That’s it for tonight. More tomorrow (probably)
Shit. Can’t believe I missed the draft.
As some of you know, I was in Atlantic City the whole week preceding. I tried to get home late Saturday night/Sunday morning, but having let my family head go home without me (so I could have a few days of gambling without interruption from “love” or “human contact”) I was stuck taking a bus back to New York. This can be tricky, but I’ve got enough experience now that I can typically find a good one (on time, not stuffed). Except this was Labor Day weekend, and the bus schedule was filled beyond capacity.
So, starting at about 4 AM, I wound up bouncing around between the Greyhound station and various casinos, looking for a bus that would show up at (roughly) the appointed time and place, and with enough room. I recognize that it’s considered gauche to speak ill of those who are demonstrably lower than ourselves on the socio-economic ladder, so I won’t go into too much detail, but I do want to say this: Bus People are not good at queuing up. For fuck’s sake, at one point the police were called because of line jumping.
Long story short, I didn’t get on a bus until past 10 AM, and when I got home the long journey back combined with 3 days of Ritalin-fueled poker binging meant I slept right through our draft, and then some. Ugh.
Poker went very well, though.
This one got me giggling, well done.
I noticed this today and it’s emblematic of the kinds of bizarre things that never seem to go my way. I found it interesting, even if it made me more pessimistic about my chances this year.
The combined total of QBs, RBs, WRs, and Flexes who will be on bye when I play their team… is one. Lance Moore, week seven. Only two teams in the league have a total less than five (each have a total of three). I wonder how common such a disadvantage is.
I wonder too how much this actually matters, but it turns out my own bye weeks were accidentally spread out evenly across my skill positions. Basically, this means that I’ll be at a disadvantage is almost every week from 4 through 12.
In case you were wondering, Crabby Hermits is the luckiest team in the league, facing 9 total starting skill positions on byes. Moridwon has an argument though, with the most QBs on bye (3) and seven total skill players on bye.
More draft recaps! These will be necessarily shorter than my usual ones.
There’s a lot I like about the top half of this team. In Peterson, Johnson and Welker you have three of the four players that largely carried me to the championship last year. Cam Newton is far better than my quarterbacks were, too. McFadden, Gonzo and Sproles are solid in the roles you’ll be using them.
Unfortunately, there’s almost nothing I like about the bottom half of this team. Schaub is a fine #2, but you picked him too early. Heyward-Bey is so bad Oakland didn’t bother to re-sign him and he’ll be the third option in Indy at best. Alexander is on IR. James did nothing as a rookie and has no clearer path to playing time now. Thomas is alright, as handcuff fliers go; we still don’t know much about Brandon Miller. Just about the only pick I like is Brandon LaFell. He’s never going to be a star but someone has to catch passes in Carolina and Steve Smith ain’t getting any younger.
Anyway, my conclusion is that you have great starters and awful, no-good, cover-your-eyes depth. You can win this league, but you better hope you don’t have any injuries. B- (note that my grades take into account the benefit you had from your keepers and draft position).
I’m not sure what to make of this team. To start with, I hate Steven Jackson. Michael Turner was not Atlanta’s problem last year. It was their undersized offensive line. Even if he had been the problem, the answer wasn’t another 30 year old with even more carries on his body. The line got worse in the offseason and Jackson is going to bust hard. The one thing in his favor is that he catches the ball well.
Rodgers and Green are obviously studs. Spiller too, although I’m much more cautious about the idea that he can handle a heavy workload.
After that, it gets iffy. I assume you’ll be trotting Shorts or Floyd out as your flex players. Shorts will be okay, but I think you reached on Floyd. I like Rudolph where you got him, and I kind of like the “pick a young AZ wideout because they probably won’t both suck” philosphy. C.
Another mixed bag. In fact, your picks seem to alternate between good and bad most of the way. Martin - yay! Miller - boo (has upside, but we have no idea where his floor is and he’s just not worth a second round pick)! Thomas - yay! Luck - boo (again, overdrafted. He’ll struggle to approach his 2012 yardage numbers)! Richardson - yay! Nelson - yay! Brown - a collossal boo. The guy hasn’t done anything but fumble and run over some tired defenses.
