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You will not be able to withdraw the bonus without playing your deposit+bonus one time over. Good luck, get funded and win some money! Don't forget to check out our affiliate program as well at https://www.idevaffiliate.com/33098/.

Daily/Weekly/Monthly Fantasy Football Leagues

As the pre-season winds down and the last of the Full-season Redraft and Keeper Leagues are drafted, attention turns to the latest craze in fantasy football; Daily and Weekly Fantasy Football leagues. Since we strive to provide our customers with a one-stop shop for all their fantasy football needs, we do offer these league types. Of course, we do them OUR way! We are not fans of Salary Cap leagues so we have different Daily/Weekly/Monthly leagues to provide you with more enjoyment. This season’s Daily/Weekly/Monthly leagues for Week 1 are outlined below. Email us if you have any questions about how to play. Enjoy!

• Traditional leagues – a Total Points league featuring the most widely-accepted positions and scoring system: 1 QB, 2 RBs, 3 WR/TE, 1 RB/WR swing, 1 TE, 1 D, 1 K. You can find draft and non-draft leagues of different sizes and fees/payouts. Full configuration settings are found on the Open Leagues page.

• PPR leagues – a Total Points league that resembles the Traditional league but the scoring system awards a point per reception and RB/WR TDs drop to 4 points each with bonuses awarded (extra 1 or 2 points) for longer TDs. You can find draft and non-draft leagues of different sizes and fees/payouts. Full configuration settings are found on the Open Leagues page.

• TD Only leagues – a Total Points is a big departure from Traditional fantasy leagues and harken back to the days of scoring on paper when the Commissioner made life easy on himself and only needed to score points for Touchdowns. TD scoring only is what you will find here so you won’t have to worry about drafting any idiot kickers. TD points vary with the distant of the touchdown. You can find draft and non-draft leagues of different sizes and fees/payouts. Full configuration settings are found on the Open Leagues page.

• Injury-Proof leagues – a Total Points league that resembles the Traditional league but a Team Quarterback is used in place of an individual QB, In-game changes are allowed by Half and you can add 2 players to your bench. It is strongly recommended to use a bench RB and a bench WR from late games as injury replacements should one occur early enough in his game to allow for changing his 2nd half. Roster changes are made from the Game Roster link on the Team home page. The twist in this league is you will be able to change players at the half. This helps if you have a player that is hurt or underperforming. Of course, the first half is locked in already and you will only be able to replace the second half with another player’s half that is currently open (either first or second half). You can find draft and non-draft leagues of different sizes and fees/payouts. Full configuration settings are found on the Open Leagues page.

• 4-week Frenzy leagues – 10-team Live Draft Total Points league that runs for 4 weeks. These will be staggered throughout the year for those looking for a shorter-term league that requires more skill than luck to win. The league set-up resembles the Traditional league but an additional starting RB/WR swing position is added and the scoring system matches the standard except for ranges for the kicking and defensive statistics. The leagues that will start in week 1 will end in week 4, when the Bye weeks begin. Leagues that are fully immersed in Bye weeks will have the Bye Week Rollover feature added to their league configuration. Full configuration settings for leagues starting in week 1 are found here.

Daily Fantasy Sports Expo

Bill will be speaking at the Daily Fantasy Sports Expo being held in Miami, FL August 6-7. He will be talking about different configuration options and games available in the Daily Fantasy Football space in place of the popular Salary Cap games. You can find out more about the Expo at http://fantasysportsexpo.com/.

The event will be at the Miami Beach Convention Center, located at 1901 Convention Center Drive, Miami, FL.  http://goo.gl/pbXVd4

Changing Of The Guard

Once written, twice true? People are lining up to bid Peyton Manning adieu. Should they? Well, based on the past 6 weeks, it appears that Father Time has caught up with Manning. Personally, I do not think that he thinks it is time to expect him to walk away. Peyton has a lot of Pride and his performance versus Indy is not the way he will want to end his career. Paraphrasing the great Marcellus Wallace, “When thinking about your future, you may feel a slight sting. That’s pride f&&ing with you. F&&k pride. Pride never helps you. It only hurts you.”. I believe that he will come back for one more season and attempt to end it on a healthy note versus being hobbled. Strained quad? Torn quad? Hard to say, but he will be back.

