Brett Favre a Viking! Yes, we’re back to FavreGate on FantasyDraftEdge.com but with reports that’s he IS going to attend the Minnesota Vikings training camp and new rumors that a deal is done for him to be the Vikings QB is tough to continue to ignore.   Favre could be a nice mid to upper level fantasy QB with a ground game and offensive line.

Alex Smith Stunning in Practice – The San Francisco Chronicle is reporting that QB Alex Smith is out performing Shaun Hill by a significant margin in practice right now.  Although we believe the Alex Smith may still have a decent NFL season in him somewhere; being better than Shaun Hill is hardly a resume builder for Canton.  Someone will win this job but without some significant real game evidence to the contrary neither will be a great fantasy lineup option.

Bernard Scott impressive for the Bengals - Rookie RBs can often look quick in minicamp, and Scott has according to many reports.  If he can continue this impressive performance and stay out of trouble (not easy in Cinncy apparently, and Scott had 5 arrests and attended 4 different colleges) this could be a nice late round, nobody even noticed pick in your next fantasy draft.

Braylon Edwards not likely going anywhere – Very similiar to our comments recently on Brandon Marshall and his trade demands – it takes two to tango.  The Browns have a high asking price and Edwards not exactly in high demand.  As with Marshall, perhaps Edwards focuses and produces a big season to make him more tradable.

Brett Favre Talks – This story, not surprisingly, won’t die.  Bottom line here is he either plays for the Vikings or he doesn’t play at all.  I can’t even begin to try and estimate how this will eventually conclude but as I’ve said previously – where there’s smoke there’s fire so there is some truth to some of what you hear.  Sorting out which and where is another story.

Brandon Marshall requests a trade – It’s unlikely anybody will have too much interest in taking on this huge problem.  But what we can hope is that Marshall realizes he needs a huge season, staying out of trouble if he really wants to be a commodity that has any trade value.  Don’t expect a trade to happen this season

Three headed running game in Baltimore – Not great news for fantasy football owners.  It looks like Jim Harbaugh in Baltimore wants to use all 3 of his backs equally this season.  So LeRon McClain, Ray Rice, and Willis McGahee will all get several touches but none will be featured backs and put up big numbers.

Colts looking to run more in 2009 – Having Peyton Manning makes the idea of a pass heavy offense a solid idea.  But to win consistently in the NFL you have to run the ball and the Colts want to run more often next year.  That upgrades both Addai and rookie Donald Brown on our cheat sheets.  And perhaps a slight reduction in projected stats for Peyton Manning.

As we face our 11th round pick we continue to look at depth.  There are 5-7 QBs we’d be fine with for our number 2.  We already have 4 RBs in a 2 RB no flex league so a 5th isn’t a wise play despite our strong belief in RBs for fantasy football and we see about 4-6 WRs we’d be satisfied with as our 5th wideout.

We would normally glance at the available team defenses at this point but an unusually high number are gone at this point.  Interestingly – and this may very well change on our cheat sheets over the next several weeks – our #1 defense remains available despite 5 defenses already taken.  We are constantly evaluating our player rankings (which includes D/ST rankings) and perhaps we’ll find this is simply an early season oddity but it’s tough not to take a close look at defense here with only 5 picks left.

With the 3rd pick in the 11th round FantasyDraftEdge.com selects Steve Smith, WR, NYG
This is Smith’s 3rd season – a season in which we see many guys really breakout – and he should move into a starting role and move to the slot when they go 3 wide.  We considered Smith last round, happy to see him here and although we didn’t feel great early in the draft about our WRs we like our depth now.

Round 11 saw nothing too special (until the end, more on that in a minute) although we did see both the Vikings and Eagles D go which disappointed us  as we had our eye on both.  Also saw Earnest Graham, RB, TB go with pick 11.08 – that’s a pick we like a lot in the 11th round.  As was Willis McGahee with the 10th pick of round 11.

The final pick of round 11 and the first of round 12 (remember, 15 rounds in this mock draft) were interesting.  Not surprising – we knew they’d come – they’ll come in all early drafts.  And of course with the snake style draft order these picks were by the same owner.
Pick 11.12 Plaxico Burress
Pick 12.1 Brett Favre
Very high risk (these guys may not even play in the league this season) but very high reward.  If they are do they among the best at their position.  If you have room on your roster, it’s not a bad play to grab them and at least in this draft that meant end of the 11th round.

*** The FantasyDraftEdge.com Fantasy Impact Take ***

If Brett Favre does return with some weapons around him he may be a viable #1 fantasy football QB.  He certainly was 2 seasons ago when winning with Green Bay and early last season as the Jets were winning games.  But as soon as things started to break down Favre showed his longtime weakness – just throwing the ball up for grabs like we’re playing pickup games in the backyard.  Favre is far removed from being an elite fantasy QB but in Minnesota he’d be a middle of the pack ranked QB on our cheat sheets most likely.