After three years and three consecutive national championships, the SEC has one heck of a resume to hang their hat on. However, all that bling serves as a shield toward a pretty awkward couple of issues: the league only runs two deep at the top right now and fantasy players tail off in a hurry down south of the Mason Dixon. Attrition caused its own mess, so …now what? Now we have a couple of guys who are impact players, a few guys who could be, and then a heck of a lot of hope.
Big arm, big body, big-time coach - yes, Arkansas' Ryan Mallett looks like the real fantasy deal (Icon SMI)
At least we have trophies…
QUARTERBACK
1. Ryan Mallett, Arkansas
2. Cam Newton, Auburn
3. John Brantley, Florida
4. Jeremiah Masoli, Ole Miss
Let’s start with the obvious: Ryan Mallett is as close to a fantasy QB beast the SEC is likely to get for the near future. He has a system designed to maximize his talents, he has a quality crop of WRs, and he’ll get the opportunities. After that …. yikes. Sure, Stephen Garcia is still floating around, and Greg McElroy is a great real-life QB, but they have systemic issues – McElroy isn’t in an offense that lets him pass enough, and Garcia is going to be yanked out of at least 3-4 games (plus is still playing behind a swinging gate of an offensive line).
Instead, we’re left with what systems are likely to produce. Newton, Brantley, and Masoli are all untested in SEC play, excepting Newton’s garbage time as a Gator his freshman year. However, they’re all in systems that can maximize their talents (and to be brutally frank, I flipped their order a few times writing this). For now, I trust Newton more than either of the two guys ranked below him. Brantley has all the tools, but after what happened to Florida’s offense under Steve Addazio last year, I’m a bit gunshy. Masoli by all rights should be going to an offense that will let him run – Matt Jones in 2004 as a good example of Masoli’s potential – but there’s the simple matter of, well, not trusting that Houston Nutt has any idea how to coach QBs. At all. Couple that with Ole Miss breaking in three new guys on the line and there are some red flags here, even with Masoli’s production last season.
Don’t get me wrong – Newton, Brantley, and Masoli all have a chance to be the best fantasy QB in the SEC. But in the absence of any history, we’re left to fall back on what we’ve seen guys like them do, and the production potential of those three guys doesn’t outweigh what we already know about Mallett.
Vince and Drew debut the Fantasy College Blitz Cheatsheet Customizer so you can personalize your draft preparation for your leagues specific rules.
We discuss not only the Top 5 at each position, but also debate the placement of some big names to the national media that we just do not expect to rack up the stats. And Drew surprises Vince with three wide receiver names that even he had never heard of!
Seriously, if you would like some custom work done for your cheatsheets, Drew offers as much at about the 35 min mark. Email him at drew [at] fantasycollegeblitz [dot] com. Follow his “Tweeter” feed at twitter.com/fcbdrew
Feedback on the podcast, or media inquiries, please email vince [at] fantasycollegeblitz [dot] com.
Drew ordered and projected over 1000 players for 2010 so you will not be left without names at the end of your draft!
Many of you personalize your leagues with unique scoring systems so Drew allows anyone to input their matrix so they can evaluate each of skill position!
Drew will update his projections constantly throughout August right up to kickoff – stay tuned for his updates and an tune to the podcast discussing our early August views for 2010.
Matt Ryan and I collaborated to add some additional intelligence on top of the very early mock draft that ended last week. Below you will see the draft sorted by position to give you a sort of consensus depth chart.
