Although the NFL has become a pass dominated league, fantasy football is still run by the RB's.

You will probably see a few more of the QB's break the overall Top 10, but none have cracked my Top 5 for 2010.

I will throw out this disclaimer, this list does not represent heavily weighted passing leagues.  For example, if your league gives 6 points per passing TD instead of 4, the list would be a little different.  My Top 5 would include Peyton Manning for this upcoming fantasy season. 

For all intent and purposes this Top 5 represents a balanced fantasy football scoring system with points given to passing and rushing.

Without further adieu here is my 2010 mock Top 5 Fantasy Players:

1.  Chris Johnson - Only the sixth player ever to reach 2,000 rushing yards in a season.  The Titans offense will only get better, and Johnson is a young player who has yet to reach his prime.

2.  MJD (Maurice Jones-Drew) - MJD remains one of only a handful of RB's to handle almost the entire load of carries for their team.  MJD had a slow start to the 2009 season but ended strongly with nearly 1,391 rushing yards and 16 total TD's.

3.  Adrian Peterson - AP or AD whatever you want to call him will take a small dive in rankings this year mainly due to his fumbilitis issues.  These issues were magnified on a global scale in the NFC Championship game where Peterson could have been considered the reason the Vikings aren't playing for a Super Bowl title.  Some say AP is already past his prime having been used too much in short career.  Regardless, if AP was any other running back he wouldn't be the starting RB on any team with the amount of fumbles he loses.  If Favre doesn't comeback, AP will lose a lot of TD's next year, although his yards will probably increase.

4.  Jamaal Charles - A bit of a surprise here if you weren't following Chiefs football last year, which lets face it, none of you were.  However, the numbers don't lie.  Charles really only played half of the season.  He got the start only after Larry Johnson was released and picked up by the Bengals.  He racked up 1,120 rushing yards with 8 total TD's on the year with only starting the last nine games of the season.  More notably he ended the season with four straight 100+ yard games inlcuding a 259 yard, 2 TD effort at Denver in week 17.  Perhaps, the most telling stat of all was his 5.9 yards per carry average.  He averaged almost 6 yards per carry behind a weak Chiefs' line which will improve by next year.  He has Chris Johnson break away speed and is playing on a team and an offense that can only get better especially with the addition of Charlie Weis as Offensive Coordinator.

5.  Ray Rice - Reminds a lot of people of Emmitt Smith.  Shifty, stocky runnner who doesn't have break away speed but always finds the hole.  He has taken the reigns from Willis McGahee and should keep fantasy owners happy next year not only on the ground, but by being a heavy part of the Ravens passing game.  Rice had 1,339 rushing yards in 2009 but also had 702 yards receiving. 


As you can see, I don't think it's ever too early to start thinking about fantasy football.  With that in mind, you may even want to start thinking about your draft party next year.

If you've never been a part of a 'live' in-person draft I highly suggest it.  Although it's fun and more convenient to draft online, having the draft in-person adds another element of pressure to the mix. 

If you like to keep your draft party as authenticate as possible you may want to start looking into actual fantasy football draft boards. 

I do want to mention that this is a plug, but as far as draft boards go, our friends at Fantasy Sports Trophies have exactly what you will want for any of your draft board needs.  We have a partnership with them and we stand by their product.

So, keep them in mind for next year, because if history is an indicator most of us will wait until the last second to set up our drafts as commissioners.  And rest assure that these draft boards have as little of turn around time as 24 hours. 

So there you go, a little teaser heading into the 2010 Fantasy football season.  If you disagree with my Top 5, let me know who you think deserves to be in the Top 5 and why.