Puddles said:
I was hoping Rice would fall to me at 5th last night. That could only happen if someone took Vick in the top 4, or if the guy picking 4th went with a cheatsheat that had Charles at #4, but sadly it didn't happen. I think Rice is in for a huge year.
I could have had Rice in a 3rd league (which was auction) except the draft got reset early on (after I'd already bet on and secured Rice) due to a glitch and I was effectively priced out in the second go-around so I ended up settling for 400+ touch Mendenhall. Thankfully that league is an 8-teamer with plenty of wire depth so I can recover quickly if he breaks down (plus I think Redman can excel with more touches).
NO QUITTERS 3 DRAFT ANALYSIS
Incidentally, I prayed to the draft gods right around 9pm for an early draft slot. I asked for 4th or 5th. I looked down to my screen to see Slot 4. Needless to say they were smiling down on me.
Round 1 -
Ray Rice
I would have taken Rice ahead of both ADP and Foster, incidentally. I was having an internal argument with myself between CJ and Rice when Ku Klux Klams made my decision for me. My biggest dilemma would have been if Foster's hammy had him sliding down to Pick 4 after ADP, CJ and Rice. I would have had to think long and hard between him and Charles and it would not have been fun.
Round 2 -
Mike Wallace
As noted above, Wallace has been my go-to WR1 for most of this draft season but I was actually hoping not to get him here. In the mock drafts I ran from Pick 4 he was getting snapped up routinely before reaching me (usually by you) and I was anticipating problems at RB so was dearly hoping for either Blount or Felix Jones to fall to me. Was counting on you guys falling for Yahoo!'s over-inflated Shonn Greene smokescreen for that and sadly none of you took the bait. With Blount and Felix gone and none of the other available RBs tickling my fancy, I elected to take Wallace. I've only passed on MW once this entire draft season in a 10-teamer where I landed both Megatron AND Fitzgerald in Rounds 2 & 3. He's probably WR4 in my personal rankings.
Round 3 -
Ben Roethlisberger
In retrospect, had I known Freeman would still be around 24 picks later I would have probably held off on drafting Rapistberger. But I really didn't have a sense how quick the QB run was going to go and I couldn't afford to take any chances with the position in such a deep league. I think it was Sinistar's Round 2 reach for Matt Ryan that freaked me out here more than anything. Having Wallace on board already made Big Ben very tantalizing and I hoped an acceptable RB2 would manage to slip through the cracks to find me in Round 4 where I could fully devote my focus towards building a solid group of guys. For a long while it seemed like this gamble would pay off and then...
Round 4 -
Reggie Bush
I was perfectly content through the remainder of Round 3 but when Round 4 took off after the two Chargers went to Peyton's Creaky Neck I was eyeing TWO guys I wanted to fall to me. Namely Knowshon Moreno and DeAngelo Williams. I was PRAYING for a QB and/or early TE run here to distract people from them.
As with Blount and Felix in Round 1 they ALMOST made their way back to me but I knew my goose was cooked as soon as TD's N' Beer openly mused in chat on whether to take DWill or Beanie. I am NOT a Beanie believer and clearly he wasn't as he picked up DWill and I was left to mull over the known quantities in Beanie and Benson and the unknown in Reggie Bush's quest to reinvent himself as a feature back in Miami. I may own Reggie in two other leagues but he's bench or flex depth there and not an RB2. I made the call but almost immediately regretted it as I completely missed he shared a bye week with Rice which would portend to lineup problems down the road.
Round 5 -
Santonio Holmes
Beanie and Benson both go in short order meaning I can't cover my bye week SNAFU and I'm left with a quandary. I had gameplanned to draft 4 RBs in the first 6 rounds thinking I could pick through all of my sleeper receivers later on but I wasn't exactly enamoured with any RB at this spot in the draft and Santonio was sitting there as the best available player. I'd drafted Holmes as my WR2 in Rounds 5 & 6 of two other leagues. Yahoo!'s rankings had him undervalued as the 24th receiver off the board whereas I've had him pencilled in at WR13 in the same tier as DJax and Tampa Mike. Where the overvaluing of Greene didn't fool anyone the undervaluing of his fellow Jet paid dividends and I was happy to shore up my receiver corps with him. My intention was to then ignore receivers for the next few rounds but I probably waited a round too late before they got my focus again as my lack of WR depth turned into the surprise of the draft for me over the next hour.
Round 6 -
James Starks
Playoff hero Starks is already lined up for equal touches with Grant this Thursday against the Saints and should hopefully outshine the vet with a strong performance in primetime. This was a nice grab for me as Starks represented the best upside of all the RBs to get snapped up after Beanie (Benson is a turtle and in trouble with the law, Jacobs has to fight for touches with Bradshaw in a passing offense, Addai is breaking down along with the rest of the Colts and FJax just hit the dubious 30-year-old plateau). I actually like the McGahee grab Ku Klux Klams made immediately afterwards as I think he'll be a solid goal-line vulture and in line for a lot of work in John Fox's offense should Knowshon not show up. But he likewise has an age concern. If nothing else, I just needed an RB guaranteed to get touches during Week 5. I still have a hole to plug there but I've got a month to worry about it.
