Confessions from a Fantasy Football draft

[Josh W]

I gambled. Let me digress.

I'm in a bunch of leagues every year. One particular league takes most of my attention, just because there's a few grand up for grabs.

The league is a little different than most. There are no keepers. You start 1QB, 2 RB, 2WR, 1 TE, 1 K, and 1 Def. But, you must draft your entire starting lineup before you get on to the backups (aka the supplemental draft). Also, instead of random drawing to determine order, we have a drawing to determine who gets to select when they draft.

Let me explain. This year, I picked #1. This meant that I got to pick which spot I drafted from (12 team, snake draft). Most people in this league (on a competitive scale of 1-10, I'd say it's a 6...a few 'fish') just pick as early as possible.

Well, I chose to pick 5th. This is because I felt that the top 5 RBs were all very close, and it was more important to get a quality second RB than first (that is, LT, Ricky, Faulk, Portis and Holmes were all about equal...what some lacked in upside, they gained in reliability).

Somehow, LT slipped to 5th, where I grabbed him. Oh, I should mention...This league is slightly TD-heavy (yards don't count for a ton), except for QB, where Yds are more important.

On the way back, I got Tiki Barber (it was him or Dillon, who I'm way down on because of the lack of Lorenzo Neal). I had planned on going RB; RB; WR; WR; QB; TE; D; K...maybe switching TE and D. I got my two RBs, and while I'd like to grab a third RB earlier, I couldn't until my roster was full.

In the third round, I got Plaxico Burress. Many rank him at about 6th-ish best WR, and I think he's better. I think he'll be 4th best, maybe third. Really. Take a look back at his game splits from last year. Maddox LOVES throwing the ball to Plaxico, and Kordell wouldn't throw him the ball at all. With Kordell out of the picture, Plaxico will explode.

Then, suddenly, in the fourth round, the top 20ish WRs were taken, except David Boston, who I gobbled up.

Now the confession. There had been 8 or 9 QBs taken by my fifth pick, including some headscratchers (Brady, Maddox, and Favre) where McNair, Bledsoe, and Holcomb were still available (yes, I like Kelly Holcomb). I had the 8th pick in the Supplemental draft. Only 2 (or 3) more teams needed QBs. I felt that one of the remaining three would be available for me in the supplemental draft.

And I felt that Vick would be taken with one of the very first few supplemental picks.

So I took Vick as my "starting" QB. I had to sweat for an hour until I could get my "backup" QB in the supplemental draft, but I was ecstatic to pick up McNair there.

The downside of it all is I couldn't get a 3rd RB until my second pick, and went with Kevan Barlow (woulda preferred Stewart or maybe Mack)...

But, yeah. I'm ready for some football.

J

[Ragnar]

I like all of your picks except for Boston. People are wondering why the Cardinals let him go without compensation.
The general consensus is stupid Cardinals, again. Although I live in the area I hate the Cardinals, but this time they are right.

Boston is weird, even for a professional athlete. ESPN the magazine is about to break a story about him. The local paper had some excerpts yesterday. He asks the other players not to tackle him high in practice because it irritates his nipples due to his nipple rings. (If you have nipple rings either take them out for practice or shut up. I thought the point was either to show how tough you are or to enjoy the pain. Maybe someone can enlighten me who knows more about it /images/graemlins/grin.gif) He was caught with a girl in his room the night before a game. He told the assistant coach that if they made her leave he'd become sick or injured and not play the next day.

In addition he has bad hands. I had him last year in one league and he was a dog, even before he got hurt. He is very fast and very strong, but he is one drug test away from a suspension. He is a very risky pick. He could work out for one year, but I wouldn't take him very high.

I like your Vick pick. I'm high on Holcomb too.

Ragnar

[Clarkmeister]

If it was a keeper league, I'd love your move. As it is, I think its probabaly a slight negative.

I disagree with the other poster regarding Boston. I don't love the guy, but drafts are all about value, and getting him late in the 4th round of a 12 team draft is huge value any way you look at it.

As an example, I think Faulk is a huge injury risk, but if he fell to me at the 8th pick, I'd take him. Josh had the same thing happen to him here with Boston. Great value at the spot.

Overall I think you have an oustanding team Josh. Getting Boston in the late 4th and getting LT2 at #5 overall are both steals. Definitely a playoff team barring injuries.

[Oski]

I like your draft: however, I have one question (I have some drafts coming up) How did your league treat the TE position? I would guess that as soon as Shockey or Gonzalez was taken, the other two big ones would go right away.

In your case, since you explained this is a TD heavy league where yardage not too important - I was wondering if perhaps taking one of the big TE's would pan out better instead of Boston. (As a disclaimer, I don't think TE's are more valuable than a quality #2 WR, but maybe the way your league is constructed changes things).

[clovenhoof]

I think rating your competition as a '6' gives them too much credit.

You robbed 'em. That's the kind of draft you dream about getting. LT, Tiki, and McNair give you stable top-level production, Plaxico is a lock to be a top 10 receiver, and I believe this is the year he will become what Randy Moss coulda been.

Boston? With the rest of your horses, who cares?

Well done!

'hoof

[Josh W]

I forgot to mention this, and it is fairly important...

It's not a head-to-head league. It's just a "accumulate as many points as possible" league. Because of this, I like the Vick move a little more. If he has a moster second half, it helps more than in a head-to-head league.

As for TightEnds, Shockey went late third round, and Gonzo went mid fourth round. Heap was the third taken, and Heap deserves a lot more consideration than he's getting. He's in the same league as Gonzo and Shockey. But, by this time, since you can't take any backups yet, all TEs were being taken.

And, yeah, Clark, if this was a keeper league, it woulda been an utter steal.

I don't love Boston, and would NOT EVEN THINK ABOUT building a team around him. But for a #2, when my other options were Rod Gardner and Isaac Bruce, I like my pick. Love, I mean. He obviously has poor hands, and is in a run oriented offense, but he's always a big play threat....

Josh

[Michael Davis]

I completely agree. Josh has a great team, and none of the players he selected should have been available where he got them.

Good luck.

-Mike