Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Draft Time: Fantasy Site Battle

So I’m doing this awesome thing this year in the hopes of proving just how awesome I really am. I’m getting together with some fellow fantasy football gurus and playing in a 12 man league. These are all guys who work on radio shows, or write other blogs and somehow contribute to the fantasy football community. And I’m going to do everything in my power to prove the GHL is the greatest fantasy site on the internet.
The rules are a little funky, but for sanity’s sake, let’s just say that it is basically a PPR league.
We just finished the first round of the draft, so let’s take a look at the picks and break them down a bit. Feel free to analyze the picks yourself in the comments below and let me know what you think was a good move and what could be considered tragic.
Pick 1) Fantasy Football Trader: Ray Rice
Interesting selection here. It is PPR, so it can be validated. Not sure why it’s not Peterson, but there is the excuse that Arian Foster could be missing some time with a hamstring injury. His rushing totals combined with his receiving totals could mean that Fantasy Football Trader is onto something here.
Pick 2) Late Hit 990: Arian Foster
With Adrian Peterson falling to his lap, I personally would have snatched him up. Foster’s got the injury, but does have tons of value after his insane 2011 campaign.
Pick 3) Fantasy Football Gamers: Adrian Peterson
My number one guy fell all the way to three. Peterson can easily dominate this year since he has a good quarterback behind him and little competition at the running back position. The fact the McNabb likes passing to his receivers is another boost, making this one a great, fortunate pick.
Pick 4) GOAheadScore: Chris Johnson
GOAheadScore has some faith that CJ will be back on the field sooner than later. If Twitter has anything to say about it, I am beginning to disagree. Johnson loves his stat line though and I doubt that he will miss too much time. He’s a risky pick at number 4, but if he does make it back into the lineup early, he could cause some damage.
Pick 5) Pigskin Addiction: Jamaal Charles
Solid player. Huge yardage. Good PPR man. Less competition at the position. And more receivers to make defenses move out of the box. Nothing wrong with Charles at pick 5.
Pick 6) Fans Fantasy Football: LeSean McCoy
He’s the PPR owner’s dream. Lots of receptions and receiving yardage. He’s not too shabby of a running back either. Vick may take some scores away from him. And Ronnie Brown is not ready to give up on his career, at pick 6 though, you can’t complain about solid, consistent numbers from one of the most dynamic offenses in the NFL this season.
Pick 7) Pro Football Focus: Roddy White
A stretch in my opinion, I have receivers ahead of him. But he is the first of them all to be taken in the draft. Last year his PPR numbers were outstanding, but he will be lining up opposite an incredibly gifted rookie in Julio Jones who is looking to take some of those receptions away. He’ll still have a big year, no doubt. But I don’t expect him to live up to his 7th overall billing.
Pick 8) My Fantasy League: Andre Johnson
Johnson is definitely my top receiver and My Fantasy League is fortunate to have grabbed him as the second receiver taken. He was a beast last season despite an injury. He has the potential to absolutely blow up this season when he is healthy. The Texans have an explosive offense with talent all over the field.
Pick 9) Roto Experts: Darren McFadden
The man has a broken face! Did you know that? His face… is broken. And he is still paying football and being taken at pick number 9. He had his big breakout last year and is looking to continue that for an undervalued Raiders offense. He’s got the rushing ability and the PPR value to make him a top 10 pick, for sure.
Pick 10) The Tony Cincotta: Maurice Jones-Drew
Since I knew I would be drafting at pick 12, MJD is the running back that I had my eye on, but he was snatched away a couple picks too soon. He has publically announced that he will prove fantasy footballers wrong by dominating this season. The main worry is that his knee will hold up. If not, his doubters were correct. If it does though, don’t be surprised to see Jones come out firing. The lack of Jags offense is a small concern, but MJD has been dealing with that his entire career.
Pick 11) Big F’n Dynasty Show: Larry Fitzgerald
I definitely had a sigh of relief to see that Fitz was taken over Calvin Johnson here. While his talent is not to be underestimated, there is a good chance that all of this talk of Kolb moving to Arizona could be overhyped. Larry could put up strong numbers, but the support system around him is minimal. The quarterback improved from last year, but most everything else is the same. He doesn’t even have supporting receiver Steve Breaston to take a little heat off him anymore.
Pick 12) God Hates Losers: Calvin Johnson
And we’ve reached my selection. Calvin Johnson. The Lions’ offense is looking completely transformed. Stafford is highly regarded as a huge sleeper and great value pick. Not to mention that Johnson has been one of the highest performing receivers since entering the league. With a nickname like Megatron, you shouldn’t expect anything less. I’m very happy that he fell to 12.

There you have it. I know, last pick, right? They must have heard about me. Let me know what you think of the selections so far. Surprisingly, no quarterbacks were taken in the first round. Perhaps that should be a lesson as this is an “expert” league. I’ll be sure to post the results once the draft ends.

8 comments:

  1. I'm eager to see what your second pick will be, since I assume it's a snaking draft and you're on the clock again. Gonna for for the QB with Rodgers? Or are you going to reach for a RB knowing that it's another 22 picks before you go again. I HATE drafting on the ends! LOL

    I'm also interested to see if the guy who drafted Foster is going to handcuff him to Tate. I'm seriously thinking about dropping McGahee to grab Tate for a couple of weeks.

    On an unrelated note, when do you plan on posting for Week 1 line-up questions? I have some tough individual match-ups that I'm dying to ask you about, but I'm trying to be patient and wait until at least Monday. Mark my words, you'll be sick of me by season's end! :D

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  2. Love drafting on the ends.
    I bet he ideally would go WR-WR and take his chances with the RBs in middle rounds, but since too many WRs are already taken, I'd go with Mendenhall or even Gore.
    Actually, I could havegone for both, because that's not a bad combo at RB.

    Can't criticize the Megatron pick at 12,though.

    Anyway, I'm much more interested in watching in the middle rounds, 5-10.
    That's gotta be interesting.

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  3. Allan got it right on the money. I wanted WR/WR, but couldn't pass on Mendenhall.

    This is a slow draft since all of our schedules are everywhere, but I will keep everyone posted.

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  4. I'll probably wait til Monday or Tuesday to start handing out advice on Week 1. It's still hard to predict two weeks ahead since rosters aren't even set yet and starters will be sitting out all week. Everything should be clearer at the beginning of next week.

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  5. GHL...used your draft advice combined with this article:
    http://bleacherreport.com/articles/828117-2011-fantasy-football-draft-the-best-draft-strategy
    and came out with a sick team.
    A question for you--would you trade Cedric Benson for Brandon Jacobs and Marcedes Lewis? This was just offered to me and I'm not so sure about it. Thanks for the advice!

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  6. Hey,

    Aren't you going to give us the final results of the draft from your experts league?
    I'm curious how it went.

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  7. Its actually still going on. We all have busy schedules, so its taking forever. Hopefully will be ended tomorrow though. So I'll be sure to post it then.

    I'll also be posting one that I did with some friends, including Jordan and Gurgs

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  8. Congrats. Glad youre happy with it and glad we could help!

    It all depends on who your tight end is. I probably wouldnt do it though. Benson is a starter, Jacobs will get looks, but still has Bradshaw to contend with. Lewis is on maybe 2011's worst offense. He's awesome in the red zone and will likely get all the looks there... but how many times are the Jags going to even make the red zone this year?

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