Fantasy Football Librarian

Tomorrow I head to Michigan to party it up for my grandma's 90 th so I'll be quiet for the next few days while I hang with the family. Here's hoping today's links can carry you through the weekend! Matthew Berry has his latest Top 200 up - I love seeing Clinton Portis and Chris Johnson in the top 10; I think there are some doubters out there on both of those players but I believe they're going to have great years...even Portis behind that old-man o-line. FFToolbox brings us Overused Running Backs - a look at 20+ running backs who have rushed more than 400 times in the last two seasons and may be ripe for an injury. And I do realize the humor in seeing Portis at the top spot on this list here right after my statement on how great he'll be in 2009. So who do you all think will be the top prospects for the 2010 NFL Draft? Yeah I'm serious. Rotoworld's Evan Silva wins an award for best draft go-getter with his Ten Draft Prospects for 2010 article. J...

I'm looking out of my office window today and finally seeing evidence of spring outside - the newbie green leaves are popping out and I'm once again reminded of how much I love this season (and of how I've somehow developed allergies). East coasters, I realize you've been enjoying not just spring but even summerlike weather as of late but here in Colorado spring is slow-moving beast. Onto our links for today... Time for a flurry of Brett Favre headlines? Let's hope not. As the Fifth Down notes , the Jets released Favre at his request and he is "at this time" retiring from football. Also in category of old guys who have been released, the Edge is no longer with the Cardinals . What a failed experiment that one was. The Hazean hits us up with some Early Rookie Rankings - top 10 QBs , RBs , WRs , and top5 TEs . Side note: if you're having trouble viewing the Hazean's site correctly in Firefox like I am (an ad hovers over the content), try it ou...

Gotta be quick today, my fantasy football fans. I'm flying to good ol ' Grand Rapids, Michigan later this week for my grandma's 90 th birthday so I've got a busier week at work than usual. So read up on today's brief list of links... NFL.com takes a look at the top rookies and what kind of fantasy impact they might have in Moreno, Wells headline top fantasy rookies after NFL Draft - I'm seriously starting to think that the impossible might happen = the Broncos might have one lead runner; the RBBC might be dying off in Denver. Could it be?? Am I getting swept up in a Knowshon lovefest ? Possible. The Jets and Gregg Rosenthal agree - there's a big drop-off in rookie running backs after Shonn Greene . I of course am waiting for Northwestern's Tyrell Sutton to make an unexpected splash this season (might be waiting a long time since he hasn't exactly signed with a team yet...) but it is interesting to see that there are really just a few rookie R...

Hello football fans! So how did you enjoy the draft?! Is everyone happy with the direction your teams went in? I'll be honest, when I saw the Broncos grab Knowshon Moreno in the first round my first thought was, "you have got to be kidding me, an RB of all things??? How many of those can we collect in one offseason ?" But hey, no better way to get a new QB comfortable than with a strong running game, right? And could drafting Moreno be a turning of the tides here in Denver? Could the Shanahanigans with the revolving runners be coming to an end? Oh I love all of the evaluation and dissection of the draft. It just makes me giddy. So you can imagine that I'm a bit like a kid on Christmas morning here with just SO much analysis to pore through. If you've found some gems that I've overlooked, please post a link in the comments section or send me an e-mail . Fifth Down's 2009 Draft Recap: Most Questionable Moves - it should be no surprise to anyone to see th...

So my bowling league is over for the season - several of you have been following my surprise participation in a bowling league over the past several months (the original token female in the league cut her hand, requiring stitches and a replacement). I have to admit that I didn't really improve like I hoped I would but I did get some excellent tips on my last night of the league - my bowling game might never be the same. Too bad that info came so late in the season! But don't worry that's not the way I roll with fantasy football - instead I bring you info, tips, rankings, etc all year round. And clearly if you're here on this site in April you're not a last minute fantasy footballer either and are probably psyched for some early fantasy details. So onto today's links: Football Jabber takes a look at 25 NFL Draft links that make you smarter than everyone in case you need some more prep before tomorrow's draft. As a Broncos fan I think I link to just about eve...

