Rolling out more Week 4 links

In a few hours I'll be hanging with college buddies and sipping cocktails at a Northwestern alum event here in NYC, but until then I still have several more links for you, my loyal readers.

• First up, my weekly column with the Bruno Boys: Top 10 Receivers After Week 3. This week I look at top receivers by yardage and receptions and the types of pass defenses they've faced so far - and then who they will meet in the next several weeks.
• The Lead Pipe Lock has something along the same vein - the easiest matchups for each skill position through Week 3. He then also lists players that you'd want to target. Nice stuff!
• Want to play against a celebrity? Try Richard Petty this week in Best Buy's Weekly Football Challenge. 
  
• A few start and sit links for you:
• Fighting Chance Fantasy's Who to Start, Who to Sit - Week 4  
• WalterFootball.com's Start Em, Sit Em: Week 4
• FantasySharks.com's Start/Bench List Week 4
• FFToolbox's Week 4: Start 'Em
  

Finally, an update on the FFLibrarian weekly contest as promised - the big winner of the week was Zrayed and you can see the winning roster and other top teams in the image below. Nicely done Zrayed! If you want to participate this week in the weekly competition, click here and search for the FFLibrarian Freeroll league with the 4book password.

 

Wednesday wisdom

I feel like such a New York hipster - last night we hit up a music venue in the LES (Lower East Side neighborhood) with a friend from Boulder who is in town visiting...though the hipness started to fade as we headed home at 10 and noticed that the real hipsters were just arriving. Did my best, right? Next I'll just need to meander through Williamsburg with culottes (update: I've had a lot of questions about culottes - I'm thinking specifically of a blend between pleated shorts and MC Hammer type pants that seem to be all the rage in W'burg), dark glasses frames, and a look of ironic angst and I'll know I've arrived. Oh just joshin' ya, Williamsburgers.

Moving on from fashion and music to football...

• A few links for IDPers:
• Wire Me This (IDP) from FantasyFootball.com
• Another waiver wire piece on IDPs from Numbers & Guts
• FFToolbox has some thoughts on early trends this season and a handful of dudes you might want to add to your lineup this week in Week 4: Player Upgrades or take a peek at their Week 4 Sleepers article.
  
• Due to my unfortunate record in one league, I've got the top waiver wire priority and I'm snagging Mike Sims-Walker. Scope out USA Today's Fantasy Joe for reasons to love Sims-Walker. 
• Hatty Waiver Wire Guru is prepped and ready to roll for Week 4 - take a look at his weekly Studs, Starts, Sleepers, and Bench suggestions.
• LaDainian Tomlinson is walking around without a limp, and I for one am psyched. May the healing continue!
• Matthew Berry's Week 4 Pickups and request for fantasy atonement from key players is up for your amusement and edification. 
• Another waiver wire column you might want to check out - FFToday's Through the Wire.
• Finally, Start and Bench Advice: Week 4 from FFXtreme - a little bonus is the Defensive Rankings Against the Run chart.

I'll be back later today with a report on the Week 3 winner of my weekly league with 365FantasySports.com. If you'd like to participate this week, the password is 4book and you can set your lineup after searching for the FFLibrarian Freeroll in the contest lobby. If you haven't played in the weekly league yet, start on this page to register for free. I'd love to have as many of you play in the league as possible!

Advice for the 0-3 to the 3-0 teams

I'm still on the lookout for an awesome sports bar in walking distance from my Brooklyn home, so last night we checked out a place in the DUMBO neighborhood (yup, neighborhood acronyms have gone too far) that offered up a basement with a few massive tv screens, loungey seating, large glittery pillars (we discussed at length whether or not they were load bearing), a disco ball, and a somewhat odd clientele. The real draw was the $2 Coors Light to be honest, and it certainly wasn't a bad place to watch the MNF game...but I think my quest continues. New Yorkers, I'm still taking suggestions.

A reader recently asked me for my philosophy on playing his starting QB (Aaron Rodgers) against his starting D/ST (Minnesota) and I'm wondering what you all think about this. It depends a bit on your scoring system (and of course the quality of your other options) but personally, I'd play them both since they're each one of the best in their position and are likely to outplay his other options by a large enough margin to make it worth it. But what do the rest of you do when your fantasy QB and D/ST meet in real life?

Moving on to today's expert advice...first up, a slew of waiver wire articles:

• FFGeekBlog's The Wire - Week 4: Time to wake up and smell the coffee is up with waiver wire advice for all. Not to toot my own horn here too much but at my advice my husband drafted Brent Celek as his TE in the final round of one of his drafts. Every week I swear he looks at me adoringly with gratitude for the Celek advice. Celek has 245 yards on the season so far, which is the 10th most of all WRs and TEs - amazing.
  
• Hatty is rocking a suit in his latest waiver wire advice video - Hatty Waiver Wire Guru Week 4.
• Another video to scope out for waiver advice is Yahoo's Fantasy Football: Waiver Wire Gems, Week 4 with one of my faves at Yahoo, Andy Behrens. A reminder here that bye weeks are starting with Week 4!
  
• The Sports Outlaw's Waiver Wire Week 4 has some great suggestions if you need to fill in for an injury or an underperformer. I'm on the fence about Caldwell still; I'd be willing to make that gamble in a deep league but I think he might be more of a flash in a pan dude.
• Fantasy Football.com's Wire Me This is also a solid place to go for advice - I'm just not ready to roll the dice on Keenan Burton yet. Must be my deep-seated distrust that any Rams not named Steven Jackson could possibly have a roll in fantasy football. 
• I like the rating system that Fantasy Football Jungle uses in their Week Four Waiver Wire article.
  

And the best of the rest:

• If you need an update on injuries and Week 3 games, turn to Rotoworld's Football Daily Dose.
• CBSSports.com's Fantasy & Reality: What seems to be the catch? is just the kind of article I dig. A look at the inconsistency of some big name WRs. 
• Are you 0-3 in your league? I'll be honest, I'm 0-3 in my very own monster 96-team league. How embarrassing is that? Yup. So if you need The Huddle's 5 Tips to Get Your 0-3 Team to the Playoffs like I do, then read up!
• A quasi-waiver wire article, take a look at Sports Grumblings' The Fire Sale: His Own Worst Enemy for advice and laughs all in one.
  

Dawning of Week 4 advice

Greetings and welcome to Week 4 prep. I hope you all enjoyed yesterday's games as much as I did. I think I'll go 6-3 in my 9 leagues this week - I'll take that! Best of all is another win in the Buffalo Wild Wings All-Star Blogger League. I'll be going 3-0 and am hoping to keep my claim to the #1 spot in the league...I'll be sure to brag about being one step closer to winning the league (and subsequent trip to Miami and party with Trey Wingo) on the BWW site once the win is official. Thank you, Aaron Rodgers, for returning to fantasy awesomeness; not sure I could have done it without you.

Now to today's links...

• Speaking of fantasy awesomeness and lack thereof...oh, Laurent Robinson. I talked up your potential to friends and readers alike and now you've got an ankle injury (update - Robinson's injury more serious than originally thought, he might be out for the rest of the year). So unfortunate. But really, truly unfortunate for the Rams. What a mess. 
• I am going to relish my 3-0 Broncos while I can...it's about to get ugly in Denver, my friends. Rough schedule ahead. But that said, nice work, Buckhalter and Moreno. For some thoughts on players that are On the Rise, On the Fall, take a look at FantasySharks.com.
• The Hazean has some Early Waiver Wire Thoughts up - right now I'm feeling sorry for my father-in-law who dropped Glen Coffee already...and now has an uphill waiver wire battle to get him back.
• More waiver wire advice from the FootballDocs. Love how quickly these guys get waiver suggestions up - and they don't sacrifice quantity or quality to do it - it's awesome.
• Another place for solid waiver advice: ProFootballWeekly's Fantasy Ticker: Week 4 or AOL Fanhouse's Waiver Wire Wonders.
  
