Michael Bennett (Fantasy Football Question)

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » July 27, 2004, 2:01 pm

Due to travel arrangements for the 12 people in the longtime Fantasy Football League I'm in, I have to fly up to Vegas and draft my team on the 14th of August before pre-season games kick in.

Complicating things, our legue pre-drafts draft positions based on the reverse order you finished last year. By the time I got to choose, slots 2-7 were gone and I had already decided that 7th was the lowest I wanted to draft this year after taking a look at the stud RBs. I picked the #1 spot so now I need to pick up my 2nd RB with the 24th or 25th picks in the draft.

Michael Bennett from the Vikings is probably one of the players that will still be available in that range. With the top 20 or so RBs gone, I need a good pick here. Rumors are that Michael Bennett is healthy and looking good but I don't have enough info on him. Is there anyone from that area of the country that can give some insight on this guy?

Kelshara · Post by **Kelshara** » July 27, 2004, 2:25 pm

Well not from the area but.. as I recall didn't he return towards the end of last season and looked good then? If my memory is correct, then he probably would be a good choice.. or did he get injured after that again and I missed it?

Bubba Grizz · Post by **Bubba Grizz** » July 27, 2004, 2:43 pm

I thought he was sharing time with someone else. You might want to consider Rudi Johnson with the Bengals too.

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » July 27, 2004, 3:03 pm

Bubba Grizz wrote:I thought he was sharing time with someone else. You might want to consider Rudi Johnson with the Bengals too.

Rudi was looking pretty good until the Bengals used their #1 pick to take a RB. That clouds things a bit.

Duce Staley might be a decent pick at this position if Bettis retires.

XunilTlatoani · Post by **XunilTlatoani** » July 27, 2004, 3:59 pm

Perhaps the RB situation in Minnesota will shake out better by the time you draft, but with three quality backs there with Bennett, Williams and Smith, not only will it be a battle for the starting role out of training camp, but likely if the starter slumps even slightly during the season you will see one of the other two featured.

A stat of note is that in 2002 when Bennett had 1300 yards rushing, Moe Williams rushed for 11 TDs compared to Bennett's 5. Things may be different this year, but who knows. For me personally, I think there may be a safer pick at 24 or 25.

Maybe look into Thomas Jones. Even though Anthony Thomas is still on the roster, the new regime in Chicago is making it clear that Thomas Jones is the man. Many local reporters liken his skillset to Priest Holmes and he may flourish under an offensive system like KC's. Conveniently, the Bears new offensive coordinator was KC's quarterbacks coach last year, and the Bears made a lot of O-line improvements in the off-season (including one of KC's O-linemen from last year).

Probably the riskiest but potentially most lucrative team to look at is Denver. Likely, you will see either Quentin Griffin or Garrison Hearst starting. Since Terrell Davis, every RB in that system has been a fantasy stud. Whoever ends up as the feature back there should have good numbers behind that great O-line in Denver.

Kilmoll the Sexy · Post by **Kilmoll the Sexy** » July 27, 2004, 4:19 pm

I hate to give away fantasy sleepers with the VV draft coming up.....but I am betting Kevin Barlow will be available lower than the 25th pick. Last year in my league I had 2 of 4 RB's and my best QB picked up on the waiver wire in week 2. It really depends on the league rules on who to take and how low you can go. Barlow was an absolute monster in my league once he became the feature back....mainly because it does not penalize for fumbles.

I would not be wasting picks on the Cowboys RB's until you find out who Parcells likes. As for the Bengals....Rudi is the man and if he is not picked before the 25th pick, then there are some retards in the league. If he is there I would be jumping up and down with glee.

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » July 27, 2004, 4:47 pm

I'll look into Thomas Jones. What I want for my #2 RB is someone that is a lock for the starting role with as little RBBC as possible.

As for Barlow, he's going an average of 13th in fantasy drafts so probably won't be there.

Here's a good site to get a feel for where people are being drafted. Of course, Ricky Williams is on there as the data is from whatever draft date range you choose...also choose type of league)

http://www.antsports.com/adp.asp

Homercles · Post by **Homercles** » July 27, 2004, 5:12 pm

Dont let the draft of Chris Perry scare you away from Rudi Johnson. Rudi is the main guy. No question about it. Hes in a contract year and wants to prove that least year was not a fluke. And with Carson Palmer under center, the Bengals offense will rely heavily on the run game until he gets his legs under him. And I havent even mentioned our O-line. They blew up holes last year with Eric Steinbach, Levi Jones, and Willie Anderson leading the way. Theyll only improve this season.

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » July 27, 2004, 5:28 pm

Homercles wrote:Dont let the draft of Chris Perry scare you away from Rudi Johnson. Rudi is the main guy. No question about it. Hes in a contract year and wants to prove that least year was not a fluke. And with Carson Palmer under center, the Bengals offense will rely heavily on the run game until he gets his legs under him. And I havent even mentioned our O-line. They blew up holes last year with Eric Steinbach, Levi Jones, and Willie Anderson leading the way. Theyll only improve this season.

Damn. That's all good news. I doubt Rudi will be around at 24/25 but he'd be a great pick as a #2 RB for someone with a higher round 2 selection.

