Bye Bye Veterans

if you can't beat'em, trade'em. i just traded away my only assets for a trio of young players who may or may not work out. after many negotiations, my team is now stocked to the brim with young RBs and virtually worthless WRs. the only pieces that anyone wanted from my team were joe horn and corey dillon. last week i was approached by the phreaks about potentially dealing for jamal lewis. i shouted in joy and said "take anything on my roster." but the phreaks were holding out for a number one WR, and more specifically terrell owens. i tried to pry TO off flaming shrapnel but that didn't happen.

why trade jamal lewis? coming off of one of the seasons ever by a RB? well, precisely because it's one of the best seasons ever. jamal's stock will never be higher. and while he is still a very young back, he has had multiple knee surgeries, as well as an impending court case. and the phreaks look to be pretty secure in the backfield (with portis, kevin jones, brian westbrook) but terribly weak on the edges (javon walker is their best WR). so after persuing the phreak's roster, i understood why they might offer up a top five back.

for a short while i had visions of a rudi johnson and jamal lewis backfield on my team. that would of made me incredibly strong and made my off-season wheelings and dealings a complete success. alas, it was not to be. the offer of horn and dillon (and whatever else) was not enough to acquire jamal. instead i turned around and dealt horn/dillon to buffy for stephen jackson, willis mcgahee and justin mccareins. essentially i dumped productivity for potential. horn will still be a top ten WR but he's a bit old, and corey will probably have a good year or two. but i needed to swing for the fences.

and now i have five young backs on my team (jackson, mcgahee, rudi johnson, deshaun foster, lee suggs) and one holdover, tiki barber. all pre-season reports indicate that these young guys will have great seasons, if given the opportunity to play. my goal by the end of this season is to have two franchise backs out of these five. will it happen? time will tell. of course, the tradeoff of such a promising RB corps is that my WRs are ridiculously inexperienced and unproven. best WR on my roster? um, donald driver? and he might be dropped soon. i'm in love with newly acquired justin mccareins but he's the second WR on the jets. promising rookies larry fitzgerald and roy williams are rookies. ashley lelie is looking worse and worse each day. i might be awesomely screwed on the WR front. but who cares! i'm mining for backs.

it's quite fun to be rebuilding like this. i feel like i have no use for certain players (anyone over the age of 29 essentially) and i'm only looking at young guys. so i feel this freedom to wheel and deal for assets. this could all backfire tremendously of course, but what else can you do when your best player was joe horn? i had really wanted to move horn, corey and tiki but nobody seems to want tiki "i fumble a lot" barber.

i still need to cut two more players from my roster before opening weekend. i think i know who's going. but i have to try to make another deal. oh, i was *this* close to acquiring michael bennett and eric moulds but that was only in exchange for dillon and lelie. now bennett is hurt so i guess that was a good deal averted. but moving dillon for moulds and bennett would of really helped my chances this season. now i'll be heading in with a roster that is long on potential but short on proven production.

Pay for Play?

an inside look. in the past few years, sites have started charging (sometimes exorbitantly) for access to their services. this year, the biggest site of them all, espn, has started charging for their proprietary fantasy football knowledge. back in the good old days when everything was free, you could cruise around and read any good article or report you liked. now everything is under lock and key and nobody can see shit without paying. is it fair? is it worth our hard earned money to subscribe to insider, fantasy edge, anything?

first off, let's take the issue of paying for a fantasy football service period. we started using sportsline four years ago when it was still free and just as functional. now it's essentially the same product but it comes with a price tag of one hundred and thirty dollars. split among ten owners, that's only thirteen bucks apiece. now you and i both know that a season's worth of fantasy football is worth infinitely more than thirteen bucks. but what if you play fantasy basketball too? and you also need to buy insider and all the good stuff, just to keep up in your league? the costs can add up. twenty bucks each for football and basketball (including championship jersey fees), forty bucks for espn insider, another twenty for fantasy edge, ten dollars for regular old magazines. that's about a hundred dollars a year to support a fantasy habit. it seems like a bit much, but let me tell you, it's SO worth it. where else can you get so much bang for your buck?

