Trendsetters 2010 Blog

Article 4 – April 21, 2010

Phase 4: Rounds 16-20, started Saturday, April 10^th at noon. Again, we could not wait until Midnight to start.

I enter Phase 4 of the draft with the following roster:

QB: Eli Manning and Kyle Orton

RB: Pierre Thomas, Sproles, Forsett, Larry Johnson, Mike Bell

WR: Wayne, V Jackson, Hester and Davone Bess

TE: Vernon Davis and Bo Scaife

DEF: NO and KC

The kicker run is in full swing by the time round 16 gets to me. 12 of the last 13 picks have been kickers. I decided to roll the dice and take only one on this turn hoping that at least one known commodity will be available to me when I pick again. I expect 3 or 4 teams to not go PK in the 17^th and add to their depth too (I was wrong). I will go WR/PK this turn.

I have 5 wrs I am looking at: Nate Washington (rapport and opportunity), Louis Murphy (the best on the team), Mike Thomas (upside), Earl Bennett (to match with Hester) and Deon Branch (upside with new coach and could get traded to a better situation?).

Rounds 16: I am tempted to take Murphy but only if Gradkowski is named the starter. There are rumors that it is Russell’s job to lose and no matter how his rehab is going, Gradkowski blew out BOTH knees last year.

I believe that Nate Washington fits well with Young’s style of play and think he can hit the board for me 4 or 5 times this year. Britt can draw the heat and Washington can draw the targets. J

Round 17: Mark gets greedy and takes two more kickers ahead of me here. I wanted Prater and thought he might be safe but nope, Moyer strikes again. I go with Phil Dawson which isn’t looking too good right now.

Round 18: He has been staring me square in the noggin since I drafted Forsett in the 7^th. I almost drafted him about 5 times now but I kept going in other directions. I know that Mark is probably going to own the rights to the Seattle starter (Rookie #1 in a few weeks) and I cannot leave Jones there for him. Julius Jones is the obvious pick for my team in round 18.

Round 19: Yup, I still have one kicker but all the kicker situations remaining are unsettled. For depth, I add my WR6. Of the five I liked heading into this phase, only one remains as Mark took Earl Bennett on the turn.

The pick is Deon Branch. There is a decent chance he gets traded if the Seahawks go after a big name. If he stays in Seattle I like his chances in Coach Carroll’s system.

Round 20: When the draft leaves me after my pick in the 19^th, I envision a decision between Brady Quinn and David Buehler. Everyone knows I need to take Quinn and why should I let him dangle out there. I think Buehler is the leading candidate to land the Cowboys PK position. If I am right on this one, I will have salvaged my kicker issue.

That plan gets dashed as Chris Gillman sees the same thing and takes Buehler at 19-13. Chris has quietly built one of the teams to beat, especially with the Mike Wallace pick in the 11^th round.

Cundiff has signed a 1 year deal with Baltimore and if he makes it to me, I have no choice but to take him. I have to take a kicker either this round or with the second pick of Phase 5. I want to reserve that pick for someone who may have been traded during the NFL Draft or for a Rookie not selected. (typed prior to the bye weeks being posted)

The decisions now come down to: Do I backup my players or hope they fall and take a flyer on someone else? I got burned by taking Branch (flyer) over Buehler and Lynell Hamilton who was taken by John Reuss at 19.12. Would Lynell Hamilton have been a better fit on my team than LJ? Time will tell.

Thanks to the bye week schedule, I now have 2 TE’s and 2 PK’s with the same bye weeks. Ugh. Does that factor into my first pick of Phase 5? The good news is that my other somewhat skilled positions fared the bye week shuffle pretty well. Here is my bye week breakdown by position after 20 rounds:

QB: 8,9

RB: 10, 10, 5, 9, 8, 5

WR: 7, 10, 8, 5, 9 , 5

TE: 9, 9

PK: 8, 8

DEF: 10, 4

A few of our teams find themselves with a similar situation relating to their defenses and the freshly posted bye week schedule – the only downside of drafting so early rears it’s ugly head.