• This should be of interest for future weeks - the Lead Pipe Lock used KC Joyner's rankings to put together Cornerback and Safety Rankings with notes on which matchups are easy, moderate, or tough and what that means for your WRs, TEs, and QBs. 
• Again on the IDP front, if you're thinking of picking up some new defenders, see what Monk has to say in Week 4 NFL Fantasy Football 2009 Waiver Wire Pick Ups.
• This week's MMQB, Palmer, Favre and an unsung receiver added to Week 3 drama made me think a bit more about the Bengals. There are lots of you out there who thought this was the Bengals year to shine and a 23-20 win against the reigning SB champs certainly sounds good. But did this game say more about the 2-1 Bengals (who beat the Packers and the Steelers - and lost to my Broncos!) or the 1-2 Steelers (who have lost to the Bears and Bengals but beat the Titans in OT)??
  
• Last year I blogged on the Fifth Down about watching the movie 10 Yards - it's now viewable on YouTube so if you've got some time, take a look and enjoy.
  

Finally, I recently heard about a member of PigskinAddiction.com who is walking in the Breast Cancer 3 Day Walk and could use a little assistance with donations. I don't usually do this (so don't worry, I won't pepper the site with future donation requests) but if you're feeling like you've got a few extra bucks on hand, why not support a fantasy footballer who is dedicated to raising money to fight cancer?

Wes Welker Teaches the Librarian a Lesson

Well I'm slowly learning my Wes Welker lesson. Just don't play the guy unless it's for sure. I boarded a flight back to New York around 11:30 this morning and was desperately checking my lineups on my iPhone when something in me decided to start Wes Welker in two of my leagues. I'd like to blame my momentary confusion that the Pats might actually be upfront about their injuries on the increasingly disgusting situation that was evolving 2 seats over from me: there was a woman hacking up what could only be all of the phlegm in her chest - and possibly one lung - with such vigor and grodiness that rows of people around us were staring at her trying to figure out what animal might be dying in our row. It was hideous. I was sitting there trying to concentrate on whether I should be playing Wes Welker or Justin Gage, but all I could think about was what kind of evil combination of swine flu and SARS this woman must have in order to force this violent throat clearing...and subsequent spitting out of the phlegm into a napkin. I mean the throat clearing was awful enough (I'm not kidding, I've never heard anything like this in my life) but to then dispose of her insides in a napkin and place the napkin in the seat pocket in front of her? I shuddered, might have developed goose bumps even, at the thought of the things that lurk in plane seat pockets. For many reasons I am grateful to be staying at home for the next few weeks despite a wonderful weekend with friends.

Anyway, time to cease the phlegm conversation here. Due to the late morning flight, I missed the start of some of the early games and since I'm sure a lot of you aren't able to stay glued to the tv/computer either, I thought I'd throw a few links up to remind you where you can go if you need news or injury updates during Sunday's games:

• My absolute favorite and go-to site for headlines is Rotoworld's NFL Headlines section.
• Another great headlines place is KFFL.com's Hot Off the Wire.
• SportingNews.com's In-game live blog for Week 3 is a nice feature that I'd recommend scoping out.
• And by the way, if you're a Tony Gonzalez owner and you're wondering how he was held to just one catch for 16 yards, take a look at Mike Reiss' How the Patriots Stopped Tony Gonzalez.

Back tomorrow with Week 4 waiver wire advice!

Consensus Week 3 start/sit

Again, sorry for the brevity - don't worry, I won't be traveling again for quite some time! - but here are the consensus picks for Week 3. For those that haven't seen the consensus picks before, I go through all of the start/sit links that I posted earlier this week and tally up those players that have the most votes as a start or sit player. These aren't necessarily my picks, just the players that the experts agree about the most!

QB
Start: Eli Manning, Matt Schaub, Ben Roethlisberger, David Garrard, Trent Edwards
Sit: Matt Cassel, Brett Favre, Carson Palmer, Kerry Collins

RB
Start: Willis McGahee, Tim Hightower, Felix Jones, Fred Jackson
Sit: Thomas Jones, Cedric Benson, Larry Johnson, Julius Jones, Willie Parker

WR 
Start: Mario Manningham, Santana Moss, Greg Jennings, Vincent Jackson, Terrell Owens, Jerricho Cotchery
Sit: Brandon Marshall, T.J. Housmandzadeh, Justin Gage

TE
Start: Kellen Winslow, Chris Cooley, Dustin Keller, Brent Celek, Jeremy Shockey
Sit: Greg Olsen, Zach Miller, Visanthe Shiancoe

Kicker
Start: Lawrence Tynes, Neil Rackers, Nate Kaeding
Sit: No consensus from the experts

D/ST
Start: Denver Broncos, Washington Redskins, Green Bay Packers
Sit: New England Patriots

On the road again

Greetings and happy Friday! I'm using a friend's mac right now and feeling some serious mac envy...is there a mac in my future?!


So since I'm traveling again, I'm mostly going to post start and sit links for you today with just a few additional links. 


Start & sits:

• Bruno Boys - Start em and sit em still to come
• CBSSports.com's Week 3 Start 'Em and Sit 'Em video
• Fantasy Football Nerd's Week 3 Where to Put 'Em
• GetSportsInfo's Lineup Locks: Week 3 
  
• Mac Bros Start/Sit Rankings by position
  
• FFToolbox's Week 3 Sit 'em and Start 'em
• Rapid Draft's Week 3 Start 'em/Bench 'em Report
• FantasyFootballXtreme's Start Bench Advice: Week 3
• Fantasy Football Goat's Start 'em Sit 'em Sleepers Week 3 
• Ask the Commish's Start or Sit for Week 3
• Fantasy Football First's Start/sit

Other links:

• FantasySharks.com's What to Watch For: Week 3
• FFToday's Inside the Matchup
• Fantasy Hulk's Week 3 Projections including WR targets, kind of cool 

Enjoy the weekend - I should be back with consensus start/sit either tomorrow or Sunday.

Start/sit begins for Week 3!

I'm heading to the airport soon so I have to be brief today - it might also mean my second week in a row of slow response in start/sit questions. If you've got some lineup questions that you really need answered, I recommend either calling in to the Rotoworld or Fantasy Gridiron Live shows on Sunday morning.

• My first blurb of the season is up on the NY Times' Fifth Down - Week 3 in Fantasy Football Matchups. Another great place to submit your start/sit questions this week. 
• ProFootballWeekly's Ten most intriguing players of Week 3 is a good read as always. With news coming out that Manningham is on the Giants' injury report, I am even more convinced that Manningham and Smith will be an interesting story that evolves over the next few weeks.   
• A couple of links for you IDPers:
• FFToday's IDP Notes
• Antonio D'Arcangelis from RotoExperts brings his IDP expertise to Yahoo! Sports in IDP: Week 3 matchups to watch.
  
• Start and sit advice for the week that's up and rolling already:
• FantasySharks.com's 2009 Start/Bench List Week 3
• NFL.com's Start 'em & Sit 'em
• FantasyFootballXtreme's Start Bench Advice: Week 3
• FantasyFootballManiax's Week 3 Start/Sit
• Yahoo! Sports' Start/Sit videos for Week 3 by position (this one goes to QBs)
  
• Fantasy Tailgate's Starters and Slackers

I'll be back tomorrow with more!

Double up Wednesday

I love days when I can do a double post. Not only do I have some spare time today, but I'm catching a flight tomorrow so I'm going to be tight on time tomorrow morning - I thought a double post today might appease you all in case I get only the briefest of posts up tomorrow.

• My article with the Bruno Boys is up: Top Ten RBs After Week 2. I look at RBs in the top 10 whose yardage and number of carries don't quite match up - and what does that mean for their future matchups? I'm kind of digging this idea and am going to continue with it next week and look at WRs with Week 1-3 data.
• Advanced NFL Stats looks at Time of Possession to see if it matters. The Colts' tiny TOP (14:53) and big win over Miami obviously encouraged this post but take a look at the Raiders vs Chiefs game this past weekend (I know, who had the patience to watchup that matchup?) where the Raiders came away with a win despite a mere 21 minutes of possession. Not a record-breakingly low TOP but still impressive from the Raiders of all teams.
• Wes Welker owners and those that are snagging Julian Edelman off of waivers will probably be interested to know that sources say Welker "expects" to play this week.
• Check out how high Laurent Robinson is ranked in SI's Fantasy Clicks "if we had a do-over..." Very interesting. Great stuff here - always worth the read.  
• Finally, last week I heard from all sorts of friends and family about the NPR piece on Fantasy Football: Increasingly A Woman's Game, Too. I must say that while I normally enjoy NPR, I couldn't have been more disappointed by this story. As a woman who plays fantasy football, I just think there are so many more interesting things that could have been said rather than the focus on one random league out there that sometimes makes lineup/draft decisions based on a player's good looks. I mean seriously, NPR? The FFNerd's grandma plays in 6 leagues - that's awesome and far more story-worthy in my book. Or there are fantasy football sites and businesses either led for or by women like GoGameFace.com or TheFootballGirl - again, far more story-worthy.

I'll be back tomorrow with a couple of quick links!

More Week 3 prep - waivers, start/sit, etc

One of the best things about being in New York City? I'm in the same city as my awesome sister and I can do things like meet her for lunch today. Sounds so simple but we've pretty much lived on opposite coasts since she left for college 14 years ago, so it's a treat to be so close to her now (wow, 14 years ago - you're old, Katie! Heh heh...).

Moving on from making fun of my sister's age (hey, what are younger siblings for?), let's get to today's links:

• Looking for sleepers this week? Head to KFFL's Week 3 sleepers listed by position (this link goes to QBs). I'm starting Mark Sanchez (yes, seriously) so I'm pleased to see a little love for him here.
• Some waiver wire suggestions...
• FFGeekBlog's The Wire - Week 2: Plaxico Who?
• RotoExperts' The Pickup Artist
• Matthew Berry's Week 3 Pickups - for those of you who listened to my guest appearance on Fantasy Football Tonight's podcast last night (if you missed it - I come in around 15 to 20 after), you know I'm loving TMR's mention of Buckhalter here. Oh yeah!
• Using the six receptions rule, Ultimate Fantasy Football Strategy gives us WRs to pick up.
• Moving up, Moving down from MyOfficePool - a waiver wire of sorts.
• A lovefest for Johnny Knox on Hatty Waiver Wire Guru.
• Gotta love Pigskin Addiction with their start/sit advice up already. Nice work, PA guys.
• And kudos to FFToolbox, too, for their Who to Start Week #3.
• Rotoworld's Week 2 Target Report Highlights gives us all a little something to think about - I love analysis on players that are targeted frequently so this is right up my alley.
• The much-beloved FFToday's Strength of Schedule is apparently available at all times under their Tools section. It will be updated this morning though, so definitely take a look later today.

I mentioned yesterday that I'd be posting the password for my weekly league with 365FantasySports.com - it's book3 and you can find it by following that link and registering (if you're not a 365 user already) and then searching the contest lobby for FFLibrarian Freeroll (contest #72822).

No promises, but I'm pretty sure I'll be back this afternoon with a few more links...

Week 2 FFL winners

Once again I was taken down in the monster 96-team FFLibrarian league. Maybe Week 3 will be my week...the top 5 scorers across all 6 conferences in the monster league are as follows:

1. Portlovers, 156.30 points
2. Guinea Pigskins, 147.10 points
3. MV Brewers, 144.35 points
4. Reams Reamers, 143.65 points
5. Skins North, 143.30 (Skins North was a top-5 scorer last week too)
   

The league is set up as a head-to-head contest so there are of course plenty of teams that are now 2-0. I'll be sure to highlight those with winning records when we get a little bit further into the season.

On the contest note, we've got a winner in the FFLibrarian & 365FantasySports.com weekly competition: bjc3877, congrats! The results for the top 20ish players are shown in the graphic below. Remember, this is a weekly league so you can opt in (or out) at any time, whatever works best with your schedule. There were 61 of us participating in the competition this past week and I'd love to have as many of you join in as possible for Week 3! I'll post details about the weekly league tomorrow, including the required password.

Week 3 waiver wire wisdom

I managed to stay up for the entirety of Monday Night Football last night and was rewarded with a pretty entertaining 4th quarter. Other than the over usage of The Sheriff nickname, last night's game was surprisingly good. Perhaps that's just because I enjoy seeing Peyton do his thing. For a Knoxville, TN native like my husband though, last night was a battle of QBs with Knoxville connections with Pennington from the area and Peyton a Tennessee grad.

But enough looking back on last night...I've got a big day ahead. Wish me luck - I've got a job interview with an academic library here in NYC. I also am chatting with the Fantasy Football Tonight guys (Tuesday edition) at around 10:15 PM eastern, so tune in if you can.

Now let's scope out today's links...

• Lots of injuries out there like Jason Campbell's sprained foot, Brett Favre's bent fingernail, and Frank Gore's sprained ankle - none of those seem like they'll cause any lineup issues for FFers. But heads up Matt Hasselbeck and Mike Bell owners - you might want to consider replacement players.
• FantasySharks.com's On the Rise, On the Fall takes a look at some players whose stock is changing. Good trade fodder here, though I do like to wait until Week 3 games have passed before making too many trades.  Perhaps I lose out on some value by waiting but I'm a firm believer in giving teams a chance to evolve early in the season. 
• A few waiver wire links for you:
• KFFL's Waiver Wire - Week 3 by position (opens to QB)
  
• The Hazean's Waiver Wire Adds
• Hatty Waiver Wire Guru's weekly video with waiver wire advice for Week 3 
• Another video - NFL.com's Week 3 waiver wire report
• Fantasy Hulks' Waiver World
  
• Love Rotoworld's Making a Statement. Figure out whose performances you can panic over and which guys still have a promising season to come.  
• Finally, I kept hitting refresh on FFToday, hoping that their Fantasy Strength of Schedule would be available until I realized that today is Tuesday not Wednesday (the day their SoS is available). I thought I'd remark on this since that clearly shows my love for their SoS, which I will absolutely be linking to tomorrow. Until then, why not peruse their site for other gems?
  

Gearing up for Week 3

I might have a new fantasy crush here: Mario Manningham. I'm watching him make some great catches and I'm duly impressed...oh yeah, I've got SNF rolling right now. Basically 11 PM rolls around and I'm wiped out, ready to go to sleep. This whole living in a time zone now where football ends far after I'm normally asleep has been a bit of an adjustment. Last night though I remembered the beauty of DVR and recorded the last quarter or so of the Giants vs Cowboys game, which makes for a wonderful way to spend my morning. It's also giving me a chance to rejoice in the awesomeness of grabbing Mario Manningham off of waivers. After Manningham had a decent week against the Redskins, I plugged him into my lineup for this week remembering that UltimateNYG, my guest blogger last month (and Giants aficionado) was a fan. What a great call.

There are plenty of other great waiver wire grabs out there, so let's get to today's links:

• First, if you missed any of the games or are just looking for some quick notes, like the overachievers, underachievers, and insane stat lines of the day, take a look at CBSSports.com's First Response: Stars prove their worth.
• FootballDocs have their Waiver Wire advice up for Week 3. Donnie Avery owners might want to think about snagging Laurent Robinson if you've got room on your squad.
• LestersLegends.com's Get 'em or Don't Sweat 'em recommends picking up Byron Leftwich. I played against Jordan Zucker of Girls' Guide to Fantasy Football in a Battle of the Sexes league and she smartly plugged Leftwich in for her McNabb hole. Leftwich has had two nice games in a row, definitely worth thinking about if you're in need.
• AOL's FanHouse suggests that Week 2 is full of "head-scratching maybes" in Waiver Wire Wonders: The Week of the Random in Fantasy Football.
• The Bruno Boys have both Cut Them Loose and Pick Them Up to help you make some waiver wire choices - I love seeing my Broncos listed as a possible D/ST to pick up. At least for one more week...
  
• If you're in an IDP league and are interested in picking up some new individual defensive players for your lineup, take a look at Monk's IDP Waiver Wire Pick Ups for some thoughts. I'll be the first to admit that I was excited to see what Aaron Schobel could put together this week after a monster game in Week 1. Not such a big game for him this week - don't worry, I'm not switching him out but it's a reminder that IDPs can have huge out-of-the-blue games once in awhile. Let's not dwell on the fact that I left Elvis Dumervil and his 4 sacks on the bench this week...
• MMQB has a nice focus on Mark Sanchez - can you remember the last QB to play against Tom Brady who actually got more media love than TB? 

I'd like to wrap this post up with a big ol' hooray for my 2-0 Broncos! It's about to get a lot harder for them but this is just how they needed to start the season. Sadly my Northwestern Wildcats didn't have quite the same success - they're now 2-1 after a loss to Syracuse. In their defense, the 'Cuse is not the horrid team they were last year. Yeah, I know, there really is no excuse for losing to Syracuse...oh well! On to next week!

Week 2 Consensus Start/Sit

Well better late than never! I got back from a fantastic trip to Colorado late last night and am trying to catch up on start/sit questions in my inbox - and of course the weekly consensus start & sit.  I went 5-4 in my 9 leagues last week so I'm also off to tweak my lineups a bit and aim for a 9-0 week. Now wouldn't that be something?!

Just a reminder that the consensus list I'm posting below is based on all of the start/sit links that I post during the week - I note the players that have the most start or sit votes from all of those websites in no particular order:

QB
Start: Matt Hasselbeck, Jason Campbell, Joe Flacco, Trent Edwards, Brett Favre
Sit: Jay Cutler, Chad Pennington, Mark Sanchez, Carson Palmer, Matt Schaub

RB
Start: Brandon Jacobs, Darren McFadden, Fred Jackson, Chris Johnson, Clinton Portis
Sit: Matt Forte, Cedric Benson, Kevin Smith, LaDainian Tomlinson, Joseph Addai, Steven Jackson

WR - update: Forgot to update these from Week 1 at first! My apologies for those who saw these before the update...blame it on the jet lag. :)
Start: Percy Harvin, Santana Moss, Terrell Owens, Santonio Holmes
Sit: Antonio Bryant, Devin Hester, Braylon Edwards, Jerricho Cotchery

TE
Start: Zach Miller, Chris Cooley, Todd Heap
Sit: Jeremy Shockey, Ben Watson

Kicker
Oddly, for the first time in the past 2-3 years that I've been doing the consensus start sit, there's absolutely no agreement on which kickers to start or sit. So you're on your own, buckos.

D/ST
Start: Atlanta Falcons, Washington Redskins, Green Bay Packers
Sit: Again, no consensus on defenses that you should sit.

Enjoy today's games and I'll be back tomorrow with some early waiver wire advice and Sunday recaps!

Week 2 Start and Sit Galore!

Had an awesome day yesterday - basically hung out in my old library, catching up with friends and talking to coworkers about a few ongoing papers and projects. I've only been gone for about 7 weeks but it's amazing how many little things have changed since then. Ahh, the ever-changing world of libraries. But I know you all aren't here to listen to my library rants so let's get down to business here...

There are quite a few more start/sit links - remember that I'll be pulling together a consensus start/sit from all of the different sites I link to this week. I'll try to get that up by tomorrow, but Sunday morning at the latest.

• Bruno Boys - Start em and Sit em (sit em still to come)
• CBSSports.com's Week 2 Start 'Em and Sit 'Em video
  
• The Hazean's Start & Sit
• FFGeekBlog's Hits & Misses - Week 2: Vikings ready to pillage
• GetSportsInfo's Lineup Locks: Week 2
  
• Mac Bros Start/Sit Rankings by position
  
• Rapid Draft's Week 2 Start 'em/Bench 'em Report
• Talented Mr. Roto's Love, Hate and some mail - heads up, a bonus Matthew Berry video on TEs off of waivers opens right away.
• FantasyFootballXtreme's Start Bench Advice: Week 2
• FantasySportsForum's Picks & Pokes
  

Other great reads:

• Week 2: Busts of the Week from FFToolbox - kind of a sit list I suppose but who on earth is sitting Drew Brees?? I'll call this more of an FYI or owner beware kind of list.
• Also kind of in the start/sit realm is Lead Pipe Lock's Week Two Top Twelve Starters by Position - some sleeper thoughts are thrown in, too.
  
• I love that Hatty Waiver Wire Guru covers so many bases - tons of material on his site, but I'll focus on the IDP column for now: Week 2 Players to Target. 
• FFToday's Inside the Matchup: Week 2 player projections and game thoughts listed by matchup.
• Some experts got together for a roundtable discussion on Rotoprofessor on which mid-round players you drafted that can safely be cut. Great read from a lot of impressive fantasy minds.
  
• And in fact, the roundtable of experts idea is quite popular - take a look at this one with Sleepers and Busts for Week 2 from RapidDraft. 
• If you're looking for rankings, no better place to go than KFFL - this link will take you to their WRs but all position rankings can be found off of that page. 
• I grew up in northern Virginia so I'm a big Washington Post reader - inexplicably I've somehow missed their FF blog, Fantasy Check, and let me tell you, it's good stuff. I'm particularly digging their Projection vs. Production series and am sure to be linking back to that each week. Highly recommend reading this blog, especially you Skins fans.
  

I just realized the ridiculous number of links I've provided here - there is just SO much good stuff out there right now. I'm really impressed by the fantasy content I'm seeing these days and perhaps what I like the most are the articles that bring more than just one opinion - so the roundtables, the Fantasy Check blog, the melding of many thoughts into one. Is that a surprise though considering that's what I do all day here on FFLibrarian? Still, I love it. Keep bringing the good stuff, FF experts!

Greetings from Colorado - again

Well I'm back in Boulder for a short vacation and it feels like I've hardly been gone. The flatirons are gorgeous, the downright cold morning temps are refreshing, and the vast amount of nature that I can see at any given time is appealing. But - and I'm surprised to admit this - a part of me misses New York already. Can you believe it?! I've been gone 24 hours and I already feel a twinge, missing the new hometown. That's either a testament to how quickly NYC sucks you in - or that I am a quick adapter that just loves my home wherever it may be.

