Can you believe it Bruno Boys Nation? It is already the middle of July and Fantasy Football drafts will be commencing all around the world shortly and with them the rise of everyone’s anxieties in hopes of doing one thing, and one thing only…dominating their league’s 2008 draft! Do not worry too much though because the Bruno Boys have been through this time and time again, and with our vast array of experience along with our proven track record of helping thousands of fantasy football players out there, you can rest assured that you won’t have to go through this alone! This Bruno Boys Q & A segment will be focused on one thing and one thing only; and that is to get you as prepared as possible for your league’s draft. If you use this Q & A along with the Bruno Boys 2008 Fantasy Football Cheat Sheets, message boards and everything else that the Bruno Boys site has to offer, we have no doubt that your draft will be very successful! With that being said, let’s jump right into your questions.
-------------------
Question: Bruno Boys Ziza, how is it going? I have a very important question for you! I am in a 12-team, standard scoring system league and we start 1 QB, 3 WR’s, 2 RB’s, 1 TE, 1 K and 1 DST. I have the third pick in the draft and I already know by talking to the two people ahead of me that LaDainian Tomlinson and Adrian Peterson will be going 1-2. I am very tempted to go with Tom Brady but I just wanted to check in with the Boys’ before I made my final decision. Thank you all for your great work, and here is to a great 2008! –Harold M.; Sandusky, Ohio.
Answer: Harold, first of all thank you very much for your appreciation! We plan on having our best year yet in 2008 and we couldn’t be doing that without fans like you, so please keep up your loyalty and we will keep giving you our finest day in and day out, all season long! Now to your question, I can understand your love for Tom Brady. Trust me; he led me to a championship last year! He had a historic 2007 campaign, having passed for 4806 yards, 50 TD’s, and had a completion percentage of 68.9. And to top it off, he had a career low 8 INT’s and rushed for 2 TD’s as well. But I warn you, there are a few things that scare me about him. First, he eclipsed his prior season high of passing yardage by nearly 700 yards. Secondly, his highest passing TD output before this season was 28, so a return to the 50 mark is nearly impossible and is completely improbable! And one other thing that should scare you is the probable commitment by the Patriots this year to go more with their running game. I mean, let’s face it. It wasn’t the Patriots passing game that failed them last year. In a Super Bowl it is expected to be played very tightly by the D. What failed them was not having a solid enough running game behind their explosive passing attack to keep the Giants D honest. I definitely don’t see the Patriots allowing this to happen to them again this year.
You can also look at it from this angle as well; you will be drafting third, so that means that you have picks #3, #22 and #27. Assuming that you go with Tom Brady at 3, that will leave you with the likelihood that your RB1 will be a Reggie Bush/Laurence Maroney type and then you either take your RB2 or WR1 at 27, completely limiting your options. If you take a RB2, then you are looking at a Edgerrin James type as your RB2 and you still won’t get a WR until your fourth round at the earliest, pick 46. Needless to say, if Brady doesn’t go for 50 TD’s, this group of players almost undoubtedly will not bring you the ring. But don’t fret, I am about to make your day! I would take Steven Jackson at #3, assuming that he is completely healthy going into the 2008 season. Then with picks #22 and #27 you would have unlimited options on which way you could go. You could go WR1 or RB2, and then grab the other with the next pick, assuring that you will be going into the season with a very, very solid RB combination and a top 5 WR! It all depends on which you covet more, the better RB2 or the better WR1. Then with your late fourth/early fifth round pick you could start considering your QB position in which at least one of the following players: Drew Brees, Ben Roethlisberger, Matt Hasselbeck, or Carson Palmer should be available to you. And if for some reason none of these players are on the board, you could solidify your WR’s, most likely giving you the best RB/WR tandem in your league and you would still be able to grab a Donovan McNabb, Eli Manning, Jay Cutler or Derek Anderson in the sixth, if not later! One things for certain, there will be higher quality QB’s in rounds 4-8 on your draft board than there will be RB’s or WR’s. I am a true believer in waiting to draft a QB and filling out your roster with stud RB’s and WR’s, especially when any other given year Tom Brady wasn’t even higher than a top-3 QB in fantasy football. Best of luck!
