No matter what you think of Matt Forte’s fantasy prospects for the coming season, he seems excited for it to get here.

The Bears’ second-year running back will be one of seven NFLers in this year’s incarnation of the fantasy competition put on by NFL Players, the marketing and business arm of the players association.

“I plan on going all-in,” Forte said in an interview with Mark Donnelly of NFLPlayers.com. “This is my first time so I have to get the full experience. I think I have a lot of spare time to do some things. I plan on doing all that fantasy stuff after practice. I think I’m going to get hooked and start playing every year.”

Forte said he got some pointers from friend and Jacksonville running back Maurice Jones-Drew, whom he said plays “a lot” of fantasy football. Forte must be catching on quickly, though, because he also said he doesn’t trust the advice of a fellow fantasy player. (Jones-Drew competed in the 2008 edition.)

The competition pits seven football players — Ronnie Brown (Miami), Robbie Gould (Chicago), Leon Washington (N.Y. Jets), DeAngelo Williams (Carolina), Roy Williams (Dallas) and 2008 champ Cato June (Houston), along with Forte — and one contest winner against each other. This is the first time in the three years of the production that a non-NFL participant has been welcomed.

Roy Williams happens to be a fantasy veteran, though he’ll have to hope he learned his lesson last time. The receiver finished last in the NFL Players league’s inaugural season in 2007.

“Consistency is the key and I didn’t have it,” Williams said of his loss, in an interview with NFLPlayers.com. “It’s very hard to put your lineup together when you’re trying to guess and sometimes I caught myself guessing a lot of weeks.”

(If he’s looking for consistency, let’s hope he’s not relying on himself at receiver.)

It’s nice that this event gives a taste of the fantasy game to actual players, who might otherwise just know fantasy as the only thing that fans seem to ask them about these days. We’ll try to keep an eye on who comes out on top this time around.

Tags: cato june, chicago bears, deangelo williams, fantasy football, fantasy sports, fantasy sports business, fantasy sports industry, leon washington, matt forte, maurice jones-drew, nfl players, robbie gould, roy williams

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