I like the Jeffery pick, for the same reasons as the LaFell pick above, but you probably could have waited a while. I love the Cameron pick, and Sudfeld is an intriguing safety net. The Harvin pick is terrible; even if he was going to be back by Week 7 (he won’t), you’ll have a Sunday morning injury report scramble every week. If you picked him at the end of the draft just for keeper purposes I’d be fine with it. C-.
This is a great draft with one glaring error. Your wide receivers suck. I love the first four picks, and I like Le’Veon Bell. You drafted like I usually do - go all out for running backs, and worry about wideouts later. I usually come out of a draft with at least one bona fide #1 WR, though in fairness I don’t usually come out with a Drew Brees. Justin Blackmon can be a #1 - he was something like third in points per game over the second half of last season - but what the hell are you going to do for the first four weeks? Jeremy Kerley? Erk.
You compounded your WR issue by picking non-WRs and prospects all through the middle rounds. Bell was a total luxury pick. With three stud RBs you didn’t really need to spend heavily on backups. Manuel wasn’t a luxury pick, he was just a waste. No matter how well he plays this year he’s not going to start more than one game for you. Crabtree is a great keeper prospect but also won’t be available until season’s end. I don’t like that you went for a defense early, especially the one you took.
I don’t like your TE, either. Fleener and Dwayne Allen aren’t Gronknandez, and they put up #1 TE numbers only as a unit. Celek will probably outproduce him. I’ll admit I’m a little jealous of the Woods and Robinson picks. Having said that, we’ve seen a hundred guys bust at the position in Buffalo, and Jacksonville is not exactly the team I want my “offensive weapon” playing for. I’m also a little jealous of Bell as a potential fourth round keeper, considering I had to spend early to get Bernard. Given all that I can’t really downgrade you that much for temporary weakness at one position. B+, though this would be an A if you traded Wilson for a stud WR.
More to come later.
Yeah, that was a brutal draft I had. I was totally out of date on training camp news - had no idea Alexander was out for the year or that James is out several weeks. I still think people are a little hard on the Schaub pick - he was the last in a group I had ranked together (Flacco, Ben, Cutler, Palmer) and all the rest had gone in the last two rounds. I think he’s clearly better than Alex Smith or Ryan Tannehill, to name two that went after him.
On the early rounds, Spiritus read my thinking exactly right. There was nothing decent to take at RB at my two picks at the rounds 2/3 turn, so I went WR/WR. I don’t quite get the dislike I heard for my Welker pick - he’s certainly got a better QB throwing to him then the rest of the WRs that went in round 3.
When my pick in round 4 came up, I had to go RB, since my next non-keeper pick was the end of round 8. I was faced with the exact same pool of RBs that I looked at at the end of round 2 (the only RB who went in round 3 was Ridley, a keeper). Perhaps Ryan Matthews would have been a better choice than McFadden, but I’m not so sure.
I left before the last three rounds, and since I hadn’t pre-ranked any kickers I wound up with Graham. No biggee, I’ll sign someone on Thursday. Happy with the ARIZ defense, and since I drafted 6 WRs the Alexander goof isn’t going to cripple me.
9 was a tough spot to draft this year - the dropoff to the 2nd (or 3rd if you put AP by himself) tier of studs. I don;t care for Richardson as a plaer, but for fantasy you can forget about the 3.6 YPC and recognize he is a stud with nobody behind him that gets the gal line carries as well. I might have looked for a little more upside with Forte, CJ2K, or MJD - but can’t fault you for teh low-risk choice at 1.9.
Love Julio in round 2. I believe he will smooth out his boom/bust pattern, and the upside is very high. Graham as a keeper in round 3 was about the right place, but that puts you into the “no good option” land for an RB2. Another reason to like the un-sexy Richardson in Round 1.
Round 4 - okay, so this is where “no good option” shouldn’t be read as “don’t even try”. The folks on the board all had holes, but many of them could have paired with Richardson to give you a respectable RB combo. Instead you passed on Law Firm, Richarson, Matthews, Bradshaw, even shudder Williams and McFadden. To overdraft Russel Wilson. Here’s another player I love as a player but not as a fantasy stud. Some interesting stats abotu Wilson’s rookie year: 0 300 yd passing games, 9 under 200 yd passing games. His fantasy numbers are boosted by his runs, but 3 of his 5 rushing TD’s came in 1 game. He isn’t running a lot of options inside the 5. I think Wilson more than either RGIII or Luck is being overvalued in fantasy this year.
