I agree with everything you said except this. With Vincent Jackson gone, Floyd might be in line for sharply improved numbers this year. I’d keep him.
In an 8 team league, there is probably a better backup QB on waivers than RGIII. Your team isn’t horrible at any position except tight end; Davis is okay, but you can surely do better in a small league. Who’s on waivers there?
You also have terrific running back depth, which is good. Except that Beanie Wells is awful and will probably lose his job. Is Ryan Williams available? He’s almost certainly going to wind up the Cards’ starter.
I was thinking Brown and Gates were going to be the beneficiaries of Jackson’s absence, but now it looks like Brown is hurt. I hadn’t seen that when I wrote my post. Maybe Floyd will see some uptick, but I don’t think he is all that talented even if he has the opportunity, but reasonable people can disagree on that and he is certainly looking better and better.
Remember, they also signed Robert Meachem to a big contract in the offseason, and he’s the presumptive #1.
You probably want to grab Rashad Jennings (MJD’s backup) if he’s not already on another team, in case MJD’s salary dispute drags on into the season.
Ryan Williams is available. Who to drop for him?
Here are the taken quarterbacks:
[ul]
[li]Aaron Rodgers[/li][li]Drew Brees[/li][li]Cam Newton[/li][li]Tom Brady[/li][li]Matthew Stafford[/li][li]Eli Manning[/li][li]Tony Romo[/li][li]Matt Ryan[/li][li]Philip Rivers[/li][li]Michael Vick[/li][li]Ben Roethlisberger[/li][li]Matt Schaub[/li][li]Jay Cutler[/li][li]Rober Griffin III[/li][li]Andrew Luck[/li][li]Peyton Manning[/li][/ul]
This would be from my lack of real life player knowledge.
How am I supposed to know if they’re weak or not? Look at my team. 
Taken tight ends are:
[ul]
[li]Rob Gronkowski[/li][li]Jimmy Graham[/li][li]Aaron Hernandez[/li][li]Jermichael Finley[/li][li]Jason Witten[/li][li]Antonio Gates[/li][li]Vernon Davis[/li][li]Brandon Pettigrew[/li][li]Fred Davis[/li][li]Jared Cook[/li][/ul]
Rashad Jennings is available. Is it that unlikely that MJD won’t make it to field?
No, but there are a few factors:
-
It’s generally a good idea to “handcuff” your top running back(s) with his/their backup(s), since injuries are a real thing and if you don’t have their backup when the injury strikes, you’re probably screwed;
-
Jennings is actually a pretty talented player in his own right, so it’s not unfeasible that there might be a week or two when you start him because of byes;
-
In the event that MJD does miss a game or two, you’re set with a very capable backup;
-
The opportunity cost of rostering such a player is generally pretty low. In this case it’s probably Starks, which wouldn’t be a crippling loss.
Pick up Jermaine Gresham or Owen Daniels.
MJD will certainly play this year. However, he may not play immediately, and that means you need a backup plan for Weeks 1-3ish.
You may as well drop RGIII. He’ll still be on waivers when you need him. Agree on dropping Starks too.
Not in an 8 team league - and there isn’t anyone on his roster that would come close to warrant being dropped for a backup handcuff.
RNATB - I’d keep Starks over picking up Jennings. As is, he can upgrade at TE and backup QB. Everything else seems to be making roster moves just for the sake of making moves.
8 team league?!?!? Why even bother. 
Agreed. Drop starks for Jennings, drop Floyd for Williams and your RB corps is suddenly kinda sexy. You are probably going to need to make a trade for a WR at some point, but you have the tools to make this happen now. Don’t underestimate the value of sexy.
As for TEs, I like Fleener and Tamme better than Davis, again because of upside. Davis is safer than either, but you aren’t going to get anywhere going safe.
Munch, what changes would you make, if any?
Everyone:
Proposed changes include
[ul]
[li]Drop Starks for Rashad Jennings[/li][li]Drop Floyd for Ryan Williams[/li][li]Keep Floyd per this post[/li][li]Drop Davis for Fleener or Tamme[/li][li]Dropping RGIII all together.[/li][li]Pick up Jermaine Gresham or Owen Daniels.[/li][li]Drop Beanie Wells for Williams[/li][/ul]
Questions:
[ul]
[li]Which of these can we mostly agree I should do?[/li][li]Is there anything else?[/li][li]What about quarterback options? If I drop RGIII I have no backup QB and only have Ben which I wasn’t the most satisfied with either. But is anyone better available?[/li][/ul]
And since we’re on a new page, I’m going to relist the taken quarterbacks and tight ends:
Aaron Rodgers
Drew Brees
Cam Newton
Tom Brady
Matthew Stafford
Eli Manning
Tony Romo
Matt Ryan
Philip Rivers
Michael Vick
Ben Roethlisberger
Matt Schaub
Jay Cutler
Rober Griffin III
Andrew Luck
Peyton Manning
Rob Gronkowski
Jimmy Graham
Aaron Hernandez
Jermichael Finley
Jason Witten
Antonio Gates
Vernon Davis
Brandon Pettigrew
Fred Davis
Jared Cook
I mostly agree you should do all of those things.
Just kidding.
As a general rule, you can manage your roster differently in an 8 team league as opposed to a “standard” (10 or 12 team) sized one.
