| Sometimes, we get unique opportunities from working here at
Pro Football Weekly. It happened to me a few weeks ago, when I was asked to represent
PFW in a 16-team fantasy football "experts" league. Since they couldn’t
find any experts available around here, I volunteered (insert rim-shot here).
So last Friday, I took part in the 16-team draft. It was a very trying experience.
I found out a week before the draft that I had the 14th pick in the draft.
Even with the snake format, this was an unenviable position. So I decided that I would set
my sights on getting two of the top six wide receivers available, ignoring RBs and QBs
until later in the proceedings. (We can start three WRs and one RB if we choose, which
influenced my thinking a little bit).
When Pick No. 14 finally came around, I took Eric Moulds. There was some snickering,
but I had a plan. On the way back, with the 19th pick, I grabbed Terrell Owens.
I had my two wideouts, which made me happy.
One of the reasons I decided to go with receivers early was that I don’t like this
year’s RB crop aside from Terrell Davis and Fred Taylor. The RB question marks were
too much for me to handle, and I knew if I wanted a chance to win the league, I needed
sure-fire production early on. Moulds has a little bit of a boom-or-bust tenor to him, but
I have no worries about Owens.
After taking Moulds, I waited for what seemed like a week and a half before my
third-round pick came up. By that point, 21 running backs had been taken. Duce Staley, a
semi-sleeper who I had vainly hoped would slip to me, was long gone. So I grabbed Kevin
Faulk, figuring that his starter status ensured at least adequate production in a yardage
league. If things hit for Faulk, this will end up as a good pick. On the comeback, I found
no RBs to my liking, so I went for another receiver and took Darnay Scott, who I think is
in for a big year.
Patience is a key in a 16-team league. I was hoping Jon Kitna or Trent Green, or even
Brad Johnson, would slip to me in Round Five. It didn’t happen. So in Rounds Five and
Six I went for RB depth with Napoleon Kaufman and Ron Rivers. Both will start, so they
should be acceptable point producers. My three backs each have a chance to step up and
become surprises.
By the end of Round Six, everyone had a quarterback but me. Most teams had started
thinking about backups. But there was no one on the board who turned my crank, so to
speak, so I decided a little more patience was in order. I took Stephen Alexander in Round
Seven — we have to start a tight end every week, and Alexander was one of the last
guys I liked at the position. In Round Eight, I couldn’t pass up Muhsin Muhammad, who
was rated in the low 20s on PFW’s yardage-league board. I felt really good about my
WR corps at this point.
Finally, in Round Nine, I took Troy Aikman. He’s not the kind of player
who’ll win for you, but in a league that takes away points for interceptions thrown,
he won’t be a killer. If my other picks pan out, Aikman will not be a complete void
in the lineup. I took my defense (Baltimore) in the 10th round and my kicker
(Pete Stoyanovich) in the 11th.
In the 12th and final round, I decided I needed to swing for the fences with
a backup quarterback. Because of the interception factor, I discounted the rookies. The
one guy who stuck out was Rob Johnson, who will put up huge numbers if he becomes
Buffalo’s starter. That’s a long shot but not an impossibility, so I took the
gamble.
All in all, I wasn’t too unhappy with my team, despite the ravages of scarcity.
And the lesson of patience I learned is one that will serve all owners in huge leagues
well. |
