Fantasy Football Content

Sorry, no poker content in this post except a congrats to Jamyhawk for what I think is his biggest score yet. Well done sir!

I had the first of my three FF drafts, this one being the $100 league I've played in for years. There aren't too many old-timers left in this one, just me, the commish & two others, but most everyone else has been around for about two years.

What I love about this league is that it's fairly active but most of the people are clueless when it comes to FF drafts. For example, some of the highlights this year were:

- Reggie Bush going at the No. 7 pick overall
- David Garrard going in the 4th round (and the No. 6 QB overall)
- My favorite pick: Travis Henry going in the 7th round
- The first K was drafted in the 9th round (Gostkowski) and four were gone by the 12th round

I ended up with the two spot out of 10 teams and surprised a lot of people when I chose Westbrook over Adrian Peterson. I think it's a no-brainer; Westbrook may not put up 40 point weeks as often as AP but he also won't give you as many 6 point weeks either. He's a high scorer AND he's consistent, which is exactly what you want from your first pick. In fact, I would probably take Addai over AP as well.

I changed up my draft strategy from last year a bit as the whole idea of going RB-RB the first two rounds isn't necessarily the standard anymore. For someone with my draft position, the difference in quality between a RB in the 2nd round & one in the 3rd or 4th round isn't as big as it used to be. Instead, I focused on trying to get as many elite players as I could. When it came back to me in Round 2, 3 receivers were gone: Edwards, Moss, and Owens (in that order too). With Reggie Wayne the only other elite WR left, I took him with my eyes on Willie Parker in the 3rd.

The only other person ahead of me was thinking the same & grabbed Parker before my turn in the 3rd round. There weren't many No. 2 RBs that I wanted to take (McGahee, J. Lewis, T. Jones, Jacobs, McFadden). There were still some quality WRs left, but there was only one elite player left: Mr. Jessica Simpson himself, Tony Romo. So with my first three picks, I got a Top-3 RB, a Top-3 WR, and a Top-3 QB. So far, so good.

Rounds 4-6 saw a couple players drop much further than they should have & right into my lap: Holt, Maroney, and T. Jones. Each one of those players have some question marks, but as proven starters, they were great value for the No. 2 spots on my team. I had a brain fart in Round 7 and took Julius Jones way too early, especially with Selvon Young & Kevin Smith (and Travis Henry) still on the board. I could have waited on him but I wasn't paying attention.

Rounds 8-11 started seeing a run on Defenses, but they were still going way too early. I was hoping Jacksonville would fall to me in the 12th but they were taken the pick right before mine. Instead, I used these rounds to build depth, again with players who really fell too far. In order, my picks were: Jericho Cotchery, Roddy White, Matt Schaub, and Chris Perry. Decent starters in real-life, perfect for the bench in fantasy.

I still needed a TE, a K and a D, but most of those could wait. Instead, I used my Round 12 pick on my only "sleeper" pick for the year, D.J Hackett of Carolina. He showed good ability when I saw him with Seattle & he could really emerge as a good No. 2 WR with Steve Smith. I finally grabbed my TE in Round 13, the great Tony Scheffler. In hindsight, I probably would have taken Tony Gonzalez over RB depth earlier in the draft (any other "top" TEs were drafted too high for my taste) but I think Scheffler could put up decent numbers in Denver. Really, most TEs are crapshoots anyways; they're too inconsistent to predict, so you just want someone who can catch the ball. Scheffler can do that.

The rest of my picks were made by the commissioner as I had to bail out early to go catch Stone Temple Pilots headlining the 2nd night of the Bumbershoot Festival, just 2 blocks from my apartment. Overall, aside from the Julius Jones blunder, I'm fairly happy with my draft. I might have to play the lineups a little more, rather than just rolling with my horses each week, but I was able to get 3 elite players plus a lot of depth at the key positions. So, for Week 1, here's my roster (starters in bold):

QB: Romo, Schaub. Delhomme
RB: Westbrook, T. Jones, Maroney, J. Jones, C. Perry
WR: Wayne, Holt, Cotchery, R. White, DJ Hackett
TE: Scheffler
K: John Kasay
D: New York Giants

I'll probably put up another FF post later this week, once Skidoo's blogger league draft is finished.