Well, I guess I threw a wrench in the draft with my Willis pick. I wasn't exactly in love with this draft slot... After MJD and Peterson, I felt he RB's became a crap-shoot in the sense that they all have a fair amount of risk. LT2, Forte, Gore, SJax.... none of them are a guarantee to finish in the top ten, much less top five, of RB's this year. Too early to pick a WR as well, I felt, so I went with the only player available who I am 99.9% certain will be at or near the top of his position in scoring. Barring injury, I don't think there's any way Willis finishes outside of the top 2-3 LB's this year. In this scoring format, he would have finished 4th overall (all positions) in this league last year, and 2nd (only to Tom Brady) in 2007. No other player in the NFL would have finished in the top 10 both years, other than Peyton Manning, who would have been 7th and 9th, in '07 and '08 respectively.

Now, I understand that the dropoff behind Willis at the LB position is not at all significant... three other LB's finished within 10 points of Willis last year in this format. But, if Willis has a year closer to 2007 (340 points... leader was Brady at 400) than 2008 (276 points... leader was Brees at 311) this year, he'll blow the rest of the LB field away... I'm banking on him being somewhere in between the two.

As for the rest of the draft so far, I wasn't around for picks 2 and 3 (as has been discussed at length), but I'm happy to get two solid WR's. Looking at the list of RB's who went after Smith and Boldin, the only RB I could possibly see myself taking instead of Smith would have been Barber. As for Boldin, I don't think I would have taken any of the RB's taken after him instead... maybe P. Thomas, but probably not. So, in hindsight, I'm grateful for getting the guys I got, especially once I was able to somewhat secure the RB position with Thomas Jones, M. Lynch, and LJ with the next three picks. Last night, I pre-selected McNabb alone, thinking that if he was taken before me, I would make my pick this morning. It turns out that I got him, and I'm happy with that as well... I think he's got more offensive weapons than ever before, and could be in for a career type of year.

Still a lot of drafting to do... I'm going to use the next 33 picks to try and reduce my "Average time waiting for pick to be made."

I agree, given where you took your RB's you got very solid value. You could easilly stand pat and keep both Smith and Boldin and roll with TJ, Lynch and LJ at RB.

As for me, I did not intend to take 3 RB's in the first 4 rounds, but Rice was too good a value to pass on at 4.08. I think he is poised for a good year, RB2 value for sure. At 1.05, it was a tough choice, and I felt the same way Gopher did, Gore is no lock to be a top 10 RB, but these days with RBBC, how many RB's are a lock anymore? That thought also stayed with me when I took Rice in the fourth, after R Brown in the third. Also worried that Pat White might steal wildcat snaps from Brown.... Rice made even more sense.

Having missed out on most of the best WR's after taking R Wayne in the second, I thought I'd better look for value elsewhere, and getting Beason and Ryans, my #2 and #3 LB's on my board, I think I got good value, and might end up with the best LB corp in the league, if Ryans can stay healthy this year. With Coles gone from NY, I hope Cotchery makes the most of it as the only proven WR on the Jets roster, even though the Jets will likely be a very run oriented team.

The next few rounds is where I think championships are make or break. Finding players who outperform their ADP this year is what it's all about now. Best of luck to all!

Its too close to call , everyone is doing resonably well 32 rounds to go. I agree with rovers the next 5 to 7 rounds will kind of be where the core of your team will fall in place 17 players.This is where championships are won or lost. GOOD LUCK

The tranasaction that as posted as a trade between me and CoolNerd was a mistake. I have reversed itl

this is the correct trade

Scáthach Warriors gave up:
Year 2009 Draft Pick 8.05
Year 2009 Draft Pick 9.08
Year 2009 Draft Pick 11.08

Arlington Colorful Erratic Bats gave up:
Year 2009 Draft Pick 8.02
Year 2009 Draft Pick 9.11
Year 2009 Draft Pick 11.11
Comments:
here is the offer I was proposing I hate trying to remember when i am logged in as commish I can screw it up

LOL, ok makes a lot more sense....

