As part of my draft preparation every year, I pull out my trusty red Sharpie to mark off players I want absolutely nothing to do with under any circumstances. Names in recent years I’ve avoided include Larry Johnson, Shaun Alexander, Marion Barber, and Clinton Portis even if they were considered 1st or 2nd round picks. The argument can be made that some players on this list are worth drafting based on the value you can get from them, but we’ve already done that article (see big picture of Joe Flacco on the home page). We’ll call this group “Matt’s Migraines” because that’s what I get when I think of how bad I’ve been burned by risky picks, especially in the early rounds. I’ll be adding to this group throughout the Summer, but for now here’s a few guys I’ll be avoiding come draft time.

Ronnie Brown (RB, Mia) – Look, we know how talented this guy is, but he’s played a full season just once in the last four years and just 32 games over the last three. Whether it was the torn ACL in 2007 or last year’s Lisfranc foot problem that continues to plague him this off-season, Brown just [...]

Let’s take a look at a recent 8-Team PPR Mock Draft I monitored as part of the FantasyGuru.com Mock Draft Series. Starting lineup was: 1 QB/3 WR/3 RB/1 FLEX/1 TE/1 K/1 D (No minimums for any position). Check here to see the draft results. Here’s the teams:

1st Pick
Cutler, Jay CHI QB
Ryan, Matt ATL QB
Barber, Marion DAL RB
Grant, Ryan GBP RB
Jackson, Fred BUF RB
Jones-Drew, Maurice JAC RB
Rice, Ray BAL RB
Driver, Donald GBP WR
Evans, Lee BUF WR
Jennings, Greg GBP WR
Ochocinco, Chad CIN WR
Wayne, Reggie IND WR
Daniels, Owen HOU TE
Miller, Zach OAK TE
Elam, Jason ATL PK
Cowboys, Dallas DAL Def

2nd Pick
Edwards, Trent BUF QB
Rivers, Philip SDC QB
Forte, Matt CHI RB
Gore, Frank SFO RB
Johnson, Larry KCC RB
Sproles, Darren SDC RB
Stewart, Jonathan CAR RB
Avery, Donnie STL WR
Edwards, Braylon CLE WR
Jackson, Vincent SDC WR
Morgan, Josh SFO WR
Smith, Steve CAR WR
Carlson, John SEA TE
Miller, Heath PIT TE
Longwell, Ryan MIN PK
Chargers, San Diego SDC Def

3rd Pick
Cassel, Matt KCC QB
Rodgers, Aaron GBP QB
Jones, Felix DAL RB
Lynch, Marshawn BUF RB (O)
Peterson, Adrian MIN RB
Ward, Derrick TBB RB (P)
Williams, DeAngelo CAR RB
Bennett, Earl CHI WR
Bowe, Dwayne KCC WR
Cotchery, Jerricho NYJ WR
Royal, Eddie DEN WR
White, Roddy ATL WR
Celek, Brent PHI TE
Olsen, Greg CHI TE
Kaeding, Nate SDC PK
Ravens, Baltimore BAL Def

4th Pick
Palmer, Carson CIN QB
Romo, [...]

Just wanted to let all fans of “In the Loop” know that we have been picked up by The Fantasy Sports Channel on BlogTalkRadio. We will be moving from our usual time slot of Wednesday, 8-845pm EST to our NEW, LIVE time slot of TUESDAY 3-4PM EST (THAT’S TODAY). The show will no longer be taped, so we will be taking calls. We wanted to take this opportunity not only to make the announcement, but to thank all of you loyal listeners that have been with us since the beginning. We have grown in every way possible since we started and couldn’t have done it without all of you. We hope you all follow us over to our new time slot, and while you are at it, bring some friends too. As always, all shows will be in the archives and can be listened to at any time. The other big change is that we will be now under the FantasyGuru account, so make sure you update your iTunes bookmarks as we can now be found at www.blogtalkradio.com/fantasyguru. John Hansen’s Thursday Night call-in show (7-8pm EST) can also be found under this account. This means you’ll be able to get [...]

With the Guru on vacation, he asked me to take his place in an expert mock draft taking place on NFL.com. It was a standard scoring league (Non-PPR) with a starting lineup of 1 QB, 2 RBs, 3 WRs, Flex (RB/WR/TE), 1 K, and 1 DST. 12 teams, 16 rounds, and no limitations on number of reserves per position. Let’s take a look at my picks. The draft order was as follows:

1. Adam Caplan (FantasyGuru/Sirius Radio)
2. Nicholas Minnix (KFFL)
3. Greg Ambrosius (Krause Publications)
4. Mike Doria (Rotowire)
5. Matt Camp (Fantasy Guru)
6. Scott Engel (RotoExperts)
7. Michael Fabiano (NFL.com)
8. Gregg Rosenthal (Rotoworld)
9. Craig Ellenport (NFL.com)
10. Roger Rotter (FOX Sports)
11. David Ganos (OPEN Sports)
12. David Sabino (Sports Illustrated)
Check out the draft results here to follow along.

1.05 Steven Jackson – I was torn between Jackson and LT here, but with Jackson being the only legit weapon in the Rams offense, and this not being a PPR league, I felt I made the right call. Side note – I was baffled to see DeAngelo Williams go right after me considering his situation in Carolina. Way too early, in my opinion.

2.08 Greg Jennings – This was going a little off from our rankings, but I just don’t have [...]