Unaccustomed to blogging as I am, I never pass on a chance to share my self proclaimed genius with the world. So here it is. My first blog.

I am now a blogger. Is this what it has come to? Have I become so desperate to prove to the world my prowess in this hobby, that I will become a shameless bandwagon jumper, latching onto the latest trend, following the herd of bloggers before me? Hey, everybody is blogging. Get in on the fun!!! Okay. okay. I give in. Blog I will.

Well, I am working on some articles for later in the summer, and what strikes me about this season is just the magnitude of changes one must factor into this upcoming season. The off-season in the NFL used to be kind of sleepy. No more. The off-season in the NFL is an antiquated term. There is no off-season. The coaching changes, the free agents, the cutting, the signing, the draft.

You are not imagining things. This game we play has gotten a whole lot harder over the last few seasons.

I got into a dynasty league for the first time last season. Boy did I ever get into that at the
right time. There is no off-season for a dynasty team. I took an existing team and drove it into the toilet. Finished 11th out of 12. A new low for me. I was in the middle of the pack
points-wise, but won a mere 4 games.

Of course, that means that I had the 2nd pick in this years rookie draft. I already dealt it for Jerious Norwood and Chris Chambers. I feel like Norwood is capable of matching the numbers of either Marshawn Lynch or Adrian Peterson this season, and Chambers should at least equal the production of Calvin Johnson. So I may (or may not) have given up a potential superstar. But I feel really good about the players I got in return, both for the short term and the long term.

And I believe that if Cadillac returns from the dead, I will field a playoff team this season.
That would be nice.

I see on my league webpage where a couple of guys haven’t logged in for a month. I don’t
think you can win a dynasty league like that. I may be new to the dynasty format, but it is abundantly clear that dynasty owners have little down time……if they want to win that is. And right now should be prime trading time. Hit everybody up for trades while LAST season is still fresh in their minds. If you can get them to log on that is………

Personally I welcome the changes that have taken place in the league. When I first started playing fantasy football, the USA today was considered good information. You really had the inside track if you got that weekend edition with the football spread.

Seems like primitive times now. Everybody has access. Information is everywhere. Some of it good. Some of it pointless drivel………………

Still working on the 2007 rankings and write-ups and how does this listing look to you for running backs?

1. Shaun Alexander
2. Larry Johnson
3. LaDainian Tomlinson
4. Edgerrin James
5. Clinton Portis
6. Lamont Jordan
7. Rudi Johnson
8. Thomas Jones
9. Mike Anderson
10. Warrick Dunn

Of course, those are the top ten running backs from 2005 (excluding Tiki Barber) that we were all looking fondly back at this time last year. For the want of one year, those are the best running backs. If the 2006 season did not happen (perish the thought and stop hyperventilating), then right now this is the group we would be looking at to determine who would be the studs this year.

How about those top 5 wideouts of Joey Galloway or Santana Moss?

Wonder if Eli Manning, Drew Bledsoe or Kerry Collins will repeat?

Of course there is change every year and no season repeats itself. And looking back only 12 months shows just how much things change. It is the great part of fantasy football knowing that the stars from last year are going to have some return and usually about half end up a wasted draft pick by someone expecting the previous year to have a direct bearing on the current season.

And this year has more change than any of recent memory. If you are comfortable taking the previous season’s stats and tweaking them to get your own rankings, consider these few changes:

New Head Coaches(7): ARZ, ATL, DAL, MIA, OAK, PIT and SD
New Offensive Coordinators(15): ARZ, ATL, BAL, CAR, CLE, DAL, GB, HOU, JAX, MIA, NYG, OAK, PIT, SD, SF
New Defensive Coordinators(7): ATL, CHI, DAL, MIN, NYG, SD, SF

Teams with changing RB’s from 2006 (12): BAL, BUF, CLE, CHI, DEN, GB, HOU, IND, NE, NYG, NYJ, TEN
Teams with potential new RB’s(6): ATL, CAR, DAL, JAX, MIN, OAK

Out of 32 new teams, that leaves only nine that return the same HC, OC and starting RB – CIN, DET, KC, NO, PHI, SEA, STL, TB and WAS.

