NFL Preseason Thread

[reismark]

I know I'm not playing fantasy football here this year, but I am playing fantasy on another site, and I was curious to know what certain people here (you know who you are) thought of my draft. Took these guys in the following order from the 9th position of a 12-team, 16-round draft:

Shaun Alexander (SEA - RB)
Travis Henry (DEN - RB)
Marques Colston (NO - WR)
Andre Johnson (HOU - WR)
Jon Kitna (DET - QB)
Carnell Williams (TB - RB)
L.J. Smith (PHI - TE)
Braylon Edwards (CLE - WR)
Isaac Bruce (STL - WR)
Chester Taylor (MIN - RB)
Brett Favre (GB - QB)
Miami Dolphins (D/ST)
Chris Henry (TEN - RB)
Matt Jones (JAC - WR)
Josh Brown (SEA - K)
Greg Olsen (CHI - TE)

[-Jrabbit]

Shaun Alexander (SEA - RB) -- a steal at #9
Travis Henry (DEN - RB) -- good value; curious who else was there
Marques Colston (NO - WR) -- too early IMO but who else was available?
Andre Johnson (HOU - WR) -- decent WR2
Jon Kitna (DET - QB) -- tough call; hard to argue with 4K yds
Carnell Williams (TB - RB) -- exceptional value this late
L.J. Smith (PHI - TE) -- solid top-10 TE; seems a little early
Braylon Edwards (CLE - WR) -- great pick if someone can get him the ball
Isaac Bruce (STL - WR) -- good pick
Chester Taylor (MIN - RB) -- amazed he was there so late
Brett Favre (GB - QB) -- excellent pick
Miami Dolphins (D/ST) -- hoping for Ginn=Hester?
Chris Henry (TEN - RB) -- probable benchwarmer
Matt Jones (JAC - WR) -- why not
Josh Brown (SEA - K) -- should be fine
Greg Olsen (CHI - TE) -- nice flier

Overall a nice team, especially if Kitna matches '06 numbers. Cadillac as RB3 in a 12-team is great! Not especially sold on your WR corps, but they should be competitive. 'Fins D has soft schedule before the bye, so should be fine. Pickings look slim toward the end. I would say the rookie RB Chris Henry was the only obvious miscue, but of course we don't know who you passed on. Would love to see the first 4 rounds.

[Imran Siddiqui]

I'd be interested in knowing the RBs taken after Alexander and before Henry actually.

I think it's a decent, mid-level, team, though a bit weak at QB and WR. I have to agree with -Jrabbit about picking Smith that early.

Oh, and -Jrabbit, even without Ginn being OMG!!1!, the Miami defense is a very good one.

[-Jrabbit]

Well, Jason Taylor is a monster of course. Zack Thomas is a tackling machine but not getting any younger, Joey Porter is hurt, and I'm afraid they may be on the field an awful lot. Did they change coordinators with the new coaching regime? I dunno.

Like I said, their early schedule is on the soft side, so this could turn out to be an excellent pick. I'm just a bit leery of them.

[snoopy369]

Shaun Alexander (SEA - RB) - good choice at 9 depending on who's left
Travis Henry (DEN - RB) - probably took him too early, but not that bad, he may not end the season as starter
Marques Colston (NO - WR) - okay I guess, seems high for the #7 WR but depends on settings
Andre Johnson (HOU - WR) - In a catch league I like him (have him in both here) but 4.3 seems early for him. WRs must have gone quick here.
Jon Kitna (DET - QB) - at 5.9 probably reasonable, get a good backup though
Carnell Williams (TB - RB) - steal at 6.3
L.J. Smith (PHI - TE) - too early for a lower bracket TE, but the top lower bracket TE so either way
Braylon Edwards (CLE - WR) - steal here
Isaac Bruce (STL - WR) - who knows, worth the flier, though probably a bit early
Chester Taylor (MIN - RB) - total steal here
Brett Favre (GB - QB) - decent backup to kitna, low risk, but INTs are not your friend
Miami Dolphins (D/ST) - great D pick at 12.3
Chris Henry (TEN - RB) - steal here, did your draft forget about running backs or something after the 2nd round?
Matt Jones (JAC - WR) - good choice, at 14.3 a steal
Josh Brown (SEA - K) - a round early, but whatever, no opinion since he's a kicker
Greg Olsen (CHI - TE) - you don't need a backup TE, you're wasting a roster spot here, but he'll be decent. Just not good enough to waste the roster spot on. Pick up a defense to replace him for now, D has much more value to keeping a second around (you should play matchups, so play the MIA when they have a normal or weak schedule, play the other one when that team plays ARI, SF, etc. I did that last year to great effect with NO and someone else, MIA maybe, don't remember.

