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Challenge Contests — by Justin Eleff

I can't wait for Thursday and assume you can't either. In that regard, I've spent nearly half of this column discussing the Opening Night game to be played between WAS and NYG. The rest goes to points games, the stepsisters to rotisserie-scoring challenge games.

In the Football Challenge, this weekend's games and cuts shed little light on anything. I hate that the Seahawks have rostered both Olindo Mare ($1180) and Brandon Coutu ($1000), even if it is only for one week; I have zero faith that they wouldn't cut whichever of the two I decided to own -- so I guess I won't own either.

Otherwise, what I've said before is pretty much what I'd say now. I like Tony Romo in Week 1, so I'm rostering (and starting) him with Tom Brady something of a question mark. I'm indeed carrying Jerricho Cotchery and, yes, for those of you who grumbled about it, Calvin Johnson ahead of Wes Welker.

The Cheat Game

I mentioned this week's Thursday night game twice in last week's column, with good reason. Most fantasy challenges allow signups (and preseason transactions) until Saturday evening at earliest; that means the Thursday game is a cheat game, a free chance to own actual-not-projected statistics from two teams' players in Week 1.

That means far more in football than the other sports. One game is more than 6% of a team's season; compare to baseball, where one cheat game is about six-tenths of 1%. And Week 1 is among the toughest times to make your challenge teams' salaries work. Every breakout player is still a potential breakout player; no cheapo is reliable yet. In that context, saving salary on a player whose Week 1 numbers are already on the books makes tremendous sense.

Still, why spend several paragraphs on this? Because every projected roster I've scribbled out in the last three weeks has come to about $30,250 in salary in the Football Challenge -- over the cap. I need a salary saver to get everything together here at the start of the season, and I'm looking for any of several players to be that guy for me. Barring a complete freak game -- say as a result of an injury to an expected starter, or a fluky 40+ yard play from a fourth receiver -- these are the guys who might, with a game near the top of their respective ranges, make my final squads:

Jason Campbell ($1680) or Eli Manning ($1870), QB

Campbell's on my watch list anyway, but I'd need more to pull the trigger at this position than from a player at almost any other. My expected Week 1 QBs at the moment are Tony Romo, Jay Cutler and Aaron Rodgers. I'll go off of Cutler ($2730) for Campbell or Manning only if the guy I'm going to puts up 250+ yards and 2+ TDs. Can't gamble when you only get three cracks at QB per week.

Brandon Jacobs ($1680) or Clinton Portis ($2170), RB

I expect 60ish yards from Jacobs and 80ish from Portis on Opening Night. Either player could come on if he bettered those numbers or scored at least once with decent rushing and receiving averages. They're fairly close salarywise, and either would obviously save me a mint coming on for LaDainian Tomlinson ($3500). I expect 110ish yards and 2 TDs from Tomlinson at home against CAR; an 85 yard, 2 TD effort from either the NYG or WAS back would push him to my taxi squad.

Steve Smith ($400), WR

Nothing would make things easier for me than a big game -- even a single really big play -- from Smith. He's cheaper than the various cheapos I'm still planning to use at WR, and this is the position where I'm least confident in my sleeper picks. Why not own a 3-for-61 game from Smith (or David Tyree (also $400), or whomever)?

Kevin Boss ($480), TE

Boss wouldn't necessarily save salary, as I'm planning on using Zach Miller ($500) as my second TE. To save, Boss would need a game big enough to persuade me to taxi Jason Witten ($1300) for a week -- and a week against the weak CLE defense at that. Boss will probably have to score a fluky TD for me to think hard about this.

Shaun Suisham ($1100), K

I don't want to own Suisham, because he shares his bye with Nick Folk ($1340), my top choice at kicker all factors considered. But with the weird news that Seattle rostered both Coutu and Mare, I'm back in the market for a cheapo kicker anyway. Owning Suisham means knowing I'll have to buy a kicker before Week 10, which I hate to concede heading into the season. Then again, for all my careful bye-staggering in seasons past, I've often done that anyway.