Getting back to Sunday, it is apparent though that Andrew Luck is the new AFC gunslinger. It was obvious all season long but things do not change over-night. The coronation takes some time and culminates with an underdog triumph. That has now taken place and, fittingly, he now opposes King II of the Hill; Tom Brady. A true storybook would have Luck also beating Brady to take his newly earned spot on top, but it doesn’t happen like that in real-life sports. There is always more than one hurdle to the top and you cannot leap them all the first time once the wheels are in motion. You get to the last hurdle, get knocked back, re-group and then try again. So, Luck will run into the Brady wall this weekend and will come back next season for another attempt. There is no doubt that he will pass Brady, and pass him soon, but it is not this year. With Peyton on the way out, “The Game” in the AFC will now be New England vs. Indy until Brady rides off into the sunset. The way the Patriots have handled the Colts in the past few years, it may take another 2-3 years before Luck clears that last hurdle.

Aside for the demise of Manning, it was a busy weekend in sports.

• Yes, Cowboys fans, it was an incompletion. Dez did not take 3 steps and make a football move as you have exaggeratedly argued. It was all one process and he did not complete it. Now, if that silly rule was not in place and it was a judgment call, then, Hell yeah, he caught it. But, the NFL is full of silly rules and they have to be followed consistently. I loved the Tweet by the Lions afterwards, btw.
• I am an avid fisherman and a mediocre swimmer. This tale from former Dolphins fullback Rob Conrad guarantees that I will wear a life jacket when out fishing solo from now on. What a great story!
• The writing was on the wall all season for Jim Harbaugh, regardless of how well his teams had done previously, but I did not see John Fox parting ways with the Broncos. This man can coach. I just hope my Bears can lure him in.
• Shame on me. I was fooled the prior week by CBS in thinking that their pre-game show was about football and not advertising but I still went back this week and was caught in that trap again. I hope James Brown can get out of his contract cuz he has no business on that joke of a show. Strahan fits perfectly on it though. The bit they did with Katy Perry was embarrassing enough….maybe they should focus on her two true assets…but was the plug for the movie “American Sniper” really necessary? I thought they filled time between segments with commercials. I didn’t know that they ran commercials as segments? Also, Pepsi pushing the halftime show as “Hyped”?! Can you overstate the obvious any more? The best part of a Super Bowl party is being surrounded by food and drink so it is easy to pass on the commercial time and halftime with sustenance and actually enjoy the evening.

Time To Make A Move

We are now into double digit week numbers for the NFL season, which means that fantasy football playoffs are approaching quickly. Those teams hovering at .500, or just under, better make some last ditch effort to make the playoffs. Don’t hesitate to trade a stud, especially at QB, to solidify multiple positions. Trading Peyton, Luck or Brady for a top RB and WR could be just the move that gets you into the post-season mix. QBs are the easiest position to replace, especially now that you are seeing a lot of turnover. Two words that everyone expected to be uttered this season when it came to who will be your Fantasy savior; “Mark Sanchez”!!!!

Week 10 saw a lot of easy fantasy wins turn into losses with the last two games of the week. I personally saw a 50+ point lead evaporate to my Packers fan fantasy opponent who had Aaron Rodgers (and only needed him for a 6-TD 315 yd half), Mason Crosby (who got two FGs when they were already up a gazillion points) and the Green Bay D. Other wins were snatched away by a late long TD to Kelvin Benjamin at the end of MNF and a steady diet of sacks on Cam. Garbage time points for QBs, WRs and Defenses can really turn a fantasy matchup. Of course, they are spotlighted when they come on SNF and MNF.

