Despite being less than four months away from opening night in the NFL it’s never to early to start your preparation for the upcoming fantasy football season.

With the NFL Draft in the books and the majority of the free-agent’s having signed contracts it’s safe to start taking a deeper look into teams depth charts and projecting just how valuable specific players will be.

In fact, our staff has already started our 2009 positional rankings and stat projections for our yearly Online Magazine that will release towards the end of June.

Since we started doing the Bruno Boys Mailbag three weeks ago we have seen a huge increase in fantasy football owners sending in legitimate questions pertaining to the 2009 season.

If we have failed to feature your question in the weekly mailbag, our apologies but remember to check your email as we still address every questions. With that being said. lets get started on the May 21st, 2009 edition of Bruno Boys Mailbag: Fantasy Football Q & A. 

As always, if you have a question about a player or draft strategy send an email to contact@brunoboys.net and we will give you all the advice needed to make you successful.

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QUESTION: What is Brandon Marshall’s current ranking now that the draft and most of FA is over?  At the end of last season, he was seemingly top 5 WR and a definite keeper.  Now I’m not so sure.  We can keep three and I’ve got two good ones: Aaron Rogers (for 9th round draft choice this year) and Chris Johnson (14th).  For the third, would you rather keep Pierre Thomas (16th round pick this year) or Brandon Marshall (4th)?  I pick 9 of 10 and a lot of WR’s are being kept (however you can’t keep a round 1-2 pick, so all of last year’s top choices will be available).  I’m leaning toward keeping Thomas and going WR-RB-WR.  Thanks. – Eric (Bluffton, Ohio)

ANSWER: Eric…  Thanks for the question and before I even get into detail I would like to tell you that this is a good problem to have. Regardless of the route you go, the caliber of players you are going to keep heading into 2009 is a great core to build off of.

When looking at Brandon Marshall for this season you have to automatically downgrade his value due to the fact that Jay Cutler is no longer in Denver, but this shouldn’t scare you off of him. However, what should scare you off is the way he finished down the stretch in 2008.

After scoring 54 fantasy football points over his first three games, Marshall could manage just 98 fantasy points in the final 12 contests and the third year wide receiver scored only three touchdowns during that span.

A large part of this had to do with the Broncos inconsistency at the running back position and defenders focusing on the passing game, but this is still a cause for concern in my opinion. 

It might be a bit early to forecast Marshall’s overall value, since we don’t know who will be the top RB option in Denver, but you can peg him as a low-end WR1 or high-end WR2 heading into 2009. Currently, I have him as my 14th best wide receiver nestled in between Terrell Owens and Wes Welker.

As for who to keep, Chris Johnson is a no-brainer. He is a top 10 running back and a 1st round fantasy option that you have to forfeit a 14th rounder for. Great work! Also, I would keep Aaron Rodgers, without even knowing your scoring format. The fact that it’s a ninth rounder that you lose is enough to sell me.

Rodgers finished as the No. 2 overall quarterback in standard leagues last year and I rank him as my fourth QB heading into 2009, just a shade behind Peyton Manning and Tom Brady.

The choice behind Pierre Thomas and Marshall is a tough one, as they both have plenty of upside and you can make a case for either, but I am a firm believer of building off running back depth and Thomas will give you just that.

Plus the last that you lose a 16th round pick by keeping him heavily outweighs the fact that you probably would lose one of your top picks by keeping Marshall. In my opinion Thomas will pick up where he left off in 2009 and put together a solid campaign that makes him a RB2 in all scoring formats.

Plus, the odds of Marshall falling to you with the 9th pick are better than Thomas getting to your draft spot. From there, you can target snagging Marshall or a comparable wide receiver with the ninth overall pick in the first round of the non-keeper draft. All the Best this year and keep the questions coming!

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