Rounds 5 & 6 - you draft more WR. Jackson may be good value at 5 with Maclin out, but he hasn’t broekn 1,000 & 6 for 3 years and no longer adds significant value in the kicking game. I like Hilton in 6 a bit more. Real upside potential, though it looks like he will be on the bench for 2 WR sets because of his blocking deficiencies. Unlikey to be worth a 4 next year, but decent flyer for this year exccept . . .
Round 7 - you remember “Hey - don’t we play 2 RB in this league?” Having gone past even the RBBC phase of the draft you grab Bernard Pierce. Not the worst bye-week sub or desperation flex guy available, but you are locking yourself in to his sub-5 points /game each and every week from the RB2 spot. This is a perfect example of the “draft a team not just players” rule - you know, the one you forgot. Each of your first 6 picks was a defensible value pick as a player, but it has left you with a bleeding wound that will hamper you all season. (It also guaratees you will play a WR in your flex all year, with all the boom/bust potential that brings.)
I love Thompkins in round 8. If Hillman does rise to teh top of the Denver RBB3 you might have found a savior, but he only had 3 games last year with more than 50 total yds, is too small for goal line work, and has a funbling problem. Hey - I took Ball in round 5 so you already know how I think the workload is going to wind up. But I’ve been wrong before, so if you actually hit on Hillman it would really save you draft. But having Ronnie Hillman be the lynchpin to your season should make you be very ascared.
For teh rest - took a kicker too early, a Weeden too early, a Broyles about right (though he is a little over-hyped), Pead too arly (as in - ever), a DEF, a special teams RB who isn’t even 2[sup]nd[/sup] man behind the ambulance, and second TE for reasons I cannot fathom. Do you think he is going to emerge from teh Thomas, Welker, Decker, and a big slow guy group to be next year’s fantasy gold?
Keepers - Hillman if you hit on him, but you didn’t. Pierce if the ambulance comes in. Pead if the ambulance comes in and runs over both Cunningham and Stacy. Thompkins.
Yeah - really it is just Thompkins.
Bleh. Bleh, I say. Can’t go wrong with Ray Rice, though in a non-PPR league his ceiling is relatively low. I always approve of high-floor picks in the first rounds, though. After that, things get iffy. Lacy is an injury risk, and plays for a team that never tries to runs the ball and fails when it does try. He was drafted at least a full round too early, probably more. Even if he does blow up, you can’t keep him. Redman will be a useful flex player for you for two weeks if you’re lucky. Woodhead was a much better selection and a much better value.
V-Jax is a #1 WR in a non-PPR league, so nothing wrong with that pick. Moore very quietly had a thousand yard season last year but he’s never done it before and in all likelihood he’ll never do it again. He’s a #3, not a #2. Austin, Patterson and Hill have huge collective upside but considering your weak starters you probably should have swapped one of them for a guy who’s produced at the NFL level.
Romo is a perfectly serviceable #1 fantasy QB and it was a long drop to the next guy if you didn’t take him where you did. I don’t like Tannehill as a player for this year, but you picked him late enough to have some keeper value next season.
I liked Gresham as a low-end TE1 right up until the Bengals drafted Tyler Eifert. He’s not going to be splitting out wide or lining up in the backfield, so his ceiling is basically 500 yards. There were better options left on the board.
I do like the sneaky Tampa Bay pick, otherwise known as “who’s playing the Jets week 1”, and you can’t go wrong with Sea Bass. Those picks saved you from a D. C-.
I usually don’t like Dave’s drafts. Then his team beats mine to death with its purse.
Forte has slightly higher than normal upside this year (which is to say not much), but has the highest floor of any guy going in this end of the round. Bush was quietly productive in a Miami offense that had no credible receiving threats, so he has huge upside sharing a field with Megatron. As for your third RB… oh, you haven’t got one. Erk. Not handcuffing Bush was pretty inexcusable, considering how little roster space you are devoting to running backs. Keep your fingers crossed, because Helu and Reece are worthless absent injuries.
