Dec 24, 2011; Dallas, TX, USA; Philadelphia Eagles receiver deSean Jackson (10) runs with the ball against Dallas Cowboys linebacker Demarcus Ware (94) in the second quarter at Cowboys Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Matthew Emmons-US PRESSWIRE

The second week of the fantasy football season is already upon us, so millions of people will be setting their lineups over the next several days.  Before hitting the submit button on your lineup, make sure to check out my week 2 fantasy football players to start and sit:

QB Andy Dalton, CIN (vs. CLE) – The sophomore will look much better against the depleted Browns’ secondary this weekend.

RB Ahmad Bradshaw, NYG (vs. TB) – Last week Bradshaw showed that he is the new number one back in New York, so expect a giant performance from him against a lack-luster Bucs’ defense.

WR DeSean Jackson, PHI (vs. BAL) – The Ravens’ defensive backs are not getting any younger, so Philadelphia will be utilizing Jackson’s speed all game long.

TE Jared Cook, TEN (@SD) – Cook is an amazing athlete, and the youngster will terrorize the Chargers’ aging linebackers this weekend.

IDP: Kyle Arrington, NE (vs. ARI) – With Arizona likely turning back to Kevin Kolb as the starter this weekend, expect the New England secondary to have more than a couple chances to pick off some passes.

Guys to Sit:

QB Joe Flacco, BAL (@PHI) – After one miracle week, many people have already voted for Flacco into the 2012 Pro Bowl.  Just wait until after he plays the aggressive Philadelphia Eagles’ defense until you vote.

RB Jonathan Dwyer, PIT (vs. NYJ) – Dwyer had the best week one performance among all the Pittsburgh running backs.  However,  it will obviously be a running-back-by-committee offense in the Steel City, so be hesitant to start any of the team’s running backs.

WR Robert Meachem, SD (vs. TEN) – Rivers loves to spread the ball around, but he may not look Meachem’s way too often with standout corner, Jason McCourty, blanketing the new number one receiver.

TE Brandon Pettigrew, DET (@SF) – The “Teachers Pet” will be taken to school this weekend by Patrick Willis and the boys.

IDP: Calais Campbell, ARI – Campbell will have a tough time getting to New England Patriots quarterback, Tom Brady, this weekend.

-By Adam McGill

The fantasy football season is drawing closer with each week, and while wives around the world are curbing their enthusiasm, fantasy football junkies could not be happier.  Everyone is building their cheat sheets and drawing up their lists of sleepers, so this is the perfect time to start to looking at player rankings.  Below are my top ten fantasy football running backs for the 2012 season:

1. LeSean McCoy, PHI – “Shady” McCoy left opposing defenders in the dark all year long.  He finished the season with a phenomenal 20 total touchdowns  (17 rushing and 3 receiving), the most by any other running back.  McCoy is deceptively quick between the tackles and can burn anyone in the open field.  McCoy has only missed two professional games in his career, and his durability, combined with his raw skills, makes him the number one guy on my list.

2. Arian Foster, HOU – Foster is by far the best down hill runner in the NFL.  He has scored a dominating 26 rushing touchdowns and 4 receiving touchdowns in his last 29 games.  He may not be the hands down first overall pick this summer, but Aaron Rodgers be dammed, Foster can easily be the number two overall selection.  Grab Foster second overall and take solace in the fact that you have one of the only workhorses left in the game.

3. Ray Rice, BAL – Rice is a do it all fantasy back.  He can run between the tackles, run outside the tackles, and catch the ball.   Rice is the ideal option in Point Per Reception (P.P.R.) leagues, because no back in the league has hands like the former Rutgers star.  In Rice’s last three seasons as the team’s starter, he has amazingly averaged just less than 2,000 yards from scrimmage (1,307 rushing and 654 receiving). Rice has an offense that is completely tailored around him, only increasing his fantasy value. He is the perfect running back to build a fantasy team around and is even falling out of the top-five in some drafts.  Do not let this dual-threat star pass you by, draft him with confidence in any draft format.

4. Maurice Jones-Drew, JAC – Jones-Drew remains the one bright spot in an otherwise cloudy Jacksonville offense.  He led the entire NFL with a jaw-dropping 1,606 rushing yards and was all the Jags’ had to lean on down the stretch last year.  Regardless, his timid 8 touchdowns tied him for 12^th in the NFL and can easily be attributed to the offense inability to put points on the scoreboard in 2011.  However, the Jaguars’ offense has worked hard this off-season and will be better in 2012, so MJD will get many more scoring opportunities down the stretch.  Fantasy owners should expect Jones-Drew to finish with around 1,500 rushing yards and between 8-11 touchdowns on the ground.

