Fantasy draft 2007
Yep, it's that time again. "To actually post for the first time in a month?" Shut up.
It's time to dissect my annual football team draft.
First, an update. My team last year was stacked and went 11-3 in the regular season, only to crap the bed in my first ever playoff matchup against the eventual champ (who won over the other powerhouse team after it crapped the bed). It was rather frustrating but hey, I'm happy with making the playoffs after just missing three years in a row.
This year, we switched to a keeper format. Quite simply, you now get to pick a select number of players (3 for us, can vary) on your roster from the year before. The round in which they were drafted last year is the round you sacrifice a pick for this year. For example, I kept my two running backs (Larry Johnson drafted in round 1, Frank Gore in round 3) and my quarterback (Drew Brees in round 9) so in round 1, instead of picking a new person, I get Larry Johnson automatically, and so on.
The draft was very screwed up, as we've never done keepers before. Here's a list of my picks and a bit of explanation with each (not too much though!):
1) Larry Johnson, Chiefs - One of the elite running backs. He's expected to have a bit of a down year, as his prize OL largely retired over two years. I'm relieved that Damon Huard got named the starter in KC, as opposed to a rookie QB that really isn't ready yet. That said, I needed to keep LJ because I figured, correctly, that running backs would be hoarded as keepers.
2) Torry Holt, Rams - He and Steve Smith, the WR I had last year, were the only two top wideouts available as all others were kept. I was really hoping to get Smith back, but Holt will do as a consolation. Now if only he can stay uninjured...
3) Frank Gore, 49ers - A bit of a steal. He's also projected to be elite; I got him here as the last available starting RB last year, because I liked his offensive line. Turned out to be a great move. I'm looking forward to a continuance of stats this year.
4) Jerious Norwood, Falcons - Yeah, yeah, who the hell is he, yadda yadda. He's the backup to Warrick Dunn, the longtime starter in Atlanta, who's expected to fade soon. Norwood is mainly a bye-week replacement now, but could bust out as a starter later. At the moment, he's going to be a TD vulture, which is pretty nice.
5) Ravens DST - I don't like taking even a top defense like the Ravens this early usually, but you should've seen this draft. Holy moley. When you have 3 rounds' worth of keepers out of the draft, it's impossible to draft too early. There was just nobody I liked here and since someone else had taken the Bears DST, I figured I could legally do the same. They'll have their down times like any other defense, but it'll be fun to have these guys backing me up.
6) Mark Clayton, Ravens - Top wideout for the Ravens. He is the only guy I liked enough to start next to Holt. That is how insane this draft was. Usually WRs are still all over the place by this point. At any rate, this guy has Steve McNair throwing to him, and an offensive line that does well against the pass - not too shabby.
7) Chris Cooley, Redskins - A tight end's a tight end to me. This league likes to take them a bit early in anticipation of each other's moves. Some guy even kept Antonio Gates, who's a de facto top wideout himself. Me, I normally draft whoever's left after all the usual suspects are taken, but seeing as this year was nuts, I decided to break tradition a bit.
8) Chris Brown, Titans - Yeah, I could've gotten another wide receiver here. But here's a starting running back in round 8. That's really tough to beat for a second backup, and I might even be able to trade him for something else. Like, oh, another wide receiver.
9) Drew Brees, Saints - People called this keeper spot a "crime" and a "heist," and said it "just ain't right." I call it skillz. Well, skillz and willing to take a chance on a risky backup after drafting Daunte Culpepper as my starter (who I dumped after a week or two). Here's to his continued success...
10) Matt Schaub, Texans - ...but if something happens to him, I liked this guy as a backup. Before this year, he'd been sitting behind Michael "Fido Cost Me Fitty Bucks - That B!tch (Literally) Is Getting Electrocuted" Vick with the Falcons. Now that he's with the Texans and the crappy offensive line, he seems to be doing better than his predecessor David Carr ever did. He even smoked a very good Dallas defense the other night. I'm happy with this pick.
11) Kevin Curtis, Eagles - Holy cow, it's a white guy starting at wide receiver! Yes, you read right, this is my first backup wideout, and the draft is 3/4 over. Why? I just did not like where the backups were coming off the board. Everyone was biting too early on them for my tastes, so I just filled out elsewhere. In fact, at this spot, I've just witnessed a massive kicker run starting in round 9. I don't care, to me it isn't worth it to draft a kicker who'll get perhaps one more fantasy point than some guy I tack on in the last round.
12) D.J. Hackett, Seahawks - And here's the other backup wide receiver. I had no idea who this guy is until a couple hours before the draft, and all I could really glean was that Matt Hasselbeck liked throwing to him and that he seemed to be pegged as the second starter across from I have no idea who. Eh well, why not.
13) Stephen Gostkowski, Patriots - Not much left to do, so I got a kicker. This guy isn't that good, but he's with the much-hyped Patriots offense. *seethes with hatred* It can't hurt to get field goals from that. There's another guy on waivers with a hyped offense that I might exchange this guy for if I don't like how he's doing.
14) Marcus Pollard, Seahawks - The stock backup for my TE/K/DST positions. I'll plug him in when Cooley goes on bye, then throw him on waivers for a spot-start defense, and so on until the bye weeks are no longer a problem. Whatever at this point.
Well, there you have it. I'm fairly happy with the team, although it's not as strong as last year's team, and by design too. Oh well, I'll see how it pans out.