I thought I was commenting to a private e-maiil versus that bogus trade. When i saw the response i was like i dropped three spots, got the same guys i was going to draft and moved up with my next two conrners, what's all the fuss. Too funny...the joys of multi-tasking

Fraz... you bassad! I wanted Mario sooo bad....

Soooo.... no one else ready to comment on how great thier draft has gone so far?

Once it's over, I will critique all teams in an objective fashion. That means my draft will get an A, and others at best a B+.

I tried to trade up to get Greg Olson - didn't work - I figured he is as good as another WR. This draft is interesting to say the least.
All in all I am happy as long as all my players stay healthy and that is a fool's wish. LOL

I am pretty pleased with my draft so far, especially picking at the turn. I hate the turns because as we all know it is easy to miss out on the runs. It may be a mistake on my part but I am glad to see all these IDP's come off the board early and allow some good offensive players to slip through. I'm as much a fan of IDP's as anyone but IMO they are just going way too high. I guess that will remain to be seen. If Moreno comes through I've got a solid RB corps. Witten is the best TE in the game IMO, and Cooley isn't far behind if he can bring his TD's back up to where they should be. WR's are maybe a little above average, nothing special, but TO will produce, even with a new QB and Desean is on one of the better passing attacks in the league and will be the #1 target for McNabb. I expect a great rebound year for Palmer, and eventually you defensive minded guys will have to fill some offensive slots. By that time I feel like there will be more value on the defensive side of the ball than offense. This is my first redraft league in a long time, so we'll see how it works out. Good group of owners here after we got the kinks worked out.

I am going have to get used to the idea that I am not the only frazier (or frazia in cossell speak) in this league..was about to go I didn't take Mario (even though I would have soon as Texans homer).

Connie, you didn't have to take Donald Brown, just cuz I didn't trade.

Good pick, I could of used the handcuff.

really wanted Weddle in the 7th. if he is anywhere near what he did last year, that will be a good pick Devils. You'll have a 4th LB each week

I liked the 10 spot because I thought I can be assured of 2 good RBs, but when I get there I just couldn't pass on Moss. A decision like that leaves me with a risky McFadden to lean on instead of a sled dog like Brandon Jacobs. I might burn with that decision. Sometimes I don't know why I even strategize when I just end up doing an about-face when it's decision time?

Oh yeah, spending a 1st and 6th on Deangelo Williams and Jon Stewart handcuff is WAY TOO expensive. The thought of Deangelo going down and one of you other ladies enjoying the goldmine just pissed me off. So I did the stupid.

It's been fun so far. Some picks are very interesting, off-the-norm, and I like it. Very competitive draft as suspected. You guys are RB whores, but I knew that already coming in. But still, you guys come in and draft them even earlier than expected to keep me on my toes. well done

Ok i'll play.

Overall I like where my team is headed. I have Rodgers ranked at #3 and is solid value at 4.11. I think they throw a lot more this year and Rodgers jumps ahead of Manning.

At RB I have MJD (whom I am not entirely sold can last a full season as the main guy, but couldn't get any nibbles on trying to move out of the 2 spot) and Marion Barber III who is looking great in camp and I am looking for a very solid year from him. I just grabbed Chris Wells in the 10th which again is serious value IF he can stay healthy, but too hard to pass up.

Ok I will admit I LOVE my WR trio. I expect Colston and Royal to have explosive years and with Holmes as my #3 I feel really good.

I was definitely glad to see Olsen there at 8.11. Olsen and Cutler have the chance to be like Manning and Clark. They seem to be very tight already and I look for Olsen to fight for team leader of receptions, and be a very serious red zone target.

I grabbed Dansby as a steady LB who should easily drop into the top 19 again.

I really loved Weddle as my DB1 right up until I saw he got hurt Thursday. Luckily it is not a high sprain, just a regular one and he should fine soon. H ecould easily be the top scoring DB this year.

Overall I like the way it is going, but definitely missed out on a couple of guys I wanted by waiting one round too many. Have to try and nail that down in these next few rounds.

What is being done about Region Rats 9.7 skipped pick?

