With the arrival of summer, we are treated with warm weather, vacations, and football.

July marks the beginning of NFL Training camps, which in turn signals the start to the 2008 Fantasy Football season.

It’s never too early to start looking at those depth charts, cheat sheets, and magazines.

With all that info floating about, there will no doubt be many, many debates over a few drinks as to whom will be taken with the #1 pick.

Conventional fantasy wisdom says, “Take the running back with your first 2 picks. There aren’t many of them so stockpile while you can.”

If you follow this basic strategy, then you come to the debate of, Which Running Back should be the #1 pick? LT or AP?

You can never go wrong with LT. He never gets hurt and always produces. But he’s getting to that point in his career when you wonder when the production starts to slow. Even if his production slows, it will still be better than 95% of the backs in the league. When will his age and wear and tear show on his body? Well at the end of last season, when he was unable to play in the AFC Championship because of injuries could be a worrisome revelation. Also Michael Turner is off to Atlanta, so without a viable backup, how cautious are the Chargers with the number of carries and the workload LT must shoulder?

OR

You can go with AP. The heir apparent to LT’s fantasy throne. The question is when will he grab the reins, and when he does grab those reins will he hurt his shoulder trying to hold on. The knock on AP has always been his durability. In college he was hurt. Last season he was hurt, so who’s to say how well his body will handle Year 2. Granted if he stays healthy the rewards you will get from this guy will be worth all the risk.

OR

You can throw that RB wisdom out of the window and draft Tom Brady

A QB at #1? WHAT?

Why Not?

If there was a single fantasy owner out there with Brady last season and didn’t make the playoffs, I would like to know who you are.

50 TDs, 4000+ YDS, what more do you want.

If you nab Brady you know what you will get. A complete season, 30+ TDs and 4000 YDS. He still has Moss, he still has Welker, so he will still have the numbers.

BREAKDOWN

If you are in a 6 point per passing TD league then say Brady gets 20 less TDs than last year. So 30 × 6 = 180. No Running back will be getting you 30 TDs. So you have already made out on top. Add on the passing yards, and the occasional trot into the endzone and you have a point machine.

This years running back draft is deep. If you look at the rankings Willie Parker, who before breaking his leg last year was the NFL’s leading rusher, is ranked in the 20s. A deep class this season.

With QBs there aren’t too many elite ones. You don’t want to be stuck down the road banking on a Jason Campbell or Jake Delhomme to lead your playoff push do you?

Anyways take Brady, make it to the playoffs, and once you make it there, then anything can happen.