Not a pun, not even witty, but Team Awesome certainly has
been awesome. Danny won the first AFL league championship and made it to the
championship both seasons in our old league.
Danny Hatcher, No. 12
pick overall
Biggest Catches
Eric Decker, WR, NYJ (+26)
Bernard Pierce, RB, BAL (+24)
Andre Williams, RB, NYG (+23)
Biggest Reaches
Ladarius Green, TE, SD (-80)
Andy Dalton, QB, CIN (-30)
Cleveland Browns, DEF (-25)
Projected Starting Lineup
QB Matt Ryan, ATL (No. 9 QB)
RB Jamaal Charles, KC (No. 1 RB)
WR1 Alshon Jeffery, CHI (No. 8 WR)
WR2 Eric Decker, NYJ (No. 23 WR)
TE Jordan Cameron, CLE (No. 4 TE)
FLEX DeMarco Murray, RB, DAL (No. 11 FLEX)
DEF Cleveland Browns (No. 14 DEF)
K Matt Bryant, ATL (No. 11 K)
Before I talk about those reaches, let me first say that
Danny had a terrific draft. It wasn’t flawless, but seven of his first eight
picks were positive value selections with five of them being a value of at
least +10. Eric Decker will have a drop in production, but people freaked out
too much over that. He’s still a great receiver in an offense where he will be
the primary target, and you can’t argue with the value Danny got in him.
According to my rankings, 14 poorer receivers were selected before Danny took
Decker.
Bernard Pierce will be the starter in Baltimore for the
first two weeks. Of course, it would be crazy to start him over guys like
Charles and Murray, but for that +24 value, it was worth taking him so nobody
else could have him. And Andre Williams could end up being much better than the
54th ranked fantasy running back. Even for a slightly negative value it would
have been worth taking a flyer on him.
With guys like Zach Ertz and Heath Miller available, I was
surprised to see Ladarius Green go. But the good news is that Jordan Cameron is
going to be a beast this year and it could be worth taking the chance that
Green will be the guy at tight end
for the Chargers by mid-season. But remember, this is all about value. There
was a time and place where Danny should have taken Green, and the 11th round
was not that time or place.
Andy Dalton has been a fantasy stud, even if he’s been a
playoff dud. But I don’t think he’ll continue at that high level this season
with Jay Gruden no longer with him and a new offensive coordinator who prefers
to run the football than air it out. It also doesn’t help that Andrew Hawkins
is in Cleveland and Marvin Jones out for at least the team’s first three games.
It was, however, a +1 positional value, so I can’t go too hard on this pick.
As for the Cleveland Browns, I had two defenses ranked
higher than them when Danny made his defensive selection, but once you get in
to the teens, what’s really the difference between one defense and another?
Like I said, there isn’t even too much to complain about with his low-value
selections.
Plugging things into my formula, Team Awesome earned a
value-based grade of +46 for his starting unit, -53 for his bench, and -7
overall.
This ranked Danny 4th in the league in overall value and 2nd
in starter value.
Things look very good for Danny as he looks to advance to a
fourth consecutive championship appearance and back-to-back league titles.
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 an 88 percent chance of making the playoffs.
- With good in-season management, we think you have about an 81 percent chance of making the playoffs.
- With average in-season management, we think you have about a 71 percent chance of making the playoffs.
You can read the entire evaluation of this team at
FootballGuys.com.
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