Let’s throw out DET since Kevin Jones is an unknown for the start of the season and WAS just paid a ton of cash to Ladell Betts who was a top back at the end of 2006.

That leaves us with only seven teams with solid situations – CIN, KC, NO, PHI, SEA, STL and TB

But wait… CIN has Henry gone for half the year (or more) and that affects the passing game which affects the rushing game..

Oh yeah, McNabb returns from yet another injury and Stallworth is gone…

Oh no, KC will have a new QB this year…

Okay, so NO, SEA, STL and TB are still the same.

But, uh, TB brought in Jeff Garcia and Chris Simms was injured most of last year. And they pretty much sucked offensively in 2006…

Okay, okay, so NO, SEA and STL are just the same. Really. Though NO cut Joe Horn and are reshuffling WR in the best passing offense from 2006. Wonder if Bush remains the primary receiver? Can Colston be a #1 now? Hmmm….

And SEA just traded away their best WR in Darrell Jackson…Another reshuffle of WR…

Okay, okay, okay… STL is still exactly the same. Exactamundo. Except are we sure that Steven Jackson will catch 90 more passes? Can he run 346 more times without injury? Isaac Bruce turns 35 too. And they brought in Drew Bennett signed a six-year deal for $30 million. And they have Randy McMichael now..

sigh…

Oh yeah. One more thing. All these changing teams will be playing each other 16 times this year. So changes to one team produces changes to every other one whenever they play. Like Rule #5 in Fantasy Football: The Next Level says – “Teams change every year, even when they don’t”

Hang on to your hats and enjoy whatever happened in 2006 because it’s never going to happen again. This will be a great year if only because there should be some dramatic changes in every NFL team and how players amass statistics for your fantasy team. It’s a challenge, a risk, an advantage, a disadvantage and a ton of opportunities.

It’s fantasy football.

Kevin Ratterree is a 14 year veteran of fantasy football, and a lifetime writer. Kevin is a good example of what happens when an angry young man matures into a bitter old man. He makes no apologies for his writing style. Claims it’s “the voices in his head” that type out the spiteful and venomous words that make up Commentary From the Edge. Kevin learned his chops on his own short lived and ill-advised fantasy site (Fantasy Edge) R.I.P. but quickly found that running a site is too much like an actual job, except he didn’t get paid. Kevin is the guy in your fantasy league that always makes the playoffs but hardly ever wins a championship. His teams are famous for leading the league in points only to fade during the playoffs. He loves the Chiefs but has accepted in his heart that they will never, ever win a championship again, and apparently according to this photo he may be in the witness protection program.

An interesting view of QB’s is the number of passes thrown per interceptions. It shows how likely a QB was to throw a pick considering how many times he put it in the air. For 2006 of all QB’s with 8 or more games played:

244 Damon Huard
74 Marc Bulger
65 Mark Brunell
62 Peyton Manning
53 Donovan McNabb
51 Philip Rivers
50 Drew Brees
43 Tom Brady
40 Carson Palmer
39 Jake Delhomme
39 Steve McNair
37 David Carr
36 Bruce Gradkowski
34 Brett Favre
31 Matt Leinart
31 J.P. Losman
30 Chad Pennington
30 Michael Vick
29 Brad Johnson
29 Eli Manning
28 Alex Smith
27 Vince Young
27 Jon Kitna
27 David Garrard
26 Tony Romo
26 Joey Harrington
25 Matt Hasselbeck
24 Jake Plummer
24 Rex Grossman
24 Aaron Brooks
23 Charlie Frye
22 Trent Green
21 Andrew Walter
20 Ben Roethlisberger

The Chiefs want to use Brodie Croyle but hard to ding Huard for throwing interceptions!

Intersting too is that Bulger ranked #2 with 1:74 and yet the previous year under the Martz system, he threw 1:31. Kitna had a 1:27 under Martz last year. He had a 35:1 ratio his final year as starter in CIN. Pass to Interception ratios also reflect the scheme that players are in and what sort of passes they are asked to throw (as well as O-line effectiveness).