2010 "Grade / Rate My Fantasy Draft" Thread

[Caveat Emperor]

Back again. I won my league last season and was able to keep 4 players. Our system requires us to forfeit the draft pick used to take the player in the previous year in order to keep, and allows 2 keepers from the first 8 picks and two keepers from the final 8 picks.

So, I started the draft with the following keepers:

1. Chris Johnson
2. Randy Moss
10. Ray Rice
12. Rashard Mendenhall

To that, I added to end up with the following team (start 1 QB, 2 RB, 2 WR, 1 TE, 1 T/W, 1 K, 1 DEF):

QB: Kevin Kolb PHI
RB: Chris Johnson TEN
RB: Ray Rice BAL
WR: Randy Moss NE
WR: Larry Fitzgerald ARI
W/T: Marques Colston NO
TE: Brent Celek PHI
K: Stephen Gostkowski NE
DEF: Arizona

BN: Ben Roethlisberger QB-PIT
BN: Jonathan Stewart RB-CAR
BN: Rashard Mendenhall RB-PIT
BN: Bernard Barrian WR-MIN
BN: Mohammed Massaquoi WR-CLE
BN: Mike Williams WR-TB

The only position I'm really worried about is QB. I waited to add one, mostly because I didn't pick until the 3rd round due to keeper slots and most anyone worth taking was already off the board via pick or keeps by that point. I think Kolb has good breakout potential, but huge bust potential as well. I got Roethlisberger late in the draft due to his suspension, but he's been a solid fantasy QB when he plays, so all I really need to do is survive 4 weeks of Kolb to get him in there.

Otherwise, I'm very happy with my squad.

[Cedric]

Originally Posted by Caveat Emperor

Back again. I won my league last season and was able to keep 4 players. Our system requires us to forfeit the draft pick used to take the player in the previous year in order to keep, and allows 2 keepers from the first 8 picks and two keepers from the final 8 picks.

So, I started the draft with the following keepers:

1. Chris Johnson
2. Randy Moss
10. Ray Rice
12. Rashard Mendenhall

To that, I added to end up with the following team (start 1 QB, 2 RB, 2 WR, 1 TE, 1 T/W, 1 K, 1 DEF):

QB: Kevin Kolb PHI
RB: Chris Johnson TEN
RB: Ray Rice BAL
WR: Randy Moss NE
WR: Larry Fitzgerald ARI
W/T: Marques Colston NO
TE: Brent Celek PHI
K: Stephen Gostkowski NE
DEF: Arizona

BN: Ben Roethlisberger QB-PIT
BN: Jonathan Stewart RB-CAR
BN: Rashard Mendenhall RB-PIT
BN: Bernard Barrian WR-MIN
BN: Mohammed Massaquoi WR-CLE
BN: Mike Williams WR-TB

The only position I'm really worried about is QB. I waited to add one, mostly because I didn't pick until the 3rd round due to keeper slots and most anyone worth taking was already off the board via pick or keeps by that point. I think Kolb has good breakout potential, but huge bust potential as well. I got Roethlisberger late in the draft due to his suspension, but he's been a solid fantasy QB when he plays, so all I really need to do is survive 4 weeks of Kolb to get him in there.

Otherwise, I'm very happy with my squad.

No offense but you are either in a 6 team league or playing against football idiots.

[Kingspoint]

Originally Posted by Cedric

No offense but you are either in a 6 team league or playing against football idiots.

Or a 3-team league and playing against those idiots' children.

Larry Fitzgerald in the 3rd Round?

Graduate from Kindergarten, quit the league and join a real one.

You asked for a grade and that's an honest assessment.

[Caveat Emperor]

Originally Posted by Kingspoint

Or a 3-team league and playing against those idiots' children.

Larry Fitzgerald in the 3rd Round?

Graduate from Kindergarten, quit the league and join a real one.

You asked for a grade and that's an honest assessment.

It's a 10 team with people who I was in a fraternity with, and 1 or 2 added on people. I'd say there's only 1 person in the league who I'd qualify as a non-hardcore football fan. We've all been playing together for about 5 years, this the first year we decided to carry keepers from the previous year.

