Another week, another round of shuffling on NFL depth charts. Which leads us to more questions from fantasy owners about which players they should be focusing on for their upcoming drafts and the subsequent regular season. So without further ado, on to some Fantasy Football Audibles ...
This one is an absolute toss up. There hasn't been a more consistent fantasy quarterback than Drew Brees over the past five seasons. The Saints veteran has finished outside of the top two at his position just once since 2009 -- that's tough to beat. Meanwhile the sample size of quaterbacks throwing 50 touchdowns is small (actually just one before last season) but the history of signal-callers who go for 5,000 yards in a season doesn't bode well in an encore. Then we've also entered the most passer-friendly era in football history. Which is why I'll give Peyton the nod here. He returns with a quality cadre of pass-catchers and could be extra motivated to blast through the league again this year.
This is a whole different kettle of fish. Manning will put up bigger fantasy totals in 2014 -- that's just the way of fantasy quarterbacks -- but given the choice, I'm going with Peterson first. It's simply a matter of running back scarcity. There are only four to five running backs that you can count on to dominate the majority of their team's carries and post quality fantasy totals. It's hard to pass on that if you're sitting at the top of the draft. Once you hit the end of the first round and the top tier running backs are off the board, go ahead and think about Peyton.
Speaking of the running backs expected to dominate their team's carries (and fantasy leagues), we have three of them right here. If they aren't among the top five players at their position at the end of the season, something has gone awfully wrong. The difference between them is so negligible that it's really a matter of personal preference where you're going with the top pick. My preference is McCoy, since he'll be the lead option in an offense that should be among the league's most productive, I like his chances best. But it's one of the questions that really doesn't have a wrong answer.
Marcas Grant is a fantasy editor for NFL.com. Follow him on Twitter @MarcasG.