I also like the way my team is shaping up. Getting Schaub in the 8th was about what I was looking for in a QB. I took R Wayne early, and then waited on WR. I wanted two WR's that would show up every week consisantly, and S Smith (the lesser) in the 9th alomg with Cotchery was just what I was looking for. While neither is in a pass oriented offense, they will both lead their respective teams in receptions and give me consistant if not explosive points production every week. With Gore, R Brown and Rice I have the option of starting 3 RB's as well.

I wanted two studs at LB, and if Ryans can stay healthy, I have that with him and Beason, potentially both top 5 LB's. By the time of my next pick, I will have all of my starters on offense and at LB, again, something I always look to do as early as possible. Maybe I jumped for Keller, but I think he has top 5 potential a TE.... the Jets have NO TE's behind him at this point, none. Baker and Franks are gone and no other TE in camp has shown a thing. Within that Jet offense, TE should get a ton of targets. TE's were going off the board fast, so I pulled the trigger.

Honestly, there are 2 or 3 rosters that look a little weak to me at this point, but the rest look pretty solid.

I thought Fraz's draft was excellent, even dominating early on, but going heavy on IDP in the later rounds might have brought him back into the pack a little... we shall see.

Taz.... nice value/risk with Wells there, but all the talk out of Dallas about using 3 RB's has me a little scared with Barber, although he helped me get to a FF supe last year. I have taken a pass on most Denver players this year.... just don't trust Orton to get the ball to Marshall or Royal. I heard Orton got roundly booed after two piks in the first Denver scrimmage. Don't have any faith in Denver's new coach, either. Sucks, because I got Marshall in every dynasty league I could, right from when he got drafted by the Broncs. Stocked up on Scheffler too... with Cutler gone, I dunno. I agree about Rodgers.... he could have a blow up year.

Talk is cheap now.... it gets expensive when we start playing!

I have done what I could to contact people when the clock is near to expiring, but yesterday I was out very early to work... came home to see that it had expired on Slick's pick and that quite a few picks had been made since.... can't do much about that, it's a missed pick..

So he just makes it up whenever?

This isn't covered in the rules... some leagues allow for a missed pick to be made at the end of the round, but we intentionally did not make that allowance in this league. However, we also did not make any rules up for make up picks.

The choices would be a free waiver move after the draft, or allow for an additional pick at the end of the draft, which is essentially the same thing.

Ok, John, sounds good to me.

WOW.... from 11.6 to 12.5, ten of my preselects went off the borad. You guys are good, IF I am any good.... stealing every player on my draft board this round. Time for a new preselect.....

Just thought I'd let some of you guys know. If you're not going to be around the computer for awhile, mfl has this really neat thing called predrafting. You preselect players for your next 1 or 2 draft spots. It works really well. You should try it.

I called Slick yesterday, and made his 13th round pick for him while on the phone. I called again early last night and left a message, I knew he had to make another pick before calling it a night. He missed his 14th. I can only do so much...

That's 2 picks he's missed. I think we need to consider a replacement. This is ridiculous for an owner to miss 2 picks in the early rounds. It compromises the integrity of the league. He missed the 9.07 pick, you had to call him and make his round 13 pick, and now he times out again at his 14th pick. Likely he'll time out again at 15. I say we find a capable replacement and one who WANTS to be in this league.

This is my fault. I thought Eraser had paid... and when we needed a last minute replacement, Slick agreed to bail me out. Hopefully, Slick will be there for his future picks, but I will have to do something if he's late again.

maybe you should know the circumstances before you open your mouth, i took this spot to TRY and help out a friend, with the warning that i am extremely busy right now and 12 hrs might be trouble for me. also that i have told one of the commish to try and find someone to take the spot as soon as possible, as i felt bad leaving this team shorthanded. i was an original in this league who dropped out back then because i knew the time for drafting would be trouble, now i gotta listen to a loudmouth badmouth me on here, no thanks.

Well maybe we should have been kept abreast of this information instead of just replacing a team and then disappearing. Not saying this is all your fault but we thought we were getting a good replacement owner--only now we find out it was just temporary anyway.