You really, really like Miles Austin. I’m not sure why, especially with Le’Veon Bell still on the board when you picked. I like the Jones/Nicks tandem but neither had 1000 yards last year and you might not see either do it this year. Of course, Givens and Brown could both do it so kudos for those picks. Jones, too.
I assume you’re hoping either Dalton or Flacco will have a breakout year. Flacco has produced about the same numbers for three years and I think we’ve already seen what he’s capable of. Dalton, much as I like him, just ain’t a deep ball chucker.
Witten is just okay in a non-PPR league. Bennett is a guy you could have picked up on waivers if you needed someone else, and you’ll probably be dropping him yourself.
I admire the fact that you made your homer picks at zero-risk spots - backup QB, kicker and #5 WR. I really fucking hate your team, though. D-.
Okay - I understand where the De Bryant love comes from. And since I have romo this year I even hope you are right. But this is another draft that took a chance at teh beginning and then doubled down on RB weakness in the later rounds. And then tripled down. Hey - if you love a stud WR or QB and want to grab him at the end of round 1 - I have no problem with that. But you have to pay for that choice by focus on RB in the following rounds. And no - 1 pick does not count as focus.
Gore was your best choice in round 2, no doubt. But wear and tear needs to be a concern. There is a reason the Niners keep backfilling young RBwith potential behind him. I like teh pick, but it begs for bench strength behind.
RGIII - Good pick in itself. QB’s went early this year, and he is a strong scorer. Soem concern that his running numbers decline as they hold him back a little. No RB’s went off the board in Round 3 so your gamble to hold off another round paid off.
And then you tripled down. Davis is a horrible pick in Round 4. He produced mediocre umbers with Kaepernick except for the playoff run. The idea that he will get all the targets not going to Crabtree ignores the reality of the SF offense. You just spent a 4th round pick on an 8 year vet who had 41 catches last season. That would be bad enough, but when you compound it with the reality that going into round 5 your only back is Frank Gore your draft is really going off the tracks. Oh well, at least you were lucky and had LeVeon Bell fall to you in Round 5. Richardson or Law Firm would have been better, but at once Bell returns he can . . .
Wait, what? Quadruple down on the “we don’t need no stinkin’ runners” strategy? Wow. Kenny Britt. Yeah - you got him. Wheeeeee.
Round 6 - guess it is time to pick whichever of teh bad backs for NYJ that I don’t think will suck. I know, I’ll go for the guy who was 4[sup]th[/sup] on the Saints depth chart because he’s never carried a full load, has been dinged in preseason, is averaging 2.0 YPC behind teh Jets line, and will come off hte field on 3[sup]rd[/sup] downs. See - this is what you find yourself doing when you neglect RB for 5 of the first 6 rounds. But atleast oyu then buffered teh position with:
[ul][li]the mediocre back that even teh Jets gave up on who is now hoping to vulture short TD’s from CJ1K. [/li][li]The Lions 3[sup]rd[/sup] down back - oh, wait. They have Reggie Bush now. Wonder how often he will come off the field for 3[sup]rd[/sup] down?[/li][li]whomever you can nab off the waiver wire [/ul][/li]Wow - there is significant competition fo rthe worst set of backs in teh league this year, but you are in the mix. Maybe even one of the favorites.
Oh, and the real killer is that you had Victor Cruz as a high value keeper in Round 11. You didn;t need to go all-in for receivers in the early rounds. Bryant-Cruz gave you a potent WR combo. RGIII is a stud QB. If you had simply ffocused on solid RB prospects in 3 of the remaining early rounds you might have the team to beat. Instead you got Vernon Davis and a weekly coin flip between Jennings and Britt to be your flex. That wouldn;t be so bad until you need to click the button beside Chris Ivory or Joique Bell every week.
Backup QB with possible upside in about the right place. Check.
DEF - don’t like pulling a DEF early, but SF is a sound one. I assume the second DEF was a late round autodraft. If not, please smack youself in the face with a fish.
