The Goal
In my previous articles, I introduced dynasty leagues and the challenges that make them unique, the strategies necessary for continuous success and the tactics to implement these strategies. The most important strategy (aside from being patient) is to acquire the marquee players in the league. Not just one, two or possibly 3, and fill in the rest of your roster as best as you can as you have to do in redraft or keeper leagues, which allow only a few keepers, but all the marquee players. This is not to say that I believe this can be accomplished, even in a small league with large rosters such as the one in which I play. Rather I suggest that this is the goal to be pursued relentlessly.

The Obstacle
The obstacle in achieving this goal is your competition. The other players in your league are attempting to acquire the same players and if they succeed, will want to keep them. No matter how many top flight studs you offer, sometimes it will not be enough to trade for one of these players. Even if you do succeed in prying a marquee player away from one of your league mates, it would likely deplete your roster of sufficient trading material as to prevent any further trades of that magnitude.

Success
The key then to successfully acquiring a significant number of these marquee players then is to identify them before they reach the elite status and draft them or trade for them before they become untouchable.

None of this should be a surprise to anyone reading this article. It should be intuitively obvious to anyone who has played fantasy football. What I hope to do in this article is provide the means to identifying these players as early as possible.

It is these players that you fall in love with. It is these players that you have to be patient with as they develop on your roster. It is also these players that you have to watch for signs of development and using information such as when breakout years occur to determine whether they will never become a marquee player and cut your losses. Look to trade them while they have the most value. When you do trade these players, always look to stockpile draft picks with which to select the next batch of hopefuls. It is pretty simple to say, but difficult to implement. Player evaluation is the key.

Current Marquee Players
To start to understand what characteristics to use to identify these players, let's look at the current marquee players and see what they have in common. Vick, McNabb, Culpepper, Manning and Warner. Holmes, Tomlinson, Williams, and Faulk. Harrison, Owens and Moss. Gonzalez, Heap and Shockey. Other players manage to out score these players and end up in the top 5 year in and year out, but it is never the same players. If they were, then we'd be speaking about them as a marquee player along with this group. These are the ones that have been in the top 5 year after year and are expected to continue to do so. While you might argue that other players should be among this group such as Gannon, Portis or Garner, but none should argue that any these are not in the elite.

So what do these players have in common? On the surface there is not much to connect them, aside from their status. It is nearly as a disparate group of players as there is. Obviously they are all gifted athletes and all have exceptional ability, but so do many other players in the league who just do not pan out such as Ryan Leaf and Ben Gay. They come in different shapes, sizes and ages with different skills and styles.

Size-Speed Ratio
If we take the quarterbacks out of the equation (because they appear to be a special case and need qualities above and beyond the other positions in order to succeed), they are all fast (to varying degrees). As they say in the NFL, speed kills. Speed cannot be taught even though it can be enhanced to a degree. They are all strong and physical, which is necessary to stand up to the rigors of the NFL. (Aside from Harrison) They all have decent size for their position. Size does matter. So is that all? Size and speed? Not by a long shot. There is also ability, personality, opportunity and coaching to consider but it is a good starting point for the young players. There is something of an attractive size-speed ratio that I look for and it is different for each position. After that you have to watch to see how they mature physically and mentally. Remember, be patient. :

Special Players Make Special Plays
We cannot possibly watch all the football that is being played, college and NFL, during the season and preseason. So it would be difficult to form your own opinion about every player without those who are paid to exactly that, the scouts, writers and analysts. But when you do get a chance to watch, even if it is just Sportscenter, look for the players that consistently make the highlight reel because it is those players that consistently make the difficult a routine and the spectacular commonplace that display the most ability. It is these players that have the ability to dominate their opponents' week in and week out.

The best examples of this are (were) Barry Sanders and Michael Vick. They are both supernatural athletes who could fill the highlight reel every time they step onto the field. Because of this, they are also the most obvious examples.

Marshall Faulk is also one of the all-time greats with plenty of highlight material of his own, but what convinced me he was going to be special was the way the Colts used him in the preseason of his rookie season. They lined him up regularly as a WR. This is commonplace now for a RB to line up as a WR, but Faulk had the hands and speed such that he could have been a full-time WR, if he and the Colts wanted, but he had so much power and skill as a RB too.

