Headed into this year’s Wolfpack Fantasy Football League draft, I was ready to change up my strategy somewhat. After missing out on the playoffs the last two years (once getting completely screwed, once just having a middling team) and based on an informal conversation with our commish over the summer about our league’s skewed point system, I was determined to land a game-changing quarterback this season. Keeping in mind the WFFL’s motto of “It’s a quarterback league,” I ID’d seven quarterbacks I deemed to be in the top tier and told myself that I would land one of them. I then did the same with three running backs and seven receivers.
Well, motto #2 of this year’s draft quickly became “Be ready to adjust,” because the top seven signal-callers went in the first 27 picks of the entire draft, forcing me to scramble a little, but also allowing me to stock up on solid running backs to give myself some lineup flexibility.
This year, due to the difficulty inherent in scheduling a draft time for 14 dudes, I had to participate in the draft online -- for the first time in the 11 years I’ve been in this league. There are advantages (not having to deal with the “Trucker Dumper” in person) and drawbacks (not being able to read owner emotions -- read: desperation), but the reality is that this was a six-hour marathon that punishes online drafters for not being in the room and helping to speed matters along.
Oh well.
So here’s what happened.
1st Round, 6th Overall: Frank Gore, RB, San Francisco 49ers
After the dude ahead of me snared Drew Brees one pick before me (I was leaning toward taking Brees), I got the sense this draft was going to go weird on me. Aaron Rodgers and Andre Johnson were big-time considerations here, but after hoping Maurice Jones-Drew or Ray Rice fell to me (obviously not), I couldn’t afford to miss out on landing one of the few remaining non-carries-splitting backs. I had Gore a couple of years ago and he was freaking tremendous, and with the offense looking a bit more dangerous around him, I have to believe he’s in for another big year.
2nd Round, 23rd Overall: Calvin Johnson, WR, Detroit Lions
I felt pretty good about taking “Megatron” here, even though he plays for the Lions. With another year of familiarity with Matthew Stafford, I think he’s capable of some big numbers in 2010. To me, he represented the best value out there and was one of the last sure-thing wideouts left on the board, so snaring him was the best of both worlds—even as quarterbacks went flying past me.
3rd Round, 34th Overall: Jamaal Charles, RB, Kansas City Chiefs
While Charles was a good value in this spot, he sure made me hesitate. I grabbed him as a late-season free agent a season ago and he was money, ripping off huge yards and long touchdowns. But for reasons I can’t quite understand, his coach, Todd Haley, either has something personal against him or is intent on losing his job. Bottom line, Charles is a TD threat from anywhere on the field and is a good receiver out of the backfield, but Haley seems to have fallen in love with either Thomas Jones or any back not named Jamaal. We’ll see how it shakes out, which is FF code for “this could make me or break me.”
4th Round, 51st Overall: Kevin Kolb, QB, Philadelphia Eagles
Speaking of “make me or break me,” I present Kolb. Jay Cutler and Kolb represented the cream of the crop for the second-tier signal-callers, in my mind, and after going through the Cutler Experience a season ago, I simply couldn’t allow myself to do it again (though I maintain he’ll put up big numbers in 2010). With Kolb, he’s much more accurate than McNabb, who was really the only thing holding back the Eagles pass-happy offense. The reality is coach Andy Reid’s system is designed to produce huge passing numbers, no matter who the quarterback is (much like the 49ers when Steve Bono racked up stats after Montana and Young). That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it.
On a side note, I was pretty sure I was going to pluck either Ronnie Brown or Dallas Clark here (hoping Kolb lasted one more round), but the guy three spots in front of me (Brown) and just in front of me (Clark) gave me the first two draft-ganks of the evening.
5th Round, 62nd Overall: Marion Barber, RB, Dallas Cowboys
I just didn’t like the available guys on the board at this point; things were thinning out toot-sweet. I had a real need for a receiver, having taken only one, but to me the best of the lot remaining was Pierre Garcon, and in my gut, it just felt too early to take a guy who was not a sure-thing second wideout at the moment. I know Barber is Mr. Irrelevant in Dallas these days, but I’m just not buying the talk of Felix Jones as a legitimate No. 1 back. He gets dinged up way too much, and I just don’t think he’s tough enough to handle it. I took some ribbing for taking a backup running back in this spot, but I feel, at the very least, Barber is going to be the goal-line back for an offense that is likely to be in the red zone quite a bit.
6th round, 79th Overall: Pierre Garcon, WR, Indianapolis Colts
I was glad Garcon was still here, because this is a good place to roll the dice on a low-risk, huge-upside guy. Even though he sounds like a French waiter, he had a lot of nice moments a year ago, and even with Anthony Gonzalez coming back into the fold, I think he could be targeted a lot by Peyton Manning this year. I’m likely reading too much into it, but the contract bitching by Reggie Wayne could also play a factor in how the WR pecking order plays out in Indy. Here’s to hoping the
7th round, 90th Overall: Vikings, D/ST, Minnesota
I tend to wait too long to take defenses in this league, and when a couple of owners had jumped up and grabbed D’s not named “Minnesota,” I thought this was a nice spot to land a top-three defense for my squad. The choice was between drafting Cutler, who surprisingly was still around, as my No. 2 quarterback to hedge my bets against Kolb, or to secure a nice point-producing D/ST. Since the Vikings play Cutler twice, it could help me in two ways by picking Minnesota over him if he sticks to last year’s pick-throwing ways.
8th round, 107th Overall: Reggie Bush, RB, New Orleans Saints
I will go ahead and admit that I was a fan of the way Bush was running at the end of last season. He was much more inclined to lower his head and bowl over a would-be tackler than usual, and with some of the uncertainty surrounding the RB position in New Orleans, I felt Bush represented value here. I know he’ll get touches in the passing game, and if he continues to prove his worth between the tackles, he could be a tremendous No. 4 running back and potential trade bait. (Couldn’t believe I’d already filled out my RB rotation at this point).
Get your click on for Part II ...
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