Our Rookie Draft will take place after the NFL Draft and before Phase 5.

Here is the Rookie Draft Order: 10 picks in total.

Pick 5.1 – Mark

Pick 5.6 – Dave

Pick 7.1 – Mark

Pick 9.4 – Matt

Pick 12.3 – John

Pick 15.6 – Dave

Pick 17.9 – Jeff

Pick 19.6 – Dave

Pick 20.5 – Glenn

Pick 20.9 - Dave

Phase 5 of drafting begins May 2^nd (after the Rookie Draft) with team #14, Mark Moyer, on the clock.

Phases 1-3 of the draft are detailed in previous threads. Please take a look and feel free to add your comments (bottom right hand corner of this post). We encourage comments and would like nothing more than to spur some fantasy football dialogue with the rest of you diehards.

Rob Benetti

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Trendsetters 2010 Blog

Article 3 – March 21, 2010

Phase 3: Rounds 11-15

I enter Phase 3 of the draft with the following roster:

QB: Eli Manning and Kyle Orton

RB: Pierre Thomas, Sproles, Forsett

WR: Wayne, V Jackson, Hester and Davone Bess

TE: Vernon Davis

In Phase 3 my #1 priority is to try and add some depth to my RB core. After that I will look to find a backup TE and 3^rd QB.

Several NFL players have changed teams and this could again be to the benefit of the teams picking early in round 11. I have the second pick and am targeting the newest addition to the Redskins, Larry Johnson.

Rounds 11: Mark takes Antonio Bryant leaving me LJ. I almost have to take a chance on him at this point. My RB core is weak and it is possible that LJ wins the job from Portis. I could see him getting 15+ touches/targets a game and quite possibly the goal line work. If that happens or he exceeds those numbers, my team could be tough. At any rate, he was worth the risk in round 11.

Round 12: Sabretooth started the Defense run at pick 12.2 and six other teams followed suit before I picked. Since I draft on the turn and 24 picks go before it gets back to me, I knew I needed to take at least one defense. The Saints were on the board so I snagged them. I feel they have a chance to repeat their fantasy success from 2010 and possibly build on it.

Round 13: Though I think the Defense run is going to continue and I am tempted to take a second defense here, the Saints give me the confidence to build of my teams main weakness, RB. Had LJ not been there for me in the 11^th and if that darn defense run hadn’t started, I would have taken Mike Bell earlier. At the time of our draft, Bell had signed an offer sheet with the Eagles and the Saints hadn’t yet decided to keep him or let him go. Either way was fine with me as I think he fills the same role.  The Saints did not match the offer and now Bell becomes the backup to McCoy. Bell gives me a little more depth at the RB position and more overall confidence in my team.

Round 14: 18 of the next 24 picks are defenses and only a few remain. I know I must take one on this turn and settle for the Chiefs to backup the Saints.

Round 15: This was a tougher decision than most of my other picks. I now have the depth at RB that I sought and now must fill my QB, TE or WR slots. Mark makes it tougher to pick as he goes PK with pick 15.1 and plants the “Kicker Run Seed”. I consider Kaeding to play it safe and get on the right side of that run but feel my other needs are much greater. There are only a few starting QB’s remaining and numerous WR’s that I have rated pretty closely. Of all the players remaining I feel that Bo Scaife is by far the best TE and overall value available. I take him to secure my TE position.

Here is the team after round 15:

QB: Eli Manning and Kyle Orton

RB: Pierre Thomas, Sproles, Forsett, Larry Johnson, Mike Bell

WR: Wayne, V Jackson, Hester and Davone Bess

TE: Vernon Davis and Bo Scaife

DEF: Saints and Chiefs

I think my team is a tad stronger than it was prior to phase 3. I like the depth that LJ and Bell give me while Scaife completes my TE picture. It will be time to add to my core of wrs in the next few rounds.

