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It’s been a while, Happy Halloween Everyone!!! I have been super busy, working a lot, the school year being in full swing now, and working on my book, so haven’t been writing as much as I would like. I am 4-3 in my keeper football league, after a bonehead maneuver (more on that later) and 5-2 in my one year league, so things are going pretty well with two first place teams. Especially my keeper league team, while lacking depth compared to my trademark deep rosters, the starting lineup is as formidable as any in the league. I have great wideouts and two superstar running backs and just picked up Owen Daniels in a trade for a pick next year. My quarterback rotation (Matty Ice and “Ben”) are playing about as well as I can hope for, with Roethliesberger being a top 5 quarterback coming into week 8. In my one year league, I don’t have a player having a spectacular season, but Welker, Ronnie Brown, Rodgers, are my “stars” but I am getting production across the board with Sims-Walker, Witten, and the thus far very disappointing Brandon Jacobs. I play the 6-1 team this week, so that can go a long way towards determining seeding in the league!

Moving right along, with my myriad players on a bye these last two weeks, I have had to start Andre Caldwell in both leagues and I lost a tough one as a result. I traded Santana Moss for Jonathan Stewart—-to Stat King (my opponent) for last week! Long story short, my margin of defeat was 9 points and the trade provided a 12 point swing in his favor! Oh well, lesson learned!!

Furthermore, i was scrounging the waiver wire for bye week replacements and have to add Louis Murphy (from my favorite NCAA football team to my favorite NFL team to my fantasy football team — talk about coming full circle, even though his stay should be quite ephemeral, but I digress) This has me wondering, has my league become so competitive that any good free agents are picked up or has the dearth of truly elite (fantasy or real life — Think Saints, Broncos, Patriots, Steelers, Vikings, etc) teams and the abundance of really rotten ones (Rams, Chiefs, Browns, Lions, Titans, Bucs, etc) rendered the free agent pool an abyss for owners hoping to catch lightning in a bottle for a mid-season Sunday or salvation in the midst of a thoroughly mediocre season? I lean towards the latter, because I still dominate the competition (just a little tongue in cheek there)

Personally, I hate having players from abysmal teams like the Browns or Chiefs. Some players transcend their NFL employers and still manage to play at an elite level or at the very least be fantasy relevant. I have Steven Jackson and Chris Johnson, two extraordinary talents that are wasting away on horrific teams. Jackson and Johnson are third and fifth in the league in rushing, respectively, coming into this week, yet they have been slightly disappointing because they haven’t found the endzone as often as their fantasy owners would like due to the dire situations of their teams.

However, you can usually get lucky this time of the year and find a 3rd down back in the mold of Kevin Faulk, to try get a crafty 40 yds rushing, 30 yds receiving and if you are fortunate enough, a score. Or pick up a 3rd receiver like Shaun McDonald, Todd Pinkston, etc and try to get 60 yards receiving and a handful of grabs. Not in 2009, I am staring at Louis Murphy, Dennis Northcutt, Antwaan Randle-El, and company, and it gets WORSE for running backs, where my options are either has-beens like Larry Johnson, LenDale White, Chris Brown, or guys like Heath Evans and Brian Leonard (Where has the White Running Back gone anyway?)

In conclusion, if you are in a league where there are still quality free agents, you must be playing with really shallow rosters or with novices, neither really suit my taste as an avid fantasy player because I relish playing with prepared and diligent owners who should be rewarded for being astute.