K in Round 16. Check.
Keepers - Think you kept Cruz last year, too, so he will be gone. Maybe Dobson becomes teh new guy in NE. Maybe Chip Kelly desides that TE is where his new explosive offense is going to have a real positional advantage. I woundn’t bet hard on either, but like Dobson more because of who throws it to him.
Hey - someone who went RB-RB at the top. I feel so nostalgic all of a sudden. I actually like this pair quite a bit. Forte still has a little upside, and Bush should thrive in the Lions offense. Solid start.
Nicks-Jones-Austin. I like your strategy here, since QB is deep and TE is essentially undifferentiated after the top few. Not a huge fan of your specific choices. If you had gone Wayne-Brown-Austin/Stevie Johnson (all available at your picks I would like teh group better. Still, sound strategy and maybe Nicks really does become a WR1. Your lineup pretty much guarantees you will be starting at laest 3 WR every week.
Witten - not a bad pick, last of the “difference maker” TE in round 6. Respectable pick,but you still have no depth at RB. Still no QB
Givens-Brown. Unfortunately it’s teh wrong Brown. Hey - Rivers needs to throw it to somebody, but “last guy standaing” is always a “for now” designation. Givens is a solid pick, though. Could outperform any of your top 3 this year. Bu shoring up WR3/4 wasn’t really your biggest need.
Dalton-Flaco. Well, you held to strategy and picked 2 middle-of-the-pack QB’s. I assume you will play matchups all year. Good luck with that. Flaco has no upside left that I can see. Dalton has a little, though. I would have trusted your keeper and looked for RB production to bolster your starters. But thanks for passing on Woodhead for me. That was a solid.
Helu. Okay, I get it- finally realized that you an’t go through the season with only 2 RB’s. Better late than never. Not much better, though. I’ll be amazed if Helu and Reese are on yoru final roster.
Round 12 - Martellus Bennet. Really? Because you needed a backup TE now for the Witten bye week? Yes, pickings are slim this deep but you really needed to go fishing for some more RB hopes and dreams. Quizz, Thomas, Tolbert, Davis were all on the board. I don;t love any of them, but they all would have given you more than a backup TE at this point.
DEF & a kicker. Check
Keepers. In a perfect world Givens may justify a 5 next year. That’s about it.
You’re right, this team has no chance. I’ll play the season out, but I don’t even have TV now so I won’t be able to watch games, just follow up on the scores. I’m not sure I’ll have internet access soon.
MJD @ pick 12 is strong. A health risk for sure, but hard to avoid that this deep into the RB pool. Your keeper strength @ RB means you can accept teh risk. Ridley, Wilson, and MJD are a studly RB & Flex combo, even though I am not a Wilson fan. You had a head start, but solid beginning by any measure.
Brees in 2 is where you went wrong. Not the pick itself (though I think a little high for Brees) but again - you are drafting a team not just a player. With rounds 3 and 4 committed to keepers, you would by waiting until round 5 before grabbing your first QB, WR, or TE. Out of that set, WR is clearly the position with the largest drop off before round 5. You should have gone WR here.
Look - this is a strong team, but you could have been dominant with those RB keepers. Here is what you could have had through round 7:
- (12) Maurice Jones-Drew
- (17) Julio Jones
- (40) Stevan Ridley
- (56) David Wilson
- (57) Steve Smith
- (73) Jason Witten
- (85) Vick/Manning
That’s a front 7 that would have any opponent worried. Hell, if you really believe in LeVeon Bell as a keeper prospect you could have grabbed Fred Davis in 8 and still been damned scary.
As it is, you have a good starting unit, but weaker than you should be at TE and especially WR given your keepers. I don;t personally like teh flyers you took for keeper value at teh end, but rookies are a crap shoot and your toll is as good as mine before they start keeping score. Crabtree is a nice keeper stash, but you don’t have the WR strength to afford him in that round. You’ll die by rookie until Blackmon comes back, but then have a good shot every week.
But you could have been a monster.
Wow - that’s sad. Watching football is the best part of my weekend for teh next 4 months.
Wow - that’s sad, too. 
Seriously - hope things turn around for you (but not your team - I’m counting on you to keep me out of the basement this year.)