if cbs or espn is going to hire people to run the tech side of gathering stats, maintaining leagues, then they should charge a nominal fee. so far, i feel like $130 is fair, if it starts getting outrageous then i'll start to boycott. it's kind of a bitch but it's fair. what i am against though, is having to pay for not just espn insider but also all the special fantasy articles. if i'm paying you forty bucks already, shouldn't you give me all the "inside" stuff? obviously not. apparently, ads are not enough to support websites and this pay for content model is the next best thing. now, it's not bad in theory. i mean, if you can get a few hundred thousand people to pony up forty bucks each, why not? if i could get ten dollars from every reader of my blog, i would make a bit of money as well as having some incentive to continue blogging. sounds great doesn't it? but the money also breeds complacency. what incentive does sportsline have to keep improving their product if they already have paying customers who are accustomed to their system? my biggest complaint with some of the sites we've used is how slow they are to implement changes. my main gripe is that the statistics aren't kept through all the seasons, so that you can truly have a "franchise" league. so far we've had to do this manually, which can get to be a bit daunting.

now, do we actually need to spend any money on this hobby of ours? we can play free fantasy leagues (via yahoo, whose football offering is really quite excellent) and upgrade if we want something more custom, sounds great right? the same principle should apply to news outlets. we can stick with the normal reporting that espn does or pay a bit extra for the premium analysis. if you really want to get the down and dirty news and have the experts on your side, the way to go is by paying the fee.

i, being an expert, have yet to buy an insider's subscription or anything else. i feel like having too much knowledge can sometimes cripple you. sure a few tips can help you here and there -- and in fact, i scour the earth for knowledge when i have a tough lineup choice -- but for the most part you're on your own. the experts don't know any more than you do; if they did, they would be visitors from the future. it's impossible to accurately predict how a player will do from week to week, or which sleepers will really emerge. having too much "expert" knowledge can just turn you into another clone, listening to the same "station" that every other fantasy schlep is listening to. you don't want to overthink your decision sometimes. just go with the gut. our game of fantasy football is playing the odds and odds are, you'll be wrong. stephen jackson or tj duckett? sometimes you never know. you just gotta roll the dice and hope for the best, even though experts all seem to be higher on one player or the other.

the only reason i would order any of these products is for additonal reading material at work or something. i mean, i want some of those insider stories so bad just to have some fresh words in my head. i don't even care if it's right or not. i just want to consume everything about my team or my sport. damn the bigwigs at espn who won't let me do this for free.

Spunky Misunderstood Geniuses: Draft

the 2004 draft is over and it was a relatively quick affair -- seven rounds in two weeks of emailing. young talent was at a premium and there were plenty of reaches (philly D in round three?) and plenty of steals. here with this year's grades is your guest draft guru: mel kiper junior, my bitch. big round of applause everybody.

green team. travis henry, kevan barlow, hines ward, santana moss, charles rogers. this is the green team's year. after year after year of being an average team, the dream green team is finally getting some legs. those legs belong to RB kevan barlow -- who has been with the team from the beginning and is only now getting the full time job. between him and travis henry (who should remain a stellar back, even if mcgahee overtakes him eventually), the green team had the makings of a stud RB core. add in first round pick thomas jones and this position should cause no drama this year. the receiving corps is pretty outstanding too, with underrated hines ward and santana moss anchoring an aerial attack that also features promising sophmore charles rogers. new addition tony gonzalez should provide support in case rogers falters while sleeper pick justin gage is just that, a sleeper. the one position that was glaringly vacant heading into the season was at QB and the green team moved quickly to snatch up its signal caller in round two: chad pennington. with pennington and favre on board the greenies have as solid a lineup on paper as anybody. special teams isn't usually worth mentioning but the green team secured itself a top three D and K in rounds five and seven by selecting ravens D and jeff wilkins. this version of the green team has no weaknesses and if this year's push doesn't lead to more success, look for fans to be calling for the coach's head. grade: B+

