In the Win Column

I am positive that not a single person reading this really cares about my fantasy football team, but I’m very excited about this year’s squad, so I’m going to tell you about it anyway. Last year I grew extremely fond of my rag-team team of over-achievers who brought me within one win of taking the league championship and I’m happy to say that I managed to salvage a few of those guys for this year’s team.

It seems that last year was almost a perfect situation that occurs only once every few years. I say this because I had three running backs on my team last year (Michael Turner, Steve Slaton, Matt Forte) which are now Top 10 picks this season.  Plus, I picked up two of those guys, Slaton and Forte, off of waivers near the beginning of the season. Did I get lucky? Yes, there was certainly some luck involved in getting my hands on two running backs right before they broke-out and had enormous rookie seasons, but I’ll also gloat and say that it’s partly due to my incredible knowledge of the NFL and my eye for talent.

Anyway, this season I landed the second pick in the draft and managed to bring back Michael Turner, Andre Johnson and Kevin Walter from last year’s team. And I’m happy about that, considering Turner and Johnson were my two biggest players last season, as well as being my favorites. Not to mention that my bench is almost good enough to be someone’s starting team.  Here it is:

Starters

QB – Matt Ryan – Atlanta Falcons

RB – Michael Turner – Atlanta Falcons

RB – Willie Parker – Pittsburgh Steelers

WR – Andre Johnson – Houston Texans

WR – Greg Jennings – Green Bay Packers

TE – Greg Olsen – Chicago Bears

WR/RB/TE – Le’Ron McClain – Baltimore Ravens

K – Adam Vinatieri – Indianapolis Colts

DEF – Green Bay Packers

Bench

WR – Donald Driver – Green Bay Packers

WR – Kevin Walter – Houston Texans

QB – Carson Palmer – Cincinnati Bengals

RB – Jerious Norwood – Atlanta Falcons

WR – Steve Breaston – Arizona Cardinals

WR – Chris Chambers – San Diego Chargers

One thing you might notice is how I grabbed Jerious Norwood (Michael Turner’s back-up) for my bench as well as Donald Driver to complement Greg Jennings. I’ve got all the bases covered this season. Same thing with Andre Johnson and Kevin Walter, both Texans WR’s. I did that last season, starting both Johnson and Walter and it worked out beautifully. Kevin Walter scored 10 TD’s last season without anyone really noticing and mostly receives man-coverage because of the double-teams that Johnson demands.

Although Michael Turner is coming off of a 370 carry season and running backs rarely bounce back too well from a season with that big of a workload, I feel pretty good about his ability to score touchdowns and if not, Norwood is backing him up. Either way the Falcons are going to score a lot of points this season, so starting Ryan at QB will hopefully work out. If all else fails, Carson Palmer is a safe bet if he stays healthy.