Top 50 Position Battles Countdown Kickoff
August is a month for the football players on the fringes. While LaDainian Tomlinson mostly rests, undrafted players fight for spots on the practice squad. Declining veterans try to hold on to their roster spots. And players on the cusp on stardom battle each other for playing time. That’s when fantasy leaguers should start paying attention.
Over the next few weeks, we'll count down the top 50 position battles to watch during training camp. We try not to get carried away with preseason game results, rather the depth chart adjustments that coaches make. Players usually earn snaps in practice, and they solidify them in the preseason.
Evan Silva will update all the battles in detail throughout a weekly training camp column. This series should help you know where to look.
The beginning of the countdown will be for the true fantasy junkies that like to know every starter. Just barely missing the list were the battles for the starting tight end job in Arizona (Leonard Pope vs. field) and Buffalo (Bubba Kevin Everett vs. Robert Royal). The winners there just aren't likely to matter.
No. 50. Panthers TE: Jeff King vs. Michael Gaines
The winner of this battle isn't going to get drafted in fantasy leagues, but don't dismiss their chances for relevance entirely. The Panthers offense under Dan Henning required blocking from their tight ends and got it in spades from recently retired tight end Kris Mangum.
But Henning was fired and the new coordinator Jeff Davidson comes from the New England school of spreading the wealth. Davidson has been a tight ends coach in the past (for Ben Coates) and helped Kellen Winslow to an excellent season in Cleveland last year.
Davidson doesn't have that kind of talent to work with in Carolina. Gaines is more of a Daniel Graham-type at best, a blocker first. He's 280 pounds. King has a chance to catch some passes, though, if he can earn enough playing time. The Rock Hill Herald thinks he may start. He has decent hands and is someone to watch in deep dynasty leagues if he can win this battle.
Comments
Greg,
I just signed up for your rotoworld draft guide/season pass for
fantasy football again this year. Last year I e-mailed you guys and asked
if you had thought about putting together some type of one page cheatsheet
guide with columns for each position in a spreadsheet or freehand format.
Therefore on draft day you could just look at one piece of paper and have a
column with 30 or so QB's, one column with 60 or so RB's, one with 60-90
WR's, one with 30 TE's, one with 30 kickers, and one with 32 Defenses/ST's
all on the same single page so that one sheet of paper is all you would have
to bring to the draft. I haven't really gone over the whole draft guide yet
but I was wondering if you guys put something like that together this year
or if you plan to/can do so b/f most drafts next month. I would find this
really helpful (lot less clutter at the draft) and I'm sure many other
readers would too. Thanks for your time. Jack Martinelli
Posted by: Jack Martinelli | July 10, 2007 12:59 PM
In addition to Jack's comment above, you could involve the always important tiering part by putting lines or breaking apart each position. So that one sheet would have tiers as well as serve as a simple cheat sheet. Just so you know, I bought the guide last year and plan to again this year. Thanks Greg.
Posted by: Adam | July 10, 2007 03:30 PM