ATA's Fantasy Football Post-Draft Analysis

Well folks, the NFL preseason is rapidly drawing to a close and the NFL season is about to kick off. What does that mean? It's time for some FANTASY FOOTBALL! My cohorts here at After the Anthem created a league for the writers and a few friends, and here we will go over the draft with some comments and added anlysis. Of course, one caveat - our league only included 8 teams, so the depth of our league might be a bit misleading. That said, let's jump in to our round by round break down!




Round 1 Thoughts:
This was a fairly textbook first round. A few notable picks might be ATA's David P. taking Tom Brady with his first pick, and the inclusion of Marshawn Lynch in the first round. With top rated fantasy performers like Gore and Portis still on the board, it would be interesting to see why r2ro opted to go with Lynch and Moss over any combination of Gore, Portis, Manning or Romo. Lynch certainly had a promising debut season, performing well when he played, but he certainly has to answer some questions about his durability. If Buffalo's passing game doesn't perform (highly likely) Lynch may justify r2ro's decision to take him with his first pick.

Best pick: LT. It's LT, nothing to say here.
Worst pick: Lynch. There were several RBs on the board with proven track records - taking a sophomore back with your first pick is risky, so while it may turn out well, the first round ought to be a sure thing. Considering that, I don't like taking risks with the first pick.



Round 2 Thoughts:
In the 2nd round we saw the fantasy dominance of RB's continue, as 12 of the first 16 picks taken were RBs. Textbook fantasy drafting strategy is to take two RB's with your first two drafts, and it seems that several of the drafters in this draft got that memo. No real surprises here, as each pick was fairly solid value.

Best pick: Clinton Portis. Great value pick here, starting a team with LT/Portis is very solid.
Worst pick: Reggie Wayne. Considering draft position, I believe this was a bit of a reach



Round 3 Thoughts:
In the third round we see all the elite level WRs come flying off the draft boards, along with a few owners trying to flesh out their RB situation with all the top tier RBs taken in the first two rounds.

Best pick: Tony Romo
Worst pick: T.J Houshmandzadeh. We do not know just how healthy Housh will be, and considering all the turmoil surrounding the Bengals this season, we do not know what kind of stats Housh will be posting. With players like Colston, Fitzgerald, Holt, and Marshall still available, the Housh pick here leaves me scratching my head.



Round 4 Thoughts:
This was a round with a few head-scratching choices, like Darren McFadden and Steve Smith. McFadden is just a rookie on a terrible Raiders team. McFadden would have been available 2 or 3 rounds later, and what makes the pick even more confusing is that r2ro already has two RBs in Lynch and Maroney.

Best pick: Torry Holt. Getting Holt with that pick is solid.
Worst pick: McFadden.

Analysis of the remaining 11 rounds to come.