Sometimes it is just a single play that defines a player and his abilities that sticks out. Last year in the preseason, there was a lot of hype surrounding Shockey, but when you saw him run over that poor Jacksonville safety and just demolish him, you saw some of his ability coupled with his nasty streak. This was the play that made me a believer. A similar play that stuck out in my mind that highlighted Dante Culpepper's special qualities was in the preseason before he was made the starter in his second year where he scrambled out of the pocket to his right and threw a 50 yard pass...on target...while two LB were draped over him...and falling out of bounds. While there are many strong armed QBs out there, there are very few with his combination of size, mobility and arm strength.

Back when McNabb was still playing at Syracuse as a sophomore, I believe, I remember watching one game where he had such a great play action fake that the whole defense bought it and he had a lifetime to stroll out of the backfield and leisurely pick out his receiver for a TD. What stuck out in my mind such that I still can see the play in my mind today is how he had the ball stuck out at a right angle from his body where it was very easy to see from the sideline camera, but no one on defense could seem to see it and he rolled in a very nonchalant manner. It was a simple play, but it grabbed my attention and I had to watch more. The more I watched, the more I saw how athletic he was. Something very few QBs could match, Elway and Vick are the only ones who come to my mind.

If you're in a dynasty league, all of those players are tucked safely away and so this analysis is not of much help. A more recent and relevant memory, also the most memorable moment from last year's college football season was how Leftwich was able to play even through the pain of a broken leg with the help of his linemen carrying him to the next play. This is not an indication of his ability to play. He obviously has the talent as he was drafted high in the first round. It is much more of an indication of his competitive fire and determination. We have since learned about his leadership and dedication. I firmly believe he will be the best QB in this crop of rookies.

Quarterbacks
I find the quarterback position one of the most difficult positions to evaluate rookies and first year players. In my defense, this is also where the NFL scouts seem to have the most difficulty as well considering the many, well documented, high first round QB busts. Difficulties include the mental aspects and intangibles of the position and the variety in which they can make plays from rushing to scrambling to passing to play calling, etc. For example, despite the obvious talent that Vick displayed coming out of college, there were many experts that thought Drew Brees, the second QB chosen in the 2001 draft, would be the better QB sooner because of the pro-type offense he ran at Purdue and many thought Vick was going to be too short to succeed as anything but a running QB.

Last year all of the top three QBs looked to be good prospects. All have strong arms and displayed ability. I still don't know who I would prefer of the three. The intriguing QB of the class is Josh McCown, who warming the bench is in Arizona. He has the speed, mobility and arm strength that reminds scouts of McNabb. He obviously is not McNabb or else he'd be competing for the starting position with Blake. But it's a player to keep your eye on as it sometimes takes several years for a QB to mature. Will he be a marquee QB that we're trying to identify? Probably not in Arizona, but it's possible that he could emerge a couple of years down the road.

In this year's draft everyone knows the top three prospects are Palmer, Leftwich and Boller. Who will be the best QB? While Palmer was the Hiesman winner and you've got to love Bollers' arm strength and athleticism, I've already said that I believe it will be Leftwich primarily because he has demonstrated the intangibles that are so important to the position. Many have compared him to Culpepper, but aside from size and arm strength, that's where the comparisons end. The player he of which reminds me the most is Drew Bledsoe, a big, tall strong armed pocket passer with great leadership. If they can place some talent around him, especially at WR, he'll be very good for a long time.

Looking forward there are two highly touted QBs that look to be at the top of their class for next year, Eli Manning, Miss and Ben Roethlisberger, Miami of Ohio. Both big, strong armed and talented QBs. Manning has been on people's radar because of his older brother Payton. Another sibling that might be good to keep your eye on is Marcus Vick a sophomore at Va Tech and little brother of Michael.

Running Backs
Running back is a much easier position to predict than all of the others because there is a much more direct transition to the pros from college. The most difficult skills a rookie RB must acquire are blocking and blitz pickup.

What I look for in a RB is a good size-speed ratio to make the big plays and take the pounding. Obviously they need to be elusive too. I look for RBs around 220 - 230 lbs and under 4.4 40 times. This is a bit restrictive and eliminates a number of good players, but it also eliminates those players that are destined to be 3rd down or goal-line backs and not the feature back who can take it all the way on any given play. Eliminating these players is not a bad thing. As you will see, there are a number of good backs that would be passed, but these numbers give the best opportunity to hit on a marquee RB, which is the most important in fantasy football. In the past, these players include Faulk, Williams, James, Taylor and Lewis. It eliminated a player like Dayne who was too big and slow and no surprise to me was a bust.

