Fantasy Football 2004 Discussion and Advice

#1

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8/24/04 at 5:19am

Scott Merryfield
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There has been some fantasy football discussion leaking into the NFL 2004 Season thread (I've been one of the guilty party), so I thought I would start this thread to keep the discussions separate.

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#2

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8/24/04 at 5:35am

Scott Merryfield
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I've been through one draft already, with my money league's draft being next week. I have the #4 overall pick in that draft. I already know the first three players that will be taken -- Tomlinson, Holmes, and Ahman Green.

So, at #4 I've narrowed my choices down to either Shaun Alexander, Deuce McAlister or Clinton Portis. Right now I am leaning heavily towards Alexander. He gets the ball a lot, catches passes (we get a point per reception), scores a bunch of TD's, and is playing in a good offense.

My other draft, a keeper league with salary cap that we just started this year, looks like this:

QB: Trent Green, Leftwich, Delhomme
RB: Ahman Green, Edge, Chris Brown, Wheatley, Davenport, Antowain Smith
WR: Santana Moss, Koren Robinson, Charles Rogers, Donte Stallworth, Ashley Lelie, Rod Gardner

There is no required tight end, and we have individual defensive players (who I will not bore you with).

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#3

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8/24/04 at 8:43am

Brad Porter
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For what its worth, Deuce catches more passes (69 vs 42 for Shaun in the regular season last year, although it was 47 vs 59 the previous year) and doesn't have anyone like Maurice Morris around to take away any goal-line touches (Aaron Brook's redzone interceptions do that job). As for "getting the ball a lot", Alexander had 326 rushing attempts and Deuce had 351. Deuce's TD numbers were down last year, but I haven't heard anyone who doesn't think he'll turn that around. Personally I'd go Deuce, Shaun, and then Clinton unless the Redskins O-line shows some serious improvement before next week.

Brad

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#4

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8/24/04 at 10:40am

Shane Martin
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Shaun is in a contract year. This is something to consider.

I'm in a free for all draft coming this week for 2 leagues. I'm not sure where I draft yet so I'm gathering information and trying to see what I can do.

Last year I had 2 star running backs and had Favre as my QB. I had nobody at receiver and then there was the Ravens D

Given the way the league is this year I'm going to have to search for some sleepers like Chris Brown or Quinten Griffin or something along those lines. Thank god for NFL network. Some nights there is 1 game on, some nights 2 games.

#5

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8/24/04 at 11:27am

Scott Merryfield
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Brad,

Deuce is definitely a consideration for me at #4. The one thing that scares me about him, though, is that the Saints seem to go in the tank late in the season every year, and that's playoff time in FF. As for Alexander, I'm not worried about Morris stealing carries -- I think Alexander will get the vast majority of the carries, and I can handcuff Morris to him as a late pick to protect myself in case of injury. Deuce doesn't really have a good handcuff. So, I see Morris as a plus.

Shane, those young "sleeper" RB's will probably go in the late 3rd and 4th rounds. Chris Brown, Quentin Griffith, Kevin Jones and Lee Suggs are going there in the drafts I've seen. I'm hoping I can grab one of them, but I pick in the early 3rd round and late fourth, so I would probably need to take one early with my 3rd round pick.

Quote:

Last year I had 2 star running backs and had Favre as my QB. I had nobody at receiver and then there was the Ravens D

Sounds like my team last year. I had Green, Edge and Domanick Davis at RB, Trent Green at QB, and nothing at WR -- I got Chris Chambers in a trade for Donald Driver halfway through the season that gave me one decent receiver. I ended up in 2nd place in my 6 team division.

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#6

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8/24/04 at 1:08pm

Brad Porter
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Quote:

The one thing that scares me about him, though, is that the Saints seem to go in the tank late in the season every year, and that's playoff time in FF

That's a fair argument, and here's some more supporting data for picking Alexander.

Seattle Schedule Weeks 14-16
@ Minnesota
@ NYJ
vs Arizona

New Orleans Schedule Weeks 14-16
@ Dallas
@ Tampa Bay
vs Atlanta

I think the Jets D will be much improved, but Alexander is definitely the back you want if you get to the Super Bowl. I just don't see the Cards D getting up for a week 16 game when they've been mathematically eliminated from playoff contention for six or seven weeks (or maybe I underestimate Coach Green). I don't know if Tampa Bay's rushing D will still be solid now that Lynch and Sapp are gone, but it will probably be enough to slow down the Aints.

Brad

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#7

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8/24/04 at 1:14pm

Scott Merryfield
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Brad, good call on the schedules for both Alexander and McAlister. I had not looked at each's opponents for those last few weeks, but I did take into consideration that Alexander plays in a much weaker division defensively than Deuce. Six games vs. SF, Arizona and St. Louis are a lot more appealing than six vs. Carolina, Tampa and Atlanta.

