Week 13 Watch List: For also-rans, time to prep for next year is now

It is a sad reality: More than half of the fantasy football teams are setting their last lineups of the season this weekend. Man, the NFL season just flies by. The playoffs are cutting the active pool in half, or more, and most of the remaining fantasy teams have loaded lineups with nice problems: Too many good players to choose from.

For those fortunate ones, there is hardly anything new to tell them by now. For the rest of us, it is wait until next year, like the Cubs (or the Browns, if you want to keep it to football).

Well, let's change those fortunes for 2012 by helping you get prepared early, non-lockout style. Use these coming weeks to formulate your rankings for next August's drafts, or alter your keeper decisions. You know you're going to be watching football anyway; you might as well take notes along the way.

This week's Weekend Watch List will begin our looks at the early 2012 rankings, starting with the highest-scoring position: quarterback. We will leave out next year's draftees for argument's sake, because they won't affect keeper decisions.

Eric Mack writes fantasy for SI.com, including the Start 'Em, Sit 'Em, the Weekend Fantasy Watch List and his Sunday night staple: Fantasy Football Fast Forward. If you need a further clarification on lineups this week hit him up on Twitter. You can mock him, rip him and (doubtful) praise him before asking him for fantasy advice @EricMackFantasy.