2007 Draft - a review.

The 2007 IFL Draft will be remembered for many things, most of them controversial. But it is in the books, and I do mean the history books. In fact, I bet the table of contents will look something like this:

Chapter 1. Pisco’s computer program.
Chapter 2. Tone Money’s shoes.
Chapter 3. The hideous lottery cards.
Chapter 4. The draft board falls down.
Chapter 5. The draft board falls down again.
Chapter 6. The cameo appearance of former 2-time IFL Champion, SHAP.
Chapter 7. I got thrown in the pool (fully clothed) by Holland.
Chapter 8. Me and Holland got thrown in the pool by Ballbustin’ Bob.
Chapter 9. Retribution – Bob threatens to knock down Mike B’s fence

Luckily Chapter 9 was never written. But today, boys and girls, we are going to talk about the most controversial aspect of them all…the bad picks.

Before I get into that, let me take the time to give serious props to Mike B for hosting the event, and what an event it was. He had it all – a great setup, great food, great pool, great weather, and an all around great guy. He also had the balls to offer a low-calorie menu, and thank god for that (I only gained 20 lbs instead of my usual 25). My only complaint was the absence of yak meat. Yaks are in great abundance in the steppes of outer Mongolia, and can easily be taken down with a crossbow or high-calibre rifle. Their meat is somewhat salty and fatty, but it is great in stews and as a pizza topping. So I’m not sure why they didn’t have yak available for us… future potential draft hosts, please make a note of that.

Oh, one other complaint – I had to drive 45 minutes each way with John E in my car. That’s enough to put even the most hyper-ADD kid to sleep. Every time he opened his mouth with another boring anecdote from his college days, I just turned my radio up louder, thinking he’d get the hint. He didn’t.

And now, a round-by-round review of the picks that made us all throw up in our mouths a little bit.

1^st Round

Controversial selections: RVG taking Alexander at 4. I believe most people had him slotted closer to the middle-end of Round 1, but if that was his guy, so be it. There is a downside to SA, coming off injury, and with a weaker O-line, but he could still be a TD Machine and run for 1400 yds. Then Chinese Toys R Us (from this point forward – CTRU – not to be confused with Counter Terrorist Unit) taking Bush at 9. Pretty high for a guy who’s not even the starting RB on his team. But when he catches 90+ rocks and has a few 50+ TDs, it will be well worth it. Also, John E taking Peyton #11, the first non-RB. Always a risk taking a QB #1 but someone always does it. John dove right in to the QB pool head-first, we’ll see if he rounded out the rest of his team. Tone Money taking Holt #12 was a big surprise. Holt is one of the best WRs year in-year out, however reports out of camp say that Holt’s knee is only at about 70%. I guess when you have a magazine from June you won’t get that kind of info.

2^nd round

Controversial selections: John taking Marshawn Lynch at 2.04!!! Wow. Lynch is only a rookie, he’s unproven at this level, but he’s the definite starter in Buffalo. When you look at the iffy RBs John could have drafted (MJD, Edge, Benson, Portis), it may not seem like that much of a reach, but one has to wonder if Lynch might have even been there in the 3^rd round for him. Then Meatballs taking Brees at 2.07. The early-QB strategy works a little better when you have a stud RB on your team already, but this pick must be noted, as it puts you behind the 8-ball to fill out the rest of your Starting 6 with competent talent. RVG (Palmer) and Mike P (Brady) also took the QB plunge in Round #2.

3^rd round

Controversial selections: Chaos taking T Jones at 3.01. With LT and Edge already in the fold, going RB-RB-RB is very risky, since he won’t be able to fill his other positions until 27 picks later. But having 3 definite starting RBs is a soild strategy. Ballbusters taking Adrian Peterson at 3.07 was a ballbreaker (for me, since he’s my boy). It would have been tough to pass on him at 3.09, but I probably would have, with Boldin sitting out there. Peterson is not the starter in Minny, but his talent is unquestionable and he will put up numbers. Meatball’s selection of Tatum Bell at 3.08 raised some eyebrows. Yeah he’s the starter for now in Detroit, but Kevin Jones looms large. The John E watch continues at 3.11 with Brandon Jacobs, a guy who may have been there at 4.04. At this point it was like watching a horror movie, watching him draft. Top WRs Walker, Colston, and Andre Johnson were on the board.

4^th round

Controversial selections: Tone Money – Chicago D. Every year without fail, someone goes defense early, and it’s usually Tone Damn Money. This year the Damn Best did not let us down. After going WR-WR-WR, defense was the logical 4^th round choice, no? Shu went Randy Moss at 4.05, and frankly, I was surprised after last year’s debacle when he drafted Moss 9^th overall. Projections on Moss are mixed, but no one expects the type of season like he used to crank out with the Vikings. Then came the shock of shocks, Devo taking the Ravens D!!! I guarantee, 5 years from now, everyone will be taking defenses early. Deeve was the first to wait till the 9^th round to take a QB (he was doing that as early as 1996), and then boom – that becomes everyone’s strategy. The man is a trend-setter. Still, I’ll say it was a controversial pick.

5^th round

Controversial selections: Chaos rounding out the San Diego triple threat by taking Vincent Jackson. With LT and Rivers in the fold, he put a lot of his eggs in that unproven Charger basket (2/3 of it unproven). CTRU taking Tony Homo at 5.09 was also questionable. I guess I saw the Romo-to-TO combo and I was all over it. Perhaps Jamal Lewis may have been a better pick there, as I could have saved myself from the slop RBs I had to take later on.

I should note that at this point, Holland does not appear on this list as making a controversial selection through 5 rounds, which is amazing.

6^th round

Controversy: Tone Money, a regular on this list. Tone eschewed a RB once again to draft his 4^th WR, Kevin Curtis.

7^th round

Not much controversy, but I will pat myself on the back for taking LaMont Jordan here, an unquestioned starter. Great value pick. However, he stank last year when I took him in the 2^nd round, so I will have no problem cutting him loose as a 7^th round pick this year if he continues to stink.

By the end of Round 7, nine teams have drafted a defense, and twelve teams have drafted a QB.

At this point, there wasn’t much considerable talent out there to deem too many picks questionable, but I’ll go through a few late-round highlights.

• Amazingly, the first kicker did not go until Ballbusters took Vinatieri at 10.08. I would say that is a product of increasing the draft by 2 rounds. Twelve of the 14 teams drafted their kicker in the 13^th round or later.

• Meatball made a boner by drafting 2 QBs with the same bye week (Brees and Garrard), so he had to go back and draft a 3^rd, Damon Huard. Ugh. Devo was the only other person to draft 3 QBs: Vince Young at 8.09, JP Losman at 10.09, and Joey Harrington at 14.09. Tone Money is the only person to draft just one QB – Matt Hasselbeck at 5.12.

• Ballbusters’ last 3 picks would have been great about 6 or 7 years ago – Eric Moulds, Ron Dayne, and Amani Toomer. OK Dayne never looked great, but those picks made it seem like he reverted back to his fantasy mag from the year 2000. But they were nothing compared to Holland’s last 3 picks – Buckhalter, Tony “Money” Hunt, and perennial selection/waste of a pick Priest Holmes.

• Tone Money also drafted just one defense (Chicago at 4.03). Mike B was the only other brave soul to draft only one D (he took Miami at 8.01). CTRU was the last to take their first defense (Oakland at 11.09) and the last to take their second defense (Cleveland at 14.06). And it shows…

• Possible late-round gems: Tone $ with Jason Witten (13.12), BC Bombers with Jacoby Jones (14.09), RVG with Jesse Chatman (15.04).

Much more to come.....