The Fantasy Fool: Perfect Draft -- The Final Countdown
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Hindsight may be 20/20. But hindsight armed with statistics is just brutal.
What seems so obvious now -- of course Victor Cruz was poised for a breakout year; didn't you see him tear it up in the preseason? -- wasn't quite so crystal clear to most of us just five short months ago.
It's all part of our elusive quest for the perfect draft, the Holy Grail of fantasy football. One of these days, I'm going to achieve it. Probably right after I cure cancer, win the lottery and get stalked by Mila Kunis.
Until then, I'll keep torturing myself -- and my readers -- by exploring what could have been had we made all the right moves during our preseason draft. Yes, it's time for my oft-imitated, always-controversial, yet magically delicious 2011 Perfect Draft: The Final Countdown.
As usual, we operate under a few key assumptions:
1. We're in a 10-team league using a standard scoring system that starts one quarterback, two running backs, three wide receivers, one tight end, one kicker and one defense/special teams.
2. We are drafting from the middle (fifth) position in a zig-zag format, meaning Adrian Peterson, Arian Foster and Ray Rice will be gone by the time we pick.
3. The preseason average draft position (ADP) of each player -- according to multiple mock draft sites canvassed during early September -- is used to determine the most valuable selections in each round;
4. Since all drafts play out differently, we'll need a little luck along the way.
And last, in the spirit of truth, justice and the Tebow Way, our goal is nothing short of total domination and the abject humiliation of our opponents.
Now, with the fifth pick of the 2011 Fantasy Draft, we should have selected
Round 1. LeSean McCoy, RB, Eagles. Fantasy's most reliable tailback scored at least one TD in every game, except Weeks 11 and 16. That last one may still be tormenting some owners, but no running back carried more teams to the postseason than Shady.
First Published January 9, 2012 10:05 pm
