Tonight was the third annual Mystic Fantasy Foozeball draft (formerly known as the Pizza Place League). While the league's manager list has changed drastically over the course of the years, the spirit of the league lives on through the teams of a few guys. Since the league began, the league settings were always a little different, such as having individual defensive players, multiple kickers, etc. As the commissioner of the league this year again, I decided to keep that idea and ended up having 2 QB's, 2 DEF's and 1 WR/RB. If you're in more than 2 or 3 leagues (4 in my case), it helps to have variation in the drafts to keep you on your toes, so that was another reason for the non-standard positions. Anyways, without any more rambling, here is my personal analysis of the draft...

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It's pretty much settled at this point, after Quinn put on a bit of a show against Detroit (albeit in garbage time of a garbage game). Cleveland fans have tolerated a subpar team for too long, and I'd venture a guess that the Cavs reaching the NBA Finals and looking likely to remain a perennial contender makes the Dawg Pound even less willing to put up with a third-rate NFL franchise any longer. They'll be chanting his name at every home game until he finally gets the start, which is hardly an atmosphere that a guy like Charlie Frye is going to thrive in. He'll screw up and lose the job to Quinn by mid-season.

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Frankly, I had no idea that the Dolphins were planning on continuing to use Brown as their kick returner - seems unnecessarily risky, especially given that his backup is Jesse "Who the hell am I, and why am I here?" Chatman. Now it appears that they may be coming to their senses and letting rookie wideout Ted Ginn Jr. do it. This doesn't affect Brown's value much, but it's a little reassuring if you've already drafted him. Ginn becomes a little more interesting if your league awards points for return yardage/TDs.

This is exactly why early drafts make us so nervous: After Henry limped off the field last night, every one of his fantasy owners went to bed wondering if they were going to have to watch Mike Bell enjoy the automatic 1,000-yard season that comes with playing the position under Shanahan. Thankfully, that doesn't appear to be the case: it's just a sprain; there's "no significant structural damage." It remains unclear whether he'll miss any regular-season games.

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Last night's uninspiring 5-rush/16-yard, 0-reception performance probably means that Lynch hasn't clinched the role of "feature back" just yet. Buffalo fans (disclosure: I'm one of them) would love to be able to clamor for the speedy rook to get as many carries as possible this season, but frankly he hasn't looked worthy of the buzz in his two preseason appearances. Add the fact that the A-Train filled in pretty well when McGahee went down last year, and it's hard to argue that the veteran shouldn't get his share of the workload.

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The Bears' rookie tight end sure is getting a whole lot of attention lately. Some of that likely has to do with his being the first TE taken by Chicago since none other than Mike Ditka, but this offense as a whole seems to have come alive in the offseason, and Olsen appears likely to get his share in 2007.

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We're all used to the idea of handcuffing our #1 RBs to their backups, but what about the Steve Smiths and Torry Holts who tend to get drafted mid-2nd round? If you're willing to spend a mid-to-late 2nd-round pick, shouldn't you protect that investment by investing, not in the team's #2 receiver, who was already starting anyway - but in their #3? Often, a team's #3 receiver is the young gun who's chomping at the bit to start, and given the opportunity will likely put up big numbers. When your stud WR gets hurt, wouldn't it be nice to be able to plug that kid into your roster right away, without having to battle it out on the waiver wire for his services (or worse, watch the manager who grabbed him with the last pick in the draft reap the benefits of your misfortune)? It's usually not even a huge investment - chances are good that you'll be able to snag a #3 receiver near the end of the draft. Here's a look at a few of these potentially season-saving handcuffs.

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I just thought it should be pointed out that Madden 2008 hits stores today, so make sure to go out and get yourself a copy so you can start building your fantasy teams and seeing how they would actually perform on a team. My first question though is if Mike Vick will be the starting QB for the Falcons? If he is, will an XBox Live update remove him from the game if he's suspended? Also, how nasty did they make Randy Moss for my Patriots? I guess we'll have to wait a couple more hours until I have it in my Xbox 360 to find out.

Last updated: 8/30/07

To complement my article reviewing the expected fantasy sleepers of the season, here are my "busts" of the year. What we're looking for here are the 2006 "Cadillac" Williamses, the 2003 Peerless Prices and the post-injury Daunte Culpeppers. So get your red magic marker out and prepare to perform a little surgery on your 2007 cheat sheets...

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The PKT B-League represents some players with a wide range of experience; there are six or seven regulars who have been in the mix for four or more years, while the rest of the managers are pretty green. In other words, it's like a lot of leagues we've all been in. I think it's more worthwhile to analyze a draft like this than one of those "expert" drafts you see broken down all over the place. Just like watching the WSOP is a bad way to learn how to dominate your Thursday night poker game, studying an expert draft is going to give you an inflated level or respect for the other drafters in your league. In the real world, your friends will make mistakes, and you've got to be flexible enough in your draft strategy to take advantage of those mistakes.

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