Fantasy Football Starters

"Down-Set-Hike Fantasy Football Forum"™

Sound Off about Fantasy Football Starters and Football in General!

Save This Page	Back to Forum Main
	Topic: Experts Mock Draft Round 4
Russell_108 Admin Membership: Starter Joined: September 04 Total Posts: 14584 Favorite Team: Offline	Post Date: 05/25/11 18:59 In the Fantasy Experts Mock Draft we’re actually into round 9 and will probably be into round 10 by tomorrow. As usual, I’m a little behind as I’ve been crunching data for our fantasy football draft analyzer so it is ready for initial 2011 fantasy football projections. I drew the 8th pick in round 1 of our serpentine style mock draft. Thru the first 3 rounds, I opted to go RB, WR, and QB snagging Rashard Mendenhall, Reggie Wayne, and Peyton Manning with my first 3 picks, so round 4 I was good to go with another RB or WR. For a complete list of each expert representing their site, see the first round post I made about this fantasy experts mock draft, and here are the picks in round 4: 4-1, Junkyard Jake: RB Knowshon Moreno. This was the RB I was targeting with my pick later this round so I was disappointed to see him go. Current rumors are that John Fox wants to get free agent DeAngelo Williams in Denver, but I believe Moreno is fully capable of being a feature RB. There’s little in terms of competition for him for carries in Denver and for the moment, he is entrenched as the firm starter. 4-2, GO Ahead Score: RB Jahvid Best. Best was on fire in 2010 until turf toe injuries severely hampered his production. He showed toughness playing thru the pain, but the drafting of my top ranked RB in the NFL Draft this April, Mikel Leshoure, shows me that the Lions don’t see Best as being able to hold up as a feature RB. There will be a committee in Detroit between Leshoure and Best with Best likely to be used as change of pace and 3rd down RB. He can catch the ball extremely well, and is explosive in open space. While he’s the better PPR RB (and we are drafting as if this league had ppr scoring) I have concerns about durability and whether Leshoure will always come out on passing downs. 4-3, Fantasy Football Trader: WR Marques Colston. Medium risk/high reward pick here as Colston had microfracture knee surgery during the off-season and that makes 5 surgeries for him while in the NFL. Colston has proven himself capable of big things, but he may be wearing down faster than his career would normally because of these surgeries and Drew Brees has proven that he will spread the ball around a lot. We’ll know by August whether Colston makes a full recovery and is ready for the start of the season (which all reports currently say he will be). 4-4, Draft Sharks: WR Austin Collie. If not for the concussions that derailed his 2010 season, Collie was on the verge of a huge breakout campaign last year. Everything says he is fully over the symptoms now and is a full go for 2011. Even though he may not start over Pierre Garcon, he has shown that Peyton Manning has trust in him and is the better fantasy option of the two. A bit risky, but a ton of upside with this pick. 4-5, Fantasy Football Starters: RB LeGarrette Blount. Even in PPR, I find it difficult to pass up a RB who will hog almost all of his team’s rushing attempts. Blount isn’t known for being much of a pass catcher, but he could develop the skill and still manage 20-30 receptions. More likely he’s a 12-18 catch guy, but the 280+ rushing attempts make up for that, as do the TD’s he’ll score. 4-6, All Purpose Roto: WR Dez Bryant. A bit of a head scratcher for two reasons. The first being that APR selected WR’s with his first 3 picks, and Bryant made 4 WR’s in the first 4 rounds. The second is that Bryant comes with off-field issues that could make him risky. There’s a lot of upside with Bryant for his natural skills and playmaking ability, but this wasn’t a good fit for this team. 4-7, Fantasy Shrink: TE Antonio Gates. It’s almost always round 4 that the top tier TE’s start coming off the board and Gates should be the first one gone. He was absolutely tearing it up in 2010 before his foot injury derailed his season. In 10 games played, Gates had 50 catches for 782 yards and 10 TD’s. He’s fully recovered from the injury and is ready to be an elite fantasy TE again in 2011. 4-8, Football Guys: TE Jermichael Finley. Huge things were expected from Finley in 2010, but a knee injury ended his season after just 5 games. He was showing well before then though and has a top of upside. There were other top tier TE’s available at this point but FG is swinging for the fences with Finley as he can Gates-like in dominating the position if totally recovered. 