As for the Bengals, I grabbed Chad Johnson in the 4th round last year and people laughed at me. He's going late 2nd/early 3rd this year. I doubt I'll get him in the draft where I have the #1 overall pick as I'll probably need to spend both 2nd and 3rd round picks on RBs to assure I get a solid 2nd RB unless I get lucky with a good RB dropping to 24 then I can consider a Chad Johnson type at my 3rd pick.

Who knows though for the VV league!

Morgrym · Post by **Morgrym** » July 28, 2004, 10:18 am

Tampa Bay has a hearty O line this year and if Gruden does like he tried to do last year before the injury..it will be based around Mike Alstott. You can't go wrong with this monster now that he has people blocking for him. Also, they picked up Charlie Garner in the off season from Oakland but will proably not use him near as often as Alstott.

Deward · Post by **Deward** » July 28, 2004, 11:28 am

I think you are looking at your draft strategy wrong. I agree that the first pick is a tough one to get stuck with. I personally would not be looking at a RB pick in the second round if I had that early of a pick. If you take a mediocre RB when a very good or excellent WR or QB are available then you put yourself into a drafting hole. Sure you will have two RB's but everyone else will have snatched up the best WR and QB.

I did a mock draft with my program using the first pick and used the 2nd and 3rd picks to pick up a WR and QB. At the fourth pick the following RB's were still available:

Shipp - He is streaky at best but has some experience now.
Eddie George - Could be a sleeper now that he is at Dallas and under a system and coach that will use him.
Bennett/Smith/Williams - Bennett worries me because he seems to get sat down for all the goal line runs. Smith is a real nice runner with potential but williams hogs all the goallines. I might risk Bennett if he was still around in round 5 but not before. I hate RB by committee.
Tom Jones - This is a steal here for a starter with a lot of potential.
Chris Brown - Won't be sharing carries with Eddie anymore.

I wouldn't take any of the following at round 4 but they are there if you feel desperate.
Hearst/Bell/Anderson - if you can figure out which RB will be starting then you will win here. I will bet it won't be griffin. I like him but he can't handle the punishment.
Suggs/Green - I like Suggs to win this battle. Green had some good games but he had a lot of bad ones too.
Deshaun Foster - If Davis falters even a little then snatch this guy up quick. He would start on most other teams.
Steven Jackson - Sleeper pick here but we all know that Faulk can't handle the full load anymore. I wouldn't take this guy before round 6 though.

Don't fall into the draft hole though. It is easy to do when you start taking subpar players when there are excellent players available in other positions. I don't envy you though. Several years ago I had the first pick in the draft and I lived off the waiver wire.

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » July 28, 2004, 2:01 pm

Deward wrote:I think you are looking at your draft strategy wrong. I agree that the first pick is a tough one to get stuck with. I personally would not be looking at a RB pick in the second round if I had that early of a pick. If you take a mediocre RB when a very good or excellent WR or QB are available then you put yourself into a drafting hole. Sure you will have two RB's but everyone else will have snatched up the best WR and QB.

Your comments are well noted but I've been playing Fantasy Football since 1988 and it's always been about having two stud running backs. Your scoring system is a factor but for most performance leagues, you have to have two solid RBs to win the league.

Consider this...

My league starts 1 QB, 2 RB, 3 WRs, 1TE, 1K, 1D

The drop off in point production between the 4th best quaterback last year and the 12th best QB is only a few points so drafting your QB early is a wasted pick.

There are a ton of WRs out there that start and the point range after the top 3 or so is also not that great.

Now with running backs...you have maybe 20 solid starters (i think more like 17) that don't have questions about RBBC, solid backups that steal carries, goal line vulchers that steal TDs etc. In a 12 team league, not everyone is going to get 2 solid running backs but everyone will get a solid quarterback no matter when they draft them in the top 9 rounds. WR's are also able to be had all the way down into round 6 or so...but RBs...you are screwed, blued and tatooed if you don't grab at least two early as there just isn't depth there like the other positions.

Since I'm stuck drafting first overall, I'm going to have one superstud RB but at 24/25, both my RB picks are going to have some questions. Since I will be needing to rotate RB's in during bye weeks anyway and it's also the hardest position to find quality at after the top 20 or so, it makes sense for me to draft 3 RBs at picks 1, 24 and 25. I know I can already pick up someone like Hasslebeck at 48/49 and there will be receivers like Andre Johnson and Koren Robinson there (check my previous link on average draft position), I can feel confident that I'll grab some decent WRs in the 4-7 rounds but wouldnt feel that way at all about RBs.

So, with the 1st pick in the draft, a plan to draft RB, RB, RB, WR WR WR, QB isn't a bad one.

You still need to do your homework though. I had the 10th spot in a 10 team league last year and picked up Ahman Green/Travis Henry with 10/11 and won my league. Hasselbeck was my QB and I got him in the 5th or later as I picked up Koren Robinson and Chad Johnson in the 3/4 spots. Koren sucked yes but Chad rocked for a 4th round pick.

I picked New England D off the waiver wire 2 weeks into the season because people were scared off by the injuries : ) hehe