Yep, it’s that time of the year again. Saturday was my one and only fantasy football draft. The Galapagos Tortoises have returned to defend their crown… Well at least attempt to. I think it’s gonna be tough. It didn’t go nearly as smoothly as last year’s draft. After that draft I was pretty confident and I loved my team. Picks came to me, I didn’t have to reach for picks. This year was quite different. Let’s’ get to it.

I had the 5th pick this year. Right in the middle. The usual suspects flew right off the board and 5 was the first pick where you could really deviate from the rest of the world’s fantasy football leagues and just go with your gut. My gut, just like last year, said go with Drew Brees. In a league where you start 2QBs, and QBs are the highest scoring position, I went with as much as a sure thing as I could find rather than gamble on Frank Gore or the Burner. I guess the rest of the league was with me as Rodgers and Manning went in 2 of the next 3 picks. When round 2 swung around, I thought I was going to get DeAngelo Williams but he went the pick right before me. Now needing a RB, I had to take the last guy I had in that tier, Rashard Mendenhall. I gotta hope for a great start in the first 4 weeks without Big Ben that will just carry on throughout the season. Finishing up the stud rounds, I took Cedric Benson in the 3rd to finish up my starting RB core.

Now needing a WR, things got dicey. There are definitely not a lot of stud receivers this year and I was certainly playing catch up. Let’s hope that Greg Jennings, who has either QB 1A, 1B or 1C throwing to him, can score a whole lot of points. Last year I got crazy lucky with Reggie Wayne at this spot who carried me through some early weeks. Now with a QB, 2RBs and a WR, it’s time for best available. In round 5, that was Jonathan Stewart. I’ve had him before and that splitting carries is always tough to stomach on most weeks but as my flex starter, I think I could get some pretty nice returns. I don’t think he’ll outrun Williams in his final year in Carolina but Stewart’s a good football player on a crazy run happy offense. In 6, I got real happy. Best available fell in my lap in the shape of my #2 QB, Joe Flacco. Pretty hype on this. I didn’t think he’d make it back to me after I passed on him in 5 but he did and that made the Stewart pick that much more bearable if it doesn’t work out. I’ll add now that tight ends started coming off the board hardcore in round 6. Not just 1 but 4!

I had to bite. Besides, there was nothing else I really felt strongly about at other positions so in round 7 I reached and went for the #3 TE on my board, Brent Celek. Love this kid and needed an Eagle. Kolb looks like he’s struggling a bit and nothing helps a QB more than connecting with his stud TE. Round 8, the Eagles kept coming. Jeremy Maclin. Kolb’s looking at him a lot apparently so that hopefully will work out eventually. Round 9 I took another WR, Johnny Knox. Come on Martz and Cutler. Don’t let me down.

10 and 11 I went backup RBs. Justin Forsett who will hopefully get the bulk of carries in Seattle and Ricky Williams who will certainly be serviceable when Ronnie Brown inevitably gets injured. Unfortunately they both have the same bye week and that happens to be the same bye week as the Steelers so… ehhh we’ll just let future Brett figure that one out. Round 12, with no other needs, I figured I’d go Def. That well was pretty dry at this point though. I got stuck w/ the Saints. They were the #1 fantasy defense last year, hopefully they can bring back at least some of that magic. And I couldn’t take the Cowboys now could I?

Oops. It was then I realized that I should probably get a backup QB. Those pickings were real slim at this point. Almost every starter was off the board. I mean Tim Tebow had already been drafted… what could be left? Well I was eying Matt Cassel and lucky enough, he made it back. How I got him, I may never know. That’s about it. I got myself 2 dart board kickers and we’re set.

There’re obvious flaws in the team and, like I said before, it was nowhere near as good as last year’s but we’ll have to see how it works out. There are a lot of good teams this year and it’s pretty balanced. Football starts in 2 days. Drew Brees kicking things off for me. 3 1/2 months of fantasy football. What time is it?

I’m currently watching: Warehouse 13