Sunday, August 24, 2008
Update
Leinart very well may have killed any chance of a trade happening by being a vortex of suck last night.
Saturday, August 23, 2008
Football Team Update
My fantasy football league draft is tomorrow and I've just spent the past week or two totally overhauling my roster.
After our league's keeper deadline, my roster looked like this:
QB - Jason Campbell, Matt Leinart
RB - Ronnie Brown, Maurice Jones-Drew, Fred Taylor
WR - Lee Evans, Dwayne Bowe
TE - Tony Scheffler
K - Lawrence Tynes
D/ST - Washington Redskins
It's definitely not a loaded team, but I was an expansion team last year and its surprisingly decent considering the expansion draft pool consisted of rookies and players not good enough to be in the starting line-ups of a 12 team league.
Coming into this season my initial goal was to continue building around a fairly young core with the hopes of getting into the playoffs and having the kind of team that could get hot and make a run. I definitely didn't view myself as a prime contender, but thought I had enough that I could maybe get lucky.
Unfortunately the offseason happened. Jason Campbell was forced to learn a new offense. Leinart's job is somewhat shaky. Ronnie Brown is taking longer to recover from ACL surgery and was passed by Ricky Williams on the depth chart. My dumb kicker got injured. KC and Buffalo lost key components to their O-line. It was starting to look like a lost season.
My plan was never to contend this year. I wanted to be able to compete, but never expected to contend. So when it looked less likely that I would even contend, I decided to make some moves. I decided to use this season to try and accelerate the rebuilding process by moving some of my most valuable chips.
I started by dealing Mojo and my 6th and 22nd overall picks in the draft for picks 2, 9 and Jerricho Cotchery. Mojo is a good back, but its becoming apparent he's never going to be a workhorse. If he does, I fear he might be rather injury prone. However, he also has quite a bit of value right now. In exchange I received the 2nd pick, which I plan on using on Rashard Mendenhall, who has a high ceiling and plays on a run oriented offense. Cotchery is a nice throw in because he's really starting to come into his own and he now has a QB that really likes slinging the ball downfield. At the time of the trade I fully intended to use the 9th pick to take Chris Johnson from Tennesse...who I really liked. One problem: Johnson tore up the preseason and started getting hyped up and moving up draft boards.
Realizing Johnson simply wasn't falling to me at 9 anymore (especially since the guy at 7 has LenDale White), I tried moving up in the draft. I wasn't having much luck trying to package Fred Taylor and the 9th pick. Then I caught a break. A contending team was having severe bye week issues and was desperate to get his hands on a decent receiver that had a different bye week. So I moved Dwayne Bowe for the 6th pick in the draft and the team's first rounder next year. Jackpot!
My next move is to try and land a WR for Fred Taylor and or Matt Leinart. Due to the roster rules of the league, I'd have to drop Taylor to draft Chris Johnson. So if I can move Taylor for a WR, not only do I get something for Taylor, but I also pick up another roster piece without using a draft pick. And since I also kept the 9th pick, I'm looking at the possibility of drafting Aaron Rodgers if I can move Leinart. Is Rodgers a sure thing? Heck no. But he is set up to succeed in Green Bay and has a very nice ceiling there.
And that's really what these moves were all about: trying to acquire impact players for the future. Mendenhall could easily become a top 5 back. Johnson looks like a receiving beast and home run threat out of the backfield. Cotchery could very easily become a TJ Houshmandzadeh like presence at WR. Aaron Rodgers could definitely put up some big seasons with the receiving depth and O-Line in Green Bay. Will my team win this year? Probably not. But I'm building for a year or two down the road. Which is why I'm holding on to Ronnie Brown. Brown was a top 5 back last year before his injury and will likely take a year to get back to full health. Brown, Mendenhall and Johnson has the potential to be a championship backfield in a couple of years. And that's what its all about: championships.
After our league's keeper deadline, my roster looked like this:
QB - Jason Campbell, Matt Leinart
RB - Ronnie Brown, Maurice Jones-Drew, Fred Taylor
WR - Lee Evans, Dwayne Bowe
TE - Tony Scheffler
K - Lawrence Tynes
D/ST - Washington Redskins
It's definitely not a loaded team, but I was an expansion team last year and its surprisingly decent considering the expansion draft pool consisted of rookies and players not good enough to be in the starting line-ups of a 12 team league.
Coming into this season my initial goal was to continue building around a fairly young core with the hopes of getting into the playoffs and having the kind of team that could get hot and make a run. I definitely didn't view myself as a prime contender, but thought I had enough that I could maybe get lucky.
Unfortunately the offseason happened. Jason Campbell was forced to learn a new offense. Leinart's job is somewhat shaky. Ronnie Brown is taking longer to recover from ACL surgery and was passed by Ricky Williams on the depth chart. My dumb kicker got injured. KC and Buffalo lost key components to their O-line. It was starting to look like a lost season.
My plan was never to contend this year. I wanted to be able to compete, but never expected to contend. So when it looked less likely that I would even contend, I decided to make some moves. I decided to use this season to try and accelerate the rebuilding process by moving some of my most valuable chips.
I started by dealing Mojo and my 6th and 22nd overall picks in the draft for picks 2, 9 and Jerricho Cotchery. Mojo is a good back, but its becoming apparent he's never going to be a workhorse. If he does, I fear he might be rather injury prone. However, he also has quite a bit of value right now. In exchange I received the 2nd pick, which I plan on using on Rashard Mendenhall, who has a high ceiling and plays on a run oriented offense. Cotchery is a nice throw in because he's really starting to come into his own and he now has a QB that really likes slinging the ball downfield. At the time of the trade I fully intended to use the 9th pick to take Chris Johnson from Tennesse...who I really liked. One problem: Johnson tore up the preseason and started getting hyped up and moving up draft boards.
Realizing Johnson simply wasn't falling to me at 9 anymore (especially since the guy at 7 has LenDale White), I tried moving up in the draft. I wasn't having much luck trying to package Fred Taylor and the 9th pick. Then I caught a break. A contending team was having severe bye week issues and was desperate to get his hands on a decent receiver that had a different bye week. So I moved Dwayne Bowe for the 6th pick in the draft and the team's first rounder next year. Jackpot!
My next move is to try and land a WR for Fred Taylor and or Matt Leinart. Due to the roster rules of the league, I'd have to drop Taylor to draft Chris Johnson. So if I can move Taylor for a WR, not only do I get something for Taylor, but I also pick up another roster piece without using a draft pick. And since I also kept the 9th pick, I'm looking at the possibility of drafting Aaron Rodgers if I can move Leinart. Is Rodgers a sure thing? Heck no. But he is set up to succeed in Green Bay and has a very nice ceiling there.
And that's really what these moves were all about: trying to acquire impact players for the future. Mendenhall could easily become a top 5 back. Johnson looks like a receiving beast and home run threat out of the backfield. Cotchery could very easily become a TJ Houshmandzadeh like presence at WR. Aaron Rodgers could definitely put up some big seasons with the receiving depth and O-Line in Green Bay. Will my team win this year? Probably not. But I'm building for a year or two down the road. Which is why I'm holding on to Ronnie Brown. Brown was a top 5 back last year before his injury and will likely take a year to get back to full health. Brown, Mendenhall and Johnson has the potential to be a championship backfield in a couple of years. And that's what its all about: championships.
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