More redraft talk. I just drafted a team for the Footballguys Players Championship, a $350 entry for a shot at a $1600 league championship prize and $100,000 for the overall championship. This is my only regular redraft league of the year, and I decided to enter this one fairly last minute when it was announced that the grand prize would be $100,000.

Anyway, we had some strange draft picks including Ryan Grant at 1.12, Lesean McCoy at 2.3 (ahead of the likes of Reggie Wayne, Dallas Clark, Antonio Gates and Randy Moss), Cedric Benson at 3.06, Ronnie Brown at 4.10, etc. The apparent theme, RBs were getting drafted early and often. An example of a strange non-RB pick, Mike Williams at 7.1. No, not the TB version, the Seattle one! The TB version went at 7.8 completing the run on Mike Williamses.

I drew the 5 hole and the draft went as follows (FFPC scoring, most notably 1.5 PPR for TE and dual flex):

1.5 Frank Gore: This was a tossup between Gore and AJ (MJD went at 1.4). I took Gore due to his favorable playoff schedule and due to the likelihood that I would go WR-TE-WR in rounds 2 through 4.

2.8 Randy Moss: A nice value here. Moss is complaining again, but hopefully in a contract year, the results will be positive.

3.5 Greg Jennings: Was seriously considering going Witten here, but with the early run on RBs, I wanted to see if Celek could make it to 4.8.

4.8 Brent Celek: And make it he did. Feeling pretty good about the draft at this point.

5.5 Anquan Boldin: Not one of my favoirt WRs, but a nice value at 5.5 nonetheless.

6.8 Felix Jones: Part of the problem with snagging values like Celek in the 4th and Boldin in the 5th is that you end up with Felix Jones as your #2. I REALLY wanted to take Zach Miller here as a huge value but I just couldn’t go another round without taking my RB2.

7.5 Zach Miller: Things are just working out for me in this draft, getting a TE in the 7th round that I was targeting in the 5th (if it were not for Celek falling to me in the 4th, I would have taken Miller in the 5th).

8.8 Tim Hightower: Reaching a bit now for RBs since the pool was getting awfully thin at this point. Despite the reach, I felt lucky that Hightower was still on the board as it could have been worse if not for McFadden and Portis getting picked earlier.

9.5 Michael Bush: Decided to gamble on the news that Bush was already practicing with the team. Its possible that his time off will be shorter than originally anticipated. I’m going to need Bush to come through.
10.8 Kevin Kolb: Was hoping for Eli Manning here, but I’ll settle for Kolb. Due to his shaky preseason, I planned to take Favre in the 11th if he made it to me there.

11.5 Brett Favre: Cool.

12.8 Steve Breaston: A nice WR4 to go with my super solid WRs1-3.

13.5 Tashard Choice: Was thinking of waiting on him a little longer, but decided to go conservatively here to take the handcuff to Felix Jones.

14.8 Baltimore Ravens: With the feeling that I had one of the better teams in this league, I wanted to keep pressing the advantage and maximize the starting lineup. So I took an early defense.

15.5 San Diego Chargers: Problem with the Ravens Defense is that they have a few difficult games during the playoffs. Carrying the Chargers fixes that as the two make an excellent combo for schedule purposes. Here’s their combined schedule starting Week 12 (Weeks 12-13 being the league championship weeks and weeks 14-16 being the overall championship playoff): TB, Oak, KC, SF, Clev.

16.8 Sidney Rice: In a contest like this, I really wanted to grab any advantage I could get in the playoff rounds in case I was lucky enough to get there. Rice could be quite an advantage for a 16th rounder if he makes it back healthy.

17.5 David Akers: Again with the lineup maximization. I really wanted Hartley, but he got taken one pick ahead of me.

18.8 Fred Davis: Took him as a value pick this late.

19.5 Danny Amendola: Needed some WR depth.

20.8 Jay Feely: Just in case Akers goes down with an injury before Sunday’s game.

Here’s the team with starters in bold:

QB: Kolb, Favre

RB: Gore, Felix, Hightower, M Bush, Choice

WR: R Moss, Jennings, Boldin, Breaston, Sid Rice, Amendola

TE: Celek, Z Miller (Oak), F Davis

Def: Ravens, Chargers

K: Akers, Feely

I feel pretty good about this team’s chances within the league at least. If Sidney Rice comes back, the team has the potential to be dangerous in the overall playoffs. I do have to manage this team throughout the year so any feedback would be appreciated.