Watch Lists: Players to add before Week 1

Depending on the size of your league and its rosters, varying amounts of attractive talent will be left over from your draft. And regardless of how you feel about your roster, the Watch List is an important part of spotting guys to pick up on waivers. Right after the draft (and leading up to the season's start), I always add a couple dozen players to the watch list, just so I can remind myself to check their stats and possibly pick them up a week before everyone catches on. This is important, obviously, if you want to get a player - and even more important to catch a player early if you are playing in a league with FAAB waiver rules. Here are a handful of players to add to your Watch List as the season starts - and pounce on if/when they blow up early in the season:

Brandon Gibson, WR, StL: Amendola and Sims-Walker are the hyped players, but Gibson fits the mold of Brandon Lloyd last year better than these guys. Drafted in nearly zero league, Gibson looks to be starting and has shown a decent amount of rapport with Bradford in the preseason.

Antonio Brown/Emmanuel Sanders, WRs, Pit: Depending on your league, either, neither, or both of these guys could be drafted. Keep an eye on both. Roethlisberger's big plays often come on "playground" plays where he finds a WR getting open during a scramble. Whoever shows he can do this best (and stay healthy, especially for Sanders) has huge upside this year.

Greg Little, WR, Cle: Some people are actually drafting Little, a move that's a little risky for me, and probably just based on not knowing who "the guy" will be for Colt. Little certainly could be - and he has the physical tools to have a breakout season. But he's raw, meaning I'd like to see him do it at least once, first. Perfect for the Watch List.

Danny Woodhead, RB, NE: I think a lot of people just didn't expect Woodhead to be relevant again this year, especially considering the additions to the Pats' backfield. But Bellichick is hesitant to play rookies occasionally and Woodhead has been on the field more than any other RB in this offense. He should be drafted in PPR leagues but holds value for the watch list even in standard leagues.

Delone Carter, RB, Ind: I honestly was hoping he'd look better in the preseason; he's been good but not great. He's a strong runner that would pretty much only be a goal-line back, but put him on your Watch List and monitor his use. If it keeps increasing in the first couple weeks, pick him up and stash him.

Leon Washington, RB, Sea: The coaching staff loves him and he's looked back at 100% this preseason. He plays in a potentially dreadful offense, but for a versatile playmaker like Leon, that could be a good thing. Don't be surprised if his touches are equal or even greater than Lynch's in the first few weeks.

Evan Moore, TE, Cle: This guy is a red-zone monster. He seems to get along great with Colt and should be targeted quite a bit, even though he's technically the #2 TE to Ben Watson. He's not worth owning at this point, but keep an eye on him - and on Watson's health.

Tony Moeaki, TE, KC: I love picking up guys with inordinately low TD numbers compared to catches. Cassel will throw TD's to someone, and I promise Bowe isn't going to get 15 again. Moeaki has great skills and another year of gaining comfort with Cassel should only help. He's being drafted as roughly the 20th TE, and often not drafted at all. Keep an eye on his week 1 targets and grab him if you're weak at TE.

Finding Fantasy Gold in Unlikely Places (i.e., guys you HATE)

Everyone has a list of sleepers; Guys who are about to breakout and become the next superstar in fantasy football. Young players or rookies joining a new team, veterans returning from injuries or entering a new system, or maybe a player nobody has heard about may be on your list of potential fantasy surprises. But here's the rub: That guy is probably on about a million other fantasy sleeper lists out there. With millions of people playing fantasy, it is hard to have a unique take on a player, not to mention be the only on in millions to find a needle in a haystack like Peyton Hillis. So allow me to throw out a contrarian look at sleepers:

Find guys you hate less than other people hate them.

Yep, that's it. Perfect example: I hated Darren McFadden going into last year. I thought he was a 5-cent head on top of a 50 million dollar body. He didn't run with authority and looked like he wouldn't be the starter (I had Michael Bush on four teams last year). But when he fell to the 10th round in my keeper league, I took him - muttering expletives under my breath. The rest is history (and hopefully the future - I'm keeping him this year for an obviously bargain price).

McFadden represents an excellent example of how a player can fall from grace and be forgotten. But he didn't lose the skills he showed when he was taken 4th in the NFL Draft - it just took a couple years for him to shake off injuries (though he did miss 3 games last year) and to get his head straight. I chose him because he had upside, the potential to be a top-10 RB even if I was 99.9% sure he wouldn't be. Worst case scenario, I was dropping him in week 2 for someone like Peyton Hillis.

Using this template, here are a few guys worth picking up quite late in the draft , hoping they turn things around. They're not sleepers - call them "Coma Players" - as in, "Dear god I hope he wakes up this year... or I'm pulling the plug":

- Pierre Thomas: Thomas burned a lot of owners last year. Now coming off an injury that understandably held him back most of last year (it looked like a season-ender initially), Thomas is in a 3-headed backfield in New Orleans, sharing space with one of fantasy's highest hype rookies in Mark Ingram. But Thomas possesses skills Ingram does not - namely, he knows the offense better and catches the ball much better. He put up very good numbers for a part-timer in '08 and '09 (averaged 1,000 total yards and 10 TD's) and should be able to get more yards with a few less TD's this year. And if Ingram goes down, there's 12 TD potential here.

- C.J. Spiller: Run DMC comparisons abound here - dynamic but injury-prone, plays on a poor team, disappointing rookie year. But the talent is there and the Bills don't really have other playmakers - Stevie Johnson is one of my favorite players but he's no Desean Jackson and Fred Jackson is solid but unspectacular. Spiller also will be given more opportunity this year, so if he seizes it early, you could be looking at a gigantic value.

