Yesterday I was involved with my first live fantasy football draft. The draft lasted about 1 hour 15 minutes and was probably more intense than any day I’ve been to work in the past month. The whole process was pretty smooth except for one of my picks which was made automatically for me as my wireless connection lost it’s signal at the worst time. Not sure what the cause of the lost connection was, but I was sitting there attempting to make a pick and nothing was happening, that’s when I noticed the connection was lost. Lucky for me I was able to pick the same player during the next round. The pick was M. Moore in the 14th round when I was trying to pick up B. Franks. I don’t think that’s going to make much of a difference this season, but there were other players I would have preferred.
QB — M. Bulger, B. Leftwich
WR — J. Horn, N. Buerleson, M. Jone, E. Moulds, A. Lelie
RB — E. James, B. Westbrook, W. Dunn, A. Green, M. Moore
TE — J. Shocky, B. Franks
K — J. Kasey
D — Tampa Bay
There were some unusual picks during the draft. D. Davis was picked in the third round even though he’s on IR and out for the season. One team didn’t pick a RB until the 7th round. And one team picked up 4 QB’s even though only 1 can start each week. I also made some tough and stupid picks too. I had the 6th pick and had the option of picking James or Portis. I decided to go with James rather than starting the season with an injured player. It was tough because Portis is probably a better bet this season with James playing for Arizona. Also, by mistake, my first two picks (James and Westbrook) both have a bye during week 9. That was an oversight on my part. I made up for it by picking Dunn and Green. I also decided to change my draft philosophy early on. The plan was to pick a RB, RB, QB, WR, WR/RB in that order. But there were a bunch of QB’s and WR’s taken during the first two rounds so I decided to go with another RB in the 3rd. I figured there are a lot of 2nd tier QB’s and another would be available in the later rounds.
As I went back and looked at my team I was pretty excited. That is, until I looked at some other teams full rosters. There are a bunch of teams that look pretty solid. But you never know what’s going to happen each week and that’s why we play. It should be a fun season.
I think James over Portis is a good pick. Portis may have some lingering effects from shoulder injury. I think Arizona has potential to be the next powerhouse offense, behind Warner, James, Fitzgerald and Boldin. Good luck with that.
I like Bulger and Shockey, but I think you have a few gaps at WR. Burleson could be a surprise, now in Seattle.
Good luck! By the way – Magic Number down to 8!!