Can Danny?

Taking a break from hoops, I had the first of my fantasy football drafts, was lucky enough to get the 2nd pick, and promptly blew it. Here's the lessons I learned during this ten team draft. Lesson 1: Live in the Now. With my first pick, I took L.T. over L.J. because I think the loss of Roaf and Vermeil will mean more than the change from Brees to Rivers. While L.J. seemed more impressive last season, I don't think its a sure thing that he'll repeat his performance. Unfortunately, I forgot about this same lesson in the next two rounds when I opted for old WR's Torry Holt and Terrell Owens over the young bucks taking over fantasy. In hindsight, I would have grabbed Larry Fitzgerald and Roy Williams. I also reached for Mike Vanderjagt for no reason other than I didn't like anyone else on the board at the time. Lesson 2: Don't Handcuff Yourself: In the 4th and 5th rounds, I grabbed Corey Dillon and Cedric Benson. Decent picks but they also required me to invest two more good picks (7th and 9th rounders) on ensuring that I didn't lose their backups. Making matters worse, these guys might actually just end up splitting carries, in which case I'm completely screwed.

Lesson 3: Be able to Scramble: My feeling is always that you can wait to take QB's in fantasy football. What I didn't expect was for one team to take a QB in three straight rounds. While I thought I could get away with taking my handcuffs and Driver in the middle rounds, I sat around and watched the quality QB's get snatched up. I had to grab Byron Leftwich in he 8th round just to get someone. Lesson 4: Bye Weeks > Favorites: I was planning on Kellen Winslow as my sleeper pick but also wanted one of my favorite Patriots, Ben Watson. I ended up taking both only to find out that they have the same bye week. I still feel Winslow will surprise so now I have to hope one of them gets some trade value before their time off during Week 6.

Lesson 5: Manage Risk: One reason I ended up with Winslow for my last pick was because I didn't think Vince Young would get taken. I thought that I could grab sleeper receivers Troy Williamson and Roddy White and wait for young. In hindsight, I needed Young more than a needed White and should have risked not getting Roddy instead of Vince. In the end, my worst pick was jumping the gun and grabbing Ben Watson in the 11th round while my steal was a round earlier, getting potential Denver starter Mike Bell with the 99th pick in the draft.