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Rob Murray

Keepers, The Ones You Regret


The other day, Calderon was getting sick and tired of all the props I’ve been giving Matt for keeping McCoy over Vick. Of course this might have had something to do with the fact that Rich got “stuck” with Vick. Anyhow, he wanted some props for keeping Calvin Johnson in round two over Antonio Gates in round four. I gave him his due, but it got me thinking, what about the rest of us jackasses? Did we all make good keeper decisions? I decided to take a look.

BOB

Category One: Kept Andre Johnson (Rd 1) – Right call Prior to the draft, I thought Bob made three mistakes. First, why keep Johnson? If he really wanted an elite WR, he could have probably landed Johnson, Roddy White or Larry Fitzgerald with the 12th pick. Second, I thought he was crazy to give up Brady. The man is a point-machine. Third, if not Johnson and if not Brady, I would have kept Felix Jones in the third. Sure he has his issues, but what would Bob really find at the 37th pick? Well, what he found with the 36th and 37th picks was Ryan Mathews and Beanie Wells, two backs playing better than Jones. On top of that, he also got Tom Brady back in the second round. I was wrong. Bob was right.

Category Two: Kept Vernon Davis (Rd 10) – Probably Right call Leading up to this write up, I had this one written up as a mistake. Bob could have kept Tim Hightower in the 9th and for three weeks he’s been the top back in Washington. However, his stats have been dipping and don’t be surprised if the Redskins begin to rotate 2-3 running backs in their rotation. That’s bad news. Now prior to the draft, I thought he should have kept Brandon Lloyd. However, Lloyd is averaging just 164ppg and he’s not even in the top 30 among receivers. In the end, Vernon Davis was the best option. He’s not dominating (currently 10th among all tight ends), but it’s also been a crazy year for tight ends. ‘

Category Three: Kept Packers D (Rd 14) – Right Call This one was easy. Bob’s only two choices were the Packers defense and a kicker. However, like Vernon Davis, the Packers are not living up to their preseason predictions, currently 11th among all D’s.

RICH C

Category One: Kept Calvin Johnson (Rd 2) – Right Call Rich had a ton of options in the first category, Steven Jackson and Roddy White in the first, Johnson in the second and Antonio Gates in the 4th. I thought Gates would be the better option, but Rich picked Calvin instead. Smart decision.; Johnson is rocking 2011, currently third among all receivers. On the flip side, Gates is aging poorly and can’t stay on the field.

Category Two: Kept LeGarrette Blount (Rd 6) – Should have kept Fred Jackson in the 6th. Obviously time will tell if this holds true. After a slow start to the season, Blount had his breakout game this past weekend. However, four weeks in and Jackson is the better back. He’s fourth among all backs, never scoring below 192. He’s 3-1 against Blount head-to-head. Worse yet, if Rich had kept Fred Jackson in the 7th, he would have had his sixth round pick and he could have drafted Jimmy Graham, the league’s top tight end right now, five picks before Molly grabbed him.

Category Three: Kept Mike Williams (Rd 12) – Should have kept Matt Stafford in the 14th. This one has to hurt a little. Yes, Rich has Michael Vick, but so far Mike Williams has been a bust. He’s currently ranked 57th among all receivers and is not even starting for the Dick-Taters. Stafford would have given Rich the league’s 5th best quarterback and it would have allowed him to skip Michael Vick and draft, let’s say, Michael Turner, the 11th ranked RB.

ROB MASTERSON

Category One: Kept Ray Rice (Rd 5) – Right Call Let’s face it, Rob had no other choice here. Rice was the only player worth keeping and he’s delivered. The Ravens’ back is third in league among all RBs, despite rushing for 100 yards only once so far.

Category Two: Kept Sidney Rice (Rd 7) – Should have kept James Starks in the 6th Thanks to injuries, Rice has done almost nothing so far this season. Meanwhile, Starks is clearly the better back in Green Bay. He’s produced three games over 150 fantasy points. He’s probably not a fantasy starter, but as the weather turns cold, I’m willing to beat his numbers will increase. For the record, Masterson was really considering keeping Starks.

Category Three: Kept Michael Crabtree (Rd 13) – Probably should have kept Dustin Keller in the 14th In the end, this one doesn’t really matter. First, Crabtree has been a bust. He has just nine catches this year and I don’t think he’s even starting in SF right now. Keller has been a solid TE (currently sixth), but the fact is, Rob got him two rounds earlier (in the 12th) and he can keep him an extra year if he so chooses.

Eric VOZZOLA

Category One: Kept Matt Forte (Rd 5) – Right Call Another no-brainer. Forte is currently the top running back in the league. He also had Beanie Wells, who is having a fine season, but Forte was clearly the best keeper in the fifth-round.

Category Two: Kept Braylon Edwards (Rd 9) – Should Have Kept Ben Tate in the 6th The fact is, there were no keepers in this category. Edwards has produced only four receptions and he’s now hurt. At the very least, maybe Eric could have benched Chris Johnson during his struggles and play Tate, who had a decent three games. However, with Foster back, Tate goes back to the bench.

Category Three: Kept Bears Defense (Rd 12) – Right Call The Bears defense has sort of been a bust so far this year, ranked 20th among all D’s. Still, who else was Eric going to keep, Brett Favre? Wait..Favre was on Eric’s final day roster? Yikes.