Other notes from Week 10:

• Jordy Nelson has 259 receiving yards and 2 TDs in 6 quarters against the Bears this season.
• Chicago has given up 106 points in its past two games, including being outscored 80-7 in the first half of those games. Hard to believe that the fan base was upset at the quality of their play in the second half of games early in the season.
• The Jets seem to play their best games against the best teams. Too bad they play a lot of bad teams each year. With the up-and-down NFL, it seems fitting that the hottest QB in the league would completely cool off against the league’s worst pass defense, right?
• How could no team have given Justin Forsett a longer-term look in the past? Enough teams have had him on their roster.
• Welcome back, Megatron, we missed you!
• Seattle had 350 yards rushing….THREE HUNDRED FIFTY! I guess Pete Carroll went back to college and channeled his inner Tom Osborne.
• What happens to the Saints’ DBs at the end of the game where their only concern should be to NOT let a WR get behind them (See Tampa game and San Fran game)? Has one division ever been so talented and so bad? Remember how bad the NFC West was a few years ago when no one was above .500? Somehow, Atlanta could be in first place in the NFC South after not winning a game prior to last week since 9/18.
• Many Fantasy team owners, bettors and Survivor Pool participants were treated generously by Arizona’s D last Sunday in the 4th quarter with back-to-back Pick-6s to beat St. Louis going away. That was a huge pick-me-up for a team that knew it just lost its starting QB for the season, though the Stanton-to-Brown scoring bomb may have been more important.

If you can’t pull off a big trade, you can always look at the waiver wire for some help. Don’t be afraid to cut some high-priced dead weight on your team hen dropping a player to make room.

QB: Drew Stanton (AZ) – Stanton can seamlessly step into action under center for the rest of the year for the Cardinals since he has 3+ games already under his belt with Palmer on the sidelines. With loads of talent at the offensive skill positions, Stanton can make a nice starter in the proper matchups if you currently own Palmer or Cam as your starter.

QB: Josh McCown (TB) – McCown is back under center in Tampa and returns at a time when the team is better suited offensively with WR Mike Evans now a threat. Their running game is still suspect, but I expect good numbers out of McCown going forward. Once again, a solid play with proper matchups. I prefer him this week to Stanton with a game against the Redskins versus Stanton matching up against the Lions.

RB: Terrance West (CLE) – it is hard to trust the RBBC approach of the Browns, but West is still the best RB out of that trio and it shows in the pct of plays he is involved in over Ben Tate and Isaiah Crowell. Finding any quality RBs now on the waiver wire in 10+ team leagues is rare so grab him if you can.

RB: C.J. Anderson (DEN) – Much like many other teams, Denver’s backfield is a crapshoot. A few weeks ago, it appeared that Juwan Thompson would be next in line for carries after Ronnie Hillman but that all changed last week when Ronnie Hillman’s ankle knocked him out of action. After a game with 163 total yards and a TD on 17 touches, I would expect him to see the majority of action this weekend, but don’t be shocked if it goes to Thompson or even Ball. It is worth the risk if you need an RB though.

WR: Jordan Matthews (PHL) – Matthews was just an underutilized rookie receiver until last week. The Riley Cooper fad officially died and Matthews is VERY happy with Mark Sanchez under center. With a stat line of 7/138/2, he needs to be owned!

WR: Cecil Shorts (JAX) – Though he is off this week, pick up Shorts if you have roster space and need WR depth. He is finally healthy and the other Jags’ receivers are dinged up, including Allen Robinson out for the year.

TE: Mychal Rivera (OAK) – Rivera is an official Must Add now. He has gone for 21/185/3 over his past 3 games, even if a bunch of it was in garbage time. With this team, 60 minutes is garbage time. The Charges are tough on tight ends so temper your expectations for this week, but get him if you need help.

TE: Kyle Rudolph (MINN) – Rudolph is finally going to be activated. He has spent almost the whole season on the waiver wire and is coming off at a good time. The Bears’ D is a wreck, especially across the middle of the field. There is a good chance that he makes an immediate impact.

Just Past NFL Midseason Awards

We are almost through the Bye Season and are into the second half of the season. Let’s take a look back at how the first half of the season has unfolded while handing out a few First Half awards.

