On Sunday, August 17th at 5 pm I embarked on a mission somewhat unfamiliar to me: Defending my fantasy football championship. I had only been here once before in the last 10 years and that was the previous year. But this league takes precedence for me as it is the league I started when I was in 7th grade (16 years ago) and it’s a keeper league. Oh yeah, and I’m co-commish.
In my league, the Westside Football League, you get to keep two players a maximum of two years. You forfeit the draft pick you selected them with (i.e. I drafted Braylon Edwards last year in Round 3, so I lose that pick this year). So I kept Edwards and Clinton Portis (round 4). We start 1 QB, 2 RB, 2 WR, 1 TE, 1 FLEX, 1 K and 1 DEF. You have to draft those positions plus 8 players at any position. I drew the second overall pick. One of the things I always try and do is formulate some type of draft plan. This usually involves looking at the other keepers and stats to see if I can spot trends.
One of the first things I saw was that the top 5 RBs were kept and LT was going to go number one. At the time Steven Jackson was still holding out. That, coupled with the fact that the Rams were looking horrible in preseason, I was not drafting him. I also noticed that with more RBBCs (RBs by committee) and the keeper situation, I could stray from drafting RB-RB. Since I had a WR and RB keeper, I planned on going RB-WR. I thought it was too early to take TO with #2 overall. I would then go for a QB because more than likely the Top4-5 would be gone early (only 4 QBs were kept, and Brady was the only top one). I had certain guys in mind that I know I’d have a great shot to get, like Owen Daniels and either Josh Brown or Mike Nugent (I like them both this year a lot).
Now drafting and adjusting to the draft are hard enough by themselves, but I have the added pressure of running the draft as commissioner. We prefer live drafts as things go faster and we like to get together. Besides we got a free draft kit from sportsline.com for using their service (which I HIGHLY recommend. Well worth the $120). The first thing I did to make my job easier was to have everyone come up and put the sticker of their pick on the draft board. Gave me a bit of extra time to work on my team.
So below is my team. As is the norm with my league mates, many of them didn’t draft conventionally. The top 4 QBs were gone by the end of Rd 2. The first DEF (SD) was taken in Rd 6, and the owner that took them predicted they’d outscore the rest of the players picked in that round. The first kicker was taken in Rd 8. I think I did ok with the RBs, but in a ½ PPR, I think I should’ve taken another wideout. Please feel free to comment.
QB Donovan McNabb (5th Rd)
QB Jeff Garcia (13th)
RB Clinton Portis (3rd)
RB Marshawn Lynch (1st)
RB Matt Forte (6th)
RB Felix Jones (9th)
RB Deuce McAllister (11th)
RB Maurice Morris (15)
RB Fred Jackson (17)
WR Braylon Edwards (3rd)
WR Greg Jennings (2nd)
WR Joey Galloway (7)
WR Vincent Jackson (10)
WR Justin Gage (14)
TE Owen Daniels (8)
K Mike Nugent (16)
DEF Jaguars (12)
At work and can't make the call.
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At work and can't make the call.
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Lenny and Paul for instant Fantasy help. We're working around the clock for you. 
I have nothing against the guy Lenny, but he flat takes away from your show. You have votes on all sorts of things...put a poll up about limiting Tony's comments to the written word.