Phase 4 of drafting begins April 11^th with team #1, Greg Morgan, on the clock.

Phases 1 and 2 of the draft are detailed in previous threads. Please take a look and feel free to add your comments.

Rob Benetti

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March 6, 2010

Thanks again to FFF for giving the 2010 Trendsetters a chance to blog about Fantasy Football and their first draft of the year.

We whipped through another five rounds in a just a few days.  Let’s get to it!

Here are the rosters through 10 rounds:

Which is your favorite and why?

Here is what the grid looked like for rounds 6-10:  Team 1 picked first in round 6 and so on.

Team composition is always something I like to look at and breakdown. Here is how our teams stack up through 10 rounds. Note that DC style drafts usually differ at this point from standard drafts especially in the NFFC where QBs receive 6 points per TD Pass.





Rounds 6 and 7: I was looking RB all the way here since making the decision to take a TE in the 4th. I was looking at Sproles, Forsett, Hightower and Ricky Williams, all non-starters. I think they all end up with similar point totals under normal conditions so I drafted for upside.

• Rd 6: Sproles is likely on the move and hopefully to Washington where I can only hope he justifies this pick. I should have gone Maclin here. I really like what I saw toward the end of last year. He looked like he “fit” on the field. He knew where to be and really caught on quickly. Dang it!

• Rd 7: Forsett – he should see the field a lot more than JJ this year as he is much quicker and a danger to go all the way. Can he shoulder the load? It doesn’t look like it but he could flourish under Carroll. Upside pick and right now, I NEED him to come through.

Round 8: 2 WRs after 7 rounds is not usually how my teams look. It was time to add WR #3. There were several WRs who I have rated almost even so it really comes down to “the gut” at this point. This group of WRs is the reason I decided to go RB/RB in rounds 6-7. At this point my choice was between Hester or Britt. I toyed with Breaston right here but went with the WR with the better QB and more WR friendly system. Yeah, that’s the Bears and Cutler. Hester is going to get his targets under Martz and opportunities to get the ball in the open field. I’ll take him as my #3 this year.

Round 9: I had to take my 2nd QB here. I had no doubt that this time there would be a QB run. There had to be!  Here is who was left: Orton, Vince Young, Alex Smith, Leinart, Cassell, Henne, Vick….

Since I went with Eli as my starter, I didn’t feel I could afford to wait to see who was left for me. I needed to pick one from this group and my choice was between Orton and Vince Young. I went Orton because even with the loss of Marshall I still think he will continue to remain a steady QB.

Round 10: I was drawn to the WR I ended up taking. Not the most well known name but someone who was a big part of his team’s offense last year. He saw a large share of targets and I do not think that changes this offseason. I like my pick of Davone Bess at this point in the draft to be my #4 WR.

My Current Roster
QB: Eli Manning, Kyle Orton
RB: Pierre, Sproles, Forsett
WR: Wayne, V Jax, Hester, Bess
TE: Vernon Davis

I give myself a B- to C at this time because of the RB issue. See items #1, 3 and 4 below as the major factors leading to this grade.

Take out Sproles, Bess and Vernon Davis and insert McCoy, Maclin and Shockey and do you have a better team?

“Time Will Tell Thoughts” for my team after 10 rounds:

1.    Drafting Vernon Davis over LeSean McCoy – McCoy could have solidified my core and offered tremendous upside at the RB position.
2.    If there is no mini QB run I may have wasted my 5th round pick too when I had another chance to take McCoy.
3.    Pierre Thomas over Grant or Rivers.
4.    Sproles over Hightower, Ricky Williams, Carnell Williams or even the likely starting RB for SD, Tashard Choice. I suck!

Phase 3 of drafting begins March 22nd with team #14, Mark Moyer, on the clock.

Phase 1 of the draft is detailed in the previous thread. Please take a look and feel free to add your comments. We encourage you to do so and would like nothing more than to spur some fantasy football dialogue with the rest of you diehards.

Rob Benetti
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