5. Chris Johnson, TEN – Johnson started embarrassingly slow last year, by recording only one 100-yard rushing game in his first eight contests.  However, he turned it around by averaging a respectable 85 yards per game over the rest of the year. “CJ2K” will have a bounce back season in 2012 and will finish back among the top in the league at his position.  He may not replicate the 2,006-yard performance he put up in the 2009 season, but he should easily eclipse 1,300 rushing yards.

6. Matt Forte, CHI – Forte is finally back in pads and ready to lead millions of fantasy teams.  He is a yardage beast for fantasy owners and has racked up 1,300 yards from scrimmage in each of his four NFL seasons.  He may lose some goal-line carries to the newly acquired Michael Bush, but expect Forte to still produce like a top-ten fantasy back.  Forte should still reach 1,300 all-purpose yards in 2012 and score between 8-10 touchdowns, regardless of the new competition in the backfield.

7. Darren McFadden, OAK – McFadden was having a monstrous season before going down with a Lisfranc fracture to his right foot in week 7.  “Run DMC” racked up 614 rushing yards and 154 receiving yards in essentially six and a half games.  He has been labeled as injury prone, but his injuries (ankle, toe, and foot) have mostly just been unlucky.  It is at least promising that it was not a knee injury, because those injuries tend to linger longer into a young, backs career.  McFadden can still be an elite option, but he has to be healthy to do it.  McFadden is falling to the mid-second round and his potential makes him a steal at that point; just make sure to add some extra depth to your running back stable in-case his injury problems return.

8. Michael Turner, ATL – Turner is being severely undervalued in drafts this summer.  He has scored an outstanding 50 touchdowns in his last 59 games and is one of the only backs in the NFL that both occupies the starting tailback position and gets all the goal-line carries. As far as his injury label, Turner has only missed four games in the four years he has been in Atlanta, and that came in a four-week stretch during his 2009 season.  The 30-year old also has fresh legs, as he started his NFL career as LaDainian Tomlinson’s backup in San Diego.   All Turner does it score touchdowns and punish defenses, a perfect fantasy football combination.  Turner is featured in a very high-scoring offense, so expect him to have another 1,200 yards and 10 touchdowns in 2012.

9. Ryan Mathews, SD – Mathew is drawing a tremendous amount of pre-season hype, as somehow the two-year pro with under 400 carries is becoming considered a top-five fantasy pick this summer.  He is a little too risky to be drafted that early and would be better off being picked in the mid-second round.  Mathews is still an extremely elusive runner and is great at getting to the outside, but fantasy drafts are about getting value out of your picks, just as much as it is about getting stars.  Mathews is still a number one back, just make sure not to reach to far for the unproven back.

10. Adrian Peterson, MIN – Peterson’s latest trip to the Physically Unable to Perform (P.U.P.) list has all but killed his first round fantasy value.  Even though he can come off the list at anytime between now and week 6, fantasy owners have been extremely leery about taking the four-time Pro Bowler.  However, Peterson is a fantasy monster in the waiting and the fact that he is completely falling out of the first and second round, could make him a fantasy steal at the end of the year.  Do not draft Peterson in the first round by any means, but do not hesitate to grab him in the middle of the second round.

Make sure to check back next week for my wide receiver rankings.

-Adam McGill

The year was 2010 and the first sports season of the new decade, baseball season, was amongst us.  I’ve never been much of a baseball fan, but for some reason I continue to partake in the tomfoolery that is fantasy baseball with my high school buddies.  With my fantasy baseball draft impending, I focused on sleepers for the upcoming season and I had one particular player in mind: Chris Davis.  Yes, the same Chris Davis that hit .239 in 113 games in 2009. The same Chris Davis that got sent down to Triple-A halfway through that 2009 season, but came back in August sporting a .308 average and that nasty hitter’s touch that every fantasy baseball GM (and actual baseball GM) dreams about.  But it wasn’t just the great minors numbers or the bounce-back he showed in 2009 that confirmed to me that he was the sleeper to pick in 2010.  Plus, he was batting .550 during and looking like an absolute stud-ebaker. His strikeouts were down, his batting average was up, his hits were still home-running – he was a lock of a bounce-back candidate.

