2012 Fantasy Football Rankings

Tuesday, May 22, 2012 at 12:00 pm ET

I hope the offseason has treated everyone well. While not every site has published their draft rankings, FFN is up and running with 12 of them. I was looking forward to seeing where the consensus rankings would fall. No surprise with seeing Arian Foster at #1. The guy is a beast. Aaron Rodgers came in at 4th overall and 1st among QB's. He's definitely a 1st round pick again this year.

Bruno Boys has a great article on comeback players this season highlighting Chris Johnson (5th among RB's), Darren McFadden (7th among RB's), and Jamaal Charles (15th among RB's). Click on the other positions at the end of the article to check their analysis for those players. Great analysis on folks like Josh Freeman, Andre Johnson, and DeSean Jackson.

Yesterday, Dallas Clark signed with Tampa Bay and Kellen Winslow was traded to Seattle. Neither is all that exciting as fantasy prospects.

Running backs are critical to fantasy success. FFToolbox.com has a fantastic section of tools and analysis on this position. Check out their projections, keeper rankings, rookie reports, sleepers, and busts along with current RB news and reports. It takes a while to get through all of their analysis, but I guarantee that it's time well spent.

Once again, the Lions have high expectations this season. There are no real questions surrounding Matt Stafford (5th among QB's) or Calvin Johnson (1st among WR's). Both should dominate in fantasy land, but the backfield in Detroit has lots of question marks. Jahvid Best's concussion issues are supposed to be cleared up next month, but I question his toughness and durability. Other than a flash of brilliance two years ago, he hasn't panned out. There was some high expectations for Mikel Leshoure last season which didn't happen. As CBS Sports is reporting that Leshoure is facing a possible 2-4 game suspension for his marijuana-related arrests. Kevin Smith re-signed with the team, but frankly none of the backfield options in Detroit excite me.

Looking for a few high-risk/high-reward players? Look no further than Fantasy Sharks. Great write up on Kenny Britt, Run DMC, Peyton Manning, Ryan Mathews, and Demaryius Thomas. Manning in particular was one guy that I was waiting to see where he would fall on the consensus rankings. FFN ranks him at #12 among QB's but the consensus is poor. He's being ranked all over the place. There's still quite a few questions surrounding his health, playing condition, and supporting cast. Let's wait until training camp before making any further judgements.

If you're looking to start doing some mock drafts, be sure to check out Fantasy Football Calculator and Mock Draft Central. You can also check out a number of the major corporate sites for mock drafting. If you want to mock against the computer, FleaFlicker.com has a great applet for doing just that.

Be sure to check out our fantasy football rankings for 2012.