Fitzgerald fell to the third because:

1. Most people lost Round 1 & 2 picks for keeper reasons.
2. Most of the top backs were kept as keepers, leading to an early run on the available rushers (Gore, Mathews, Green, Best) to fill out the rosters of teams that didn't have keeper-worthy RBs.
3. The guy who had Fitzgerald last year elected to keep Jones-Drew and Rivers instead.
4. (speculating) Concerns that he'll have a tough time w/ Derek Anderson at QB and the potential for a rookie (Hall) taking over midseason.

[redsfandan]

Originally Posted by Caveat Emperor

The only position I'm really worried about is QB. I waited to add one, mostly because I didn't pick until the 3rd round due to keeper slots and most anyone worth taking was already off the board via pick or keeps by that point. I think Kolb has good breakout potential, but huge bust potential as well. I got Roethlisberger late in the draft due to his suspension, but he's been a solid fantasy QB when he plays, so all I really need to do is survive 4 weeks of Kolb to get him in there.

Otherwise, I'm very happy with my squad.

Might want to watch the teams that have a starting qb that could be replaced. One example is Arizona where Max Hall might overtake Derek Anderson at some point. Who knows, never know when the next nobody qb becomes a somebody.

[Caveat Emperor]

By way of comparison, I'm in a league with a bunch of court staff people from my old rotation, and I ended up with this draft -- which I don't think is that much worse than my other league:

QB: Kevil Kolb
RB: Chris Johnson
RB: Cedric Benson
WR: Marques Colston
WR: Reggie Wayne
WR: Larry Fitzgerald
TE: Kellen Winslow
W/R/T: C.J. Spiller
K: Jeff Reed
D: Baltimore

BN: Matt Forte
BN: Mike Wallace
BN: Donald Brown
BN: Kareem Huggins
BN: Johnny Knox
BN: Derek Anderson

[KOBasinger]

Originally Posted by Caveat Emperor

By way of comparison, I'm in a league with a bunch of court staff people from my old rotation, and I ended up with this draft -- which I don't think is that much worse than my other league:

QB: Kevil Kolb
RB: Chris Johnson
RB: Cedric Benson
WR: Marques Colston
WR: Reggie Wayne
WR: Larry Fitzgerald
TE: Kellen Winslow
W/R/T: C.J. Spiller
K: Jeff Reed
D: Baltimore

BN: Matt Forte
BN: Mike Wallace
BN: Donald Brown
BN: Kareem Huggins
BN: Johnny Knox
BN: Derek Anderson

Looks like a good team . Kolb should at least put up decent numbers with Maclin/Jackson/Celek/Avant and Mccoy

[Eric_the_Red]

You need to find better competition.

[Buckeye33]

Any league where you are able to get C. Johnson, Wayne, Colston, and Fitzgerald is a league not worth playing in unless you are best friends with all the other owners and just like to rub it in that they are worthless fantasy players.

[Caveat Emperor]

Originally Posted by Buckeye33

Any league where you are able to get C. Johnson, Wayne, Colston, and Fitzgerald is a league not worth playing in unless you are best friends with all the other owners and just like to rub it in that they are worthless fantasy players.

It's all a bunch of court staff people -- a couple bailiffs, a probation officer or two, etc. The opportunity for trash talking at court will be fantastic during the course of the season.

[Dom Heffner]

So much hate, boys.

Looks like the planets aligning for CE is all that's happened here.

He got Rice really late (as we all could have) in 2009, he is a stud now.

He got to add Fitzgerald because most people are going to steer clear of a guy who lost an MVP QB and now has....er....Derek Anderson. I passed on him in every league. Why take a chance with a high pick that could ruin your team? And this os the perfect roster to take a chance on him with. Guys like Fitzgerald are either awesome, or basically Ochocinco level- who knows? I'm not taking that chance at 2. Early 3? Okay, nice upside. Fitzgerald has name value, but so did Randy Moss in Oakland, and I just want no part of that. Point being that we dont know if CE is loaded at wideout because we don't know how good Derek anderson is going to be.

lAs with all 10 team leagues, there isn't quite enough talent to be loaded at every single position and CE hit it on the head: Kevin Kolb is the QB. That could be rough. However, you can stream this position fairly easily in a 10 team league if he doesnt work out. And if it doesnt work out you have a top7 guy in Ben coming back in week 6.

