Entered the month of September just completing my first Fantasy Football Draft. This one was for the keeper league. It may have been the quickest draft ever; I think we were done in less than 45 minutes. I guess when 72 picks are already spoken for, it saves a ton of time. Every team has 6 keepers; they’re kept for 3 years each. Two of them fall off each year and must be replaced. I was losing Terry McLaurin, DK Metcalf, and because of a trade, Devin Singletary; I wasn’t upset about losing any of them, although one of them would rejoin my team via draft pick. The keepers I entered the draft with were Justin Herbert and Myles Gaskin (haha) who are on their last year; Gaskin actually was just signed by the Vikings… he may end up having some value after all. I have Mike Williams and Dalton Schultz with 2 years remaining; it’d be nice if Williams could stay healthy, and unfortunately for Schultz, he went downstate to the Texans… he’s not even the highest rated “Dalton” in this draft. Finally, my new keepers, which I’m very proud of: Alexander Mattison and James Cook. I put all my waiver bucks towards claiming Mattison last year with the hopes that Cook would be gone, and it worked out to perfection. I would be losing my 7th, 8th, 11th, 12th, 13th, and 15th round draft picks due to my keepers, which meant I was locked and loaded for the early rounds. Let’s go!!!
Because of keepers in the first round from other teams, I had the 3rd overall pick. McCaffrey went first, then in a surprise move, Jacobs… which left Ekeler in my lap; thank you! Next up, I snagged Mark Andrews; after Kelce, you can’t do much better at that position. OK, I need some WRs… My next 2 picks were DJ Moore and Terry McLaurin in the 3rd and 4th rounds respectively; I was happy with that. I snagged another Bear (sucker!) with Khalil Herbert in the 5th round; I was still feeling good. It was the 6th round pick that snuck up on me… I was looking down the available players, checking my printouts, filling up my queue, when all of a sudden, it was my turn again; I kind of panicked. I’ve only been doing this for almost 30 years, yet I was caught off guard by how quick it got back to me. Now I needed more WRs… I had plenty of RBs, plus I could have used a backup QB pick late in the draft, but… noooo… I ended up taking another RB. Not a bad pick in general, Brian Robinson should be just fine, but now I was strapped. I only had 4 picks left and needed a defense and a kicker, and I only had 3 WRs on my roster; damn! Obviously shifted gears, focused on the remaining WRs. Since a lot of the guys in my queue were lower on the rankings, I snagged the overall #1 defense with my 9th round pick, the Niners; again, happy with this. In the 10th and 14th round, I selected Treylon Burks and Tank Dell. Finally, Graham Gano at kicker with my last pick.
Overall, I feel pretty good; still concerned about my WRs. I have the feeling I’ll need to snag one off the wire at some point, but who do I drop? It should all work itself out, after all, there are usually more WR options to grab than any other position. So away we go… 2 more drafts to go, the family one on Saturday in person and the auction league on the Opening Night eve next Wednesday. The best week in Fantasy Football continues…
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