Date Archives December 2011

Message from Footballguys Players National Champion

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I had my worst fantasy football sesason in 15 years - by far - until I got this email below.

I had my worst year in 15 seasons playing fantasy football. I made the playoffs in only 50 percent of my leagues. In fact I had four teams miss the playoffs, which accounts for 40 percent of my total non-playoff qualifiers in my career in the hobby. But a nice consolation has been the number of fantasy owners emailing me over the past few weeks thanking me for suggesting they consider a different approach to drafting teams, which I termed the Upside Down Drafting strategy.

But the email I got this afternoon from Ronald Eltanal, the $125,000 winner of the Footballguys Players Championship, makes me feel like a champion even if I didn’t win one this year. See below…

Matt,

I just won the Footballguys Players Championship (I still can’t believe it as I write it). I’m writing to thank you for your advice this season, in your footballguys articles and in the stuff you write for your rsp blog. Take a look at the squad I drafted, and you can see it has your fingerprints all over it: Continue reading →

Boycotting the Corner Store: A Lesson for RBs

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Other than Reggie Bush, I can’t think of a back that loved “taking trips to the corner store” more than Bills RB C.J. Spiller. Now that he’s boycotting the corner store his production is blossoming. See what I mean below. Photo by Matt Britt.

Isaiah Pead is an NFL running back prospect for the 2012 NFL Draft. The 5’11”, 198-pound University of Cincinnati senior is agile, and quick. He earns his tuition gaining yards from spread and pistol sets. This morning I’m watching Pead gain 191 total yards from scrimmage and score two touchdowns against NC State.

I’m not surprised about his performance, because I’ve seen Pead before. In another sense, I’ve seen Pead many times before. The Bearcats’ star runner shares similar tendencies of most good college running backs. However, one of these tendencies is a bad habit in the NFL. I call it, “taking trips to the corner store.”

Most of us have a favorite corner store in our neighborhood. We go there for gas, cigarettes, junk food, energy drinks, beer, lottery tickets, you name it. Nothing there is really good for us, but we can’t resist the temptation. In football I see the “corner store” as a running back’s decision to bounce a run outside. Continue reading →

Gone Fishing

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For the next week I’ll be spending most of my waking hours watching college prospects. I have studied nearly 100 players this fall for the 2012 RSP, which will be available on April 1. With time off from work, I’m devoting my break solely to watching film.

I’m also depressed about Adrian Peterson’s injury. I couldn’t watch any more NFL football for the week after seeing it. Although we know most players leave the game due injury, when it happens to a player with this kind of talent and passion for the game makes the heartbreak of injury more unbearable.

I might write about it, but I have goals to reach this week with the number of players I want to study by the New Year. If you don’t hear from me by then, Happy New Year!

On the Defense: The RSP Football Writers Project

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Is a shutodwn corner like Charles Woodson your preference or are you seeking a gianormous, space-eating defensive tackle? Its these choices you'll face when building a team as a part of the RSP Football Writers Project. Photo by Elvis Kennedy.

By Jene Bramel

Last week, Matt introduced the RSP Football Writers Project, in which a collection of football writers and thinkers will have 4-6 weeks to put together an NFL team.  Each writer will have access to any player they want, but they’ll be forced to work within a salary cap and personnel requirements. More importantly, they’ll have to defend their choices as part of a coherent fundamental and philosophical approach.

I expect the writeups and discussion on this blog in the coming weeks to be among the best football reads you’ll see all year.  Continue reading →

Guy Lights a Fire Under Bank of America’s Hind Parts

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Insert Bank of America behinds over top...Photo by Baronsquirrel.

Occasionally, I like to write about things here that have nothing to do with football and today I was alerted to a story about an MBA candidate that I wrote about at my day job. He won a prestigious entrepreneurship competition for presenting a pitch for a product that actually has football implications – a hand-held device called the Traumatic Brain Injury Test (T-BIT), which determines whether an athlete has a concussion.

However Ken Williams didn’t get into the news for T-BIT, but for finding an inventive and humorous way to get Bank of America to stop dragging its feet: a music video.

