Keeper League Draft - Part I
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DRAFT NIGHT – PART I
The day was filled with so many emails, gmail chats, and text messages that I could barely keep up. It may have been my most unproductive day at work ever, and believe me, I pride myself on getting by doing the bare minimum. The excitement was building as the day progressed… It was KEEPER LEAGUE DRAFT NIGHT!
Before you get to reading you’ll need to understand our league a little.
Here is the lowdown: The league is entering its fifth season, there are 12 teams, 4 keepers per team (though we are switching to 3 next year). Most of us have kept a quarterback, two running backs, and a wide receiver. Running backs are generally the most valued commodities followed by quarterbacks and then wide receivers. Here’s a breakdown (please bear with me on this long list because the blog would not allow me to show the teams as I originally planned to) of how each team went into the draft:
PAUL E. Manning W. McGahee M. Barber M. Harrison
JOE V. Young D. McAllister J. Walker Ravens
JOHN S. Jackson L. Maroney M. Hasselbeck T. Owens
RYAN C. Palmer D. Foster T. Gonzalez H. Ward
TOBY D. Brees J. Addai R. Brown L. Fitzgerald
SANG M. Bulger S. Alexander M. Jones-Drew A. Boldin
CHRIS D. McNabb F. Gore W. Parker R. Wayne
BRETT T. Brady B. Westbrook T. Holt D. Williams
DREW L. Tomlinson L. Johnson J. Cutler R. Williams
PAT T. Romo T. Henry T. Whosyourmama R. Bush
ORI E. James T. Jones C. Johnson B. Roethlisberger
KEV P. Manning A. Gates R. Johnson S. Smith
Now that the formalities/trivialities are out of the way, let’s see how the draft unfolded.
The countdown slips down to two minutes until draft time and the guy with the #1 pick is MIA. Shouts of “Where’s Paul?” and “Did someone call him?” followed by “Do you think he’s alright?” (Surely he must be in the hospital if he’s missing the draft!) fill the draft room. The countdown gets to 4… 3… 2… 1…
And the first pick of the draft is… Lee Evans… wait, Lee Evans? Really?
1. Lee Evans, WR Bills (PAUL)
Que? Don’t get me wrong. I expect Evans to have a good year, but the first pick? EW. Looks like somebody didn’t set their rankings. Tut-tut.
2. Cedric Benson RB Bears (JOE)
And Benson falls right into Joe’s lap. Nice pick up. He’s the starter, he’s on a good team, a no-brainer. Nothing spectacular but solid nonetheless. Still, in the back of your mind you have to wonder why he hasn’t been the starter until now.
3. Marques Colston, WR Saints (JOHN)
I like Colston. I really do. I think he’s going to be a Top 3 wide out soon. But I’ve got to be honest… that knee injury that NO doctor has been able to pinpoint… it makes me think twice. But he’s the best wide out on the board. It’s a good chance to take.
4. Clinton Portis, RB Redskins (RYAN)
This guy is missing too (Don’t these people understand the importance of Fantasy Football??? UNBELIEVABLE!!!). However, in need of a RB, Ryan auto-drafts Portis, who should easily be considered the best back on the board. Now if only Portis can stay on the field maybe Ryan can stay out of the cellar.
Side note: (I asked my trusty magic 8-ball about the Portis health/Ryan cellar question and it said this… in huge bold letters: MOSTLY IMPOSSIBLE… weird… it’s never said that before.)
5. Adrian Peterson, RB Vikings (TOBY G.)
That was quick. Brandon Jacobs, Cadillac Williams, Ahman Green, and Jamal Lewis still on the board and all have starting jobs, for now anyway. This pick should come as no surprise when Toby G. is drafting. Each year, he focuses on getting younger. At this rate, by 2010, Toby will likely take little Joey Smith from the Pop Warner football league in Chicago. Peterson does have tremendous potential should be a keeper for years to come. He will probably win the starting job from Chester Taylor as Taylor fades out as the season progresses (see last year). Peterson will be a nice guy to have for the playoff push. Toby drafted Taylor too, so we can only hope the backs in Minnesota split carries all season long.
6. Marshawn Lynch, RB Bills (SANG)
Definitely a reach. Jacobs would have been a safer pick. As far as I’ve heard the Bills are going with a RB by committee. It’s likely Lynch will get the initial touches but remember that Head Coach Dick Jauron is incredibly loyal to Anthony Thomas. Expect A-Train to be a TD vulture to anything Lynch drives down the field. There’s keeper potential here but I don’t see it surfacing this year. But don’t worry. Sang will probably draft six more running backs rather than fill needed positions… just in case.
