As it turns out, today was Draft Day for my fantasy football league! Following a season in which I dedicated most, if not ALL of my free time to researching the NFL, only to miss the playoffs, I decided to take a more laid-back approach to the process this year. I waited until the last moment, browsed some online articles, printed up some “expert” cheat sheets, and then discarded everything in favor of a “gut” approach on draft day. So, how’d I do?
Well, not bad. Not bad at all.
Also, not particularly good. Not particularly good AT ALL…
I got the fourth overall pick and decided to choose the Bears’ Matt Forte over Green Bay’s Eddie Lacy on the assumption that the Packers have always been a past first, second, and third team – and why would that suddenly change?
My strategy was to pick up another RB or a high-end WR in the second round but when I saw Green Bay’s Aaron Rodgers sitting there (see above), I had to pick him up.
To compliment Rodgers, I picked up his #1 WR, Randall Cobb – unwittingly putting myself in a very bad position in week 9 when all three of my picks-so-far are on a bye.
In round 4, I selected former Viking RB Toby Gerhart who finally gets his chance to step out of Adrian Peterson’s shadow and into the limelight…in Jacksonville. The Jaguars can’t really throw the ball, so I’m assuming Gerhart will see a lot of touches.
With my fifth pick, I went with the 49ers Michael Crabtree, back from an injury-plagued season to reassume the mantle of San Francisco’s #1 receiver.
Round 6, I got New Orleans receiver Marques Colston. Very happy with this one. I expect he’ll see a bunch of targets this season with his ankle fully healed.
In round 7, I gambled on Bills RB Fred Jackson who has shown no signs of slowing down.
Then in round 8, I saw Carolina’s DeAngelo Williams sitting there, so I grabbed him. Not many lead RB’s left on the board at this point, so I was glad to get him.
I’m not convinced I made the right choice in round 9, choosing former Seahawk Golden Tate, but I figured he’s speedy and looking to impress on a team that likes to throw the ball A LOT in Detroit. Megatron should draw all the double and triple teams, allowing Tate to get some looks. Will he be able to step up is the question.
Oh, how the mighty have fallen. Former fantasy beast Darren McFadden was just sitting, waiting for someone to pick him up in round 10, so I did. He’s been dinged up quite a bit over the past couple of seasons and even though MJD is now in Oakland, McFadden should see plenty of touches on a team that will have to rely on the run when their passing game comes up short. Which should be most of the time.
I reached a little and took Cecil Shorts in round 11. No, the Jaguars can’t really throw the ball but when they did, last year, the speedy wide-receiving duo of Shorts and Blackmon got all the looks. And with Blackmon now gone – the NFL and Jacksonville front office tired of his off-the-field antics – that leaves Shorts to hopefully pick up the slack.
By the time round 12 came around, the herd had been thinned. I picked up former Packer great (and present Viking mediocre) Greg Jennings who showed a spark of promise last season. Maybe if the Vikes can sort out their QB issues, Jennings could well pan out nicely.
And another gamble in round 13 with former Panther WR Steve Smith who now finds himself in Baltimore. He’s a scrappy player. I love his attitude.
This late in the draft, I shifted my sights to landing a defense. I don’t really subscribe to the “Draft a Top D school” of thought simply because the top D’s change every year. Instead, I decided to plug-and-play, choosing a different defense each week based on their match-ups. I’d been eyeing the Bears D which will hosting the Bills and their anemic passing attack – but somebody nabbed them. And so, I had to settle for the Steel Curtain, hoping the Pittsburgh D can have a field day with Cleveland’s equally shaky passing game – and suspect running game.
With my second to last pick, I finally got around to picking up a TE. The drop-off from first tier Jimmy Graham to the second tier likes of Gronk and Julius Thomas is debatable. But there’s no debating the drop off from that second tier to the sizeable crowd who make up the third tier. In the words of the Gilligan’s Island theme song: “…and all the rest!”. I picked up Travis Kelce because I figured he’d probably be very involved in a KC passing game led by short play dump-off master Alex Smith.
And so, in the final round, I got around to picking up a kicker. Kickers are always a crap shoot. If you pick a kicker on a high scoring team, you’re often saddled with a guy who kicks nothing but extra points. On the other hand, if you pick a kicker from a team with a weak offense assuming they’ll have to settle for field goals when they can’t punch it into the end zone, you’ll be disappointed with a guy who rarely gets a shot because his team is never in field goal range. And so, with my last pick, I took veteran Adam Vinatieri because I’m backing on QB Andrew Luck getting the Colts inside their opponents 2o plenty of times – only to come up short because their running game is mediocre at best.
Ladies and gentlemen, presenting the 2014 soon-to-be-champions SNOW MONKEYS…
And these are the results of a computer analysis of today’s draft. I figure if I replace all of my starters with all of my bench players, I’d take over the No. 1 ranking:
So, how’d everyone do on THEIR drafts?
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
gone shopping (come with me akemi)
I had a draft…so I shut the window…
😉
das
Once you get to your new city, I think this year’s grueling football league number crunching will justify getting a computer workstation with at least three ultra-sharp monitors with the ability to pivot to portrait mode. You need to have a lot of text in easy view at once and that’s the way to pull that off without re-printing when you make a change.
I don’t think I even understand how fantasy football works. Or real football for that matter. 🙁
What? No player from Dallas? :p Good luck to the Snow Monkeys. 😀
@tinamarlin: Wow, that’s frigging terrible. Cops too often these days abuse their power. Sometimes they forget that “to protect and serve” means us.
