James Farrior

[00bolt]

anyone have any thoughts? why did he go from like 140+ tackles in 2003 down to like 95 last year? my league only starts 1 IDP player, and its heavily scored on tackles (1 per and 2pts per every 5 tackles)... so if a guy gets 10 tackles, thats 14pts

i was so impressed with all the talent on board, i kinda forgot about IDP and missed out on the Bullocks, Edwards, Lewis type guys....

London Fletcher is on waivers, should I try and snab him or what are your thoughts on Farrior?

[TGR Staff: Tim O‘Malley]

I just took Farrior in the SOFA IDP draft. By "just" I mean yesterday, of course, those two descriptors are not mutually exclusive in this draft, but I digress...

Anyway, if your league is heavily dependent on tackles, I‘d scoop up Fletcher over Farrior, especially for the first 8 weeks or so. Be warned, Fletcher sometimes wears down at the end of the season. (Coakley is another guy that falls into this category).

As for guys who really picked it up in scoring after mid-season (if that‘s your next question), last year it was Chris Claiborne, but that might just have been because he decided to try harder.

Nguyen is a consistent tackler, they‘ve moved to a 3-4 but I‘ve read he‘s in the spot that it won‘t affect his tackle #s.

I also expect Hartwell to post a lot of tackles, anyone have him?

All of that being said, I like Farrior A LOT more than the guys listed if your scoring system isn‘t heavily dependent on tackles.

[00bolt]

well i put in a claim for Fletcher... i saw last year he had a 21 tackle game... thats 29 pts in my league...

I see that Farrior had some good INT/SACKS last year, but why is his tackle numbers down so much?

[TGR Staff: Tim O‘Malley]

I don‘t think there‘s any one reason, but a couple i noticed last year:

Pitt‘s offense controlled the clock = less time on the field for the defense = fewer tackle opportunities. Basic, but it exists.

Farrior is a 3-down ‘backer, which is great, but the Steelers have excellent LBs and they all make plays/tackles, not to mention the Tazmanian Devil at Safety, Troy Polamalu really supports the run. Even CB Deshea Townsend was an above average tackle producer last year.

Also, and I hate this, it seems to me that tackle numbers are skewed by the official scorer. I‘ve watched Browns game in which Andra Davis name is seemingly never called and the guy ends up with 11 solos the next day! (irrelevant, probably, but annoying nonetheless).

[00bolt]

thanks for the info and all that makes sense... with that all being said, here are my options

1. keep Farrior
2. pickup LFeltcher
3. pickup JSharper
4. pickup ZThomas

waivers clear on Thursday, i have #7 waiver, but im sure ill be able to get one of them... but like I said, most scoring is on tackles, so if you had to ‘guess‘ solely on tackles, how would u rank them?

Fletcher, Thomas, Sharper, Farrior???

[TGR Staff: Tim O‘Malley]

You know, I‘d actually go Thomas, Fletcher, Sharper, Farrior. I know Miami is changing schemes, but Thomas has tackled since Day ONE 10 years ago

[rodetrip]

We touched on this in another thread regarding scoring based on tackles and I had Z Taylor. Then, took Briggs (CHI) as a replacement for Taylor. He had 102 tackles last year (#3 overall) while Taylor had 85. Cosidering both teams have iffy offenses, the D‘s could be on the field a lot. Both are out week 4 for byes. It‘s another option to consider if available.

[TGR Staff: Tim O‘Malley]

One thing I‘d like to point out, Zach Thomas is an injury risk at this point in his career as well. That‘s taken away from his overall tackle numbers recently. I Love Briggs, I do think his tackle numbers could take a minor dip if Urlacher is healthy all year though (Briggs moved into his MLB spot during the 4-5 games Urlacher missed in ‘04).

Briggs will probably make more big plays than Thomas as well.

[Stiller]

Farriors Tackle numbers went down because of Dick Lebeau. He made more use of Farrior up the middle thus he was not in position to make alot of single tackles.

This year won‘t be much different as they are putting even more things in that will take him off the field on 3rd down (in certain situations)

I hope that helps. They are looking to use Polamalou more this year so that will impact things for him as well.

[00bolt]

Okay I picked up LFletcher for Farrior... but now I see that Vilma is there also... this is our leagues first year to incorporate IDP... so I dont think people have caught onto the scoring yet until a couple weeks in... my theory is that tackles (LB) will be the main scoring... we give the usual 2pts for INTs, etc... but we get 1 pt per tackle and 2pts for every 5 tackles... so a 10 tackle game is 14pts...

I dont really have room on my roster to hold 2 IDP unless I drop Kevin Curtis... who is more valuable...

LFletcher or JVilma

[TGR Staff: Tim O‘Malley]

I like Vilma‘s upside more than Fletcher‘s this year. It‘s a young man‘s game and Vilma is a budding star. With one IDP spot, I‘d go upside as the Waiver Wire will have plenty of options available throughout the season