Well folks, football is almost here and we now resume our fantasy sports coverage.

 I’ve had one auction so far and it went pretty well.  It is a standard head to head league, with 1 pt/10 yards rushing or receiving or 25 yards passing.  Touchdowns are six points with a bonus of three points for plays 50 yards or longer.  The only real wrinkles are that it is a keeper league, and that we start three WR each week.  So lets breakdown my team and look at some of the bargains and overpriced players.

QB- Drew Brees $6, Trent Green $1, Brady Quinn $1;  I kept Brees from last year and was really looking to get Jake Delhommefor cheap.  When Delhomme came up his price went over my budget so I had to settle for Trent Green with a very late pick.  It shouldn’t hurt me too badly since I would still start Brees every week regardless.  I was able to sneak Brady Quinn by the other owners late.  I am hoping that by week 4 (Brees’ by week) that Quinn will be a viable backup fantasy QB so I can drop Green and open up that roster spot for someone with higher upside.  NOTABLES:  McNabb went for $25 which I thought was a little high for a QB that not only gets hurt every year, but also is coming off an ACL injury.  Matt Hasselbeck went for only $12.  This I found a little surprising since his upside is real and Seattle should be a better than overage offense.

RB- Edgerin James $40, Joseph Addai $9, Fred Taylor $22, Deshawn Foster $8;  I came into the year keeping Addai for cheap which was great, and Foster which is just so-so.  Foster is the starter to begin the year, so his upside is decent.  With DeAngelo Williams in the mix though, he will have to assert himself quickly to reach that upside.  Luckily for me, I also came into the year with the most money in the auction by $19.  This fact allowed me to pay whatever it took to get the best free agent RB out there which in my book was James.  I may have overpaid for Taylor by a couple of dollars, but the depth at RB is usually worth a couple of extra dollars.  NOTABLES:  What is most notable about the RB situation this year is that more backfields than usual are presenting fantasy GMs with more than one option.  This led to a couple different consequences.  Firstly, teams were more likely to protect the cheap members of a platoon situation.  Related to that was the second consequence which is teams overpaying for the platooners that were left over.  The lesson to take away from this is that the backfields that are not platooning are worth even more than usual.  Pay the extra money.

WR- Javon Walker $5, Hines Ward $12, Plaxico Burress $35, Dewayne Bowe $1, Marty Booker$3;  Ok, I kept Ward and Walker and only then did I realize that they had the same bye week.  If my team has an obvious weakness, this is it.  I absolutely had to pay to get at least one WR with top-10 potential that DID NOT have the same bye as my top two guys.  Plaxico is what I was left with.  Did I overpay?  Hell yes.  Does he scare me?  Hell yes.  Would I do the same thing again?  Hell yes.  I grabbed Bowe for some upside though he is very far from a sure thing, and Booker with my last roster spot.  NOTABLES:  Randy Moss went for $42.  Unreal.  Donte Stallworthwent for $29.  That is $71 for two Patriot WRs.  At least one of them wont be worth the price.  Deion Branch went for $31, significantly more than the previous year.

TE- Kellen Winslow $7, Dallas Clark $2;  Winslow was perhaps the steal of my draft.  I was hoping to be able to get him, but I never thought that $7 would do it.  Huge upside, low price.  That is what makes a good keeper.  Clark is nothing special, but a better than average backup TE.  NOTABLES:  Ben Watson went for $7.  The year before he was a hyped sleeper.  With Moss and Stallworth in town GMs are discounting him greatly.  Alge Crupleris in a similar boat.  With Vick gone for who knows how long, Crumpler is seeming to drop in price as well.

K- Jason Elam $1;  Hey, thin air.  NOTABLES:  Adam Vintieri $7.  Unreal.