This week, we discuss the tight end position, including Antonio Gates, Tony Gonzalez, Todd Heap, Vernon Davis, Jeremy Shockey, Kellen Winslow, Chris Cooley, Jason Witten, Alge Crumpler, and Randy McMichael. Plus: Trading draft picks and expansion teams in keeper leagues.

Links:
The Extra Points Podcaster League
Draft Pick Trade Calculator

Technorati Tags: Sports Football American Football Fantasy Football Podcasts NFL

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Back by popular demand, it's the Extra Points Podcast Survivor Fantasy League!! (so that makes it the EPPSFL!) If you're not familiar, this game is quite easy to play, but hard to win. Before the first game of week 1 (remember, it's a Thursday next week), just log on and pick one team who you think will win their game that week. If they win, you move on to the following week and repeat the process. If the team you pick loses, you're out of the contest. And always keep in mind that you can only pick a team once during the course of the contest.

Our league is set up through Yahoo, so you need a Yahoo ID to participate. If you don't have one, you can create one for free. To sign up, go to http://football.fantasysports.yahoo.com/survival and click "Sign Up," then follow the prompts.

Choose to join a private group: the group ID# is 19326, and the password is "extra" (w/o the quotes, of course).

Be sure to sign up quickly as last year we filled up all 50 spots. The last survivor will win a fabulous prize! (If everyone left in the last group is eliminated in the same week, a random drawing will determine the winner.)

Good luck! --Scott and Steve 

This week, we discuss the rest of the running backs, including Ladell Betts and Clinton Portis, the debate over handcuffing your running backs, the worst draft ever, Ahman Green, Maurice Jones-Drew, Edgerrin James, Jamal Lewis, Ronnie Brown, Adrian Peterson, Marshawn Lynch, fantasy-relevant rookie wide receivers, and Wayne vs. Gates.

Links:
The Extra Points Podcaster League
ESPN Fantasy Draft Analysis

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E-mail us at ExtraPointsPodcast@gmail.com, or join our message board at http://extrapoints.forumup.com!

This week, we discuss top tier running backs, including LaDanian Tomlinson, Steven Jackson, Larry Johnson, Frank Gore, Joseph Addai, Shaun Alexander, Brian Westbrook, Reggie Bush. Willie Parker, Laurence Maroney, Travis Henry, and Rudi Johnson.

Links:
The Extra Points Podcaster League

Technorati Tags: Sports Football American Football Fantasy Football Podcasts NFL

Feedback:
E-mail us at ExtraPointsPodcast@gmail.com, or join our message board at http://extrapoints.forumup.com!

Note: This isn't any sort of a sponsored plug or anything like that; I just saw this come across my RSS feeds and thought it might be of interest to some of you who are planning to get together for your drafts over the next couple of weeks.

Apparently, if you host your draft at a Buffalo Wild Wings restaurant, they'll give you $100 worth of free food in addition to other stuff from CBS Sportsline.  I don't think you have to use Sportsline for your league to take advantage of the deal (which is a good thing, because several of you have had less than nice things to say about them), but if you do, they'll give you a 10% discount.

This seems almost too good to be true, so make sure to talk to the restaurant and get to the bottom of any fine print, but if there aren't any terrible stipulations, it might be checking out.  They have some details on their web site: http://www.buffalowildwings.com/promotions/current_promotions_fantasyfb.asp

This week, we devote the entire episode to your questions on draft strategy, including drafting from the bottom half of the order, drafting with a small number of owners, rookies' relative value in keeper leagues, why you don't need to back up your kicker and defense, post-draft trades, a question regarding a very complicated keeper league, and more strategy for drafting from the 12th slot.

Links:
The Extra Points Podcaster League

Technorati Tags: Sports Football American Football Fantasy Football Podcasts NFL

Feedback:
E-mail us at ExtraPointsPodcast@gmail.com, or join our message board at http://extrapoints.forumup.com!

This week, we discuss sleepers and busts at the wide receiver position, including Santonio Holmes, Devery Henderson, Vincent Jackson, Lee Evans, Calvin Johnson, Kevin Curtis, Reggie Brown, Wes Welker, Plaxico Burress, Darrell Jackson, Derrick Mason, and Braylon Edwards.

Links:
The Extra Points Podcaster League
Steely McBeam, the Steelers' new mascot

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First they draft a franchise quarterback who they can't manage to sign, and now word comes down that new head coach Lane Kiffin's doctors are 95 percent sure that Kiffin's come down with mononucleosis. Kiffin's apparently going to continue coaching while he recovers, but he's not to yell or exert any energy until he's better, which could take weeks or even months. I got mono my sophomore year of college, and I nearly had to repeat the semester because of it. It took me about a month to recover, and I felt like death warmed over throughout that time, and that was with adequate time to rest and recover. With all the stress and long hours involved with being the head coach of an NFL team, I'd be willing to gamble that Kiffin's not going to be better for a while. It's hard to say whether being sick for an extended period of time will affect his coaching ability, but without JaMarcus Russell, it's probably better that you avoid the Raiders offense, mono or no mono...

Eagles TE LJ Smith was carted off the field after aggravating his already injured groin in practice. The prior injury was a sports hernia, which was operated on in May.

If you were targeting Smith as your potential starting tight end, you'll probably want to look elsewhere if he doesn't rebound (and improve) right away. He's generally been a productive value pick at TE in the effective Eagles offense, but if he continues to struggle with injuries you'll be better off finding someone else to start for your team.

This week, we discuss the top tier wide receivers for the upcoming fantasy draft, including: Chad Johnson, Steve Smith, Torry Holt, Marvin Harrison, Reggie Wayne, T.O., Larry Fitzgerald, Anquan Boldin, Roy Williams, and Andre Johnson. Plus, we answer reader questions on what to do with the 8th pick, free leagues to replace the defunct Xpert Sports, Romo vs. Mcnabb and Rivers vs. Brady, and keeper league draft strategy.

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In Duante Culpepper news, he's working out for the Oakland Raiders, mainly as a precaution since contract negotiations with Jamarcus Russell have stalled (for the time being at least). Just keep an eye on this.