Author: John Paulsen (Page 465 of 937)

To start with Round 1 (and see the scoring system and roster requirements), click here.

My team so far: 1) Chris Johnson, 2) Steve Smith, 3) Ronnie Brown, 4) Marshawn Lynch, 5) Santana Moss, 6) Tony Romo

After taking a QB in the previous round, I was looking for a WR or TE in Round 7. There were four TEs that I liked at this point in the draft: Chris Cooley, Greg Olsen, Owen Daniels and Kellen Winslow. Had all four made it to me at 7.08, I would have probably drafted the best WR available there — in my mind, Jerricho Cotchery — since only three of the teams drafting between my 7th and 8th round picks had an opening at TE. It is unlikely that anyone is going to draft two TEs by the 8th round, so I knew one of those guys would make it back to me.

Here’s how the first part of Round 7 went: 73) John Carlson, 74) Antonio Bryant, 75) Kevin Walter, 76) Donald Brown, 77) Hines Ward, 78) Kellen Winslow, 79) Lance Moore.

Unfortunately, since Winslow went 7.06, I felt compelled to go TE here. Since Carlson already went, if I missed out on Cooley, Olsen or Daniels, it might leave me with Zach Miller or Dustin Keller, and I didn’t really want that to happen.

It was kind of a tough call to pick a TE out of this group. Cooley has been as steady as they come, finishing TE7, TE5 and TE5 over the last three years. Daniels is more of an up-and-comer, and he plays for a pretty impressive offense in Houston. He has improved his numbers in each of his three years in the league and finished as fantasy’s TE6 last season. However, he didn’t finish the season particularly strong.

Then there’s Olsen, whom I believe has the most upside of this group. His numbers took a big jump in his second season and with the addition of Jay Cutler, who loves to throw to his TE, along with the dearth of receiving talent in Chicago, he looks poised to break into the top 5. He averaged 13.9 points over the last four games; those are TE2-type numbers.

It was really tough to pass on Cooley here, but I think Olsen is the better talent and has the higher ceiling. And I’m glad I went with a TE here, because both Cooley and Daniels went before my 8th round pick.

Round 7, Pick 8: Greg Olsen, TE

Here’s how the rest of Round 7 went: 81) Derrick Mason, 82) Chris Cooley, 83) Lee Evans, 84) Leon Washington

Click here to see all of my round-by-round picks.

To start with Round 1 (and see the scoring system and roster requirements), click here.

My team so far: 1) Chris Johnson, 2) Steve Smith, 3) Ronnie Brown, 4) Marshawn Lynch, 5) Santana Moss

At 5.08, I passed on Philip Rivers hoping that he’d be there at 6.05. Unfortunately, this is how the round went: 61) Bernard Berrian, 62) Chris Henry, 63) Santonio Holmes, 64) Philip Rivers

I hate it when the guy I want goes just before I’m about to pick him!

Oh well, I had to move on. I felt like I was pretty safe with the four TEs — Chris Cooley, Greg Olsen, Owen Daniels and Kellen Winslow — still out there, and thought that one would be there with my next pick. There were a few WRs — Hines Ward, Antonio Bryant, Jerricho Cotchery — that I felt might last until the 7th round as well. While there is always a lot of depth at QB, I like to use QBBC as more of a backup option than as a Plan A, and with three good QBs here — Tony Romo, Donovan McNabb and Kurt Warner — I decided to take a closer look at all three players.

Despite his faults, Romo has been a fantasy stud the last two seasons. He’s without Terrell Owens this season, but that might be a blessing in disguise as the TO headaches and distractions are gone as well. Roy Williams never really got going last season, so if he can produce at 80-90% of Owens’s rate, the other Dallas wideouts can pick up the slack. Jason Witten is one of the best fantasy tight ends in the game and Patrick Crayton, Sam Hurd and Miles Austin (and don’t forget Marion Barber and Felix Jones) round out a better-than-competent receiving corps. The bottom line is that Romo has averaged 2.1 TD over the last two seasons and I don’t think losing Owens is going to take a huge toll on that number.

So, when comparing Romo to McNabb (who missed 15 games over the last four seasons) and Warner (who is not the most durable QB, either), I felt that Romo was the safest pick of the three and had legitimate upside.

Round 6, Pick 5: Tony Romo, QB

The rest of Round 6 went this way: 66) Kurt Warner, 67) Donald Driver, 68) Thomas Jones, 69) Donovan McNabb, 70) Felix Jones, 71) Jay Cutler, 72) Matt Schaub

Click here to see all of my round-by-round picks.