Andy Richardson
I had my rookie-only dynasty draft this past weekend, and thought some might be curious to see how the picks went down. Every rookie draft won't go like this, but perhaps this will help people see how another league's owners value this year's rookie class.
A brief note on my picks, which are in bold: I started out with the second-overall pick (thanks to a preseason trade last year) and the 10th pick (mine as the result of my third-place finish last season). I made a few trades involving those picks and veterans to end up with picks 4, 6 and 7. I knew by trading out of the 2nd slot I'd lose out on Chris Wells, but decided that Shonn Greene or Donald Brown were close enough that it was worth getting the extra top-7 pick. Time will tell if I was right.
1.01 Moreno, Knowshon DEN RB
1.02 Wells, Chris ARI RB
1.03 Crabtree, Michael SFO WR
1.04 Greene, Shonn NYJ RB
1.05 McCoy, LeSean PHI RB
1.06 Brown, Donald IND RB
I figured the top four picks would be Moreno, Wells, Greene and Brown. Instead I got Greene and Brown at 4 and 6, which was nice.
1.07 Sanchez, Mark NYJ QB
I've bought into the NY-area excitement about Sanchez and decided to take him here. Starting quarterbacks are hard to come by in this league, as well. I decided to wait on a wideout, thinking one of the top 7 rookies -- who I rate close to each other -- would make it to me at 2.04. Sadly, it was a gamble I'd lose.
1.08 Maclin, Jeremy PHI WR
1.09 Heyward-Bey, Darrius OAK WR
1.10 Stafford, Matthew DET QB
1.11 Nicks, Hakeem NYG WR
1.12 Pettigrew, Brandon DET TE
2.01 Robiskie, Brian CLE WR
2.02 Harvin, Percy MIN WR
2.03 Britt, Kenny TEN WR
2.04 Iglesias, Juaquin CHI WR
Much to my dismay, six wideouts went in the previous eight picks. I was confident three non wideouts -- maybe 2 quarterbacks and a running back -- would go, leaving me with one of the six, and I was wrong. I opted for Iglesias on skillset and opportunity in Chicago; he was compared to Anquan Boldin and maybe he'll turn out like Jay Cutler's new Brandon Marshall. I also considered Indianapolis' Austin Collie with this pick, but I already have Anthony Gonzalez on my team so decided to pass.
2.05 Coffman, Chase CIN TE
2.06 White, Pat MIA QB
2.07 Davis, James CLE RB
I considered several running backs here, including the Giants' Andre Brown and Jacksonville's Rashad Jennings. I ultimately decided on Davis because of the comparative quality of the players that Brown would need to leapfrog in New York versus Davis in Cleveland, and the thought that Jennings nearly went undrafted last month. Somebody later said they planned to take Davis two picks later, which is always good to hear.
2.08 Ingram, Cornelius PHI TE
2.09 Bennett, Earl CHI WR (available non-rookies were eligible)
2.10 Freeman, Josh TBB QB
2.11 Johnson, Gartrell SDC RB
2.12 Massaquoi, Mohamed CLE WR
3.01 Beckum, Travis NYG TE
3.02 Jennings, Rashad JAC RB
3.03 Coffee, Glen SFO RB
3.04 Barden, Ramses NYG WR
3.05 Brown, Andre NYG RB
3.06 Ringer, Javon TEN RB
3.07 Collie, Austin IND WR
3.08 Wallace, Mike PIT WR
3.09 Thomas, Mike JAC WR
3.10 Butler, Deon SEA WR
I would have taken a tight end here, either Jared Cook or Shawn Nelson, but my team is very deep at that position (Witten, Shockey, Keller, Celek; we can start 2) so I decided to swing for the fences with the speedy Butler. Brings a dimension Seattle's other wideouts don't have.
3.11 Turner, Patrick MIA WR
3.12 Peerman, Cedric BAL RB
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Posted by Travis Billman | May. 18 at 06:44 AM
What made you so sold on Greene, over Brown or McCoy? I have the 3rd pick in our Rookie Draft, and can't seem to land on a player. (we're also 1/2pt ppr) I like McCoy behind a oft-injured Westbrook, and Brown with a questionable Addai.
Posted by ANDY RICHARDSON | May. 18 at 07:25 AM
On Greene versus Brown, I went back and forth a lot. Prior to the NFL draft I liked Brown more, and then I flipflopped over the last few weeks. My ultimate rationale for Greene over Brown is that although he's less talented, he's going to a team that wants to emphasize the running game and has the personnel to do it, and Thomas Jones is holding out for more money that, at 31 next month, he's not going to get. I see it as Greene getting two thirds of the carries and the goal-line touches as soon as this year, certainly by 2010. Best-case for Brown seems to be splitting time with Addai. But, I had those two very, very close, and I wouldn't blame you for taking Brown -- I almost did. As for McCoy, Westbrook is oft-injured, but I still see him as the starter and getting most of the work for let's say two more years. There's little doubt McCoy will start a game or two each season, but I think he'll get the least work of the three in the next two years unless Westbrook gets seriously injured. Maybe three years from now McCoy will be the best, but I've got an eye on this year and next, too, and McCoy looks like the least likely to get 10-15 touches a week the next two seasons, to me anyway.