Thanks for doing the draft recap. I’m glad this league has a pretty high participation on these, because they’re really fun to read. So I appreciate it, even though I have to point some pretty glaring inconsistencies.
First, I’m going to leave this here:
Guess which one was taken two rounds before the other? There’s no way Harvin lasts another couple rounds with Crabtree going so early, tipping off the entire league to start looking for the injured keepers. I don’t expect I’ll ever start Harvin this season, but I’ll almost certainly be keeping him in round 9 next season, which is incredible value if it works out.
About Bryce Brown…
Week 12: vs Car - 19att / 178yds / 2TDs. Carolina had one extra day of rest
Week 13: @ Dal - 24att / 169yds / 2TDs. Dallas had two extra days of rest
Looking at your recaps, I think you aren’t factoring in what other options were available when a player was taken. Looking back, there wasn’t a single other RB available who will get carries without an injury. Christine Michael and Ben Tate went the round before. McCoy is the lead guy, but I’m thinking that the up-tempo offense in Philly will lead to Brown getting a fair share of the touches. It would only take 6-10 touches a week to have spot start value at flex. If McCoy goes down, he has RB1 potential.
As far as Miller and Luck go, I’m not a huge fan of either pick and I generally agree with your projection of their upcoming season. I reached on both because I waited on RB2 last season and it killed my team. Then round 4 comes up and four or five teams need a QB and only three left (Luck, Romo, Wilson) before there’s a huge dropoff. Hindsight being perfect, I could have had a much better team if I played the 2-5 picks differently, but I think that perfect scenario was really unlikely, and a single piece of it falling apart would have ruined my season. Fair points though, thanks for the review!
I don’t normally try to cross post about leagues in different threads, but I had 2 last minute cancellations in the big league and I need replacements quickly. Draft is tonight at 8:45 eastern, but you probably have to join the league an hour before then. The league is really interesting - 20 teams spreads the talent really thin, it’s definitely fun. If you’re interested PM me your e-mail and I’ll send out the invite - be at your computer this afternoon.
Jackson in Round 1 scares me. Of course, so did most of teh alternatives at that spot. Great player, might have 1 more strong year in him. High floor unless he gets injured. No arguments with this pick.
Rodgers in round 2. Solid pick given the luxury of your keepers.
Wayne in Round 4. ALso a solid pick given keepers. I like Wayne to have a couple more strng years.
Green - Spiller as keepers. I hate you a little bit right now, on a deeply personal level.
So through 5 rounds you have a monster lineup, QB, RB1&2, WR1 &2. You playd well to your keeper strength and have the best top 5 of anyone in the league.
Rounds 6-7 you went WR=WR. I would have done RB in at least one, probably 6 for Ingram or Bell. RB3 is a harder spot to find value than WR3. That said, I do like Shorts a lot this year. But Floyd was too high in 7. I think Roberts might end up hte better WR2 in ARI. Grabing him at the end was a nice play, but expect both to sit comfortably on your bench for at least 6 weeks until the distribution of targets becomes clear.
Round 8 you finally address RB3. Moreno looks to be 3[sup]rd[/sup] down back only for an RBB3 DEN team that also has Welker to suck up the 3[sup]rd[/sup]-and-6ish targets. You would have been much better with Ingram at 6 and best-available WR in 7 & 8.
Round 9 - the other mediocre back in NYJ. I expect he will be more productive than Ivory, but will be surprised if either crack the top 40 RB scorers this year. That offense is going to suck hard and long. And not in a good way.
Rudolph in about teh right place, though he was horribly up and down for a “top” TE scorer. Will win you a couple games and produce 0 in a few more.
Smith is a reasonable backup QB in 11.
DEF too early.
Donnie Avery about right - if you drink the Andy Reid Kool Aid.
Franklin too ever.
Kicjer. Check.
And Roberts as a flyer that I like in 16.
So a monster top 5 but nothing special behind. You played your keeper value better than Fighting Quakers, but faltered a bit by overstocking WR depth before RB depth. As faults go that isn’t a big one. You look like the team to beat right now. Of course, if Jackson shows his age or Spiller srumbles under heavy load, you will be in trouble.