battle angels. tom brady, curtis martin, eddie george, randy moss, steve smith. the angels had a pretty horrific season last year. the upside is that this is a new year but the downside is that old stalwart RBs curtis martin and eddie george are one year older and declining. GM vu dinh knew this and worked to address the situation early, leading off his draft with young RBs julius jones and travis minor. with george and jones, the angels should have one above average back for the season given bill parcell's proclivity for pounding the ball. travis minor is the heir apparent to ricky williams and nobody can really predict what he's capable of -- but nobody is really touting him as a bonafide star. with a somewhat questionable running game, a team needs a superior passing attack. and a superior passing attack is exactly what the eponymous angels have. with QB tom brady and WRs randy moss and steve smith, the angels are capable of one of the finer aerial shows in the league. new additions keenan mccardell, rod gardner and rod smith (picked up in exchange for a draft pick) may not raise too many eyebrows or sell too many tickets but they are steady WRs that will serve very well as complements to moss and smith. who knows? even sleeper WR rashaun woods might get in the mix. the angels addressed their needs with this draft, time to see if those picks pan out. grade: B

skool. daunte culpepper, deuce mcallister, stephen davis, chad johnson, peerless price. quagmired in mediocre season after mediocer season, skool is clearly working towards a break through season this year. veterans charlie garner, duce staley, keyshawn johnson and jeff garcia provide little long term potential but all are poised for a decent outting this year. relying on the triangle offense, skool has an explosive one two three combination in culpepper, mcallister and johnson. but three players does not a team make, although this might be the best young trio in the league. RB stephen davis is no slouch himself, after a stellar 2003, but he tends to show some wear and tear and could be giving up carries to deshaun foster. if this happens, garner and/or staley will really have to step up. this year, the loqacious chad johnson will be joined by another loud mouthed johnson -- keyshawn. between the two of them they should do enough talking for the rest of the team combined. even backup QB jeff garcia is talking some, trying to establish a leadership role with his new team after his rude boot out by the forty-niners. the key to this year's draft will be enigmatic WR koren robinson, who slipped from a possible first pick all the way to number six in the first round. koren is an ultra-talented player with great upside and one season of superstardom, but the jury is out on whether he was a flash in the pan or merely inconsistent. if he turns out to be an all pro, skool will have solidified his WRs and have two great young WRs in (chad) johnson and robinson. if all this happens and stephen davis remains effective, look for skool to have a wrecking ball of a year. grade: B

flaming shrapnel. domanick davis, michael bennett, terrell owens, anquan boldin, eric moulds. on paper, the shrapnel are really good. last year, they were really good. but now, the shrapnel are beset on all sides by the inequities of the poor and the tyranny of evil men. rising superstar anquan bolding is out for eight weeks, a huge blow to the franchise. even though the shrapnel have one of the best receiving combinations in the league (with TO, boldin, moulds), it isn't particularly deep. now the shrapnel will have to rely on unproven youngster brandon lloyd or the top TE, todd heap, until boldin's return. but there is good news in shrapnel land. the additions of QBs marc bulger and aaron brooks will pay huge dividends as both work in outstanding offenses. young RBs domanick davis, michael bennett, chris brown and william green will have space to frolic and run and hopefully, pick up some touchdowns. this isn't an overly stable RB group, despite it's talent, mainly because each back has some issues. brown is unproven (but a surefire starter), davis has to prove himself again (with all indications saying he will), bennett will be featured but will split time, and william green has on and off the field issues. regardless, put enough fish in a barrel and you'll hit one right? the shrapnel didn't get a whole lot in the draft in terms of proven production, so it'll have to rely on potential turning into gold. grade: B-