We have good friends coming into town for the weekend and I think I convinced one friend to come solely because I promised we could watch the NFL Draft together. I'm not sure the rest of our visitors are going to be down with hour upon hour of a draft watch but at least I'll have one buddy! It's a good thing the draft occurs over the weekend or else I'd be taking some vacation time... The speculations for draft day are about at their peak so let's take a look at a few links: Take a look at CBS Sports' Diner News: Questions that bother me before the draft for some last minute musings - plus find out who this year's rookies more or less agree is the best incoming rookie... FFToolbox looks at some of this year's draft class that may give you cause for concern in their Risky Draft Picks article. It's pretty clear that off-field troubles are the common thread here among most of the risky players. KFFL has their 2009 NFL Draft Predictions up and I lik...

Reasons to love Colorado are plenty but one of the reasons I truly love this state is the weather here - I know, not another weather intro to this football blog, right? I can't help it! So on Friday and Saturday, a steady cold rain came down for about 48 hours straight here in Boulder with the occasional snow burst to break things up (meanwhile a town about 30 minutes away got 56 inches of snow this weekend - no joke)...but as is the case here in Colorado, the weather did a 180 in less than 24 hours and yesterday was a gorgeous, sunny 70 degree day. And I'm rocking a surprisingly strong sunburn on my face to prove it. The nice weather is lingering for the rest of the week, which makes me think the attendance at today's 4/20 celebration on the quad outside the library could get rather crowded - last year's attendance reached 10,000 . Could make for an interesting afternoon around these parts. Onto today's football links... Gotta love an article that looks at fantasy ...

Supposedly there will be 10 to 22 inches of snow on the ground by the end of the day on Saturday here in Boulder. I don't buy it - there's been a slushy snow-rain coming down all morning so some sort of unbelievable precipitation dump will need to happen tonight when it gets colder. Plus, 10 to 22 inches; could that be a wider range?! Sorry for the weather tangent - let's get back to football. Rotoworld concludes their Team Needs series with a look at the NFC East and North . Taking a look at what various teams need to be a contender in 2009 (or just to avoid an 0-16 season) has really reminded me that football season is not that far off. Excellent. Football Jabber takes a look at some of the changes on the NFL Draft scene with thoughts on how the draft might evolve next weekend. Advanced NFL Stats looks at defensive backs drafted between 1980 and 2001 and considers whether or not top draft picks outperform those DBs taken in later rounds in Drafting Defensive Backs . Lo...

Wanna know which players will really shine during the 2009 fantasy football playoffs? Oh yeah, you heard me right. It's only April and we're talking playoffs. I love it. To read the details from the man who is insane enough to be writing about fantasy playoffs this early, take a look at Lester's Legends' First Glance Fantasy Football Playoff Studs . Rumor has it the playoff duds will be posted tomorrow... The rest of today's links are as follows: If you missed it, the 2009 season schedule is here! My Broncos have an easy schedule to start off their Brandon Marshall-less season. Perhaps that will get Kyle Orton's confidence up ( read this for more on what Orton brings to the Broncos )...interesting stuff. Now that the schedule is here, Ask The Commish created a 2009 Strength of Schedule based on 2008 records. And while we're on the topic, scope out FantasyGuru's First SOS Impressions - and be sure to check out the top 5 teams helped and hurt by their...

One of my coworkers (yes, there are other librarians that pay attention to fantasy sports, though we are a rather rare breed) showed me a site called Basketball Monster that he uses for his fantasy basketball league. If you take a look at the Player Rankings page , you'll see just a mass of different player statistics that you can use to adjust your customized player rankings. Or you can see which players are hot right now - or mosey on over to Baseball Monster for the same sort of number-crunching fun with baseball. This begs the question: where's the Football Monster? Read on for more links on this Tuesday afternoon: Check out my Team Needs: NFC South & West article for Rotoworld - agree or disagree with me? I'd love to hear about it. My husband was an athlete at a small, liberal arts school and always has some love in his heart for the diamond in the rough from small schools - if you find yourself in the same camp, take a look at Fantasyfootball . com's Sma...

For the first time in my life I rented a storage unit this weekend - somehow I've made it to almost 30 without the need for a 5x5 to house my possessions temporarily. But the time has come - we are putting our condo up on the market in the next few weeks (who needs a 1 bedroom in Boulder?) and our realtor has recommended that we move a dresser and some random clutter out of the apartment to convince the buying public that we are swimming in space. I applaud the effort and will do what it takes to sell this puppy, but it does mean sorting through everything we own and deeming it trash/recycle-worthy; sellable on Craigslist (who needs an old school PlayStation?); storage unit-worthy; or necessary enough for our day-to-day operations that it gets a place of honor in the condo (coffeemaker!). I find this process probably far more fun than most people - I gleefully clean spaces for the before-and-after effect and for the gigantic sense of relief I feel to have less crap in my home. Wh...