Points Games

All preseason I've focused on challenge games built around category-based scoring, where players at each position help or hurt your teams in different ways. Passing, rushing and receiving averages count. It matters how your RBs' total yardage splits between rushing and receiving yards.

It's no accident that those games get my attention -- I think of them as more finely nuanced (and fun to play) than your usual, every-event-is-worth-X-number-of-points type games. That said, there are plenty of challenges built around the same kind of scoring you likely use in your office fantasy league: 6 points per rushing or receiving TD, 3 or 4 per passing TD; 1 point per 10 rushing or receiving yards or per 20 or 25 passing yards; kickers score the same way they do in real games; defenses get points various ways.

These games are about accumulation, piling numbers on numbers without regard to whether they come, for instance, 5.6 or 3.9 yards per clip. Most of the comments I've made about players in my category game columns still apply to the same players in points games, but there are differences to note in building your rosters.

Perhaps the signature difference is this: Many of these games award individual players 3 points per game their teams win, a not-insignificant starting edge, especially at lower-scoring positions like tight end and team defense. If you narrow the field to two possible choices, own the player on the better team. Better team = more wins = more points.

Players worth a hairier eyeball in points games than elsewhere:

QB

The 49ers should be lousy, but J.T. O'Sullivan makes sense in games where INTs don't count as negative points. Mike Martz's Detroit teams finished top-4 in pass attempts in each of the last two seasons; that's a substantial head start for O'Sullivan, who followed Martz from DET to SF, won the starting gig and is filthy cheap almost everywhere. I wouldn't touch him where his passing average or turnovers hurt you, but in an accumulation game he should have plenty of chances to, er, accumulate.

RB

Most of the backs you'd target in other games are targets here, too, but there may be hay to make among high-workload, big-body players on the best teams. Anyone getting half of the total work and two-thirds of the goal-line carries for a playoff contender could work out. That means LaDainian Tomlinson and Adrian Peterson, yes, same as anywhere else, but it also means Marion Barber for sure, Earnest Graham, Brandon Jacobs, Jamal Lewis (maybe; I'm not sure CLE is a playoff contender) and LenDale White. Jonathan Stewart bears watching more closely here than elsewhere. Also: Reggie Bush could be a play with slight improvement on the ground, because he's certain to catch 4+ passes per game and should add plenty of points doing so.

WR

Any of the SF receivers may be worth a play -- I mean any of Isaac Bruce, Bryant Johnson, Arnaz Battle, even Josh Morgan -- but knowing which of them will play the most is tricky. Morgan was a sensation in training camp, but the team seems to have drifted more and more toward the more predictable Bruce / Johnson starting tandem. That said, it wasn't Martz's starters who led his teams in catches the last couple of years; the real gem here could be anyone; you'll probably have to buy the right guy a couple of weeks from now unless you feel lucky. Elsewhere, again, think playoff contenders. High-catch receivers on the best teams are the best bets. Wes Welker is worth far more here than where his pedestrian receiving average might kill you.

TE

Same as the last comment: Think playoff contenders. Ben Watson becomes much more attractive here than elsewhere, as an inconsistent threat to score but a very consistent threat to win.

K

No real differences. I may try Dan Carpenter of MIA, not because he's on a good team (he's obviously not) but because, as an unlisted player in some games, he's a good bit cheaper than most other rookie-types.

Team Defense

The best you can hope for are sturdy defenses supported by healthy offenses -- those units should both score points by themselves and produce the 3-point team wins that can make such a difference over the course of the season. All the better if you find such a defense paired with a dynamic special teams outfit (which might occasionally score the TDs that typically count 6 points). The best unit among those that are reasonably priced in 2008 is probably the one in PHI, pushed over the top by electric return man DeSean Jackson. Beyond the Iggles, you're on your own.

We'll keep going with these columns into the season, same as the last couple of years, at least long enough to talk through the first few weeks' matchups and transactions. Keep reading, please.

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