philadelphia phreaks. donovan mcnabb, clinton portis, jamal lewis, brian westbrook, javon walker. coming off an inglorious last place finish -- despite the presence of a potent running attack -- the phreaks needed some major upgrades in the WR department. did they get them? maybe. for one, third round pick david boston (a player this guru thinks is anathema and the ultimate tease) is already out for the season. the other three WRs drafted (marty booker, marcus robinson, quincy morgan) are all virtual unknowns heading into the season. booker is one year removed from a monster season and should return to prominence while quincy morgan could play well as a second fiddle in cleveland. marcus robinson is at best randy moss' wingman, which might not be too bad but he isn't a young buck anymore. even if all three pan out, this WR corps isn't going to scare anybody, and with no true number one -- unless javon walker goes crazy -- the phreaks will have to rely on that ground game. but oh what a ground game, with jamal lewis, clinton portis, brian westbrook and new rookie addition kevin jones, the phreaks are definitely going to be using the run to set up the pass. let's hope that translates to a few more wins this time around. grade: C+

Inscrutable Drama Kings: Draft

buffy. marshall faulk, torry holt, isaac bruce, rod smith, justin mccareins. with an aging roster, buffy had to inject some young blood into the franchise. aging WRs isaac bruce and rod smith (traded to battle angels for a fourth round pick) couldn't cut it for too much longer and injury prone RB marshall faulk is clearly on a career slide. luckily, buffy got three quality young RBs (tj duckett, steven jackson, willis mcgahee) who all stand a good chance to impact the game this year and should remain good keepers for the future. bellisimo. budding WR justin mccariens was shopped early and often in the draft but he remains on the roster, sitting pretty next to aging speedster joey galloway (maybe one more good year) and highly touted rookie reggie williams. moving up to take the patriots D in round four was a bit of a gamble but the guru thinks it'll pay off because having the number one ranked defense should solidfy a team that was old and tired and in need of a few breathers on the offensive side. oh, and did we mention the first round selection of QB matt hasselbeck? hasselbeck is slated by most experts for a break out season and buffy thought he had the most value and went against draft trends and took him in the first round. with quality picks all the way through the draft, it looks like buffy is finally beginning the rebuilding process that should have begun two seasons ago. next year's keepers should look nothing like this year's, with the exception of all world WR torry holt. grade: A+

tiiite end jammers. michael vick, priest holmes, ahman green, rudi johnson, marvin harrison. as defending champion and the odds on favorite to repeat, the jammers really only needed a few more receivers and a backup for brittle michael vick. with a stellar draft, this guru thinks that the jammers have just made themselves the overwhelming favorites for another championship. venerable jimmy smith was brought onboard as a solid second WR and with jerry porter, plaxico burress and deion branch, this team will be able to field a very solid WR corps. all the starting positions are filled to the max and the backup QB behind vick? only co-mvp steve mcnair, a steal in the fifth round. even the loss of backup running back rudi johnson (traded for plaxico) was addressed by the addition of quentin griffin. this team looks set to go for another trophy hunting season. grade: A

chunky monkeys. peyton manning, ladainian tomlinson, shaun alexander, darrell jackson, andre johnson. the hunt for a third receiver was addressed early on by the monkeys, with all four initial picks -- plus the last one -- being used to draft young exciting WRs. chris chambers, amani toomer, andre davis, tyrone calico and travis taylor are all blooming with talent and will serve as quality #3 WRs or even #4s in the event of a RB injury. the backup positions are shaky but peyton manning isn't going anywhere and if onterrio smith (the monkeys moved up in the fifth round to grab him) emerges, that's another solid option for the ground attack. the monkeys entered the draft with the express purpose of drafting WRs and it looks like they are loaded at the position with potential (davis, calico) and proven production (chambers, toomer, taylor). a no frills, business first draft. grade: B

