Clearing out the backlog part 1.

The annual draft post.

Fourteen teams, I had the 5th pick.
Round 1: Deuce McAllister
The question was simple Alexander or McAllister, those were the two left on my list. I'll probably regret it.
Round 2: Hines Ward
Last year, Brian swiped Hines directly in front of me with the first pick in the third, and I screwed up with the notion that Plex was a reasonable replacement. Maybe I got territorial, maybe not. But I wasn't about to have that happen again.
Round 3: Santana Moss
I wasn't going to get 2 of the top 20 running backs, so I concentrated on two of the top 10 wideouts.
Round 4: Duce Staley
My gut was telling me there wasn't much difference between running back 20 and 25, and that group was running out. Couple that with the possibility of the double deuce backfield, that made it easy. The only other option at this point was figure that this one of the RB's would be there in 10 picks, and take a TE. However, as I noted to Craig at the time me taking Kellen Winslow II, would have been like me running out in a thunderstorm wearing copper underwear screaming "All gods are bastards!" It went significantly beyond fraught, straight into tempting fate.
Round 5: Marc Bulger
Winslow went in the intervening picks, and the TE's were overpriced here. So the best QB available was Bulger, now to be dubbed BulgerBulgerBulgerBulger Q-B-Q-B.
Round 6: Isaac Bruce
I keep playing this game on the premise that I can sub in a strong 3rd wideout for a weak second back. This would fall under that premise. This would also fall under the by-law for this year that I get every starter I can with a long-U sound in their name. You'd think it would limit my options.
Round 7: Jeff Wilkins
You know, I'm going to end up living and dying by Mike Martz, Supergenius. This is going to suck.

At this point Craig's connection died, and we had to scrap the rounds until three days later, when I was going to be around. The bad side of this was me being unable to panic in place during the draft, and not go snarky on everything. The good thing was me being able to map out the plan for the remaining rounds. In the intervening days, I figured out two pieces of information which allowed me to hopefully save some face. The first was finding out exactly how many of Minnesota's running backs could be relied upon early, and the second was finding out Marc Boerigter's injury was really bad, making KC wideouts an interesting choice. Not bad, of the people I targeted as "I'd really like to get them," I bagged 4 of them (rounds 8,11,12,13)

Round 8: Moe Williams
Had no problem with Moe last year, and finding he'd get a few early games without either Smith or Bennett was a real good find for me.

Round 9: Freddie Jones
Needed a TE.

Round 10: Carson Palmer
Needed a backup QB in case the Rams implode. I'll also need to get my head directly in front of the gun at that point.

Round 11: Dante Hall
I'm either going to be a mad genius for this or the village idiot. I lean towards the former for the following: He's right now the second WR for KC, and this year for the first time in our league, return TD's count for the player, not just the defense.

Round 12: Itula Mili
Standard issue second TE, I probably didn't need him, but I actually kind of like him better than Freddie Jones.

Round 13: Antwaan Randle El
See Dante Hall, I specifically put him on my grab list. See the Kick return argument, he'll also be the 3rd string QB, which tends to make me think he might get in a game at some point as a passer.

Round 14: Minnesota D
I needed a D. I saw an article last year about how one could basically pick the best matchup every week and grab a D off the waiver wire and beat over half the D's out there. I'm half-tempted to try that notion out.

Round 15: Garrison Hearst
I just said, get me another RB if I only had 3 at this point. I should have just had him take Ricky Williams (either one, maybe I could get a field bet).

So in theory, here's your 2004-05 Bridgeville Trolls
QB: BulgerBulgerBulger
RB: Deuce, Duce, with Williams in matchups
WR: Hines, SMoss, Bruce, with Hall in matchups
TE: Mili
K : Wilkins
D : Minn

I like the wideouts, and I hope that there's enough duct tape everywhere else.

Actually, looking at the list:
wILkins
mILi
wILliams
I might just have the "Il Duce" offense. Yeah, we're officially overthinking this.