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#8

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8/24/04 at 5:12pm

Bill Mc
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Scott. I am in the same boat as you are as far as a 4th pick. I think Alexander is a good choice.

#9

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8/25/04 at 3:59am

Scott Weinberg
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I started up a 20-team league in Yahoo! Fantasy Football. 19 spots are currently open.

There will be an online draft at Sat Sep 4 7:00pm EDT, but if you can't be there, you can just pre-rank your players and they'll draft for you in absentia.

If you want in, click here. Then 1) sign-up or login, 2) click on 'Join a Custom League', and 3) use these:

League ID#: 505306
Password: doubledip

The name of the league is "HTF NFL Deathmatch".

Oh, and good luck to everyone in their "money" leagues. I have an afternoon draft and an evening auction on the 29th. Can't wait for Week 1.

#10

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8/25/04 at 7:00am

Shane Martin
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I Found out I'm drafting late in one of my leagues(I'm in 2). I'm picking 14 out of 16. Should I reach for a late round RB or just grab a QB like Culpepper/Manning?

I've found out that I'm not too good at drafting in the later half of the round. I guess the good part is that I get another pick just a few picks later..

I was thinking either top flight WR/QB then looking at Running back 2nd and 3rd round from guys like Chris Brown.

Any ideas/suggestions?

#11

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8/25/04 at 7:19am

BrianB
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Quote:

I started up a 20-team league in Yahoo! Fantasy Football. 19 spots are currently open.

Scott, ya realise there are already two HTF leagues?

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#12

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8/25/04 at 8:04am

Scott Merryfield
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Quote:

I Found out I'm drafting late in one of my leagues(I'm in 2). I'm picking 14 out of 16. Should I reach for a late round RB or just grab a QB like Culpepper/Manning?

What's the scoring like in your league for QB's -- do you get the same points for passing TD's as running TD's? Also, do you start just one QB?

If it's a one QB league, I would be inclined to go after a stud WR over Culpepper or Manning. There are lots of quality QB's out there -- you can pick up Trent Green, Matt Hassleback or Pennington several rounds later. I doubt Moss will be available at #14, but you may be able to get Harrison or Holt. If all three are gone, that probably means there is a good RB still available.

After drafting QB's in the first round a couple of times, I have completely given up on that strategy. One year I traded 1st round pick Culpepper (I had Pennington in his breakout year) and ended up winning the league in a runaway. I'm a firm believer in taking 2 RB and one WR with my first three picks. We start one QB, one RB, one WR and three OFF Flex (RB, WR, TE) in a 12 team league.

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#13

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8/25/04 at 8:20am

Frank Grimes
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I kicked ass in my money league (drafting second out of 12):

1) LT
2) Henry
3) Hollywood
4) P. Price
5) J. Smith
6) Q. Griffin
7) Bulger
8) Crumpler
9) TB Def
10) J Garcia
11) Drew Bennett
12) Buff Def
13) Jul Jones

I think Henry and Griffin were absolute steals at those spots. Question though: The guy that drafted #1 regrets not getting Horn (we're all in New Orleans, so he's a fan) and is considering a Holmes/Chad Johnson for LT/Horn trade, though I may have to throw in Crumpler. Think it's worth it?

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#14

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8/25/04 at 8:21am

Shane Martin
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Both of my leagues go:

One QB
2 Rb's
2 WR's
1 Wr/TE
Kicker
Defense

It appears unless I see a quality RB, to go for a top shelf WR, then grab a RB or 2 later(2nd and 3rd rounds), then a QB. That sound like a sound idea?

The older league I'm in is a bit more predictable but I'm not sure where I draft yet. The league I'm drafting late in right now is a new one and is much more unpredictable(to me atleast).

#15

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8/25/04 at 8:30am

Frank Grimes
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I was very happy with my QB's, and I didn't pick one until the 7th round. Most people pick a QB in the first four rounds, then get a backup in the 8th-11th, so I always opt to go with a strong WR corps and take the slight QB dropoff.

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#16

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8/25/04 at 8:30am

Brad Porter
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Quote:

I started up a 20-team league in Yahoo! Fantasy Football. 19 spots are currently open.

I'd defeat you again this year but you happened to pick a draft time that coincides with my live money league draft. Bummer, because I'm real curious about what kind of team could be put together in a 20-member league.

Quote:

and is considering a Holmes/Chad Johnson for LT/Horn trade, though I may have to throw in Crumpler. Think it's worth it?

Abso-freakin-lutely. Holmes is a TD machine. CJ is an incredible talent and Carson Palmer actually looks like he might not suck. See if he'll throw his TE into the trade as well. After all, what's he going to do with two TEs?

