And then we have fantasy football

[Don Draper]

More you say?

Jamie Harper over Chris Johnson for goal line duties

Jackie Battle over Ryan Matthews for goal line duties

Ronnie Brown over Ryan Matthews for 3rd down duties

A healthy DeAngelo Williams getting 2 carries in Week 7 and playing as the NUMBER 3 RB. As a reminder Williams signed a five-year, $43 million contract in 2011. The deal contains $21 million guaranteed, including a $16 million signing bonus and $5 million of Williams' second-year base salary. 2012: $5.25 million, 2013: $4.75 million, 2014: $5.75 million, 2015: $6.75 million

[BLACKHAND]

Skill is still a huge part and shows up mainly in the FAAB. It seems almost ever time I want to spend $500 on a player I see Cocktails got him the week before for $1. It also seems I waived that same player two weeks earlier (examples like Felix Jones and Rashad Jennings come to mind).

I tend to do well most years in spite of myself. Sometimes I get lucky.

Pete

I feel your pain Pete. Last week I dropped Rashad Jennings on any team I had him rostered. The week prior it was Felix Jones. One week earlier, Alex Green and William Powell were excised from some teams where I thought I needed an extra roster spot. Josh Gordon the week before on a couple teams. I could keep going all the way back to week one, but this ride down memory lane is nostalgia I don't need. Somehow though the likes of Bryce Brown, Lamar Miller, and TJ Graham still all have spots on rosters of mine.

If anyone needs to know who the breakout player for next week is, just shoot me an E-mail and I'll let you know who I'll be mass dropping this week.

lmao. glenn please pick up sanchez and drop him the next week. your on a roll.

[The Franchise]

This is an interesting thread. I have had several conversations with Fantasy players in the last week and for the most part it seemed like we were all feeling the same way. We shell out thousands of dollars every year to play Fantasy Football. Why spend so much money at a game? Because we feel like it's a game of skill with some luck involved, so we like our chances at making a profit at a game we enjoy. I know that's the reason I spend my money. I think it's becoming more random and I don't feel like I have the advantage over "The Average Joe" like I used to. The best comparison I can think of is being a poker player at a table with other great, good and bad poker players. You feel like you could beat that great player if things break right, you should beat that good player sometimes and you should beat that bad player all the time.............. This year I feel like I'm next to the 80 year old lady with the cigarette playing the slots..............

Perhaps you should stop telling everyone who to pick

You might be on to something. Probably haven't been very useful for people

[DonnyG.]

All I know is that my own personal serving of 2012 fantasy football humble pie thus far has been as large a portion as I've laid my eyes on in 5 long and consecutive years.

[KenGill]

Agree with you on D. Williams. For all the money he is making and all the talent he has, how can you give him only 2 carries in a game, on a team that is 1 and 5 or whatever they are. Crazy

[Shrink Attack]

This is an interesting thread. I have had several conversations with Fantasy players in the last week and for the most part it seemed like we were all feeling the same way. We shell out thousands of dollars every year to play Fantasy Football. Why spend so much money at a game? Because we feel like it's a game of skill with some luck involved, so we like our chances at making a profit at a game we enjoy. I know that's the reason I spend my money. I think it's becoming more random and I don't feel like I have the advantage over "The Average Joe" like I used to. The best comparison I can think of is being a poker player at a table with other great, good and bad poker players. You feel like you could beat that great player if things break right, you should beat that good player sometimes and you should beat that bad player all the time.............. This year I feel like I'm next to the 80 year old lady with the cigarette playing the slots..............

Perhaps you should stop telling everyone who to pick

You might be on to something. Probably haven't been very useful for people

It's been a tough year for everybody, Nelson. Nobody has the magic formula. People wouldn't be asking for your advice if they didn't appreciate your feedback.

[BLACKHAND]

nelson , like i told you before , it is nice to ask you opinions on players but at the end of the day everyone has there own choice. you should not feel bad at all. when i ask opinions on players at time i go with the crowd and other times i don't and others probably do the same. everyone has a choice.

[mattjb]

I think the advice has been good.

The bigger point is there used to be an edge for those willing to dig for information. But in this twitter age the playing field has been levelled.

Not complaining.

[Coach JP]

Post right before me nailed it on the head.

It's comparable to poker. From 2000-2005 poker pros were crushing and could dominate the field, because it was full of people who wanted to play but didn't know how to play. Now, everyone reads the same strategies and same principles and are able to be competitive. It's much easier to make money at a table with six fish instead of one.

Now, everyone has 24/7 access to fantasy football. Radio, magazines, websites and tv shows all spit out the same material for everyone to see. You don't have to be good to play fantasy football and win money, you can just look up the answers and pray for luck to be on your side.

I remember in a draft this year, a home league I play in saw my very own brother grab my deep sleeper WR 2 rounds before I was going to take him. Astonished, as my brother knows nothing about the sport, I asked him where he heard of such player.

His reply?

Google.

It's a lot harder to be good at the game when everyone else has raised their skill level.

[Jack_Bauer]

I believe every year around this time we have a thread like this. Where frustration kicks in and people vent about why they invest/spend this kind of money on something with such luck connected to it. I think people being fair recognize that there is a significant skill component to this with a week to week luck aspect that certainly impacts results. First of all, it is a fact you cannot take an uninformed regular football fan and plop him into an NFFC draft with limited understanding and knowledge of the game and have him EVER have ANY success... Because the people in that draft with him have SKILL as it relates to NFL knowledge, fantasy sports knowledge, draft strategy knowledge, roster management skill etc. So lets not make it seem like this is all random and no skill is involved. The average joe football fan would never ever ever be competitive because others with more "skill" would beat him.

Secondly, there are people who have consistently good fantasy football results. Certainly everyone can run into a bad luck season or series of seasons, but we do have people who seem to find ways to be consistently competitive and successful. Obviously due to the way the game is played baseball has a lower luck component to it though there still are glaring examples where good/bad luck can impact the results. I personally think skill is of higher importance in leagues where you may have a mixture of guys in a league ranging from highly skilled to barely paying attention and drafting from a 2 month old magazine.

When you get in expert level leagues like we have here, where skill level is high among almost everyone in the league, a bad break here and there can and will hurt more. The fact people show frustration is a sign they care. When you stop being frustrated you might as well stop playing. Blackjack (assuming you play by the "rules") is 100% luck and 0% skill. Some people may like to invent that there is skill involved or may buy into the myth that other people at the table playing "the right way" can determine if they win or lose, but that is a total myth. The game is random, the cards are random... Yet people funnel a ton of money into something that is 100% luck.

I would find it hard to enjoy an NFL season now without high stakes fantasy football to make every game more exciting to watch. Maybe I am a FF addict! I say this as someone who has been on both sides of the luck factor in these events.