This looks par for the course for a ten team league, especially given the fact that Colston has lived off his reputation of 3 or 4 years ago. Too many vultures in that offense for my liking. I own him but Im already regretting it LOL...

This team is pretty awesome, and I agree with your assessment: It rests on Kolb and Fitzgerald being good.

[KOBasinger]

QBs - Matt Schaub , Jason Campbell
RBs - CJ Spiller, Ryan Matthews, Brian Westbrook, Kevin Faulk, Leon Washington
WRs - Terrell Owens, Mike Sims-Walker, Eddie Royal, Greg Camarillo, Julian Edelman
TEs - Jermichael Finley, Heath Miller, Rob Gronkowski
Defense - New York Jets
Defensive player - Charles Woodson

No kicker.

[Kingspoint]

Originally Posted by Dom Heffner

So much hate, boys.

Looks like the planets aligning for CE is all that's happened here.

He got Rice really late (as we all could have) in 2009, he is a stud now.

He got to add Fitzgerald because most people are going to steer clear of a guy who lost an MVP QB and now has....er....Derek Anderson. I passed on him in every league. Why take a chance with a high pick that could ruin your team? And this os the perfect roster to take a chance on him with. Guys like Fitzgerald are either awesome, or basically Ochocinco level- who knows? I'm not taking that chance at 2. Early 3? Okay, nice upside. Fitzgerald has name value, but so did Randy Moss in Oakland, and I just want no part of that. Point being that we dont know if CE is loaded at wideout because we don't know how good Derek anderson is going to be.

lAs with all 10 team leagues, there isn't quite enough talent to be loaded at every single position and CE hit it on the head: Kevin Kolb is the QB. That could be rough. However, you can stream this position fairly easily in a 10 team league if he doesnt work out. And if it doesnt work out you have a top7 guy in Ben coming back in week 6.

This looks par for the course for a ten team league, especially given the fact that Colston has lived off his reputation of 3 or 4 years ago. Too many vultures in that offense for my liking. I own him but Im already regretting it LOL...

This team is pretty awesome, and I agree with your assessment: It rests on Kolb and Fitzgerald being good.

Because Derek Anderson can make plays that Kurt Warner couldn't make last year for the Cards. Warner had a bad shoulder all season and couldn't throw a pass deeper than 20 yards last season. Anderson is money on the longer throws and can take advantage of Fitz's abilities. Fitzgerald will again be among the Top-3 in Targets.

Fitzgerald is a Top-3 Wide Receiver this season, and many sites (the good ones, at least) back that up.

This will be the first time in Anderson's career where he'll have a Receiver who can "Catch" the ball. Winslow is terrible at dropping passes, and nobody in the league is worse than Braylon Edwards. That's why both of them were traded. They'd both blow drives every game with dropped 3rd-down passes that were right on the money by Anderson or anybody else throwing the ball.

This will be Anderson's highest completion percentage of his career. Few people, especially Browns and Bengals fans, understand Derek Anderson very well.

Most people are predicting that Max Hall will overtake Derek Anderson for the starting gig before the season is over. Whisenhunt even said that Max Hall had the best pre-season of all his Quarterbacks. That may be true, but Anderson will hold him off, throw for 3800 yards, 28 Touchdowns, and only throw 15 interceptions. He'll even run for 2 Touchdowns making 30 total.

[Dom Heffner]

Originally Posted by Kingspoint

Because Derek Anderson can make plays that Kurt Warner couldn't make last year for the Cards. Warner had a bad shoulder all season and couldn't throw a pass deeper than 20 yards last season. Anderson is money on the longer throws and can take advantage of Fitz's abilities. Fitzgerald will again be among the Top-3 in Targets.

