By Jeff
I've caved. Like so many other blogs and fantasy sports sites, I'm posting a link to a recent fantasy football draft.
The league is a 14-team, Point-Per-Reception league. We also only give one point for sacks. I think that's all you need to know to have some idea as to why we all did what we did.
Blog contributors Mike (Anatomical Snuffbox), Greg (Tool Time) and Joe (99 Problems) were in the draft. My team is Cooler Kings.
You can look at the draft results here.
I'm not going to call out others for good picks or mistakes I think they made. They probably had their reasons for who they picked, and I have no room to make fun when I have been in a fantasy drought for about two years.
I can comment on my own draft, though.
Originally, I planned on having the No. 8 pick, so Frank Gore, Randy Moss and Steven Jackson were all on my radar. But Fun Bags was late to register and our draft order reset, giving me No. 11. I figured all the elite running backs would be gone, and they were, so I went receiver heavy. Looking back, I may have gone with Wes Welker or even Dwayne Bowe before Steve Smith, but I'm not sold on Welker being 100 percent.
My running backs could suck. Matt Forte and Jahvid Best have potential to excel in a PPR league, but they are on bad teams and could leave me screwed. If that does happen, I'll have to trade one of my receivers.
The rest of my draft is boring. I missed out on the top quarterbacks and had to settle for a Matt Ryan-Kyle Orton combo. Looking back, I could have waited and grabbed another running back or receiver. Ryan and Orton are going to put up solid numbers, but they are going to be similar. I got Orton five rounds later. Oh well.
My favorite pick was Bernard Berrian. With Sydney Rice out for at least half the season, Berrian could become Brett Favre's favorite deep threat. The again, Favre tends to pick one guy and focus on him. If that target isn't Berrian, he may settle for another mediocre season.
I ask Greg and Mike to share their strategies and thoughts on their own drafts. Joe was on auto-pick. The rest of you may feel free to make fun of us and tell us how you would do things differently. I encourage you to give Mike a hard time for taking Sidney Rice in the fifth round.
The Beatles - Ticket to Ride
It's Sidney with an I. Jagoff.
ReplyDeleteI'll try to put something quick together Saturday or Sunday morning.
Don't blame me for being late to register for the draft - that was Phil that caused our draft order to get reset
ReplyDeleteI am used to using a "Y" because of my parents' dog.
ReplyDeleteJake, I apologize. I meant to say Fun Bags.
I know why you're spelling it that way but doesn't make it right/OK.
ReplyDeleteFrom now on I'm spelling your name Geoff because of the Toys R Us giraffe.
I don't remember calling out typos in your posts. Don't be mad at me because you drafted a guy that will miss at least half the season.
ReplyDeleteCare to share any of your draft thoughts?
Wow my bad I interpreted your response as "this is why I'm stickng with this spelling". That and I really wanted to make a Geoff the giraffe reference.
ReplyDeleteI'll put one together when I'm outside of school and the fantasy website isn't blocked.
I still like the Geoffrey reference Zanic. I can see how it would seem a little threatening to Rickel, but I got a good laugh out of it.
ReplyDeleteI have a lot of thoughts on the draft, so I apologize in advance for the post length comment.
Definitely pissed at Phil for the curve ball 30 minutes before the draft. I was supposed to have the 11 spot and my plan would have worked perfectly (assuming people drafted similarly when shifting the order around). I wanted to go...RD 1: Aaron Rodgers, RD 2: Wide Receiver (Brandon Marshall, Roddy White, or Calvin Johnson were on my radar), RD 3: Arian Foster, RD 4: Pierre Garcon.
Brandon Marshall was taken in round one, which is understandable because he'll dominate in PPR. Other than that, all of the players that I wanted were available. I really can't believe Aaron Rodgers lasted until the 19th pick. He was the highest point scorer last year and I think he'll be even better this year. In fact, I was considering taking him with the #5 overall pick because I thought all the good quarterbacks would be gone by the time it got back to me, but it was just too early to pick a quarterback.
My actual draft with the #5 pick went like this...
RD 1: Andre Johnson - He's such a beast. I strongly thought about picking Frank Gore but I have no regrets about this pick.
RD 2: Marques Colston - Peyton Manning almost fell to me, but when he went the pick before me I knew that Colston was my guy. Ryan Grant tempted me a little bit, but the running back category is really deep so I decided to wait on them. With Brady, Romo, and Rivers all available I knew that one of them would come back in the third round and I had them all ranked in the same tier.
RD 3: Phillip Rivers - Can't complain. The last two years I've made the playoffs and each year I had a stud quarterback (Brees in 2008 and Rodgers in 2009). I hate taking chances on middle tier guys like Kevin Kolb and Joe Flacco, although I think they'll both be really good this year.
Felix Jones (RD 4) is probably my most so-so pick. Arian Foster went two picks before me and I was completely stunned. My logic behind picking Jones was that I had him last year he sucked, so usually those guys come back big for someone else. I'm really happy with my Brent Celek (RD 5) and Ahmad Bradshaw (RD 6) picks. Terrell Owens (RD 7) is a question mark, but I've never had him so I figured now is the time. I'm pretty happy with having TO as my WR3. Julian Edelman (RD 10) and Davone Bess (RD 12) should be money in PPR if they get enough playing time. Zach Miller (RD 11) should be good trade bait or even a guy I can rely on and put Brent Celek on the block. If Jason Campbell can put together a decent year, I think that will turn out to be my best late round pick. For my bench running backs I like how two of them are backing up rookies (Darren Sproles and Kevin Smith), one is backing up a injury prone workhorse (Jason Snelling), and one is an handcuff for my own back (Tashard Choice).
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ReplyDeleteGreg, I think you should trade for Marion Barber. That way you will have all three Dallas running backs. If only we had a flex position. Then you could start all three!
ReplyDeleteAre we ready to call Michael Turner injury prone? Two seasons as a starter and he got hurt in one of them. I think the jury is still out there.
I strongly considered picking Barber, but that would be silly. However, if he has the best season of all three I will be pretty pissed.
ReplyDeleteIt felt weird to call Turner injury prone because he really doesn't have a track record like a Westbrook that can be tagged with that label with no problem. I just remember the fantasy magazines making a huge deal out of "the curse of 370," referring to guys that carry the ball 370+ times in a season. I'm sure you're familiar with it, but here's a link anyway.
http://sports.espn.go.com/fantasy/football/ffl/story?page=nfldk2k10curseof370
I'm not too worried about Turner this year. He is a year removed from that dreaded 370 carries.
ReplyDeleteI pose this question to you. Why are only carries considered to be the curse? Why not total touches? Chris Johnson had 358 carries last year, but 50 receptions. That's 408 touches, yet no one is shying away from the speedster.
Very good point. I was actually going to mention Chris Johnson and how no one is afraid of the work load that he had last year, but stopped myself once I saw he didn't fall into the 370+ carry category. His 408 touches is definitely a lot, more than Turner had (382) in 2008.
ReplyDeleteI think the one thing that CJ has going for him is his age. The amount of touches that him and Turner had up until their big years is actually very similar.
Chris Johnson (2009): 2nd year in the league, 23 years old, 294 touches to that point
Michael Turner (2008): 5th year in the league, 26 years old, 239 touches to that point
This reminded me...there was an excellent article in SI last week. If anyone is interested in the new era of running backs, it was a great read.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1173395/index.htm
For our med school student, you should enjoy this one if you have time over the weekend. This is part three of the same series dedicated to the wear and tear a running back endures. It's about Gale Sayers and the ridiculous ACL and MCL surgeries they were attempting in the 1960's.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1173398/index.htm