First, since you only start one QB per week and there are 30 starting QBs in the NFL, it doesn’t make sense to roster more than one quarterback given that your first option is a good first option. I could actually see RGIII being better than Roethlisberger this year because of rushing totals, but i don’t think you suffer much by dropping one for the other, then picking up a backup when the bye week arrives. Because there are 22 non-#1 QBs, there should always be a palatable (or better) option on the waiver wire.
This is sort of a general concept about shallow leagues–because there are so many capable players on the wire at any given time, the difference between starters and wire fodder is less than what you would see in a normal league. In basketball leagues without game caps, for example, it makes sense to shuffle through your roster to get as many games as possible since top waiver talent is pretty close to the rest of the players on your roster; you aren’t losing much by dropping starters. As a result, there is more of a premium on top-tier talent and less on “average” players.
How does this affect roster management in a football league? Basically, it makes sense to keep some longshots on your roster which, if they pan out, would give better returns than the normal end-of-bench types. Rashad Jennings is one of these kinds of players. If you drop Starks, you can probably scrounge up a back who will do 90% of what he does; If Jennings starts for a game or two, you’re not coming up with that production from the wire.
Also, it makes sense to try and “trade up” in such leagues. “Trading up” is packaging several lesser players for one superior player. Most savvy veterans will avoid such trades, however.
I’ll back out from what I said about Jennings for Starks, and agree with what markdash said. But before you do that, I’d offer up RGIII, Starks and Floyd to someone for someone like Reggie Bush, Darren Sproles or Ahmad Bradshaw. All of those are good to great upside picks with a fair bit of risk, you lose nothing, and someone just might bite. It’s a borderline dick move, though - especially since if no one bites, you’re going to end up dropping them all (maybe not Floyd).
Trading away two players for an upgrade is nearly always a good idea, but normally you’d have to offer quite a bit more in return (someone may counter by switching out Starks for Richardson or McGahee - which I’d also do). Don’t burn too many bridges by offering shitty trade offers. When you target someone for this trade, make sure they have a less-than-ideal backup QB option as well.
What sort of online news feeds are there for me to subscribe to?
I’ve been listening to the Geico Fantasy podcasts and can’t wait to hear about tight ends, but what about something in text form where people offer up their opinions and draft pick orders for easy accessibility on the go? Hard to go back and review an hour long podcast sometimes.
Also, I dropped Floyd and picked up Rashad Jennings.
I’ve also recently proposed a trade of RGIII, Starks and Wells for Mike Wallace.
I’d try for a few other WRs, but two managers are apparently going to be absentees and one of them had a lot of the good middle of the road WRs that I’d like to pick up. Sucks for me.
Changed the title by request of OP.
To the surprise of no one, I finish week one with the lowest score: 72.70. The highest score was 113.70 (and counting) by a player who didn’t even attend the draft. :rolleyes:
I dropped some players and added some so-called sleepers.
Here were my starters:
[ul]
[li]Ben Roethlisberger[/li][li]Maurice Jones-Drew[/li][li]Rashad Jennings (See notes)[/li][li]Steve Smith[/li][li]Marques Colston[/li][li]Fred Davis[/li][li]Reggie Wayne[/li][li]49er Defense[/ul][/li]
Here was my bench:
[ul]
[li]Robert Griffin III[/li][li]Ryan Mathews (See notes)[/li][li]Willis McGahee[/li][li]Beanie Wells[/li][li]Donald Jones[/li][li]Rod Streater[/ul][/li]
Differences From Drafted Team:
[ul]
[li]Dropped James Starks, Malcom Floyd, and Trent Richardson[/li][li]Added Rashad Jennings, Donald Jones, and Rod Streater[/ul][/li]
Notes and Thoughts
[ul]
[li]I started Jennings and MJD together because I didn’t know how much play time MJD was going to be seeing, but was under the impression he was going to be a starter. Then…[/li][li]… Jennings got injured slightly during the game, so I’ll be moving him to the bench and bringing McGahee in.[/li][li]Ryan Mathews will be dropped when I get a juicy insider tip on the next sleeping beast.[/li][li]Donald Jones did decent, but I’m not sure if he’s still better than Colston. Thoughts?[/li][li]RGIII, as everyone knows, did very well for a rookie, but I’m skeptical is future performances will be this good, so I’ll be sticking with Big Ben for another few weeks. If he continues to suck and RGIII continues to not suck, then the switch is obvious.[/li]Watching the Raiders/Chargers game now to see how Streater does and to hope Malcom Floyd doesn’t go huge and make me look even worse at this than I already was.[/ul]
This is nearly always a bad idea, unless you know it’s a situation where one RB gets the main carries, and the other gets goal line touches (i.e. where both have a chance to score points). Don’t hedge like this, especially in such a small league.
Don’t do that. Mathews is an injury nightmare and the constant bane of fantasy owners everywhere - but he’s not a player you drop. Wells, Jones, Streeter, and Jennings are lower on your depth chart than Mathews.
Why’d you do that? Just because he had a shitty Week 1? Starting RBs have value in fantasy football. LOTS of value.
The Jaguars had announced that MJD was going to be the third down back for the game. Always read the little note things by your players.
And… what? You dropped Trent Richardson? Why?
Donald Jones is not going to be better than Colston. I will bet my house on it.