Fitzgerald is a Top-3 Wide Receiver this season, and many sites (the good ones, at least) back that up.

This will be the first time in Anderson's career where he'll have a Receiver who can "Catch" the ball. Winslow is terrible at dropping passes, and nobody in the league is worse than Braylon Edwards. That's why both of them were traded. They'd both blow drives every game with dropped 3rd-down passes that were right on the money by Anderson or anybody else throwing the ball.

This will be Anderson's highest completion percentage of his career. Few people, especially Browns and Bengals fans, understand Derek Anderson very well.

Most people are predicting that Max Hall will overtake Derek Anderson for the starting gig before the season is over. Whisenhunt even said that Max Hall had the best pre-season of all his Quarterbacks. That may be true, but Anderson will hold him off, throw for 3800 yards, 28 Touchdowns, and only throw 15 interceptions. He'll even run for 2 Touchdowns making 30 total.

Tell me something: How do most reputable websites have Fitzgerald as the number 3 receiver while "most people" think his QB will be replaced?

Also, please provide the links that show Fitzgerald as the number three receiver. Yahoo has him at 9 (Derek Anderson is ranked 23rd with only 4 ranked lower), Sportsline has about the same.

No one doubts he is talented enough, but when you have a guy like Anderson throwing to him, his value falls. And that was really all I was saying- maybe Anderson does have an outstanding season, but the point I was making is that why take a chance on that happening when you have guys who you know are better?

Thousands of Sportsline mock drafts make Fitzgerald the 25th overall pick, the 7th overall WR taken. That's about right, considering people would rather not take the chance on Fitz while getting Andre Johnson, Moss, Wayne, Austin, White, or Calvin Johnson.

While it isn't impossible that Anderson shines, I don't think most people think its likely, therefore allowing Fitz to slip a bit.

The question becomes, what happens when you take the third best receiver and pair him with a 20 plus ranked QB? I'll let someone else find out that answer, thanks.

Time will tell.

[Kingspoint]

Originally Posted by Dom Heffner

Tell me something: How do most reputable websites have Fitzgerald as the number 3 receiver while "most people" think his QB will be replaced?

Also, please provide the links that show Fitzgerald as the number three receiver. Yahoo has him at 9 (Derek Anderson is ranked 23rd with only 4 ranked lower), Sportsline has about the same.

No one doubts he is talented enough, but when you have a guy like Anderson throwing to him, his value falls. And that was really all I was saying- maybe Anderson does have an outstanding season, but the point I was making is that why take a chance on that happening when you have guys who you know are better?

Thousands of Sportsline mock drafts make Fitzgerald the 25th overall pick, the 7th overall WR taken. That's about right, considering people would rather not take the chance on Fitz while getting Andre Johnson, Moss, Wayne, Austin, White, or Calvin Johnson.

While it isn't impossible that Anderson shines, I don't think most people think its likely, therefore allowing Fitz to slip a bit.

The question becomes, what happens when you take the third best receiver and pair him with a 20 plus ranked QB? I'll let someone else find out that answer, thanks.

Time will tell.

I clicked on "multi-quote", but nothing would happen, so I'll wing it.

Sportsline and Yahoo are not credible sources for Fantasy Football information (or information if you want some good analysis of professional football). While they have people on those sites who dedicate themselves to Fantasy Football, they just aren't very good, and no further proof is needed than Sportsline's silly ranking of Fitzgerald 25th overall and 7th among Wide Receivers. Calvin Johnson is not a challenge, nor is Wayne or Austin. Andre Johnson is by himself. Then it's White and Fitzgerald. Then it's the next tier of elite Wide Receivers where there are about 10 of them with Wayne, Miles Austin, Calvin Johnson and Moss being in that group. Then there are no more elite Wide Receivers. Yahoo ranking him 9 is just a joke. Go to a "real" fantasy football site like Rotoworld, Pro Football Weekly, Pro Football Focus, or sites like that. It's there where you'll find better analyis (and not made-up analyis like you'll find on Yahoo and Sportsline, and by made-up I mean analysts commenting on things where they haven't spent 40 hours per week watching and re-watching film, while breaking down position-by-position of players, just not Fantasy Football Players, but O-Linemen, D-Linemen, etc.).

