Fantasy Football Rankings Redraft: After the NFL Draft

Just like that – the NFL Draft is behind us and we are left with reshaped rosters and the start of the 2012 Fantasy Football Draft season. But before you draft, consider doing a mock draft, and consider the following update as Fantasy Football rankings for the first two rounds. This actually gets updated throughout training camp and the preseason, considering injuries and player news. For a full set of Fantasy Football Rankings, feel free to check out my friends at CBSSports.com for their updated rankings.

ROUND ONE

1.01 Arian Foster, RB, Houston:

1.02 Ray Rice, RB, Baltimore: I’m a bigger fan of Rice this year, but Foster remains the consensus No. 1 for most people.

1.03 LeSean McCoy, RB, Philadelphia

1.04 Maurice Jones-Drew, RB, Jacksonville: MJD has averaged over 350 touches for the past three seasons. Would he draft himself in the top three?

1.05 Calvin Johnson, WR, Detroit

1.06 Aaron Rodgers, QB, Green Bay

1.07 Ryan Mathews, RB, San Diego

1.08 Chris Johnson, RB, Tennessee: Probably the best high-risk/high-reward guy in the first round.

1.09 Andre Johnson, WR, Houston

1.11 Marshawn Lynch, RB, Seattle

1.12 Matt Forte, RB, Chicago: A protracted holdout could bump him out of the first round soon.

ROUND TWO

2.01 Cam Newton, QB, Carolina

2.02 Rob Gronkowski, TE, New England: Don’t take a tight end in the first round. You only need one, and the top ones are still pretty darn good.

2.03 Tom Brady, QB, New England

2.04 Wes Welker, WR, New England

2.05 Roddy White, WR, Atlanta

1.10 Drew Brees, QB, New Orleans: Call me a chicken, but the Saints are snake-bitten for this upcoming season and I won’t be taking Brees in the first round in any league. New coaching, a possible contract holdout, continued scrutiny, and normal attrition has me preferring three QBs ahead of Brees this season. The odds are very much against him having a 2007 Tom Brady-type season.

2.06 Darren McFadden, RB, Oakland

2.07 Greg Jennings, WR, Green Bay

2.08 Larry Fitzgerald, WR, ARI: Just last week, I had him in the “Dropping Hard” category, but the Cards drafted Michael Floyd to help him on the other side. If the QB situation isn’t decided on early, I could bump Fitzgerald back out of the second round.

2.09 DeMarco Murray, RB, Dallas

2.10 Jimmy Graham, TE, New Orleans: Two tight ends drafted among the top 25 picks? Can’t remember this ever happening before in Fantasy Football history.

2.11 Michael Vick, QB, Philadelphia

2.12 Michael Turner, RB, ATL

Rising fast – Trent Richardson, RB, CLE: The Browns have a good offensive line and questions at QB, which means they’ll want to run, run, run. He’ll get a lot of attention from defenses, however, which prevents the top Fantasy rookie from getting drafted in the top two rounds.

Dropping hard – Frank Gore, RB, San Francisco: Too many cooks in the kitchen. Brandon Jacobs, Kendall Hunter and now rookie RB LaMichael James will be looking to take touches from the UM star.

Is there anyone you’d move up or down? Am I missing someone?