I’ve never liked being in a fantasy football league with fellow fans of my hometown team. Every homer player you want to take is snapped up wayyy before they should be, leaving you to either reach for your hometown fave, or pick for value and end up without anyone from the home team. Annoying.
This is why I recommend you always join a league with fans of as many disparate clubs as humanly possible. That way, you get your favorite player at the proper slot. That way, you have a chance of ending up drafting Felix Jones somewhere reasonable.
Felix is going to go in the second or third round if you’re drafting with fellow Cowboys fans. But if you’re in a normal league, Captain Speedy there is going, on average, in the 10th round, according to Yahoo. That’s quite a ways down for a dude who averages 8 yards a carry and is in a generous timeshare, with the Double J pushing for him to get even more playing time. Jones is an obvious candidate to be a breakout player, even with Marion Barber Hoovering up goal line carries. He’s one of those players that’s such a clear sleeper pick, that people now fear taking him too high.
The question then, is, how long should you, Mr. Cowboy fan, wait? I drafted Jones in the fourth round of a fantasy draft last week. He’s lasted, so far, through the sixth round of a fantasy draft I’m currently participating in. And now, I’m giving him that draft eye. You know what I’m talking about. There’s a certain type of player (Jones, Anthony Gonzalez) that falls to a certain point in a draft, where you begin to get excited about the prospect of nabbing them. So you sit there nervously as the next five or so picks are made, and they keep falling. Then, there’s that moment of doubt where you’re like, “Whoa, is something wrong with this guy? Did he get run over by an excavator yesterday and I simply haven’t read the wire report in time?” Then, you get that greedy feeling where you’re like, “Well, if he lasted THIS far, maybe he’ll last a little longer.” And then you have that little debate with yourself. “TAKE HIM! YOU WANT HIM! No! I need a wideout! NO, YOU DON’T! Antonio Bryant’s the highest wideout left, and that guy is a TURD!”
And then… Jones gets taken one slot before you pick. CRIMINY!
That’s the kind of player Felix Jones is right now. He’s that potential marble in the oatmeal EVERYONE knows about. He could go in round 4 and it would be reasonable. Or he could round 9 and it would be reasonable. You don’t know. And that’s why fantasy football is almost as fun as the real thing. If he's still there in Round 7, he's MINE.