Now lets everybody take a deep breath and calm down. slick is a good owner and long time commish of a great dynasty league - he did take over to help us out and mentioned he would be busy - I didn't have his numbers until just a while ago to get ahold of him to notifiy him when he is up. It's not that he doesn't care he just doesn't always have access to a computer. I am in touch with him now and we are trying to work this out.

Slick will work with me via text during the times he has no access. He won't be timing out. I think once we get rolling again, this will all settle down. We need to make a league decision about the makeup picks - we said not till the end - but with the extraordinary circumstances that I am not free to go into I think it would be fair to let slick make up his picks after the 18th round. But this is a league with owners and not just a dictatorship. So I would like to know what you guys think. I know everyone is hot over the missed picks - but there are reasons so please, if it was you in the same position wouldn't you want the same treatment?

I know I would. So post away NWI regional rats is still an active owner. He is getting ready to pick now.

I am more than willing to let bygones be bygones but from Slick's previous post, it seems he was only here temporarily anyway. If he wants to stay permanently, then that's fine as long as he keeps up with the draft like most of us have. If he times out again, that's 3 strikes and a recipe for disaster as far as I'm concerned. Go ahead and allow him to make up his missed picks after round 18 because if we do have to replace him, it will be easier to find a replacement owner if all the picks are up to date. Slick, sorry about getting on your back about the draft but like I said, I was under the impression that you were a permanent replacement owner, and we should have been made aware of what was going on. I was only basing my opinions on the information we had.

my intentions were and are again, to be a permanent owner, it was only after i missed a pick and saw how my current time commitments are affecting the draft and my ability to draft, that was when i thought about turning it over to someone for the good of the league. i think now that connie and i have a better handle on how i can make sure to make all my selections.

i thank anyone who ill allow the picks after round 18, as everyone will have made enough picks then to field a starting lineup.

We were in a jam, and I asked Slick to do this as a favor to me... even offered to pay his dues so we could start the draft on time... so that is the untold part of the story. Again, this falls in my lap as commishioner. It was an oversight by me that caused the entire sequence of events.

I'd say we let Slick catch up with his two missed picks. If for whatever reason this does not work out, and Slick is just too busy, I will pay dues for any replacement owner who would want to take over.

Tex, I understand your concrens, and what you said wasn't off base, given you did not know all the circumsatnces. If anyone should get any heat over this, it's me.

Barring any posted objections (and timely enough to avoid any delays in the draft), Slick will be awarded 2 picks at the end of the current round.

(which would be the 16th...)

Sounds Good.

John are we doing that deal in DW1 still? Not sure but your inbox might be full.
Fixed

John I thought the picks were to be after round 18?

That was proposed, but is there a good reason to wait? I can't think of one, as the franchise has already taken a hit. If this is an objection, which you every right to do as an owner, I understand.

Bottom line, awarding these two picks now puts the problem in the rear view mirror. I think that is best for the league at large. To delay them any further would be a penalty, and weaken that roster even more. I just don't see how that would be in the best interest of the league at this point.

Heck... if we need a penalty, put it on the commish here... me. This whole problem was my fault to begin with. I'd rather lose my 17th than delay the make up picks.

Tex... I have to say, your a great owner, and your committment shows. Owners that care is what makes for good leagues. Can we put this in the rear view mirror?

Mucca... LOL... trade accepted and posted in DW forum...

I go along with John on this - lets let the picks be at the end of this round and get it behind us. And yes Tex and everyone - you have all shown you are committed owners and you care and that is what is going to make this league great.
John is not the only one to blame - I carry part of this too. I am trying to make it up by making sure we keep this running - I am willing to email or text any owner if I see they are on the clock and have tried to do so as some of you know.

Like I told Connie, I will go along with whatever the commishes decide.

I'm glad this is resolved and giving him the picks right away was the best solution.

Life happens to us all...

There are a lot of you that are just looking for trouble - QUIT STEALING OFF MY CHEATSHEET - I do hold executive powers here and can make your life miserable

Well I made 2 trades and both for young linebackers - Timmons if he stays healthy should be a beast and in a draft that was pretty empty of linebackers - I think the WLB for Baltimore just might be worth the second trade.