Best Team: Arizona. This is NFL Karma since they won 10 games last year and didn’t make the playoffs. They have a nice mix of talented offensive players and a solid defense. They may surprisingly clinch their division before any other team. Runner-up: New England. After being written off after their shellacking at Kansas City, no team has looked more dominant.

Worst Team: Oakland. The Raiders have had some close losses (3 to San Diego, a TD to New England,..) but they have a very, very good chance of going 0-16. Runner-up: New York Jets. The Jets are the worst team in the NFL but get runner-up status by virtue of beating Oakland.

MVP: DeMarco Murray, hands down. It took a Romo-less effort against a solid Arizona run defense to stop his streak of 100+ rushing yard games. Runner-Up: Andrew Luck.

LVP: LeSean McCoy. Always be leery when a RB comes off of a big season and start spouting off about a 2000+ yard year coming. LeSean has a whopping 1 TD and half of the yards of Murray. Runner-up: Megatron, though he gets a pass due to injury so we will give it to Brandon Marshall since most of his points have come in one game.

Surprise Team (good): Cleveland. Sure, it helps to have games against Tampa, Tennessee (amazing comeback), and Oakland, but they did beat some quality teams. The most surprising thing is that they didn’t throw Johnny Football in while they were down over 20 points to Tennessee or after they lost to Jacksonville. However, I am not sure we won’t see him in the second half as Cleveland may not win another game. Runner-up: Dallas. They have 5 of their last 7 on the road and will find it difficult to keep their magic rolling.

Surprise Team (bad): Chicago. They lost a few games that they shouldn’t have and they won a few games that they shouldn’t have, but their D is terrible and their offense is bickering. Their Bye came at a good time but they go to Green Bay when they come out of it. They need to treat that game as a playoff game. Their schedule in the second half sets up nicely, but they may be too dysfunctional to take advantage of it. Runner-up: Atlanta. We gave them a pass last year with all of their injuries. Now, they are beat up again this year, but we now know that they are not a good football team….we just didn’t want to believe it at the start of the year.

Best Reason To Handcuff: Matt Asiata. Getting a handcuff for your studs is always recommended, no matter why it kicks in. If you had AP, Asiata went into the year as the backup to have. He immediately produced 47 points in his first 3 games. Granted, he did fall off after Jerick McKinnon emerged, but Asiata did carry a few owners over a tough period where the realization that AP was going to miss the rest of the season was sinking in. Runner-up: Chris Ivory (this should have been obvious with Chris Johnson being a yearly bust).

Wasted Fantasy Performance: Ben Roethlisberger in Week 8. Far too many owners dropped Big Ben after three lackluster performances in a row and many others benched Ben against the Colts as their defense had played very well in the weeks leading up to the game. That left at least 44 points unused that week, depending on the league configuration. Runner-up: Matt Asiata in Week 9 (second 3 TD performance of the year).

Worst Fantasy Move: Far too many owners gave up on Tom Brady after he started the season with 4 Geno Smith-like games in a row. This happened even in 12-team leagues! After a mediocre 2013, the thought was Tom Terrific was Tom Terrible. Yes, Gronk DOES make that much of a difference in the Patriots’ passing game. Runner-up: Overpaying for Toby Gerhart. Minnesota’s running blocking scheme made him look good.

Player To Immediately Trade For: Mark Ingram. He has played in 4 games this year and has put up 16, 16, 23 and 23 (his brief minutes against Detroit are exempt). With New Orleans committed to the running game and Ingram in a contract year, we expect more of this type of production. Runner-up: Sammy Watkins. He loves him some Kyle Orton.

Player To Offload ASAP: Frank Gore. Many people will overpay for a running back and Gore’s last month makes it seem that his best days are behind him. Even when he is feeling spry, Colin Kaepernick is finding a way to ruin San Fran’s season. It won’t be long before you see more of Carlos Hyde on the stat sheet. Runner-up: Steven Jackson. Jackson is faring better than Gore but, with Atlanta’s season soon to be in the tank, expect the Falcons to turn to their younger backs to see what they have in their future.

