Statman’s Handbook: 5 things I hate about your draft!

1.) Why did you take a quarterback in the first round? 

I told you not to!  Most 10-14 team leagues will have one quarterback slot and that means mucho QB’s available after the first two rounds.  Brees and Rodgers aren’t two rounds better than Romo, Brady, Manning, Schaub, or Rivers.  On the other hand, Ryan Mathews, Rashard Mendenhall, and Shonn Greene are a much bugger step up from LeSean McCoy or Cedrick Benson.  Think ahead, not just in the moment.

2.) Where are all your handcuffs?

You drafted Ronnie Brown, Ray Rice, and Greg Jennings but haven’t secured them with Ricky Williams, Willis McGahee, and Jacoby Jones.  Why is this so important?  Mostly because when you hit injury problems you don’t have to guess if Larry Johnson or Bernard Scott will be getting carries.  I know you want to take late sleepers but insurance is always better than chance. 

3.) Why didn’t you draft the guys you were hyping?

You told me all the guys you were targeting but your team looks like a bizzaro world.  Stick to your guns.  Don’t worry if Reggie Wayne falls to you.  You’ll always feel better when you take guys that you liked as opposed to some magazines rankings.  Taking guys before the experts say is never a bad thing.  At least you know that, in the end, you did your due diligence to draft a team you feel can be productive.  Ask the experts about Matt Forte last year.

4.) Why did you wait till the 4^th round to take a receiver?

All the great receivers will be gone by the end of the 3^rd round.  Don’t wait to grab one or you’ll be sorry.  There are too many sleeper RB’s later on in the draft to go for.  Getting stuck with Michael Crabtree as your #1 will hurt more than you think. 

5.) Why does your team look like a bad 90’s party?

Old players are fine as long as they are not showing a decline in numbers.  There are always huge names in the draft that people grab based on their career reputation.  Perfect examples in 2010 are Terrell Owens, Donald Driver, Tony Gonzalez, Derrick Mason, LaDainian Tomlinson, etc.  These guys are all getting older and more fragile.  The HGH era is coming to an end and players trying to go into their late 30’s will decrease.  It’s slowly becoming a young man’s game except for the QB.  A caveat to this rule is Randy Moss.  He has shown no decline in ability the last few years and looks to be in great shape again.  Other stud generation Xer’s to grab are Ricky Williams and Brett Favre.  Both showed last year that sometimes age is just a number.