There is much difficulty in pulling the trigger on a player who is guaranteed to miss three crucial weeks of the season. So, when it was announced that Denver Broncos wide receiver Brandon Marshall would have his three-game suspension reduced to one, the young wide receiver surged up rankings boards and altered the fantasy football landscape.

One of the league’s premier talents is finally being selected where his skill level dictates he should. This season’s class of wide receivers was already deep, but the added certainty for Marshall creates yet another dimension. Now, what’s left in the wide receiver pool is a group of nearly 20 players who could produce like No. 1 receivers for fantasy teams. Marshall is a legitimate No. 1 option and moves into the position’s top 10 rankings. Read more »

Anyone on Wall Street will tell you that a major key to making money is diversifying their investments - putting money into different industries, different sized companies and different markets. By purchasing stock in all of these different types of companies, the risk of each individual stock is drowned out by the collective strength of the portfolio.

The same principle applies in fantasy football. Every, single player comes with some kind of inherent risk, some obviously more so than others. Age, inexperience, injuries, size, offensive scheme, etc., etc., are all unique risks to individual players. The goal of diversifying is to eliminate all of these individual risks, which can be done by drafting complementary pieces to your team’s puzzle. Read more »

Draft day is the most exciting day of a fantasy season. While every Sunday during the season is action-packed and the playoffs are the apex of all your hard work, the draft is where you mold your roster and give your team an identity. Waiver wire selections can make a big impact, but drafting well is the first step for all championship-winning teams. It’s important to be prepared.

While each draft has a different identity, there are dilemmas that are universal to all leagues. Basic strategy - how urgently to go about filling lineup spots, when to draft a quarterback, how to determine a rookie’s value - doesn’t change. Ironing out these wrinkles before your draft begins puts you at a competitive advantage over the owners who develop their approaches on the fly. Read more »

One of the more exciting parts of preseason fantasy football, rookie evaluations can either make a quick impact on teams or fall flat on their faces as wasted draft picks. More often than not, the latter proves true, but if we learned one thing from Adrian Peterson’s 2007 romp, it’s that we should certainly believe that big results are possible.

Some overreaction is all but guaranteed in the post-A.P. Era, and most of it will center around Oakland physical specimen Darren McFadden. Owners everywhere are still sore about the fact that they passed on Peterson at nearly the same draft position (mid-3rd round) and will be damned if they make the same mistake. Problem is, odds are slim and none that McFadden’s arrival has half the impact of Peterson’s. Read more »

The basic list form of our preseason top 200 rankings. We also feature the same list, equipped with notes for each and every player and completely free of charge, on FantasySports101.net. Once the regular season begins, we’ll narrow the list down to the top 101 players and do the same thing every week.

Some highlights on the list:

Rookie Darren McFadden’s debut at No. 36, largely because of the lesson we learned from Minnesota’s Adrian Peterson last season. That kind of talent needs to, and usually does, find a home before the fifth round of standard drafts.

Jason Witten overtakes Antonio Gates, who has question marks about his own health and the health of quarterback Philip Rivers’ knee, as the first tight end off the board.

Two less heralded rookie running backs, Chicago’s Matt Forte and Denver’s Ryan Torain, can be found in the middle rounds with a realistic expectation that both will win starting jobs. Read more »

To accompany Imaginary Gridiron’s list of sleeper candidates for 2008, here is a list of 15 potential bust players who are being given star treatment in preseason drafting.

As teams open their camps through July and August the names on this list will undoubtedly shift and change, and while it is difficult to call someone a “bust” without having seen them play yet, enthusiastic owners have placed some players on pedestals that are frankly too high. Read more »

They say in real football circles that nobody cares about kickers until you need them, and the same is true in fantasy. As much as all kickers’ statistics generally level off by the end of the year, kickers can determine the outcomes of fantasy matchups on a week-to-week basis. The sad part is that it’s nearly impossible to gauge when a kicker will have a good season or game. How can you possibly predict when a kicker’s offense will be good enough to drive down the field, but not good enough to capitalize in the red zone?

The answer to this quandary is to just play the percentages. You want to find kickers that either play in a good offense, play in a good weather or domed stadium, or have demonstrated a powerful and/or accurate leg. The best kickers have a combination, if not all, of these attributes. Read more »

When drafting units of players as opposed to individuals, opinions tend to vary wildly. That has always been the case when it comes to picking a defense, but in 2008, one team has risen to the top of the preseason hype. The Minnesota Vikings, who led the league in both rush defense and defensive TDs last season, picked up sack machine Jared Allen via trade before the NFL draft. In turn, the Vikings have been nearly the consensus first D taken in drafts.

Outside of the top three Ds of Minnesota, San Diego and New England, most other D units will be picked up in the back end of drafts. And besides the top three, most defenses have the look of producing nearly identical numbers. During the season, matchups and strength of schedule will play a big part in which units perform the best. Read more »

Gone are the days where Antonio Gates is the clear cut No. 1 tight end in fantasy. In are the days of more parody at the position, with an influx of superb, athletic pass catchers playing tight end. Gates has been stamped out and cloned to the point where he’s no longer a must-have selection for those who put a premium on tight ends.

Jason Witten and Kellen Winslow emerged as elite options with career seasons in 2007. Neither figures to slow down in ‘08, and both could again challenge Gates for top-scoring tight end honors. Read more »

A changing of the guard will be taking place as the aging Randy Moss and Terrell Owens steadily get pushed by youngsters Braylon Edwards, Larry Fitzgerald and Andre Johnson. Moss and Owens are still the class of this group, but better-than-usual value is there in the second, third and fourth rounds in up-and-comers with big time ability.

Moving on down the line, it really becomes about risk versus reward, more so this year than in years past. And there are unique risks to take. Plaxico Burress, Chad Johnson and Anquan Boldin are unhappy; Brandon Marshall is ultra talented, but a headcase with a potential looming suspension; Torry Holt is an elder statesman, but still a good bet to churn out 1,300 yards and 6 or 8 TDs. Read more »