Perhaps I should have titled that "Help!!". I've never played fantasy football, but I've had an increasing interest the last few years. Last night, I decided to investigate all the details, but ended up accidentally joining a league. How does one accidentally join a league? Go to nfl.com and investigate the draft lobby. Once you click on the lobby, you are automatically placed in a queue to begin drafting immediately for a standard league. I was the tenth person in the queue, and blam - draft begins. When it happened I thought, "Whoops - oh well, I hadn't really planned on playing this year anyway." I just let it auto pick for me, figuring I probably wouldn't even follow it through the season.

Out of curiosity, I checked out my team today. It turns out it's not a complete nightmare, so now I think I'll go ahead and try this thing. Here's the roster that was auto-picked for me:

starters:
QB: Peyton Manning (bwaaahahahahahaha!)
RB: Chris Johnson (nice! 4th pick overall)
RB: Michael Turner (stomach turning, but I suppose he'll be productive)
RB: Matt Forte
WR: Dwayne Bowe
WR: Wes Welker
TE: Vernon Davis
K: Stephen Gostkowski
DEF: Chicago Bears

bench:
QB: Matt Cassel
RB: Brandon Jacobs
RB: Mike Tolbert
RB: Jonathon Stewart
WR: Deion Branch
WR: Roy Williams (really? really?)

Needless-to-say, I got hosed with the QBs. Clearly the system went crazy with the RBs. Drew Brees was drafted (by my week 1 opponent no less) right after Turner. Arrgh. My WRs aren't horrible, but I definitely feel like I need an upgrade.

Naturally, my first move was to put Cassel in the starting lineup in place of Manning. I also have tentatively replaced Forte with Jacobs for this week. Then I put in a couple of waiver claims - Malcolm Floyd to replace Roy Williams, and Houston's defense for Jonathon Stewart. That second claim is mainly for this weekend - Houston's D should have a good day, and the Bears, while good in general, are going to be pushed hard by the Falcons. Depending on how well the Texans' D plays this week, I may keep them around for a while.

Obviously, I need to do something about QB, at least in the short term. The problem is that the best QBs available on waivers are Orton and Hasselbeck, neither of which is much of an upgrade over Cassel. So, my question to the local FF experts is this - what kind of trade would you suggest to help out my QB situation? I don't really know how FF gurus value trades. I'm thinking something like Michael Turner and Deion Branch for a very good FF QB, someone like Roethlisberger or Romo. I'd even consider moving Dwayne Bowe + a bench player for a really good QB. There's several good but not great WRs still available to replace Bowe, at least a few of whom could have surprisingly good seasons, notably Donald Driver. Honestly, though, I'd really like to trade Turner so I can avoid the horrible conflict of interest inherent in having such a prominent Falcons player on my roster.

I'm also thinking of replacing Vernon Davis. There's quite a few good TEs still available, including Shiancoe. I think Davis is one of the best TEs in the league, but given that he's playing for the 49ers with Alex Smith throwing to him, I'm not exactly optimistic about his FF value. McNabb to Shiancoe seems like a better bet, especially when looking at the Vikings WRs. Todd Heap, Aaron Hernandez, Jermaine Gresham, and Greg Olsen are also available.

So, what do you FF gurus think? Any suggestions, or should I just go with my initial thoughts last night and not bother even trying to compete with this team?