Over the past couple years, I’ve started to dive deeper into my sports card collection, and something that dawned on me is that I’ve never seen a full page with all the best Topps rookie cards from each year. So I said to myself, “Self, get to writing!”

Here’s the thing – I need you to help me out with this. This is obviously subjective because some people might value some rookie cards more than other rookie cards, and I might consider one player worthy of notation, while others think I omitted some great names.

Please comment which rookie cards I’m missing from these sets – but I’ve gone to great lengths to try to get the top Topps rookie cards for each set/series.

I’ve used both CardConnection.com and DACardWorld.com to track down many of the most attractive rookie cards for each series, but there could certainly be some errors.

(One of the reasons I wrote this article is because I’m kind of obsessed with making up for lost time, and I’m backfilling my sports card collection with the top rookies over the past couple decades from which I wasn’t collecting. One of the ways I’m doing that, other than just outright buying the singles on eBay, is buying old boxes and packs to rip from sites like DACardWorld.com, BlowoutCards.com and BBCExchange.com. Do you rip old packs or boxes? Let me know!)

While this article is currently only covering the best baseball rookie cards over the past 10 years, I do plan on going all the way back through the 71 years of Topps baseball card series – probably 10 years at a time. So bookmark this article and come back often!

Best Rookie Cards From Each Topps Baseball Set – Dating Back to 2012

This article will be updated throughout the years as some player’s ascend in value and some decline. This is only including Topps flagship set, not Topps Chrome, not Topps Archives, not Topps Heritage, or any other series. So don’t make those comments.

Best 2012 Topps Rookies Cards

Series 1:

Series 2:

• Yoenis Cespedes — 396
• Yu Darvish — 660
• Bryce Harper — 661 (short print)

Update:

• Patrick Corbin — US16
• Matt Harvey — US23
• Yasmani Grandal — US104
• Starling Marte — US109
• Dallas Keuchel — US188
• Trevor Bauer — US213

Best 2013 Topps Rookies Cards

Series 1:

• Manny Machado — 270

Series 2:

• Jose Fernandez — 589

Update:

• Anthony Rendon — US8
• Gerritt Cole — US150
• Wil Myers — US200
• Yasiel Puig — US250
• Nolan Arenado — US259
• Marcell Ozuna — US270
• Christian Yelich — US290

Best 2014 Topps Rookies Cards

Series 1:

• Xander Bogaerts — 133
• Nick Castellanos — 195

Series 2:

• Jose Ramirez — 424
• Marcus Semien — 429
• Jose Abreu — 496
• Masahiro Tanaka — 661

Update:

• George Springer — US-10
• Mookie Betts — US-26
• Jacob deGrom — US-50
• Marcus Stroman — US-197

Best 2015 Topps Rookies Cards

Series 1:

• Jorge Soler
• Joc Pederson
• Maikel Franco
• Javier Baez

Series 2:

• Kris Bryant

Update:

• Carlos Correa
• Noah Syndergaard
• Byron Buxton
• Francisco Lindor
• Carlos Rodon
• Joey Gallo

Best 2016 Topps Rookies Cards

Series 1:

• Miguel Sano
• Corey Seager
• Kyle Schwarber
• Michael Conforto
• Trea Turner
• Ketel Marte

Series 2:

• Gary Sanchez

Update:

• Tim Anderson
• Mike Clevinger
• Trevor Story
• Jose Berrios
• Lucas Giolito

Best 2017 Topps Rookies Cards

Series 1:

• Dansby Swanson
• Yoan Moncada
• Aaron Judge
• Alex Bregman
• Tyler Glasnow

Series 2:

• Trey Mancini
• Matt Olson

Update:

• Matt Chapman
• Cody Bellinger
• Luke Voit

Best 2018 Topps Rookies Cards

Series 1:

• Rafael Devers
• Rhys Hoskins
• Ozzie Albies
• Alex Verdugo
• Victor Robles
• Walker Buehler

Series 2:

• Shohei Ohtani
• Ronald Acuna Jr. (short print)
• Gleyber Torres (short print)

Update:

• Juan Soto
• Gleyber Torres (true RC)
• Ronald Acuna Jr. (true RC)
• Austin Meadows

Best 2019 Topps Rookies Cards

Series 1:

• Kyle Tucker
• Jeff McNeil
• Brandon Lowe
• Adolis Garcia
• Corbin Burnes
• Cedric Mullins

Series 2:

• Fernando Tatis Jr.
• Pete Alonso
• Patrick Wisdom
• Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (No # short print)

Update:

• Vladimir Guerrero Jr.
• Bryan Reynolds
• Jared Walsh
• Austin Riley
• Will Smith
• Mike Yastrzemski

Best 2020 Topps Rookies Cards

Series 1:

• Bo Bichette
• Randy Arozarena
• Yordan Alvarez
• Kyle Lewis
• Gavin Lux

Series 2:

• Luis Robert
• Emmanuel Clase

Update:

• Trent Grisham

Best 2021 Topps Rookies Cards

Series 1:

• Jo Adell
• Alec Bohm
• Joey Bart
• Dylan Carlson
• Ryan Mountcastle
• Casey Mize
• Nick Madrigal
• Cristian Pache
• Nate Pearson
• Bobby Dalbec

Series 2:

• Ke’Bryan Hayes
• Alex Kiriloff
• Jake Cronenworth
• Garrett Crochet
• Jazz Chisholm
• Luis Garcia

Update:

• Jarred Kelenic
• Trevor Larnach
• Taylor Trammell
• Ian Anderson
• Andrew Vaughn
• Jonathan India
• Akil Baddoo
• Alek Manaoh

Best 2022 Topps Rookies Cards

Series 1:

• Wander Franco
• Jarren Duran
• Vidal Brujan
• Brandon Marsh
• Matt Manning
• Reid Detmers
• Tyler Gilbert

As I mentioned at the start of this article, this is going to be an often updated page. Some rookie cards will be removed as players decline in value to their baseball team, and some rookie cards will be added as they bloom later than we expected. Either way, feel free to comment below and share some of the players you think are the best rookies from each Topps baseball set.

As my site begins to work in more sports card collecting stories, I’ll be writing some articles like the one you see here. We’re taking a look back at the 12 best 2019 NBA rookie cards. Since there are dozens of different rookie cards for every player, I’m actually just looking at the best 2019 NBA rookies who are now in their third season. You can decide which rookie cards to buy, but I do offer up a bargain basement base card to consider.

I’m going to do this series in the three major sports, over several different years, to help collectors understand which players to target.

Of course, ranking the best 2019 NBA rookie cards changes the farther away we get from that 2019 NBA Draft. That’s why these articles will get updated from year to year! Interestingly, the farther away we get from a particular draft class, the fewer changes need to be made. I can see me adjusting the rankings on 2020 and certainly 2021 NBA Draft classes much more frequently than I will the 2017 and 2018 NBA Draft classes.

What You Need To Know: These rankings aren’t based on any specific card, or even any specific card brand. This is a general list of the best 2019 NBA rookie cards you’d want to own if you had your choice of all the rookies in any one set. This isn’t saying these base cards are better than any inserts, autographed cards, patches, parallels, or anything else. But if you have a choice between two players in the same set or subset, I’d rank them this way:

Best 2019 NBA Rookie Cards: A Basketball Card Mock Draft in 2022

The end of the 2019-20 NBA season was altered by Covid-19, as was most of the 2020-21 NBA season. That actually gives collectors some opportunities to get good players who have better basketball days ahead of them.

1. Ja Morant, G, Memphis Grizzlies

Ja and Zion are the Luka and Trae of the 2019 NBA Draft class from the hobby’s perspective. Morant’s speed and lane-driving ability reminds me of a young Allen Iverson, even though Morant’s skinny frame doesn’t come close to resembling Iverson’s build. Either way, Morant’s star is on the rise, especially after he helped the Grizzlies reach the playoffs last year.

With his trademark ponytail dreads and his amicable disposition off the court, Morant is sure to become quite a marketable commodity, especially if the Grizzlies can make the next step and win a playoff series.

• Bargain Basement for a Bargain Base Card: 2019-20 Panini Chronicles Luminance #165

2. Zion Williamson, PF, New Orleans Pelicans

Zion was no doubt the hobby’s favorite from this class just a few months ago, but injuries and weight issues have quickly doused his hobby fire. I do have reason to believe he is undervalued on his cards right now!

The Pelicans traded away Lonzo Ball (Chicago) and they missed out on Kyle Lowry (Miami). They are lined up for another lottery season in the Big Easy. Much like Anthony Davis before him, Zion is going to leave New Orleans for better pastures in the coming years – specifically, the New York Knicks. When that happens, Zion’s Q rating is going to go through the roof, as will his rookie card prices. (I mean, they’re already through the roof, I just mean through the roof of a second-story building!)

All of that is dependent on his injuries and weight, however. As his card prices fall, the opportunities to invest in him rise. His build portends to a player that might have four or five great healthy seasons in him, though, until gravity affects his play greatly.

• Bargain Basement for a Bargain Base Card: 2019 Panini Mosaic NBA Debut Orange Reactive #269

3. Darius Garland, G, Cleveland Cavaliers

The 2021-22 Cavaliers have been a great surprise this year, which has Garland’s card stock rising rapidly. He’s averaging over 20 points and 8 assists per game! Just a handful of players have that many points and assists per game this season.

The fifth pick from the 2019 NBA Draft, Garland was expected to take this big step in his junior season. Hoops Hype polled 15 NBA executives for their top-three picks to be 2021-22 breakout, and Garland garnered the top spot!

Garland is making his first All-Star Game in 2022, in his third season. That’s not unlike another Cavaliers point guard hero in Mark Price in the ‘80s, when he made the All-Star Game in his third season. (Garland made it at 22 years old, though, two years younger than Price did!)

Garland’s ability behind the arc makes him an offensive weapon that should help open things up for rookie Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen for years to come. He scored 17.4 ppg and dished out 6.1 assists per game last season, and the offense will continue to run through Garland.

• Bargain Basement for a Bargain Base Card: 2019 Donruss Optic #195

4. Tyler Herro, G, Miami Heat

After blowing up in the 2020 NBA Playoffs for 16-5-3 per game, a lot was expected from Boy Wonder last season. He stumbled a bit, even finding some time on Miami’s bench at one point, and now the team has brought in veterans Kyle Lowry and Victor Oladipo, relieving Herro of any point guard duties. That’s a good thing, as it appeared to overwhelm the sophomore out of Kentucky. Herro bulked up this offseason, and now he’s scoring 20 points per game on a very strong Heat team.

• Bargain Basement for a Bargain Base Card: 2019 Panini Prizm #259

5. R.J. Barrett, G, New York Knicks

Expected to start at shooting guard on a restocked Knicks squad, the former Duke playmaker was expected to take the next step in his progression to stardom. Going back to The Zion Effect, I believe Barrett’s cards will skyrocket once his former teammate joins him at MSG. Barrett has the personality and gravitas to be a star in the Big Apple, which makes his cards a nice buy in 2022.

• Bargain Basement for a Bargain Base Card: 2019 Panini Prizm Base #250

6. Kevin Porter, Jr., G, Houston Rockets

Putting the drama in Cleveland behind him, Porter’s move to Houston made a world of difference for the point guard. He’s playing alongside future superstar Jalen Green in the backcourt, but this team is not very good yet. That makes for a decent RC-buying opportunity. In 26 games with Houston last season, Porter averaged 16.6 points and 6.3 assists per game, which puts him in pretty good company. But he scored just 13.7 ppg in the first half of 2022. Even so, I’m buying now on Porter while I can.

• Bargain Basement for a Bargain Base Card: 2019 Prizm Mosaic #248

7. Keldon Johnson, San Antonio Spurs

After starting just one game in his rookie season, the man they call “Mustang” ramped things up in Year 2, averaging 12.8 points and 6.0 rebounds per game, with 67 starts at power forward. Interestingly, he’s over 15 ppg this season. Dejounte Murray has turned into the Spurs’ superstar, and Johnson is working in his shadow. They’re certainly still in rebuild mode, shipping out DeMar DeRozan this offseason, but things are looking up. Johnson is a hard-working player making his presence known down low.

• Bargain Basement for a Bargain Base Card: 2019 Donruss Optic #186

8. Luguentz Dort, G/F, Oklahoma City Thunder

Dort wasn’t even drafted in 2019 coming out of Arizona State after just his freshman season. The Canadian’s rookie success earned him a four-year deal with OKC, and while he’s solid defensively, it’s actually his scoring ability that has us interested in his cards. He’s young (22) and he’s playing on the youngest team in the NBA – and he has developed into their second-leading scorer behind Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.

• Bargain Basement for a Bargain Base Card: Panini Hoops Premium Stock Silver #213

9. DeAndre Hunter, F, Atlanta Hawks

Hunter missed 23 games in 2020-21 with a torn meniscus, but don’t expect that to be an injury that slows him going forward. He made great progress from his rookie year to his sophomore season, but like many of the Hawks not nicknamed “Ice Trae,” Hunter’s stats have dipped backward. He’s a plus defender, and he has a deft shooting touch to keep opponents honest. Some are looking at Hunter as a future 20-ppg scorer, though.

• Bargain Basement for a Bargain Base Card: 2019 Panini Prizm 251

10. Rui Hachimura, F, Washington Wizards

Born in Japan, Hachimura is as intriguing a player as much as his name’s pronunciation. This power forward has started for Washington since joining the league, and collectors have paid close attention to over the past two seasons. From Year 1 to 2, he hasn’t made much progress statistically, averaging just around 13 ppg, but with Russell Westbrook in L.A. now, they might ask for Hachimura to score more. He’ll miss the start of the 2021 NBA season for personal reasons.

• Bargain Basement for a Bargain Base Card: 2019 Panini Prizm #255

11. Cam Reddish, G, New York Knicks

The third Dukie drafted in this class, Reddish found himself paired back with his old teammate Barrett in New York after a midseason trade. Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau is strangely limiting Reddish’s minutes, though, and Reddish has half the opportunities he had in Atlanta. (If/when Thibodeau gets fired, Reddish is someone to buy low on!

12. Coby White, G, Chicago Bulls

While White did improve statistically in his second season, he struggled as the point guard, which helped Chicago decide to trade for Lonzo Ball this past offseason. The Bulls extended White’s contract, but he has had limited opportunities on this surprising Bulls team that’s competing for a top-four playoff spot in the East. White’s cards, in my opinion, have been too high in recent years, but considering he turned 22 years old in February, 2022, in his third NBA season, he might be a good longshot for later rewards.

• Bargain Basement for a Bargain Base Card: 2019 Donruss Optic #180

Honorable mentions:

• P.J. Washington, F, Charlotte Hornets: After starting for most of the past two seasons, the Hornets use P.J. Washington mostly off the bench in 2022.
• Jaxson Hayes, New Orleans Pelicans: Hayes backs up C Jonas Valanciunas this season.
• Brandon Clarke, F, Memphis Grizzlies: Backing up Jaren Jackson, Jr. at PF this season.
• Bol Bol, Orlando Magic: A player so nice, they named him twice! He’s now one of many centers with the Magic. It’s like they collect centers and point guards.

We’re going to continue this series over the next few weeks, looking into the best NBA rookie cards from these seasons, too:

• Rookie cards from 2016 NBA Draft
• Rookie cards from 2017 NBA Draft
• Rookie cards from 2018 NBA Draft
• Rookie cards from 2020 NBA Draft
• Rookie cards from 2021 NBA Draft

Which players from that 2019 NBA Draft are you targeting as your own best 2019 NBA Rookie Cards in 2021-22? Leave a comment below and let us know!

Over the past year, I have sent about 15 cards to SGC grading, and I bought several other SGC slabs from other people. I have become a fan, as you can tell from the title of this post, and from the fact that I sent 15 cards that I love to them!

So this blog post is meant to help you decide if you should send cards that you love to SGC grading!

13 Reasons To Use SGC Grading

This baker’s dozen set of reasons is not every reason, and I’m sure there are a few you can think of that I missed. Feel free to leave me some comments below with reasons why you like — or dislike — SGC grading.

1. SGC’s Turnaround Times Rock: Get your cards back within a month! In a hurry to sell your slab? Get their new 10-day or even 5-day turnaround service.

2. Great Pricing: With their standard service, they’ll grade your slabs for $30 each. While that sounds more expensive than CSG and HGA, it is still cheaper than PSA and Beckett. And the 25-day standard service turnaround time makes it an even better deal.

3. It’s Tuxedo Time — Black Slabs Are Beautiful: They really accentuate the beauty of the card, and it’s tough to imagine someone beating them on aesthetics alone.

4. Autograph Grades Don’t Cost You Extra: If you pull/buy an awesome autographed card, you can send to another company for the cost of grading the slab, and an additional cost for grading the autograph. Or you can send to SGC, where they’ll grade the autograph for free.

5. BIG Numbers For the Grades: If you get a 10 on a card, you really want to show that off — and no one does that better than SGC’s slabs.