Round 7 -
Daniel Thomas
This move made sense to handcuff Reggie and to lock in Miami's run game (they've got a really nice schedule against the run, btw). Yeah, it was another Week 5 guy but the only RBs still on the board I could confidently say would get significant touches that week were Woodhead and Thomas Jones and it was far too early for either of them. Plus, as with Starks, Thomas provides upside potential. Something I always strive for in deep leagues. In a lot of ways, I feel snagging Starks & Thomas at the 6-7 turn was my best stretch of the draft.
Round 8 -
Rob Gronkowski
This was another of those criminally undervalued by Yahoo! guys I was waiting to pounce on at the right time. The mid-tier TEs were flying off the board in Rounds 7 & 8 (Lewis, Olsen, Hernandez, Cook) and I needed to make a play now to lock in what I feel is one half of the core of the Patriots offensive attack. I would have waited until Round 9 if Klams had already drafted a TE but he was patiently waiting and I couldn't take the chance.
Round 9 -
Colt McCoy
Klams essentially triggered this pick as well with his shrewd play of waiting forever to secure his QB1 and then jumping the gun to back him up almost immediately with his QB2 grab of Fitzpatrick. (That's Drafting 101, btw. mr2xxx had one hell of a draft.) 18 QBs were off the board at this point and I literally LOATHED every other QB on the board as even a backup candidate. Yes, even Cutler. McCoy is the only guy I deemed acceptable pre-draft as backup worthy and I clearly needed to strike here to get him.
The real dilemma with my Round 8-9 picks is that they were predicated on what I perceived as an immediate need thinking the WR depth would continue to hang around. Unfortunately for me, the rest of you also seemed to hate most of the fodder on the board at this point and were content to scoop up promising upside receivers like Nelson, Meachem and Moore.
Round 10 -
Detroit Lions D/ST
Normally I like to wait on grabbing a defense but in a deeper league it's not a bad idea to land a unit of quality when possible. That's still no excuse for grabbing the Packers in Round 6 but you shouldn't necessarily wait until the end either. Once again, in retrospect I didn't have a really good sense of when the rest of the D units would go here. 7 were off the board at this point. Had I know the Chargers would still be around two rounds later I'd have likely waited and plugged some more depth holes but there was really no way of knowing... especially with auto-draft teams already scooping up kickers. I would have made a play for Antonio Brown or Emmanuel Sanders here if I didn't already have Wallace.
Round 11 -
Arrelious Benn
Unfortunately for me, my best upside receiver candidate ALSO presented a bye week quandary thanks to Benn and Holmes both being off Week 8. Benn was yet another undervalued-by-Yahoo upside guy I had pegged early on seeing how he'll be running opposite a newly respected Mike Williams and would benefit if Freeman takes the next step to elite status this season. With both Brown and Little going, nobody was safe so he was the obvious choice for me to target. Not the greatest WR3 I've ever had but seeing how I won a 20-team league with Anthony Armstrong getting regular work last year I could certainly do worse. The nice part about being thin at receiver is that it's the easiest position to fill holes for off the wire.
Round 12 -
Lance Kendricks
I wasn't planning on backing up Tight End during the draft but given the buzz Kendricks has been generating all pre-season and how thin the receiver & running back depth was looking I couldn't pass up the opportunity to sign him. I love that he's facing the Cowboys on the road during New England's bye week.
Round 13 -
Bernard Scott
Scott is my lottery ticket. He won't address my Week 5 bye week dilemma (nobody was going to at this point) but he "may" become very useful should Cincy finally get sick of Benson's 3-yards-or-less rushes. That team is built to run the ball 20 to 30 times a game and the Bengals enjoy an awesome schedule for RB matchups on weeks when they're not playing Pittsburgh or Baltimore. I will also take a Benson injury, arrest, suspension... whatever gets the job done and the ball in Scott's hands.
Round 14 -
Harry Douglas
I'm still pissed at Frankman over his grab of Brandon Gibson here. I would dearly love to trade for him (I like the Rams this year, remember). On the bright side, I managed to scoop up Harry Douglas. Atlanta is going to go all-out with the passing offense this season and if Julio Jones fails to flourish as a receiver in Year 1 (most rookies don't transition to the pro game right off the bat - especially with a shortened training camp) then Harry Douglas stands to reap the benefits of the Falcons new passing focus.
Round 15 -
Billy Cundiff
Cundiff is Mr. Reliable as far as kickers go and ensures I get points whenever Rice gets shut down in the red zone. Oh darn.
To recap...
Long Island Broskis
1. (4) Ray Rice (Bal - RB)
2. (29) Mike Wallace (Pit - WR)
3. (36) Ben Roethlisberger (Pit - QB)
4. (61) Reggie Bush (Mia - RB)
5. (68) Santonio Holmes (NYJ - WR)
6. (93) James Starks (GB - RB)
7. (100) Daniel Thomas (Mia - RB)
8. (125) Rob Gronkowski (NE - TE)
9. (132) Colt McCoy (Cle - QB)
10. (157) Detroit (Det - DEF)
11. (164) Arrelious Benn (TB - WR)
12. (189) Lance Kendricks (StL - TE)
13. (196) Bernard Scott (Cin - RB)
14. (221) Harry Douglas (Atl - WR)
15. (228) Billy Cundiff (Bal - K)