ante up. trent green, edgerrin james, fred taylor, laveranues coles, derrick mason. coming into the 2004 season, ante up probably had the quietest, most underrated roster in the league. this team was good enough to have the third best record in the league last year (despite an early playoff exit) and remains intensely dangerous. high potential WR koren robinson was dropped as a keeper due to his disastrous showing last season and GM jae lee was quoted as saying "i hate that guy." instead, ante up hung onto QB trent green and will have a steady hand to guide him to that elusive first championship. old stalwarts fred taylor and edgerrin james have both returned from injuries past and proved their worths in the fantasy realm last season. new RBs correll buckhalter and tatum bell may be stuck in running back by committee systems but ante up has the luxury of waiting for them. joining totally slept on WRs lavarenous coles and derrick mason will be a crop of NFL #2 receivers -- donte stallworth, peter warrick and reggie wayne. all three are young and have their best years ahead, but need to shake off inconsistencies to make more balls come their way. ante up traditonally has one of the best defenses and special teams in the league, most of it due to the tampa bay D (an ante up roster staple) and an elite kicker -- this year it'll be two time super bowl hero adam vinatieri. with a talent laden roster, ante up only has to avoid major injuries to his starting RBs to duplicate the success they've enjoyed in seasons past. grade: B-

dirty birds. tiki barber, corey dillon, joe horn, plaxico burress, ashley lelie. a strange weird draft, the dirty birds decided to go with four new WRs and three new RBs. no QB, K or D was drafted and those positions will have to be filled through free agency. bad luck seems to have followed the birds from last season through this season. ricky williams, the lynchpin to a talent deprived roster, was lost before the draft and marcel shipp was lost a few hours after he was picked up in the fourth round. out for 8-12 weeks, don't expect the birds to be patient with shipp's recovery. in a desperate attempt to get younger (and arguable more talented), the birds went with young WRs larry fitzgerald and roy williams early, adding RBs lee suggs, marcel shipp and deshuan foster in quick succession. realizing that a few wins might be necessary this season, the birds came to their senses and took veterans donald driver and jerry rice in the closing rounds. due to roster space, expect one (or both) of these players to be cut to make room for a journeyman QB and a serviceable K and D. quick to move up and down the board, the dirty birds did acquire the rights to rudi johnson (in exchange for plaxico burress), possibly a huge upgrade but also a deal with land mines on both sides. the birds got young in a hurry but translating potential to wins will be a much harder task. grade: C-

Football Players Are Smart Two.

"people say somewhere in the first round. maybe higher."
-university of pittsburgh running back craig "ironhead" heyward on his draft possibilities (1998)-

"the real tragedy is that fifteen haven't been colored yet."
-florida head coach steve spurrier after a fire destroyed twenty books in auburn's football dorm (1991)-

"he treats us like men. he lets us wear earrings."
-university of houston wide receiver torrin polk on coach john jenkins (1991)-

"what makes it hard is that we can't watch televisoin for two years."
-clemson guard william "the refrigerator" perry on the two-year tv and postseason ban of his school by the ncaa (1983)-

"he doesn't know the meaning of the word fear. in fact, i just saw his grades, and he doesn't know the meaning of a lot of words."
-fsu coach bobby bowden on reggie herring (linebacker, 1977-80)-

The Injury Bug Rears Its Ugly Head

the problem with conducting a draft before training camp starts is that players get hurt. sometimes it's just a minor tweak (vick's hamstring), sometimes it's for the season (david boston). last year, vick's injury put my season -- and the falcons season -- on a downward slide and i'm still recovering. this year, one of my latest pickups, marcel shipp, was injured a few hours after i drafted him. gone for 8-12 weeks. what is this shit? if i had waited just a few more hours i could have picked up a healthy back. i'll probably have to drop him now because his season is shot. my guarantee: more players will fall during training camp, let's just hope none are on my roster.

luckily, my draft has so far produced two potentially very capable running backs. after surveying the landscape, i traded plaxico burress (along with switching my 2nd and 3rd round draft positions, from #2 to #10) for rudi johnson. it looks like a steal on paper, trading a questionable WR for a young RB, but you never know. rudi is one of this year's hot young backs (along with domanick davis) and he should have at least a 1200 yard, 8-TD season. plaxico could return to being a premier wide receiver but i'm sick of waiting on him. trading him away just reinforced my determination to gamble with my WR corps. trading away a player who has a good season under his belt is always difficult but some players are just teases, never returning to their previous form. if you had offered me rudi for plaxico straight up during the off-season, i most certainly would've hit the "yes" button; the shift down in draft position was nothing, since all the players i wanted were definitely going to be around when i picked.