WR (START 3)
Overall, Round, Pick by Round, Overall by Position
13 2 1 1 Michael Floyd (right, Icon SMI) WR Notre Dame JR
18 2 6 2 Ryan Broyles WR Oklahoma JR
25 3 1 3 James Cleveland WR Houston SR
26 3 2 4 Greg Salas WR Hawaii SR
28 3 4 5 Jeff Fuller WR Texas A&M JR
31 3 7 6 DeAndre Brown WR Southern Miss. JR
32 3 8 7 Randall Cobb WR Kentucky JR
33 3 9 8 Titus Young WR Boise State SR
38 4 2 9 Vincent Brown WR Florida SR
39 4 3 10 Aldrick Robinson WR SMU SR
40 4 4 11 Eric Page WR Toledo SO
44 4 8 12 Austin Pettis WR Boise State SR
48 4 12 13 Mohamed Sanu WR Rutgers SO
52 5 4 14 Jonathan Baldwin WR Pittsburgh JR
54 5 6 15 James Rodgers WR Oregon State SR
56 5 8 16 Armon Binns WR Cincinnati SR
57 5 9 17 Greg Childs WR Arkansas JR
59 5 11 18 Damaris Johnson WR Tulsa JR
60 5 12 19 Keith Smith WR Purdue GRAD
63 6 3 20 Tyron Carrier WR Houston JR
67 6 7 21 Dwayne Harris WR East Carolina SR
68 6 8 22 Jerrell Jackson WR Missouri JR
70 6 10 23 Julio Jones WR Alabama JR
71 6 11 24 Jerrel Jernigan WR Troy SR
75 7 3 25 A.J. Green WR Georgia JR
81 7 9 26 DeVier Posey WR Ohio State JR
84 7 12 27 Detron Lewis WR Texas Tech SR
87 8 3 28 Tandon Doss WR Indiana JR
90 8 6 29 Tyler Stradford WR North Texas SO
91 8 7 30 Ronald Johnson WR USC SR
96 8 12 31 T.Y. Hilton WR FIU JR
101 9 5 32 Alshon Jeffery WR South Carolina SO
104 9 8 33 Jermaine Kearse WR Washington JR
114 10 6 34 Alex Torres WR Texas Tech SO
119 10 11 35 Juron Criner WR Arizona JR
121 11 1 36 Rodney Bradley WR Hawaii SR
122 11 2 37 Vidal Hazelton WR Cincinatti SR
123 11 3 38 Deonte Thompson WR Florida SR
124 11 4 39 Nick Toon WR Wisconsin JR
125 11 5 40 Patrick Edwards WR Houston JR
131 11 11 41 Jameel Owens WR Oklahoma JR
133 12 1 42 Hubert Anyiam WR Oklahoma State JR
134 12 2 43 Kyle Prater WR USC SO
138 12 6 44 Kris Adams WR UTEP SR
139 12 7 45 Kendall Wright WR Baylor JR
140 12 8 46 Darvin Adams WR Auburn JR
143 12 11 47 Jereme Brooks WR Utah SR
147 13 3 48 Chris Owusu WR Stanford JR
148 13 4 49 Wes Kemp WR Missouri JR
156 13 12 50 Tai-ler Jones WR Notre Dame FR
158 14 2 51 Bert Reed WR Florida State JR
159 14 3 52 Armand Robinson WR Miami (OH) SR
161 14 5 53 LaVon Brazill WR Ohio SR
171 15 3 54 Russell Shepard WR LSU SO
192 16 12 55 Donovan Varner WR Duke JR
194 17 2 56 Tracy Moore WR Oklahoma State SO
196 17 4 57 Andre Debose WR Florida SO
200 17 8 58 Ryan Whalen WR Stanford SR
203 17 11 59 Uzoma Nwachukwu WR Texas A&M SO
205 18 1 60 Mike McNeill WR Nebraska SR
208 18 4 61 Malcolm Williams WR Texas SR
210 18 6 62 Josh Smith WR UCLA SR
Given their two-year suspension from post-season competition and reduced scholarships, current junior and senior USC Trojans get a transfer waiver and can play the 2010 season. Pac Ten tries valiantly to usurp the waiver while simultaneously taking over college football west of the Mississippi River, so stay tuned. Some big names here, likely the biggest for recruitniks is Marc Tyler.
Keep your eyes open for movement here to help your fantasy team – all would appreciate your comments if you see one of these guys enrolling elsewhere:
