I am participating in my first fantasy draft of the year tonight for MyFantasyLeague.com, so I am starting to think about my overall draft strategy for this year.

My first inclination, as I’ve conveyed a bit in this blog already this year, is that 2011 is not a year to mess around with for obvious reasons (the lockout). I’m not going to try to be a hero, and I’m going to play things a little conservatively. At least I’m going to try to. It might be tough because I’m a play-to-win guy, but I think it would behoove fantasy players to focus on as many stable options as possible, at least in the first 4-6 rounds of a draft. That means eliminating as much risk as possible.

And that’s why I think Michael Vick should not be drafted as the #1 QB in 2011. In fact, I don’t think he should be the second or even the third fantasy QB drafted.  At some point, likely any time in the 2nd round, he is too flashy and exciting to pass up on, but pass on him I might because I think it’s more important to avoid downside this year than it is to [...]

Note: Ages are accurate as of midseason 2010.

I’m a little behind breaking these out, but I did want to wait until the bulk of the free agent action took place. I’ll be busting my ass to offer similar overviews for RB, WR, and TE in the next 4-5 days. My goal’s to have them all up by next Wednesday, so we can move on to the NFL Draft and our pre-draft rookie stuff.

Here’s my take on the QB landscape for those in keeper leagues:

Given his youth, supporting cast, and what he's shown so far Packer QB Aaron Rodgers is about as appealing as it gets at the QB position for those in keeper leagues

The QB position in the NFL isn’t exactly bursting with young talent, so if you have a stud like Drew Brees (31), Peyton Manning (34), Aaron Rodgers (26), or Philip Rivers (28), then you’re doing really well at this position in your keeper or dynasty league. If you’re in a dynasty league or don’t have any restrictions in terms of the number of years you can keep a player, Rodgers (who will be 27 in December) and Rivers (who will be 29 in December) may [...]

It’s already magazine time for us, and while we’re not putting out a ton of content right now, that doesn’t mean we’re sitting around the office watching clips on YouTube or checking our Facebook pages.

Okay, maybe we are a little.

Most of the time, we’re working on content for our 2009 magazine. We’re trying to get as much done as possible before the draft because, once that occurs, we’re in serious Magazine Mode and our deadline comes quickly. This year, we’ll be publishing the magazine a little earlier than usual, so we should have a good amount of 2009 content up in just 4-5 weeks. By the end of May, we’ll have the entire print magazine up on the site, and we’ll be rolling big time with a ton of content.

It’s still a little tough, however, to formulate strong opinions on players and team because the draft is a big part of the puzzle, and teams are still signing free agents (and making trades). We’re not totally clear on things like how the OLs are shaping up, and we don’t know a ton about player roles in those cases in which they’re up in the air. I also haven’t studied the [...]

In years past, we would produce these massive keeper overviews, yet I don’t think people even noticed them or if our work (probably 200 hours worth of it) was truly worth it, especially since our regular player previews for the upcoming season, to be released this year in late May, contained much of the same information and analysis. By the time things got busy in June, July, and August, we’re unable to update these massive overviews, anyway, so I’m trying to streamline things a little.

This year, I’m going to try to approach the off-season keeper coverage in this blog, and I’m going to approach it differently. For one, I’m going to approach each position similar to how I approach the Draft Plan, going over the various tiers of players and cover how I view them for the long-term. In addition, I’ll chime in here at least once a week with a keeper thought or two, typically covering a player who is in the news currently. So instead of us spending time writing about Drew Brees and how he’s a desirable keeper, which is beyond the obvious, we’ll have more time to discuss the merits of, say, Kellen [...]