• Sports Data Hub is a spectacular site - check it out if you haven't already (keep in mind that there's sound that starts immediately upon opening that link; always good to know before you blast your office, right?). Anyway, they've got their Week 2 projections up today. Don't miss 'em!
• This going to be a Sports Data Hub lovefest today since you're going to want to scope out the article in Wall Street Journal from Nando Di Fino, Is Your Fantasy Team Dead on Arrival? It Might Be. He uses data analysis from my buds at SDH to do something I love - a look at the correlation between Week 1 and end of season performance for QBs, RBs, WRs, and TEs. Beautiful.
• For more investigation into what Week 1 performances could mean for the rest of the season, see my column with the Bruno Boys: Importance of Week 1 Reception Totals with some advice specifically for folks in PPR leagues.
• Or for even more Week 1 analysis, see what Ultimate Fantasy Football Strategy says in What Does a Week 1 Win Mean?
• I love 4th down studies, especially when a little economic theory is thrown in. For the latest on the 4th down "go for it or not?" see Fifth Down's A New Study on Fourth Downs: Go for It.
• Also on the Fifth Down front, a few weeks ago I noted that they wouldn't be covering fantasy football this season and therefore I wouldn't be doing my weekly column - well, a slight update with good news! They've decided to include fantasy football in the blog again, which of course I'm thrilled about - they will do their weekly FF analysis in-house (see this week's Week 2 in Fantasy Football Matchups) but starting next week I'll be providing a handful of links to the best articles of the week. I'm excited to be working with the NY Times again so stay tuned! 
• The Hazean's Sleeper Watch: Week 2 Surprises suggests starting Jason Campbell this week against the weak St. Louis D. Can't say that's a bad idea...
• A little bit of IDP lovin':
• Monk brings us some IDP trend thoughts in IDP Fantasy Football 2009 - The Year of the Defensive Back?! 
• Numbers and Guts' IDP Waiver Wednesday - Week 2 has some LBs and DBs you'll want to keep in mind.
• Just a handful of start and sit suggestions are up - lots more to come tomorrow!
• FFGoat's Shocking FF Start em and Sit em and Sleepers Week 2
• FantasySharks.com's 2009 Start/Bench List Week 2
• NFL.com's Start 'em & Sit 'em 
• Ask the Commish's Start or Sit for Week 2
• FantasyFootballManiax's Week 2 Start Sit
• Fantasy Tailgate's Starters and Slackers

Finally, I've had a reader ask for some of the best podcasts and I'm wondering what you all listen to for your fantasy football podcast pleasure. I'd recommend ESPN's Fantasy Focus with Matthew Berry and Nate Ravitz, which I'm sure is popular with many of you. I also like CBSSports' podcast, RotoExpe do an awesome job with their many shows, FootballGuys have good shows with a variety of topics, and the Bruno Boys have a solid Sunday morning radio show. I always like to plug the shows that have had me on as a guest, too, so of course don't overlook RapidDraft's Fantasy Lunch. And later this fall I'll be on both GoGameFace.com's Game On show and Fantasy Football Tonight. I'd love to hear about other favorites in the comments section!

FFLibrarian contest updates

So the FFLibrarian monster 96-team league is moving right along. While I was defeated soundly this week, there were a few impressive performances. I thought I'd note our top 5 scorers across all 6 conferences:
1. BIG DUKE, 166.60 points
2. Skins North, 145.85
3. Pumpkin King, 140.86
4. HTown, 132.30
5. Big Red Dogs, 126.55

Congrats guys!

And the winner of this week's FFLibrarian weekly contest with 365FantasySports.com is: wavkek9. You can see wavkek9's lineup and the other leaders in the graphic below. If you missed the chance to participate last week, no problem. The beauty of this weekly league is that you can jump in or out of each week's competition. If you'd like to participate this week, the password is 2book. You'll need to register to play if you haven't already - and then just look in the contest lobby for the FFLibrarian.com Freeroll game. We had 55 participants last week and I'd love to see even more of you participate this week!

Rocky Mountain Hi

Super cheesy blog post title right? Well tonight my husband and I will be flying back to Colorado for a weekend visit - my husband has a conference up in the mountains (tough draw, eh?) so I thought I'd tag along and spend some quality time with friends back in Boulder. While living in New York City has been a lot of fun so far, long-time readers probably know how much I adored living in Boulder. Since this is our first visit back, I'm preparing myself to feel a bit out of place and nostalgic this weekend. I should be able to get my normal posts up - though the consensus start/sit might have to wait until Sunday morning - just don't be surprised to hear me wax on about the beauty of the foothills.

Moving on to today's links:

• We've got a few more waiver wire articles up:
• CBSSports.com's Waiver Wire: Pass catchers worth your time
• For those in leagues with lots of owners or deep rosters, see FFToolbox's Week 2: Deep League Pickups.
• Week 2 Waiver Wire Pickups from Fantasy-Football-First
• Pigskin Addiction's Waiver Wire Work
  
• More or less a waiver wire list - MyOfficePool's Week 1 Moving Up, Moving Down   
• FOX Sports' Waiver review: Cadillac rolling again
• SportingNews' Walking the Wire: Grab keys to Cadillac 
• Talented Mr. Roto's Kanye-inspired Week 2 pickups
  
• My favorite feature of CBSSports.com's Faceoffs: Wait-and-see with Marshall? is the "I'd start him over" or "I'd rather start" so that you can get a sense of where your player fits in with other guys at his position.
• A top 5 ranking for QBs and RBs for Week 2 from the FFGeeks. Glad to see Rodgers topping that list.
• Also on the Week 2 front, FFToolbox has their Who to Start Week #2 up with rankings by position for this weekend's games. 
• Pigskin Addiction also has Start/Bench suggestions up for Week 2.
• Finally, check back with the Bruno Boys later today for my article specifically meant for PPR leagues - I take a look at the top 10 players from Week 1 by number of receptions and determine which are for real and worth playing this season.
  

Bonehead fantasy moves

Apparently I am in 9 fantasy football leagues, not 8. My commish checked in yesterday afternoon to see if I knew that the draft we had done was for real and not a mock...so yeah, I'm that owner that forgot to set a lineup and handed my opponent a big W this weekend. I'm that bonehead. In my defense, I can no longer remember if I thought the league was for real or not since there were so many mocks in my life this summer. But most of all, the draft happened while we moved from Colorado to New York (I have lovely memories of desperately trying to send draft picks via the iPhone in the middle of Nebraska) and it ended over a month ago. I conveniently filed it away as part of The Move and never looked back. Oh well!

Looking ahead now to Week 2 games - lots to think about between injuries and possible waiver wire moves. So let's jump in...

• NFL.com's RBs Bell, Williams will be hot names on the fantasy waiver wire has a couple of great suggestions. I gotta say I'm leaning towards Pierre Garcon over Austin Collie but I suppose time will tell on that front. I'm also a big fan of Justin Gage. If you took a look at my 9 rosters you'd probably see Gage in 80% of them - just think the guy has a ton of upside.
• Another waiver wire article from Fantasy Hulks - Waiver World: Week 2. Of particular interest here for me is Davone Bess since I play in quite a few PPR leagues. 
• The FootballDocs also have their waiver wire advice up for your review. These guys also do something that long-time readers know I love - they report back on the success of their start/sit advice. Accountability in the FF world is near and dear to my heart (how else do you improve?) so I really like this kind of post that reminds you of a site's strengths and weaknesses.
• FFToolbox's Week 2: Pickups of the Week are also up and ready for your review.
• And even more waiver advice from the FFGeekBlog - The Wire - Week 1: Cadillac is Back!
  
