Link to final fantasy football column/Madden 15

My last column on fantasy football came out yesterday too. I have a fantasy football draft on Saturday, one on Sept. 3 and another at some point in the near future.

I also got Madden 15 yesterday, still the same old Madden for the most part. A bit confusing in some of the new and unnecessary stuff, but overall, it's Madden.

My roommate and I did a fantasy draft. As the eighth pick I was thrilled to get Andrew Luck. I also got Adrian Peterson, Eric Decker, Antonio Brown, several good offensive lineman. I was a little weak on defense, but got strong guys in Xavier Rhodes, Chris Long and Sean Lee. However, my right guard Zane Beadles was hurt, as was Sean Lee. They are both out for multiple weeks to start the season. I won my first game 17-14 over Buffalo in overtime. I came from behind, down 14-7 in the first half. Peterson ran for 140 yards and two touchdowns, and had two grabs for 78 yards, one that set up the game-winning field goal. 

Next week I'll post my predictions for the NFL this season. 

A look back at TE and a link to 2014's WR

here's a link to my latest WR column for this year's fantasy season. It's coming up so quick.

2013 prediction No. 1: Jimmy Graham. Actual finish for Graham: First
That was easy.
2013 prediction No. 2: Jason Witten. Actual finish for Witten: Six.
Not terrible, but not really anything special.
2013 prediction No. 3: Tony Gonzalez. Actual finish for Gonzalez: Fourth.
Pretty good here. It's going to be weird without him this year.
2013 prediction No. 4: Rob Gronkowski. Actual finish for Gronk: 16.
Injuries kept him down, but I should have figured that.
2013 prediction No. 5: Jermichael Finley. Actual finish for Finley: 37.
Ouch. Literally. He's done for his career.

Thanks for reading everyone. I'm almost at 40,000 views in 4 years. That's 10,000 a year, more than 830 per month and 27 a day. That's pretty cool. 

A look back at WR plus a link to take a look at RB this year.

Looking back at predictions of WR last season. Also check out my thoughts on running backs this season. 
2013 prediction No. 1: Calvin Johnson. Actual finish for Johnson: Three.
Solid pick. I couldn't go wrong picking him to be No. 1 every year, and that's almost always what I've done.
2013 prediction No. 2: Brandon Marshall. Actual finish for Marshall: Five.
Another strong prediction. Marshall didn't have quite the season I expected, but that was likely due to his soul mate Jay Cutler being injured for a stretch.
2013 prediction No. 3: Dez Bryant. Actual finish for Bryant: Seven.
An OK selection. Bryant didn't score as much as I anticipated last year, but he still did pretty well, and anyone who took him as the third wide receiver off the board is not complaining.
2013 prediction No. 4: A.J. Green. Actual finish for Green: Four.
And boom goes the dynamite.
2013 prediction No. 5: Julio Jones. Actual finish for Jones: 64.
Should have known he would get hurt, but his upside is so high it's hard not to rank him high.
2013 prediction No. 6: Randall Cobb. Actual finish for Cobb: 60.
Another injury, but this one was a lot harder to take and see coming.
2013 prediction No. 7: Roddy White. Actual finish for White: 55.
Wow. Three in a row that were hurt for a big part of the year. Roddy was a weird case.
2013 prediction No. 8: Vincent Jackson. Actual finish for Jackson: 14.
Not a terrible prediction as Jackson had a solid year. Just had him ranked a little too high.
2013 prediction No. 9: Victor  Cruz. Actual finish for Cruz: 29.
Did not see Eli's fall, which really hurt Cruz.
2013 prediction No. 10: Dwayne Bowe. Actual finish for Bowe: 44.
Dumb, dumb idea to think that he would be better. He's done.

2013 Fantasy Football Review: Running Backs

I'm going to take a look at how I faired in predicting running backs last season:

2013 prediction No. 1: Adrian Peterson. Actual finish for Peterson: Seventh.

It was pretty hard to not pick AD No. 1 after he almost set the rushing record, and it's not like he was bad. He just wasn't spectacular.

2013 prediction No. 2: Doug Martin. Actual finish for Martin: 56.

I could blame this on an injury, and that he played only six games, but I won't. He was not the same even when he was healthy. He got figured out by the league. He's a total bust.

2013 prediction No. 3: Jamaal Charles. Actual finish for Charles: First.

Solid pick here. I had him in two of my three leagues, and rode him to a title in one league. He's even better in PPR than in standard, but he also scored 19 total touchdowns so....yeah, he's good.

2013 prediction No. 4: C.J. Spiller. Actual finish for Spiller: 26.

Yet another bust, and this one hurts even more than Martin for me. I put a lot of stock in Spiller, and he really disappointed me, and a lot of other people too. I did somehow manage to trade him midseason for Antonio Brown (beyond me why that was allowed to happen). I do still hold out hope for him this year though.

2013 prediction No. 5: Arian Foster. Actual finish for Foster: 43.

Running backs are a fickle breed. Injuries and declines can be hard to predict, and that bit me again here. He was effective when healthy, but now has all those injury question marks.

2013 prediction No. 6: Maurice Jones-Drew. Actual finish for MJD: 20.

He's getting up there in age, and I should have figured he would decline in a poor situation in Jacksonville. Interesting to see if he can provide some middling value with the Raiders much like LT did with the Jets late in his career.

2013 prediction No. 7: Trent Richardson. Actual finish for Richardson: 35.

Another flop, and horrible pick by me, but to be fair it is probably tough to switch teams midseason. It certainly is not something that's expected, and is rare in the NFL.

2013 prediction No. 8: LeSean McCoy. Actual finish for McCoy: second.

Was not quite high enough on McCoy, as I said that I though MJD would rebound better. Fool. I did say he could "easily return to form" which he did. Yay me.

2013 prediction No. 9: Matt Forte. Actual finish for Forte: third.

Another undersell, but with the right idea. I had said that I was "high on Forte rebounding." So mark another one down for the gipper.

2013 prediction No. 10: Marshawn Lynch. Actual finish for Lynch: fourth.

Yet another undersell. Looks like I either swung and missed or did not have enough power to hit it over the fence. Running backs are the toughest to predict.

Be sure to check out this year's quarterback predictions from the paper this week.