Today was the big Fantasy Football draft we’ve all been waiting for since football season ended way back when. It seemed like such a long time coming since we decided to skip playing fantasy baseball this year. Sure my heart is a whole lot healthier without the stress of the long fantasy baseball season but the lack of fantasy sure left a void in my life. I was going pretty crazy the last week. Today was rough. The good news is, the draft wasn’t.
That’s because I’m pretty happy how everything worked out. It was probably the fastest draft our league has ever had, coming in at around 1 hour and 15 minutes for a 10 team, 2 QB fantasy football league. For me, the first few rounds flew by and everything fell into place. I had the 8th overall pick which is normally where I land in whatever Yahoo! likes to call random. Regardless, with the 8th pick I was able to snag Drew Brees whom I would have taken as high as 3. Pretty good deal. Still looking for best available, I took Chris Johnson at 13. That pick could be hit or miss. Then when the 28th pick came back around and Ryan Grant was on the board, I jumped on him. I pretty much liked him where I took Johnson so I loved to get him 15 picks later. At 4 I needed to target a trusty WR so I got Peyton Manning’s new undisputed #1 target, Reggie Wayne. Sometime between my Brees pick and now, QBs flew off the board. Not wanting to get stuck with a garbage #2 QB with my 5th pick I took Matt Ryan. I’m unfortunately expecting big things from Matty Ice in his 2nd year.
At this point in the draft I was still rolling. 2QBs, 2RBs, and a stud WR who I’ve always wanted to have. I wanted to solidify my wideouts so in the 6th round I took 3rd year WR Dwayne Bowe. The say that’s the year WRs finally figure it all out so hopefully he can build on his already good numbers. Then with 1 important position left to fill, W/R, Larry Johnson falls into my lap with the 68th pick in the 7th round. I don’t particularly like the Chiefs but I do like those last 2 picks.
That’s it, I can relax… and that’s what I did. The rest of the draft is best available to fill bye weeks. Everything has worked out until this point. When I needed a position, the guy I wanted was there. I’m pretty happy but we’re just halfway done. I then take Kyle Orton as my 3rd string backup QB, DeSean Jackson as my backup WR, and Felix Jones who was owning last year until he got injured. I still needed a TE but after the big 4 were gone, they’re all pretty much the same so I flipped a hypothetical coin and went with Owen Daniels. Defensively I took Philadelphia. Not too confident with this group just from preseason but it’s only preseason. I’m hoping they can turn it on once the season starts. JJ will be missed.
3 rounds left, nothing I really want. Take 2 kickers and call me in the morning. Jason Elam and Robbie Gould. That’ll do pig… that’ll do. Then for the 15th and final round I see a good deal of decent players left. I was between LeSean McCoy who looked insanely awesome in the preseason and Donald Brown. Lucky for me McCoy went right before my pick so I took Brown. I like it.
All in all, my biggest concern of the draft was taking Kyle Orton as my #3 QB. However if my #3 QB is my big mistake of the draft, I should be in for a pretty good year. Fantasy football is a good deal of luck. Players need to stay healthy and they need to perform but I think I have a very competitive team. Only time will tell though. The season starts in 5 days and I can’t wait now. Ahh, the joy of fantasy sports.
I’m currently watching: Iron Chef America