6. SGC Gives “Authentic” Grades: I had a 1956 Topps Jackie Robinson card get rejected from PSA because it “did not meet the minimum size requirement.” So I sent it in to SGC and I checked the box that said if the card was authentic, to encapsulate it as such, even if it didn’t deserve a grade. I’m just glad “Authentic” starts with “A,” and that they didn’t use the term “Factual” and its “F” abbreviation!

7. Tons of Experience With Vintage Cards: SGC has made their bones on grading vintage cards, which makes them experts. And the big number grades look great on vintage cards, too.

8. Faster Turnarounds Mean Faster Profits: If you are working on flipping cards, you can send in cards to SGC grading for a one-month turnaround and get it back quickly so you can sell it fast.

9. SGC Grading Has Flat Fees: Rather than charge you compared to how valuable your card is, SGC’s fees are based on how fast you want them back. So they charge a flat fee!

10. SGC Gold Label Pristine 10s: Their super 10 grades represent a virtually flawless card! They’re tough to come by, but when you get one, it’s time to dance!

11. Slab Uniformity is Overrated: Consider that your slabs already have different players on different teams in different jerseys from different sports — so why would a different slab make any difference? My card display has a few different grading company slabs and it looks awesome.

12. You Might Get a 9.5 Grade Instead of a 9: Unlike PSA, which has half-grades up to 9.0, SGC has half-grades up to 10. So you can plausibly take a card that would get a PSA 9 and get an SGC 9.5 instead.

13. SGC is the Most Transparent Grading Company Around: If you follow SGC’s social channels, you’ll likely notice CEO Peter Steinberg doing videos pretty regularly. This isn’t because he’s a camera-hog — it’s because he’s the face of the company, and he makes sure his customers (and prospective customers) are aware of any issues they might have. That includes possible delays in grading, possible price hikes and finding out they graded counterfeit cards. SGC controls the narrative because they are first to air.

I still plan to submit cards to PSA, CSG and HGA, but you better believe I’ll be sending more to SGC grading, too. I like the mix of slabs in my display. My vintage cards look awesome in SGC slabs, and I’ve even sent some new cards to them for both quick turnarounds and to have others for my personal collection.

I sent in four cards to get graded and I got them back rather quickly — much faster than their website said I’d get it back. I believe it was right around one month total that it took for them to return my cards graded to me.

The Cards I Sent In For Grading

Among the cards I sent in for grading were some cardboard stock cards from the early ’70s and ’90s, some paper stock cards from 2021 and one chromium card from 2017. My goal was to see how they graded on different types of card stock.

• 1972 Topps Brian Griese
• 1991 Topps Chipper Jones RC
• 2017 Donruss Optic De’Aaron Fox RC
• 2021 Topps Topps Ke’Bryan Hayes RC (1965 Throwback)

I chose these cards to send in because I had duplicates of some of them (so if I wasn’t crazy about them, I could send the others in to another grading company.) Also, I chose these two cards (Griese and Hayes) because I thought they’d look great with the CSG green label. I was basically trying to color-match the label. (Yes, I know the Pirates don’t have any green in their uniforms, but the card itself has a ton of green (grass) and black and yellow looks good with green.)

Why Did I Send Cards to CSG Grading?

I wanted to try out CSG Grading because I wanted to educate both myself and my readers! First, I thought it was important to review what we know about CSG, and then discuss what we’ve heard about their slabs. Then I can share what I learned about them after my cards came back.

What We Know:

• Certified Collectibles Group was founded in 2005, grading several different collectible assets through the years. So PSA came around first in 1991, with Beckett (BGS) coming next in 1995, and SGC starting in 1998. HGA (Hybrid Grading Approach) joined the foray in 2021, after CSG started grading cards in 2020.
• That means CSG is an established company in the grading business for more than a decade. They’ve likely learned some things from grading those other collectible items that other grading companies haven’t learned.
• CSG hired away two veteran graders from Beckett that have a combined 30 years of grading experience, which allowed them to hit the ground running.

What We Heard:

• The green labels just aren’t popular. I wanted to see if they were bad with all cards, or certain cards.
• The slabs were too tall because their labels are so tall.
• The resale values on CSG slabs aren’t very good.
• CSG’s grading is very tough!

Have You Seen the CSG Grading Kit?

This grading kit is pretty legit, and I’m shocked that I haven’t seen the other grading companies do something similar. First, it would really make life easier for new graders, and second, it perpetuates their brand loyalty, as the sleeves are CSG branded. Kudos to CSG for this kit — it’s obviously something they learned with their other grading companies — help the customer use your service over anyone else’s.

The CSG Grading Kit comes with:

• 1 shipping box (for up to 150 cards)
• 2 foam inserts
• 3 pieces of bubble wrap
• 1 pack of 100 CSG Card Sleeves
• 1 pack of 50 CSG Semi-Rigid Card Holders
• CSG pen
• CSG sticker
• Price: $20 or $5 (New members at Associate Level (Cost $25 per year) get a coupon for this kit to take $15 off.)

Who Are the Players on the Cards I’m Getting Graded?

Bob Griese, QB, Miami Dolphins – 1972 Topps: Pro Football Hall-of-Famer; Famously led the Dolphins to three Super Bowls, including two wins (and the only perfect NFL record ever!); Griese was also the NFL MVP in 1971, which is the season this card represented.

Chipper Jones, 3B, Atlanta Braves – 1991 Topps RC: Larry Wayne was the No. 1 overall pick in 1991; The Braves went to the World Series the very next year, becoming the first team to go from worst to first (in 1991, the season this card represented. Chipper is a former MVP, former batting champion, World Series champion, and an eight-time All-Star.

Ke’Bryan Hayes, 3B, Pittsburgh Pirates – 2021 Topps 1965 Throwback RC: Hayes was the big rookie everyone was chasing at the beginning of the 2021 card-collecting season, but he struggled offensively after a great 2020. I expect him to come around offensively, but he could already be the best defensive third baseman in the majors right now.

De’Aaron Fox, PG, Sacramento Kings – 2017 Donruss Optic Rated Rookie Red & Yellow: Ater some mediocre seasons, Fox has started to come around. Since Alvin Gentry took over for Luke Walton as head coach, Fox has become a top-25 scorer with 22.4 points per game!

Pros & Cons of Sending Your Sports Cards to CSG Grading

Pros — Here are the good things I discovered about grading with CSG:

• Clarity: These acrylic slabs are absolutely beautiful, and the clarity has to be the best of any of the major grading companies.
• Low price: Economy costs just $20 per card (but remember, you have a one-time $25 fee for annual membership)
• Speed of service: I sent these on 11/4, and CSG entered them into their system on 11/9. I received these cards back on 12/14. So, from door to door, it took about 28 work days, from when entered into their system. Their site says the Economy tier of service has a 39-day wait, so I like that they are under-promising and overdelivering. Their standard service ($30) is 29 average days! We even beat that!

Here are some of the not-so-good things I discovered about CSG slabs:

• Unpopular Color of Label: It’s obvious that CSG chose this green color to fall in line with their other products: NGC, PMG, ASG and CGC, which all have different colors in the same scheme. That green color would have fit in much better with one of their currency grading brands!
• “Guaranty” Spelling: It’s grammatically correct, but it makes my eye twitch. They should just call it, “Ye Olde CSG.” (By the way, SGC spells their “guaranty” similarly, but you don’t see it on your slabs.)

My Final Grade For CSG Grading — DG 8.5

First, let’s go over the complaints I had heard about CSG. The slabs are not too tall, but I can see why some think the labels are too tall, especially if you don’t get subgrades. I keep my cards in displays, an these fit in their nicely.

Yes, the green color of the sticker is kind of limiting. They need to (and I believe they will) change to a black label instead.

While the resale on these slabs might not be great, you’ll get these back faster than PSA, so you can reinvest your money faster. Plus, the cheaper cost for grading offsets some of the resale differences, and if you end up getting subgrades (an extra $10 per card), then some might pay more for a better centered card with subgrades.

One thing I love about CSG is that they offer “Crossover” review for your cards graded by other companies. They will look at the card in the slab to determine if they think it should grade higher with CSG. If they don’t think it will grade higher than its current grade, then they won’t crack the slab.

Finally, I had heard that CSG was very tough on grading, and the results from my submission doesn’t change my mind. I would like them to kindly lighten up on the grades for my cards, but be much harder on the grades of other people’s cards, thank you!

What are your experiences with CSG Grading? Let me know in the comments!

My sports cards meant the world to me in the late ’70s and early ’80s, and whenever I’d watch games with my father, I’d sort through my cards, again and again, looking for the players on the field and up at bat, making sure I dinged every corner hundreds of times.

My father once bought my brothers and I a box of baseball cards in cello packs in 1978 (still my favorite Topps set). And since you could see which players were on the top and bottom cards, my brothers and I took turns choosing which packs we wanted to open in order.

It was my very first Fantasy draft.

My First Bad Fantasy Pick!

Yankees P Ron Guidry was the No. 1 pick in that draft. And 6-year-old me passed up Steve Garvey to excitedly pick Royals P Steve Busby. HAA! Busby. What a funny name! … I was a dumb kid.

Steve Busby!?! His last name is part thing and part sound the thing makes! His name could’ve been Steve MooCow! That’s comedy GOLD to a kid! … I ate a lot of paint chips back then.

I collected for the next few decades and built my collection up to 135,000 cards — including close to 134,000 commons!

I bring up my card collection because if you are around 40 years old or older, you most likely built up a nice collection of your own, in the early ’90s, when the card industry went nuts. Then the industry busted, like dot-coms would a few years later and the housing industry would a few years after that.

Now, bring up sports cards to anyone born in or before the ’80s, and you’ll hear guffaws and laughter from people that got burned on their “investment.”

With close to 40 million people playing Fantasy Sports these days, or about one in every 10 Americans, people wonder if the industry is officially saturated. Are all the people that would play, playing?

I make the comparison between sports card collecting and playing Fantasy Sports because it’s a quite natural connection. Both are based on your knowledge of the sport, the players and their prospects for future success. Both reward you for being a better prognosticator than your colleague, and both make the actual games themselves more intriguing than just the final score.

But there are some big differences that we should consider.

“Grandpa’s in the Toilet Bowl!”

When I was a kid, my father didn’t play Fantasy Sports. Most of our fathers didn’t play, I imagine. Not because they were too busy fighting commies – it was just because it wasn’t available. If they had Fantasy Drinking-Beer-in-a-Bar, my dad would be The Talented Mr. Schlitz!

However, as our generation (the first true Fantasy Sports generation) gets older, we’ll end up playing in leagues with our kids. Many of us are already doing just that, as I see stories about sons beating fathers in the championship game. (I’d ground that kid for two weeks.)

My point is – the Fantasy Sports industry is only going to get bigger, as dads and moms and grandfathers and grandmothers play in Fantasy leagues with their kids and grandkids.

As a matter of fact, my mom was in my very first league, back in the fall of 1989. She still talks about those drafts with a big smile on her face – even though she drafted Mark Rypien in the first round of the 1992 draft. (I should probably stop reminding her of that at some point.)

Our families bond over Fantasy Sports leagues. We talk trash and we reminisce. We connect.

Let’s continue this over-saturation, as we connect with younger generations in a new way, during a time when they are disconnecting from us in so many other ways.

I’ll always have the memory, for instance, of my father, looking up at me in his final days, and asking, “Dave … Steve Busby? What were you thinking?”

I’ve been playing fantasy Football for over 30 years now, and writing about it online for over 20. That means I’ve been scouring the Internet to help me find the best assistance possible. The following links take you to the top FREE Fantasy Football Draft tools that I think will help you the most in 2021. There are some tools out there that are similar, and I discuss that in some cases, but for my money (just kidding, they’re free!), these are my favorites! I also post the 25 Best Free In-Season Fantasy Football Lineup Tools every year, too!

As the summer wears on, I’ll be updating this page, removing the ones that are no longer available, and adding new ones that I’ve recently found.

I’ve been updating this column since 2012, adding links to more great tools every summer. This is one of the most popular pages on my website every year.

Top FREE Fantasy Football Draft Tools (Updated for 2021!)

If you come across a dead link or a tool that is no longer free, please comment below, so it tells me — and it tells our readers!

1. DraftWizard’s Mock Draft Simulator

Without question, this tool is still my favorite of all the free Fantasy Football draft tools. You can run multiple mock drafts from different spots in the draft order, see who dozens of Fantasy Football experts suggest, get analysis after your, and generate cheat sheets according to your league preferences. This thing has it all and it has been running strong for over five years now!

Even after all this time, this is still, by far, the greatest free draft tool in Internet history! Outside of having Matthew Berry, Michael Fabiano and Jamey Eisenberg talking over your shoulder as you get ready to draft, this is the best draft assistant you can possibly ask for.

Understand, of course, that the Mock Draft Simulator is free, but there are several pay add-on features — but they will make your life sooo much easier. We’re talking about features like:

• Draft Assistant: Connect to your Fantasy Football league, whether it’s on CBS, ESPN, MyFantasyLeague, Yahoo! or a few other sites, synchronize it, and this tool will move right along with your real draft room. You’ll still have to make your picks in the REAL room, but you’ll be offered pick-by-pick advice. Connecting to your league also pulls in your scoring and lineup settings, keepers and the rosters for other teams. It’s literally your Assistant Fantasy GM.

• Pick Predictor: It shows the odds of which players are likely or not likely to be available by your next draft pick (or whichever round you’re considering waiting for that player). It’s great for planning and for figuring out who you should take with your current draft pick. It uses the stats of all their previous mock drafts, along with current, updated expert rankings, to figure out percentages of who might still be available at your pick in the next round.
• Draft Analyzer: Shows you where the expert projections put your team in the standings after your draft, including where your strengths and weaknesses are.
• Cheat Sheet Creator: You can import your own rankings or combine your favorite experts’ rankings altogether onto one cheat sheet, with tiers and a spot for player notes. Then, as your draft continues, the tiers will light up red if they are close to being empty, so you know it’s time to draft from that position.
• Auction Value Calculator: Auctions are a little trickier than drafts, but this calculator uses projected points and VORP (Value Over Replacement Players) to help sort out player prices.

Go check this tool out now if you haven’t already! It’s my favorite free Fantasy draft tool, but their premium version also happens to be my favorite overall draft tool!

2. FantasyRundown.com’s Daily Article Links

Goose has his eye on the Fantasy Sports industry, and he’s always finding the very best Fantasy Football articles on tons of websites every day. Then he links them out for us to enjoy! He updates his page throughout the day, so you’ll end up coming back here several times.

My favorite part about his listings is that he doesn’t just grab a link and throw it up there. You can get that from an RSS feed or from Twitter. Goose goes in, checks the article out, and explains why this article will be beneficial to you and your Fantasy Football team. Consider this site your media relations team, finding out all the great little pieces of information you need to read about.

This is an interview I did with FantasyRundown about how he gets so many great links to so many great articles each day.

3. Sleeper App

I actually had this app on my “25 Best Fantasy Football Lineup Tools” from the last few years, but it’s one of the best free Fantasy draft tools, too!

Add this app through your app store, and turn on push notifications. Then they’ll shoot you a note every time something major happens in the Fantasy Football world. This could be injury news, roster shakeups, cuts and signings, or just some great gossip from a team’s local beat writer. It’s as if you have Fantasy and NFL headlines being whispered into your ear right when the news happens.

4. MyFantasyLeague.com ADP History

I love looking back over the past 20 years or so (dating back to the late ‘90s!) to see what the average draft rankings were for any particular season. I like their draft setup, which means you can run mock drafts for free that are quite helpful.

5. FantasyPros’ ADP Comparison Tool

Not only do they pull in the Average Draft Position numbers from several websites, but you can see where these different sites differ greatly on players. I do an article series every year over at The Athletic that shares which players are ranked higher in ADP on different draft sites. It’s called the ADP Hacking series, so keep an eye out for it!

6. FFToolbox.com’s Fantasy Strength of Schedule

I love looking ahead at the upcoming schedules to spot opportunities to exploit. I love that you can change the range of schedules, also. Like, you can see who has the best schedule for running backs in the first five weeks, the middle five weeks or the Weeks 11-15 if you want.

7. CBSSports.com’s Pick-By-Pick Series

This is something relatively new Dave Richard and Jamey Eisenberg worked up last year, and they posted the 2018 version in late June. They go through each draft spot in a standard and a PPR league, and they give you an idea of how your draft would work out from that spot. So if you have the eighth pick in the first round of a PPR league, read their article on picking from that spot for some tips. Very cool idea that I should have thought of first! It’s weird to call this one of the top free Fantasy Football draft tools because it’s an article series, but you should use it as a tool that you go back to often.

8. “101 Fantasy Football Tips” ebook By David Gonos & 50 Other Fantasy Writers

OK, so this one is self-promotion — BUT — it is free! All you have to do is sign up for the DavidGonos.com Fantasy Football Newsletter! We’ll send it out once a week or so, with some cool info, new tools and new team names, and such! (This e-book was written in 2014, but it’s a strategy handbook, so it’s still applicable now, just with older player names as examples.)

After you sign up, you’ll get a confirmation email, and then a few minutes later, you’ll get a welcome email that will have the link to your free downloadable PDF!

