Has there been a shift in the landscape of Fantasy Football?

November 15, 2007

Filed under: Fantasy Football — Drew @ 4:16 pm

I know that there’s still plenty of football left to be played, but after recently kicking myself for drafting Shaun Alexander with the 5th pick in my draft I started to take a look at all of my leagues draft results. The top five picks in each draft were LT, Steven Jackson, Shaun Alexander, Frank Gore and Larry Johnson, in various orders. I have been playing fantasy football for almost 10 years now and the general theory behind winning a league championship has been to have a strong group of running backs. For the most part, this theory has held up. But after taking a look at the league leaders for the current season, I was amazed at the names that were at the top of the list, based on their preseason rank, and I also noticed a shift in the top fantasy position.

Here’s a list that was generated using the standard Yahoo Fantasy Football scoring system, as of this week.

Top 15 Yahoo Fantasy Football Scorers:

Tom Brady(QB)
Tony Romo(QB)
Ben Roethlisberger(QB)
Derek Anderson(QB)
Adrian Peterson(RB)

Brian Westbrook(RB)
Peyton Manning(QB)
Randy Moss(WR)
Brett Favre(QB)
LT(RB)
Carson Palmer(QB)
Joseph Addai(RB)
Matt Hasselbeck(QB)
Donovan McNabb(QB)
Drew Brees(QB)

As you can see, Quarterbacks lead the list with 10, followed by 4 Running Backs and 1 Wide Receiver. More importantly, of the Top 5 scorers the top 4 are quarterbacks with a running back pulling up the rear. In years past, the Top 5 scorers list was usually composed of all running backs.

It’s premature, but the early front runner as the consensus #1 pick in next year’s draft is Adrian Peterson. My guess is that the top 2 picks will be AD and LT. Will you consider taking a QB in the top 5 or do you consider this season to be just a glitch in the Fantasy Football Space-Time Continuum? Has the quarterback position supplanted running back as THE position to lead you to fantasy football stardom? I don’t know about you, but I would be hard pressed not to take Tom Brady in the top 2 or 3, assuming Randy Moss returns to play for the Patriots.