Think back to Week 1...

[Freyguy]

This was my draft:

QB - Marc Bulger
RB - Larry Johnson (frozen from last year)
RB - Maurice Jones-Drew (froze)
RB - Thomas Jones
WR - Reggie Wayne
WR - Deion Branch
TE - Jason Witten
K - Neil Rackers
Def - BAL
Ben - Santonio Holmes
Ben - Maurice Morris
Ben - Leon Washington
Ben - Matt Schaub
Ben - Braylon Edwards
Ben - Randy McMicheal

Now...you would think I would have a good team right? Before the season started? Bulger was/is very underrated and, i thought, a steal in the 6th round. Thomas Jones, i thought again, was going to have a huge role with the Jets. I kinda figured that LJ would be slow to start but he was the best thing i had from last year, along with MJD. Braylon Edwards and Santonio Holmes were sleepers in my book and so far so good at least by week 7.
Guess what my record is?? 3-4, and i have the lowest points in the league. I guess what I am asking is, how do you guys think i drafted compared to how unlucky i have gotten?? I mean Witten and Wayne are studs and my team is being held together by my recievers. Oh well, i guess thats just the way fantasy football goes.

[peplaw06]

Yeah, fantasy drafts are such a crap shoot. The late rounds are SO important.

If you had asked me at the beginning of the year I would have said your team was solid, but unspectacular.

When I drafted my team, the ESPN draft application kept freezing on my computer. I was picking 9th, so I didn't have a great slot anyway. But to add to that, since i was forzen out of the draft, they autodrafted me 4 RBs in the first 4 picks... Westbrook, R. Johnson, Portis, and T. Jones. I was so pissed.

Well once I got back into the draft, I just decided to take a good WR (Javon Walker), then draft as many RBs as I could for trade bait. I drafted Brandon Jacobs and Adrian Peterson, and that was my limit. I took Jon Kitna and Kellen Winslow late, then a lot of sleeper WRs.

I knew going in that I would have to draft RBs who could start in a pinch for me, then I could trade Portis and Jones for good talent at my weak spots. I traded Jones for McNabb and Portis for Houshmandzadeh. Then after week one I picked up Braylon Edwards out of free agency!!

So my team now looks like this...

QBs: McNabb and Kitna, ranked 11th and 15th respectively.
RBs: Peterson (3rd), Westbrook (4th), Jacobs and Johnson who have had injury issues, but when they play are good enough to fill in.
WRs: Housh (3rd), Edwards (4th), B. Marshall (24th), V. Jackson (40th). I just dropped Javon Walker after his recent surgery to fill bye week holes. I may pick him up later.
TE: Winslow (5th), Heath Miller (free agent - 6th)
D/ST: SEA (picked up 2 weeks ago, ranked 1), and recently added TEN for the bye
K: Gostkoswki (4th)

So I have 2 top 10 guys at every position other than QB and K.

Add to that, I just made an offer to trade Brandon Jacobs to a guy who has LJ and a bunch of srubs at RB for Marvin Harrison who has been disappointing.

Still my team was slow to start, I have a lot of Eagles and Bengals, who had a bye week together along with the Vikes... that was a bad week. So I'm 3-4, but I've been the highest projected points team in recent weeks, and am the #2 scoring team in the league. So I'm on the rise.

If I win this thing, it will be my proudest moment in FF ever.

[QT]

It's not all about the draft; it's also about the trades. You have to be willing to take chances. I had the top team in the league and was hesitant to mess with it (if it ain't broke, don't fix it).

I ended up trading Ronnie Brown for Reggie Bush and Wes Welker. Talk about lopsided trade now.