Recent Draft Analysis

 One fun to thing to do after a draft is compare the draft spot with which you got your player to their spot on your draftsheet. For example, Randy Moss is ranked 9th on our Top 200 list but I got him with the 10th overall spot, getting a value of +1. Not exactly a steal, but it was the right pick for me. Here are two recent money league drafts I did.

Draft #1
1) Frank Gore (Overall Pick #3) Value: -1
2) Steven Jackson (22) Value: +15
3) Miles Austin (27) Value: +10
4) Jonathan Stewart (46) Value: +9
5) Knowshon Moreno (51) Value: +18
6) Wes Welker (70) Value: +30
7) Mike Sims-Walker (75) Value: +22
8) Jay Cutler (94) Value: +31
9) Johnny Knox (99) Value: +30
10) Montario Hardesty (118) Shit.
11) Bernard Berrian (123) Value: +16
12) Zach Miller (142) Value: +38
13) Chris Cooley (147) Value: +52
14) Jacoby Jones (166) Value: +41
15) Minnesota (171)


Draft #2
1) Randy Moss (10) Value: +1
2) Aaron Rodgers (15) Value: +5
3) Greg Jennings (34) Value: +3
4) Jonathan Stewart (39) Value: +2
5) Felix Jones (58) Value: -2
6) Marion Barber (63) Value: -1
7) Brandon Jacobs (82) Value: +20
8) Johnny Knox (87) Value: +18
9) Darren McFadden (106) Value: +25
10) Terrell Owens (111) Value: +36
11) Chris Cooley (130) Value: +35
12) Ben Roethlisberger (135) Value: +32
13) Jacoby Jones (154) Value: +29
14) San Diego (159)
15) Neil Rackers (178)

When it’s a toss-up between an RB and a WR in the early rounds, I generally try to go with the RB because of all the sleeper WRs later. ESPN’s Matthew Berry is advocating the exact opposite strategy this year – make sure to get 2 elite receivers and then clean up on all the committee RBs and hope that a few work out. I think in reality, it depends on your draft pick. If you get an early pick, then you’ll certainly get an elite RB early because the top 6 or 7 consensus picks are RBs. And by the time it wraps around to the late 2nd round, the top WRs and QBs (Johnson, Moss, Brees, and Rodgers) are invariably gone, so you can grab another solid RB.

Thus, with my #3 pick in the first draft, I put together a solid RB group, and then used a quantity over quality approach with the WRs. When a true value pick like Jacoby Jones falls to you in the end, I advocate not picking up a Kicker. After the draft, I thought, “Who can I possibly drop to get a kicker?” Things worked themselves out when Hardesty landed on I.R., so I dropped him and picked up my favorite Kicker, Neil Rackers.

In the 2nd draft, I ended up using Berry’s strategy with my later pick and it worked out ok. It’s a little disconcerting that all of my RBs are in a committee situation. As opposed to the first draft in which every pick had a positive value, I had to start reaching for the best available RBs in the 5th round of the 2nd draft. The team ended up quite balanced: 5 RBs, 5 WRs, 2 QBs, 1 TE, K, and Def. I don’t plan on starting Big Ben over A-Rod any week except A-Rod’s bye, but the value was so good at that point that I couldn’t pass him up. As soon as someone’s QB situation gets bad next month, I’ll be sitting on primo trade-bait.

You’ll notice some overlap in the drafts, with the guys I’ve been touting all summer. I think the takeaway is that if you have any say in your draft pick, go for a top 5 pick. I’m finding a lot more value in late round WRs. So you can get elite RBs and even 1 elite QB and TE, and then load up on T.O., Jacoby Jones, Laurent Robinson, and/or Malcolm Floyd.

What do you think of these teams? Comment below.