9. FantasyFootballCalculator.com Scenario Calculator

Ready to have your mind blown? Plug in which draft pick you are targeting a specific player and it magically spits out the probability percentages of that player being available to you. (This hasn’t been updated for 2018, but you should still bookmark it!)

10. FantasyFootballCalculator.com Average Draft Position Rankings

This gives you the ability to graph out specific players to see how they are trending in recent mock drafts. Also, can break it into 8-, 10-, 12- or 14-team drafts. It’s a powerful draft prep tool, for sure. What I really like is checking a player’s rising or lowering Fantasy draft value, like the example shown with Jamaal Williams.

11. FootballGuys.com Daily Emails

Sure, there are a dozens of spots to get your player news, but there’s something nice about getting into work each day and having this email pushed to you, ready to read. Sure, it’s a day later than the news actually happened, but sometimes, that’s a much better way to look at the analysis rather than as soon as it happens.

12. Tristan Cockcroft’s Consistency Ratings

Cockcroft posts his consistency ratings on ESPN weekly, during the season, but in the offseason, these are helpful to look at to see which players consistently do what you expect them to do.

In this new Fantasy Football world, with Daily Fantasy play becoming part of our everyday lives, this research on Fantasy player consistency is invaluable. The more consistent the player is, the higher his floor is and lower his ceiling is, which means he’s a solid play when the DFS salary is right.

13. NFC’s Average Draft Position

This site hosts what’s considered the premier Fantasy Football competition, where the best face off against the best in some of the most competitive leagues in the industry. Big time stuff! So it stands to reason that their ADP is considered one of the best in the world, too.

14. FootballGuys.com Rate My Team

Once you have your roster set, after your draft, come back here and see what the FootballGuys think of your squad. You put your roster in, set your scoring system and lineup settings, then enter your email address and get a rundown. You even get projections and outlooks for each player, along with some possible free-agent recommendations. This is for after drafts, but it still counts as one of my favorite free Fantasy Football draft tools!

15. NBC Sports Edge’s NFL Player Headlines

When Eric Mack and I worked at CBSSports.com, we swore by the player news updates at CBSSports.com. We regularly beat RotoWorld (now NBC Sports Edge) to the punch, and we had better analysis – period. We posted more updates per day and no player owned in more than one percent of leagues went without an update for more than three weeks. But now that I’m not at CBS, I found myself using RotoWorld more and more. (It pains me to call it NBC Sports Edge.) I’m not sure why, exactly, but I do like the most recent updates on a player’s page being available immediately.

I open up their NFL Player Headlines page on one of my Chrome tabs, and I just leave it there, and check back often throughout the day, as it continually updates the headlines throughout the day!

16. Fantasy Football Reddit

This is basically, just a really great message board on a very large scale. Sure, a lot of sites have their own message boards, but this one’s great in that you’ll see stats, articles, questions, links and tools from tons of different sites. And even better, you’ll see opinions and perspectives of Fantasy owners that might not write for a site. And you can ask and answer Fantasy Football questions of all different types. The Redditors try to help the best articles rise near the top, so upvote the ones you like and downvote the others.

17. FootballGuys.com’s Draft Pick Trade Calculator

This is a nice tool put out there by David Dodds that helps you get an idea of the Fantasy value of every draft pick in a draft. So if you are offered a trade by someone, run it through this baby to see how the pick calculator thinks you would do. It’s weighted toward the higher picks, obviously.

18. FantasyPros.com’s Auction Value Calculator

It’s like a Fantasy auction cheat sheet, after you set the league size and team budget. It also works for flex positions and IDP leagues!

Just a great way to get an idea of the prices you should expect to pay for players in your Fantasy Football auction. As you know, auctions are usually very different from one to the next, much more so than a regular Fantasy draft. But starting off with a solid basis for auction values should give you a good head start.

19. FantasyPros.com’s Bye Week Cheat Sheet

Look, I know we have a lot of tools by these guys – but they’re good – and they’re free! What are you complaining about!?!

20. FantasyRundown.com Football Rankings Compilation Page

Think of this page like a portal to everyone’s Fantasy Football rankings in the world. I’m pretty sure he has the Dalai Lama’s PPR rankings on here, too (that guy loves the Ryan Tannehill this year). As of now, I count links to 18 different websites with rankings. Thankfully, it’s not overwhelming, and it’s sorted nicely, allowing you to find exactly what you’re looking for. He updates this daily, also.

21. “Fantasy Football For Smart People: 25 Mysteries Solved to Help You Draft a Better Team” E-book

I highly respect Jonathan Bales and his work in the Daily Fantasy Sports world has not gone unnoticed by the masses. He made this book on Fantasy Football free to download on your Amazon Kindle — or on your computer if you download the free Amazon app! But you can also buy some of his other Fantasy books here.

22. FootballGuys.com’s “Looking For Leagues” Forum

One of the toughest things regular Fantasy Football commissioners have to do is fill up a league after an owner or two bails, and no one has a buddy that: a) wants to play or b) knows anything about Fantasy Football. All the buddies they do know that are like that are already in their league. This forum is full of people looking for leagues – and leagues looking for people.

23. FantasyPros.com Fantasy Football Rumors

I like this page because it sorts through a lot of roster or transaction news, and just gives you some rumors floating around. FantasyPros owns several spots in my top free Fantasy Football draft tools list. They’re good.

24. ProFootballTalk.com’s News and Rumors

Speaking of rumors, there’s no greater source for news and rumors these days than PFT, and that has been the case for just about a decade now. You might not get Fantasy analysis, but wouldn’t you rather know the news sooner, giving yourself a chance to make the Fantasy call rather than waiting on Fantasy sites?

24. FantasyFootballers.org’s RB Touches Stats

It has always bugged me that stat sites, or stat pages within sites, don’t list “Touches,” for running backs. I don’t mean rushing attempts and receptions. I mean rushing attempts and targets, which would truly indicate how much a team uses this specific running back.
Did you know — after Dalvin Cook (26.14), Christian McCaffrey (26.00) and Derrick Henry (25.56), the running back with the most touches (rushes+targets) in 2020 was Joe Mixon at 24.17 per game?

25. NFLSavant.com’s Custom NFL Stats

This free Fantasy Football draft tool is really great because it gives you some next-level research ability. You set the options under each category, and submit for the stats.

26. FantasyFootballNerd.com’s Movers and Shakers

This is one of the cooler free Fantasy Football draft tools that looks over the Fantasy Football landscape to show you which players are on the rise and which players are falling in the rankings at each position. They monitor the rankings on several sites to determine the risers and fallers, and this tool would be a great in-season tool, as well. You can select a time frame you want to use, too, including seven days, 14 days, 21 days and 28 days.

27. NFL Injury Report by CBSSports.com

There are tons of injury reports everywhere, on every sports site, it seems, but I like this one the best because you can quickly get a look by team, by injury, by expected return date and, most importantly, by position. I also like it because you can break it down by their practice status.

28. CheatSheetWarRoom.com Custom Fantasy Football Cheat Sheets

Create your own customized player rankings by dragging and dropping players up and down on an interactive cheat sheet. Then you can generate a printable cheat sheet off of that.

29. FootballGuys.com Depth Charts

There are plenty of sets of depth charts out there, but I these rank up there among the easiest to use. No frills, color coded – and you don’t have to go to a different page for every team. They do a great job keeping them up to date, as well.
IDP Owners Alert: They update their defensive depth charts, too, making this a great IDP tool.

30. TheHuddle.com’s 2021 Offensive Line Rankings

Offensive lines are the lifeblood of most successful Fantasy players, because without them, QBs are running for their lives, wide receivers don’t have enough time to get open, and running backs get stuffed at the line. David Dorey figures it all out and ranks the O-lines before every season.

31. FFToolbox.com’s Ideal Bye Week Running Backs

This is pretty cool, as it allows you to take a look ahead to see which lower-ranked running backs you should consider picking up to start in place of your superstar running back that’s on a bye that week. For instance, it shows Alvin Kamara with a Week 6 bye, so you might want to look toward drafting Denver’s Javonte Williams or Melvin Gordon as your RB3, who could start in Kamara’s place in your lineup that week as an RB2.

32. Draftologist.com Draft Planalyzer

This tool may very well be your Fantasy Football league’s Mel Kiper. Plug in your league’s draft results from the last three years, and this free tool will help you:

• Zero in on other owner’s tendencies when they draft. You’ll be able to tell which owners are more predictable than others
• Get an idea when an owner usually takes the first player at a specific position.
• Figure out your league’s depth at a particular draft position.

Helmet-hair aside, I think this just made Kiper expendable.

33. FFToolbox.com’s Quarterback By Committee

If you missed out on the top 10 or so quarterbacks, loading up on running backs and wide receivers, you can check out this page to see what the best pairs of quarterbacks you should draft and stream, according to their schedules.

34. Great Fantasy Football Podcasts: CBSSports, ESPN and More

This one’s tough because there really are so many great Fantasy podcasts out there, and most of them are free. You can subscribe through iTunes, or you can listen through Stitcher for many of them. Different podcasts are for different people, though. I love the guys at CBSSports.com, as Adam Aizer, Dave Richard and Jamey Eisenberg are just top-notch, and they cover a ton of info every day. But I also love Tristan Cockcroft on ESPN’s Fantasy Football Podcasts because he’s entertaining and shares a great amount of analytical stats. But you should find your favorite Fantasy Football site, and listen to their podcast first. You’ll understand their references and stat discussions much more.

35. NFL’s NextGen Stats

This one sounds pretty boring, but there are a ton of different things you can do with their stats that I haven’t been able to find on other sites.

36. DavidGonos.com’s History of Top Rookie Draft Picks

Did this guy just vote for himself as one of the best free Fantasy Football draft tools? … Yes. Yes, he did.

Over the past few years, I’ve looked back at the rookie players that have been drafted as the top first-year players in Fantasy Football leagues. Then I compared them to the rookies that eventually scored the most points that season. You’ll be shocked to know that the top rookie pick in Fantasy Football leagues every year rarely ends up being the top scoring rookie. And here’s an article about 7 Compelling Stats About the Top 2 Picks in ADP Every Year Since 2000.
I hope these free Fantasy Football Draft Tools and our 21 Best Free In-Season Fantasy Football Lineup Tools help you win a Fantasy Football championship! And if they don’t, then you can just say, “Man, those guys are tools.”

I thought I’d start posting these old rankings and cheatsheets over the next few weeks, just as a way to preserve this old Fantasy history. I’m a big fan of looking back before we look forward, and while we might not glean too much from the player rankings themselves, we can definitely learn a lot about the industry and the game itself.

There are a few things you need to remember, though, as you look through these rankings.

Remember that back then, basic touchdown leagues were the norm. In other words, you didn’t get points if your running back rushed for 140 yards and no touchdowns. That’s a big fat zero in the scoring column for your Fantasy team. Doesn’t seem right, does it!?! Yeah, well, that’s why it was changed once online commissioner leagues made running the stats easier.

The city of Los Angeles had two teams in 1992, as opposed to the cities of Arizona, Baltimore, Carolina, Jacksonville and Nashville, which had none. The Raiders and Rams co-existed in L.A. for several years before moving on to Oakland and St. Louis. Now, here we are 25 years later, and the Chargers and Rams will be L.A.-mates.

1992 Fantasy Football Rankings

Remember that these are the preseason rankings – not the end-of-the-season rankings.

Top 20 Overall Rankings For 1992

(This is the extent of their overall rankings. Good luck if you’re in a draft that lasts longer than two rounds!)

1. Barry Sanders, RB, Detroit Lions
2. Jerry Rice, WR, San Francisco 49ers
3. Emmitt Smith, RB, Dallas Cowboys
4. Thurman Thomas, RB, Buffalo Bills
5. Mark Rypien, QB, Washington Redskins
6. Jim Kelly, QB, Buffalo Bills
7. Chris Miller, QB, Atlanta Falcons
8. Warren Moon, QB, Houston Oilers
9. Dan Marino, QB, Miami Dolphins
10. Joe Montana, QB, San Francisco 49ers
11. Randall Cunningham, QB, Philadelphia Eagles
12. Andre Reed, WR, Buffalo Bills
13. Andre Rison, WR, Atlanta Falcons
14. Rodney Hampton, RB, N.Y. Giants
15. Gary Clark, WR, Washington Redskins
16. Mark Clayton, WR, Miami Dolphins
17. John Taylor, WR, San Francisco 49ers
18. Neal Anderson, RB, Chicago Bears
19. Michael Irvin, WR, Dallas Cowboys
20. Lorenzo White, RB, Houston Oilers

The Stud-RB Theory was still years away from being figured out, so you’ll notice some quirky things in the cheatsheet. Plus, remember that since it was a basic, touchdown-only league, running backs weren’t quite as valuable as good quarterbacks. Or so the thinking was at the time. In reality, you can’t tell me the sixth quarterback (Montana) was a better pick than whoever the fourth running back (Hampton) would have been.

Jerry Rice was a first-round pick for longer than any other player in NFL history. Take that in. The only person to come close might have been LaDainian Tomlinson.

1992 Fantasy Quarterback Rankings

1. Mark Rypien, Washington Redskins
2. Jim Kelly, Buffalo Bills
3. Chris Miller, Atlanta Falcons
4. Warren Moon, Houston Oilers
5. Dan Marino, Miami Dolphins
6. Joe Montana, San Francisco 49ers
7. Randall Cunningham, Philadelphia Eagles
8. Dave Krieg, Kansas City Chiefs
9. Troy Aikman, Dallas Cowboys
10. Steve Young, San Francisco 49ers
11. Jeff George, Indianapolis Colts
12. Bernie Kosar, Cleveland Browns
13. Jim Everett, L.A. Rams
14. John Elway, Denver Broncos
15. Jim Harbaugh, Chicago Bears
16. Boomer Esiason, Cincinnati Bengals
17. Bobby Hebert, New Orleans Saints
18. Rodney Peete, Detroit Lions
19. Rich Gannon, Minnesota Vikings
20. John Friesz, San Diego Chargers
21. Matt Millen, New England Patriots
22. Vinny Testaverde, Tampa Bay Buccaneers
23. Neil O’Donnell, Pittsburgh Steelers
24. Jay Schroeder, L.A. Raiders
25. Jeff Hostetler, N.Y. Giants
26. Don Majkowski, Green Bay Packers
27. Steve Bono, San Francisco 49ers
28. Browning Nagle, N.Y. Jets
29. Timm Rosenbach, Phoenix Cardinals
30. Bubby Brister, Pittsburgh Steelers
31. Erik Kramer, Detroit Lions
32. Dan McGwire, Seattle Seahawks
33. Frank Reich, Buffalo Bills
34. Cody Carlson, Houston Oilers
35. Mike Tomczak, Pittsburgh Steelers
36. Steve Walsh, New Orleans Saints
37. Steve Beuerlein, Dallas Cowboys
38. Phil Simms, N.Y. Giants
39. Mark Vlasic, Kansas City Chiefs
40. Ken O’Brien, N.Y. Jets
41. Todd Marinovich, L.A. Raiders
42. Kelly Stouffer, Seattle Seahawks
43. Cary Conklin, Washington Redskins
44. Jim McMahon, Philadelphia Eagles
45. Chris Chandler, Phoenix Cardinals
46. Sean Salisbury, Minnesota Vikings
47. Tommy Hodson, New England Patriots
48. Jeff Rutledge, Washington Redskins
49. Steve DeBerg, Tampa Bay Buccaneers
50. Jeff Kemp, Philadelphia Eagles
51. Billy Joe Tolliver, Atlanta Falcons
52. David Klingler, Cincinnati Bengals
53. Jeff Trudeau, Indianapolis Colts
54. Andre Ware, Detroit Lions
55. Todd Philcox, Cleveland Browns
56. Steve Pelluer, Denver Broncos
57. Mike Pagel, L.A. Rams
58. Peter Tom Willis, Chicago Bears
59. Scott Mitchell, Miami Dolphins
60. Jeff Graham, San Diego Chargers

Ahem. Why are there 60 quarterbacks ranked and only 20 players overall? Love seeing some of these names on here, like

Jim Kelly makes the cover of the 1992 Fantasy Index Magazine. FantasyIndex.com

Dan McGwire and Todd Marinovich were both expected to be beasts. Dan was the younger brother to HR king Mark McGwire, and Marinovich was nicknamed, “Robo-QB” because he was groomed to be an NFL QB from early childhood.

They both stunk.

Notice that Brett Favre wasn’t even listed in the quarterback rankings? The NFL all-time passing touchdown leader!?! This was his second season in the NFL, too! The Falcons traded him to Green Bay during the offseason before the ’92 season.