There were a number of very good prospects from the class of 2001 including Tomlinson and McAllister and a couple of backups to look at selecting this year in LaMont Jordan and Kevan Barlow. The ratio would have eliminated two pretty good backs in Bennett and Henry. This was a pretty deep RB year though and if you got Tomlinson or McAllister, I'm sure you would not mind missing out on either Bennett or Henry.

Last year was a bit weaker and the best prospect was DeShaun Foster, who I thought would have been huge, if it was not for the knee injury. If you have the opportunity, grab him. He appears to be recovering well and don't worry about Stephen Davis. Foster will shine one way or another, just like McAllister once Williams left for Miami. Unfortunately the ratio would have eliminated Portis who is a great back, but I was concerned about him being too small. Still I was tempted to draft him and had the opportunity to do so, but made a trade to acquire David Boston instead. You can see how that worked out for me. Duckett would have been eliminated as well even though his size-speed ratio was off the charts. You have to wonder how long he will retain that speed with the hits he will not be able to avoid. Still he could be the one doling out the punishment and be very successful. William Green was also eliminated because of his slow 40 times. He is starting to look like a very good back at the end of last season, but he will not achieve the elite status.

This year is a very weak RB class. The best prospect, Willis McGahee, may not even contribute this year and is playing behind another very good back. Even so, if you're in a dynasty league, he will likely be drafted early. The second best back is likely still under everyone's radar because he also had a knee injury and came out in the supplemental draft, Tony Hollings. I'm not completely sold on Hollings, but he has great upside and fits the ratio very well. If Houston can improve their OL, he could be an elite back as soon as next year. Lee Suggs was a player I was very high on until I saw that he was only 200 lbs. I concede that I miss on any number of players because they are around the same size. If Suggs landed in a better situation and was healthy, he could have been this year's Portis. Those are big ifs. The best healthy RB has got to be Justin Fargas. He is right about 220 and is the fastest back in the draft. He's currently backing up a very good, durable player in Charlie Garner, but don't let that deter you. If he cannot break through this season, Garner is 31 and is in the last year of his contract. He will likely be moving on after this season. At the worst, Fargas may have to sit for a season like McAllister did, but he'll explode after that. I rate Ontario Smith as the 5th best back in this year's class, but he looks to have the best opportunity to shine, but what will happen when Michael Bennett returns late this season or next?

Looking ahead again, the top name on the board has got to be Greg Jones at Florida State, but every year any number of backs comes out of nowhere to rise very high in the draft. Just keep your eyes open. Also keep an eye on the Maurice Clarett situation. He looks like the real deal and will likely come out early, but how early is an unknown at this time.

Wide Receivers
In the past I have not been very good at identifying WR early as evidenced by buying into the Peter Warrick hype. I have since gotten much better by applying a similar size-speed ratio as the RB, but height is figured into the size aspect. You want to look for WR who are over 6 feet tall, over 200 lbs and as fast as possible. You could go slightly under both the height and weight, but not by much. In the past this has led me to target players like Donte Stallworth, Koren Robinson, David Terrell, Jerry Porter, Antonio Bryant and Travis Taylor. Taylor and Terrell are obvious misses. I passed on players like Troy Brown, who is a heck of a player and as a Patriots fan, I'm happy to have him on my hometown team, but as good as he is, he's never going to be an elite WR. The ratio also led me to pass on Harrison, the most productive WR over the last 3 years, because he is too small. And Ashley Lelie was just too skinny, but in the offseason he bulked up some and is looking primed for a great career. I took a gamble on a borderline player in Gardner because he was extraordinarily strong for a WR, benching over 400 lbs, but in the end it looks like his lack of speed will limit him. He'll be a very good possession receiver, possibly a top 15 FF WR, but he will not be in the elite.

Looking at this years draft there are 4 WR that stand out to me as fitting the WR ratio and demonstrating ability. They are Charles Rogers, Andre Johnson, Tyrone Calico and Kelly Washington. Washington is an injury risk having a couple of vertebra fused and he's currently the #3 WR in Cincinnati. Neither are enviable conditions, but he is definitely a player to watch. The top three remind me of Moss, Boston and Owens respectively. I am especially taken with all of them and even though they are rookie WR, they are the three players I targeted in my dynasty draft this year. I managed to get Rogers and Calico and have been trying to pursue a trade for Johnson since, without much luck.

Roy Williams of Texas and Reggie Williams of Washington are players who fit the ratio and are highly touted WR who are expected to be in next year's draft. Mike Williams is a sophomore at USC who broke the NCAA freshman record for receiving yards and tied the freshman record for receiving TDs held by Jabar Gafney with 81/1265/14. Definitely keep an eye on him.

