Let's say you had the No. 2 pick in a 12-team draft. You might have ended up with the following:
- 1. Steven Jackson
- 2. Brandon Jacobs
- 3. Deuce McAllister
- 4. Lee Evans
- 5. Drew Brees
- 6. Reggie Brown
- 7. Tony Gonzalez
- 8. Donte Stallworth
- 9. Terry Glenn
- 10. Reuben Droughns
- 11. Matt Leinart
- 12. Chargers Defense
- 13. Matt Jones
- 14. Josh Scobee
Conversely, if you picked No. 5, your draft might have gone like this:
- Joseph Addai
- Marshawn Lynch
- Adrian Peterson
- TJ Houshmandzadeh
- Plaxico Burress
- Braylon Edwards
- LaMont Jordan
- Kellen Winslow
- Tony Romo
- LenDale White
- Eli Manning
- Dwayne Bowe
- Vikings defense
- Matt Stover
And you could be using the same exact cheat sheet.
Obviously, it rarely lines up that badly or that well, but I found that in a lot of my drafts, where I was slotted in large part determined my team - almost as much as what players I liked. Because even if I was high on a player, I might not have been high enough on him to take him a round early. And by the time my next pick came around, he was gone.
Luckily, I don't own Steven Jackson, Deuce McAllister, Brandon Jacobs, Drew Brees or Tony Gonzalez in any league, but some of that is due to luck - I certainly would have picked Jackson at 2.