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Recall LAST WEEK I wrote about my entry in the Football Guys Ultimate Survivor contest, specifically soliciting opinions on my first pick, the first overall. Here is my squad.
Freeze or Shade………..As in Foster Freeze or Shady McCoy. Truth be told Ray Rice was in my final decision too. Ultimately I decided that while Arian Foster might put up the most points in weeks 12-16, I did not want to start with him on my bench for the first week. So my decision was LeSean McCoy over Rice.
Now who would make it back to me at 2.12? To review – the draft is twelve teams, drafting in a 3RR format meaning that after my first pick of the draft I will draft last in both rounds two and three.
The scoring and lineup requirements for this contest mirror that of the FBGPC – that is PPR but with 1.5 PPR for tight ends and four points for passing TDs while six points for rushing and receiving TDs. The scores are optimized for all the players on your twenty four man roster (so if you had Ben Roethlisberger, Matt Ryan, and Sam Bradford as your quarterbacks you would automatically get the highest of the three scores….this is called best ball scoring). The starting lineup is one QB, two RB, two WR, one TE and two Flex players which would be the highest scores from your remaining RB/WR/TE. And of course your best kicker and DST score.
I really had hoped that Rob Gronkowski would slide to the end of the second round, but the way Tom Brady has been finding him lately made that unlikely and in fact Jimmy Graham went at 2.03 and Gronk at 2.05. I also would have been thrilled to find Greg Jennings or one of the second tier running backs available but that didn’t happen either. The last twelve of 144 were there for a reason and drafting very well.
So my choices were Michael Turner, Dez Bryant or one of the top remaining tight ends. I took Jason Witten at 2.12 and now had to wait for my next pick at the end of the third round. But I was much happier here as I was able to grab Andre Johnson who should be on his last vacation week and then hopefully Matt Leinart can find him down the stretch, and then pair him with Denarious Moore the tremendous young Oakland receiver who has developed a nice rapport with Carson Palmer in just a short time and can take it to the house on almost any play.
Here is a recap of the draft picks and then the breakdown by position for those of you who want to see how it all came together.
1.01 LeSean McCoy, RB, PHL
2.12 Jason Witten, TE, DAL
3.12 Andre Johnson, WR, HOU
4.01 Denarious Moore, WR, OAK
5.12 Victor Cruz, WR, NYG
6.01 Mario Manningham, WR, NYG
7.12 Tim Tebow, QB, DEN
8.01 Carson Palmer, QB, OAK
9.12 Ed Dickson, TE, BAL
10.01 Kendall Hunter, RB, SF
11.12 Sam Bradford, QB, STL
12.01 Ben Watson, TE, CLE
13.12 Ryan Grant, RB, GB
14.01 Titus Young, WR, DET
15.12 Cincinnati Bengals DST
16.01 Buffalo Bills DST
17.12 Marion Barber, RB, CHI
18.01 Neil Rackers, K, HOU
19.12 Nick Novak, K, SD
20.01 Demaryius Thomas, WR, DEN
21.12 John Kuhn, RB, GB
22.01 Devery Henderson, WR, NO
23.12 Matt Prater, K, DEN
24.01 Isaac Redman, RB, PIT
QB – Tebow, Palmer, & Bradford
Since I waited until the 7/8 turn to take my first quarterback I was pretty surprised and happy to see Tebow still there. Palmer has played very well in his two starts and has lots of weapons over a nice schedule. Bradford gave me a third shot at 20+ points per week from the position.
RB – McCoy, Hunter, Grant, Barber, Kuhn, & Redman
Hunter may be a key pick and several were dismayed I grabbed him there (actually if the draft had gone differently I would have taken Gore and Hunter on an early turn). Barber is getting more and more involved with an improved Bears offense and Grant and Kuhn give me some short yardage options from the Packers high scoring offense. If Redman plays enough he will score enough – good for a last round pick.
WR – Johnson, Moore, Cruz, Manningham, Young, Thomas, & Henderson
Lots of chances for big games here because you would like to have your third best WR Flexed – in good weeks the four best will be on the board. The Giants will have to keep throwing making the Cruz/Manningham combo a nice pair to own. Titus Young has been getting more and more involved with Stafford and the Lions game plan. Henderson is always a solid pick in the best ball format because you are not penalized for the bad weeks but get the bomb for double digit points. Demaryius Thomas needs more experience but looks like he has better rapport with Tebow for the long balls – and he definitely has the speed for that play.
TE – Witten, Dickson, & Watson
Witten will catch a ton of balls – the TDs will be a bonus. Dickson has very good hands and is getting a lot of targets from Flacco and Watson will score at least one week as he is a very good play in PPR leagues.
K – Rackers, Novak, & Prater
Rackers will be off the first week, but has a big leg which may come into play even more if Leinart struggles. Novak and Prater are solid backups – they both have big legs on offenses that can struggle, a good combination.
DST – Bengals & Bills
Both top ten scoring DSTs to date and will have some good weeks – hopefully they mesh. With such a run on the top ones I was happy to get those as a pair and when many teams overdrafted the remainders I chose to stick with two and add an additional running back.
Overall I think a team that can score well every week – of course it remains to see if that will happen but I can see a Flex coming from any of the three positions but expect the wide receivers to dominate that but the tight ends able to help out in a soft week. Now they just have to stay healthy and on the field.
Postscript - A sad Sunday to have to sit through with this team - it got off to a fair start and then with nothing good happened fell all the way to last place heading into the SNF game where I would have McCoy and both Giant receivers looking for points. Of course I was expecting a lot more than they got.....if Shady McCoy had just gotten into the end zone on that beautiful run at the end of the game.....or if that happened earlier.....or if they had let him punch it in (yeah, sigh I know they had to sit on the lead and prevent). Problem is I had plenty of prevention with some of my draft picks and the way some of the games unfolded - Carson Palmer actually finished .70 points ahead of Tebow but he managed only one completion to Moore so I was really struggling for receiver points. Witten had that nice TD play to inflate a bad game from him but neither Dickson or Watson could catch more than a couple of balls. So I will start the first week with only a win or two depending on what happens on MNF and will then have to get 9 or 10 wins per week for the next five weeks to have a chance to move up on the field. - PVH
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