A lock to go right back down to Triple-A.  He lasted just 120 at-bats, batting just .192 and hitting only 1 HR in the process.

Chris Davis, preparing not to hit. Source: Jim Cowsert-US PRESSWIRE

For those of you that care less about baseball than I do (which is saying something, believe me), the point of this story may not be clear to you, but for anyone that jumped on the training camp hype from last year (Kellen Winslow, or god forbid, Cecil Shorts III), you know what I’m talking about.  Now, it’s not that training camp hype is all bad.  Training camp hype allowed me to zero in on Jimmy Graham last year, for one.  But, it’s important to look at how NFL players fit with their teams, the depth of the position on those teams, and what broader contexts may affect their play.  And there’s no better group of players to do that with than NFL rookies, so I’m going to hone in on 10 rookies that can make a huge impact this year for their teams, both real and fantasy.

Trent Richardson: Current OTA Stud. Future Fantasy Stud? Source: Eric P. Mull-USPRESSWIRE

Trent Richardson, RB, Cleveland Browns

The fantasy community can sure jump on an impact rookie running back right away.  Touted by everyone’s mother as the best running back prospect since Adrian Peterson, T-Rich has the potential to deliver top 5 RB numbers when it’s all said and done, and is valuated as such.  Projected to go anywhere between the end of round 1 and the beginning of round 2, the excitement over Richardson is reminiscent of the excitement over other young running backs that ended up being fantasy busts in their first year with the starting gig – the Ryan Matthews and Shonn Greenes of the fantasy world.  Now, let’s not get it twisted – Richardson is neither Matthews nor Shonn Greene, and that’s a good thing (well, Matthews is actually good now, but that’s beside the point).  Yet, there is still plenty to be concerned about with Richardson.  The consistent 8-man fronts he’s going to face because of his QB situation, the offensive line which produced a 28^th ranked rushing attack last year, the AFC North (I know Cincinnati has Reggie Nelson who’ll probably give up a long run or two to Richardson, but Baltimore and Pittsburgh will make sure it’s not nearly that easy), and simply making the transition as an NFL rookie.  Can he still produce top 10 RB numbers? Absolutely.  But I’ll let you spend the first round pick on him.

Robert Griffin III, QB, Washington Redskins

RGIII comes into the league one year after Cam “The Man” Newton took fantasy football by storm, and it’ll show.  The recent success of running quarterbacks (Vick, Cam, Tebow) will make fantasy owners jump the gun on RGIII, but his situation should come under heavy scrutiny.  The receiving corps of Pierre Garcon, Josh Morgan, and Santana Moss should be more than serviceable, but still doesn’t inspire a ton of confidence, and the pass rush heavy NFC East should be a huge concern, both for RGIII’s production and health.  However, it’s pretty hard to argue that he isn’t a perfect fit for Mike Shanahan’s bootleg offense (if Jake Plummer could do it, RGIII will eventually excel at it), so if you caught the short end of the stick when drafting your first QB, take a flyer on the new face of DC (sorry Barack).

Michael Floyd, wishing he had a better quarterback. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-US PRESSWIRE

Michael Floyd, WR, Arizona Cardinals

Big, fast, strong, and fairly polished for a rookie receiver.  Floyd has the tools to make an impact from day 1, which is one of the reasons why he was the 13^th pick in this year’s draft.  And he’ll never be double covered.  Yeah, playing alongside a top 3 WR has its benefits. So why does he show up third on this list?  Kevin Kolb.  Or John Skelton.  Whoever you think will actually win the starting QB job.  Both have big enough arms, but both also have an incredibly infuriating tendency to check-down instead of going through their progressions.  So, if Floyd is running 7 yard hitches, he might have a shot at a good season with either of those two at QB, but if you’re going to take a flyer on a receiver as your draft comes to a close, he’s the guy you should think of.

Alshon Jeffrey, WR, Bears

Boy, did Christmas come early for Jay Cutler or what? While Jeffrey and Brandon Marshall are both more possession-receiver types, they fill a huge need for the Bears and that passing offense.  Cutler’s got the gun to sling it to Jeffrey anywhere on the field, and while Marshall isn’t Larry Fitzgerald, he’ll still command enough attention to give Jeffrey his chances.  Now, you can’t ignore the offensive line issues, mostly because it hasn’t improved at all from a personnel basis, but in a league of measurables, Jeffrey has the size, strength, and jumping ability to be exactly what the Bears and Jay Cutler are looking for on third downs and more.

