Average Fantasy Football Rankings in June: QBs

After going over the Fantasy Football rankings for some of the major media sites, like CBSSports.com, ESPN.com and NFL.com, I posted the averages for your viewing pleasure. Several people messaged me to request I do the same, but with some of the other Fantasy Football sites. And I thought – what a great idea!

I chose a couple sites that I’m familiar with and have dealt with in the past, FFToolbox.com and KFFL.com, and then I chose three sites that people suggested to me to try, including 4for4.com, FakeTeams.com and TheFakeFootball.com.

Some of these sites don’t have top players overall ranked, so I decided to just compare the individual position rankings. In an effort to not scrape their rankings completely, I only used the rankings for the top 12 quarterbacks. I also did the top 24 Running Backs. (The top 24 wide receivers and top 12 tight ends are coming soon.)

Please click on the links in the headers and check these sites out.

 

Average Fantasy Football Rankings: Quarterbacks

QUARTERBACKS	4for4	FakeTeams	FFToolbox	KFFL	The Fake Football
1. Aaron Rodgers, GB	1	1	1	1	1
T-2. Tom Brady, NE	2	2	3	2	5
T-2. Drew Brees, NO	3	4	2	3	2
4. Cam Newton, CAR	4	3	4	5	4
5. Matt Stafford, DET	5	5	5	4	3
T-6. Michael Vick, PHI	6	6	7	8	8
T-6. Eli Manning, NYG	8	7	6	7	7
8. Tony Romo, DAL	7	12	8	9	6
9. Philip Rivers, SD	9	9	10	6	10
10. Matt Ryan, ATL	10	10	9	13	9
11. Peyton Manning, DEN	11	8	11	10	15
12. Ben Roethlisberger, PIT	12	11	12	15	11

 

Analyzing the Rankings

Aaron Rodgers at No. 1 across the board was no surprise. He’ll end up getting drafted in the top five of many Fantasy Football drafts – and I don’t know that I can argue against that too much. I’m old school Fantasy Football, which means I still lean more toward taking a running back in the first round, more than any other position. Sure, the dual-RB systems are making things difficult, but in my eyes, that’s all the more reason to grab a good RB early.

Only two QBs received second-place votes, and one of them is a holdout candidate (Drew Brees). Here’s why Brees will sign a new contract and get into camp in July: Age. He has already been in the league 11 seasons, and he has – at best – four more years in him. Think about it, how many QBs are left from the 1997 NFL Draft? Kerry Collins has retired (again); Jon Kitna has retired; Mark Brunell should retire. Only Charlie Batch, 37, who was drafted in 1998, is close to how old Brees would be in four years. Brees will never get these months back, and he has to play to get paid.

When was the last time a sophomore QB shot up the rankings so fast, into the top five at the position? (I pulled ADP from MyFantasyLeague.com – they have ADP stats dating back to 1998.)

• Michael Vick went from 23rd to 13th in 2002.
• Matt Ryan went from 28th to 9th in 2009.
• Joe Flacco went from 34th to 20th in 2009.
• Ben Roethlisberger went from 24th to 19th in 2005.
• Akili Smith went from 35th to 28th in 2000. Oh … never mind.

But then again, we’ve never seen a rookie QB do what Cam Newton has done in Fantasy in his first year. And The Newton Effect could have an impact on Robert Griffith III also. Three of the above sites rank RG3 in the top 15 among all Fantasy QBs. KFFL.com, meanwhile, has Griffith ranked 20th overall. Personally, as long as you get Griffith as a backup, you should be golden. Roll the dice on him earlier than everyone else if you draft someone like Rodgers or Brees (if he’s signed), since they rarely miss starts. The rookie out of Baylor would be great trade bait in Week 3 after a huge start. He barely missed making it into the top 12 of our Average Fantasy Football Rankings.

KFFL was a big fan of Philip Rivers, though, ranking him sixth overall – at least three spots higher than each of the other sites.

FakeTeams.com has swapped Tony Romo and Peyton Manning in their rankings, compared to the other sites. They have more faith in Manning and less faith in Romo than everyone else.

TheFakeFootball.com, meanwhile, ranks Romo the highest (sixth), and Peyton Manning the lowest (15th). Personally, I think I would draft Peyton among the top 12 QBs, and then also draft the 13th QB in the draft, just to hedge your bets. Figure, that pick will be in Round 8 or 9 anyway. That means you’ve already loaded up at other positions, so you can afford to go back-to-back with QBs.

I hope these Average Fantasy Football Rankings helped you out! Make sure to check out all of these sites!

Here are some of the articles from their sites that I specifically enjoyed:

• 4for4.com — Key Position Battles Heading Into Camp: QBs & RBs by my boy, Matt De Lima, who used to write with me at OPENSports.com.
• TheFakeFootball.com – Top 10 Dynasty Rookie Rankings by a fella named Chet. I like where he has Isaiah Pead ranked, too!
• FFToolbox.com – Strong Finishers — These guys have so many great, well, tools. Like this one, that shows which players had the highest average Fantasy points from Weeks 12-17 last season.
• KFFL.com – I am not afraid of Hakeem Nicks’ foot injury by Cory J. Bonini. He likes what the doctors are saying.
• FakeTeams.com – Fantasy Football: Mock Season by Mike Gallagher. Gotta love an early June IDP mock draft! He even posts which picks he liked and didn’t like. Spoiler alert: Peyton Manning went in Round 7, and there were only three defensive players that were drafted ahead of him.

 

Related articles:

• 8 Reasons NOT to Take Arian Foster First Overall
• Major Sites’ Top 5 Fantasy Football Rankings 2012
• Top 12 Fantasy Football Rookies For 2012