Last week CREATiVESPORTS Football Editor and my friend (and often competitor) started off his article by mentioning where our teams in the standings. That was a great idea, so I decided to do this week before I get to my discussion. I have often wrote that my competition in a league like the NFFC takes the game much more seriously than the industry leagues I play in because writers are always looking for new angles. When you are playing for $100,000, everybody has the same focus.
Lori Rubinson and Brian Walton (New York #2), 2-1-0, 438.15 pts., #74 Overall
Mark Meltzer (Tampa Bay #1), 1-2-0, 381.55, 381.55 pts., #226 Overall
JP Kastner (Chicago #4), 2-1,0, 447 pts., #53 Overall
In my last article, three weeks ago, I outlined my strategy for the draft. I determined it based upon the CREATiVESPORTS projections in the draft kit. Ideally, my draft would be RB, RB, TE or WR, QB, RB, WR, WR, WR, WR, QB, DEF, Depth, Kicker.
I went into the draft with that as my plan. I was fortunate that my plan worked almost perfectly. Here is who I drafted:
#1 Travis Henry RB
#2 Ronnie Brown RB
#3 Antonio Gates TE
#4 Tony Romo QB
#5 Chester Taylor RB
#6 Jerricho Cotchery WR
#7 Chris Chambers WR
#8 Eddie Kennison WR
#9 James Jones WR
#10 Brett Favre QB
#11 Heath Miller TE
#12 Jacksonville Jaguars DEF
#13 Dwayne Bowe WR
#14 Lorenzo Booker RB
#15 Antwaan Randle El WR
#16 Stephen Gostkowski K
#17 Byron Leftwich QB
#18 Brandon Stokley WR
As my #1 running back, Travis Henry has the opportunity to do very well in Denver. He needs to stay healthy. I know that people were down on Ronnie Brown. While he won't rush for 1000 yards, his soft hands means that he might get 500 yards receiving. He is too much of a threat for the Dolphins not to use him, so I ignored the talk that he might not start. It is just a bunch of hype, and you are seeing what Brown can do.
At this point, something interesting happened. No running backs were taken for the next twelve picks. Only wide receivers and two quarterbacks were taken. I talked with some of the other owners in my league after the draft and they felt that I made a big mistake drafting two running backs right away. Chicago 2006 champion, Rob Benetti, who is in my league even commented that he was happy that I took two running backs. He liked when his competitors made mistakes. I'm sure he didn't know I was a writer and that I would probably write about the conversation.
Now, I know that there is a feeling in the Fantasy Football world that once the good running backs are taken in the first round, you should be picking wide receivers only. I've even heard people say that maybe we should stop drafting running backs in the first round. I just shake my head. The reason why we draft running backs first is that there are only so many of them. It is scarcity that drives the market.
I took advantage of the round three twist and took the first tight end. Gates is the Tomlinson of tight ends. There is such a difference between #1 and #2. I was only too happy to take him with my third round pick. My goal for the forth round was to take a quarterback. I was hoping that Tom Brady would drop to me. Alas, the guys I wanted weren't there, so I had to make a decision. I looked at the wide receivers and running backs left. I looked at when I had another draft pick, as I had to wait twenty-one picks. I decided to stick with my game plan and pick a quarterback. I took Tony Romo.
I then took four wide receivers in a row all with some upside.
Round 10 meant quarterback. Brett Favre was there. He is an ideal backup as he never misses a game, so I don't need a #3 quarterback.
At round #11, I was to take a team defense. Well, there wasn't a run on defenses yet, so I decided to wait one more round. Heath Miller was there and I was confident that he would have a better season than last year. With the injury problems I have had, I've been starting two tight ends.
My only mistake was Lorenzo Booker. I was ignoring the Ronnie Brown controversy,however I felt that I should have some protection if he did loose his starting job. I could have done much better there.
I drafted Leftwich purely on speculation that he might be a starter when he was signed.
As you can see, the team is doing very well. I'm second in my league in points. The team that beat me in week two had a monster of a game, but I was still close enough to make it competitive. Now I have to deal with a bye week, so I have some decisions to make.
You can also see right away is that I suffered from the injury bug. I lost WR Eddie Kennison on the very first play of the season and RB Chester Taylor soon after. The Eddie Kennison injury isn't too much of a big deal because he'll be back in a couple of weeks and I have Dwayne Bowe who has replaced him.
The loss of Chester Taylor much more problematic. Adrian Peterson has played very well. The only hope I have is that the concerns Brad Childress has about Peterson's blocking means that Taylor will get the starting job back once he is healthy. Childress held Peterson on the bench for the final two minutes last Sunday when the Vikings needed all their best players because of concerns about his poor pass protection.
Week Four is the first week I have to deal with a bye week. I have enough depth to deal with injuries, but I don't have enough to deal with injuries and a bye week. This week I loose Antwaan Randle El and the Jacksonville Jaguars defense. I need to drop two player to make room. Fortunately, this is easy for me as the choices are obvious. I will drop Leftwich and Lorenzo Booker.
I will pick up a second defense for the week and drop them once this week is done. For the NFFC, I will bid on every single defense available in order of how badly I want them until I get one. Technically, this is all I need to do, but I need to add another running back that might get some reps or some receiving yards for week #6 when Travis Henry has a bye week.
So, this week I'll be studying all the available running backs and try to find someone to help me, because one thing I've learned about the NFFC, you cannot wait until the last minute to find someone.
JP Kastner is the winner of the 2007 Strat-O-Matic Baseball Online Expert League World Series. In five seasons of SOMBOE, JP Kastner has five winning seasons, four playoff appearances, three World Series appearances and now one World Championship. He is in his second season in the Tout Wars mixed league.