Ex-Employee Draft: The Brooklyn Lions

Tonight, on the heels of a frustrating, three-hour, last-minute meeting at my new job, I had a draft at 9:30pm. Of course, I also had dinner plans with my wife at our friend’s house, so when I arrived at 9pm, shoveled some healthy Mexican casserole into my face, grabbed a glass of wine and their laptop and took a seat to tune out for the next hour, my wife was not pleased. I had also missed the first three picks of the draft, which thankfully were not mine. Not a good start to a night of “investing.”

Approach: Frantic last-minute picking while trying to maintain the appearance of being sociable. No real vision as to the type of team I was building. Poor.

Draft Summary: I had pick number six in the draft and waited until after my first pick to review the draft rules, which let me know this wasn’t a point per reception (PPR) league. Which is unfortunate, since my first pick, Ray Rice, gets a nice bonus in that format. The top five went AP, Vick, Foster, Brady, Charles. So was left with Rice, Chris Johnson or a reach pick, like McFadden or a WR. Rice was the safe pick. On the way back I had no plan, but had waited forever in another draft to take a QB, so I grabbed Rivers. I went WR, WR, TE, WR after that, waiting to grab some value RB’s at the end.

I’m still not sure in what order to take your first five picks. In a format where you MUST play 2 RB, and there’s no PPR, they seem much more valuable and should probably have gone with 2 on my first two picks and waited to grab Matt Ryan or someone a few rounds later. And my gut says, “Don’t take a TE until the end!” Which I promptly ignore as soon as Antonio Gates is off the board.

Best get: My late round RB depth. Beanie Wells in the 7th round. I needed a 2nd RB and with Ryan Williams going down, he’s got a stranglehold in ARI. Reggie Bush in round 9 would be better if this were PPR, but if the Fins really try to make him a RB1 and he holds up, he’s a steal. And then Wells’ former timeshare partner, Tim Hightower in round 11 wasn’t bad for some extra RB depth.

Worst pick: Taking Phillip Rivers made me angry. I guess he’s fine, and when he hits Vincent Jackson for a TD, it’ll give me a great boost. When SD doesn’t score, I’m screwed. I basically punted DEF and Kicker.

Just missed: I really was hoping DeSean Jackson or Mike Wallace would fall to me in round 3. They didn’t. I would have been happier with Rice, Nicks/Jackson/Wallace and Matt Ryan. I also put off taking Felix Jones to take Dez Bryant. I wanted Jones, but thought he would fall in round six. I also just missed stealing Javon Ringer by four picks.

Team Outlook: I’m a little too dependant on the Chargers’ offense, and I’ve once again gambled on Dez Bryant and Kenny Britt. If the chargers produce and my young WR’s come through, I should make a good run at the title.

Level of team hatred: 40%, which is actually pretty low. I normally have a high level of self-loathing for my teams. Aside from the Rivers/Jackson back to back picks, I felt really good about who I was getting and where.

Football vs. Finance Outlook: The market was not kind to me today, luckily, I haven’t put the $1000 for this experiment in yet. So my real life investments took a hit, which in-turn kind of makes me feel like I “made money” by not having this $1000 in yet. Due to work and this draft, however, I did not learn anything about stocks or the market. I did read an article about a money market manager while taking a shit, though. I don’t think that counts.