Tight Ends
This is the first season our dynasty league has required a TE and so I have not much practice selecting TE, but looking at the big three, they all have speed and almost identical size at 6' 4-5" and 250 lbs. The size that they have allows them to dominate a safety physically and the speed allows them to separate from the LB. No matter what the match up, they cause a mismatch. They are in the mold of Shannon Sharpe who changed the TE position with his speed and athleticism. All 4 demonstrate the athleticism that is rare for a player that big. Athleticism is the keyword you look for in the draft analysis, pass catching, jumping and speed.

Obviously Shockey was the crème of the crop last year, but the class included a couple of pretty good second tier players in Randy McMichael and Doug Jolley while Daniel Graham and Jerramy Stevens that could add their names to the elite. If Stevens can get his head on straight, he could be very good. He's huge at 6' 7"and 265 and while he's not as athletic as the big three, he is no slouch. His size should present a red zone problem for every defense.

This year, while it does not appear to have any immediate elite TE like Shockey, it could be a much deeper group with Dallas Clark, Jason Whitten, Bennie Joppru, LJ Smith and Vishante Shiancoe. Aside from Joppru, who is a bit larger, all are 6' 3-4" and around 250. All have good athleticism and decent speed for a TE, but will any be an elite TE? I have no idea. In fact the whole TE class is very similar; you have to look closely to identify the one who is special. The TE who sticks out in my mind is Teyo Johnson. At 6' 5" and 250, he played WR at Stanford where he also played on the basketball team. This simple statement is loaded with information. He is obviously very intelligent going to Stanford and he is obviously very athletic to play Division 1 basketball in addition to football. The fact that he played WR at that size indicates that he has good hands. To top it off, they're raving about him in Oakland. Despite having a decent young TE in Jolley, they want to get the ball into Johnson's hands as much as possible, which may be difficult considering how many good offensive players they have there. They are indicating that they will line him up as an H-back, fullback and WR in addition to TE in an attempt to get him on the field. The comments are that he's going to revolutionize the position. I don't know whether I believe that hype, but they are obviously excited about him in Raider-land.

Next year there is one and only one TE to consider, Kellen Winslow Jr. out of Miami. He's supposed to be the real deal. The one thing that concerns me is his size. He's listed as 6' 5", but only 233. While there are other TEs to consider, Winslow is poised to make an even bigger splash than Shockey, if you choose to believe the hype.

Kickers
In dynasty leagues, you get to keep all of your players, including the kicker. In all other leagues the kicker is an afterthought. In a dynasty league, it is only a little less so because if your kicker is not working out, you can always pick up another. The thing to look for is a kicker on a high power offense like NO, Indy or Oakland. You also want a strong leg to make those long field goals. So players like Elam, Vanderjagt and Janikowski are the kickers to target, but you generally do not rely on a rookie kicker. You wait for a kicker to establish himself and when you're in need of a change or plan for one, you can generally choose form a couple of second or third year kickers. One rule though, never carry more than one kicker, except as a bye week fill-in and especially do not carry more than one kicker from one season to the next. It is a waste of a roster spot that could be used on a prospect that might emerge in the offseason

Defenses
Defenses in a dynasty league are very tricky as there are so many players that impact the defensive performance as a whole. Any drop-off by a key player can dramatically impact the D as a whole. In addition injuries and offseason transactions via the draft and free agency can transform the group positively or negatively. Factor in coaching or scheme changes and it makes choosing a D for the next 3-5 years that much more difficult than just for the single season as in a redraft or keeper league. I like to look at the individual players and their amazing abilities and physical attributes such as Urlacher, Arrington, Bailey, Woodson, Archuleta and Kearse, but one or two player's abilities, no matter how amazing, generally do not directly lead to the collective unit's results. It appears that a coach has a far greater impact than a single player. So target the defensive minded coaches such as Dungy in Indianapolis and Marvin Lewis in Cincinnati and John Fox in Carolina or where these coaches' legacy may still be in effect such as Baltimore, Giants or Tampa Bay.

Misses
Unfortunately my size-speed ratio theory is not perfect as you will have noticed from the long list of players I indicated that I passed on as well as the even longer list of players that fit the mold, but did not pan out. No system will be perfect, but I believe the size-speed ratio is a good way to weed out those players that will never become a marquee player and increase the success rate. Like any tool or stat, you should use it as another data point in making up your own mind.

Good luck and happy hunting.