2011 Fantasy Football PPR Rankings: Lockout Edition - 9 comments

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The long national nightmare may soon be over. With a resolution of the lockout looking mere days away, it’s time to start getting amped up about the fantasy football season. So here are the Cafe’s 2011 Fantasy Football Rankings: Lockout Edition. Things are obviously going to change a great deal once the transaction freeze lifts, so use these initial rankings as a jumping off point, not as gospel. In fact, do yourself a favor and treat no set of rankings as gospel; the rotoscape is always dynamic and should be treated as such. That’s why we’ll be back before the season starts with a massive ratings update. Till then, enjoy.

Thanks to Cafe members Venom, bungle613, WaCougMBS, Dan Lambskin, Calyxes, FantasyFutballGuru13, thriftyrocker, aaawall91 and ironman for joining me in contributing rankings to the Lockout Edition.

Our rankers submitted their top 30 QBs, top 60 RBs, top 75 WRs and top 20 TEs, and every single ranked player was included below. Players unranked by each member were given a baseline number identical to other unranked players at their positions. FantasyFutballGuru13 and thriftyrocker also provided some commentary on several of their picks, which I will relay to you after each section.

FantasyFutballGuru13 notes that Ryan Fitzpatrick is an excellent QB2 in re-draft leagues. Thriftyrocker has this to say about Tim Tebow: “For a backup QB or QB you take late, you have to go for upside. Mediocre numbers are on waivers whenever you want.” He then ranks Tebow in his top-15, and I agree wholeheartedly with his assessment, as I target Tebow as my QB2 in virtually every mock draft. FFG13 says that Tebow “could flirt with double digit rushing TDs.” TR doesn’t rank David Garrard, pegging him to start no more than four games, and that certainly contributed to Garrard’s low ranking above.

Michael Turner is generally picked up as a top-15 overall player in the late first or early second round, while Jonathan Stewart sometimes lasts till the end of the fourth round in mocks. Yet in our rankings, they find themselves side by side, with three of our rankers actually preferring The Daily Show to The Burner. FFG13 was one of those guys, saying that Turner is a scary pick as a big injury risk. I think rookie Delone Carter could wind up making a lot of noise, and he’s worth an end-game flier right now in case Joseph Addai doesn’t return.

The above section will look mighty different depending whether or not you play in a PPR format or not. We ranked with PPR in mind, so be sure to take that into account before you use the rankings in a non-PPR format. TR notes that, in particular, DeSean Jackson is a “top five talent but PPR format really hurts him. Don’t overdraft.” While most are bullish on Dwayne Bowe in the third round, FFG13 says “his ADP scares me. [I] would only take him if he fell.” For my money, Mike Thomas is an oft-forgotten name but a definite starter in PPR format — grab him in the mid-to-late rounds before anyone else does.

Antonio Gates comes in as our only unanimous No. 1, which is no surprise, as he outscored every wide receiver on a per-game basis in many formats. In fact, TR tells us that Gates “was second in PPG behind Arian Foster before getting hurt. That’s better than every other RB, let alone WR and TE.” TR also tells us to not forget about Rob Gronkowski, who was the “No. 2 TE over the second half of the year behind Witten.” Unfortunately, one ranker did in fact forget about The Gronk, bringing his ranking down a tad. Without that miss, Gronkowski would have found himself tied with Tony Gonzalez, and I actually prefer him to the veteran.