Brandon keeps his streak going of the league’s best team names. From Ryan Tannehill’s Wife to Forgetting Brandon Marshall and now this one named after his 2014 keeper selection.
Brandon Saunders, No.
11 pick overall
Biggest Catches
Chris Ivory, RB, NYJ (+36)
LeGarrette Blount, RB, PIT (+36)
Rod Streater, WR, OAK (+31)
Biggest Reaches
Arizona Cardinals, DEF (-46)
Pittsburgh Steelers, DEF (-40)
Emmanuel Sanders, WR, DEN (-37)
Projected Starting Lineup
QB Drew Brees, NO (No. 1 QB)
RB Alfred Morris, WSH (No. 14 RB)
WR1 Julio Jones, ATL (No. 6 WR)
WR2 Cordarrelle Patterson, MIN (No. 28 WR)
TE Charles Clay, MIA (No. 11 TE)
FLEX Emmanuel Sanders, WR, DEN (No. 71 FLEX)
DEF Arizona Cardinals (No. 8 DEF)
K Steven Hauschka, SEA (No. 3 K)
Brandon took some major risks on his starting receivers in
this draft. Julio Jones was obviously a nice pickup, and he got him at great
value for a 2nd round draft pick. But there were 13 better receivers on the
board when he took Emmanuel Sanders and 10 better receivers when he took
Cordarrelle Patterson. Patterson is a great option in a league that counts
return yards for individual players, but ours doesn’t, so if he doesn’t exceed
expectations dramatically, the next guy up at flex will be rookie Sammy
Watkins. I’ll give a pass on Sanders since Peyton Manning did a good job of
making all his offensive weapons happy last year, and because Wes Welker has
been suspended for the first four games of the season (seriously, Broncos, come
on now).
From an overall standpoint, the Arizona Cardinals pickup in
the 10th round was awful, but they were the 8th ranked defense and were the 8th
defense selected in the draft. Even though the numbers/formula punishes
Brandon’s team for that pickup, I won’t give him a hard time for that one.
However, there were six better defenses available than
Pittsburgh’s when he selected them in the 14th round. A lot of people don’t
take a defense until the last two rounds of the draft. I would advise, in the
future, that nobody ever take a second defense until the last round of the
draft. Heck, I’d even say not to bother taking a second defense at all!
In addition, neither tight end selection was a good value
and both qualify for honorable mention reaches. Charles Clay is the better of
the two on his roster, but he selected Martellus Bennett. Guys like Jordan
Reed, Kyle Rudolph and Zach Ertz, all better tight ends than Bennett, were
available when he selected each of his two tight ends.
All told, Believe in Drew Breesus Christ is very
middle-of-the-road in this league. Brandon’s draft earned him a value-based
grade of -104 for his starting lineup, +7 for his bench, and -97 overall.
The team is ranked 8th in the league in overall value and
9th in starter value.
Brandon made the playoffs with a losing record last year, so
a unit like this isn’t doomed. However, both of his division opponents had
better drafts than him from a value standpoint, so it’s going to be a tough
road. Drew Brees carried him last year and has an easier schedule this season.
Maybe that’ll be enough.
Bonus
In order to include something without my biased rankings at
its core, I’ve included the average bottom line of the evaluations by the four
official evaluators at FootballGuys.com.
- With great in-season management, we think you have about a 55 percent chance of making the playoffs.
- With good in-season management, we think you have about a 38 percent chance of making the playoffs.
- With average in-season management, we think you have about an 18 percent chance of making the playoffs.
You can read the entire evaluation of this team at
FootballGuys.com.
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