I still haven’t found any new fantasy football magazines at any stores, but the trusty folks at Fantasy Sports came through when the current issue — devoted just to football — arrived in my mailbox today. I’ve been sneaking peeks at it all day, and though I’m glad it arrived and usually trust Fantasy Sports as a reliable source of fantasy info, I am puzzled by some of its forecasts:

— Tom Brady is not their No. 1 overall pick. In fact, he’s down at No. 8. He only had the greatest fantasy season ever. Granted, he might not repeat the feats of last year, but he still seems the closest thing to a sure bet week after week that you’ll find this year. Is Fantasy Sports simply too running back-centric? They do admit the core of RBs is deep this year, so why brush Brady off to the mid-to-late first round?

— Frank Gore is the No. 6 pick overall! Obviously FS thinks Gore will rebound in 2008, but would you seriously draft Gore ahead of Brady? Or Larry Johnson? Or the next six running backs? The magazine points to how Gore came along at the end of the 2007 season, but that was at the end of a season of infuriating fantasy owners.

— Ronnie Brown as the No. 19 RB. Yes, an injury did end his season early, but he was putting up big numbers before then.

— Willie Parker as the No. 24 RB. His lack of TDs hurt, as did the fumble-itis, but he still rushed for 1,316 yards in 15 games. Yes, the Steelers drafted Rashard Mendenhall, but will he cut into Parker’s carries that much?

For the record, Fantasy Sports is an awesome fantasy magazine, and it’s great that I’ll see another issue of it before August with updated info. When I see puzzling things like this, I wonder if I was simply off-kilter in my initial rankings (which I purposely compiled without consulting too many other sources). I’m sure I was — I probably like Parker, for example, more than the majority of fantasy owners. But some of my predictions I’ll stand by, too (there is no way I would ever draft Gore in the first round). That’s why I like consulting several sources when amassing my draft research. Every source might have its own biases, its own brilliant moments, its own “what the hell” predictions. With multiple sources including my own rankings, at least you can identify some consensus