(Sack) Dancing With The Stars

Houston, we have a problem…that it is the latest update on the billboard located on the Command Transportation Building heading into Chicago on the Edens Expressway.

Lamarr Houston added more (insult and) injury to the travesty that is the Chicago Bears’ defense by tearing his ACL during a non-crucial stop on Patriots’ back-up, Jimmy Garoppolo. I would call the Bears defense a train wreck but that implies something you continue to look at despite how awful it is. By the 3^rd quarter of Sunday’s New England debacle, I was full-on NFL Red Zone and missed seeing Lamar fail to “stick his landing”. What’s funny is that Lamar’s move was similar to the rug-cutting of Lions linebacker, Stephen Tulloch, who tore up his ACL in a September dance against the Packers (See DeadSpin for a side-by-side replay).

I guess defensive players in the modern NFL need to get their celebrations where and when they can. Rules seemed stacked against them. We love it from a fantasy perspective but is anyone else out there missing a little ‘D’? My other regional team, the Colts, failed to lose a player to a celebratory sack dance as they did not register one against the Steelers. Honestly, it was hard to appreciate the achievements of Roethlisberger when the Colts could not get enough pressure to even remotely force a patented Big Ben “king of the hill” scramble.

Bears GM Phil Emery gave a diplomatic review of Houston’s situation, suggesting that Lamarr had “built up frustration from not having a sack yet” on the season. Da Coach was a bit more direct, as always. Houston acknowledged that he “probably shouldn’t have celebrated while they were blowing us out, but it happens”. Really? I suppose that was an improvement over Tulloch who defiantly stated, “I’d do it again, brother.”

Whatever. Get a new choreographer.

So what next for the Bears? Who will pick up the slack on the 1.4 combined tackles and .12 sacks that Houston was averaging per game? Jared Allen? Too depressing to think about. Who will replace the love that Houston showed for the hometown faithful and the assessment of the team’s play this season? I am not sure anyone has the intelligence to match Lamarr and provide valuable commentary on the fans’ verbal grading of the raio of talent displayed on the field to the dollar paid.

What’s next for Lamarr? Joseph Randle scored an underwear endorsement for his sins. Certainly, there must be something out there although it probably won’t be shuffling for cold cuts. Look for him near the hot dog section.

Speaking of injuries, I am taking over for Bill the week and handling Waiver Wire Finds for the week:

QB: Carson Palmer (AZ) - Palmer has returned from his shoulder ailment showing no ill effects. He has quietly put up at least 16 points in each of his games thanks to a stable of quality receiving options. With loads of good QBs on the shelf this week, he is worthy of pickup and starting if you need a fill-in unless you are in a league where an owner foolishly tired of Big Ben and dropped him (don’t laugh, it happened in more leagues than you would have guessed). DO NOT be tempted by Michael Vick!

RB: Jonas Gray (NE) - you are rolling the dice here as gambling on who will get the backfield love in New England is risky. Where was all the Gray talk in pre-season when James White was touted as the next great back? Sure, he looked good against a putrid Bears’ defense last week, but that will not guarantee another 17 carries against Denver this week, though the Patriots would be wise to give each of their backs that many carries to speed the game up and limit Peyton Manning’s time on the field.

RB: Bobby Rainey (TB) - it appears that Rainey will be given the starting slot again with Doug Martin dinged up with an ankle injury. Rainey has done well during his fill-in chances the past two seasons and is a must-add for now if available. If you have roster room, it might be sage to also add rookie RB Bobby Sims. He has been on the IR thus far but is coming off this week and eligible to play. The Bucs could give him a hard look to help determine if the Rainey/Sims combo is their future and to trade Doug Martin in the off-season.

WR: Andrew Hawkins (CLE) - Hawkins has been floating around on the waiver wire off-and-on all season. The problem with Hawkins is that he is money in PPR leagues but not-so-much elsewhere due to his lack of TDs. This week against Tampa could be different since Tampa’s secondary is very accommodating to opposing receivers.

