1 Down: 2 To Go

Fantasy football, its FANTASTIC! My first draft was yesterday and I have to say, I'm pretty proud of myself. I got to talk smack in a league where I don't know but one person, spent an hour and a half in my favorite chair, Sports Illustrated at my side and I have to say...I missed the feeling of the draft.



Roster was as follows QB, RB, RB/WR, WR, WR/TE, K, D/ST and 8 bench spots. So now you know what I was dealing with here. "So how was the draft?," you ask. Well...

Excitement rushed through me (sad I know) as I watched the countdown reach zero, unfortunately it was another few minutes before I got to make my pick. I sat at the tenth and final spot in the draft and wanted to report on how I did well because, this is my blog and I can do what I want. I wanted to pat myself on the back...in writing. I was shocked to see not one but two WRs go ahead of my pick (Fitzgerald and Moss). Due to the snakeyness of this draft I got to have back to back picks. With that I was able to solidify my backfield by selecting Deangelo Williams and Frank Gore. The thing that makes me a little nervous is this is a WR heavy league, we have the option of starting 4. So needless to say when the draft came back to me a lot of the elite receivers were chosen. So with my third pick I wanted to guarantee a championship by drafting T.J. Houschmanzadeh. Who will throw TD passes in my fantasy football land? My next pick Philip Rivers.


Unfortunately I wasn't able to get Rivers' prime target (Antonio Gates was chosen 4 picks ahead of me) so I had to get his secondary target. I drafted Vincent and Desean Jackson (no relation). When it came back around to me, while everyone else for some reason was drafting defenses and kickers, I began building up my bench. In case of emergency with Williams I picked up his backup Jonathan Stewart. Since I had enough meat on my team I decided to have a side of Rice...Ray Rice. I wasn't done with my RB platoon. I managed to pick up two more later in the draft (Lesean McCoy, because you know Brian Westbrook WILL get hurt, and Tim Hightower, he was my homeboy last year and with the last pick in this draft I figured why not?). What I lacked was some backups for my receiving core and my QB. I knew the QB I wanted would be available on the way back when I picked McCoy and Percy Harvin. However when it came back around I decided to pull the trigger on Matt Hasselback. He came back healthy after a subpar season where he was injured most of the year. Add to the fact that I had his number one target in Houshmanzadeh and that his receiving core was coming back healthy. Speaking of receiving core, it was lacking when I made my pick of Hasselback so I decided to scoop up a TE. I grabbed Zach Miller from Oakland, he's their best receiver after all.

I feel pretty great about my team. I think Hasselback could have a bounce back season and if he doesn't Rivers should do his thing. Of course I did forget something, my K and D/ST. I grabbed just one of each, Jason Elam (K) and the Titans D/ST. At the time they were the best ones left. I honestly don't care if Albert Haynesworth isn't there, the D line enters beast mode on a regular basis. Speaking of beasts, Keith Bullock is definitely a monster in the MLB slot.

Sports Illustrated gave me a good rating for my draft, I mean by their accounts the second best fantasy RB is on my team along with the best K and the fourth ranked QB. My receiving core is lacking but I am thinking that they will be pretty solid. The problem I have, maybe its irony, is this isn't a SI league. Its ESPN, maybe I should have used their rankings. Oh well, that is 1 down and 2 more drafts to go this upcoming Sunday. So like Aldo the Apache I have to say "Ari va darchi!" (for those Italian speakers out there, I am sure this is spelled wrong, this is how Brad Pitt's character in Inglorious Basterds says it...and yes it is hilarious when he does)