[snoopy369]

Overall team, assuming a normal league setup, seems decent, QB you should be okay though if kitna starts struggling, make a trade for another QB on the eli manning/matt leinart level. Your RBs at the top i'm not as fond of as your RBs at the bottom (3,4,5 RBs) so you have plenty of trade possibility - heck, if someone offered me with that team, say, mark bulger, and some 10th round WR, for travis henry, i'd take it in a heartbeat. Depth at RB is wonderful

WR i'm fine with, contrary to Imran I think your WR situation is your best actually. Two excellent starting WRs, both above "average" for a 12 team league, and braylon edwards is a great #3 either to start at the split position or just as a backup. Your WRs look a lot better in a catch league, so if that's your league then way to go If not then AJ isn't as good a pick, a lee evans or somesuch would've been better. But still solid, plenty of depth, again you could make a trade for a QB with one of your higher WRs easily.

QB of course you have issues, but Kitna was great last year, so perhaps he'll be great again. Certainly has plenty to throw to

TE below average but it's not that big of a difference. D/ST like I said you need a second one to play matchups, they're more important than which D/ST you pick unless you have da Bears or da Ravens. K i don't have opinions on as they're all the same after Vinny give or take.

[reismark]

You can look at my spreadsheet of the whole draft here. Be warned, you will see a number of moves by the less-seasoned GMs that will have you guys shaking your heads.

http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=pVdKy3gwfbhIldU51P4UuOA

BTW, the setup is 1 QB, 2 RB, 2 WR, 1 RB/WR flex, 1 TE, 1 K, 1 D/ST

I agree it was early for L.J., but as you'll see, there was a major run on TEs in that round and L.J. was the last player available that I considered a starter, and I didn't want to be left without one. (Olsen has huge potential and might supplant L.J. during the season, but I wasn't going to put all my stock into a rookie.) Sometimes you just have to react to what the other GMs are doing even if it doesn't necessarily jive with what you were planning.

Between the quality of the players on the Miami defense, their schedule, and me hoping for Ginn to be a stellar return talent, that was the rationale for the Dolphins D/ST pick. I was weighing between TE & D/ST for the final pick, and I couldn't pass up on Olsen's potential. (Bye week D/STs are easy to find assuming you have a reliable starting unit.)

I'm really happy with the depth I have at RB as Snoopy pointed out. I'm not worried about Travis Henry at all. I'm expecting a bounce-back year with Cadillac now that the line has some consistency to it and the changes in the offense that have been made to protect the QB (installing the shotgun, for instance, is something I've been begging Gruden to do for years now). Chester Taylor will probably get supplanted by Adrian Peterson at some point, but Chris Henry should have a much easier time passing FatWhite to be the man in Tennessee.

[Zopperoni]

Not a bad team, last three skill players are gambles, but I didn't have a close look on what the alternatives were.

... and happy birthday

[Jaguar]

I have Shaun Alexander pegged as a mega-bust, but nonetheless you have the best team in that league because you drafted much better than everyone else.

"Powerpuff Girls" seems to be an excellent team, mostly because the other drafters were stupid enough to let it get Laurence Maroney at 23rd overall. (Seriously, WTF.)

[Imran Siddiqui]

Originally posted by -Jrabbit
Well, Jason Taylor is a monster of course. Zack Thomas is a tackling machine but not getting any younger, Joey Porter is hurt, and I'm afraid they may be on the field an awful lot. Did they change coordinators with the new coaching regime? I dunno.

Like I said, their early schedule is on the soft side, so this could turn out to be an excellent pick. I'm just a bit leery of them.

If you look on your Yahoo rankings, you'll see that Miami was a very high ranked defense, with the mess they had on the other side of the ball. This year the offense will keep them off the field a bit more and they haven't gotten any worse.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Oh, and the thing about Chris Henry is that he really didn't run that much at Arizona. He'll easily get by LenDale, but I wonder if he won't be sharing carries with Chris Brown for most of the season.

With Taylor, I agree, I think AP is going to supplant him. So it's an ok pick, but not that great, IMO. As for WR, I think the depth is good (Edwards, Bruce and Jones are good backups), but the starters of Colston and Johnson are merely average.

[-Jrabbit]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui

If you look on your Yahoo rankings, you'll see that Miami was a very high ranked defense, with the mess they had on the other side of the ball. This year the offense will keep them off the field a bit more and they haven't gotten any worse.

I have to admit, I haven't looked at team defense rankings, since all leagues I'm playing this year are using IDPs.

[Imran Siddiqui]

BAH... IDP sucks.

Anyway, they were 6th last season and projected for 5th by Yahoo for this one.

[-Jrabbit]

I kinda wanted to play in one league with DEF/ST this year, just becasue of the fewer brain cells required to manage it well.

[reismark]

Originally posted by Zopperoni
... and happy birthday

At least one of you remembered.

Originally posted by Jaguar
I have Shaun Alexander pegged as a mega-bust

Mega-bust or not, there was no way in hell I was passing him up at #9. That's insane value right there.

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui
He'll easily get by LenDale, but I wonder if he won't be sharing carries with Chris Brown for most of the season.

Brown's got a big injury history, though. I wouldn't be surprised if he gets hurt the first month, which would leave Henry as the man by default.