1992 Fantasy Running Back Rankings

1. Barry Sanders, Detroit
2. Emmitt Smith, Dallas
3. Thurman Thomas, Buffalo
4. Rodney Hampton, N.Y. Giants
5. Neal Anderson, Chicago
6. Lorenzo White, Houston
7. Marion Butts, San Diego
8. Ricky Ervins, Washington
9. Reggie Cobb, Tampa Bay
10. Brad Baxter, N.Y. Jets
11. Barry Word, Kansas City
12. Leonard Russell, New England
13. Terry Allen, Minnesota
14. Vaughn Dunbar, New Orleans
15. Tommy Vardell, Cleveland
16. Gerald Riggs, Washington
17. Christan Okoye, Kansas City
18. Harold Green, Cincinnati
19. Greg Bell, L.A. Raiders
20. Vince Workman, Green Bay
21. Rod Bernstine, San Diego
22. Tony Smith, Atlanta Falcons
23. Herschel Walker, Minnesota Vikings
24. Mark Higgs, Miami Dolphins
25. Leroy Hoard, Cleveland Browns
26. Brad Muster, Chicago Bears
27. Siran Stacy, Philadelphia Eagles
28. Eric Dickerson, L.A. Raiders
29. Ernest Byner, Washington Redskins
30. Johnny Johnson, Phoenix Cardinals
31. Blair Thomas, N.Y. Jets
32. Albert Bentley, Indianapolis Colts
33. Greg Lewis, Denver Broncos
34. Harvey Williams, Kansas City Chiefs
35. Barry Foster, Pittsburgh Steelers
36. Cleveland Gary, L.A. Rams
37. Bobby Humphrey, Denver Broncos
38. Tom Rathman, San Francisco 49ers
39. Kevin Mack, Cleveland Browns
40. Marcus Allen, L.A. Raiders
41. Kenneth Davis, Buffalo Bills
42. John L. Williams, Seattle Seahawks
43. Robert Delpino, L.A. Rams
44. Merril Hoge, Pittsburgh Steelers
45. Gaston Green, Denver Broncos
46. Darren Lewis, Chicago Bears
47. Sammie Smith, Miami Dolphins
48. Amp Lee, San Francisco 49ers
49. Rueben Mayes, Seattle Seahawks
50. Darrell Thompson, Green Bay Packers
51. Reggie Brooks, Philadelphia Eagles
52. Rodney Culver, Indianapolis Colts
53. Anthony Thompson, Phoenix Cardinals
54. Gary Anderson, Tampa Bay Buccaneers
55. Dave Meggett, N.Y. Giants
56. Steve Broussard, Atlanta Falcons
57. Allen Pinkett, New Orleans Saints
58. Gary Brown, Houston Oilers
59. Derrick Fenner, Cincinnati Bengals
60. Lewis Tillman, N.Y. Giants

Sanders-Smith-Thomas was an argument for the ages, up there with A-Rod-Nomar-Jeter in the late ’90s.

Plenty of good stories among this group, including Terry Allen, who was great with Minnesota before tearing his ACL, then playing great for Washington – and tearing his ACL again.

Gary Brown and Barry Foster were studs in this season – and then barely heard from after that.

The Chiefs were exasperating to deal with in Fantasy because they had the “Nigerian Nightmare” Christian Okoye, Barry Word and Harvey Williams.

Seeing Herschel Walker at No. 23 is painful. This guy was so talented, but over the hill at this point, and on the wrong team.

Note: Tony Smith, ranked 22nd here, was the player the Falcons drafted with the first-round pick they got from the Packers for Favre. How in the world did the Falcons make it to the Super Bowl in 1998, after horrible decisions like that one?

1992 Fantasy Wide Receiver Rankings

1. Jerry Rice, San Francisco 49ers
2. Andre Reed, Buffalo Bills
3. Andre Rison, Atlanta Falcons
4. Gary Clark, Washington Redskins
5. Mark Clayton, Miami Dolphins
6. John Taylor, San Francisco 49ers
7. Michael Irvin, Dallas Cowboys
8. Haywood Jeffires, Houston Oilers
9. Michael Haynes, Atlanta Falcons
10. Fred Barnett, Philadelphia Eagles
11. James Lofton, Buffalo Bills
12. Ernest Givins, Houston Oilers
13. Sterling Sharpe, Green Bay Packers
14. Anthony Miller, San Diego Chargers
15. Calvin Williams, Philadelphia Eagles
16. Tim Brown, L.A. Raiders
17. Art Monk, Washington Redskins
18. Floyd Turner, New Orleans Saints
19. Rob Moore, N.Y. Jets
20. Tim Barnett, Kansas City Chiefs
21. Willie Green, Detroit Lions
22. Henry Ellard, L.A. Rams
23. Anthony Carter, Minnesota Vikings
24. Wendell Davis, Chicago Bears
25. Eddie Brown, Cincinnati Bengals
26. Don Beebe, Buffalo Bills
27. Jessie Hester, Indianapolis Colts
28. Cris Carter, Minnesota Vikings
29. Herman Moore, Detroit Lions
30. Desmond Howard, Washington Redskins
31. Lawrence Dawsey, Tampa Bay Buccaneers
32. Irving Fryar, New England Patriots
33. Webster Slaughter, Cleveland Browns
34. Brian Blades, Seattle Seahawks
35. Curtis Duncan, Houston Oilers
36. Ernie Jones, Phoenix Cardinals
37. Mike Pritchard, Atlanta Falcons
38. Mark Ingram, N.Y. Giants
39. Brett Perriman, Detroit Lions
40. Mark Duper, Miami Dolphins
41. Bill Brooks, Indianapolis Colts
42. Flipper Anderson, L.A. Rams
43. Vance Johnson, Denver Broncos
44. Ricky Proehl, Phoenix Cardinals
45. Al Toon, N.Y. Jets
46. Eric Martin, New Orleans Saints
47. Stephone Paige, Kansas City Chiiefs
48. Alvin Harper, Dallas Cowboys
49. Mario Bailey, Houston Oilers
50. Ricky Sanders, Washington Redskins
51. Gary Clark, Miami Dolphins
52. Carl Pickens, Cincinnati Bengals
53. Stephen Baker, N.Y. Giants
54. Reggie Langhorne, Indianapolis Colts
55. Mark Carrier, Tampa Bay Buccaneers
56. Patrick Rowe, Cleveland Browns
57. Mike Sherrard, San Francisco 49ers
58. Mervyn Fernandez, L.A. Raiders
59. Tim McGee, Cincinnati Bengals
60. Hart Lee Dykes, New England Patriots

Lots of beneficiaries of the run-n-shoot offense in this list, including guys in Buffalo’s Kelly Gun No-Huddle offense.

I would like to see Randall Cobb, Steve Smith, Wes Welker and Danny Amendola in a 2014 version of the Run-n-Shoot offense. Which QB would you want: Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers – or hell, Andrew Luck?

I’m not sure but this might be the last time you see Sterling Sharpe outside of the top five at this position for the remainder of his career. People don’t know just how amazing this guy was. He was a tough receiver that ran great routes and was very tough to tackle — with Brett Favre at the helm. Sharpe would end up having the best season of his career in 1992, with 108 catches for 1,461 yards and 13 touchdown catches.

1992 Fantasy Tight End Rankings

1. Eric Green, Pittsburgh Steelers
2. Keith Jackson, Philadelphia Eagles
3. Marv Cook, New England Patriots
4. Ethan Horton, L.A. Raiders
5. Jay Novacek, Dallas Cowboys
6. Keith McKellar, Buffalo Bills
7. Johnny Mitchell, N.Y. Jets
8. Derek Brown, N.Y. Giants
9. Brent Jones, San Francisco 49ers
10. Steve Jordan, Minnesota Vikings
11. Ferrell Edmunds, Miami Dolphins
12. Rodney Holman, Cincinnati Bengals
13. Terry Orr, Washington Redskins
14. Ron Hall, Tampa Bay Buccaneers
15. Jackie Harris, Green Bay Packers
16. Andrew Glover, L.A. Raiders
17. Travis McNeal, Seattle Seahawks
18. James Thornton, Chicago Bears
19. Robert Awalt, Denver Broncos
20. Derrick Walker, San Diego Chargers
21. Ed West, Green Bay Packers
22. Scott Galbraith, Cleveland Browns
23. Damone Johnson, L.A. Rams
24. Jonathan Hayes, Kansas City Chiefs
25. Duane Young, San Diego Chargers
26. Pete Metzelaars, Buffalo Bills
27. Pete Holohan, Cleveland Browns
28. Mike Tice, New Orleans Saints
29. Jimmie Johnson, Detroit Lions
30. Shannon Sharpe, Denver Broncos
31. Mike Dyal, Kansas City Chiefs
32. Adrian Cooper, Pittsburgh Steelers
33. Howard Cross, N.Y. Giants
34. Kerry Cash, Indianapolis Colts
35. Jamie Williams, San Francisco 49ers

Look waaaaaay down to No. 30, Shannon Sharpe. He still wouldn’t come into his own for another season. This future Hall-of-Fame tight end went on to post three 1,000-yard seasons with the Broncos, and he caught 62 career touchdowns.

Eric Green and Johnny Mitchell were both huge disappointments after brief flashes of big talent.

1992 Fantasy Kicker Rankings

1. Chip Lohmiller, Washington Redskins
2. Pete Stoyanovich, Miami Dolphins
3. Nick Lowery, Kansas City Chiefs
4. Steve Christie, Buffalo Bills
5. Morten Andersen, New Orleans Saints
6. Jason Hanson, Detroit Lions
7. Roger Ruzek, Philadelphia Eagles
8. Mike Cofer, San Francisco 49ers
9. Jeff Jaeger, L.A. Raiders
10. Norm Johnson, Atlanta Falcons
11. Jeff Treadwell, Denver Broncos
12. Al Del Greco, Houston Oilers
13. Brad Daluiso, Dallas Cowboys
14. Kevin Butler, Chicago Bears
15. Matt Bahr, N.Y. Giants
16. Gary Anderson, Pittsburgh Steelers
17. Matt Stover, Cleveland Browns
18. John Kasay, Seattle Seahawks
19. Ken Willis, Tampa Bay Buccaneers
20. Chris Jacke, Green Bay Packers
21. Jason Staurovsky, N.Y. Jets
22. Carlos Huerta, San Diego Chargers
23. Roman Anderson, Cleveland Browns
24. Fuad Reveiz, Minnesota Vikings
25. Charlie Baumann, New England Patriots
26. John Carney, San Diego Chargers
27. Tony Zendejas, L.A. Rams
28. Dean Biasucci, Indianapolis Colts
29. Raul Allegre, N.Y. Jets
30. Greg Davis, Phoenix Cardinals
31. Jim Breech, Cincinnati Bengals
32. Pat Leahy, N.Y. Jets
33. Chris Gardocki, Chicago Bears
34. Scott Norwood, Buffalo Bills
35. Mike Lansford, Kansas City Chiefs
36. Joe Wood, Houston Oilers

How weird is it to see names like Carney, Hanson, Kasay and Stover among this group of kickers from 1992? Those guys were around forever!

It’s also sad to see Norwood’s name at No.34. The Bills signed Christie away from the Bucs, after Norwood had a horrible ’91 season – one season after his famous “Wide Right” kick that could have changed Buffalo’s fate forever. He missed 11 field goals in 1991 (on 29 attempts) – and he never kicked an NFL field goal again.

1992 Fantasy Special Teams Rankings

1. Atlanta Falcons
2. Philadelphia Eagles
3. Washington Redskins
4. Houston Oilers
5. Kansas City Chiefs
6. Dallas Cowboys
7. Cleveland Browns
8. Detroit Lions
9. L.A. Raiders
10. New Orleans Saints
11. Seattle Seahawks
12. Buffalo Bills
13. N.Y. Giants
14. Pittsburgh Steelers
15. Denver Broncos
16. Chicago Bears
17. N.Y. Jets
18. Green Bay Packers
19. San Diego Chargers
20. San Francisco 49ers
21. Minnesota Vikings
22. Indianapolis Colts

Notice that it’s rankings just for special teams, and not defense/special teams. I don’t remember how our league scored for this position, but I’m almost positive that we counted interceptions and fumbles returned for touchdowns on defense.

Again, remember that this was in the TD-only days. The Falcons were the top-ranked unit, most likely because of the presence of Prime Time – Deion Sanders.

I hope you enjoyed this walk down memory lane. Do you have any special memories from back then? What players from these 1992 Fantasy Football rankings jumped out at you? And a big thanks to FantasyIndex.com for printing these magazines back then – and getting me into this hobby! Without them, I likely wouldn’t have found it so early.

You can still buy magazines every year from Fantasy Index – or at least you can follow them @FantasyIndex on Twitter!

Back in my day, we had to wait until Saturday to watch cartoons. (It was inhumane!) And we’d get detention for passing notes because texting didn’t exist. And my Fantasy league was Basic TD-only scoring. The Fantasy Football league ideas were few and far between back then!With a 13-week regular season for most Fantasy Football leagues, it’s really tough to gauge who the six best teams are, especially when you consider how many times a good team loses to a bad team, just because they had stars on byes that week. So one way you can fix that is by making more regular season games! Luckily, you don’t have to worry about wearing your players out by making them play two games in one week! Brilliant!

The commissioner will set up two double-headers – bookending the bye weeks – so that Fantasy teams will have full rosters to go up against two teams each before and after the bye weeks. (In 2017, that means your double-headers might be Weeks 4 and 12.) Ideally, these double-headers will be scheduled against division rivals!

Just think about the excitement surrounding that Week 12 set of double-headers, when everyone has their players back off byes, and playoff spots are starting

2. Add Rivalry Weeks to Your Fantasy Schedule

During your Fantasy Draft Day, figure out a rivalry for each owner. So if you have 12 teams, figure out which six rivalry matchups you could create. These rivalries could consist of matchups between:

• Brother vs. Brother
• Father vs. Son
• Husband vs. Wife
• Neighbor vs. Neighbor
• Worker vs. Boss
• In-laws
• Husband vs. Wife’s Former Boyfriend!

Basically, you just want to make each game to take on a little special meaning. The winner of these rivalry weeks gets to do something to the loser. Obviously, you don’t want to make it too painful, but it could be something like the winner renaming the loser’s team, or changing their team logo for one week.

Those new Fantasy team names could change to something like:

• David is a WAAAAAY Better Fantasy Player Than Me!
• My Wife Picks Losers, Just Like Me
• Loserville — Population: Me

3. All vs. One and One vs. All Scheduling

Part of the problem with Fantasy Football is that scheduling can sometimes lead to bad teams finding their way into the playoffs, and good teams get bounced because they had a terribly difficult schedule. What if you set up your 12-team league so that every single week, each team plays against each of the 11 other teams. Then schedule the same thing for the next week, and so on. This means the best teams would win more than they lose, and the other way around. Obviously, once the playoffs start, it has to go back to one-on-one Head-to-Head play.

4. Remove Luck By Awarding Extra Wins

Similar to the All-vs.-One scheduling model, each team ends up being judged each week against the other 11 teams in the league. In this way, though, there’s regular Head-to-Head play, like we’re all used to, but the top six scoring teams get an extra win added to their standings, and the bottom six scoring teams get a loss added. This helps good teams facing great teams still get out of the week with a 1-1 schedule, and it prevents bad teams from getting undue higher rankings in the standings.

5. Schedule Double-Headers Every Week

Once again, in an effort to remove the good luck from bad teams and the bad luck from good teams, scheduling double-headers every single week will make the cream rise to the top.

6. Schedule Fantasy Double-Headers Twice Per Season

Rather than make a huge change in the scheduling with some of the aforementioned new Fantasy Football league ideas, maybe tweak the schedule just a little by adding a couple double-headers. Think ahead, though, and add them during the weeks when no NFL teams have bye weeks. Wouldn’t that suck if you had a double-header to play and your first-round pick was resting on a bye?

7. Turn Week 17 Into an Awesome Daily Fantasy Pro Bowl Week!

Considering we have been taught to avoid Week 17 in our Fantasy Playoffs because stars sometimes get benched for rest and there are too many uncertainties to make that week the Fantasy Football Championship week. So let’s make it a week where every owner picks a team on FanDuel or Draft Kings and they all play against each other in a DFS Pro Bowl! Now, those backups that are seeing more snaps become cheap superstars! You could even make it so that each Fantasy owner is allowed to “lock in” one player from their real Fantasy team that no one else is allowed to use.

New Fantasy Commissioner Ideas

Commissioners are usually the linchpins to the entire league, so it stands to reason that if they get some new ideas, they can be the stimulus to get the rest of the league to join.

8. Give Your Fantasy Football League a Theme

I wrote a piece on 15 Great Fantasy Football Themes you should check out. Whether you use Star Wars, Game of Thrones, The Simpsons or a dozen other solid options, your fellow leaguemates will have a lot of fun coming up with creative Fantasy Football team names related to that theme. Help your league stand out from the others! Have your league vote on what theme you should use!

For instance, I’m in a Seinfeld league, where all the divisions, teams and even the championship game (The Festivus Bowl!) has names related to Seinfeld! My team used to be “Scandals and Animals,” named after my favorite episode with The Merv Griffin Show set, but I’ve recently changed my team name to “These Pretzels are Making Me Thirsty!” It’s dumb. And awesome, all at once!

