This post has been a long time coming. Real life took over unfortunately. I’ll try to get this going again now that we are in the dynasty offseason.

With the 2010 fantasy season now in the books, this would be a good time to assess where my team stands in the $1250 FFPC Dynasty League. First off, lets take a look at the projected keepers. We are permitted to keep 16 players (out of 20) going into the draft.

QB: Tony Romo, Matt Cassel
RB: Jonathan Stewart, CJ Spiller, James Starks
WR: Dez Bryant, Dwayne Bowe, Desean Jackson, Vincent Jackson, Demaryius Thomas
TE: Rob Gronkowski, Jared Cook, Heath Miller
K: Matt Prater
DEF: Eagles

On the bubble (I can choose to keep only one if the above roster holds): Danario Alexander, Donnie Avery (IR), Golden Tate, Chaz Schilens, DHB, and Kareem Huggins (IR). This will be a tough call between Alexander, Avery and Tate I would think.

Rookie Picks: 1.1, 1.3, 1.4, 1.5, 1.6, 1.11 – I unfortunately missed out on the 1.2, but 5 out of the top 6 is still very good.

QB: Romo should be a strong and potentially elite starter for 2011 with Cassel a fine backup. I feel comfortable at QB at this time. I could choose to drop Cassel if I wanted to keep one more of the bubble players.

RB: The prospects of Stewart taking over as the lead back in 2011 are looking pretty good right now. If that happens, I could have a legit RB1 already on the team (making my work in the offseason that much easier). Despite a disappointing rookie season, I am still very high on CJ Spiller. He could potentially make a fine RB2 in 2011 if things work out right. I can’t count on that happening at this time though, so right now, Spiller is all about long term potential. James Starks emerged in a big way in this weekend’s wildcard playoff game, rounding out the trio of RBs quite nicely. Overall, although this trio has tremendous upside, RB is likely to be a weakness for this team going into the 2011 season. Of course, with the assortment of rookie picks at my disposal, adding Mark Ingram and the eventual RB2 of the draft (Mikel Leshoure, Ryan Williams, Dion Lewis maybe?) could go a long way in turning the weakness into a strength (with potentially 5 starting RBs on the roster!). I wouldn’t be surprised if a third potential impact RB hits the scene come draft day in which case adding Ingram plus 2 additional starting rookie RBs would be difficult to resist.

WR: The strength of this team at the moment (outside of maybe QB) is at WR. Dez Bryant is already a top 5 dynasty WR right now in my opinion with Dwayne Bowe not too far behind. I consider Desean Jackson (although only going on his 4th year in the NFL himself and over 2 years YOUNGER than Bowe) and Vincent Jackson (turning 28 in a few days) as the stud vets of this young group. I love stockpiling young stud WRs, and this is a great start. I had higher hopes for Demaryius Thomas for 2010, but with the talent he flashed in his brief moment of health, he could be a solid contributor in 2011 (and still love him long term). I’d like to acquire a Braylon Edwards type to add to the team for depth for the 2011 season (interestingly, I traded Edwards at the trading deadline for Gronkowski). Sadly, without the 1.2 pick in the draft, I likely won’t be able to add AJ Green to this group (which would have been awesome as he is an amazing talent). However, adding one, two or three of Justin Blackmon (please declare), Julio Jones and Michael Floyd in the 1.4-1.6 slots in the draft will be very nice nonetheless.

TE: What was once a weakness beyond all weaknesses going into the 2010 season has now become somewhat respectable with good upside thanks to the emergence of Gronkowski and the late flash of talent and production by Jared Cook. Bo Scaithe is not likely going to be with the Titans in 2011 so Cook has decent potential for next year. Physically, he’s a bit of a freak, but lets see if that will translate to big numbers in his third year as a pro…it just might. I am leaning towards keeping Heath Miller as well for a vet presence. He downright stunk this year (126 points in this format), but it was only one year ago when he scored 229 points behind 76 receptions, 789 yards and 6 TDs. Tight End production can be fickle from year to year, so who knows, 2011 could be a big year for Miller. In any case, it would be tough to cut him loose right now, but that is an option if I decide to keep an extra bubble player.

K and DEF: Who cares. Prater and Philly are good enough I suppose.

Next Steps:

• Scouting the Rooks: With 6 picks in the 1st round including 5 of the top 6, scouting and research will be a top priority this offseason (isn’t it always?). I’m going to want to get as much info on the rookies as possible (lots of free information out there but I expect that a few paid sites/sources will be in the mix as well and should prove to be quite helpful), watch whatever you-tube draft videos I can find, take in the Combine and NFL Draft (the funnest part) and make the best assessment I can after putting all the pieces together. I NEED to get these right.

• Bringing on the Vets: One of the toughest decisions each year in any dynasty is what rookie picks to trade and which to keep. I’ve been burned many a time making trades for vets using rookie picks in what at the time seemed to be savvy moves. I’ve got to be careful in that respect. On the one hand, I am loving the 2011 draft so far and would like to keep as many of the picks as I can. Keeping the picks and getting them right could make this team downright sick for the long term. On the other hand, I need some good vets to really compete in 2011. With potentially $7,000+ on the line as the first place take home, this decision becomes that much harder (too much at stake for any “lets see what happens” type of moves). On the bright side (sort of), achieving the right balance in this league should not be nearly as difficult as it will be in the $750 FFPC Dynasty League where my team has bigger holes to fill and with fewer resources to do it. Sure, I’ll need to shore up at RB, but WR and QB are pretty well set. Plus, it is very possible to shore up at RB in large part through the draft itself depending on where the top RBs land (making the decision to draft rookies versus competing now not mutually exclusive). I’d also like a top vet at TE, but if I had to, I would be comfortable going into 2011 with the TEs I have now and see how good (or not good) they can be and adjust from there (ok, maybe there are some “see what happens” type of moves I can afford to and perhaps should make). Basically, with the pieces I already have in place, I should have quite a bit of flexibility in the trades I can make this offseason.

Overall: All in all, I think this team, with all the young talent and picks, has the potential to be scary (in a good way). It will take some good moves in the offseason, but the building blocks are definitely there. I love this team. Am I being too optimistic here?