I had my first fantasy football draft of the season last night. I had the 5th pick in a 16 team snake style draft. The roster break down for this league is you start 1 quarterback, 2 running backs, 2 wide receivers, 1 tight end, 1 flex position which can be a running back or wide receiver in this league, 1 kicker and 1 defense. There are also 8 bench spots to fill.
Sitting at #5 I was interested to see how this draft would shake out since in some of the rankings on Yahoo I’ve seen quarterbacks rated very high. I this case there where no quarterbacks taken until the last pick of the 1st round when Patrick Mahomes came off the board at #16.
Before I made my first pick there where three running backs and one wide receiver picked. Looking at the draft board I decided to pick Le’Von Bell. He was rated 8th in this draft, but I liked him better than the other running backs they had ahead of him; so he was my pick.
Being that it’s a snake style draft there where 22 players that came off the board before I made my 2nd selection. There where quite a few players that came off the board that I had hoped would be there when it was my pick. After checking things out I decided to pick another running back and I went with Devonta Foreman.
A little bit of a quicker turn around this time as there where only 8 picks before I got to make my 3rd pick. As you can guess the big name wide receivers where long gone, but I saw Robert Woods sitting there and I liked his value as a 3rd round pick; so I went with him.
As it came around to my 4th pick I didn’t see ay player that jumped out at me and I didn’t want to reach for anything; so I ended up taking Tevin Coleman. It’s three running backs in the first four picks, but there’s a flex position and remember Coleman had his most productive seasons when Kyle Shanahan was his offensive coordinator. I understand that he’s in a crowded backfield, but they wouldn’t of signed him if they weren’t going to use him.
Coming back to me in the 5th round was Alshon Jeffery. He’s still the #1 receiver in Philadelphia and it seemed like a good value to me to be able to find a player like him here. If his starting quarterback can stay healthy this season it would make this an even better pick.
I thought I had a pretty solid base to start my draft off and I started to notice that teams where reaching for players. When it came back to me for my 6th pick I went with Lamar Jackson. I thought that it might be a little too early to grab a quarterback, but Jackson was a player I targeted and once his name came up on the board I knew I either had to take him or lose him.
I’m of the belief that if you don’t end up in a position where you get one of the top tight ends you wait on the position. I was hoping to wait a little longer than the 7th pick to take my tight end, but it was another instance where his name appeared on the draft board; so I grabbed him. I went with Jackson’s teammate Mark Andrews in the 7th round.
Now that my starting line up was more or less set I started to look for players I was interested in and I thought where good values. What I noticed between my 7th and 8th and even my 9th pick there was quite a run on defenses, but I didn’t want to get caught up in it.
When my 8th pick came around I took wide receiver Jamison Crowder. Crowder has always been one of those players that everyone likes, but he’s been unable to stay healthy. I was willing to take a chance on him here since I already had two wide receivers.
After watching all of these defenses get drafted I decided to see if I could start another run with my 9th pick. I went with a kicker; yes a kicker. There had only been one kicker taken by this time and that was two picks before I made this one. I went with Stephen Gostkowski.
My idea worked as there where 8 kickers selected between my 9th and 10th pick. I guess every once in a while I do something right.
Since I had locked up a solid kicker and the run on defenses was done I went looking for a defense I like that I thought offered some value. I ended up taking the Tennessee Titans as my defense even though in my mind I knew I would be taking a second defense just in case.
As for picks 11 and 12 I went with players that I wanted to have and I liked the fact that I was able to find them here. In the 11th round I took San Darnold as my back up quarterback. Then in the 12th round I picked up Darren Waller a tight end that there’s been quite a bit of talk about. Hopefully Darnold improves under his new head coach Adam Gase. Waller was a bit of a flyer, but a lot of fantasy experts think he could be an underrated tight end this season and remember he’s just my back up.
At #13 I wanted to add another running back and I know it’s never a good thing to target a position, but I had a good idea how I wanted to wrap this draft up; so I needed a running back here. I took a chance with Chris Thompson here. I am worried that he won’t play as much this season as he did last season if both of the running backs in front of him stay healthy, but I thought it was a chance wort taking here. After all he is my 4th running back.
Since I had a couple of players hiding for my final two picks I decided to shore up my defense and kicker in rounds 14 and 15. In the 14th I took Kansas City’s defense and then in the 15th round I took Graham Gano. I try not to take two defenses or kickers, but I decided to give it a shot this season.
I had saw what I thought was some value at wide receiver starting to fall in this draft as teams where making sure to get back ups at their positions; so I tried to grab some of it to end this draft. In the 16th round I selected Demaryius Thomas and with my final pick I took Andy Isabella. Thomas is coming back from a serious injury, but he landed in New England and I thought he was worth a risk here. Isabella is one of the many receiver the Cardinals added this off season and I’m hoping they like the rookie enough to get him some snaps.
There’s what I ended up with. How do you think I did? I can tell you that Yahoo didn’t like my draft as I received a “D” grade.
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