9. Reward the Regular Season Scoring Champion, Too!

Everyone understands that the Fantasy playoffs have an awful lot of luck involved, and the team that scores the most Fantasy points during the regular season is the best team of the year. You should still reward the winner of the playoffs with the biggest payout, but don’t forget to reward the team with the most Fantasy points (not the best record!) in the regular season, too.

10. Get the League to Vote on End-of-Season Awards

The end of the Fantasy Football season is usually sluggish and slow, as most of the league is already eliminated and everyone’s dealing with the holidays and visiting family, while getting ready for the new year ahead. But when January rolls around, get the league involved again by asking everyone to vote on some Fantasy league awards (they’re not allowed to vote for their own teams!):

• Fantasy MVP
• Fantasy Bust of the Year
• Fantasy Sleeper Pick of the Year
• Owner of the Year
• Free-Agent Pickup of the Year
• Fantasy Rookie of the Year
• Fantasy Team Name of the Year
• Best Keeper Pick of the Year

You can also have some fun and vote on:

• Worst Fantasy Owner of the Year
• Worst Luck of the Year
• Worst Fantasy Trade of the Year
• Worst Drop of the Year
• Worst Fantasy Team Name of the Year
• Worst Keeper Decision of the Year

In many of these cases, the commish should go back and list off some nominations for each of the awards, so people don’t have to do a ton of research. It’s nice to get everyone involved again, and reward some Fantasy owners that didn’t make the playoffs.

Commissioners! Buy a customized Fantasy Football Draft Board with your league’s name on it, with team name stickers and everything! Buy it here!

11. Use a Three-Headed Commissioner

If one person doesn’t want to step up to be the commissioner, separate the duties among three different people for a Commissioner Committee! Try to choose owners that are already really involved and excited about making the league better.

Plus, with three commissioners, they can vote on trades and rules, and do what they can to make the league better. If one or two of the commissioners are involved in a trade, then bring in alternates for the voting.)

My suggestion for separation of duties:

• Logistics: Let this person handle the website duties, from league setup to roster cleanup to rules and scoring settings. He’s the numbers guy!
• Treasurer: This person collects the league fees and harasses people until they pay – then he also pays out at the end of the season. He’s the accountant you all better trust!
• Media: This guy is the one that sends out the fun emails to the league to get them pumped about the draft, and maybe he announces the Fantasy MVP each week, etc. He’s fun dad!

12. Last Year’s Champion Gets Penalized For This Year

This could be for a keeper league or a redraft league, and it really just punctuates how much everyone hates a winner! In order to keep a Fantasy dynasty from forming, make last year’s champion draft at the end of Round 1. If it’s a keeper league, make them lose one of their keeper slots! So while everyone else is holding over three players, they only get to hold over two.

13. Use Relegation To Move Owners In & Out of Your League

Are you running a really successful Fantasy league already? Do you have a waiting list of six or seven owners hoping to get in, waiting for a spot to open up? Make your league elite! Start a second league for the “waiting list” guys, and have the top two teams in that six- or eight-team league (the league champ and the league’s scoring champ) join the big league the next season. They would replace the two bottom teams from the main league.

This is called, “Relegation,” and it happens in European soccer leagues all the time. The best clubs move up and the worst clubs move down. Then the next year, it starts all over again, and the “minor” league will battle to get back into the majors!

Make the smaller league’s entry fees about one-quarter of what the fees are for the big league, helping keep that league stocked with potential.

Ideally, you’d have both of these Fantasy drafts happen at the same time, with all of the owners together at the same location. The big league would get the big table, and the smaller, minor league would have to do their draft at the “kiddie table.” Humiliation can be a great motivator! YAY!!!

14. Every 4 Years – It’s the Fantasy Football World Cup!

This is for leagues that have been around for a decade or so, preferably keeper or dynasty leagues. Have teams pay an extra 25-percent of the league fees every season, while keeping the payouts at the same amount. Then every fourth year, have a Fantasy Football World Cup season, where the winner of that year gets TWICE the payout amount! So if you have a $100 league entry fee each season, that number goes up to $125, and the payout goes from $1,200 in that fourth year to $2,400! This is also great for owner retention.

15. Commissioners Should Start Keeping Owner Records

Some league services, like CBSSports.com, has league histories, which includes stuff like the standings every year, the draft results, the owner records versus other owners, and assorted other records, like highest points scored in a season, etc. I wish it would also have records like average first-round draft position, best average finish, most Fantasy League MVPs on your team, most Busts, etc. These are great to refer to during the season – and especially just before the season to build excitement.

16. Allow For Public Trade Counteroffers During a Veto Window

I used to work with numberFire’s Matt Musico at FanDuel, and I completely stole this idea from him – props! It’s definitely one of the best new Fantasy Football league ideas I’ve seen in a while.

One of the most annoying things that happens with Fantasy Football trades is that people always say, “What a horrible trade – I would’ve given you a much better deal for that player! You got robbed!” This idea solves that.

Basically, once a trade is agreed upon between two teams, the commissioner then opens up a 24-hour window where other teams can now try to beat the trade offer for either side. Once a counteroffer is accepted, THAT trade goes up for more counteroffers! You’ll never ever have a trade get vetoed again!

17. Discounts & Penalties: Collect League Fees Faster Than Ever!

Collecting league fees is always a pain every season. Maybe make it so that the first six teams to pay their fees get a 10-percent discount and the last three teams have to pay a 20-percent penalty? That would make it a race for owners to pay you!

New Fantasy Football Scoring Rules

When people are considering new Fantasy Football league ideas, new scoring rules ranks among the most popular changes they’re willing to make.

18. Award Fantasy Points For First Downs Gained

I stole borrowed this idea from DynastyLeagueFootball.com, where Dan Meylor mentioned it in his column. By adding single points for any first downs made by a running back, wide receiver or a tight end, you even out the scoring between RBs and WRs a little bit more. Use this rule instead of points per reception or else you’ll over-reward WRs again. This new Fantasy scoring rule also eliminates a running back or wide receiver getting a point for catching a screen pass and losing two yards. It does, however, award a running back that can plunge forward with some extra effort for that third-and-short conversion.

19. Award a Bonus Touchdown For Fantasy Team With Best Backups

Doesn’t it suck if a backup player has a huge game and you’re unable to benefit from it? Make it so that whichever team in a Head-to-Head matchup has the set of reserves that scores more points gets six more points added to their Fantasy score. A bonus TD! NFL teams use their backup players, right? So why can’t you? This should also initiate some interesting lineup strategies as people forego sleepers at running back and wide receiver in favor of a backup quarterback or two.

20. Award Half-Points to Backup Quarterbacks

The quarterbacks position is one of the most important in the NFL, as he’s often the leader on the field and in the clubhouse, and he makes the offense go. But in Fantasy Football, quarterbacks have been neutralized because you only start one, and the top 12 are generally all very good, with little separation.

By awarding half-points for every point a Fantasy backup quarterback scores, you make the position more important, and you keep from having to go to a full Two-QB league, which changes everything.

21. Choose Team Captains For a Turbo Boost to Their Scoring

Let’s face it, Fantasy Football and video games go together pretty easily, so why not combine the two? Each Fantasy owner names a “team captain” and that player gets a 50-percent boost in their Fantasy points that week. The team captain can be changed throughout the season, as owners try to take advantage of some great matchups! You can also make it so that a team can’t name a captain more than twice in a season.

For example, if Odell Beckham Jr. is your team captain, and he scores 32 points against the Eagles this week, you’ll get an additional 16 points added to your final Fantasy score! But you have to yell, “Turrrbo BOOST!”

New Fantasy Lineup & Waiver Ideas

Through the years, the major changes to Fantasy Football leagues come to the lineups (flex positions, WR3s, QB2, super-flex, etc.).

22. Make Offensive Lines a Fantasy Position In Your League

Pretty much every NFL position can score you points in Fantasy Football, outside of offensive lines and punters. While we don’t have plans to change anything for the punters, we can make the offensive line position more interesting from a Fantasy perspective. Let owners draft “Team Offensive Lines,” sort of like how people draft “Team Defenses.” Then award five Fantasy points if that offensive line’s NFL team rushes for over 150 yards, passes for over 300 yards or doesn’t allow any sacks! This could be a great way to stack if you own Ezekiel Elliott and are smart enough to also draft the Cowboys offensive line! Or it’s a way to negate another team, but starting their star running back’s offensive line.

23. No Free Agent Pickups Until the Week 3 Supplemental Draft!

When I first started in Fantasy Football, back in 1989, we drafted large teams, so we had plenty of backups, but we wouldn’t allow for waiver pickups in the traditional sense. We had in-season supplemental drafts at different points. By not allowing owners to make free-agent pickups after the draft, forcing them to wait until after the first two weeks of the season are over, then the worst teams in the league suddenly get a chance to add a superstar to their teams.

In the past 20 years, players like Kurt Warner (1999), Alfred Morris (2012), Justin Forsett (2014) and Dak Prescott (2016) all ended up being great waiver-wire pickups at the beginning of their seasons. Let those players build up for a couple weeks and have a Week 3 Supplemental Draft!

24. Make Tight Ends More Important In a 2-TE Lineup

Tight ends, like quarterbacks, have plenty of talent, but just one lineup slot on Fantasy teams. Rather than having a tight end mix into your flex position (what a waste!), make each team start two tight ends, along with two running backs, three wide receivers and a flex position! Now, that second tier of tight ends really mean something, and sleeper tight ends can start being drafted. Rookie tight ends can finally see a starting Fantasy lineup!

25. It Might Be Time to Give Kickers the Boot!

Hey, I’m an old school Fantasy player, so kickers hold a special place in my old decrepit heart (I once drafted Donald Igwebuike, for goodness’ sake!). But I played in the FLEX Leagues, run by Jake Ciely, and he has eliminated the kicker position from those leagues. At first, I protested. But then, as you play, and you realize just how nice it is not to have to maneuver your lineup around to accommodate kickers on byes or kickers coming off byes or an injured kicker, etc., the idea sounds pretty awesome.

26. Speaking of Kicking, Let’s Punt Flex Positions, Too

One of the original goals of creating the flex position was to help make wide receivers more important, and trying to equalize the importance of running backs. So teams could choose to start a third (or fourth) wide receiver instead of a third running back. How about having four wide receivers and no flex, then you can add a third running back slot, too. To me, the flex is a copout, and this forces owners to make decisions.

27. Name Emergency Quarterbacks to Eliminate Injury Issues

Injuries in Fantasy Football happen just like they happen in the NFL, but NFL teams deal with it in a much different way. When a quarterback gets injured in the first quarter, they don’t play the rest of that game without a quarterback, they bring in a backup quarterback! The NFL is smart like that! But a Fantasy Football owner loses his NFL QB in the first quarter and he’s screwed for the entire weekend.

Make teams draft two quarterbacks, with the second quarterback being their emergency quarterback. If QB1 gets removed from the game, the Fantasy owner can choose to have his Fantasy backup quarterback enter his lineup instead, even if it’s after the games have happened.

Another option, if you don’t want to have to draft two quarterbacks, is to just have the points scored by the NFL backup to an injured quarterback count for your team.

28. Let Waivers Be a Twitter Free-For-All

Another fun Fantasy Football league idea is to have your waivers play out on Twitter! Players can be picked up and dropped at any time – even during a game! That would definitely make Sunday dinner at the in-laws (more) stressful!

The first one to pick up a player gets him – and whomever he drops is instantly available to other owners. This reminds me of a boiler room at some finance firm on Wall Street with people yelling “Buy! Buy!” and “Sell! Sell!” and “Who ate my sandwich!?!” (I honestly don’t know what goes on in those boiler rooms, but I like to think there are a lot of sandwiches being pilfered out of the breakroom fridge.)

Twitter is underutilized by many Fantasy owners. There’s a lot to be learned on there, and I’ve set up a huge list of 66 Fantasy Twitter people to follow that will help you for free.

New Fantasy Football Draft Lottery Ideas

Now that you have the scoring and lineup settings ready, it’s time to look to changing up the draft lottery! My buddy George is Australian and he loves Fantasy Football, he’s always on the online football shops such as the richmond tigers merchandise store. Did you know their Fantasy drafts go in counter-clockwise order, and the 12th pick selects first and the first pick drafts last? OK, well, sometimes I lie.

29. Make the Draft Lottery Another Big Event

People don’t take advantage of how exciting the draft and the draft lottery can be. Too often, we’re all so excited to get the draft going, that we zoom through the lottery and rush our way through the draft. Take a step back and enjoy it!

Rather than just doing a quick lottery and sending out the results, consider getting as many owners as you can together for the lottery a few weeks before the actual draft! Go to a restaurant or get together at someone’s home for beers, and do the drawing! Maybe video it or do a Google Hangout so everyone can watch it if they were unable to attend.

By doing the draft lottery ahead of time, you really increase the chances of owners working out some pre-draft trades! (Make sure you can trade draft picks in your league settings.)

Bring one of our customized Fantasy Football draft boards with you to put in the stickers across the top!

30. Change Your Draft Lottery Every Season

The Fantasy draft lottery is always a fun event, and commissioners should think about changing how the draft order is chosen every year.

There are a ton of different ways you can do your draft lottery, from as simple as drawing names out of a hat to holding a Skee-Ball competition at the local Family Fun Center. Some other ideas:

• Beer Pong: Write random numbers on the bottom of 12 red solo cups, fill them partially with beer, then have owners take turns shooting a ping-pong ball into them from across a table. When they make a shot, remove that cup, and they announce which pick they have!
• Pick a Racehorse: Find a horse race that’s coming up and do a drawing for the horse names in the race.
• NASCAR: Do a drawing with the different drivers’ names, and the person who drew the highest finishing driver picks first!
• Play miniature golf!
• Longest putt competition during a round of regular golf!
• Have a Hooters waitress pull names out of a hat!

Playing beer pong to decide who gets to draft when seems like an AWESOME idea. Just make sure the sober people document the results.

31. Draft Your Draft Picks!

Scott Engel loves to poke fun at me for this one. I started a four-sport experts league back in 2001, and Engel was in charge of the CBSSports.com team (SportsLine back then). Anyway, the point is that owners get to pick where they want to pick in the first round. Of course, a lottery has to be done for the order in which the teams would pick their picks!

For the 2017 NFL season, here’s how I see that draft of draft picks go down:

1. Pick No. 1
2. Pick No. 2
3. Pick No. 3
4. Pick No. 4
5. Pick No. 5
6. Pick No. 6
7. Pick No. 7
8. Pick No. 12
9. Pick No. 8
10. Pick No. 11
11. Pick No. 9
12. Pick No. 10

32. Use NFFC’s Third-Round Reversal Order

This would be for non-keeper drafts. The NFFC figured out that those lucky owners with the first few picks of the drafts were finishing much higher than those with later first-round picks. The reasoning was that while a late-pick owner got two of the top 15 players, as opposed to just one for the early pick owner, it was the fact that those early pick owners got three of the top 25-30 picks that made a much bigger difference.

The Third-Round Reversal rule makes it so that the third round is reversed what it normally is, and the second round order is essentially duplicated. For example, the owner with the 12th pick would now also have the 13th pick, and the 25th pick. The owner with the first overall pick would also have the 24th pick and the 36th pick, as well as the 37th pick to start off the fourth round.

33. Award Sandwich Picks Last Year’s Bad Luck Owner

Is there anything worse than losing your first-round pick to a torn ACL in Week 4? I like the idea of awarding a team that had to deal with that type of loss by giving them a sandwich pick between the first and second rounds of this coming year’s draft. You could also decide to do a lower sandwich pick, depending on the injury bust. For example, whoever took Keenan Allen in 2016, the biggest injury bust of the year, would get a sandwich pick between the second round and third round.

34. Use an Auction/Draft Hybrid Setup

Have you ever done a Fantasy Football auction before? If not, you and your leaguemates are definitely missing out. With that said, you probably already have a good thing in your yearly draft setup! So consider mixing the two, and doing a combination auction/draft for your player entry system. Auction off the top 50 players in Fantasy scoring from last season, and then do a straight draft for all the remaining teams! Start with $50 per team for the auction, and players go off the board in $1 increments.

If you’re really interested in Fantasy Football auctions, here’s an extensive list I wrote about some helpful auction strategy tips.

New Fantasy Football Dynasty & Keeper League Ideas

You should be in several different leagues every year, including one dynasty league, one keeper league and one IDP league! Make your Fantasy Football life colorful!

35. Keeper Leagues: Help Have-Nots and End Serpentine Order

Part of the trouble with keeper leagues is that once a team gets some studs, they’re tough to shake from the top. So one way you can help those teams that have had some bad keeper luck is to give them the higher draft picks, and stop the serpentine drafting. I am only in favor of this if there are five or more keepers, which makes it closer to a dynasty league than a keeper league.

By moving the have-nots up in the draft, they’ll have better chances at better keepers – in each round.

36. Try a Limited Keeper League

Some people love the deep research that goes into dynasty leagues, but not everyone in the league wants to go that deep. Try what I like to call a “limited keeper league,” which means it’s a keeper league, but the only players that are keeper eligible are the ones drafted beyond a certain point of the draft, like after Round 9.

