Before I get started, I wanted to give you guys a little background about myself. While I haven’t been writing about it long, I have been playing fantasy football since middle school. Back before sites like ESPN, Yahoo, and CBS Sports made it a multi-billion dollar industry, I learned how to keep fantasy score by looking at stats posted in the news paper. The closest I ever got to a fist-fight was with a buddy about who rightfully claimed Daunte Culpepper (I definitely did!). Ever since then, I have done anywhere from 2-6 fantasy leagues, and countless fantasy drafts every year. I’ve had great successes, and unmentionable failures. I’ve made moves that have vaulted me to the top, and others that have sunk me like a stone. I have learned that no matter how much you want J.P. Losman, or Lee Evans or C.J. Spiller to be fantasy studs, your heart won’t win you any fantasy football leagues.
I’ve played for free, or for money but, most importantly, I always play for bragging rights. I have also run or helped run leagues for the past few years (can’t imagine doing that in the newspaper era though, hats off to the internet for that). With that said, I have not yet dipped my toes into the ever-expanding world of one-day fantasy drafts, such as Fanduel or Draft Kings for football. I just started Fanduel baseball this year, and will definitely be doing football when the time comes. I will take my lumps and learn as much as I can, but at this point, that may be something to look forward to in 2016.
Enough about me, lets talk football, shall we?
Free agency started March 10th this year, and as always, was absolute mayhem. Chip Kelly was playing real-life Madden, continuing his quest to collect every player to ever tear an ACL or go to Oregon (I wonder if he has Joey Harrington’s phone number). Jim Irsay and the Colts were flying in guys two at a time in a private jet. Adam Schefter even became the first person to ever work 96 hours in a 48 hour span by doubling up on cell phones at all times. I just wrote three sentences about NFL free agency, and we haven’t even mentioned Jerry Jones, or the Raiders yet, that’s how crazy this year has been!
The first two days of free-agency are arguably the best part of every off-season, followed closely by the draft, in my opinion, and this year certainly didn’t disappoint. According to SB Nation’s James Brady, as of March 24th (the most recent figure I could find), 97 players had signed with new teams. There are still some huge splashes to be made…AP, anyone?
Since I am a veteran of the Fantasy Football world, and was a recently signed Free Agent blogger, I thought it would be appropriate to make my first few posts about players who have changed teams via Free Agency. Over the next few weeks, I am going to give you a positional breakdown of players that have signed with new teams, along with an early, mid-round, and late pick at every position to look for to make an impact at every offensive fantasy position in 2015. Hopefully I can help you bring home a title and possibly a payday at the end of the year, or at least help you avoid having to display an embarrassing tattoo for your failures.
All references to scoring and rankings will be based on ESPN PPR scoring system.