WR: Martavis Bryant (PITT) - the Colts made EVERY Steelers’ receiver look awesome last weekend. It did validate the 6’4″ Bryant’s arrival since he also caught a TD the week before against Houston. Though Markus Wheaton showed up versus Indy as well, it appears that the X-receiver’s job is Bryant’s for now.


WR: Donte Moncrief (IND) - Moncrief came out of nowhere last week in the Colts’ shootout with the bumblebees. He caught 7 passes for 113 yards and a touchdown and is a solid fill-in for Reggie Wayne, thus cementing the signing bust of Hakeem Nicks. He is definitely a nice WR3 or WR4 option while Wayne is hurt and Bye weeks are in effect.

No One Wants a Tie

Well, week 6 was as baffling as the five that preceded it. The Giants reverted back to their true selves after three impressive performances, though an extremely aggressive defense had something to do with that. A Cleveland defense that had a hard time stopping Jake Locker and Charlie Whitehurst shut down a Pittsburgh offense that was previously somewhat dynamic. Of course, the biggest eye-opener was Dallas. I mocked their defense at the start of the year and have been proven wrong, plus it looks as though they have quit wilting under pressure. After Romo went down in the first quarter and looked iffy to return, I remarked that they would lose by 50 after Seattle blocked that punt for a TD to go up 10-0. Good thing that I was full of beers and wings at that point as a huge heaping of crow was delivered to me before I left the pub.

A few other things that stood out to me on Sunday:

• Wang Dang No Poontang for Mike Nugent. NO kicker is perfect, just look at Detroit’s three kickers this season, but to miss like that after the offense executed a beautiful two-minute drive was devastating. Oh yeah…and it left the game at a tie which killed many Teaser bets and knocked out many Survivor Teams (ties always lose in Survivor Pools, no matter if you pick winners or losers). Loads of people were unhappy. I am sure that his teammates kept it to themselves, except for that idiot Adam Jones. Yep, the same Adam Jones that plays on defense and had multiple opportunities to stop Carolina and preserve the win long before Nugent’s big miss. I think the defense is more accountable. Back-to-back very poor performances where they rarely had their opponent punting is a bigger cause for concern than a missed field goal.
• After the Chargers erased a 50+ yard field goal by Nick Novak due to a holding penalty, they were faced with a 4th and 35….and tried a fake punt…..that wasn’t even close. Who is running that asylum? Hell, they should have just tried another field goal if they didn’t feel like advancing the ball.
• Speaking of field goals, Tennessee’s Prevent defense almost prevented a win as the Jaguars woke up with a late TD, onside kick and could have won the game on a field goal if it was elevated a weee bit more.
• It was kind of cool to look up at the Arizona game and see Michael Floyd score (happiness is a return of Carson Palmer for Cardinals receivers) and a short time later to  look up at San Diego scoring with a TD pass to his brother-from-another-mother, Malcom. By the way, he is still looking for that lost “L”.
• No one does more with less than Atlanta’s RB Antone Smith. He ripped off another long TD; 41 yards against the Bears. HOW the Falcons are not using him more baffles me more than Eli with a good game.
• The Jets had 31 yards rushing on Sunday…with a lot of it coming towards the end of the game. They were actually in single digits early in the fourth quarter.
• Joe Flacco had FIVE TD passes in slightly over 16 minutes on Sunday. So much for Tampa having any hope this season. Their defense is BAAAAAD and it does not reflect well on defensive-minded Lovie Smith.
• Of course, I would be remiss if I did not mention the Giants. Worst. Performance. Ever. To add injury on top of insult, the Giants had a TD to Larry Donnell taken off the board thanks to a holding penalty a few plays before the ill-fated pass to Victor Cruz. If they weren’t stinking the joint up so much, they would have settled for a FG instead of going for it on 4th down. Sad to see a good guy like Victor lose his season to an injury that he may never fully recover from thanks to bad New York karma.
• Shutouts are rare in this offense-centric, defense-absent NFL but somehow a New York team has posted one in back-to-back weeks.
• I love me some Ickey Shuffle…and so does Jeremy Hill. He paid tribute after his TD on Sunday. I still crack up every time I see that Geico commercial. Gonna get some cold cuts today!