This keeps the first few rounds stocked with superstars, especially incoming rookie studs like Leonard Fournette and Christian McCaffrey, since they’ll be picked well before the cutoff point (start of Round 10). But if someone does the right amount of research and locks down a good sleeper late, then they should be rewarded by getting to keep that player going forward (I like to set three-year limits on keepers, after the year they were drafted. So they can be owned for four years, essentially.)

Also, try to make the keeper round an even-numbered round, so you don’t reward whoever wins the first overall pick with the first keeper pick, too.

37. Start a Devy League

What’s a Devy League, you ask? The name is short for a “Developmental” dynasty league. Think of it like Major League Baseball, where they have an entire minor-league organization that provides talent to them season after season. Owners draft college and high school football players for their Devy Leagues, along with regular NFL players. You can add devy players to your regular rookie draft, or set it up so they can be added throughout waivers in-season.

38. Make College Players Eligible in Keeper Leagues

In a keeper league I ran dating back to 1989, we started allowing the two worst teams in the league (after Week 12) to pick up ONE college football player that they’d be able to hold over as one of their three keepers heading into the following season. This is different from a Devy League in that it’s just a keeper league, as opposed to a Devy dynasty league.

In the mid- to late-‘90s, we had several great college players end up on bad teams, helping improve them considerably the next year. Guys like Randy Moss, Eddie George, Ricky Williams, Peyton Manning and Tiki Barber were all college player keepers back then. (Someone also drafted Curtis Enis, HA!) What’s really fun about it is people can’t change their pick, so they have to a) guess about their draft value, and b) hope their players end up with good opportunities on NFL teams. There was also the risk of picking a player that didn’t decide to enter the NFL Draft, only to go back to school for the next season.

Guys like Todd Gurley, Ezekiel Elliott and Leonard Fournette likely would have been college keeper picks, as well as people like Amari Cooper and maybe Christian McCaffrey.

Also, you should consider setting up rules that teams can only have one college player on their team at a time, and if you pick a college player one year, you can’t pick a college player the next year.

New Fantasy Football Playoffs Ideas

The first 13 weeks of the NFL season is kind of like one season, and the Fantasy Football Playoffs are a one-and-done second season. Here are some ideas on how to make the Fantasy postseason even better.

39. Award Home Field Advantage For the Playoffs

I never understood why more leagues don’t award three-to-six points for home-field advantage to the higher seeds in the Fantasy Football playoffs. What’s the use of getting a higher seed, other than the bye week? This way, the fight for playoff seeds means even more. Of course, for the Super Bowl, there’s no home field advantage, as it’s played on a neutral playing field.

40. The Last Playoff Spot Goes to Highest Scoring Non-Playoff Team

Rather than do playoff seeding by record only, consider giving that final playoff spot, whether it’s sixth in a 12-team league, to the team remaining with the highest points scored. Once again, we’re trying to eliminate luck from the hobby, so a team that has a horrible Fantasy schedule (with the most points against) and the second-most points in the league, to go with a 6-7 record, gets rewarded with a playoffs spot.

41. Do a Consolation Bracket For the Non-Playoff Teams

Once teams are eliminated from the Fantasy Playoffs, they often completely lose interest and pack it in. Commissioners have to harass them to set lineups sometimes in the final weeks. So if you have a “Non-Playoff Team Playoffs,” with the winner getting half their league fee back, then they’ll have something to play for!

42. The Biggest Loser Buys Drinks For Next Year’s Draft!

I like the Toilet Bowl setup, personally, pitting the two worst teams of the regular season against each other, with the loser of that game being the Toilet Bowl Chump. That’s the worst spot ever! Whoever becomes Toilet Bowl Chump has to buy shots at the bar during next year’s draft, or they have to bring the beer if the draft is at someone’s house.

I like the ideas of handing out penalties, like many of the people did in Matthew Berry’s “Fantasy Life” book. One league forces their league loser to get a horrible tattoo! That might be a little much, after all. That’s like penalizing the guy’s wife and kids.

If you have some great Fantasy Football league ideas, we’re dying to hear them! Drop a comment below and let everyone know – especially me!

We’ve been tracking great Fantasy Football league ideas for several years now, with the full list exceeding 40 great new Fantasy Football rules, but we’ve handpicked a couple handfuls that are specifically for the overall setup of your league.

These Fantasy Football rule ideas are more about the overall structure of your league.

We’ll be updating this page, as well as posting new articles with fully fleshed out Fantasy Football rule ideas for other parts of Fantasy leagues, like scoring changes, scheduling, lineup and waiver ideas, how to come up with your Fantasy draft order, lottery ideas, dynasty and keeper league rule changes and even Fantasy Football playoffs rules to consider.

My 19-year fantasy football league has been legislating rules changes for two hours in the pizza spot we all went to after high school baseball games. The holidays can be great.

— Jonathan Stein ?? (@_jonathanstein) December 27, 2017

Please post your ideas for great Fantasy Football rule changes commissioners should consider in the comments section below! Our readers want to hear about them!

9 Fantasy Football Rule Changes For Your League’s Structure

As I mentioned, these Fantasy rule changes aren’t scoring rule ideas or draft ideas, but they consist of ideas I’ve considered or used in other leagues over the past 28 years.

1. Install a Three-Headed Commissioner

This new Fantasy rule idea gets the commissioner off the hook from all your league’s complaints! If the league helps choose three people to serve as a “Commissioner Committee,” then they can break up the league duties for a few reasons. First, it alleviates all the work from landing on one person. Second, in a 12-team league, it now allows for one-fourth of the league to be much more in-tuned into how the league is being run, as opposed to just the one commissioner playing papa. Third, separate duties allow those people to concentrate fully on making sure those duties are done to the utmost of their ability. And fourth, the power is spread out a little bit, and owners don’t have to fear the commish is up to something no good.

The league’s owners should make sure they vote for three owners they know are fully committed to the league, and not half-in and half-out. You likely know which types of owners I’m talking about.

I’m in a softball team league with former co-workers and friends from CBSSports.com, dating back almost a decade now. Here’s how we broke up the duties:

• Logistics – Jamey Eisenberg: This is the guy that handles everything on the league’s website, including the league setup, draft order, scoring settings and everything else.
• Treasurer – Brett Tresky: He’s our enforcer, collecting league fees from everyone and harassing those who haven’t paid yet. At the end of the year, he’ll also be the guy that dishes out the winnings to whomever has money coming their way. He also handles paying for the league service fees. (Make sure you trust this guy a lot!… Or choose someone like B.T.)
• Sports Information Director – David Gonos: This is our media member, sending out fun emails no one wants to read, getting the league pumped about the playoffs with “magic number” talk and “playoff scenarios.” Maybe he even sends out a weekly newsletter to the league after getting some fun quotes from the owners. He’s your fun uncle who you really don’t want to trust with everyone’s league fees. Like me!

A Commissioner Committee handles every trade, making sure they aren’t sketchy trades or too one-sided, and they work to come up with new Fantasy Football rules to fix whatever travesty happened last year (there’s always one!).

Note: There should be one or two alternate members for this committee – maybe people who normally would’ve been great commissioners but are limited by time – who can stand in on trade votes if one or two of the committee members are involved in a trade.

2. Come Up With a Fantasy Football Theme

Rather than just have a traditional Fantasy league with an awesome Fantasy league name, consider coming up with a fun Fantasy Football league theme.

Whether your league revolves around an awesome TV show, a great movie franchise, or whatever, having a theme helps add an interesting flare. For instance, you can ask all the owners to name their teams off something based on whatever theme you choose. I’ve been involved in leagues with themes surrounding “Seinfeld,” the mafia, Disney characters, and more. Here are a few Fantasy Football league theme options you might love:

• Recurring characters from “Saturday Night Live”
• “The Simpsons”
• “Game of Thrones”
• “The League”
• Your local NFL team

Name your divisions after your theme and make sure you come up with a cool trophy name for your league’s champion!

I wrote a full article about coming up with different Fantasy Football league themes here.

3. Penalize Last Year’s Champion To Encourage Parity

While I’m not a huge fan of this one, we do use it in one of my keeper leagues because the rest of the guys seem to like it. The way it works is – our keeper league allows you to hold over two players from one year to the next. If you win the championship that season, you’re only allowed to keep ONE player the following season. Imagine if you had Todd Gurley as a keeper, and you also ended up with Kareem Hunt last season, and you won the championship. This makes it so you can’t have both keepers going forward, but you don’t care as much because you did just win a title!

4. Give Early Payers a Discount – and Give Late Payers a Penalty

One major problem every season for league commissioners seems to be getting everyone to pay on time. This rule helps you get the money early! I like those types of Fantasy Football rule ideas!

• The first six owners to pay get a 10-percent discount on their league fees!
• The last three owners to pay have to pay a 20-percent penalty with their league fees!

In other words, if your league fees are $100, then the first six owners to pay only have to pay $90, the next three still pay $100, but then the final three owners have to pay $120! The end result is still the same, with the same kitty for the league winnings to come from. This also incentivizes and rewards those that pay early, and if others want to pay late, they can, but they’ll have to pay extra – like a late fee!

5. Create a Super-Duper Bowl Season Every 4 Years

This generally only works for dynasty and keeper leagues, for the record. Think about how the World Cup works in soccer – a tournament is held every four years. So, for Fantasy Football, you can have each team pay 125% of their league fees every season, with the same normal payouts for three consecutive years. But in the fourth year, all of those extra league fees get poured into the kitty, and that fourth year’s championship is a battle for twice as much money!

For instance, if your league fee is $100, then each year, the owners pay $125, for three straight years, and the extra $25 goes into a kitty. Then in Year 4, there’s an extra

• ((extra $25 x 12 owners)) x 3 years) + (Year 4’s $125 fees x 12 owners) = $2,400 kitty

This changes keeper strategies somewhat, as some will make plans based on that one big payout, whereas others might take advantage of everyone aiming for Year 4, and try to win this year instead.

6. Move New Owners In With Relegation – and Bad Owners Out

Speaking of the World Cup and soccer, how about using the relegation system that soccer teams use in Europe? First, let me paint a picture for you:

Your league has some owners that regularly stink the place up, but they’ve been in it so long, you can’t just kick them out. You’d like to make your league more competitive, and you have several friends that know Fantasy who are dying to get into your league!

Start a second league, even if it’s just with six or eight teams. This is your minor league. The top two teams that make it to the championship game in that league get bumped up to the major league the following year. They’ll replace the two teams with the worst records from the major league – who now get relegated down to the minors for the next season!

Plus, those league owners who get bumped down don’t even get to vote on your new Fantasy Football rules for next year!

7. Regular Season Champs Need Love, Too!

What’s more frustrating than having the absolute best Fantasy team during the 13-week regular season, crushing everyone in your wake, only to get knocked out of the league’s semifinals because your studs had one bad week? It’s brutal – and un-American! So let’s reward the regular season champion, possibly giving him back his league fees at least.

8. Vote On Owner Awards

Get everyone involved toward the end of the season and have them vote on fun awards, like Fantasy MVP, Best Late-Round Pick, Best Free-Agent Pickup, Worst Owner of the Year, Unluckiest Owner of the Year, Worst Drop of the Year, etc. Then …

9. Keep Owner Records

If you play on CBS Sports or MyFantasyLeague, your draft results and league records are already kept – at least dating back 10 years or so. But you should even take it a little further and share the owner records of all the voting, too. Wouldn’t it be interesting to see that one guy always seems to be the “Unluckiest Owner of the Year,” or one smart owner always ends up picking the “Rookie of the Year,” or making the “Pickup of the Year”?

I’m hoping these Fantasy Football rule changes and new Fantasy Football league ideas helped you come up with something that can spice up your league. Remember, I posted over 40 other new Fantasy Football rule ideas here. But I wanted to expound on several of them on this page, first! And once your league is all set up, make sure you you use some of these awesome free Fantasy Football draft tools to draft a winner!

Pittsburgh’s JuJu Smith-Schuster led all Fantasy rookie wide receivers last year, and Cooper Kupp wasn’t too far behind as a top-30 WR. Even with the amazing year that Michael Thomas had in New Orleans a couple years ago, and Tyreek Hill‘s out-of-nowhere effort in Kansas City, those classes pale in comparison to some of the other rookie classes, as you’ll learn in our discussion about the history of rookie wide receivers.

Smith-Schuster landed among the 25 best Fantasy Football rookie wide receivers ever, but Kupp and Keelan Cole lasty year, along with Thomas and Sterling Shepard from the year before were the only other rookies among the top-60 wide receivers over the past two years.

I always like to take a look back – not just at last year’s rookie wide receivers group or the amazing 2014 class – but at the history of rookie wide receivers in Fantasy Football altogether.

You’ve no doubt been sick of hearing how great the 2014 class was, but you’ll hear about them again and again until another class outperforms them (that’s not going to happen in 2017).

And while the NFL is leaning on rookie wide receivers more now than in years past, you still want to be careful not to look at the upcoming 2018 class of rookie wide receivers in that same vein.

History of Rookie Wide Receivers

We’ve looked back over the past 28 seasons, dating back to 1990, which is close to the emergence of the Fantasy Football hobby. The way I broke all of this down was, rather than look at straight Fantasy points, I noted every rookie wide receiver that posted either 70 catches, 700 receiving yards or seven touchdown passes.  

2017

• JuJu Smith-Schuster, Pittsburgh Steelers: 58 rec., 917 rec. yards, 7 touchdown catches
• Cooper Kupp, Los Angeles Rams: 62-869-5
• Keelan Cole, Jacksonville Jaguars: 42-748-3

2016

• Michael Thomas, New Orleans: 92-1,137-9
• Sterling Shepard, N.Y. Giants: 65-683-8

2015

• Amari Cooper, Oakland – 72-1,070-6
• Stefon Diggs, Minnesota – 52-720-4

2014

• Odell Beckham Jr., NYG – 91- 1,305-12 (Surprisingly, OBJ does not rank first in our Best Fantasy Rookie Wide Receivers Ever list!)
• Jarvis Landry, MIA – 84-758-5
• Kelvin Benjamin, CAR – 73-1,008-9
• Mike Evans, TB – 68-1,051-12
• Jordan Matthews, GB – 67-872-8
• Sammy Watkins, BUF – 65-982-6
• Martavis Bryant, PIT – 26-549-8

2013

• Keenan Allen, SD – 71-1,046-8
• DeAndre Hopkins, HOU – 52-802-2
• Terrance Williams, DAL – 44-736-5
• Marlon Brown, BAL – 49-524-7

2012

• Justin Blackmon, JAC – 64-865-5
• Josh Gordon, CLE – 50-805-5
• T.Y. Hilton, IND – 50-861-7

2011

• A.J. Green, CIN – 65-1,057-7
• Julio Jones, WR, ATL – 54-959-8
• Torrey Smith, BAL – 50-841-7

2010

• Mike Williams, TB – 65-964-11

2009

• Austin Collie, IND – 60-676-7

2008

• Eddie Royal, DEN – 91-980-5

2007

• Dwayne Bowe, KC – 70-995-5

2006

• Marques Colston, NO – 70-1,038-8

2005

–

2004

• Michael Clayton, TB – 80-1,193-7
• Larry Fitzgerald, ARI – 58-780-8
• Roy Williams, DET – 54-817-8
• Lee Evans, BUF – 48-843-9

2003

• Anquan Boldin, BAL – 101-1,377-8

2002

• Donte Stallworth, NO – 74-894-2

2001

• Chris Chambers, MIA – 48-883-7
• Rod Gardner, WAS – 46-741-4

2000

• Darrell Jackson, SEA – 53-713-6

1999

• Kevin Johnson, CLE – 66-986-8
• Troy Edwards, PIT – 61-714-5
• Torry Holt, STL – 52-788-6

1998

• Randy Moss, MIN – 69-1,313-17

1997

—

1996

• Terry Glenn, NE – 90-1,132-6
• Marvin Harrison, IND – 64-836-8
• Keyshawn Johnson, NYJ – 63-844-8
• Eddie Kennison, STL – 54-924-9

1995

• Joey Galloway, SEA – 67-1,039-7
• Wayne Chrebet, NYJ – 66-726-4
• Frank Sanders, ARI – 52-883-2
• Chris Sanders, HOU – 35-823-9

1994

• Darnay Scott, CIN – 46-866-5

1993

• James Jett, OAK – 33-771-3

1992

—

1991

• Lawrence Dawsey, TB – 55-818-3

1990

• Fred Barnett, PHI – 36-721-8
• Calvin Williams, PHI – 37-602-9
• Ricky Proehl, PHO – 56-802-4

You might have noticed that in no season before 2014 did we see more than four wide receivers register either 70 catches, 700 receiving yards or seven touchdown catches. But in the 2014 season, we had SEVEN of them do it. There were as many to hit those numbers that year as there were in the previous two years combined!

As I said in the beginning, the last few classes of rookie wide receivers came up short in comparison to 2014, but we’ll see if the 2018 set of rookie WRs can come closer.