7. Chicago Bears, TM Bears… obviously (CHRIS--HehateU)
And Da Bears D falls all the way to the best manager in all of fantasy sports. (What? You disagree? Well, you aren’t writing this blog therefore you have to deal with my unnecessarily enormous ego. Queue up “You’re the Best” by Joe Esposito. You know the one… that song from The Karate Kid. Yeeeeaaa.) Out of all the players on the board (minus quarterbacks) the Chicago Bears’ defense put up the most points last year (cracking 300 points in our league) and had the highest points average. They’re also returning most of their starters and have the potential to be even better than last year with a full season from a healthy Tommie Harris. Superb pick, magnificent, awesome, truly genius, mind-blowing! Don’t give me that look. I don’t have to justify myself to you. I’m the best… around… nothing’s ever gonna keep me down…(so I change the words to the song a little to suit me. So what? Wanna fight about it?)
Moving right along…
8. Brandon Jacobs, RB Giants (BRETT)
A good, safe pick. Especially for a guy that sorely needed another RB. Jacobs is the starter and he’s going to get the lion’s share of the carries for the Giants. I also don’t expect Droughns to vulture TDs on very many of Jacobs’ drives. Jacobs is a big boy, he can punch it in himself. Solid pick. Thanks for boring me, Brett. NEXT!
9. Randy Moss, WR Patriots (DREW)
Drew is the owner of arguably the two best fantasy players in the NFL, guys so good they are known simply by initials…LT and LJ. However, despite having these guys for over two years now, Drew has failed to win our league, as he constantly surrounds these studs with inconsistent nightmares like Terry Glenn, Jon Kitna, Aaron Brooks, and the Giants D. So with his first round selection, he chooses…arguably the most inconsistent wideout in the NFL right now. Which Moss is he going to get? The pro bowl wideout from 5 years ago or the wideout from the last two years who seems disinterested and can’t stay on the field. His health will cause panic attacks for fantasy managers for all 17 weeks. He has already missed just about all of preseason and is admittedly in poor shape. Once again, Drew takes his talented two studs and drops back to the rest of the pack, giving the rest of the league a chance. (That being said, now that I ripped the pick, Moss likely returns to pro-bowl status and Drew goes 15-1.)
10. Calvin Johnson, WR Lions (PAT)
Might be a little bit of a reach with more proven WRs left on the board such as Plaxico Burress and Donald Driver. But the potential for Johnson is bordering on ridiculous. This physical specimen has all the tools. Oh and did I mention that offensive guru Mike Martz is drawing up the plays for CJ? Johnson owners should be sporting wood just thinking about it. You know what? The more I think about it, the more I like CJ. Who needs a whiny Burress or an oft-injured Driver on their teams anyway? CJ’s going to be putting up better numbers in no time.
11. Carnell “Cadillac” Williams, RB Buccaneers (ORI) Yes, the Fleafounder himself. And he makes the best pick up to be made from his position. Yes, I remember the kind of year he had last year. Yes, I know the Bucs are still going to suck this year (I think they’re carrying like 13 quarterbacks). But remember that Caddie is still young. In fact, he is the youngest of the RBs worthy of being drafted this early. He should have a very good shot to (at the very least) bounce back to his ‘05 form (over 1,000 yds and 6 TDs) especially without the original TD vulture himself, Mike Alstott, stealing Cadillac’s goaline plays. As long as Cadillac can stay out of the shop and keep his previous injuries behind him, Cadillac should be a very serviceable back. Besides, he can’t be that bad again… right?
12. Ahman Green, RB Texans (KEV)
Blah. The Golden Boy, (who had been whining about his pick all day), takes a member of his ‘06 championship team with his first pick. Seeing as how he desperately needed a RB and seeing as how he didn’t really have a choice (it was either Green or Jamal Lewis) Kev grabs Green, albeit not very quickly. Green is serviceable (He’s the starter and will get most of the touches. Besides, who else are the Texans going to give the ball to? Ron Dayne? He might eat it.) if he can stay on the field and can keep the football in his hands. But now the 30 year old RB is on a team with a perennially suspect o-line. We’ll just have to wait and see what he can do at his advanced age (he’s geriatric by football standards) but I wouldn’t expect anything more than an “alright” performance from Green this fantasy season. Hey, did I mention he’s 30?
That’s the end of Round 1 of this $%^& show.
As you can see this draft breakdown is getting a little “girthy”. So I’ve broken it up into two parts. Part 2 will contain Rounds 2 through 13 in a more abbreviated form and the Golden Boy himself has promised to grade each of the teams on their overall draft performance.
--heHateU, with a little assistance from the Golden Boy at FleaFanatics
