The Hive - Week One Edition Sep 10, 2009 | More

The Hive 2009 – Week one edition

Welcome back to another season of The Hive everyone! Hard to believe the season is already upon us! The Thursday night game should be a great way to start the season! Two defensive minded teams who really, really don’t like each other? Yes please!

For those of you who haven’t heard already, The Hive will be operating a little differently this season. Gone are the days of out of date game notes, as The Hive is now on Twitter! You can see my thoughts on IDP players, matchups and IDP injury news at http://twitter.com/thehiveIDP!

This week will be even more abbreviated than the next 15 weeks will be, as I welcomed the newest little bee to The Hive this week. Aedan Michael Chamberlain was born on Labor Day (irony?) and was 7lbs 8oz. He is coming home in time to watch the Titans Steelers game with his pops. Good stuff right there.

So no game by game breakdowns this week, but that might be a good thing for some of you. The biggest week one trap owners in all fantasy leagues fall into is getting cute with their late round sleepers. Don’t be the guy who sits Demarcus Ware for Justin Durant or Omar Gaither because you are overly concerned with what you think is a good or a bad matchup. Play the guys you drafted to be your starters and see how it shakes out. You will have plenty of chances to take your opponents out behind the woodshed with your depth once the bye weeks come into play, but there is a reason you took player A in round 1 and player B in round 9. Don’t get cute.

I will leave you with some names to be on the lookout for in your box scores this weekend. These are some guys who are high on my sleeper list, and are most likely going to be available in the average IDP league that starts 3-6 IDP’s:

1) Tyvon Branch S Oakland – Yes everyone, I still have a big mancrush on Mike Mitchell, but word from Oakland is that Branch was the best defensive player in camp this year, and many believe he is now the 2^nd best player on the entire defense, behind only the great Nnamdi Asomugha. Remember that the SS position in Oakland produced the #1 DB in most formats last year in Gibril Wilson. Branch is just as good of a tackler and has superior cover skills, as he played corner in college. Branch should definitely be on your radar if you need help at DB as should……

2) Melvin Bullitt S Indy – Reports vary as to when Bob Sanders will be back, so Bullitt may not be a long term solution for your IDP team, but he puts up damn good numbers when he does play. I’ve heard it might take Sanders up to a month to get back, and who knows if the knee will hold up when he does? Bullitt could come up huge for fantasy owners this year, and at worst you should get a couple of solid games out of him to start the year.

3) Kevin Burnett LB San Diego – Burnett, as many of you may remember, was a highly anticipated addition to the Dallas Cowboys defense a few years back, but he never really did much in big D. From the reports out of San Diego, he seems to have been reborn with the Chargers. He will line up next to Stephen Cooper in the 3-4, and he is a dirt cheap LB option for those of you in need right now. If the Oakland O cant stay on the field week one Burnett might not light it up out of the gate, but he is definitely one to watch over the coming weeks.

4) Corey Mays LB Kansas City – Mays, like Burnett, has had a very uneventful career thus far. However he beat out the aging Zach Thomas for the ILB job next to Derrick Johnson in KC, and we all know that defense is going to be on the field a lot this season. Mays is a good candidate for the Dhani Jones award this season. Mediocre player on bad defense on a team with no offense = IDP goodness.

5) Sean Smith CB Miami – Smith was probably drafted in deeper IDP dyno leagues, but should be on the wire in most formats. He is a tackling machine that played some safety in college, and he made some highlight reel plays during the preseason as well. Smith is entrenched as the #2 CB in Miami, and if his tackling continues to be solid he could be a poor mans Antoine Winfield. Keep an eye on him during the first few games.

That about wraps it up for this weeks edition of The Hive. Remember to check out my Twitter feed for the latest IDP info, and we will see you back here next week with your game by game breakdowns. Good luck to all in week one!!