Fantasy football strategy, rankings, and podcasts

Finally, it's the 2019 preseason and the NFL regular season is right around the corner! Need to catch up on offseason moves? Interested in sleeper picks and professional analysis of the camp standouts and ideal selections for your upcoming fantasy draft? Study up with the Fantasy Finish Line podcast!

On this show we cover the NFC/AFC East divisions and go over each team's fantasy relevant players in detail. Can you guess the musical theme for this podcast? Contact us via email with your guess and we'll send a prize out to the first person to guess correctly. Cheers! Feel free to consult This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or ask us your lineup questions @drinkfive on Twitter. Best of luck going forward!

Listen to the Fantasy Finish Line, 8/7/2019: 2019 Preseason, NFC/AFC East

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Back again this year to take a shot at winning all the money and the glory of being the survivor pool champion. So far I am off to a poor start. I procrastinated on getting my payment in and the gentleman who runs the pool only excepts cash/check payments to a P.O. Box. So I mailed my check on Tuesday hoping it will be enough time to make yesterdays deadline. My hesitation might have stifled me, but hopefully my article can help our Drinkfive followers win some greenbacks.

Last year my early season strategy was to look for the lower tier teams that had favorable match-ups to get all the stinkers out of the way and give me more options as the season went on. Well that ended up biting me in the ass when first time starter Brian Hoyer crushed my dreams early on leading the then win-less Browns over the Vikings. So this year I am going to adjust my strategy a bit and keep it simple stupid. With that in mind I am picking this week's biggest favorite the Philadelphia Eagles to roll over the always rebuilding Jacksonville Jaguars. Last year the Jags defense appeared to be on the rise at the end of the season, but they will not have enough offense to keep up with the high octane Eagles. The 10.5 point favorites should win handily in their home opener, while the Jags fans anxiously await the debut of rookie QB Blake Bortles. I set the over under at 6 games until he is anointed the starter.

Have a great season everybody!

Thoughts do not get too much more random than this!

The process of studying for this year’s fantasy football drafts is in full effect. While going through some of the trends of drafts from yester-year, the time spent looking over when kickers were selected was equivalent to the amount spent watching The ESPY’s over the last 15 years – it didn’t happen.

Then out of nowhere, the unthinkable happened. For the first time since, um, ever, some thought needs to be put into kickers this year!
Pretty sure you’re laughing right now…so I’ll wait …

…

…

OK.

Hard to believe, but it’s true! I’m not saying that you need to spend hours upon hours comparing bye weeks, looking at who plays who during fantasy playoff weeks, analyzing field temperatures and average wind gusts at every stadium. But keep this in mind, with the recent rule changes, the extra point is no longer a sure thing.
Coach’s now have the option of kicking the extra point, which was moved back to the 15 yard line, or try for a two point conversion from the two yard line. Quick analysis says that an extra point from the 15 really isn’t that big of an adjustment.

What you need to look at though is the team’s willingness to go for two more often, which would obviously take fantasy points away from your kicker. When deciding on which kicker to take, which still should be the last round of your draft), look at the tendencies of the team they kick for.
Two teams jump out immediately as having the chance to take a few points away from their kicker –

New England – This will probably be the biggest impact in kicker decisions as Stephen Gostkowski has been one of, if not the first kicker taken in most drafts. The chance to score more points and add embarrassment to an embarrassing situation has always been a characteristic of the Patriots and head coach Bill Belichick. Normally I would say that this would definitely be something to keep an eye on when the Pats play the Jets…and maybe fellow division rivals Miami and Buffalo, but with everything that has gone on now with the deflate-a-gate shenanigans, I am sure that Belichick and maybe even owner Robert Kraft from what it sounds like will want to stick it to the league as a whole this season…if given the opportunity.

Philadelphia – Do YOU know what Chip Kelly is thinking? Because I’m pretty sure that he isn’t too sure himself. All that we know for sure is that Kelly loves his high powered offense he brought from Oregon and he has roughly 14 quarterbacks on his roster…one of which being Tim Tebow. Though being the field general for a full football field is not exactly Tebow’s forte, a two-yard field might be right up his alley. Utilizing Tebow in a two point conversion situation may keep opposing defense’s on their toes enough to generate a high conversion percentage. This should bump Eagles kicker Cody Parkey’s ranking down a few spots.

No one has given this much attention to kickers since Adam Sandler. With the new PAT rules, kickers may become even more lonesome than even Sandler had thought.