Unfortunately, one constant about the NFL is the number of injuries that occur every week. I already mentioned Victor Cruz, but the list is long once again, especially if you include defensive players. So, owners are again scouring the waiver wire for Bye week and injury replacements. This week, we have the following:

QB: Derek Carr (OAK) - the kid looks polished and poised. I would only take a rookie QB if desperate or the matchup is right as they can disappoint as easy as they can impress. He did play well at home against a good Chargers’ defense and gets another home game this week versus Arizona.

RB: James White (NE) - this is a longer-term speculative pick up. With Steven Ridley out, Shane Vereen will get more time as will RB Brandon Bolden on a short week. However, White had a great camp and I believe that the Patriots see him as their future number 1 so this will be the trigger to start working him towards that this season.

RB: James Stewart (CAR) - he sits on almost every waiver wire and looks to be finally ready to start playing. The Panthers tried about six different backs while he and DeAngelo Williams have been hurt and none impressed. Starting RBs are tough to come by right now so it is worth a roster spot for Stewart if you need a RB.

WR: Odell Beckham Jr (NYG) – he is definitely a must-add now that Cruz is out.

WR: Andre Holmes (OAK) - he is Derek Carr’s go-to receiver and has almost 200 yards and three TDs in the past two weeks. His emergence is also helping out WR James Jones.

TE: Benjamin Watson (NO) – with Jimmy Graham out for a game or two, Watson makes the most sense as his replacement. He performed well in his time in Cleveland and is more of an offensive threat than TE Josh Hill. That being said, Hill is worthy of a pick up as well as he has found the end zone twice already this season while Jimmy Graham was playing.

TE: Jace Amaro (NYJ) – the Jets won’t completely abandon the run game every week so don’t expect 10 catches for Amaro every week, but he is now part of the weekly gameplan. Of course, he needs to lessen his Drops if he can truly be counted on, but he did show last week that he can handle the workload if called upon.

2014 Fantasy Football Leagues

We would normally be gearing up for the NFL Draft right now. However, due to Radio City Music Hall scheduling a musical called Heart & Lights, the draft has been pushed back to May. The NFL could have easily found another hosting location, but it is pretty easy to discern that they have been looking for a convenient excuse to push the draft back. It is widely believed that this move is permanent. Maybe it gives the teams more time to evaluate players, make trades or shorten the time before camp opens to put pressure on the players to sign and get to work. For us, it just means another month of draft projections and far too much air time for Mel Kiper and Todd Mcshay.

As far as fantasy football goes, we still have plenty of time to evaluate how drafted players will project on their new teams and training camp and pre-season games are still on the same schedule. Now that NCAA hoops is over, we are in that lull period before summer where MLB is just starting and the NHL and NBA begin their second season called the Playoffs. We will be well into planning our draft strategies when those second seasons mercifully come to an end.

At MFS, we are finishing up our off-season changes for the 2014 football season. Aside from some cosmetic changes, we have some big changes afoot at MFS. The highlighted changes are:

• Drag & Drop functionality on Fantasy league rosters and Confidence Pool rankings
• More push notifications on league activity
• The ability to hide leagues and pools that have ended for an individual or as a whole
• A new Open Leagues page to list all MFS leagues with openings as well as any Private leagues and pools that desire to opt in to advertise their openings
• And our biggest change: Daily, Weekly, Monthly and Playoff Leagues!

Check in on or after June 1st to register your 2014 leagues and pools and just into one or more of our many Public fantasy leagues.

Fantasy Football Preseason checklist

We are immersed in the start of the 2015 NFL Fantasy Football season (the fantasy football season kicks off long before the NFL season does) so it is time to start your preparation work for your fantasy football league draft(s). Sure, you could take the easy way out and let your autodraft engine pick your team for you and hope that you will be competitive. However, very few leagues are won this way. You need to gain the advantage at draft time by picking the Sleepers ahead of the other managers and being positioned to pick the waiver wire clean at the appropriate times during the season. So, here is a basic checklist to start with.

