With the 36th selection the Brown’s took Ohio State’s Brian Robiskie, one of the most NFL ready receivers of the entire draft.  With Donte Stallworth in court for killing a man that was a very smart move.  Crabtree is obviously my top choice among rookie WRs, but Robiskie comes in at number 2.  Jeremy Maclin, Percy Harvin, and Hakeem Nicks are more talented, but none of them landed in as good of a situation.

Maclin has to compete with DeSean Jackson, Kevin Curtis, Reggie Wayne, Hank Baskett, and Jason Avant for looks (also Brent Celek, Cornelius Ingram, Brian Westbrook, and LeSean McCoy, for that matter.  Harvin will be a factor in his offense, but he’s a bit of a wildcard.  It may take the Vikes a while to figure out how to use him as he competes for looks with Bernard Berrian, Sidney Rice, Bobby Wade, and Visanthe Shiancoe.  Nicks could end up being a super sleeper if he earns significant time at flanker, but he’s got a long way to go to supplant Hixon.

Robiskie has already had a strong OTA and should be able to beat out Mike Furrey, David Patten, rookie Mohamed Massaqoui and return specialist Josh Cribbs as the WR2.  He is a polished route runner with phenomenal hands.  I’m sure everyone rooting for Browns football will like that after watching ButterFingers Braylon lead the league in drops last season.  The Browns are the front runners for finishing dead last in the AFC North.  If they are playing from behind as much as I think they will be then there will be plenty of receptions to go around.  With Winslow gone, Steve Heiden and Robert Royal are the receiving options at TE.  They aren’t nearly as lethal and will need to spend significant time blocking this season anyways.  Robiskie will make for a great possession receiver right out of the gates.  His involvement in the Red Zone (if the Browns ever make it there) is a bit of a mystery, but he should be snatched up earlier than his current ADP in PPR leagues.

Robiskie’s ADP as of June 30th is 163.  The fantasy community isn’t taking him very seriously yet, but he is on radars.  Grab him sometime in the late 12th, early 13th for a chance to beat your opponents with a rookie WRs while Harvin and Maclin rot on their benches.

Here is some more Robiskie and Brown WRs reading:

http://www.cleveland.com/pluto/blog/index.ssf/2009/06/terry_plutos_talkin_about_clev.html – Terry Pluto talks of Edwards and Robiskie as a 1-2 punch.

http://www.rototimes.com/nfl/player/7728 – RotoTimes profile page documents Robiskie’s offseason rise.

#1 Rule for United Football League Fantasy Drafting: Get Mike Vick.

Yes, there really is a new football league called the UFL and they had their first draft last night.  No, Vick was not drafted, but it would be fun to see him play here – it would be instant legitimacy for the UFL.  In fact, the NFL may be more likely to take him back just to keep him out of the UFL.  These experimental leagues usually fail, but the UFL is taking a new approach.  They’re focusing their efforts on strong front offices and coaching staffs. They will need smart management to survive, so I’m a supporter of this approach.  Jim Fassel, Jim Haslett, Denny Green, and Ted Cottrel are the coaches of the initial four teams in the league.  To get more info on the UFL, check out their official site at: UFL-Football.com (they have a dash in the URL, meaning they weren’t fast enough to get uflfootball.com – maybe their management isnt as good as I thought, lol)

Each team drafted 24 players, so the final rosters are no where near set.  The rest of the roster spots will be filled by players released from NFL teams during training camps.  The talent in this league will be decent.  I really wish they could hold their games during the offseason so that we could have fantasy football year-round, but there’s no way that they could do that if they want to get along with the NFL.

Some of the guys in this league may have been on your fantasy football rosters in recent seasons – Chris Perry, Brooks Bollinger, LaBrandon Toefield.  There are plenty of former NFL players on these rosters and more will be coming as they are released by the “Big Leagues.”  Will careers be revived?  Will BJ Sams find his place here?  Will UK’s Shane Boyd be the next Kurt Warner?  No, but it should be fun to watch none the less.

It’s too early to do a mock draft, but whenever the 60 man initial rosters are set I’ll do a mock draft in this space just for the hell of it.  With the hundreds of companies out there offering fantasy games I’m sure some opportunist will pop up with a game.  I’ll play it.  Why not?  I could always use more football in my life.

Please leave comments with your thoughts on the NFL, I’d love to have some discussion on this new league.

