Razzball Invitational Experts League Part 1

Last night I posted about the Razzball Invitational Experts Draft that I took part in with contributors from nine other sites. The draft was hosted by Chet from over at razzball.com and was absolutely a blast. It only took an hour and 10 minutes, but it was very easy to see that all of these guys know exactly what they are doing and have certainly earned the title of “expert.”

As promised, here is my roster in order of when a pick was made, and my thoughts on my roster. This post consists of picks from the first through eighth rounds and the second half of the draft will be posted tomorrow.

In the coming days, I will be posting the answer to a round table discussion that I am taking part in along with the other experts. Over the course of time until the season begins, each site will host a different question, and all of the answers will be posted right here for you at bigtroph.com. The first question is simply this: “What 3-5 players are you avoiding in 2009 and why.” Check back in the near future for all of the guys’ opinions.

As for now, onto the draft results (feel free to rip me if you feel so inclined):

1.7 (7) Larry Fitzgerald, WR, Ari – With the big name RBs off the board at this point, I chose to go WR first for one of the first times in all my years as a fantasy owner. Tomlinson, Slaton, and Chris Johnson were still on the board, but Fitzgerald is a proven commodity in the league whereas L.T. is battling injuries and who knows if Slaton and Johnson will be able to replicate their rookie seasons. Overall, Fitzgerald is typically going around 7 or 8 in Yahoo leagues this year and I felt very happy getting the best receiver in football right away.

2.4 (14) Frank Gore, RB, SF – It never seems to fail that I get Gore in a league each year. While he always seems to under perform or get hurt, I feel that this may be Gore’s year to actually live up to the hype. While San Francisco’s passing attack might not be all that great (even if/when Michael Crabtree signs at this point) it should be good enough for defenses to not simply load the box with defenders which will open holes for Gore. On top of that, San Francisco drafted Glen Coffee to take some of the load off of their main back. If coach Mike Singletary can effectively figure out how to team up Gore and Coffee, Gore could have one of the biggest seasons of his career in 2009.

3.7 (27) Ryan Grant, RB, GB – This was the biggest stretch I made in the draft and I’m still not sure how I feel about it. Grant didn’t live up to his new contract last year scoring only four touchdowns, but he did have just under four yards per carry and racked up 1200 yards. I felt as if I needed another strong runningback in case Gore goes down and if I didn’t take Grant I would have had to choose from several guys that I’m not completely sold on in Kevin Smith, Pierre Thomas, and Marshawn Lynch (who will miss time while serving a suspension). I could have done much worse, and while having Grant and Gore as my starting backs isn’t awful, it’s just not ideal.

4.4 (34) Terrell Owens, WR, Buf – A lot of pundits are saying that T.O. is slowly washing up. His hands have been questionable the past couple of seasons and his reality show may be a bigger distraction than people think. However, I have seen what Owens can do in his first year with a new team and when you see how in shape he is, you know that he can still bring it every Sunday. Owens is going right around pick 31 in Yahoo drafts so I pretty much got him at standard price. A toe injury that flared up today is kind of scaring me because they can nag a player, but I expect Owens to have a solid 2009. With him and Fitzgerald starting for me every Sunday, I’m pretty happy.

5.7 (47) Tony Gonzalez, TE, Atl – This again is another pick that I got at value (Gonzo is going around pick 43 this year).  At this point in the draft, I knew that tight ends would start going off the board as the elite talent at RB and WR was drying up so when my pick came up and Gonzalez was sitting there, I had to make the move. While Gonzalez may be approaching the fading sunset of his career, I think that life in Atlanta will be a good thing for him. Matt Ryan is one of the best QBs that he has ever played with and with Michael Turner and Roddy White distracting defenses, it will open up the field for Gonzo who is used to being the only guy on the field that is a receiving threat. My pass catching options at this point are making me drool.

6.4 (54) Donovan McNabb, QB, Phi – It has been one of my philosophies lately to grab skill players in the first 5-6 rounds and then take a decent second-tier quarterback to be my starter. I could have had Romo or Warner in this slot, but like McNabb’s potential better. McNabb asked for weapons in the offseason and he got them. Despite signing late, rookie Jeremy Maclin is going to open up the field for #5 even more than it was last year. Word out of training camp is that DeSean Jackson looks faster and much more polished at receiver which only means that the chemistry between he and McNabb will be even greater. I haven’t had McNabb on a fantasy team in a long time because of his tendency to be streaky, but 2009 could be a return to fantasy heaven for McNabb owners.

7.7 (67) Santana Moss, WR, Was – I’ll be honest. I’ve been burned by Santana Moss for several years. I draft him high, expect him to be a top-flight wide receiver and then he turns out to be a so-so pickup who gives me huge games some weeks and zilch the next. 2008 was an encouraging year for Moss though as he hauled in the second most catches in a season in his career and also eclipsed the 1000 yard mark while bringing in seven touchdowns. I truly feel that this will be Jason Campbell’s make or break year and that pressure will push him to deliver results. Moss will definitely benefit from this along with the emergence of second-year wide receiver Devin Thomas who is supposedly going to be the starter across from Santana. On top of all this, I got him about a full-round after his average draft position which means that Moss could be a bit of a steal for me.

8.4 (74) Jonathan Stewart, RB, Car – At this point, I was in desperate need of a backup runningback and was disappointed to see that most of the quality backs were gone at this point. At the top of the list of best remaining on my board were Stewart and Willie Parker. Both are the same size, have similar running tendencies, and could produce the same numbers. The one thing that led me to take Stewart was that he and DeAngelo Williams have turned into arguably the best RB tandem in football whereas Parker is slowly becoming part of a strict RBBC with Mewelde Moore and Rashard Mendenhall in Pittsburgh. Despite Williams rushing for 18 touchdowns last year, Stewart still managed to find a way to sneak in 10 of his own and averaged 4.5 yards per carry. If Williams goes down, Stewart will be able to fill in masterfully and even if they both stay healthy through 2009, I still expect Stewart to put up over 1000 yards and another 10 touchdowns which isn’t too shabby for my RB3.

Coming tomorrow afternoon is the second part of the draft. Find out who I took to back up Donovan McNabb, which defense I may have made a drastic (and potentially regrettable reach for), and which player I took in the last round that has me all sorts of excited.

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Tags: Greg Dietz

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 11th, 2009 at 1:58 pm and is filed under Fantasy Advice. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.