• The Fantasy Football Nerd recently linked to a sit that I think a lot of you might find useful: StartThisGuy.com. Sign up for free and you can ask the community for votes on which player to start. Get a big enough community and the votes become really meaningful, so get out there and vote! Consider it a civic duty of sorts.
• Hatty Waiver Wire Guru's Studs, Starts, Sleepers, and Bench for Week 2 is up - the spreadsheet is a little hard to navigate since it's so narrow but there's some good info in there.
• CBSSports.com's Fantasy & Reality is a solid read in case you need to be caught up on any major fantasy issues from Week 1 games - my favorite part about this article though is the "which of the Week 1 surprise quarterbacks are for real?" so be sure to check that out if you're in a panic over your QB situation.
• Strong words from Rotoworld that "if you took Tomlinson in first half of the first round, you can safely regret it already" - I don't buy into that. I think we'll know a lot more about his ankle injury soon and perhaps he won't be worth that early grab - but really I think it's just way, way to early to make any kind of prediction for any players. Should I be regretting my Matt Forte grab, too? Or Andre Johnson? Or Aaron Rodgers? For all who are freaking out over the performance of their top players, remember we have only seen one game. So much more to come. 

Love a MNF doubleheader

So how did it feel? Awesome, right? A full day of football is a beautiful thing even when you're team (real or fantasy) doesn't come out on top. But this Broncos fan is grateful for last minute miracle plays. And hey, my Northwestern Wildcats had a great game-winning field goal in the last few seconds of their game on Saturday - basically I'm big on teams that like to leave you in the lurch until the end.

I'm playing against Tom Brady in a handful of leagues tonight, but against both Brady and Moss in one league - so you can imagine I'm hoping that the Pats don't exactly light it up in the air tonight (though I'll take some Brady-Welker action). Meanwhile if I end up watching the game with my Brady-loving sister, she's going to be annoyingly unsympathetic to my situation.

I've got family in town until tomorrow and then I fly to Boulder on Wednesday night for a long weekend - busy week coming up, but I'll do my best to answer start/sit questions this week. Again, I'll suggest that you post any questions in the comments section for some start/sit love from the FFLibrarian community.

Time to dive into today's links:

• I feel like I should give thanks at the altar of fantasy football for avoiding playing against Drew Brees in any of my 8 leagues. It's a miracle of sorts. CBSSports.com reviews the awesomeness of 6 TDs and other Week 1 plays in The Joy of Six in New Orleans. 
• More recap on Week 1 in Mr. Monday Morning from Fantasy Hulks with some of the best and worst players of the week.
  
• Since you're all fantasy football enthusiasts I'm sure you know of Donovan McNabb's broken rib and Anthony Gonzalez's knee injury - both will be limited in future games, so a heads up in case you own either one of them.  
• A couple of IDP articles for the morning - one on IDPers to grab off of waivers from Monk and IDP Strategies from Hatty.
• Will Mike Bell's strong performance yesterday give Pierre Thomas a challenge in getting back that starting RB spot? All I can say to Thomas owners is get yourself on the waiver wire stat. Better to be safe than sorry.
• Speaking of waiver wire advice, I've got the Bruno Boys' Fantasy Football Week 2 Waiver Wire - Cut Them Loose. More waiver wire links will be up tomorrow!
  
• Adrian Peterson's first half and second half were like night and day (sign me up for some of those fluids) so I was kind of hoping for an AP-esque turn around for Forte last night. Didn't quite happen. Take a look at this week's MMQB: Adrian Peterson, Drew Brees not the only Week 1 impressive outings.

Enjoy the games tonight!

Consensus Start/Sit - week 1

For those who are new to the FFLibrarian this year, every Friday or Saturday I'll be posting what I call the consensus start/sit picks of the week. They're not my thoughts on who to start or sit, but I read through each of the start/sit sites that I link to throughout the week and tally up which players got the most votes as a start or sit. So it's basically a consensus from the experts on the guys with the most start or sit love that week. But first I've got a few more start/sit links for you...then we'll get to the consensus!

• NFL.com's Start 'em & Sit 'em 
• Ask the Commish's Start or Sit for Week 1
  
• Bruno Boys - Start em and Sit em (two separate columns)
• FantasyFootballManiax's Week 1 Start Sit
• Fantasy Tailgate's Starters and Slackers

In no particular order, the Consensus Start/Sit picks for week 1:

QB
Start: Matt Hasselbeck, Carson Palmer, Joe Flacco, Matt Schaub, Kurt Warner
Sit: Matt Cassel, David Garrard, Jake Delhomme, Eli Manning

RB
Start: Ray Rice, Cedric Benson, Ronnie Brown, Reggie Bush
Sit: Larry Johnson, Jamal Lewis, Clinton Portis

WR
Start: Eddie Royal, Chad OchoCinco, DeSean Jackson, Anthony Gonzalez, Derrick Mason
Sit: Dwayne Bowe, Devin Hester, Lee Evans, Jerricho Cotchery

TE
Start: Zach Miller, John Carlson, Jeremy Shockey
Sit: Chris Cooley, Kellen Winslow, Tony Scheffler

Kicker
Start: John Carney, Josh Brown, Kris Brown
Sit:  Adam Vinatieri

D/ST
Start: Seattle, San Diego, New England
Sit: Buffalo, NY Jets

Last minute league spot

Anyone up for the monster FFLibrarian league? It's a bit of a crazy scene with 96 teams and a commish (me!) who really is still figuring all the settings out, but I need a new owner. You'd be taking over the Silentninja team, which is full of QBs and Kickers - can we say trade? Might be a bit of an uphill battle but I know someone out there can do it. So the first person to send me an e-mail and respond back ASAP can be the new Silentninja.
Update: Spot is taken - thanks to all who e-mailed!

First game in the books

I'd say last night's game certainly lived up to the first game of the season hype - an overtime defensive battle with missed kicks, fumbles, and some impressive grabs (bummer for Polamalu though). Good stuff all around and it only makes me more excited about this weekend's games.

On a different note, it's a bit odd to be in New York City on a September 11th anniversary. I was living in Washington, D.C., back in 2001, having just graduated from college a few months earlier and was out at a job interview on 9/11/01 - so I'm no stranger to the feeling of panic on that day. But there's something different about NYC. Living in the city now gives me even more respect (if possible) for what New Yorkers experienced that day.

But back to football - don't forget to check out the start/sit links that I posted earlier in the week. And if you have a start/sit question about your own roster, I recommend posting it in the comments section. That way if I can't get back to you, another reader might be able to respond with their opinion.

• I'm all for bringing charity into fantasyland, so I was pleased to see the Fantasy Football Starters guys' weekly line-up challenge that includes a donation in the overall grand prize winner's name to the NFL Foundation's "Play it Smart" youth program. Good people doing good stuff - I like it. 
• Matthew Berry's love for Joe Flacco is reiterated in his weekly Love/Hate for Week 1. If you're not familiar with Love/Hate, I think you can count on Berry to provide the most entertaining of weekly start/sit links.
• For those interested in some season projections, scope out FootballOutsiders' 2009 Staff Predictions.
• The FFGeeks tackle a bunch of start/sit questions they've received this week, so take a look and see if your own lineup conundrums can be found there, too.
• A couple of IDP links for you:
• FFManiaxs' Week 1 IDP Starts and Sits 
• Top Fantasy Football's Week 1 ~ Start and Sit ~ Team Defense and IDP (scroll down for the IDPs)
• FantasySharks.com's The Hive is up and rolling - note that The Hive has a Twitter feed now for the latest and greatest IDP news.
  
• Check back with Kilroyz Krystal Ball - the Thursday night IDP start/sit is up but well, of no use to us any longer. But stay tuned for the rest of the start/sit advice that is en route, I'm sure.
  