For example, here's a couple of quotes about Fitzgerald from Rotoworld w/ dates of the quotes:


Jan. 3 - 8:27 pm et

Larry Fitzgerald caught three passes for 17 yards and a touchdown against the Packers in Week 17.

Fitzgerald wouldn't come out of the game even in a blowout, but you won't hear anything about it in the media because he isn't Brett Favre. Fitz notched a career-high 13th touchdown late in the game with Brian St. Pierre under center. He finished as the No. 4 fantasy receiver, recording 97 catches for 1,092 yards. He'll try to match last year's magical playoff run, starting with a rematch against the Packers.


Jan. 10 - 9:26 pm et

Larry Fitzgerald caught six passes for 82 yards and two touchdowns in the Cardinals' Wild Card round defeat of Green Bay.

He now has a ridiculous nine TDs in five career playoff games. Fitz easily walked in for his first score, a 33-yarder, after Charles Woodson slipped in his backpedal. His second, a one-handed catch from 11 yards out, came against inept Packers fill-in SS Matt Giordano after Fitzgerald literally bulldozed Woodson (a should-be penalty) on his way to the end zone.


Jan. 16 - 8:31 pm et

Though Fitz couldn't recapture last year's playoff magic (couldn't get to the SuperBowl again), he'll be right there with Andre Johnson in 2010 fantasy drafts.


Mar. 6 - 2:03 pm et

Larry Fitzgerald has averaged seven catches and 105.5 yards per in games played without Anquan Boldin over the past five years.

Fitz averages 30+ yards and a reception more without Boldin in the lineup, which should go a long way in alleviating concerns about the dropoff from Kurt Warner to Matt Leinart. This isn't to suggest that Fitz will go crazy in 2010, but there's a good chance he'll keep posting his usual 100/1,200/10 line. Dynasty leaguers should take advantage of the "Chicken Littles" and buy Fitzgerald this offseason.


Apr. 8 - 9:46 am et

Cardinals quarterbacks coach Chris Miller revealed that Kurt Warner stopped throwing deep last season because he lost confidence in his arm.

Warner took a hit to his throwing shoulder early in the season, and it was obvious that he didn't feel comfortable throwing more than 20 yards down the field. Larry Fitzgerald's production was negatively impacted, losing close to 450 yards from his 2010 total. It's another reason we don't believe Warner's retirement is any more than a glancing blow to Fitz's fantasy value.


Those items, along with the fact that Fitzgerald was projected to hog all the targets, where guys like Wayne, Moss and Austin will share them. Week 1 saw Fitzgerald get the 3rd most targets (15) in the NLF, second to Mark Clayton (16), and Roddy White (23). Nobody's ever averaged more than 15 targets per game for a season, but whatever the record is, Fitzgerald has a good shot at breaking it. For now, Fitzgerald is still dealing with a strained knee he suffered Aug 14th that should have been healed two weeks ago. I'm wondering just how "strained" it really is.

Max Hall outplayed Derek Anderson during the pre-season, according to Ken Whisenhunt. That was also noticed by "Fantasy Football" sites, who broke down game film of the pre-season games of the Cardinals. Because DA got such a horrible reputation playing for the Browns with drop-prone Receivers Kellen Winslow and Braylon Edwards, most viewers of Browns games assumed that if given a Receiver who can catch that Anderson won't be able to deliver the football. That's just not the case, as he won, yet again, another starting job over someone else who was supposedly handed the job. The sooner Early Doucet gets healthy, the sooner Derek Anderson will be able to prove everyone wrong.

While many people believe that Fitz garnered a 7th (or later) draft position as a Wide Receiver, those people are going to find at the end of the season that they should have went with the guy who keeps delivering year after year regardless of who his Quarterback is from week-to-week.