-------------------
Q: Dear Bruno Boys, I am sure you are being bombarded with questions, but I do ask of you to please answer my question if you have time. I live in Minnesota and I have the first pick in the draft. Everyone is assuming that I will be taking Adrian Peterson with the top-overall pick. He is a fan favorite and it would be great to be able to follow my stud player all season long on television, but I just feel that LaDainian Tomlinson is the better choice. If you were me, what would you do? Go with the local favorite, or the proven stud running back? –Michael F.; St. Paul, Minnesota
A: Michael, thank you for your question! To be completely honest, I think you have it right on! It is always nice to be able to watch your favorite players on TV, but when it comes down to it, you already are anyways! I mean, as long as you can separate fantasy football with the NFL, you will ALWAYS have the best of both worlds! Perhaps I am lucky because I am a Detroit Lions fan and I never have to deal with this problem, so it is pretty easy for me to say and act on this, but if you watch AP on TV and watch LT2 rack up the points in fantasy football, you are in a win-win situation. Assuming that you are in a seasonal, not dynasty league, LT2 has to be the consensus #1 overall choice! First of all, LT2 has proven to be indestructible, having missed only 1 game his whole 7 year career, having started in every other game! AP on the other hand missed 2 games last year and started in only 9. Also, keep in mind that RB’s seem to dip a little in their sophomore year. Now I am not saying that Peterson will dip. He most likely will gain on what he had accomplished last year, but will it be enough to surpass Tomlinson, who has averaged no less than 19 total TD’s in each of the last 5 years, has racked up killer yardage, and as I already said, never misses a game. Do you have enough faith in Peterson where you see him running/receiving for at least 20 TD’s, gaining 2,0000 total yards and playing in every single one of his games, avoiding the injury bug that has plagued him since his college days? I didn’t think so, and I don’t either. Enjoy LT2 and best of luck in 2008!
-------------------
Q: Hello Ziza, how are you doing? I am doing great and I am looking forward to another season of fantasy football, with the Bruno Boys helping of course! My question to you is, since you were the defensive specialist last year, how important do you think it is to get a great defense to put on your fantasy football team? Thank you so much, your advice is always appreciated! –Steven F; Seattle, Washington
A: Steven, how have you been? It has been a while since we conversed via email! I hope the family is doing well. As far as your question is concerned, I do think that it is important to have a very solid defense week in and week out, but that does not necessarily mean that you have to go for a stud D. The Minnesota Vikings and San Diego Chargers of the world probably will come and go before most people are willing to draft a defense. That is fine. It is always very helpful to be able to plug and play the same defense so you can concentrate on the other positions, but at the same time drafting a defense when you still really need a WR to fill out your starting roster and the drop if you don’t get this particular receiver compared to the rest would probably not be the best idea. Always use Tier Rankings, which will significantly help you be able to tell when a certain position is about to get bare while also informing you of all the positions that still have a handful of solid players in which one probably could be had on the way back to your next pick.
My suggestion to you is this, check out the Bruno Boys 2008 Fantasy Football Cheat Sheets and check out our defensive rankings. You will get averaged out defensive rankings followed by a summary of each, but also you will be able to see where every single Bruno Boy rated certain defenses and players for that matter. As for the drafting strategy, I have tried both loading up on star D’s and also using a defense by committee in which I have two very solid defenses (ranked between 5-13) overall, and to be honest, I have always had more luck with the committee. Every year there seems to be at least one top defense that just bombs, while there are as many if not more tweener defenses that do as good of a job if not better. If you would have employed the committee strategy last season, there is a good chance that you could of ended up with the Vikings or such on your roster. And the best part of the committee is that you don’t waste a draft pick too early on a defense, being able to fill out other positions and still getting two strong defenses in which you can flip flop week-to-week depending on matchups. If you have the roster flexibility and those two teams don’t have the best of matchups, you can probably still find something on the waiver wires that would be a nice fill in for the week!
So to summarize Steve, while having a strong defensive unit week to week is very important, having a top defense is not. Just make sure you are not the player that is stuck with crap defenses and having to make up a good 10+ points every week because your defenses are putting you at a deficit!
-------------------
Thank you for all of the great questions submitted by you, membes of the Bruno Boys Nation. We love having our e-mail boxes filled, so keep the questions coming. Also, stay tuned for Part 2 of the Bruno Boys Q & A - Draft Day Advice, coming soon.