Fantasy Football

So it appears that the new trend in post-draft analysis is to lament the concept of dolling out team grades immediately after the draft ends, and this is generally followed immediately with draft grades because virtually no one wants to deviate from the norm. The sad fact of the matter is, that people enjoy draft grades. It tends to validate what they think of their team’s performance or serve as a devil’s advocate. There’s nothing wrong with it. I don’t know why the concept needs to be lampooned by everyone with a public opinion when rightly or wrongly, it’s obviously what people enjoy reading. It’s opinion on the NFL, not a dissection of apartheid. It doesn’t exactly have to be sophisticated.

Never the less, we’re going to look at each team’s draft and see how their incoming crop of players who may or may not make the roster will impact the team’s offensive character. We’re going to do this by division so as to get as many posts out of this as possible. Today we’re starting with the NFC East, because it’s loaded with teams in major markets thus making it the most important of all the divisions. See, that’s my Colin Cowherd impression.

Dallas Cowboys

Who they drafted: Despite not having a pick on the first day (which only consisted of two rounds this year) due to desperately needing to acquire Roy Williams, the Cowboys had a total of twelve picks in this weekends draft, practically none of which were on offense. Well, they drafted an offensive lineman in the second round from Ball State (Muncie represent!), a quarterback who won’t even be allowed to hold the clipboard and a seventh round receiver from Oklahoma named Manuel Johnson.

Prognostication: With the Cowboys, basically you’re hoping that they weeded out some of the excessive baggage and will be able to focus primarily on what’s being produced on the field as opposed to what’s happening off of it. Maybe the Ball State lineman can help protect Romo and open up some more holes for Tashard Choice and Marion Barber, but that’s not enough incentive to draft any of these players. If you’re leaning towards the Cowboys rebounding from a disappointing 2008 campaign, draft them. If not, then don’t. It’s really quite simple. I actually think they will, but don’t let what happened in this draft influence your opinion either way, because it was pretty inconsequential from a fantasy perspective.

New York Giants

Who they drafted: For all the talk of how deep they are at running back, how confident they are in their quarterback and for having a top five offensive line, the Giants used a total of four picks addressing those three aspects of their team with William Betty (OT from UConn), Andre Brown (RB from NC State), Rhett Bomar (QB from Sam Houston) & Travis Beckum (TE from Wisconsin). Three of which were in the fourth round or before. The highlight of their draft, however, was there attempts to fill their recent void at receiver with Hakeem Nicks and Ramses Barden, shattering the record of coolest names for a drafted receiving duo in the history of receiving duos.

Prognostication: As stated before, I’m a big Hakeem Nicks fan. But when you take receiver-type into the equation, he isn’t exactly what they needed. A good chunk of their offense consisted of Eli holding to ball too long, being rushed in the backfield, flinging up a hail Mary in Burress’ general direction and hoping that he could come down with the catch or disrupt any potential interception; and I’d say about 90% of the time Burress was the target of a forty yard heave, one of these two things was the end result. Nicks, for as much as we like his potential, at 6′0 he is too short to afford them this style of offense. On the other hand, with Ramses, who stands at an intimidating 6′6, could end up being at least a supplement for Burress, if not a permanent solution.

Philadelphia Eagles

Who they drafted: Jeremy Maclin (WR), LeSean McCoy (RB), Cornelius Ingram (TE, Florida), Fenuki Tupou (OT, Oregon), Brandon Gibson (WR, Washington State) and Paul Faniaka (OG, Arizona State). In other words: as far as fantasy football is concerned, they had what I’d consider the most impacting draft.

Prognostication: Well, between the rookies they drafted and the draft picks they traded away for the offensive lineman Jason Peters from Buffalo, I think it’s safe to say there will be a lot of changes here. Philly was in a tenuous position at receiver given what was available, they also needed a possession receiver and settled for another speed demon in Jeremy Maclin, whose basically the same type of receiver as Kevin Curtis and DeSean Jackson. While I would have rather seen them trade for Boldin, this is going to offer its own style. As I said in our running diary on Saturday, when Donovan McNabb snaps the ball, it’s going to look like someone swatted a beehive with a crowbar.

I don’t know how much the rookie offensive lineman are going to play, but with the return of Shane Andrews and the acquisition of Jason Peters, the running game is going to look refined, and if Brian Westbrook limps through this season with nagging injuries like he’s done for the past three, he finally has someone to spell him in LeSean McCoy, who is more than worthy of one of your mid-round picks. Westbrook isn’t going to unnecessarily play when he sustains his obligatory leg injury that he never fully heels from, as a result I would drop him down about seven or eight spots on your draft board. And just as a kicker, they get a completely capable tight end who won two national titles at University of Florida in Cornelius Ingram, who’ll be starting by the end of the year.

Washington Redskins

Who they drafted: They only had six total picks because they traded them all away on god knows what (they offered Cleveland a couple just to stay in consideration for a trade with Sanchez is probably what it was), and with the first four they drafted defense (the first three of which were absolute studs in college). In the seventh round they took mercy on their paltry offense and took a receiver from Nevada and a tight end from Idaho.

Prognostication: Expect their offense to look considerably worse next year. If they can’t right the ship with Jason Campbell after trying to dump him twice in the past month after his career year, then you’re looking at a lineup with a mediocre line, a slightly better than serviceable and disgruntled quarterback, one of the oldest receiving corps. in the game and two running backs with little to no help around them. On the bright side, their defense should be loaded but the offense might be a turnover machine unto itself, so drop them a few spots in your rankings.

So that was productive, at least enough so that we can warrant doing the same thing for each division until next Friday (at the latest). Back tomorrow with more of the same for let’s say….the AFC North. Few things are more terrifying than appraising the value of Ohio NFL team’s draft picks.