The Freaks Combined Cheat Sheets

Quarterbacks | Running Backs | Wide Receivers | Tight Ends | Kickers | Team Defenses

Pre-season is here, and for the next few weeks your whole mission in life is to find an edge for your fantasy football draft. We give a lot of knowledge across this site, but these cheat sheets are the distilled essence of it all.

Hey, the freaks know that you shouldn't take someone's cheat sheet as the word of god. We know it's just an opinion, and that's why we give you five opinions from experienced and diverse viewpoints.

We rank on a straight performance scoring system, so you TD-only and TD-distance leaguers might want to take this with a grain of salt. For the rest, read on. 

Last Updated: August 27, 2006

StingRay's Individual Cheat Sheets

Quarterbacks | Running Backs | Wide Receivers | Tight Ends | Kickers | Team Defenses

Antonio Gates was a top 10 receiver last year playing tight end. He has been phenomenal the last two seasons but the loss of Drew Brees is a concern. He is still too talented to not be the number one tight end picked in fantasy drafts but the gap in fantasy points won't be as wide as it was last season.

Todd Heap was the 3rd rated fantasy tight end last season and he may very well be the best tight end in 2006 due to Steve McNair’s arrival as the new Ravens quarterback . McNair absolutely loves to throw to the tight end so look for Heap to have his best season as a pro.

Jeremy Shockey was the number two fantasy tight end last season but he has yet to play a 16 game season in his 4-year career. He will fall behind Antonio Gates and Todd Heap this year but he is still one of the elite tight ends in the game.

Tony Gonzalez’s touchdown numbers took a huge hit in 2005 when he only caught 2 touchdown passes. That was his worst total since 1998. Prior to last year, Tony had caught at least 7 touchdowns in 4 of the previous 5 seasons. The one year he didn’t he still caught 6 touchdown passes. I promise you that Gonzalez will have more than the 2 touchdown receptions he had last year. The numbers say so.

The Atlanta Falcons passing game begins and ends with Alge Crumpler. Crumpler led the team in receptions, receiving yards, and touchdown receptions in 2005. I don’t see why that would change in 2006.

Cooley had a great season last year hauling in 71 receptions for 774 yards and 7 touchdowns. The passing game for the Washington Redskins was based on Santana Moss and Cooley. No other wide receiver had more than David Patten’s 22 receptions. However, this off-season the Redskins added ex-49ers receiver Brandon Lloyd and former Steelers receiver Antwaan Randl El. Cooley will still be productive but his reception numbers will drop in 2006.

Did you know that Jason Witten was the number six rated fantasy tight end last season? He was a mere eight points shy of being the 4th rated fantasy tight end. The arrival of Terrell Owens in Dallas will draw double teams on T. O. which means that Witten will have plenty of opportunities to make some big plays as he goes unaccounted for through the defensive secondary.

Randy McMichael has all kinds of talent and now that he has a “real” quarterback in Daunte Culpepper he may finally live up to his potential. McMichael has not missed a game in his 4-year career and last year he was second on the team in receptions with 60. If you miss out on the top tier tight ends in your fantasy draft McMichael is a very good option to fall back on. He was the 8th rated tight end in fantasy last season.

L.J. Smith led the Eagles in receptions with 61 last season. Now that T.O. is gone, the other Eagles receivers are nothing to write home about so this should be the year L.J. takes his game to the next level.

All of the reports say that Kellen is ready to go and if that's true then he could post big numbers for a team that doesn't have a lot of weapons on offense.