I *will *finish these. Expect Part 4 sometime in November.
RNATB (Nine Inch Neils)
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- (6) Sammy Watkins (NO - WR) [traded to Varlos]
- (9) Devonta Freeman (Atl - RB)
- (18) Austin Seferian-Jenkins (TB - TE)
- (30) Brian Hartline (Mia - WR)
Traded WR DeSean Jackson to Justin Bailey for WR Vincent Jackson
Traded Watkins and 2015 3rd Rounder to Varlos for WR Brandin Cooks and 2015 1st Rounder
**The Good. **The Watkins trade has already been discussed, so Ill just reiterate that the trade itself was a good value, and the scenario that developed overall was preposterous value: just landing Cooks with the 6th overall pick would have been a minor steal, so you essentially picked up an extra 1st Round pick merely by having the consensus top guy fall to you. Devonta Freeman is a pretty good RB lottery ticket as far as these things go, just based on the fact that the starter in Atlanta is almost done. Sefarian-Jenkins is a totally reasonable pick (though I don’t think he’s the superb value you seem to; I see him more as having gone roughly where I would have expected).
The Bad. We must be ever-skeptical of our homerist impulses! Is this really the best move for our team, or are we just biased because of our rooting interest and the fact that we’ve read a lot more stuff about the guys on our teams? IMO, when making these choices we should take our honest evaluation of the player in question and then discount it somewhat in order to correct for bias.
More helpfully, Vincent Jackson is probably about equally as valuable as DeSean overall in dynasty, but I think your team should be trying to go younger instead of older. Same deal with Hartline: a good bet to be a productive WR4 or a non-disastrous WR3 this year (and possibly for a year or two after), but he has zero long-term upside, so for you it would have been best to take one of the interesting rookies still on the board (Sims, White, or Carr, especially). Freeman, as I said, was fine, but still he’s a 4th Round RB, and ultimately those guys are pretty unlikely to break out; I think there was simply much better value at WR (Matthews, Cooks) at that point, especially as WR was a much bigger area of need for you heading into the draft.
**The Overall. A-. **A minor demerit for going old when you should have stayed young, but one can’t deny that you helped your team immensely with this draft.
Hamlet (CuteWiddleBunny)
- (11) Kelvin Benjamin (Car - WR)
- (23) Marqise Lee (Jax - WR)
- (35) Matt Asiata (Min - RB)
The Good. Benjamin has immediate value, which is what you want for an obvious contender, in addition to being a fine long-term value at the 11th pick. Lee may well have been the best player remaining on the board at #23 (even if the early returns in Jax suggest that Allen Robinson will be the WR1 there). I *guess *grabbing Peterson’s handcuff was smart, but, you know, that’s a wasted pick like 90% of the time – I mean, what are the odds?
**The Bad. **Benjamin’s fine, but I do think most factors would argue for Cooks instead: higher-drafted, went to a better offense, three years younger. Benjamin will contribute right away, but so will Cooks. Benjamin does have the upside to be a super-star that Cooks probably lacks, but I don’t the difference as all that big, and anyway Cooks’ upside (Wes Welker, basically) is pretty great in itself. Also, kidding aside, you’re actually pretty well situated to survive an Adrian Peterson injury/suspension – if Jamaal Charles isn’t Out, Asiata really might not crack your starting lineup anyway – so since he’s not going to help you *too *much this year, better to grab a RB who might have long-term value (Sims).
The Overall. B+. Workmanlike, but effective. Just took the useful players who were still on the board.