Three & Out

Going into the second round, I was little too set on Tony Romo (must be my inner Jessica Simpson) to fully survey the available field.  That said, having him fall to me at the 24th pick, while he had an ADP of 19.3, felt like enough of a steal at the time that I went with it.   I did break my own rule of taking two RBs first, mostly because I was so stoked on Westbrook.  It just goes to show that rules help, but should never be so set in stone that they cause you to pass up an otherwise great pick.  Our second round went like this:

15    Terrell Owens – ADP: 12.9 – This pick is a step in the right direction after reaching for Maurice Jones-Drew while Marshawn Lynch was still on the table
16    Marshawn Lynch – ADP: 13.3 – Good value pick here.  Even with Lynch’s performance not as stellar as last year’s, he’s still a solid RB1
17    Ryan Grant – ADP: 17 – Can’t argue against the ADP
18    Braylon Edwards – ADP: 19.7 – If Edwards was a dog, he’d have the “drop” command down pat
19    Reggie Wayne – ADP: 16.2
20    Reggie Bush – ADP: 59.3 – Again we have our friend who drafts who he likes first.  Granted Bush was putting up quality numbers pre-injury
21    Andre Johnson – ADP: 19.5
22    Laurence Maroney – ADP: 29.7 – The Patriot’s backfield platoon is a three variable problem with two missing variables – not worth trying to solve.  Obviously Maroney’s injury killed his season, but this pick feels like a reach.  It would be hard to call this a reach on draft day, however, as the only two other “star” RBs drafted this round were McGahee and Jacobs
23    Willis McGahee – ADP: 29.3 – The same can be said for the Raven’s RB situation (and the Bronco’s, though their options are less appealing to begin with), however at the beginning of the season McGahee was expected to be the man, so this isn’t as much of a reach as Maroney
24    Tony Romo – ADP: 19.3 – Broke my “Two RBs first” rule, but felt that I couldn’t pass up Romo, especially with all the elite (Manning, Brees, Brady) QBs flying off the shelf
25    Ben Roethlisberger – ADP: 45.5 – Holy reach, Batman!
26    Brandon Jacobs – ADP: 33 – I’m surprised Jacobs’ ADP was so high – I think this is good value here.  Despite injuries last year he rushed for over 1,000 yards, and had 4 TDs in 4 playoff games (3 rushing 1 receiving).  Of the backs selected in round 2, Jacobs has certainly proven himself the most valuable
27    Steve Smith – ADP: 23.7
28    Eli Manning – ADP: 96.3 – Hopefully this person learned their lesson…  And I thought Roethlisberger was a stretch!

Clearly our league’s QB prejuidice is showing itself, with nearly as many QBs going in the first two rounds as RBs.  This can also be attributed to Tom Brady’s phenominal season last year though, and not wanting to miss out on that gravy train.  I suspect that 2009 will see QBs draft value’s fall back to Earth, as no one has run away with a clear lead in fantasy standard scoring (Brees, Rivers, and Warner are all quite close).  And with Brady’s fate this season, as well as Romo missing four games, many of the cream of the crop signal callers did not quite live up to expectations.

In fact, ‘08 was really the year of the rookies.  And they won’t be showing up for a few more rounds – if at all.  Many of this year’s stars went undrafted in fantasy, and it wasn’t until a blowout game (confer Eddie Royal in week 1) that they showed up on anyone’s radars.