Best fantasy team ever?

August 16, 2007 by Mike Olbinski

I was prepping for my two live fantasy football drafts that happen next week and a thought occurred to me. I am hearing more mentions of Arizona Cardinals players as “draftable” commodities than ever before.  It was an amazing thing to hear and to realize, because as long as I’ve been playing fantasy football, you pretty much stayed away from Cards players.

Granted, I always stay away from Arizona players mainly because I don’t want to be cheering on my team for the wrong reasons. It’s bad enough I end up cheering for some of the guys they end up playing against :)

So why is this year the best ever? Let’s take a look at where the top players on the team are being ranked among fantasy experts (like Adrian Wilson, pictured up to the right).

Matt Leinart - The Cards’ quarterback is ranked in the Top 15 on most rankings, and as high as 10 on the secret site I use (No, I’m not passing that on). ESPN says #13, Sporting News #12.

Anquan Boldin and Larry Fitzgerald - Both receivers are ranked in the Top 15 easily on most sites. In fact, the main one I look at has Boldin #7 and Fitz #11. The Sporting News puts them both at #13 and #14. CBS Sportsline has them #9 and #10. ESPN has the biggest difference in rankings with Fitz at #7 and Boldin at #14. There is an obvious questionmark on who will be the best receiver. But they all agree on one thing: They both rock.

Edgerrin James - He’s a bit lower on the rankings, just in the Top 20 on average. My site has him as good as #14, while Sportsline says #16 and ESPN says #20.

Neil Rackers - A Top 10 kicker because of his leg. Some places have him as high as #12, but others like the Sporting News has him #7 and ESPN puts him up at #5.

Adrian Wilson - Not many would disagree that he’s a top 5 defensive back, but The Sporting News has him #1 overall as does ESPN, which is pretty amazing. I had him on my Yahoo team last year and he was just sick. Who would have figured that a Cardinal player finally becomes a consensus #1 overall pick and he plays defense?

All of these players will be on rosters and all of them, save perhaps Leinart, are almost guaranteed starters for whoever drafts them. And the only reason you don’t start Matt would be if you got him cheap and also have a Peyton Manning, Tom Brady or Carson Palmer.

So what do you guys think? Is this the best fantasy team Arizona has ever fielded? Did I miss anyone?

Posted in fantasy, football, arizona cardinals