4-9, Fantasy Football Xtreme: WR Brandon Lloyd. I’ve previously written how I think Lloyd is a potential 2011 fantasy football bust for those expecting him to repeat his 2010 career season, but I don’t think his fantasy value will totally shrivel up under new coach John Fox. As FFX’s 2nd WR it’s a decent gamble as Lloyd has shown he is capable of being huge, and no matter what, the Broncos will still need someone to step up and be their top WR. Not sure any of the others on the roster are capable of taking that from Lloyd. Not a pick that excites you, but as the 18th WR selected overall, a smart one. 4-10, Fanatic Fantasy Football: RB Shonn Greene. Greene is expected to take over as the primary RB for the Jets this season and consistently get 16+ carries every game. 280+ isn’t out of the question, but Greene isn’t much of a pass catcher and will be replaced on passing downs. Still, like I said about my pick earlier in the round (Blount) it’s hard to pass up a guy who should dominate the carries for his team. 4-11, Lester’s Legends: WR Brandon Marshall. Marshall didn’t have a bad 2010 season (his first in Miami) as he had 86 receptions for 1,014 yards, but he only had 3 TD’s and those catches and yards were down from the over 100 receptions he had each of the prior 3 seasons. There’s some concern about what will eventually happen with Marshall in regards to the stabbing incident with his wife, but he’ll need to avoid any league imposed punishment or he could really disappoint. Still, there’s a lot of potential in Marshall to rebound too as he needs to also realize his career could be riding on thin ice and a year of great production and keeping out of trouble would do wonders for him. 4-12, Pro Football Focus: TE Dallas Clark. Clark was having a typically solid Clark type of season in 2010 when a wrist injury ended it after only 6 games. Reports say he should be fine by the regular season but it is a bit concerning that the injury would be taking nearly 10 months to recover from. But as long as he does, he should be able to step right back in as one of the top fantasy TE’s in 2011. Like with the other 2 TE’s taken this round, a bit risky, but the upside makes the reward worth it. Overall thoughts on Round 4: As expected, TE’s started coming off the board this round. Looking at the RB’s and WR’s selected and knowing this was a PPR format, it’s to be expected that some will want to snag an elite TE over the third and 4th tier talents at other positions. However, I was surprised that no QB’s went at all. There are only 2 left in the top 7 and I would have expected one of them to be selected this round. ---- On any given Sunday any fantasy team can beat another, only to still lose Monday night.
James_119913 Membership: Bench Warmer Joined: August 10 Total Posts: 826 Offline	Post Date: 05/25/11 21:29 As for the round 4 picks the only one that I really question is Austin Collie. He's a great player when he's on the field but the concussions would have me scared to take him so early in a draft. If I was bound and determined to take a WR in round 4 I would have been more inclined to take the likes of Steve Johnson of Buffalo or Santonio Holmes especially when you consider that Holmes stats are with the lose of 4 games due to suspension.
Throwball Heroes_118522 Moderator Membership: Starter Joined: June 10 Total Posts: 4727 Favorite Team: Offline	Post Date: 05/26/11 08:13 Considering I don't participate in more than 2 leagues a year, neither of which used PPR, I need to expand my horizons and get comfortable with the fact that TEs can fly off the board earlier than I anticipate. I While I am doing that I also need to grasp the concept that QBs last long in PPR scoring leagues. So my opinions have not really taken in those considerations until Russ made mention of them. I like Russ's selection, with 4 top players at each position, he can only build on improving his team in the later rounds. All these players could end up near the top of their respective position in scoring. How can you go wrong? Injuries, yes I know, but let's not dwell on that. I mentioned it in the thread I started following the mock at MFL, but it was interesting to see Witten (Russ's selection) was listed as the top TE, but was not one of the top 4 selected. As for Round 4 I like the Blount selection, but there is some speculation the backfield in TB could be crowded. I still like Blount the best out of the group and should get a majority of the carries. Greene, as frustrated as I was with him last year figured he would drop another round to the 5th, but if you speculate on the kid, he will be the feature back and should get most of the work. Hard to see him not with 280-300 carries. But LT is still in New York. All in all not too surprising, some owners need to pay a bit more attention to the starter requirements, stacking WRs isn't a key in winning. ---- Stephen - http://www.the6thfloor.com/category/fantasy-football-2/
Russell_108 Admin Membership: Starter Joined: September 04 Total Posts: 14584 Favorite Team: Offline	Post Date: 06/02/11 10:32 With the draft moving along so fast, I fell behind, So instead of each individual round, be sure to check out my article listing the picks in rounds 5-12 with some analysis. ---- On any given Sunday any fantasy team can beat another, only to still lose Monday night.
Viewing posts(1-4)
Post	Plain text ONLY, no HTML avoid > and < in text
Message

“I am advancing to the championship game in both of my leagues and I believe a lot of the credit goes to those of you in this forum and the many tools that we have access to”. (Ron 3 year member)

“This site greatly helped me make it through this year in both my leagues and all the great help from other members thanks very much fellas!” (Courtney first year member)

“I am hosting one league on NFL.com as well. Personally I thing there projections are way out of sync and have been less than reliable. I completely ignored them all year and instead took input from the LA at FFS which has proven to be much more accurate”. (Hooked 5 year Member)