Results from the draft...

Ok, so here's how the draft went down. I had the unfortunate distinction of picking last, however, I didn't know that it meant I would choose another player immediately in the next turn. So what happened? I accidently chose Jamal Lewis due to time out default. While Lewis is normally a solid pick, he did go nuts 2-3 years ago, I'm scared of how the prison time may affect him. After reading the Boston Sports Guy column on espn.com's page 2 section one week ago, I was really scared. Here's the gist: While Lewis has been doing time in prison during his whole offseason, that means that his conditioning sucked because he couldn't lift weights being there for such a short amount of time. On top of that, prison food sucks in general, being loaded with carbs and nothing else. Four months altogether and...well, I just hope he's recovered enough by now. Here's the info I got from:
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/blog/entry?date=20050829&name=simmons

Anyway, I did promise to write a running diary, but I was just way too tired to write it live, so I'll plug in my thoughts for each of my picks...

Since I was the last guy with the pick, these guys were taken ahead of me, lucky bastards!

Tomlinson (RB), P. Manning (QB), S. Alexander (RB)

Sigh...I was really hopeful of snagging Alexander, but these guys really know their stuff.

My picks: McGahee (RB) and Lewis (RB, due to timeout default...) Not bad picks actually. I'm looking forward to McGahee breaking out this season and Lewis being motivated to destroy all defenses this year. At QB, I went with Brees (hoping for an encore from last year and NOT too much Marty ball), Leftwich (should have a solid season this year), and *GASP* Drew Bledsoe!!! When I picked him, EVERYONE in the league drew a chorus of DREW!!! I was left in agony over that pick, until I realized 2 things. 1. He's my third stringer, 2. If Parcells can revive the career of 40 year old Vinny Testaverde, then Bledsoe should be an upgrade at the very least.

TE's: T. Gonzales (with Trent Green throwing to him, I like those chances) and Kleinsasser (Same with Culpepper throwing to him)

WR's: S. Smith (hoping he's completely recovered by now), J. Porter (with Moss getting double to triple teamed, Porter should be a machine this year), B. Stokley (one of Manning's receivers, need I say more?), and finally ol' reliable Rod Smith (I just hope Jake Plummer doesn't try to throw to him left handed)

Backup RB: M. Bennett (thanks to Onterrio Smith's whizzinator incident, Bennett should be ok)

Kickers: J. Brown (Seattle) and J. Kasay (Carolina). Mr. Clutch (Adam Vinitieri) and Dumbass (M. Vanderjagt) were already taken, as was the Polish Cannon (Janikowski). Since 2nd tier kickers are pretty much the same, I decided to take these guys based on 2 factors. 1. High powered offensive teams (like Seattle), and 2. Playoffs makeability (Like Carolina and possibly Seattle, if Holmgren doesn't screw up again)

Defense: Taking on a different approach, I decided to draft a defense ahead of some starting players. Why? Well, there really aren't too many rock solid defenses these days and if one doesn't draft a good enough defense, you'd have to pick and choose a new defense every damn week according to matchups, which would really suck! So I went ahead and picked Carolina's defense. Not only are they rock solid, they also play in the NFC, which means that they can avoid playing against the Colts (they score on everybody) and teams in the NFC in general have lost their offensive power.

So there you have it. Somehow I feel like I didn't get any aces in my hand of cards, but it does feel like I have a whole bunch of Jacks, some Queens, and a couple of Kings. Let's hope that Bledsoe doesn't calcify too much this season!

Teams in the league and the matchups...

Ok, the league is aptly named "Rice Bowl II" and this will be the first time ever that I've joined a fantasy football league. The list of teams are:

Orange Dream
Playmaker
LiMELiTEgrafix
The Franchise
XL Beef Noodle Soup
FTW
Roid Rage
samurai otakus
Fightin' Irish
Real Men of Genius

My team is the samurai otakus, and yeah, it's a really nerdy lame name. I'll have to come up with something better next time. As you can see, it's a standard 10 team format. The matchups for week 1 are:

LiMELiTEgrafix v. samurai otakus
Roid Rage v. Real Men of Genius
Playmaker v. Fightin' Irish
Orange Dream v. FTW
The Franchise v. XL Beef Noodle Soup

When Labor day arrives, the chaos begins!

Yee-haw! Draft day has been set for Labor day (US est) at 11:30am, which means half-past midnight for me. Time to stock up on coffee, redbull, Jolt cola, Mountain Dew, lots of Pringles, and Gatorade! It's gonna be a loooooong night and my high school students will either see a zombified or an extremely wired "Jason-sensei" come Tuesday morning. Then again, those students still sometimes call me Jackson, Johnson, or even Jaycon, but who cares! It's live draft baby! Seriously, how in the heck do some students manage to mangle my name to Jaycon is beyond me...