my trade last year with rudi's previous owner (vick, ahman, marvin harrison for bledsoe, ricky williams, joe horn) killed my team and elevated him to defending champion, here's hoping for a little karmic payback. if plaxico blows up however, and rudi stutters, i may never trade with the tiiite end jammers again. just kidding. sort of.

i used my delayed second round pick on yet another rookie wide receiver, roy williams, thus giving me the two most touted offensive rookies. here's hoping one of them shows some promise this season because at this point, i've got joe horn and ashley lelie as my WR #1 and #2, with the two rooks fighting it out for scraps. danger will robinson, danger.

in the third round, i was working to trade for up and coming WR justin mccareins but that deal fell through. instead of picking up more WRs, i switched gears and snatched up lee suggs, who has some upside but is also working in an unknown offense. with rudi, suggs and shipp, i had hoped to have at least one of them come through as a dependable back. but now that shipp has fallen off, i may have to get another back, leaving my WR corps thin and unproven.

what happened to my desire to draft 5-6 WRs? i decided that the value just wasn't there. in the late rounds of the draft, the only receivers i had available were old retreads -- capable of maybe one good season but useless after that (keyshawn johnson, joey galloway)-- or players that i had big question marks on. i was looking at rod gardner or donald driver (i would of gone with driver over gardner, if only because i feel that driver has an outside chance of returning to top dog status, while gardner will always have laveranus coles in front of him) instead of drafting shipp but i decided that i really didn't like either of them enough -- despite their breakthrough seasons coming only two years ago. my new plan was to draft five RBs and sit on them, floating along with four WRs on the roster. now i may have to use my wasted shipp pick to grab that fifth RB.

there should really be a compensation pick for injuries that occur mid-draft, it's only fair right? i doubt my fellow owners would be big fans of that idea.

the most accomplished player still on the board is air mcnair -- he of the mvp season. it's almost mind blowing that he's still on the board but that's how deep the QB pool is. drafting mcnair would give me a bonafide superstar and stabilize my roster but i really don't want to pick a QB until later, since my league mates already seem to have stable options at QB and each pick i avoid grabbing a QB is another player less for them to take. but mcnair is certainly making me consider drafting him, just based on positional value.

Koren or Larry?

paper or plastic? the first few picks of our keeper league have been made -- we set a twelve hour limit on the email selections -- i held up our draft for a few hours debating the relative merits of koren robinson versus larry fitzgerald. but back to that in a second. with the first overall pick, ping made a surprise selection in kevin jones (rookie running back of the lions). i myself was eyeing mr jones for my first rounder (second overall) but i was really most interested in grabbing an emerging wide receiver. i thought for sure that ping would grab koren robinson, since he was the consensus "top player available," but the draft is all about surprises.

with the top three picks of our supplemental draft, three rookies were selected. which seems somewhat unprecedented. most rookies -- even the ones that look great -- are questionable at best. nobody knows who will succeed and who will fail, so most teams keep the gambling for later rounds. but for teams that have the dubious honor of an early pick, they need stars, and what better way than to grab a highly touted NFL freshman? most years, a few rookies will emerge as bonafide stars, as i mentioned before, but i think that last year's very successful rookie class has raised irrational high hopes for this year. combine this with multiple job opportunites for rookies and the market has been quick to invest their high risk stocks. especially in wide receivers -- last year's class of anquan boldin, charles rogers, andre johnson and others -- who are the most volatile rookie selections of all.

after ping took kevin jones, my choices immediately narrowed to koren robinson or larry fitzgerald. larry is, arguably, the premier wide receiver of his class while koren has the enviable mix of talent, experience and situation to succeed on a pro bowl scale. the rest of the names i considered to be "potential impact players" at wide receiver were rated much lower than koren. jerry porter, donte stallworth, chris chambers, reggie wayne are all young receivers who could be up and coming but have so far, not produced with any consistency. koren has one superb season under his belt (78 receptions, 1240 yards and 5 TDs in 2002) and a a few years of experience. the problem is that last year he was a terrible WR and the biggest bust in the wide receiver department. he wasn't even the best pass catcher on his roster and was plagued with consistency problems and dropped balls. even in a top ten offense, koren wasn't able to have one explosive game in 2003. but oh the potential.