Thanks to FantasyFootballCalcutor.com the fantasy community is able to soak in complete average draft position data from over 500 drafts in early June for FREE.  I love that site, check it out or give them a follow on Twitter @FFCalculator.  The collective fantasy mind for the most part produces a good ADP list, but there are always some picks that leave my scratching my head.  I’ll take a look at one ADP absurdity at each position below.

Quarterback: Brett Favre at 202, behind Jake Delhomme, Brady Quinn, Chad Pennington, Joe Flacco, Marc Bulger, Sage Rosenfels, and Jason Campbell (and just ahead of both rookies)

This is the absurdiest of the absurd.  Absurdilicious.  Favre is going to play this season.  Nearly even major pundit with the balls to make a prediction agrees.  Let’s say there is a 75% chance Favre plays, which may be an underestimation.  That 25% chance of getting a year long zero from your Favre draft pick definitely cuts into his value, but how much?  He’s a low end QB1 if he plays.  That’s great trade bait, or a great matchup play to pair with another low end QB1 like Cutler, Ryan, or Schaub.  You’ve gotta be Wacco for Flacco to take Joe Flacco over Brett Favre.  All of the QBs I mentioned above have potential to be bye week fill-ins at best.  You can easily get Favre in the 13th round right now, even after grabbing your first backup QB.  He is the clear cut steal of the draft as of June 10th.

Runningback: Pierre Thomas at 36, below Ronnie Brown, Ryan Grant, and Kevin Smith:

From what we know right now, Thomas has Peyton’s confidence and is going to be the lead ball carrier on a ridiculously prolific offense.  On November 16th, 2008 Pierre took over the majority of the carries and produced a monstrous stretch run.  In six games he rushed 93 times for 475 yards and 6 TDs.  He added 19 receptions for 212 yards and 3 TDs during that same stretch.  Take out the Ronnie Browns Wildcat game vs. NE and Pierre outproduced Brown’s entire season in just 6 games.   Sure there are questions with Pierre, such as will Bush or Mike Bell take a bigger role or will they sign an outsider.  To me, those are the questions that keep him from going in the first round, not the questions that put him behind guys who can’t even sniff his upside.  The RB position is deep and Pierre Thomas has enormous upside, especially in PPR leagues.  Take him in the late second, early third and you’ll still be able to grab a solid RB3 in the 5th or 6th.

Wide Receiver: Michael Crabtree at 77, over Donnie Avery and Hines Ward

I like the rookie and plan to roster him as a WR4 on a couple of teams, but I’m going to be reasonable about it.  Crabtree is an injured rookie that might be platooning and, even worse, might have Alex Smith throwing him the ball on a run-heavy offense.  Physically he’s ready to be a big time NFL receiver, but pretty much everything else limits his upside.  Hines Ward gets it done year in and year out and will be a weekly contributor on any fantasy team.  Donnie Avery is a sleeper who could break out huge this season.  The Rams want to be run first, and they will be in the four games they are competitive in, but in the other 12 games Avery is going to get plenty of looks as the Rams play catch-up.  Jackson and Avery will be that entire offense.

Tight End: Chris Cooley at 86, well behind Kellen Winslow and Greg Olsen

Cooley is a great value at TE this season because he only had one TD last season.  That was an anomaly.  He got the highest reception and yardage totals of his career, with 83 catches for 849 yards.  In the four previous seasons hes scored 6-8 TDs.  Look for him to post similar yardage numbers but bounce back up to at least 5 TDs.  He’s the fifth best fantasy TE this season in my opinion, and you can get him three or four rounds later than the studs.  I may end up rostering him on many of my teams this year.  I like Winslow and Olsen, I would just rather take another RB or WR at their draft positions and grab Cooley a round later.

Defense: Baltimore Ravens in the 8th Round?

Every defense on this list is taken too high, in my opinion.  I’m a traditionalist – draft a good one late and then play matchups.  The Steelers are averaging the late 7th round, which I also think is absurd, but they have a great case for being the top ranked defense at least.  Baltimore, however, should experience a decline.  Rex Ryan and Bart Scott were key leadership components, and they are both in New York.  Baltimore defense should still be top 10, but there’s no way I’m taking them with all the position skill talent still available in the 8th-10th rounds.  I’ll take Dallas in the 14th and build depth everywhere else.

Kicker: All Kickers not taken in the last two rounds.