That being said, I come from a family of cops (both parents), I was once on the path to being a cop, my nephew is a cop, and I have 7 close friends who are cops. While I don’t condone any abuse, everything is situational and the ones I know are straight up. If they weren’t, I would have heard the stories around the “campfire”. It’s hard to keep in mind that even though cops do bad things, they are individuals and can be evil just like civilians. And just like individuals, they’re not all bad.
Joe, good luck this season! You have almost inspired me to join a fantasy league.
@das: Hey, with that wall of text I find it hard to believe you talk to strangers! 😛
I’d like to draft a marching band, please.
I have no idea what any of that meant. Maybe we should start up a Joseph Mallozzi’s Weblog Fantasy Football League so us blog regulars can join in the fun(?). I’ll fire up a random number generator to pick my players. I did that for a football tipping competition in Australia (where you just need to pick which teams are going to win each week) and I came 5th by the end of the season with a lot of angry people, who took it very seriously, underneath me.
Real life seems to always get in the way of playing fantasy football. Maybe when the kids are off to college?
Besides, my time for research is severely limited at the moment and so I’d probably end up with team of “over the hills” and “over promised up-starts”…not a good combination for winning. Is Bret Farve still playing? 😀
I did get to watch the Dawgs beat Clemson. RB Gurley II pretty much made the game for Georgia and he’ll be one to watch when he moves up to the NFL (year after next if he doesn’t skip out of college early).
Ponytail: 😆 I’ll go shopping with both of you! Or maybe we can skip the shopping and hit a dessert place?
Kathy C: Another one for the “talking to strangers” club!
Some cyclist haters yesterday. I don’t ride but I know a few people that do. They seem to be respectful and have fun. I suppose every group has jerks. Personally, I try to stay far away from cyclists. I’ve seen what kind of damage a car can do to people riding bikes/motorcycles.
I starting watching “The Killing” on Netflix. Good show but they stretch out one murder for two seasons.
How do you have ANY free time for fantasy football? Are there two of you? Do you have some kind of time travel device? You’re making me feel like a sloth….
Just wanted to let everyone know that my daughter’s service dog, Roxie, is at this very moment in surgery – on BOTH knees! Poor doggy will be spending the next few week in her kennel except for potty breaks. That’s what the doc recommended as the best way to keep a puppy – if you can call a 70lb dog a puppy! – off her feet to heal. My daughter’s a basket case right now! She says she doesn’t think she could be more nervous if it were one of her kids in surgery.
I did pretty well, on BOTH my leagues. I know, I’m a glutton for punishment, playing in two leagues. What’s funny is that while I wasn’t really trying to, I ended up with a LOT of the same guys between both my teams. Stafford, Lacy, Rams D, Nelson, Golden Tate(same reasoning for me, too), Phil Dawson(K) and a couple others on my bench. Crazy how it all worked out!
I don’t pay ANY attention to the computer analysis of how I drafted. A few years ago, it told me I drafted the worst of the entire league. That was the year I went 14-2 and won the whole thing. Decisively.
-Mike A.
Hi Joe
Nice catch in Rodgers. Do you get extra points if he makes MVP?
Elminster
Off topic, but Barb and I are heading to Paula Deen’s Lady and Sons tonight. Tomorrow is Mrs Wilkes Dining Room and then a Savannah ghost tour in the late evening (Jackie insisted).
Full report later.
The only draft I finished came with a brass spigot. Seems to work well. But I will root for the Snow Monkeys
@ Tam Dixon – How about both! We’ll go shopping then do dessert! (or maybe the other way around)
That is some admirable attention to detail in that pic; I don’t prep that hard for my day job.
Once again the Steelers are shunned from the line up like a drunken Amish lass in church.
I made amazing almond flour scones yesterday; I should have chilled the batter first, they came out more like little toasty pancakes but they were awesome with honey and butter.
I had a nice draft at my local German restaurant just the other day.
@JeffW: Looking forward to the food reviews.
It was like I was reading a blog in an alien language. But GO SNOW MONKEYS!
Something, something, football, something, something…
Go, Snow Monkeys! Yeah!
I was drafting 5th in an 8 team, 2 QB regular league. Somehow Adrian Peterson was still around so I nabbed him as my #1 pick. Then I grabbed Doug Martin as my 2nd RB as I figured its time for a bounceback in his 3rd season and surprise they got a good O-line guy for running in Mankins. My 3rd pick was Brandon Marshall followed by Percy Harvin at #4. My next 2 picks were Russell Wilson and Cam Newton. Then I totally reached and grabbed the completely reliable and awesome Seahawks Defense(sense a theme here?).
Followed that with Golden Tate for the same reasons as you in my Flex spot. Then to fill up some Bench spots I picked: Steven Ridley who I hope holds onto the ball this year unlike last year; Reggie Wayne who was a star for me last year until he got hurt; Emmanuel Sanders who seems like a steal now that Welker was suspended for PEDs; CJ Spiller who seems to be back like he was 2 years ago.
I then picked my TE in Tim Wright who just got traded to the Patriots. Followed by a few more bench players(we allow 8) in Knowshon Moreno, Joe Flacco, Doug Baldwin(but later swapped for Zach Miller as not sure how Tim will do week 1 as TE in New england), and Davonta Freeman(who I figure will kick butt later in season). And wow what a coincidence, I also have Vinatieri – hope your reasoning is sound as I just went random dude since the guys I wanted were already gone.
So all in all I think I have a pretty good team to dominate my league 🙂