larry fitzgerald has been said to be the best WR to enter the game since randy moss. he was clearly the best player in college last year and he has all the technical and physical skill to succeed in the NFL. his only knock is that he's not blazing fast, but that was the tag jerry rice took with him to the pros. fitzgerald got a huge contract, landed with a head coach that loves him, and seem primed for success. the problem? the rookie of the year last year resides on his team, mr anquan boldin. another number one draft pick, 2002's bryant johnson, is also fighting for playing time on the cardinals and both could potentially take away from the fantasy impact of fitzgerald. plus, the cardinals suck, with an unproven quarterback and the venerable emmitt smith in the backfield. not exactly a recipe for success. the man responsible for high scoring teams in minnesota, dennis green, was hired by the cardinals to rebuild the team but how much difference can one man make? let's hope a lot. because i drafted fitzgerald over koren, a move that i might regret, but i dont' want to miss out on the next jerry rice.

i understand now, how pro teams might be caught up in the excitement of potential and word of mouth on a particular player. getting onto the bandwagon has led to some outstanding bad picks over the years -- darko milicic anyone? -- but i can see how this happens. i wasn't originally interested in fitzgerald in the first round. my eyes only had koren in my sights. but word spread that a team after me really coveted fitzgerald and if i was to get my hands on him, i would have to go early and grab him now. everyone said to take koren (based on logic: he has a better team, a better QB and a much better running game) but i thought i had to follow through on my goal to swing for the fences.

my reasoning was this: even if fitzgerald sucks this year, his trade value should still be high next year, because most rookies suffer through some growing pains. if koren has another bad year, he's written into the margins of fantasy history as a one year wonder, with no value whatsoever. should fitzgerald pan out, i get a top five WR in two or three years. if he doesn't i've lost a delicious gamble. my plan this year is to take 5-6 WRs on my roster and hope for three of them to succeed spectacularly. with joe horn, plaxico burress, ashley lelie and other picks still to come, i thought i had the insurance on hand to gamble a bit. plus, i have few designs on winning this year; my immediate goal is to unearth stars. if fitzgerald shows flashes of all pro ability and nets only forty catches and a few hundred yards in 2004, i'll be happy.

i'm setting up my roster this season for my championship next year, and the year after that. the owners of my team (ie. me) is well organized, strategic and rooted in reality. plus we have a bankroll the size of california, well, not really. anyway, in order to rebuild, i believe you have to stockpile commodities and move from a position of strength, and nothing sells like potential and youth. being stuck in a "semi-contending, semi-rebuilding" year can confuse your fan base and your general manager, you need an overall vision to succeed in this game. luckily, i have one. my plan is to strip mine the earth and then hoard the riches for use at a later date. no veterans, no declining players, no sense drafting players whose potential has already been tapped. i want fresh blood and fresh faces.

of course, koren isn't an old goat himself but the risk of passing up fitzgerald's talent was too high. i personally think koren will have a tremendous season and emerge as a top ten WR, but who knows what might happen with him down the road? i can't even believe that i'm agonizing this much over koren robinson, who was the biggest dog last season. koren robinson! by picking a rookie, i'm willing to roll the dice with my season, and it looks like my fellow bottom dwellers are too. first three picks: (1) kevin jones (2) larry fitzgerald (3) julius jones. the allure of a young breakout star was just too much to pass up i guess.

i'm still working hard to get koren because after some detailed analysis, i've decided he might drop to the bottom of the first round (the teams behind me have different needs on their teams). if this happens, i'm hoping to slide up to get both of my coveted receivers. wish me luck, the draft has begun, cowboy the fuck up.