When the Masters has arrived, I know that it's nearly time for the bulk of fantasy football prognostications to begin. Soon fantasy draft magazines will be available and every joe shmoe will have a ranking. I'll be here sorting out which new sites and writers know that they're talking about and am already excited to see what my favorite oldtimers have to say about the 2009 season...so stay tuned because the fantasy season is almost here. In the meantime, a few links to start off your weekend: I love KC Joyner's Scientific Football work and I love stats on the less-pondered positions like cornerbacks ...so the Fifth Down's Scientific Football: Cornerback and Receiver Statistics is right up my alley. Matthew Berry updated his Top 200 ranking - all changes are in italics. I wish the player's previous ranking was also noted since I'd like to know just how far Jay Cutler has fallen since leaving my Broncos. Want to take part in Rotoworld's Pancake Mo...

This is one of those days that just hasn't started well for me at all. A good chunk of my frustrations are thanks to my butter fingers that dropped my beloved iPhone on the sidewalk as I hurried for the bus this morning...while the phone still works just fine there's a large spiderweb over about 1/4 of the screen. Not cool at all. Let this be a lesson to those of you running around without a case on your iPhone - don't be caseless like me. I'm not sure the case would've made a big difference for me but it sure couldn't have hurt. Anyway, I'm in a bit of a funk but will try and crank out some quality football links here: Gotta love a mock draft coming from someone so clearly passionate about fantasy football - I may have found someone who is more excited about the 2009 season than I am...check out RotoExperts' Fantasy Football, Crazy Talk, Mocking in Fantasy Land for a mock first round of the NFL draft. What's the deal with the Matt Hasselbeck's ...

Well baseball season has begun, which in my football-oriented mind means that football season is that much closer to being here, and I for one an psyched. Another thing I'm psyched about this week is that my husband is defending his dissertation tomorrow - soon I can call him Doc Holladay . Six years of hard work are about to be rewarded. Can't wait. Onto to today's football linkage: Want a little light reading before Draft Day arrives? Then don't turn to FootballGuys ' 624-page beastly Rookie Scouting Portfolio (for a free 75-page sample, check out this link ); but if you want something informative and detailed from one of my favorite fantasy football writers, check out Matt Waldman's aforementioned tome. Ahh , to have a mature quarterback. Jason Campbell and Dan Snyder met at the end of last week for a pow-wow on the same day that the Skins brought Byron Leftwich in for a workout. Though the Washington Post points out it's unlikely that Leftwich will...

Goodbye Jay, hello Neckbeard - I mean, Kyle. The deed is done: Cutler is going to the Bears (along with a Broncos fifth-round draft pick) in exchange for Orton, the number 18 overall pick this year, the Bears' 2009 third-round pick, and the Bears' 2010 first-round pick. This is not good for Cutler's fantasy value (tell me please who is going to pass to?!), but perhaps stellar for Greg Olsen's value. I think Cutler values the QB-TE connection quite a bit...and of course I'm sure Kyle Orton isn't thrilled to be coming into a team whose top receiver underwent hip surgery this week and faces possible suspension at the start of the season. Oh Broncos, what have you done??

Broncos....you're killing me!! I keep hoping this is an April Fools' Day joke but the Jay Cutler drama continues in case you could have somehow missed the latest installment of the middle school- esque drama going on here. I swear this is reminiscent of my 7 th grade "boyfriend" though I think that merely lasted a few weeks instead of this disaster which apparently has no end. This definitely makes me unhappy from both a real life and a Cutler Dynasty owner perspective; but it's harder as a Broncos fan. I just have a gut feeling that he'll land on his feet somewhere from a fantasy perspective - so much talent, I can't see it going to waste anywhere - but the Broncos just seem utterly, royally screwed. Gregg Rosenthal points out that basically everyone in Denver is now a bit of a fantasy question mark and the Denver Post reviews some of the latest Cutler interest from my other fav NFL team, the Redskins. So where do you guys think Cutler will land? ...