Gridiron Experts Fantasy Draft Results

The Gridiron Experts staff recently completed our annual fantasy football draft. This season we elected to do a 12 team league with standard scoring rules. ( .10 points for rushing/receiving yards, 6 points for TD rush/catch, .025 per passing yard, 4 points per passing TD). We also decided to join the trend of starting 3 WR’s in addition to 2 RB and 1 each QB, TE, PK and DST.

The winner of this league not only gets a huge prize package, but more importantly, gets bragging rights as the champion fantasy football writer for the 2011 season. Here are the results from the draft:

As expected, wide receivers were at a premium early, but a real surprise was seeing four quarterbacks go in the first 29 picks. The dependable runners were gone early in the third, leaving teams that took early WR/QB combo struggling to reach for questionable backs as weekly starters. Getting Calvin Johnson as the fifth WR might be the best pick of this entire draft, while selecting Larry Fitzgerald at #13 seemed like a reach. Tony Romo went way too early at #29.

Now that he’s been ruled out for week one, the Peyton Manning gamble in the fifth round looks like a bad move. With the shrinking number of good quality starters available at WR and RB, it’s hard to justify taking a tight end as early as the fifth round, yet three of them went back to back to back. Kenny Britt won’t be suspended and was a good value in the fifth. Don’t think BenJarvus Green-Ellis will duplicate last season’s numbers. Love the value picks of Mark Ingram, Beanie Wells and Tim Hightower. Tarvaris Jackson has a terrible history of getting the ball to Sindey Rice, making him a bad pick in the sixth round. With so many questions about the San Francisco offense, Kevin Roberts would have been better off waiting on a tight end, rather than grabbing Vernon Davis. Jimmy Graham went two round later and seems like a far better value. Taking a defense in round eight, even one as good as the Steelers is terrible.

Peyton Manning’s woes caused Austin Collie to slide down into a really good value pick. Too early for Kevin Kolb as a backup quarterback, especially when better signal-callers were on the board. Several defenses went in this round, but it still seems too early to grab one in such a competitive league. Willis McGahee and Lee Evans were back to back good picks in the 10th round. Team Katz did a great job of grabbing Jay Cutler to justify waiting on Eli Manning as his starter. With the exception of Zach Miller, the 11th round was filled with solid values and good selections. Six backup runners were taken in the 12th, including the first five selections of the round. If Ben Tate edges out Derrick Ward, he has potential to shine. Need proof that you’re better off waiting on tight ends? Rob Gronkowski tied for the league lead with 10 touchdown grabs as a rookie and was taken in the 12th round. Lance Kendricks is another young tight end with sleeper potential.

Closing out the draft should be all about finding sleepers and values. Antonio Brown has looked outstanding filling in as the Steelers number two receiver. He should play a big role in Pittsburgh’s passing game. Greg Olsen is another good sleeper TE. Grabbing a team’s #1 WR this late, like Jacoby Ford, is great values¬even if it’s the Raiders. The Houston Texans defense makes a good sleeper pick this late. Wade Phillips will certainly increase the team’s sack and turnover numbers. Should Arian Foster sit in Week 1, Derek Ward is currently listed as the second team tailback and would be a fantastic play against a bad Indianapolis run defense. Phil Clark made another really good selection with DeMarco Murray in Round 15. Love the late pick of Donald Driver as well. Tim Tebow shouldn’t be drafted because John Fox isn’t smart enough to utilize him in a wild-cat role that would actually fit Tebow perfectly. Not sure how the top kicker in the league was the seventh one selected. Another couple of smart kicking picks were Alex Henery and John Kasay.

Rd 17

The San Diego Chargers defense led the NFL last year and makes a great final pick. Bernard Scott is another Phil Clark hit. Emmanuel Sanders has been a forgotten man, but will reclaim his #2 role and is a fantastic value in the final round. Matt Bryant should be gold. Taiwan Jones has a skill-set that remind people of Chris Johnson and is only a Darren McFadden injury away from playing a significant role