple of weeks.
48 Jerricho Cotchery
49 Ted Ginn Jr.
50 Nate Washington

Fantasy Football Wide Receivers – Conclusion
If you look at T1/T2, who do you really worry about stinking it up? Roddy White and Dwayne Bowe are possibilities, but I think this year they will prove themselves as top wide receiver options. If Randy Moss bombs, he’ll still be a late T2. Take two of these guys if you dont have a top 5 draft pick. Very little risk that you can’t get with RBs.

Good luck to you all! I’ll do Def/ST and Kickers just for ‘kicks’. They aren’t used in the FSTA accuracy challenge, but I got them done so i’ll get them out. For the next week, I will also summarize some more non-standard rankings. Also, if you have any questions, feel free to send a comment and I’ll look to answer them over the next few days.

Take care,

Fantazzle Fantasy Football Games