...and yes, I'm still gonna write a running diary of how I drafted and who drafted whom. I'm betting that the quality of my writing will start out high, then gradually slide to an incoherent state as the lack of sleep and potentially stupid decisions (due to lack of sleep) will take their toll on me. Here's a potential doozy:

Me: Yes! I just got my starting QB! He plays for Denver and has a cool nickname like Jake the snake!...Ah crap! I just drafted Jake the mistake, by mistake!

Hopefully I can avoid that land mine...

D-day is coming soon...

Some thoughts:

List of people to blacklist during draft day and why:

Fred Taylor RB (he's a great running back when healthy, except that his groin's made of paper)

Ricky Williams RB (draft him only if you want a certified yoga instructor/hollistic medicine doctor)

Keyshawn Johnson WR (Mr. Gimme the damn ball! can't separate from corners to save his life now)

Koren Robinson WR (major head case no. 1, suspended for substance abuse anyway)

Donovan McNabb QB (nothing against this guy, he's got guts, skills and smarts, but without any receivers, he can't do anything)

On the fence:

Michael Vick QB (best damn runner and one of the hardest throwing QBs, but with only one reliable receiving threat [Alge Crumpler], it'll be tough to pick him. Still interesting though)

Priest Holmes RB (gotta prove that he's 100% healthy before I pick him. If he's healthy, top 5 overall pick for me)

Detroit Lions QBs Jeff Garcia/Joey Harrington (TONS of receiver talent this year which will make any QB look pretty good, but don't know which QB will start. Harrington's young, but erratic and shaky. Garcia's smart, but getting old and has been fighting injuries)

Drew Bledsoe QB (Yikes! He did do well enough towards the end of his Buffalo tenure, though that was mostly the defense and running game that bailed him out. Still, can't count out the Bledsoe/Parcells reunion just yet, but Drew's probably gonna be my 2nd or 3rd stringer at best)

Corey Dillon RB (Good solid RB on a team that mixes run and pass well. Can catch the ball and rack up receiving yards based on offensive system. Only problem, he's 30 now. I also worry about the pounding he's taken during his purgatory in Cincy; will it add up? Most likely my 2nd or 3rd stringer)

Money guys:

Peyton Manning QB (The Pats still own him, but he owns everybody else. 1st overall pick tie)

LaDainian Tomlinson RB (The best RB in the league. As a Pats fan, he's the one guy that scares me every time the Pats face him. Does it all, runs and catches, scoring machine, virtually unstoppable. 1st overall pick tied with Manning)

Randy Moss WR (Everyone forgets that Kerry Collins(QB) took the Giants to the superbowl with WRs like Ike Hilliard and Armani Toomer (both of whom are really just 2nd tier talents at best.) With Collins' strong arm + Moss, it's all money. Top 5 pick)

Shawn Alexander RB (With Koren Robinson being suspended, count on Alexander (no. 2 leading rushing in the league last year) to be used in almost all offensive sets. Really tough to stop, almost in Tomlinson's level. Top 5 pick [potentially])

Drew Rosenhaus is driving me nuts!

Ok, I have nothing wrong against the guy himself. He's doing his job as an agent and he does it well. Props to him for that. Unfortunately for us fantasy football players, his clients are driving me nuts! Here's the list:

1. T.O.
Ok, Owens was already crazy to begin with. I can't say I was totally surprised with the way things have happened recently. To recap: he's threatened holdout all through the offseason, he threw McNabb under the bus when he said "I wasn't the one who got tired in the Superbowl", he comes back to the Eagles' camp (which is great) but then says that he won't be happy (which isn't great), shows up wearing ridiculous camo fatigues and headphones to ignore everyone around him (he's on his own planet), ends up pulling his groin during practice (thus killing the fantasy owners in fell swoop), then ends up getting suspended from camp. And you know what the crazy thing is? He'll probably still be high on my priority list because no matter where he plays, he'll still put up the numbers. Of course, that is assuming that he'll play, because the Eagles aren't trading him, yet. Though the groin pull still scares the hell outta me.

2. Javon Walker
Last year he went off in a big way. Brett Favre's new go-to-guy, that's all that's needed to be said about him. What happens? Signs Rosenhaus as his agent, threatens hold out, rejoins the Packers camp, gets injured during training camp. Are you kidding me? That's 2 Rosenhaus clients in a row that have gone out with injuries! I swear it's a conspiracy! Well, maybe it's just coincidence, right?

oh wait...

3. Edgerrin James
Rosenhaus client, threatens holdout, RECONSTRUCTED knee. Yep, it's a conspiracy folks!

Anyway, I'm planning on staying clear away from Rosenhaus clients for the draft. At least until I get convinced that T.O. will 100% healthy again.

Welcome to fflosaka!

Ok, I've created this blog to keep track of progress going on in the fantasy football league(s) I will be joining later this year. Stay tuned. This blog should be full of crazy stats once the season begins. Of course, I'll also keep a running diary of the drafting process along rants and raves. Let the fun begin!