Keepers: Roberts if he wins second chair in ARI. Shorts if he overtakes Blackmon for value, but I dont think that’s likely. Powell if he wins NYJ job and then actually does anything with it. Franklin if pigs sprout wings. Can you keep Spiller another year? If so he makes this all look much better. If not - ugh. Good thing you have a good shot at winning it all this year.
CJ1.2K in round 1. No argument. Marshall on the turn is dicey because of the annual RB run in rounds 1-2. I think you would have been better with Bush or Gore (just not Bush v. Gore, please shudder) and then a WR1 in round 3. There were several likely to be available for you. Mendenhall is good value for a flex RB in round 5, but he is not a reliable RB2.
QB early is a problem with Marshall in Round 2 and no other backs. Matty Ice is creamy and delivcious, but not sure he wil pay you back for the wkness in RB.
Bernard + Mendenhall keeper for RB depth. Baout the best you could do at this point if you believe in Bernard. I don’t. I fell for teh Hard Knocks Bengals backupRB named Bernard (Scott) once - never again. You should have gone Richardson, Ball, or even LeVeon Bell here. But I may be being unfair to Bernard. Some scars heal slowly.
Love Stevie Johnson pick, and Williams as solid keeper value here. More evidence that an RB instead of Marshall in round 2 might have been the better play.
Pierrre Thomas. Well, I always seem to love thomas more than the Saints do. He’s a nice emergency play any week, but will never give you RB2 numbers and rarely (unpresictably) RB3/Flex production. Still, a good pick for round 8.
Freemen too high with this keeper, though I expect him to have a stronger year.
Decent value picks the rest of the way. Randle gets more hype than I understand, but you didn;t overpay. I like Ballard quite a bit, since I don;t trust Bradshaw to stay healthy. Don’t really get the Brandon Myers love, but good luck with him. Stewart is a nice flyer late, though he could wind up done for good.
Stepfan Taylor - well, at least you didn’t go for Alfonso Smith. I suppose a handcuff dor Mendenhall makes sense, but it’s a crapshoot behind him. I haven;t watched any ARI preseason games though, so aybe you know something I don’t. Stats say he is averaging under 4 YPC with no big bursts despite more than 40 touches.
Top to bottom you look like a strong contender, but RB2 will be your achilles heel.
Keepers: Don;t see Bernard being worth a 2 next year. Steveie Johnson may be worth a 4, though, if BUF finds an NFL QB. If you are right about Brandon Myers then he may be worth a 10 next year, but I doubt it. If Stewart comes back healthy he is obviously your best bet - if you can keep the dead weight on your roster all year.
Okay - that’s it for me. If I have teh time, I’ll turn teh critical eye to my own draft shortcomings tomorrow.
We disagree on Lacy. We’ll find out soon enough who is correct, but I was ecstatic to grab him with pick 26. I was scared for a moment I’d have to choose between Miller, Matthews, and Richardson. With Lacy on the boar and lots of WR1 to grab around teh corner this was a no brainer for me.
Agree on your WR comments. I’m fine, though not ecstatic, with Moore. That was teh price I payed for grabbing Romo before the 2nd tier QBs ran out and then tossing my chip in teh DEN RBB3 sweepstakes. But I was zeroed in on BLackman at the top of Round 7, and when he got nabbed 2 spots before me I grabbed desperately for Austin based on return potential, e tc. etc. Bah - just a bad pick in that spot. Patterson is who I have highest hopes for this year, but if I;m playing 3WR before the half way mark it will eb a long season for me. The young guys are all potential, return yards, and keeper value.
Disagree on Gresham’s value. He’s a beast in teh run game so is not coming off the field on first or second down. Eifert takes away more slot receiver looks than teh meat and potatoes Gresham dines on. He has limited upside but I;m fine with him as teh 13th TE off the board. If I were a Brandon Myers believer, I couldhave gone that way, but wasn’t anyone else that gave me pause.
Not sure where you are grading down to a D (before Seabass and teh anti-Jets). Only position you seemed down on was WR2. Coming from a 0 keeper start I can live with that, especially considering how many teams in this league have glaring weaknesses at RB.