Brad

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#17

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8/25/04 at 8:33am

Frank Grimes
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I was thinking the same thing Brad. A lot of people are higher on LT than I am, and was fairly dissapointed with my draft spot as I think 2-6 is pretty much going to have the same amount of talent. As soon as the league goes up on Yahoo, I'll propose the trade (and I think he picked up a mediocre TE in the late rounds that he would just drop).

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#18

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8/25/04 at 9:07am

Scott Merryfield
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Quote:

It appears unless I see a quality RB, to go for a top shelf WR, then grab a RB or 2 later(2nd and 3rd rounds), then a QB. That sound like a sound idea?

If you are going to wait until the 4th round to take a QB, you may as well wait a little longer and take some more WRs and RBs. I got Trent Green in the 7th round last year, and also picked him up in round 7 this season in a keeper/salary cap draft. After Culpepper and Manning, the next batch of 6-8 QB's are so close that you can wait. I would be happy with Favre, Pennington, Green, Hassleback, McNab, Vick, Bulger, Brooks, McNair or Brady as my starting QB if I could load up on RBs and WRs first. If you wait and grab one of these guys, you can turn around and use your next pick on a quality backup like Carr, Garcia, Brad Johnson, etc. for those weeks you may be concerned about a bad matchup. Or, if you're lucky, you may be able to grab two of the guys in that first list.

A couple of guys in our league always bite way too early on McNab and Vick, who have yet to outperform QBs taken much later like Pennington and Green.

The only difference in your situation, Shane, is that you are in a 16 team league (mine is 12). That means 16 guys, instead of 12, looking for a starting QB. Based on that, you may want to pull the QB trigger in round 5 or 6.

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#19

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8/25/04 at 11:58am

Alex-C
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Quote:

Holmes/Chad Johnson for LT/Horn trade, though I may have to throw in Crumpler. Think it's worth it?

My gawd...and you're debating...why now ???
Dude, Jump on that faster than a bird on a june bug.
I had Holmes in both of my leagues last year and he is a point scoring monster. Many weekends he had 2 or 3 tds by halftime ! nothing like seeing that ticker on Fox at the half and seeing Holmes 2 TDS scroll by.

Look at KC's game plan for the conference championship last year...try to outscore the Dolts, and they nearly did !

LT is on the weakest team in the league and although he may rack up some points, Holmes on the KC machine is a much better prospect.

If at the end of the year (barring injuries) I am wrong...heck, I'll eat a june bug !

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#20

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8/25/04 at 2:42pm

Scott Weinberg
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Quote:

Scott, ya realise there are already two HTF leagues?

I did not. I figured if there were already an HTF league, it would have been mentioned in this thread. Argh.

So I'm an idiot. Nothing new there.

#21

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8/30/04 at 11:53am

Philip_T
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I have some questions for those of you in money leagues. I've been thinkning about starting one this year, but not sure aboust some things. 1st off, do you run them on Yahoo! or does the commish do everything from running the draft to setting up schedules and what not? Do you have to pay the league for trades you make? Are you allowed to pick up players from waivers, or is your team locked? I was thinking the easiest way for me to do it would be to have the draft party at my house, then start another Yahoo! league with the offline draft option where I enter the draft results. Then, lock the league. The managers would then email their starters by a pre-determined deadline which I would take care of. It just seems alot easier to let Yahoo! take care of the scoring and scheduling than to do it by hand. Any advice?

#22

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8/30/04 at 2:26pm

Frank Grimes
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We've always had a live draft at a friends house, complete with liquor and BBQ. Everyone signs up on Yahoo, then the commish has the pleasure of attatching the players drafted to the appropriate team. Waivers/starting lineups are then done as any other league, with the commish simply having the job of holding the money and vetoing trades of questionable intent (which we've only had one of in 5 years). I would recommend just letting people edit their starters up to the regular Yahoo deadline as opposed to doing the email/lock thing.

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#23

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8/30/04 at 2:33pm

Scott Merryfield
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Philip,

Our two money leagues are run on www.rtsports.com . You can completely customize the scoring rules and rosters to whatever the members desire. We run one as a 10-team keeper league with a salary cap, and the other as a 12-team redraft. The site charges per league instead of per team. I think the site fee is around $70 - $80 per league, which is pretty cheap when you divide it up amongst 10-12 teams.

Personally, I would let each owner handle their own transactions instead of you handling everything as commish. Your only job should be to get the site setup, give the other owners access, collect the money and handle any disputes. We do all our drafts online, with each person making his own pick unless he's unable to get to a PC -- then the commish will make picks based on the owners instructions (very rare, but it's been used in emergencies).

Quote:

Are you allowed to pick up players from waivers, or is your team locked?

I would never suggest locking your rosters. A big part of the fun of fantasy football is the weekly waiver wire process, as well as trading players.