[youtube=http://youtu.be/4rEfSupQB78] Continue reading →

RSP Football Writers Project: The Readers Team

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In fantasy football Adrian Peterson is a great player to build a team around. However if you had to build a real team from scratch with realistic fiscal constraints it's not as easy a decision. Photo by xoque.

Last week, I announced the RSP Football Writers Project, which is the collection of terrific football writers who will each be given 4-6 weeks to construct an NFL team from scratch within the constraints of a salary cap. Fellow Footballguys.com writer Sigmund Bloom and I will be developing the salary list, personnel requirements, and fundamental questions that the writers must answer.

We’ll also share the info and instructions here so anyone can download and construct a team. If I can arrange the right kind of panel to judge, I might even sponsor a contest for those of you playing at home. Stay tuned.

For the past two weeks, I’ve had several initial thoughts about the construction of my team. I’m sure many of my ideas will change dramatically as I get further into the process of building my NFL team, but I thought I’d share my thoughts. In fact, I’ll probably keep you guys posted with my progress and depending on the situation, ask for your feedback.

One idea I am going to implement is a Readers Team. Based on your votes, I’ll compile a team on your behalf. Today we’re going to begin voting on the Readers Team’s football philosophy.

Continue reading →

A Tebow-Fox Back Story

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Tim Tebow, John Fox, and Brian Xanders offer a confluence of unique backgrounds to create this great NFL story. Photo by Wade Rackley.

The X’s and O’s of Tim Tebow, a podcast produced by Doug Farrar on Shutdown Corner featuring Cecil Lammey, provides great analysis on the Broncos quarterback.

I had the pleasure of speaking with former NFL scout Russ Lande this week in Atlanta about Tebow, and Lande shared an excellent back story about Broncos coach John Fox that I think adds to the confluence of events that helped create this situation in Denver.

Lande explained that after John Fox left the Oakland Raiders he was hired as a consultant for the St. Louis Rams where Lande was working at the time as a scout. Lande was assigned to break down tape to assist Fox in a presentation of information and as they worked together, the future Carolina and Denver head coach told Lande that he agreed with the great Nebraska head coach Tom Osborne that the option could work in the NFL

Fox told Lande that if he were given the opportunity to coach for an organization that had management with the courage to do so, he’d try to bring the option to the NFL. As Farrar and Lammey mention in the podcast, it was John Fox who initially brought the Wildcat to the NFL. And it only goes to show that the combination of Tebow’s skill sets, Fox’s affinity for the option, and personnel man Brian Xanders’ flexibility has produced the most intriguing story of the NFL season.

Mike MacGregor: Evolution of Fantasy Football Players

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Play me or your friends in free games of one-on-one fantasy football.

Mike MacGregor is the founder of the 1-on-1 game, FantasyThrowdown.com. and I thought I’d share his message with you about the evolution of the hobby and the people playing it. 

Evolution of Fantasy Football Players

We are right in the thick of traditional fantasy football league playoff time, Weeks 14-16 of the NFL season, and a lot of our players are concentrating on those playoffs over playing their typical slate of Fantasy Throwdown games.

That’s cool, and we’re perfectly fine with that. One of the great things about Fantasy Throwdown, in our not entirely humble opinion, is that you can play a lot, or play a little. It is completely flexible since we are playing new games week to week. Continue reading →

RSP Football Writers Project

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I anticipate Drew Brees starting for at least one team for the RSP Football Writers Project, published this spring. Details below. Photo by eschipul.

Secretly, we all want to build a football team. It’s why we’re passionate about every player recruited, drafted, traded, and signed. It’s why we play fantasy football. It’s why many of us are fanatical about the NFL draft.

After a few weeks of my rants to Footballguys writer Sigmund Bloom about Steelers tight end Heath Miller as one of the more underrated players in football or how the Browns don’t use Josh Cribbs’ talent, Bloom got the kernel of an idea:

Why not let football writers build teams and write about them? And I want your help. Continue reading →