Hopefully we'll be smiling all season long. Source: Phil Sears-US PRESSWIRE

Justin Blackmon, WR, Jacksonville Jaguars

The two-time Biletnikoff Award winner has the best opportunity of any WR in the draft to make an impact.  He’s an X receiver with nowhere close to another comparable receiver as far as talent on this roster, and he may have just enough help between MJD, Laurent Robinson, Marcedes Lewis, and Mike Thomas to keep defenses from honing in on him and giving Blaine a true number 1 receiver.  The negatives, however, are plenty.  The QB play from last year, the offensive line play from last year, the play from Marcedes Lewis and Mike Thomas from last year, the work he’ll need to put in with regards to route running and expanding his route tree.  But hey, with Jerry Sullivan on our side, are you going to be the one to bet against him?  Just don’t overpay come draft day.

Reuben Randle, WR, New York Giants

The truth of the matter with Randle is, I don’t know if the Giants found their Manningham replacement like everyone says they did.  He was great value where he was picked, and he’s a solid addition to an already solid WR corps.  Unlike some teams, like the 2011 Jaguars, that couldn’t put out one quality fantasy pass catcher, the 2011 Giants showed that, like the Packers, they can put out a multitude of quality WR/TE pass catchers.  Randle has a great quarterback and the opportunity to make an impact, and for a non-first round rookie, that’s all you can really ask for.

Why So Serious, Childs? Source: Bruce Kluckhohn-US PRESSWIRE

Greg Childs, WR, Minnesota Vikings

When you think of the prototypical X receiver, you think of size, speed, strength, jumping ability, and confidence.  You think of the best WR on his team.  But, what you don’t think of is the 134^th pick in the draft.  The self-proclaimed “steal of the draft”, Childs was the most productive of the three Arkansas WRs taken in this year’s draft and arguably the most athletic.  He’s coming off an injury, but he sure looked good at his pro day.  Plus, he fills a huge need for the Vikings, who have the perfect slot receiver but are sorely missing a true number 1 to help out Christian Ponder.

Doug Martin, RB, Tampa Bay Bucs

He’s got a huge opportunity, and you know the new Bucs coaching staff is going to side with him over LaGarrett Blount.  But, they’re very similar backs in terms of style, so it’s really going to be a matter of who produces when it gets down to it.  He’s got as good an opportunity as any running back not named Trent Richardson.

Andrew Luck clearly didn't get the uniform color memo for team photos. Source: Brian Spurlock-US PRESSWIRE

Andrew Luck, QB, Indianapolis Colts

Best QB prospect since Peyton Manning?  Joining the worst team since the 1976 Bucs who went 0-14?  Okay, that might be overkill, but you get the point.  The Colts did a good job retaining some of their impact players, despite their age, and won’t be as bad this year as they were last year.  That being said, Luck’ll need more than Reggie Wayne and a rookie TE to succeed.  He’ll have his chances this year, so I’d put him in solid QB2 range.

Ronnie Hillman, RB, Denver Broncos

Who?  The backup to a 31 year old running back with a history of knee issues.  The running back who’ll play in the same backfield as the guy that made Joseph Addai look like a stud.  A super fast twitch athlete who may struggle early on because of the uptick in competition from San Diego State, he’s incredibly quick, patient, and despite his size, has goal line capabilities.  He’ll be fighting a former first round pick in Knowshon Moreno for the backup spot when the season starts, but the fight won’t be a fair one, and not in the way you might think.  Moreno has come close to wearing out his welcome in Denver and is coming off of ACL surgery.

Honorable Mentions:

Ryan Broyles, WR, Detroit Lions

Incredible hands, incredible quickness.  He’ll need both if he’s going to contribute, but he sure has the talent to do so.  Does he get the quickness back after November ACL surgery?  Keep tabs on your league’s waiver wire.

David Wilson, RB, New York Giants

The Giants just put out running backs, and with the injury history of Ammad Bradshaw, you have to assume that the former Hokie is in the best possible situation to succeed.  He’s a fast-twitch athlete in the fastest of senses, and he’s got good enough vision to burst through the holes that the Giants O-line will produce.  His main hindrance will be getting on the field, especially due to his poor pass blocking (and we know Tom Coughlin won’t stand for that), but with Bradshaw’s injury history and Wilson’s talents, I’ll sign off on taking a late round flyer on him.

Agreements, Disagreements, and other great fantasy fits? Leave them in the comments!

– Zain