• Ahh, numbers. Love 'em, you all know that. So I'm a sucker for RotoExperts' Week One Stat Book from Scott Engel where you can get some nice stats and read up on their fantasy impact.
  

Finally, I made a cosmetic change of sorts to the FFLibrarian site and am wondering if you all have any feedback on it - now all article links open in a new window or tab (depending on your browser settings) so that FFLibrarian site will remain open. I think this makes it easier to go back and forth between the different links I provide but if it causes you any trouble, let me know. 

NFL season is open for business!

My left arm is about to become famous. Or at least famous with Millionaire watchers. My left arm and I really enjoyed ourselves at the Who Wants to Be a Millionaire taping I went to yesterday. The whole process took far longer than I expected and I had to roll out of there to make it to the Battle of the Sexes fantasy football draft before I had a chance to take the test to be a future contestant...but that's okay, I was really just there to accompany a friend. And in the end, I think I might have had the best seat in the house. As my friend and I filed in to the studio, the guide seating us asked me to be the person sitting next to the "honor companion" (that would be the spouse/friend/parent of the contestant in the hot seat) - all of this means that my left arm and clapping hands will be visible on a few episodes in early October. I know, it's extremely impressive right? It will be my left arm's debut on national television; must come up with a way to celebrate.

How about with football?! Happy start to the season, friends! Will you all be glued to the game tonight or what? If you need to gear up for the excitement, just read some of these great articles. Again, we'll start with some new start/sit advice:

• CBSSports.com's Week 1 Start 'Em and Sit 'Em
• The Hazean's Start & Sit
• FFGeekBlog's Hits & Misses - Week 1: Let the games begin!
• Mac Bros Start/Sit Rankings by position
  
• FantasySharks.com's 2009 Start/Bench List Week 1
• Rapid Draft/Matt Schauf's Week 1 Start 'em/Bench 'em Report
  

Other great links:

• FootballOutsiders' DVOA doesn't like my Broncos. Sad but not particularly surprising. I'm willing to bet that the Broncos will outperform their 31st ranking as predicted by DVOA...do love scoping this stuff out.
• Breakout players: 10 who'll take it to the next level from CBS lists a bunch of guys you'll want to keep your waiver trigger finger on (if not already drafted). I seriously heart Felix Jones. I think he might be my favorite grab this year.
• Because I love anything that has to do with football stats, take a look at this interesting post from ESPN: Do runs for losses indicate bad run teams? You might be a bit surprised. Unless you're Aaron Schatz.
• I groaned loudly and for a long, long time after I drafted Willie Parker as my RB2 in a league last week. It just happened. When you participate in enough leagues I feel like you can use this cop out - but seriously, without fully understanding what I was doing I drafted Fast Willie. I think I'd heard enough news about Mendy not running all that well and the Steelers backing Parker as their #1 guy...but it still feels weird to have my RB2 as Wee Willie Parker (though I think Ray Rice will quickly oust him on my roster). But I must say a few reassuring words from Rotoworld's Fast Willie Parker gets a quick bump in value and I'm feeling a bit better about Parker.
  

Finally, if you're still looking for a fun way to participate in fantasy football this year, join other FFLibrarian readers in a weekly contest run with 365FantasySports.com - I'm working on prizes with which to reward the weekly winners, so stay tuned on that front. You can sign up here and will need the password book1. There are 30 of us in there already and there's no limit to the number of participants, so jump on in!

Enjoy the game tonight!

Fantasy millionaire

Now that I'm living in NYC and am jobless (unless you count updating this blog a job, which frankly, would be fairly accurate), I have the opportunity to just pick up and do odd things in the middle of the day. Somewhat awesome, no? So when a friend asked me to join her for a Who Wants to Be a Millionaire taping this afternoon, how could I say no? I mean, ask the the audience, baby, and I'd be the audience!

In the meantime I'm frantically gathering rankings from our favorite fantasy football experts so that I can include them in my annual accuracy challenge. I'm getting as many rankings as I possibly can and if you have suggestions for sites to include (especially free sites), please let me know in the comments section below.

So, it's 09/09/09 and football season starts tomorrow! It's incredibly exciting. This of course means that start & sit suggestions are cropping up so let's get to the week 1 advice:

First up, start/sit suggestions:

• I can always count on the FootballDocs to have their start/sit advice up and ready to go - take a look at their advice for week 1.
  
• Once upon a time the FFGoat tried to leave the FF blogging world. But he just couldn't stay away. And that's good since we're all rewarded with his Start 'em Sit 'em and Sleeper Picks for Week 1.
• FantasyFootballOasis runs through their start/sit in a game-by-game fashion that I find rather appealing. What I really like though is the fact that they'll be updating this list until game time for each matchup. Niiiiice.
  
• Week 1 Start/sit faceoffs from CBSSports.com - basically if you need to talk yourself into starting or sitting a player, go here for ammunition from the experts. Take a look at their Week 1 rankings for more week 1 specific advice.
  

The best of the rest:

• Last night was the Buffalo Wild Wings FF All-Star Blogger League draft and I've gotta tell you guys, I'm only moderately happy with my team. On two different occasions, the sneaky John Hansen from FantasyGuru snagged the player I wanted right before my turn came up. Tough times when that happens - I don't usually recover well from those rounds. Before long I think we should have our rosters posted to the blog site but let's just say I'm really pulling for Joseph Addai this season.
• If you're in a survivor league (like one reader here, Kate) take a look at FantasySharks.com's review of Week 1 games for survivor pool advice.
  
• More game-by-game advice from Pigskin Addiction with projections for key players in each matchup.
  
• FFToday has Through the Wire up, which I must say, has been one of my absolute favorite waiver wire articles for the past few years - check it out.
• More waiver advice from Rotoworld in Waiver Wired: More Bell-Cow!
  

Afternoon linkage and draft update

Well my plans for the Buffalo Wild Wings draft have changed - unfortunately I won't be at the Brooklyn BWW tonight since it's Wing Tuesdays and due to the wings madness, there's no guarantee that I could snag a table. Since that could cause significant drafting problems, as in there would be no drafting on my part, I'll be switching things up and drafting from home. I have no idea if any local readers were actually planning on coming, but if so, my apologies. Perhaps I can pull together a FFLibrarian Happy Hour somewhere here in NYC to make up for the last minute change of plans. Maybe a Monday Night Football game watch/happy hour in a few weeks? Would any of you be up for that?

Now to give you a little something for afternoon entertainment - more links!

• FantasyPros911 have their Week 1 rankings and projected fantasy points up - QB, RB, WR, TE, kicker, D/ST, even IDPs (DL, LB, DB). I'm not sure what scoring system they're using (ppr, non-ppr?) but I'm guessing it's a pretty standard non-ppr one.
• Take a look at ESPN for more Week 1 projections (yardage, TDs, and fantasy points).
• In case you haven't found Fantasy Sports Central's cheat sheet which averages position rankings from various FF sites (very similar of course to my average top 100 rankings position), definitely check it out - love how you can pick and choose your sites.
• Take a look at FFStarters' blog for a reminder that you always start your studs (as long as they're not injured or suspended, etc) in week 1.
• Tony Holm graces us with his first Prognosticator of the regular season - while this comes with the advice to start your studs this week, you may want to scope it out for a sense of which teams are up against easy or tough run and pass defenses. Keep in mind that this becomes a far more powerful tool as time goes on - and a few weeks into the season we'll have a much better picture of this year's defenses' strengths and weaknesses.

LOTS more rankings and projections are coming tomorrow!

BWW draft tonight!