We lock the rosters at the start of each week's first game, and there is a waiver claim process that takes place mid-week, after which all unclaimed players become free agents until the start of the next weekend's games. We have a trade deadline (usually somewhere around Week 12).

The above approach is more fair to the entire league than leaving free agents available at all times. We used to do that at one time, but owners watching the games had a huge advantage over those that couldn't on a particular weekend. I grabbed Shaun Alexander that way the year he took over for an injured Ricky Watters. While I benefitted, it did not put everyone on a level playing field.

We do not pay for transactions in either league, but just an upfront fee to cover site costs and prize money. Some leagues do charge for transactions, though, so that can work, too.

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#24

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8/30/04 at 2:42pm

Scott Merryfield
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BTW, we've used both Yahoo and CBS Sportline's free leagues in the past, and they do not come close to the features, live draft functionality, real time scoring and site performance of Realtime Sports.

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#25

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8/30/04 at 3:02pm

Philip_T
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Thanks Scott and Frank! I like your idea Frank of the draft party. Sounds like I would be better off doing this on-line, which is what I was leaning towards. Letting people manage their own teams is cool with me as well, I just didn't know if there was some unwritten rule with money leagues that gave the commish some kinda 'all powerful pooba' status or something. Less work for me =

Scott, that site looks pretty good and the price is much better than other sites are charging, but since this is my 1st go at it, I may just stick to Yahoo! free for this year, then upgrade next year if it all works out.

Now, I just need to get 8 suckers friends that want to play. Up to 4 so far.

#26

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8/30/04 at 7:18pm

Mark Murphy
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I just did my money league draft on Friday. 12 teams (some w/2 owners) and we all got together in a small living room and finished the draft in two hours. I drafted #8. We start 1 QB, 2 WR, 2 RB, 1 TE, 1 K and 1 D/ST w/backups at each position.

Here is my squad, the Dropkicked Murphys:

QB C. Pennington, R. Gannon
RB J. Lewis, D. Staley, C. Brown
WR M. Harrison, D. Jackson, J. Porter
TE A. Crumpler, D. Clark
K M. Stover, D. Brien
D/ST Cowboys, Steelers

#27

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8/30/04 at 8:24pm

Brad Porter
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I'm right up the road in Boulder, Philip. Let me know if you have trouble filling out your eight - there might be a few people in my league that could crossover. Also, my league is currently at 10 players (with one alternate) and we'd like to get to 12. Our live draft is this Saturday. If you're interested I could send you the information. Otherwise, you could come watch how we do it. There will be a no-limit hold'em poker tournament afterwards so I can pay my league entry fee.

Quote:

...w/backups at each position...

One backup for each position is a bit silly. You should be allowed a backup for every starting position or be allowed a certain number of roster spots with the option to fill them with whatever players you want. Carrying two kickers is just plain annoying. It's going to be a waiver wire battle all season long. Otherwise, I think you drafted OK, but I'd be real concerned about Lewis' trial. Billick said he would probably miss both of those weeks in November - and then who knows what happens after that.

Brad

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#28

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8/30/04 at 9:34pm

Philip_T
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Brad,
Thanks for the invite to your league and the offer for mine. I saw you live just up the turnpike and actually thought about posting you an invite. If I can get a couple more of my friends/co-workers to sign up, I'll give you a PM to get the league up to acceptable numbers. Otherwise, It'll just have to wait until next year as I may have started out on my quest a little too late. I would be trying for a Labor Day draft party at my house just as a heads up, if all works out.

But back to your invite, your soirée sounds like alot of fun and could give a good idea on how to run mine. If you still want to PM the info, I'd appreciate it, as long as its okay with other buddies. BTW, anymore room in your Texas hold-em tourney???? I'd love to try it but would hate taking your entry fee money from you.

#29

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8/30/04 at 9:47pm

Mark Pfeiffer
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My money league draft is tomorrow night. 16 teams. I have the first pick. Is there any compelling reason not to draft Priest Holmes? I've been in Canada for the last week on vacation. His legs didn't break off at the knee or anything while I was gone, did they?

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#30

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8/30/04 at 10:25pm

Brad Porter
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Philip - I'll forward you the e-mail with all the information tomorrow.

Quote:

Is there any compelling reason not to draft Priest Holmes?

Boerigter's knee injury will impact the passing game somewhat, and there is some scuttlebutt about reducing Priest's carries in favor of Johnson or Blaylock for durability purposes, but neither of those is likely to make him any worse than he was for the last two years. The only real play you have here other than drafting Holmes is trading down.

I have the worse dilemma of drafting second in the HTF II league. I'm not feeling confident in Tomlinson's ability to produce the second highest stats again this year - at least not as confident as I am in Ahman Green. I'll probably decide that one at the last minute.

Brad

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