LittleWyvern.com

Standard Draft

Because it is expected, here are the results of tonight’s fantasy football draft. This is the first of my three leagues to hold a draft, but is also the one that I care most about winning. The standard league is also the one where Lukas and I completed the Trade-of-all-Trades, exchanging twelve draft picks between us.

(For those who don’t know, but also understand: this is a 10-team PPR league with two quarterbacks, two RBs, two WRs and a RB/WR slot with a TE, D/ST, and Kicker)

(4) Joseph Addai, RB Ind
(8) Tom Brady, QB NE
(33) Wes Welker, WR NE
(44) Thomas Jones, RB NYJ
(48) Tony Gonzalez, TE KC
(64) Jay Cutler, QB Den
(68) Jerricho Cotchery, WR NYJ
(84) Kevin Smith, RB Det
(88) Anthony Gonzalez, WR Ind
(93) Chester Taylor, RB Min
(104) Todd Heap, TE Bal
(117) Aaron Rodgers, QB GB
(124) Bears D/ST
(137) Colts D/ST
(144) Leon Washington, RB NYJ
(157) Nick Folk, K Dal
(164) Amani Toomer, WR NYG
(177) Mike Hart, RB Ind
(184) Muhsin Muhammad, WR Car
(197) Jason Hanson, K Det

The number in parentheses is the overall draft position in which I took the player. The numbers are a bit screwy because of my trade with Lukas in which I essentially gave up a few early picks in exchange for his first round pick. Overall I am extremely pleased with my team and remain on course for my second consecutive championship appearance.

Random Notes

* I never, ever, ever expected Tom Brady to fall to me at number 8. All of my pre-draft plans involved taking either Randy Moss or Clinton Portis. Expecting to need a quarterback with my third pick (not until the fourth round overall) my carefully designed strategies were thrown out the window within the first two minutes of our draft. I scrambled a bit and made a wild off-the-cuff pick of Welker at (33) figuring that he would complement Brady nicely. For the most part I adapted reasonably well, but the chaos also led to a few bizarre garbage picks (Todd Heap at 104??).

* I managed to fade all of my opponents’ picks this draft. Not once did a player I was preparing to pick get snagged within the five slots ahead of me. Perhaps I am terrible at evaluating player values. Perhaps I picked my own players far above their actual values. Perhaps I am incredibly lucky. You can guess which explanation I will choose.

* My pre-draft trade with Lukas caused an interesting problem for me. Having thoroughly brutalized my pick order it was occasionally the case where I would have two picks near one another, but then not have another for the next 15-25 slots. That meant that I was forced to make a few tough decisions with positions that should normally have been left for later rounds. Specifically I scooped up my second quarterback early because 20 picks later the remaining choices would have been far worse than Cutler (who I think will actually be super good this season). The same is true of where I took T-Gonz and A-Gonz.

* After picking my starting lineup I pretty much button-mashed the second half of the draft. I made sure to handcuff Addai with Hart and T-Jones with Washington, but aside from pouncing on Chester Taylor at (93) the bottom of my list is largely irrelevant. I don’t know enough about football to predict obscure sleepers. My strategy in that regard is to draft for injuries. It is easier for me to determine who will take over when a superstar gets hurt than to predict where a new superstar will be born. Personally, I will be cheering all season for Adrian Peterson to tear his ACL.

Knowing the little that I do about football I give my team the following pre-season rankings:

QBs: A++
(I expect to have two of the top five. Aaron Rogers might end up being good too. Probably not, though.)

RBs: A-/B+
(Addai will be a top two-or-three back this season. A lot rides on the boom-or-bust of both T-Jones and Kevin Smith. An injury to AP will make Chester Taylor a stud again.)

WRs: B
(This was the casualty of my trade with Lukas. Losing out on my second and third round picks I forfeited my receiver corps for the sake of acquiring Tom Brady. I can live with that. Plus, I have a lot of unfounded faith in Anthony Gonzalez for some reason.)

TEs: A+++
(T-Gonz. Nuff said. I would actually give me an A++++ here, but Gonzo has to put up with Huard/Croyle at QB.)

Defense/Kicker: Who cares?
(Maybe the Bears will be good, maybe the Colts will be good. It’s probably not a big deal either way. I only chose the Bears because a rule change in our league this season gives 6 points for a defensive TD instead of last season’s 4… and the Bears have Hester. Nobody cares about kickers, but I took Dallas’s because they will score a lot and I took Detroit’s because they won’t.)