my draft is tuesday… I have the last pick in the first round… 1st in the second and so on… 12,13,36,37,50,51…etc
I want to draft 2 solid RB’s for my first and second round picks… but I would think everyone in the league will draft a RB ahead of me…
I hope that Ahman green and Travis Henry will slip down and grab them… but if they are taken What do you think of E. James this year? What about 2 all purpose backs (barber, Garner)
If any one of Moss, Harrison or Owens are still on the board should I grab one of them? and the best available back?
If I go RB,WR in the first and second rounds…
I will probably go RB,QB… unless shockey is still on board…
Then I will take Shockey and best available back… and hope I can grab Bledsoe, Garcia, or maybe McNair?
I need some help… This is a money league… so I would appreciate any advice…
Depends on the scoring in your league. Depends on the starting rosters. (Do you start 1 RB? 2? 2 QBs?) How does your defense score? In one of my leagues, the Bucs defense was the highest scoring entity last year (as points are awarded for sacks, interceptions, fumbles recovered, and points against). However, a defense wasn’t taken this year until the 7th round, because there was not a huge dropoff in performance from the first-tier defenses and the rest.
Be flexible, too. If you plan on drafting two RBs but the first eleven picks are all RBs, then you may want to get a top-flight QB or WR and get a RB later – everyone else will already have a RB, and you can get an equivalent one at your leisure.
I’m assuming you have to start a TE in your weekly lineup. They don’t tend to be huge performers, with a few exceptions. I’d pick Bubba Franks over Shockey anyway, as Franks is more of a redzone threat and last year could be counted on for a touchdown each week, pretty much. Don’t be in a rush to get one.
I’d suggest not even taking a QB until a late round (7-10) and then taking two back to back. In my keeper league, I ended up with Warner and Plummer with late picks, intending to just play the weekly matchup unless one of them turns into a stud. If you can’t get Gannon / Manning / Culpepper / McNabb, then you’re pretty much okay with anyone else, at any time in the draft. (And don’t forget about taking Vick! He’ll slide due to his injury, but will probably be back in October. It’d be nice to have him pop into your weekly roster at that point.)
And so on and so forth. Just remember that your initial draft, while important, is not the most important thing. Being able to react to trades and drops of other players is influential as well.
I think that Buckhalter will get more touches than Duce. Take him late if he’s available, but don’t count on much from him. Charlie Rogers, imo, will be an average performer - not topflight, but hey, I’ve been wrong before.
Depending on who goes when in the draft, I’d think about RB, RB, WR, WR, RB, WR, QB, QB, D, K, TE. If there’s a run on RBs at the start, then maybe grab a top QB/WR with your 12/13 picks.
Along with Vick, consider getting Michael Bennett with a late pick. He’s on the physically-unable-to-perform list which keeps him out until midseason, and he may be too injured to play at all this season, but he’s a potential sleeper RB for the last half of the season.
I’m a big believer the TE is one of the big keys to a draft. There are a top three for example this year.(Gozonalez, Schockey, and Heap) and then a bunch of guys who suck(in fantasy terms). A non premeire TE can quickly get taken out of the game plan completely and become a 0 point getter. And the third TE drafted may get 4 times the points of the fifth TE drafted. Whereas the 15th RB will probably get 80% of the points of the 20th.
Defense is the same way especially in a league with negative points for DEF, where the top couple are much better than the next tier.
It’s hard to put into exact strategy terms, but if you see one DEF or TE that you want, and 5 RB or(WR) that you consider pretty much equal on potential, look at the TE and DEF carefully depending on how many picks to your next round, and how likely one of the 5 RB will still be there.
Green should be there, but I certainly would NOT count on Henry or Edge to be there at all. I have them at 8 (Edge) and 9 (Henry). Players that have fallen a lot this year in the early rounds are Stephen Davis and Jamal Lewis.
As for WR at 12 or 13, I would only pick up Harrison if he’s there. Moss will put up similar numbers, but not first round numbers. Owens is in for a suprise this year with Garcia semi-hurt, and with a new coach to piss off. There is absolutely no QB on the board I would take with those picks. I wouldn’t even take 2001 Warner.
Corey Dillon is a solid starter who puts up pretty good numbers on a pretty bad team and he is consistently overlooked. If he is still available I would have no qualms snatching him up.
I’m a big big big believer in getting 2 good RBs early in the draft. I’d never take a WR in the first round, even TO or Moss. There are just too many good WRs available in round 5 - 10 that will put up excellent and consistent numbers. The consistency of RBs is very valuable in a fantasy line-up.
I picked 12th in a 12 team draft just like you in my one non-SDMB money league. I really wanted to get LT, but besides that I was thrilled to be picking where I was. It depends on the scoring of your league and the wisdom of the players. Often in less competitive/serious leagues players will take popular or local players early, and quality RBs can tend to slide alot. That was the case in my league with guys like Gannon, McNabb and TO going in the first round. I ended up getting Edge and Henry as my first two picks. I was pretty happy about that. I don’t think its impossible to see either of them, and guys like Deuce or Green sliding to you. Whatever the case I think that there are certainly 10 first rond worthy RBs. Trust that they all won’t go except in the most RBs geared leagues. Since you don’t start a Flex RB/WR spot, then you could be fine going with a RB and a QB/WR and grabbing a middle tier RB in rounds 3/4. Guys like Duce, Buckhalter would be a reach there, but Tiki, Fred Taylor, Garner or Eddie George are there take them for sure. Honestly, I don’t think any of those second tier guys will be there in round 3/4 for you if there’s that big a run on them in the first.
In short, my advice would be to go RB/RB in those picks no matter what. If McNabb is there and the best RB left is Garner or Tiki, then take him, but otherwise go for the best 2 RBs on the board. Alot of the time having 2 middle tier RBs is better than having one elite one and one lower tier one. Often you’re in the best part of the draft for the first two rounds. I think a WR in those rounds is a waste.
One thing to do is just count them out. Rank out the top 11 RBs - that’s the worst case scenario of who will be gone by the time it gets to you.
LT, Portis, Ricky Williams, Alexander, Holmes, Faulk, Deuce, Edgerrin and Travis Henry are a reasonable list of the top 9. After that, you’ve got a group of Dillon, Barber, A. Green, S. Davis, Taylor and Jamal Lewis. Take your two favorites out of that group - say Green and Dillon. Could you live with Barber and Davis? Or Lewis?
Of course, like Omni says. odds are it won’t come to that. Someone will probably take Owens and Harrison before it gets to you, and depending of the quality of your league, you may get an oddball pick or two, like McNabb.
I had 14 and 15 in a 14 team draft earlier ths week - I ended up with Dillon and Jamal Lewis. Owens and Harrison were the only non-RBs taken before me. Those two were the only non-RBs I would have considered taking, BTW…
Final piece of advice - wait on QBs. Get at least 3 RBs and 2 WRs and possibly even a top TE before even thinking about a QB. There are plenty of good starters - Favre and Brooks went round 6 in our draft, and Tom Brady in round 8.
A little tip on YAHOO! auto-draft leagues - the system will draft all your starters before taking a back-up. You can get around this (if you don’t mind having low level TEs/Ks/DEFs) by putting all TEs, Ks and DEFs on your ignore list. So instead of the system taking your TE/DEF/K you can trick it into taking your RB3. (You can also pull guys like Shockey, Gonzalez into your draftable list so you can still have a shot at them.)