Kicker is such a silly position.  Just take one whenever your draft board is so desolate you have no other options.  Sample the waiver wire and play matchups each week.

It’s the end of May and I’ve already done quite a few mock drafts, some on online mock drafting sites, one on Twitter, one with experts, and even one with friends at a bar. I’ve also read pretty much every fantasy site there is. It’s tough work but somebody’s got to do it. In all that I’ve read, the one guy that I believe is most underrated at this point is Seahawks Tailback Julius Jones. The perennial disappointment is entering the best situation of his career. Mora and OC Greg Knapp reunite this season and will be looking to run.  Through 51 drafts on MyFantasyLeague.com, Julius has an Average Draft Position of 139.2, which represents just silly value.

If I’m going to convince you of his sleeperness you should start your Jones research with this article: Could Greg Knapp bring a new style for Seahawks offense? This article is predraft, and the Seahawks did not address starting RB in the draft. Jones is the starting RB on what could be a run heavy team. It looks like he’ll also be the back on most passing plays simply due to lack of competition. If the offense gets back on track under a healthy Hasselbeck there could be a ton of yardage heading Jones’ way. TJ Duckett will snipe the short yardage plays, but it remains to be scene if he is still effective enough to merit a large share of the RB load. I’ve seen estimates of a 60/40 split, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it was more like 70/30 in Jones’ favor. Of course the killer is that Duckett will get all the short yardage TD opportunities.

Jones still has the talent and ability to improve. Like his brother Thomas, he may just need the right situation to really break out. I think his upside is 1500 yards and 7 scores. He probably won’t reach that, but he’s still a great pick as your RB3 or 4. At that point in the draft (7th-10th round) he simply has no downside. If one of your top 2 RBs picks is a bit shaky on the risk level take Julius to even things out.  I believe his ADP will climb as we get closer to the regular season, but in current drafts you can usually get him as a 4th RB after the 9th round.  He’ll be a steady weekly producer in yardage leagues. Here are some other analysis pieces found throughout the web:

RotoWorld:
Julius Jones believes that the Seahawks’ new one-cut running scheme suits his skills better than Mike Holmgren’s power-based system.
“Downhill and off to the races,” he said. “That definitely fits my style of running a little bit better.” Julius was a dancer towards the end of his Cowboys career. He showed some improvement last season, averaging a career-high 4.4 YPC, but his 2009 role won’t be clear until after the draft.
Source: Seattle Times

Yahoo RotoArcade Mock Draft:
Round 7, Pick 7 – RB Julius Jones, Seattle Seahawks

Last I checked, Jones was still the No. 1 RB in a fairly potent offense, which makes him a great value in Round 7. While a lot of his TDs could get vultured by T.J. Duckett this season, Jones should get enough touches to reach 1,000 yards and score at least a few times. (Michael Blunda)

FantasyFootballStarters.com:
Jones didn’t have the type of season in 2008 that excited fantasy players, but there were several factors in that. The constant injury concern to Matt Hasselbeck throughout the season, a slew of injuries on the offensive line, and the team’s constant shuttling of Maurice Morris in and out taking time away Jones all combined to really hurt Jones’ production in 2008. Things will be different in 2009 for Jones. Morris is gone so the only threat to Jones for carries is really T.J. Duckett. Duckett is a prime fantasy football sleeper in TD only scoring formats as he should excel in that capacity this season, but most of the carries should go to Jones. Jones averaged 4.4 yards per attempt in 2008 and in the only games where he got more than 20 carries, he rushed for 127 and 140 yards respectively. Not surprising that it was in those two games where Jones scored his only TD’s. Jones should average between 15-20 carries per game in 2009 and a 1,000+ yards is realistic. His TD’s may only be around 5, but for a RB you should be able to get in round 5 or 6, Jones has fantasy football value pick written all over him this season.

2009FantasyFootball.com:
Julius “Orange Julius” Jones is an Ass-Kicking Son-of-a-Bitch.  It is rumored that Jones asserted his lead carrier dominance during OTAs when he made TJ Duckett lick white dog poop after a team viewing of Will Ferrell’s “Stepbrothers.”

Rave Reviews.  Jones is going to be a solid producer this season. Even detractors think he will close in on 1000 yards. If you want someone you know will have the ball in his hands, think about Orange Julius. He’s falling to the 8th through 12th round currently, but don’t be afraid to reach if there are other savvy owners or Seahawk fans in your league.