Draft recap No. 3

My third and final draft of a long fantasy-football-packed weekend ... this one is a 10-team league featuring mostly my Bradenton Herald co-workers. Pretty much standard scoring, and you must fill the following roster spots: 2 QBs, 4 RBs, 4 WRs, 2 TEs, 2 DEFs, 2 Ks. I had the sixth pick in the draft.

My mission this year is to dethrone two-time defending league champion and fellow Herald staffer John Lembo, hence the nickname. My squad (round of selection in parenthesis):

THE LEMBO SLAYERS

QB Aaron Rodgers (3)
QB Matt Cassel (10)

RB Chris Johnson (1)
RB Kevin Smith (4)
RB LenDale White (7)
RB Ahmad Bradshaw (10)

WR Andre Johnson (2)
WR Roy Williams (5)
WR Devin Hester (8)
WR Kevin Walter (11)

TE Chris Cooley (6)
TE Kevin Boss (13)

DEF Chargers (12)
DEF Texans (15)

K Robbie Gould (14)
K Rian Lindell (16)

RANDOM THOUGHTS: I was really unsure about who to take with my first pick at No. 6 overall. I ultimately decided on Tennessee's Johnson over Steven Jackson. I didn't want to reach for a QB at that spot - Drew Brees and Tom Brady went right after that. Johnson's certainly not a no-brainer that high and I may live to regret it - although I do feel better about the pick after getting LenDale in the seventh round as insurance. ...

I do have another problem at RB, however: Three of my four RBs have the same bye week. I didn't want to pass up Smith in the fourth round (he was the only starter-worthy RB left on my board), and I wasn't especially planning on getting LenDale later. But I'm going to have a problem in Week 7 when Bradshaw is my only active tailback. Yikes. I'm currently putting Smith up on the trading block and seeing what's available, but I'm not going to get too concerned yet. ...

Obviously thrilled with getting Andre Johnson with my second pick. He's a top-10 talent in my book ...

Also happy with Rodgers, although I had to take him a little higher (third round) than I would have preferred. But QBs were going quickly, including Tony Romo going in the second round ...

Stuck with Roy Williams again as my No. 2 receiver. Whatever. I'm happy with Hester and Walter on my bench. ...

Also like my TE tandem a lot. I consider them both top-10 guys at their position. I did reach for Cooley a bit, taking him in the sixth when I would have liked to grab a third RB. But I don't like a lot of the middle-tier RBs that would have been drafted around that spot, and I wanted to beef up my receiving corps because of my skepticism concerning Williams. ...

Despite all the concerns about Cassel, I'm pretty comfortable with him as a backup QB, especially with a solid starter like Rodgers on my roster. Cassel tumbled a bit in this draft and I was able to get him after Matt Hasselbeck, Ben Roethlisberger and Eli Manning were taken by others as their No. 2s. Before his preseason injury a lot of prognosticators had Cassel well ahead of all those guys and a possible fantasy starter. ...
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