I've got a full day today, my FF friends. I'm meeting with some library folks here in NYC this morning and I've got my Buffalo Wild Wings All-Star Blogger League draft tonight around 7:30. I'm almost positive that I'll be drafting live from the local Brooklyn BWW so if you're in the area, feel free to swing by if you can. I might be intensely deep into draft mode, but I'd love the support. Plus who doesn't want to start the week with a tasty brew? I'll keep you all posted later this afternoon if plans change.

A few quick links for you since I'm running out the door - I'll try to post more later today.

• For those already looking for waiver wire advice, take a look at Hatty Waiver Wire Guru's video waiver tips. First of the season.
• Those FFLibrarian old timers know that I heart offensive lines (if you need a reminder of how great o-lines are, take a look at what John Tuvey from The Huddle pulled together) - so it warms my heart to see this article posted last week to FantasyFootball.com on o-line rankings.
• Some lineup news - we've got Tim Hightower starting in Arizona and Cadillac Williams starting in Tampa Bay.
• Good news Cassel fans, looks like he's back at practice. Does this bump Dwayne Bowe back up a bit? I'd be cautious especially after this last preseason game and how poor the KC backup QBs looked, but then again, it was just preseason football.
  
• Looking for some help on how to have the perfect draft this year? Take a look at this video from the Yahoo gurus.
  

Weekly league with FFLibrarian community!

More Labor Day greetings and welcome to a new way to compete with your fellow readers here at FFLibrarian! Some of you are part of the 96-team FFLibrarian monster league for the 2009 season but if you're looking for something a little bit shorter term, or just a new and different way to compete, then join me in a new venture with 365fantasysports.com. We'll be doing weekly competitions in a private FFLibrarian community group. In order to play you'll need to register with 365fantasysports via this link and click on the big green "play now" button to register for free. Once you've registered you can search for my league in the contest lobby and use the password book1 to join my league. This first week we're going to do a pretty traditional style competition (pick 2 of each offensive skill position) but in future weeks we'll do fun stuff like an all-RB contest, or just QBs and WRs, or just night NFL games, you get it - unique sorts of contests. Should satisfy those of you looking for something new on the fantasy scene AND those who are just getting their toes wet. So I hope you'll join me - the more the merrier! - and let me know if you have any questions.

Oh yeah, Week 1 start/sit!

Happy Labor Day! Hopefully you all are doing something fun today, enjoying a day off. Personally I just slept in later than I have in months, possibly years, and it was awesome. Is there something in the air here? Seriously I sleep in so much later in NYC than in Boulder...though I think that might be related to the later nights, here too. So speaking of Boulder, who watched the CU vs CSU game last night? I got a little nostalgic looking at the beautiful flatiron/foothills shots - made me miss my old hometown! Tough times for the Buffs last night - not a good way to start the season. But who started the season well? Northwestern! My alma mater beat Towson pretty thoroughly this weekend; let's hope that keeps up.

All that said, there is no day off when it comes to fantasy football so read up on the latest links and reads in FF land.

• Find out who Ultimate FF Strategy thinks will be the Top 10 WRs Based on historical Trends - interesting stuff here as usual. If they're right about Brandon Marshall, there could be some teams who grabbed him at an excellent value.
  
• Cut day has come and gone - Rotoworld is Looking at cut day from a fantasy perspective. Gotta say I'm surprised that Jeff Garcia was cut but I haven't really been following him in any depth for awhile. Perhaps I assumed that Russell was just that bad. Either way, don't go there on draft day, waiver day, any day.
• MMQB reviews some of the big cuts this weekend, too, and the usual bevy of other football topics.
  
• You guys know even the slightest bit of statistical analysis makes me happy so I enjoyed ESPN's What to make of Rams' run on turnovers - a quick check on the correlation between preseason and regular season turnovers reveals that the Rams might not be turning over a new leaf after all. But hey, you never know...
• Fantazzle's rankings are all up and complete - remember Fantazzle won my accuracy challenge last year where I compared a lot of the big dogs out there to see which ranking was the most accurate. Might be worth seeing what Fantazzle has to say this year.
• FFManiaxs already have waiver wire advice up - plus of course start/sit for Week 1.
• Hatty Waiver Wire Guru gives us a list of guys that he's avoiding this season.
• Finally, the Lead Pipe Lock's Omatic spits out Week 1 Top 10 Starters by Position. Gotta say I like this - there aren't a ton of weekly rankings out there like this so I think I'm going to enjoy tracking the Omatic this season to see how well it does.
  

Over the next several days I'll be gathering positional rankings for the ranking of the rankings contest (done in conjunction with the FSTA) that I mentioned above. If you have a favorite site that you'd like included in the competition (or if you're an expert who wants to know how you stack up!), let me know and I'll see what I can do to get them involved. For results from last year, click here. And 2007, click here.

Finally, if you've sent me an e-mail and I haven't gotten back to you yet, my apologies. I am embarrassingly far behind on my e-mail but I will eventually get to them all - promise!

Something Football This Way Comes

I might be behind the times a bit here but yesterday afternoon was my first video Skype experience - and it rocked. In the past I've used Skype to chat with my husband while he travelled, but being a non-webcam family, I've never been able to use the video function. But yesterday I "met" one of my closest friend's 3-week-old baby and I can't get over what an amazing service Skype provides. Love it.

Plus a little Skype time with a baby was the perfect balance to an otherwise football-rich day. Don't get me wrong, bring on the football, but I think some days I could use a little more balance in my life. Surprisingly the world does not revolve around football (I know, I'm still shocked by this revelation, too).

But let's pretend like I does and get to today's linkfest:

• Oh MJD. When you leave the field with a questionable return, it creates a pit of fear in fantasy owners everywhere. So glad to hear it's likely your leg bruise is not serious.
• Meanwhile I'm sure Steve Slaton owners are somewhat displeased to hear that Chris Brown will be used in the red zone quite a bit - heads up, TD-heavy league players.
• CBSSports.com has thoughts on 3 backs who will bounce back in '09. Can you guess which RBs are listed here?
• It's a little hard to read on Hatty's website (you can get a copy via google docs), but they've got a new spreadsheet feature that lists studs, sleepers, starts, and sits for each week - see Week 1's details here.
• A few nights ago my husband and I watched Almost Famous, which he had never seen before, so I'm feeling rock n roll these days (note that my musical abilities basically only stretch to playing the recorder in elementary school) and felt this article from ESPN on a fantasy football league with dudes like Jerry Cantrell, Duff McKagan, and Kenny Wayne Shepherd (oh, and Matthew Berry of course) was appropriate to link to today.
• Wondering which backs are going to get the most carries this season? Rotoworld takes a stab at predicting the number of carries for running backs in both the NFC and AFC (interesting point they make - all 5 backs that carried the ball for 300+ carries last year came from the NFC...).
• KFFL and I share the same love for Felix Jones. Seriously, can't get enough of that guy.
• Some IDP rankings from CBSSports.com - top 50 players at LB, DB, and DL. Plus a little bit of IDP drafting strategy here, too.
• Ultimate Fantasy Football Strategy has put their soothsayer caps on and is Predicting the Top 10 Quarterbacks Based on Historical Trends. I was surprised at a few of their predictions - interesting stuff.
• If you're a member of The Huddle (one of my absolute favorite pay sites), don't forget to read the updated offensive line rankings. GOOD stuff. Love the o-line analysis, can't get enough.

I hope everyone enjoys their Labor Day Weekend! If you're in the New York City area and have some free time on Tuesday, 9/8, then come on by Buffalo Wild Wings at the Atlantic Center in Brooklyn. I still have to finalize the details but I believe I'll be there drafting that evening for the BWW League I'm in. Would love to have some reader support if you're free!