Fantasy football is about more than just statistics and projections. While raw data about the players' anticipated on-field performance is useful and can help us on draft day in the selection process (once compiled and sorted), it doesn't paint the whole picture. Beyond what happens on game-day, we need to remember that players are members of a team - a political structure composed of human beings, with a dictator the top of the heap (usually the head coach). In addition, each player has behavioral/mental dimensions that may affect the level of success he achieves in the course of any given NFL season. In order for your fantasy franchise to triumph during any given season, you need to manage the "intangible" risks that have bearing on your players' chances for success.

What kind of risks can drag down your franchise's players? The list includes (but is not limited to): Chronic Injury; Attitude Problems; Coach's Doghouse (includes holdouts); Positional Battles (including the dreaded by-committee specter); Switching to a New Team; New Coaching Staff on Players' Team; Offensive Line Problems; Off Field Problems (Reported Substance Abuse/Legal Issues/League Suspensions); and finally, Drafting Too Many Players from One Team.

Many times the mantra "you can't predict injuries" is repeated in fantasy circles - and in some cases, perhaps most cases, this is true. However, certain types of injuries - the "chronic" or "degenerative" injury - are definitely the sort of condition that a fantasy owner can rely on to manifest at some point in the season. For example, elbow tendonitis in a quarterback's throwing arm. Tendons don't heal up very well, because they don't get much blood flow - once they are damaged, a player needs to turn to pain management techniques precisely because the condition isn't likely to be reversed. Ex-Brown Tim Couch is an example of a player who never reached his potential due to elbow problems of this sort. Another example would be degenerative cartilage damage in the knees. Once cartilage is worn away from a player's knee, the bones impact on each other during each stride, which causes chronic swelling, pain, and the need for "drainage". The Jets' Curtis Martin is a player who is struggling with this very issue entering 2006 - bone-on-bone contact in his right knee - he ended up last season on IR with multiple bone chips jammed into the knee joint due to the wear and tear on his knee joints. If you draft a player with a known chronic condition, you'll want to also draft his backup as well, if possible.

Attitude problems are another factor which can negatively impact a player's production - they can lead to sloppy practice habits, mental lapses during games, problems with teammates, or confrontations with the coaching staff. As we discussed at the top, a football team is a political entity - if a player becomes a "locker-room cancer", then the coaching staff might decide to put him in the doghouse ("Grab a piece of the bench and shut-up!"). Attitude problems don't always send a player to the doghouse, but they will help him on the way there. Chicago's Cedric Benson has struggled with attitude problems this year (he left the sidelines of the 2nd preseason game early, and missed a team meeting after the game). Benson's teammates reportedly did not appreciate his lack of team spirit, which could lead to more issues down the road. Raider Jerry Porter has landed in Art Shell's doghouse due to attitude issues (he demanded a trade out of Oakland earlier this year), as another example.

Of course, attitude problems aren't the only way to get in the coaches' doghouse. Another tried and true method of reducing one's playing time in the NFL is to holdout during mini- and training camp practices, or a large portion of them. At the least, a holdout will usually lead a player to a poor start, and some coaches believe that missing a large part of preseason camp practice makes players more likely to suffer serious injury, because the holdout often isn't at the same level of condition as players who have been participating in the full slate of practices. Also, at the NFL level timing is a crucial factor in most offenses, and "getting up to speed" requires many repetitions - which a holdout will lack in proportion to the length of their absence from the team. Chicago's Thomas Jones skipped offseason team activities and mini-camps, and then pulled his hamstring during required sprints while completing his physical before training camp opened. Jones has yet to appear in a preseason game as a result of the hamstring injury.

Positional battles are another pitfall that can reduce a player's fantasy worth. NFL teams are constantly on the hunt for bigger, better, faster players - that's what the draft is all about - and guys who didn't look very good as rookies (especially at WR) often blossom in their second or third season, and rise up to challenge an established veteran. Knowing the quality of the back-up players on the various teams will help you assess the likelihood that a veteran player may be becoming "yesterday's news". The Kevan Barlow/Frank Gore contest during training camp this year (which just ended with Barlow being dealt to the Jets) is a prime example of such a contest playing itself out. If you are banking on a veteran who is looking over his shoulder (Deuce McAllister/Reggie Bush, as another example), you'd be wise to have a plan B in case the veteran ends up on the bench.