[table id=94 /]

• Best Fantasy Rookie Quarterbacks Ever
• Best Fantasy Rookie Running Backs Ever
• Best Fantasy Rookie Wide Receivers Ever
• Best Fantasy Rookie Tight Ends Ever

The history of rookie wide receivers shows us that there should be a handful of Fantasy worthy starters come out of nearly every class. That remains to be seen for 2017, as we found in our 2018 Fantasy Football Rookie Wide Receiver Rankings.

Photo Credit: ELZ473

As I’ve mentioned before, these lists are fluid because I’m always adding (and in some cases subtracting) since there are new sites popping up all the time, new apps, new tools, etc.

So if you have great free Fantasy Baseball tools you think I should add to this list – the best thing would be to shoot me an email through my contact page. You can also comment on this page, but I’m guessing you’d rather ME talk about what I like about your free Fantasy Baseball tools, rather than you. (Readers would probably prefer a subjective voice, also.)

When I do add to this list of free Fantasy baseball tools, I’ll indicate it’s new by calling it a “NEWLY ADDED” and add a number to the article’s headline. Me smart.

Feel free to comment on any of these free Fantasy Baseball tools or sites and mention how they have helped you, or a specific way you’ve used them to dominate your league.

Top 35 FREE Fantasy Baseball Tools For Lineups and Waivers

As I mentioned, these are tools you would use in-season, not for your draft. That’s from another post, but even so, a lot of these tools you can still use for your next Fantasy Baseball draft.

1. Daily Fantasy Articles from FantasyRundown.com

This site has been around for a few years now, and they painstakingly go through all of the Fantasy Baseball and Fantasy Football articles – every day, several times a day – to pick out the best articles for their users to check out. Writers love Fantasy Rundown because they highlight only really good content. Websites love Fantasy Rundown because they reward good content with a ton of readers. And users love Fantasy Rundown because they save tons of time by not having to scour through dozens of websites.

Here’s my video that reviews their site — it’s for Fantasy Football, but the same idea revolves around their Fantasy Baseball help. Plus, they’re WAAAAY bigger into Fantasy Baseball than they are football.

2. My Playbook from FantasyPros.com

In all honesty, this is not just one of the best Free Fantasy Baseball tools to use for lineup decisions, waiver wire add/drops and trades, this is THE best.

Connect “My Playbook” with one of your teams on CBS, ESPN or Yahoo!, and then you’ll get a dashboard for your team. On that dashboard, you’ll get Player News & Advice, which can be broken down by recent news, articles or player notes from several websites, including CBSSports.com, KFFL.com, Sports Illustrated, RotoWorld, Beast Dome, and MLB Soup. You can also look at the Rankings tab to see where your players rank for the rest of the season, as well as where free agents are ranked.

Obviously, the Player Rankings at FantasyPros.com is one of the best free Fantasy Baseball tools all on its own.

3. (NEWLY ADDED) Razzball’s MLB Trade Analyzer

These guys do a great job with their content — it has that off-the-wall tone that strikes a perfect chord with us Fantasy owners — and this tool is super helpful. They use their Rest-of-Season rankings and their daily updated Player Rater dollar values to help you figure out if you are winning or losing in a proposed Fantasy Baseball trade (or coming out even!). Who wins in a trade between Kris Bryant for Buster Posey and Ender Inciarte? Now you can find out! (It even shows what their rest-of-season projections look like!)

4. Start/Sit Tool from FantasySP.com

You can finally stop tweeting the same “Who Should I Start” question to two dozen writers! This tool is fantastic! Go here, insert the two players you are debating for the coming scoring period, and you’ll get the following:

• Most recent player news bite for each player from several sources, including CBSSports, RotoWire and Rotoworld.
• Performance trend graphs showing how consistent each player has been over the past several weeks.
• Own/Start Breakdown over thousands of leagues (not sure which league services this comes from, however.
• Expert Consensus, with rankings.
• Player breakdown, with stats, an overview broken down in a bullet-list, and trending hitting stats for each player.

I piddled a little bit when I found this page.

They also have a few other tools on their site that might interest you, like their “Trade Analyzer” or their “Team Analyzer.”

5. More Daily Fantasy Articles from TheRotoFeed.com

Well, if you’re still hungry for even more content, you can check out this site, where they aggregate RSS feeds of articles, blogs, podcasts and other such items. They also have a great Twitter feed that runs the links to these articles as they come through. Great tool, great help.

6. Fantasy Baseball Player Headlines from RotoWorld.com

Of course, the guys at RotoWorld.com also still do a really good job. When I worked at OPENSports.com, we designed our page to have Fantasy Headlines much like theirs. After all, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery! Starting your day by checking the Fantasy MLB Headlines section is always a good idea.

7. MiLB.com – Minor League Stats

Now that the minor leagues are in full swing, you can track your favorite prospects and the top minor leaguers. I like how they give you a quick look at the last 10 games for a player. Very useful.

8. MLB Depth Charts by RosterResource.com

You’ll find the updated 40-man roster for every team, each team’s “Go-To Starting Lineup,” their bench on the 25-man roster, their rotation and bullpen setup, their disabled list with injury news, notable minor leaguers with their current level of play, and a pretty awesome chart that shows how the team was assembled (where each player came from and when).

9. FNTSY Radio App

Listen to Fantasy Sports talk all day long, with radio shows from Jake Ciely, Nando Di Fino, Gregg Sussman and a bunch of other great Fantasy minds. You can listen on your PC, or download the app for free!

10. Trade Analyzer from BaseballMonster.com

While you need to be a member to see their projections, the Trade Analysis Tool is quite powerful. You can choose more than one player at a time, and sort the stats over a certain time period. It shows you stat breakdowns to explain which players are better than the others, as opposed to just a thumbs up or thumbs down on the possible trade.

11. CBSSports.com’s Fantasy Baseball Rankings

Call me partial, but I like to check out CBSSports.com’s rankings – mostly because I was the guy that spurred them into creating this page in the first place, back in 2006. (I just broke my arm patting myself on the back. I didn’t “build” this tool, however. That takes a MUCH smarter guy than myself, and that credit goes to Blue Jays fan Jake Payton.) Heath Cummings and Scott White are manning the controls now, and the green arrows up and red arrows down are helpful touches.

12. MLBTradeRumors.com

As the trade deadline gets closer, no website does a better job of tracking who might go where and who would benefit or not benefit from it.

13. Real-Time Alarm Emails from FantasyAlarm.com

The Lite version is free, with advertising, but they’ll send you an updated immediately when it’s known that one of your players is not in that day’s lineup (usually known about 60 to 90 minutes before first pitch). You’ll also get an email notifying you if your player lands on the disabled list, involved in a rainout or any other breaking news surrounding him.

14. RotoWorld.com’s Injury Report

I think the guys at RotoWorld do the best job of laying out their injury list table, giving readers a good idea of who’s hurt for each team, what the injury is, when it happened and when they’re expected to return.

15. FanGraphs.com’s Projections for the Rest of the Season

They have an easy-to-sort table loaded with Dan Szymborski’s ZiPS Projections to determine what a player might hit for the remainder of the season.

16. Baseball America’s Email Newsletters

Get emails during the season, like the Baseball America Prospect Report, which gives you daily stats on dozens of prospects from the previous night’s box scores. It will also highlight a few of the best performances of the day. They also have a Draft Update email, a College Update and a High School Update.

17. @MLBPlayerAnalys Tommy John Tracker

Track who has had Tommy John surgery over the past few years! It’s a free spreadsheet!

18. ESPN Closer chart

Want to keep a close eye on the closer situation on every ballclub? The guys at ESPN do a nice job of it, showing you who the current closer is, who is next in line, who might be a dark-horse candidate and who is “looming” with possible saves in the future. (Run that PickemFirst app on this page and life is good!)

19. CloserMonkey.com’s Daily Bullpen Report

While the chart above is helpful, I really like what CloserMonkey.com does with their daily wrap-ups of the situations from the previous day’s games. While you’re scurrying around for the newest stopper, those that read CloserMonkey.com have known about him for days.

20. ESPN Ballpark Factors

This tool helps you learn which parks are playing better for hitters or pitchers during a given year. I also love their Cy Young Predictor and their Hitting Streaks tracker!

21. ParkFactors.com For Daily Fantasy Baseball Players

Updated hourly, up until game time, these guys use the current weather and updated ballpark factors to determine how good or bad a park will play for a hitter on a given day. It also shows where the wind is blowing out – and how hard. Got some money on the line? Check this place out first!

22. DailyBaseballData.com’s Weather Forecasts

They have the hourly weather forecasts for every game going on in a given day. This is especially helpful for Daily Fantasy League players.

23. Baseball-Reference.com

This is another one of those no-brainers, but one I need to mention. This site has a ton of useful things on it, but I mostly use it to look up past players or the stats for current players, like Matt Holliday. One thing I like, unlike many sites, is they break down a player’s stat line by the two teams he played for in a given year if he was traded midseason, and then they also give the total for that year. Want to see something else cool? Click on the 2010 row, and then click on 2006. Boom. The stats for all of those years are combined and broken out into a separate window. It’s awesome.

Other reasons this site is awesome? They show player nicknames, Twitter accounts, all the transactions he’s been involved in, his contract status and the jersey numbers he has worn.

24. Yahoo! Sports Split & Situational Stats

Along with the Baseball-Reference.com stats, I like to use Yahoo!’s player pages to look through splits and situational stats.

25. FanGraphs.com’s Library Stat Glossary

Every now and then, you’re bound to come across a stat acronym you just aren’t familiar with. These guys do such a great job of explaining what it means, why it’s beneficial and what is usually considered average, good or bad for each stat that warrants it.

26. RotoGrinders.com’s Market Watch

They look at the player salaries at several of the top Daily Fantasy Baseball services, and they measure the difference in salary from this week to last week at each position. So you can see which hot players are still a bargain on some sites, and which faltering players still cost too much on other sites.

27. Prospects Matrix by ScoutingBook.com

This site actually has several good tools on it, but their top prospects list has some good write-ups and is easy to sort through. The list is actually a combined list of the prospect rankings  of several sites, including Baseball America, Baseball Prospectus and MLB.com.

28. CBSSports.com’s Roster Trends

Find out which players are getting picked up and dropped at each position, and it will help you with your own waiver decisions.

Free Fantasy Baseball Tools: Audio You Should Listen To

I like to listen to podcasts and SiriusXM Radio when I’m at work, and it’s a great way to keep up to date with news and injuries.

• 29. CBSSports.com’s Fantasy Baseball Podcast with Adam Aizer, Heath Cummings and Scott White
• 30. CBSSports.com’s Fantasy Baseball Today daily videos with the same assortment of characters. Live every day at noon.
• 31. Fantasy411 from MLB.com with Cory Schwartz and Mike Siano. These guys are total characters and they do a great job of being entertaining and interesting.
• 32. ESPN Fantasy Focus podcast with Tristan Cockcroft, Nate Ravitz and Stefania Bell
• 33. RotoAnalysis.com’s podcast with Moe Koltun and Matt Schwimmer.
• 34. BaseballHQ.com’s HQ Radio podcast with Patrick Davitt
• 35. FNTSY’s Fantasy Sports Network Videos with these great shows.

Free Fantasy Baseball Tools: Standout Twitter Feeds

A couple years ago, I posted the “99 Fantasy Baseball Twitter Accounts You Must Follow,” which were based mostly on writers and not just websites. So here are a handful of other Twitter accounts you should subscribe to:

• 36. @MLBDailyLineups – They post the lineups for every team for every game for every day … for real. They’re also posted all on one page at RotoInfo.com.
• 37. @MLBDailyBullpen – Any news on changes for any team’s bullpen gets posted here.
• 38. @CloserNews – Another great Twitter account that tracks closer situations across the league. This one is powered by RotoAuthority.com.

Don’t forget to check out last year’s Top Free Fantasy Football Draft Tools also. I’m sure I will be adding more FREE Fantasy Baseball tools to this page throughout the year! So check back often.

Bud Adams picked up his Oilers and he moved them to Nashville (well, at first, they moved to Memphis while the stadium was being built in Nashville). Houston would rejoin the NFL in 2002, which was also the first year we had the current realignment of the NFL teams into eight divisions.

John Elway finally ended up on the right side of a Super Bowl win, as he beat Brett Favre’s Packers for the first of two titles for the Broncos HOFer.

NFL fans had to say goodbye to TNT broadcasts on Sunday night, with Pat Haden as the color commentator. This broadcast was a highlight of my 20s and the early years of my Fantasy Football life. Remember that the Sunday Night TNT halftime show was the first to show a stats crawl across the bottom, which helped Fantasy owners everywhere figure out if they were winning! Also, NBC wouldn’t broadcast NFL games again until 2006.

My beloved Buccaneers got rid of the winking pirate (Bucco Bruce!) and their creamsicle uniforms, while the Broncos also made the change to tougher shades of orange and blue, with a new horse logo.

1997 Fantasy Football Rankings for Basic TD and Yardage Leagues from Fantasy Index Magazine.

Another major Fantasy history point was that 1997 should be considered the death of the run-n-shoot offense, as both Lions coach Wayne Fontes and Falcons coach June Jones were fired by their respective teams. And the NFL took a hard stance on showboating, installing the “Emmitt Smith” rule, which penalized a player for taking his helmet off on the field.

Fantasy Football was still in its early stages, as was the Internet in general. Some were buying commissioner software at this point, still getting used to not running their leagues on paper. We were in the late stages of the careers of several NFL deities, like Dan Marino, John Elway and Thurman Thomas, who was coming off what would end up being his last 1,000-yard season.

Fantasy Football owners were still getting used to “yardage leagues,” as opposed to the more popular “basic TD” scoring up to this point. Remember, back in the early stages, most Fantasy leagues based scoring on touchdowns only, which meant good running backs on bad teams weren’t quite as useful as they would be later on.

Every now and then, I like to go back in time and look through my old Fantasy magazines (like the 1992 Fantasy rankings, when Mark Rypien was ranked the No. 1 QB). I like to read some of the articles, check the rankings, and just enjoy a time when there was limited information for most Fantasy Football owners. It was a nice time, in spite of our ignorance.

How ignorant?

Well, you’ll notice that there are four quarterbacks ranked in the top 10 overall players. Looking back now, that makes no sense whatsoever, because we’ve smartened up. It makes me wonder what we’ll think, 17 years from now, about what we’re being ignorant about in 2014.

So enjoy these rankings, but please realize that this article was not meant to mock the magazine’s rankings. It was only meant to show some Fantasy history.

Steelers RB Jerome Bettis would go on to lead the NFL with 375 carries in the 1997 season.

1997 Fantasy Football Rankings

Fantasy Index Magazine was still running basic TD scoring for their default rankings, but they did list the “yardage league” rankings next to the basic TD rankings. Also, remember that these rankings were the preseason rankings, not end-of-the-season rankings. I’ll show the top 25 Fantasy scorers at the end of the 1997 season at the bottom of this article.

Top 25 Overall Rankings

1. Brett Favre, QB, Green Bay

2. Emmitt Smith, RB, Dallas

3. Curtis Martin, RB, New England

4. Terrell Davis, RB, Denver

5. Barry Sanders, RB, Detroit

Emmitt Smith was a fantasy beast in the ’90s. Photo Credit: Matt Cordon

6. Jerry Rice, WR, San Francisco

7. Carl Pickens, WR, Cincinnati

8. Mark Brunell, QB, Jacksonville

9. Jeff Blake, QB, Cincinnati

10. Drew Bledsoe, QB, New England

11. Steve Young, QB, San Francisco

12. Herman Moore, WR, Detroit

13. Isaac Bruce, WR, St. Louis

14. Tim Brown, WR, Oakland

15. Ricky Watters, RB, Philadelphia

16. Jerome Bettis, RB, Pittsburgh

17. Eddie George, RB, Tennessee

18. Terry Allen, RB, Washington

19. Vinny Testaverde, QB, Baltimore

20. Terry Glenn, WR, New England

21. Michael Jackson, WR, Baltimore

22. Cris Carter, WR, Minnesota

23. Joey Galloway, WR, Seattle

24. Adrian Murrell, RB, N.Y. Jets

25. Antonio Freeman, WR, Green Bay

Favre looks weird at the top, doesn’t he? Seeing a non-50-TD-throwing quarterback leading the Fantasy rankings is just odd. Also, seeing Brunell as a first-round Fantasy pick makes my eyes hurt. Bruce fell out of the top 20 players when the scoring system switched to basic TD scoring. Terry Allen was one of my favorite running backs, as he came back from TWO torn ACL surgeries. He led the NFL in 1996 with 21 rushing touchdowns, which somehow only earned him second-round pick status?

Quarterbacks

1. Brett Favre, Green Bay

2. Mark Brunell, Jacksonville

3. Jeff Blake, Cincinnati

4. Drew Bledsoe, New England

5. Steve Young, San Francisco

6. Vinny Testaverde, Baltimore

7. John Elway, Denver

8. Dan Marino, Miami

9. Brad Johnson, Minnesota

10. Steve McNair, Tennessee

11. Tony Banks, St. Louis

12. Kerry Collins, Carolina

13. Jeff George, Oakland

14. Jim Harbaugh, Indianapolis

15. Scott Mitchell, Detroit

16. Stan Humphries, San Diego

17. Ty Detmer, Philadelphia

18. Gus Frerotte, Washington

19. Elvis Grbac, Kansas City

20. John Friesz, Seattle

21. Troy Aikman, Dallas

22. Trent Dilfer, Tampa Bay

In 1997, we became huge fans of Slash, as he became to be known.

