This is a first for the Poulios.com blog, a guest post from Joker36. Joker is one of my good friends living in NY. We’ve had good discussions over the years about all sorts of topics, but the most common topic is sports. Every year Joker runs a fantasy football league for his family, with a live draft party prior to each season. Following the most recent draft Joker sent me the following to be added to the blog. Hopefully this is the first of many guest posts from Joker. Enjoy.
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I thought in fairness I would share the results of my MFL Draft. Things are looking up for the Mushtangs…
Keep in mind we have an 8 team league and I drafted 5th.
Heading into the draft with the 5th pick, I anticipated that the first 4 picks (in no particular order) would be Tomlinson, Adrian Peterson, Steven Jackson and Brian Westbrook. This would leave me with a little bit of a decision between Joseph Addai and Marion Barber with my first pick, but I was leaning toward Addai. My pre-draft decision tells me that if any of those top 4 do NOT go in the top 4, I take them.
I figured the top 3 QB’s (Brady, Manning and Romo) would be gone before my second pick, so I was going to stock up with a second stud running back, maybe Portis or Maroney. I was not focused on receivers so much, because I always feel they are good ones available, and I promised myself I would not spend an early pick on a TE, like I did with Gates the previous year. I also promised myself that my last three picks would be for my 2 kickers and my second TE..
So Tomlinson and Peterson go 1-2, and my Dad drops a bit of a surprise at 3 by taking Addai. He had him last year and made the playoffs and has some sort of man-crush on him I think. So Westbrook goes 4th. This leaves Steven Jackson available at 5. Now, a little insight into my head….I took Jackson last year with #2 pick overall and he f’d me big time by getting injured. So even with my pre-draft promise/decision, I am hesitant to get burned by him twice. But logic prevails and I take him anyway. The first round ends with Barber going 6th, and then a bit of a surprise as Brady and Manning go 7th and 8th. So now I’m figuring that Romo may be there for me in round 2.
Round 2 started with another surprise in my mind as Moss goes first. He is followed by Frank Gore. So my cousin is next and I slot him in for Romo, who he had last year, which would leave me with taking Portis and I was OK with that, but he steps up and takes Marshawn Lynch. So now, another decision…to go with a second solid rb, or go for top 3 QB. I take my chance with Romo and only hope that he does not get corrupted by Jessica Simpson…
In Round 3, I selected Marques Colston who I figure to be a top 5 WR, rather than take a second RB. I briefly thought of taking Witten at TE, which would give me a nice Romo-Witten double point opportunity, but I like Colston, especially he is in a pass-happy offense.
In Round 4, I saw that Witten was making his way to me, and I started getting all giddy inside, since I thought a 4th round pick for him would be warranted. But my cousin squashed those dreams my selecting him with the pick before me. I was not too upset though, because I scooped up Andre Johnson, who along with Colston, I considered a top 5 WR.
Willie Parker rounded out my starting RB’s in the 5th round and at the onset, I was not too happy with my pick, but it has grown on me a little. He was a stud before he got hurt last year.
In Round 6, Tony Gonzalez was still available, so I gave him a Mushtang jersey. Interesting fact: In the last 9 years, the team that has drafted Gonzalez has made the playoffs each year. I take that as a good omen and hope to keep that streak alive.
Rounds 7-12 I focused on my backups and bye-week players. I picked up Edgerrin James, Brett Favre, Greg Jennings, Patrick Crayton, Julius Jones, Owen Daniels and Matt Schaub (who I really like for a 13th Round pick). I stuck to my plan and took kickers Josh Brown and Neil Rackers in the 14th and 15th rounds.
Our 16th round is for any position player still available. For some reason, Ronnie Brown was not drafted, so I scooped him up. Not bad for a former 1st round selection.
Overall, I like my team. Time will tell if I made good choices….
Fantasy drafts are always a crap-shoot. The easiest picks always seem to be the first, no matter what position you have, and the last two, when you’re just trying to fill out the roster.
Your last statement rings true when it comes to fantasy sports. So many things can happen during the course of a season, specifically injuries, which can drop one team down while propelling another into the playoffs.
It seems the only player we have in common is Gonzalez. Coincidentally, I also picked him up in the 6th round, which is impressive considering I’m in a 12 person league.