- Bernard Berrian: Wow, I don't even think this guy is very good. But he is one thing: fast. He's a deep threat on a team I anticipate will lose more than they win, and his quarterback is basically only capable of throwing the deep ball. McNabb made Anthony Armstrong a viable fantasy option in deep leagues last year and he can do the same with Berrian. Michael Jenkins is the only prototypical WR on the team and, well, we know what he is (isn't). Harvin will get lots of looks, but not the deep balls. Berrian could very well catch 7 TD's and act as a flex player or trade bait for your team - and he could be your last pick of the fantasy draft.

- Michael Crabtree: This might be the best example of a guy I will take (in about the 12th round, by the way - not like you get studs there all the time) and immediately say, "Ugh, I hate that pick". And then I'll drop him after 3 weeks if he stinks. But he might not... He was a top-10 pick in the draft for a reason and has shown flashes. The argument against Alex Smith is valid, but when this team is losing by three touchdowns, they will be forced to push it down the field and Crabtree will get more looks than Edwards and maybe even Davis if he's healthy. This one will test my resolve, but it could also lead to glory.

So when you enter your draft thinking, "Oh man, Matthew Stafford is going to be HUGE this year!", remember this - You're not alone. Being alone, in a game played by so many people, is near impossible. But if you can turn off the Hate Center of your brain and simply go against popular opinion, fantasy gold is in them thar hills...

Losing my Auction-Draft Virginity

Everyone's first time is a little sloppy. Excitement, nervousness, and anticipation all lead to getting ahead of yourself. Maybe you do a couple things right (hey, you have been preparing for this moment for years), but in the end, all you want is to do it again - and better next time.

That was my experience yesterday with my first auction draft. Leading up to the draft, I had told myself to be patient, only bid on bargains early, then save money for the end when players are sold for pennies on the dollar (for instance, Jonathan Stewart went for $1 in this auction). In the end, I wound up buying a couple WR's early (despite my initial insistence to get a stud WR), paid a fair but high price for a QB (despite telling myself I would go cheap at QB), and got much more depth than I had wanted (despite hoping to get 3-4 studs and fill in the roster with cheap players).

I will list my roster below, but first allow me to impart a word of wisdom: Do not enter an auction without multiple game plans. I mentioned how many things went the opposite of how I expected, and even though I could have done a bit better on my overall roster, I didn't go overboard on any player based on the prices I had assigned beforehand. But when I was able to add Jamaal Charles and Drew Brees, I had to change my thought process about stud WR's, instead taking two of the top 15 WR's and getting some great depth. Had I entered the draft with only one strategy, I would've been up a creek when Andre Johnson was too expensive.

One other piece of advice: Take note of the guy who bids against you in hotly-contested bidding. I wound up with Dez Bryant and Felix Jones because I think they will both prove to be steals, but I never like having two guys on the same team (unless it's QB-WR). So when/if I decide to trade one of those guys, I will look at a specific owner first - the guy who was the second-to-last bidder on both of them.

Now without further ado, here is my roster... God help me:

(10-team league, no PPR, 5pt passing TD's - $100 budget)

QB - Brees $21
RB - Charles $25
RB - F Jones $13
WR - Bryant $11
WR - M Williams (TB) $8
TE - Olsen $1
Flex - Best $6
K - J Brown $1
D - Ravens $1
Bn - Jacobs $4
Bn - Collie $4
Bn - L Moore $1
Bn - Amendola 41
Bn - Spiller $1
Bn - Keller $1
Bn - J Nelson $1

The Fantasy Football Degenerate Blog --- IT'S ALIVE!

Welcome, degenerates, one and all! This is the inaugural entry of the Fantasy Football Degenerate blog - a blog dedicated to those of us who know we really have one thing to live for: Fantasy Football.

I am Bryce Gerrich, your dedicated degenerate, here to provide with nuggets of knowledge, pearls of wisdom, and a bunch of blather about the game we love. I will keep you updated with links from fantasy sites we all trust (RotoWorld, ESPN, CBS Fantasy, Yahoo!, etc.) along with my own analysis and opinions.

As all of us borderline-psychotic fantasy players know, reading about fantasy football is not about finding someone's opinion you can trust unconditionally. With the randomness of fantasy sports and the unbelievable number of so-called "experts" (for the record, you will never hear me call myself that), it's impossible to agree with everything any one person says. Instead, as degenerates, we realize that half the analysis we read will go out one ear and out the other. So why do we spend so much time out of our days, put off so much of our daily work, and alienate our loved ones (or in my case, give my wife just enough time away from me to avoid divorce) just to have half of it mean nothing?

One thing.

That's it: One thing. Every post, every podcast, every night of tequila shots with your best buddy - categorized as "research" on the expense report - should lead us degenerates to finding one single thing about a player, position or team. For instance, I listened to an hour-long podcast from ESPN's Christopher Harris the other day and I only remember one solitary piece of opinion from the entire thing ("Dez Bryant does what Miles Austin does - better"). That one sentence was the most/only important part of that podcast for me, but it was more than worth the time. And that's why we do this. We're all smart enough - at least in our own heads - that we don't need to learn how to play fantasy or have someone give us cheat sheets and hold our hands. We just need one diamond out of 100 pounds of coal.

I hope to provide that through this blog. Now get back to work, slacker.