23. Kordell Stewart, Pittsburgh

24. Neil O’Donnell, N.Y. Jets

25. Warren Moon, Seattle

26. Rick Mirer, Chicago

27. Chris Chandler, Atlanta

28. Dave Brown, N.Y. Giants

29. Todd Collins, Buffalo

30. Jake Plummer, Arizona (rookie season)

31. Heath Shuler, New Orleans

32. Kent Graham, Arizona

33. Mark Rypien, St. Louis

34. Jim Miller, Pittsburgh

35. Rodney Peete, Philadelphia

36. Erik Kramer, Chicago

37. Billy Joe Hobert, Buffalo

38. Randall Cunningham, Minnesota

39. Eric Zeier, Chicago

40. Frank Reich, Detroit

41. Dave Krieg, Tennessee

42. Craig Erickson, Miami

43. Boomer Esiason, Cincinnati

44. Steve Beuerlein, Carolina

45. Steve Bono, Green Bay

46. Jeff Hostetler, Washington

47. David Klingler, Oakland

48. Tommy Maddox, Atlanta

49. Jeff Lewis, Denver

50. Danny Kanell, N.Y. Giants

51. Jim Everett, San Diego

52. Paul Justin, Indianapolis

53. Rich Gannon, Kansas City

54. Mike Tomczak, Pittsburgh

55. Glenn Foley, N.Y. Jets

56. Steve Walsh, Tampa Bay

57. Scott Zolak, New England

58. Danny Wuerffel, New Orleans

59. Bobby Hoying, Philadelphia

60. Jim Druckenmiller, San Francisco (rookie season)

61. Rob Johnson, Jacksonville

62. Bobby Hebert, Retired

63. Wade Wilson, Dallas

64. Doug Pederson, Green Bay

65. Jeff Brohm, San Francisco

66. Alex Van Pelt, Buffalo

67. Craig Whelihan, San Diego (rookie season)

68. Jason Garrett, Dallas

69. Jon Kitna, Seattle (rookie season)

70. Pat Barnes, Kansas City

Yay! Top-70 rankings for quarterbacks for those 50-team Fantasy leagues!

Note where Kordell Stewart was ranked. He went on to be the second-highest scoring player in Fantasy this season, bringing back memories of Randall Cunningham’s run-and-gun ability. He threw for 21 touchdowns and rushed for 11 more that season, as he beat out Mike Tomczak for the job that summer. Unfortunately, he was like Fantasy heroin, as he would be a first-round pick for a couple more seasons, but never come close to his 1997 season ever again.

Speaking of TNT broadcasts and Cunningham, he was actually an analyst with the network in 1996 after he retired from the Eagles. The 1997 season saw him come back with the Vikings, where he worked as the backup to Brad Johnson. However, in 1998, he went on to have the best season of his NFL career, after the Vikings drafted WR Randy Moss out of Marshall University.

Jim Harbaugh was kind enough to play badly behind a horrible offensive line, allowing the Colts to get the first overall pick the next season, which turned into Peyton Manning.

Also, notice Dave Brown’s ranking in the top 30. Little known fact: Brown was the second-best fantasy quarterback ever to be coached by Steve Spurrier in college. (Rex Grossman should be considered first.) Brown played for Spurrier at Duke, but it’s interesting to know that Spurrier’s NFL legacy was the same as a coach and from when he was a player.

Running Backs

1. Emmitt Smith, Dallas

2. Curtis Martin, New England

3. Terrell Davis, Denver

4. Barry Sanders, Detroit

5. Ricky Watters, Philadelphia

6. Jerome Bettis, Pittsburgh

7. Eddie George, Tennessee

8. Terry Allen, Washington

9. Adrian Murrell, N.Y. Jets

10. Marshall Faulk, Indianapolis

11. Karim Abdul-Jabbar, Miami

12. Bam Morris, Baltimore

13. Jamal Anderson, Atlanta

14. Chris Warren, Seattle

15. Troy Davis, New Orleans (rookie season)

16. Dorsey Levens, Green Bay

17. Natrone Means, Jacksonville

18. Napoleon Kaufman, Oakland

19. Lawrence Phillips, St. Louis

20. Thurman Thomas, Buffalo

21. Larry Centers, Arizona

22. Tshimanga Biakabutuka, Carolina

23. Garrison Hearst, San Francisco

24. Gary Brown, San Diego

25. Corey Dillon, Cincinnati (rookie season)

26. Greg Hill, Kansas City

27. Mike Alstott, Tampa Bay

28. Tyrone Wheatley, N.Y. Giants

29. Rashaan Salaam, Chicago

30. Errict Rhett, Tampa Bay

31. Robert Smith, Minnesota

32. Ki-Jana Carter, Cincinnati

33. Edgar Bennett, Green Bay

34. Leeland McElroy, Arizona

35. Antowain Smith, Buffalo (rookie season)

36. Raymont Harris, Chicago

37. Terry Kirby, San Francisco

38. Warrick Dunn, Tampa Bay (rookie season)

39. Tiki Barber, N.Y. Giants (rookie season)

40. Jerris McPhail, Miami

41. Terrell Fletcher, San Diego

42. Leroy Hoard, Minnesota

43. William Floyd, San Francisco

44. Lamar Smith, Seattle

45. Ironhead (Craig) Heyward

46. Kimble Anders, Kansas City

47. Zack Crockett, Indianapolis

48. Marcus Allen, Kansas City

49. Joe Aska, Oakland

50. Anthony Johnson, Carolina

51. Byron Hanspard, Atlanta (rookie season)

52. Aaron Hayden, San Diego

53. Rodney Hampton, N.Y. Giants

54. James Stewart, Jacksonville

55. Stephen Davis, Washington

56. Tommy Vardell, Detroit

57. Leon Johnson, N.Y. Jets

58. George Jones, Pittsburgh

59. Ronnie Harmon, San Diego

60. Rodney Thomas, Tennessee

61. LeShon Johnson, Arizona

62. Lamont Warren, Indianapolis

63. Jay Graham, Baltimore

64. Charlie Garner, Philadelphia

65. Harvey Williams, Oakland

66. Sedrick Shaw, New England

67. Marc Edwards, San Francisco

68. Mario Bates, New Orleans

69. Derek Loville, Denver

70. Duce Staley, Philadelphia

I’d like to point you to the fact that you do not see Priest Holmes ranked in the top 70 players. This was his rookie season with the Ravens, and he would still be a few years away from becoming the consensus No. 1 overall pick with the Chiefs.

Remember when fullbacks were pretty awesome in Fantasy play? Note that Mike Alstott, Larry Centers and Edgar Bennett were all ranked among the top 35 running backs. There was no true fullback ranked in the top-40 running backs before the 2013 season.

This was also the season that WR Michael Westbrook put a beatdown on second-year running back Stephen Davis in training camp. Good times.

Wide Receivers

1. Jerry Rice, San Francisco

2. Carl Pickens, Cincinnati

3. Herman Moore, Detroit

4. Isaac Bruce, St. Louis

5. Tim Brown, Oakland

6. Terry Glenn, New England

7. Michael Jackson, Baltimore

8. Cris Carter, Minnesota

9. Joey Galloway, Seattle

10. Antonio Freeman, Green Bay

11. Robert Brooks, Green Bay

12. Michael Irvin, Dallas

13. Tony Martin, San Diego

14. Jimmy Smith, Jacksonville

15. Marvin Harrison, Indianapolis

16. Chris Sanders, Tennessee

17. Jake Reed, Minnesota

18. Eddie Kennison, St. Louis

19. Irving Fryar, Philadelphia

20. Derrick Alexander, Baltimore

21. Curtis Conway, Chicago

22. Chris T. Jones, Philadelphia

23. Yancey Thigpen, Pittsburgh

24. Michael Westbrook, Washington

25. Keyshawn Johnson, N.Y. Jets

26. Keenan McCardell, Jacksonville

27. Muhsin Muhammad, Carolina

28. Fred Barnett, Miami

29. Horace Copeland, Tampa Bay

30. O.J. McDuffie, Miami

In 1997, Terrell Owens’ second season, it was officially time to “Get your popcorn ready!”

31. Terrell Owens, San Francisco

32. Johnnie Morton, Detroit

33. Frank Sanders, Arizona

34. Wayne Chrebet, N.Y. Jets

35. Bert Emanuel, Atlanta

36. Tamarick Vanover, Kansas City

37. Bobby Engram, Chicago

38. Yatil Green, Miami

39. Darnay Scott, Cincinnati

40. Eric Metcalf, San Diego

41. Eric Moulds, Buffalo

42. Rod Smith, Denver

43. Anthony Miller, Dallas

44. Terance Mathis, Atlanta

45. Ed McCaffrey, Denver

46. Andre Reed, Buffalo

47. Ike Hilliard, N.Y. Giants (rookie season)

48. Charles Johnson, Pittsburgh

49. Rob Moore, Arizona

50. Shawn Jefferson, New England

51. Brian Blades, Seattle

52. Sean Dawkins, Indianapolis

53. Raghib Ismail, Carolina

54. Derrick Mayes, Green Bay

55. Andre Hastings, New Orleans

56. Quinn Early, Buffalo

57. Henry Ellard, Washington

58. Amani Toomer, N.Y. Giants

59. Bryan Still, San Diego

60. Daryl Hobbs, New Orleans

61. Andre Rison, Kansas City

62. James Jett, Oakland

63. Reidel Anthony, Tampa Bay (rookie season)

64. J.J. Stokes, San Francisco

65. Joey Kent, Tennessee

66. Brett Perriman, Kansas City

67. Will Blackwell, Pittsburgh

68. Willie Green, Denver

69. Jeff Graham, N.Y. Jets

70. Kevin Lockett, Kansas City

This was the rookie season for Rae Carruth, also. This was back in his pre-murderer days. He would lead all rookie receivers in Fantasy points this season. Derrick Mason would eventually be the class of this rookie class of receivers, but wow, this was a bad rookie WR crop. There were only two WRs in the top 80 WRs in Fantasy scoring, and none in the top 45. This was a year after Terry Glenn, Marvin Harrison, Eddie Kennison and Keyshawn Johnson all finished as top-25 receivers in their rookie year (1996). And this 1997 class of WRs was the year before Randy Moss led all WRs with 234 fantasy points.

Speaking of ’96 rookie WRs, Terrell Owens was coming off his first year in 1997, when he caught 35 passes for 520 yards and four touchdowns. He would finish 1997 with 142 Fantasy points, ranking 20th among all WRs.

The ’97 rookie WR class took a big hit when WR Yatil Green went down with a knee injury in training camp. He was the 15th overall draft pick by the Dolphins in the 1997 NFL Draft, but the Hurricanes product wouldn’t end up playing in the NFL until 1999 – when he started just one game and played in eight. Then he retired.

See Andre Rison there, in the late 60s? He was coming off two stinky seasons with three teams (Cleveland, Jacksonville and Green Bay). He signed with the Chiefs in 1997, and he went on to post his last 1,000-yard season of his career, ranking 15th among Fantasy wide receivers.

Veteran WR Rob Moore would end up leading the position in Fantasy points, despite being ranked outside the top 45 before the season began. The arrival of rookie QB Jake Plummer made the difference for Moore.

Tight Ends

1. Shannon Sharpe, Denver

2. Mark Chmura, Green Bay

3. Ben Coates, New England

4. Wesley Walls, Carolina

5. Rickey Dudley, Oakland

6. Jamie Asher, Washington

7. Ken Dilger, Indianapolis

8. Tony Gonzalez, Kansas City

9. Troy Drayton, Miami

10. Brent Jones, San Francisco

11. Jason Dunn, Philadelphia

12. Jackie Harris, Tampa Bay

13. Eric Green, Baltimore

14. Tony McGee, Cincinnati

15. Frank Wycheck, Tennessee

16. Pete Mitchell, Jacksonville

17. Aaron Pierce, N.Y. Giants

18. Damon Jones, Jacksonville

19. David LaFleur, Dallas

20. Irv Smith, New Orleans

21. Freddie Jones, San Diego

22. Lonnie Johnson, Buffalo

23. Kyle Brady, N.Y. Jets

24. Keith Jennings, Chicago

25. David Sloan, Detroit

Shannon Sharpe went on to post 1,107 receiving yards, which was nearly 500 yards more than second-place Coates. It’s crazy to see Tony Gonzalez ranked eighth before he ever caught an NFL pass. He ended up finishing as the 19th-best Fantasy tight end, catching 33 passes for 368 yards and two touchdowns. He would go on to play another 16 years, finishing as the greatest tight end in Fantasy Football history. Having Elvis Grbac as his QB in his rookie season might be why he stunk in 1997, not even getting a mention in the 1997 Fantasy Football Rankings.

Kickers

1. John Kasay, Carolina

2. Jason Elam, Denver

3. Adam Vinatieri, New England

4. Cary Blanchard, Indianapolis

5. Chris Boniol, Dallas

6. Al Del Greco, Tennessee

7. Mike Hollis, Jacksonville

8. Doug Pelfrey, Cincinnati

9. Scott Blanton, Washington

10. Brett Conway, Green Bay

11. John Carney, San Diego

12. Todd Peterson, Seattle

13. Jason Hanson, Detroit

14. Richie Cunningham, Dallas

15. Matt Stover, Baltimore

16. Steve Christie, Buffalo

17. Norm Johnson, Pittsburgh

18. Cole Ford, Oakland

19. Jeff Wilkins, St. Louis

20. Michael Husted, Tampa Bay

21. Jon Baker, San Francisco

22. Joe Nedney, Miami

23. Morten Anderson, Atlanta

24. Chris Jacke, Washington

25. Olindo Mare, Miami

26. Ryan Longwell, San Francisco

27. Jeff Jaeger, Chicago

28. Marshall Young, Dallas

29. Pete Stoyanovich, Kansas City

30. Brad Daluiso, N.Y. Giants

31. Greg Davis, Minnesota

32. Doug Brien, New Orleans

33. Scott Sisson, Minnesota

34. John Hall, N.Y. Jets

Defenses and Special Teams

1. Carolina Panthers

2. Green Bay Packers

3. San Francisco 49ers

4. St. Louis Rams

5. Miami Dolphins

6. Oakland Raiders

7. Pittsburgh Steelers

8. Philadelphia Eagles

9. Cincinnati Bengals

10. San Diego Chargers

11. Tampa Bay Buccaneers

12. New England Patriots

13. Kansas City Chiefs

14. Dallas Cowboys

15. Indianapolis Colts

16. Seattle Seahawks

17. Minnesota Vikings

18. Washington Redskins

19. Buffalo Bills

20. N.Y. Giants

21. Denver Broncos

22. Jacksonville Jaguars

23. N.Y. Jets

24. Arizona Cardinals

25. Tennessee Oilers

26. Baltimore Ravens

27. New Orleans Saints

28. Detroit Lions

29. Chicago Bears

30. Atlanta Falcons

I’d like to take this time to point out that my Buccaneers made the playoffs for the first time in 13 years in 1997, and they beat Scott Mitchell and the Detroit Lions in the final game played at Tampa Stadium (the Big Sombrero). I’m proud to say I was actually at that game, and I was loudly screaming along with Chumbawamba’s “Tubthumping” playing on the PA system after the game ended. “I get knocked down, but I get up again! And you’re never gonna keep me down!”

That just makes me sad now, to think about what a horrible song that really was.

Final 1997 Top Fantasy Football Scorers

These are taken from the stat database over at FootballGuys.com, which is just awesome.

Quarterbacks that scored over 300 fantasy points

1. Brett Favre, QB, GB – 342
2. Kordell Stewart, QB, PIT – 332
3. Jeff George, QB, OAK – 307
4. John Elway, QB, DEN – 307

RBs that scored over 200 fantasy points

1. Barry Sanders, RB, DET – 320
2. Terrell Davis, DEN – 294
3. Dorsey Levens, GB – 253
4. Jerome Bettis, PIT — 232
5. Napoleon Kaufman, OAK – 218
6. Karim Abdul-Jabbar, MIA – 211
7. Marshall Faulk, IND – 201

WRs that scored over 175 fantasy points

1. Rob Moore, ARI — 206
2. Antonio Freeman, GB – 198
3. Cris Carter, MIN – 192
4. Joey Galloway, SEA – 185
5. Yancey Thigpen, PIT – 184
6. Herman Moore, DET – 182

TEs that scored over 100 fantasy points

1. Shannon Sharpe, DEN – 129
2. Ben Coates, NE – 122
3. Rickey Dudley, OAK –121
4. Wesley Walls, CAR – 111

Hopefully, you enjoyed this look down Fantasy memory lane, and maybe you even came home with a championship using these 1997 Fantasy Football rankings — or a version of them. Don’t forget to check out our Top 45 Free Fantasy Football Draft Tools, which should help you THIS year!