By Zack Cimini

notjustagame23@gmail.com

Strategizing for a fantasy football draft is good in all until your plan gets thwarted by other owners. Certain players fall off the board and in panic mode you scramble and reach for other picks you think won’t be there. It’s happened to all of us. Then come the end of the draft you realize you have a glaring gaping hole. For most it comes square at the position of quarterback. Owners get immersed in adding that sure fire depth to the running back and wide receiver position that they bypass a quarterback for several rounds. Depending on the size of your league sometimes that works to your advantage.

It does not matter if you’re in an eight, ten, twelve, or fourteen team league, once all owners have their primary quarterback they tend to wait three to four rounds before drafting a backup. This gap of rounds provides the necessary leverage for yourself to take advantage. Sometimes it works, and sometimes you’re stuck throwing Kyle Orton or Jake Delhomme out there. It’s probably a scenario you want to avoid if at all possible. Some of you just do not learn, and were going to take a look at some quarterbacks that owners will risk carrying their fantasy team on a week to week basis. Get use to weeks of hit or miss. Yeah we’re talking those weeks where your cursing up a storm when a point total of six is put up by your quarterback.

If you can get your hands on two of these guys below, you could start spot them enough to set up favorable matchups and get quality starts. It’s almost like setting up bye week fillers. Quarterbacks on this list last year were Matt Schaub now a top five fantasy quarterback, Brett Favre, and Joe Flacco who will all likely be considered top ten fantasy quarterbacks.

Chad Henne- From what Henne showed he can be an elite quarterback with the right direction and proper progression on his part. He possesses the quarterback smarts to learn by the week, and did a dandy of a job for being thrown in after Pennington’s injury. He has an organization backing him 100 percent, and the physical tools to be a fantasy number one. His youth and inexperience will scare of owners this year. We still like him to grow and be a quarterback you can become more at ease with starting as the season goes on. Having Brandon Marshall out there does not hurt either.

Kevin Kolb- Based on Andy Reid’s coaching tenure in the NFL we know he tends to have a disproportionate ratio of passes compared to run plays. Kolb may not lead the league in certain quarterback categories, but we can bet he will be close to the top in attempts. That has to be a bright sign for fantasy owners as some of the quarterbacks we’d like to rank higher are cut down a few notches because of their offensive system. You do not have to worry about that with Kolb. Interceptions will come in bunches with Kolb but that territory is nothing alarming as we all expect it due to his inexperience.

Matthew Stafford- Toughness, heart, and determination were just some of the traits Stafford showed in his debut season. While his rookie year was cut short he threw some throws that just have future Pro Bowler written all over the guy. Detroit has been working on retooling the team to get Stafford a strong supporting cast. He has the receivers and newly drafted running back Javhid Best will add a flare of unique abilities for Stafford. Best’s skill set is not like a back the Lions have had in who knows how many years. Stafford is not a guy you would probably want as your number one, but he’ll have certain weeks where he will be a top ten or higher fantasy quarterback. Probably more than anticipated.

Donovan McNabb- For some reason McNabb’s draft stock in fantasy drafts has slipped the last few seasons just as his fanfare in Philadelphia has. Besides the occasion game where McNabb can’t hit a target if it were five feet in front of him, he is rather consistent for the most part. Those games are inexplicable, but McNabb has the obvious driving force to this season. Departing from Philadelphia was not what he wanted and he is set to pull a Brett Favre resurrection as Favre did in his actual favorable destination in Minnesota. Washington is stocked at running back and McNabb will find a way to develop his receivers as he did with mediocre receivers for the majority of his career in Philly.

Others that deserve a glance with binoculars

* Jason Campbell- Will he adjust and fit in well? Oakland’s always been a tough place for quarterbacks but Campbell is not a young quarterback anymore. He is a veteran at age 28 and should be ready for this type of stability that Washington never could grant him.

* Ben Roethlisberger- The media will be all over him from training camp onward, heck they already are. Will the constant questioning wear on him, or can he move on and let his game on the field speak for itself? He has a lot to prove to doubters and fantasy owners have to keep in mind a minimum four game suspension if the original six gets reduced.

* David Garrard- Garrard’s been a fantasy tease on occasion and is probably the league leader in inconsistency. You just don’t know what you’re going to get from him. We thought he’d see some type of increase once Dirk Koetter came aboard as the offensive coordinator. After all Koetter came from the potent Arizona State offensive system as their college coach. Garrard just has not excelled enough entering the crossroads of his career. It’s hard to believe he is only one year younger than Donovan McNabb.