1(1) - Ray Rice, RB, Bal: I went off the board with Rice instead of Arian Foster simply because I think Rice is a better bet to stay healthy. In a PPR league, their values are close enough for that to be a deciding factor. Plus, how often does the consensus #1 actually live up to the billing?
2(28) - Adrian Peterson, RB, Min: Couldn't resist the value here if he does suit up Week 1.
3(29) - Demaryius Thomas, WR, Den: With all the established elite WRs gone at this point, I'll trust in Peyton Manning to elevate the fabulously gifted Thomas to that level. In fact I was planning on pairing him with Peyton... only to see Manning go with the 13th pick in the 4th round. D'oh.
4(56) - Darren Sproles, RB, NO: I did mention this was a PPR league, right? He slips into my Flex spot nicely, and gives me insurance against my AP gamble.
5(57) - Antonio Brown, WR, Pit: A decent enough pick, provided he finds the end zone a little more often in 2012. Kind of safe and boring at this spot, but they can't all be home run swings... err, wait, wrong sport... they can't all be 30 yard fly routes.
6(84) - Matt Schaub, QB, Hou: Well, he was healthy the two previous years... an interesting dynamic developed in my draft strategy at this point. We unfortunately were at a 50/50 human drafter/AL split in the room. Since I picked at one of the ends of the snake, that meant if a player was showing up in the next 20 or so auto-ranked picks and I wanted him I |STAR|had|STAR| to take him, even if in a full league I might have gambled that he'd last another couple of rounds. Humans will go 'off board' to fill specific holes and grab sleepers. AIs won't.
7(85) - Fred Davis, TE, Was: If he emerges as RGIII's security blanket, this could be very solid value.
8(112) - Darrius Heyward-Bey, WR, Oak: Denarius Moore went four picks earlier, but I like DHB better anyway.
9(113) - Toby Gerhart, RB, Min: This was the pick most affected by the AI factor. In a 100|PERCENT| human league, I absolutely would have risked him being there with my next set of picks. If I wanted AP's handcuff though, in this draft this is where I had to take him.
10(140) - Doug Baldwin, WR, Sea: He showed some good things last season, and if Matt Flynn is the real deal I like Baldwin's chances to step up to the next level.
11(141) - Coby Fleener, TE, Ind: Well, I already had one rookie QB's potential security blanket... might as well go for the matching set.
12(168) - James Jones, WR, GB: I don't like Jones, but at this point in the draft grabbing a share of the Packers' passing game (even a maddeningly inconsistent one) seemed like a good idea.
13(169) - Alex Smith, QB, SF: When I wait this long on a backup QB I try to pick the best possible matchup during my starter's bye week. In this case, that meant Smith vs. the Cardinals. I maybe should have gone with Sam Bradford vs. the Patriots instead, hoping it's a shootout, but that seemed like it would have a fairly high probability of being a total squash for the Pats.
14(196) - Mason Crosby, K, GB: The best kicker left on the board.
15(197) - Dallas DEF: Say what now? Played a hunch here that the secondary upgrades will be enough to turn this roster's talent (DeMarcus Ware, Sean Lee, Jay Ratliff etc.) into some actual results.
So the final roster looks like this:
QB: MSchaub, ASmith
RB: RRice, APeterson, DSproles, TGerhart
WR: DThomas, ABrown, DHB, DBaldwin, JJones
TE: FDavis, CFleener
K: MCrosby
DEF: DAL
Not bad for my first draft of the year.