In the era of free agency, players are in constant motion among the NFL teams. Big contracts get paid out to unrestricted free agents every offseason, and some of the moves are positive - but others just don't work out. Especially when a player is not only switching teams, but also offensive systems, there can be a negative impact on the player's fantasy value. When a big-name guy switches teams, pay particular attention to how he looks in training camp and preseason games - while the preseason games are played against vanilla defensive schemes and, for starters, only small amounts of game-time, if a player is lost with his new team, you'll see it manifest as bad routes, dropped passes, and etc. Terrell Owens' ongoing hamstring injury woes are just one reason to worry about his fantasy production this year - as coach Parcells has pointed out, Dallas runs a different offense than the one that Owens was familiar with in San Francisco and Philadelphia. With Owens missing the bulk of training camp and the first two preseason games, he is behind the learning curve vs. team mates like Terry Glenn.

Sometimes, the players don't leave a team - instead, some or all of the coaching staff is replaced. For example, Oakland is undergoing a top-to-bottom recreation of the coaching staff. There is friction between Art Shell and Jerry Porter (as noted above), and the team as a whole has been pretty lackluster during their early preseason games. Team chemistry is a delicate balance - something which is hard to create during just one training camp.

Offensive line problems are an insidious factor, because cohesiveness of the entire unit is essential for solid line play. Line play is what opens holes for running backs to exploit and provides the time necessary for passing plays to develop. If a team has a lot of quality OL players who miss time in camp due to a plague of minor injuries, the "quality" unit may play worse than another team's unit of average OL players who enjoy lots of repetitions in camp. Therefore, it is worth your while as a fantasy owner to monitor the relative healthiness of the 32 OL units across the NFL in the days leading up to your fantasy draft, and to pay attention to it as the season progresses. Cleveland's nightmare at the center position early in training camp, losing LeCharles Bentley (season ending knee injury the first day of camp), Bob Hallen (abrupt retirement), and then (very probably) Alonzo Ephraim (pending suspension for league substance abuse violations) is an example of a team with OL issues. Their depth is suspect, too, as rookie C Rob Smith has been struggling with a high ankle sprain - if new C Ross Tucker can't go on any given game-day, the Browns will have a heap of trouble on their plate.

Off-field problems can lead to league suspensions, which vary in length from 4 games to entire seasons - in extreme circumstances, a player can even be banned from the NFL for life. If a player has had a series of run-ins with law enforcement, or has a history of substance-abuse problems, that player is a higher risk for suspension than better-behaved professional athletes (although sometimes even "nice" guys can give you a nasty surprise). Koren Robinson's ongoing problems with alcohol and alcohol related offenses appear to have derailed his career again, after a feel-good Pro-Bowl appearance as a returner last year. He appears headed to at least a one-year suspension from the NFL after his most recent alcohol-related arrest (exceeding 100 MPH in a 55 MPH zone; driving under the influence of alcohol; and perhaps a felony count of fleeing arrest). Cincinnati's Chris Henry has a DUI case pending against him, a probable 4 game suspension after that, and two other criminal charges in two other states also pending (a concealed weapons charge in Florida, and a count of providing alcohol to underage girls in Kentucky).

Finally, sometimes fantasy owners are big fans of a particular NFL team, and they fill up their roster with lots of players from that team. This obviously leads to big problems on that teams' bye-week - but there are other problems, too. Almost every NFL team has games during the season where things just don't go right, and the offense stalls. Maybe they are playing in a torrential downpour, or dealing with the arctic cold of Lambeau field in the winter. Anyway, a fantasy team that relies heavily on one NFL team will suffer a similar "power-outage". Also, relying heavily on just one NFL team means that any OL problems the team suffers during the course of the season will be very damaging to the fantasy squad. The Houston Texans have been miserable in this department during 3 of the last 4 seasons (68 sacks allowed during 2005, despite a "max-protect" scheme), and David Carr and the Texan's receiving corps have suffered in terms of fantasy production due to all of the sacks/quarterback knockdowns allowed by the Texans.

So, how do we translate all these possible risk factors into a tool that you can use on draft day? A common approach is to include a column on your draft sheet that says "Injury Risk" or simply "?". The more negative qualitative factors you believe a player has against him, the more ? marks accumulate in that column. Then, when you are debating between two or three players during the draft, you can help break ties in projected point value by referring to a player's potential risk level.

Evaluating each player on your draft list in terms of "risk" will help you to draft the most consistent and solid fantasy football team around. Simply being able to break numerical ties on the basis of your risk analysis will make your entire mid-to-late round efforts easier - it's worth the investment of time and effort. Happy Drafting!