1. Determine what fantasy sports website you want to play on. Even if you are not the Commissioner, you want to investigate the variety of sites available and determine who has the best features and appears to be the easiest to use. Do not be afraid to use a site that you have not seen on national television. Investments in innovation will help you play in a more enjoyable league.
   
2. Start building the pool of players that will one day make up your player rankings. Many sites have players ranked at draft time, but everyone in your league will have access to that information. You want your list of players ranked by your expectation of how they will perform this season. If you do your homework before the draft, you should be in position to take home the crown at the end of the season. If it looks iffy, you can always bribe a few other managers to dump players your way.
   
3. Now, that player pool is not as easy to dissect as a Thanksgiving Day turkey. It will be time-consuming, but well worth it. Start by going over the free agent movement since the Super Bowl ended. Since the Patriots won the title, it seems like a quarter of the league has changed teams. You also want to flag position battles for the top slots in your money positions. No reason to worry about who the number 1 running back is in Chicago, but you may be concerned about who will win the number 2 slot. You want to focus on news involving these players as injuries take down many running backs each year and you want to be protected.
   
4. Of course, you better factor rookies into the mix. There was a time when very few made an impact in their first year, but those days are over with. I would have never recommended a rookie WR in days gone by, but the success of Odell Beckham Jr, Mike Evans and Kelvin Benjamin has changed all of that. So, grab the draft results from May. Everyone knows that Amari Cooper will be a rookie WR to draft, but what about Devin Funchess? You want to be the team that drafts him first. Of course, he’ll be known by draft time, so go through all picks and try to imagine where they will factor into the depth chart, even if they will not be a guaranteed starter. For example, get to know RB Jay Ajayi. With Lamar Miller coming off his first good pro year, there is no guarantee that he can repeat his success. Miami has high aspirations on the season and will not hesitate to pull him and give Ajayi a chance should Miller struggle.
   
5. Start digesting news and injury reports, making sure to focus on the teams where you see the best position battles and greatest opportunity for upside.  If you keep a comprehensive diary of these happenings, you can trust this more than random articles found before the draft….except mine, of course.  I won’t be publishing a mock draft until mid-August, though. Too many unknowns. It is a bit foolhardy to rank players right now, though it doesn’t stop every Tom, Dick and Matthew from doing it. It still surprises me that some leagues will draft before August 1st. Good luck with that, folks! Put yourself in the best position to win come your draft date.
   
6. Evaluate the impact of coaching changes. Teams that have changed head coaches and/or offensive coordinators can greatly change the outlook for player performances based on the way they run their offenses. For example, the Bears new head coach, John Fox, and offensive coordinator, Adam Gase, have believed that running the football leads to offensive success, which is a big change from last year’s philosophy of throwing the ball for success. With that, you can expect a bigger year out of RB Matt Forte and possibly a dropoff for Alshon Jeffrey and Martellus Bennett. With Rex Ryan now leading the Buffalo Bills, you know that he will have an impact on how the defense operates, which should elevate an already talented unit.
   
7. Run through some mock drafts and watch where certain guys are being drafted (Average Draft Position; ADP) and if it is relatively consistent. As the pre-season rolls on, are certain guys falling down the draft board/moving up the draft board? You should have your ADP projections and highlight the players that are a big departure from your expectations as those changes may alter your drafting strategy. As always, there will be a run on running backs early in the draft but I would expect the top WRs to come off the board then as well along with TE Rob Gronkowski. Your drafting strategy is dependent on your league configuration so you should not buy into one set drafting strategy as it may not apply to your league. If you decide to go with WRs and/or Gronk early in the draft, you will most likely need to look into the second tier of running backs. Know when they are going off the board and be prepared to stock your backfield then before chasing a slew of tier 3 guys and hoping to strike oil.