MOLLY COOMER

Category One: Eagles D (Rd 5) – Right Call Here’s the deal, the Eagles D has not lived up to the hype. They’re currently 17th. Five free agent D’s are ranked higher than them right now. She could have kept Tony Romo in the second, which would have allowed her to skip a QB in round one, instead landing someone like MJD or Larry Fitzgerald, but I can’t think of any potential combo that would have been better than Aaron Rodgers and Jahvid Best.

Category Two: Kept Rashard Mendenhall (Rd 9) – Should have kept Dez Bryant in the 8th Here’s the deal, Mendenhall has been a tragic bust. He’s ranked 38th among all backs. He’s broken 100 fantasy points just once in four games and now he’s hurt. Now Dez Bryant isn’t doing a lot better. He’s 31st among all receivers, but he missed a game and is struggling with a hip injury. So why should she have kept Bryant? Well, at the very least she could have kept Bryant one more season after this.

Category Three: Miles Austin (Rd 11) – Right Call It was the only call. Austin was having a top-five season prior to getting hurt, but he should be back soon. Besides him, Molly only had a kicker in category three.

RICHARD BURRIER

Category One: Kept Drew Brees (Rd 1) – Should have kept Mike Wallace in the 4th. We’ve already been through this, but the first month of the season has proved me right. Like I said, Rich could have just re-drafted Drew Brees. If he did just that, he could have kept the 10th best back in football (Jahvid Best) instead of Knowshon Moreno. Or better yet, he could have kept Mike Wallace, the 4th best wide receiver in Robioland. instead of drafting Dez Bryant.

Category Two: Kept Peyton Hillis (Rd 6) – Right Call So far Hillis isn’t blowing us all away. He’s 16th among all backs in average per game (he falls to 27th in total because he missed a game). He’s broken 200 points just once all season, but Burrier didn’t really have any good options in category two.

Category Three: Kept Jeremy Maclin (Rd 12) – Right Call A no-brainer in category three. Maclin is 15th among all receivers, about where we expected him. However, he had one 400+ point game which is hiding three other less-than-stellar games.

MATT NEATOCK

Category One: Kept Greg Jennings (Rd 3) – Right Call Moreno and Clark, two other category one players, have been busts. Jennings hasn’t slowed down since mid-season last year. He’s currently 6th among all receivers.

Category Two: Kept LeSean McCoy (Rd 9) – Right Call The big question mark coming into the season was Vick or McCoy? Matt made the right choice, even if Vick stays on track. Until week four’s flop, McCoy was the top back in fantasy (he’s currently 6th). He’s more than likely the top pick in next year’s draft.

Category Three: Kept Sam Bradford (Rd 13) – Should have kept Dexter McCluster in the 11th Sam Bradford has been a major bust so far this year, arguable the biggest bust. He’s currently ranked 29th among all quarterbacks. Luckily Matt drafted Matt Stafford too. He should have kept McCluster. Now he has yet to do much of anything at this point in the season, but moving forward he could be a solid points machine in the flex spot.

DON VOZZOLA

Category One: Kept Dwayne Bowe (Rd 3) – Right Call…maybe Bowe is so inconsistent it’s hard to believe he’s 14th among all receivers. He’s produced two 200-point games, although he was on Don’s bench for one. Besides Bowe, Don could have kept Eli Manning one round later. Now it’s not like Eli is a superstar, but he’s 10th among all quarterbacks, six spots ahead if Don’s current QB (Matt Ryan). If he would have done this, in the third round he might have been able to draft Bowe as well as Dez Bryant, Steve Johnson or Santonio Holmes.

Category Two: Kept Percy Harvin (Rd 10) – Right Call Don could have kept Deion Branch in the 7th, as well as Reggie Bush in the same round, but neither has done as much as Percy Harvin. Of course that’s not saying much. Harvin is just 27th among all receivers. However, his numbers are slowly getting better.

Category Three: Kept Austin Collie (Rd 14) – Should have kept no one The reality is, once Peyton Manning was declared out, all Colts’ players took a major hit. Collie has done nothing, but so has every category three player for Don.

JEFF GREENBLATT

Category One: Kept No One – Should have kept Ryan Mathews in the 1st Yes, Jeff drafted Larry Fitzgerald, so it’s not like he didn’t land a good player in the first round. However, Ryan Mathews is on fire and is currently a top-five running back. He’s one spot ahead of LeSean McCoy and no one would have passed on McCoy for Fitzgerald. In fact, head-to-head, Mathews beats Fitzgerald 4-0.

Category Two: Kept Big Ben (Rd 10) – Should have kept Nate Washington in the 7th Roethlisberger has been a huge disappointment, currently ranked 26th among all quarterbacks. Meanwhile Washington is a low-end WR2 (ranked 20th) with the potential to improve with Kenny Britt out for the year. Worse yet, if he didn’t keep Roethlisberger, he might have then drafted either Rivers, Vick or Brady in the first round.

Category Three: Kept Kevin Boss (Rd 14) – Should have kept no one Yeah, this hasn’t worked out at all, but no player would have worked out here for Jeff.

ROBIO MURRAY

Category One: Kept Adrian Peterson (Rd 1) – Should have kept DeSean Jackson in the 3rd Okay, hear me out. I can do this because I know what was in my head prior to the draft. By keeping Jackson (currently 18th among WRs) I would have had my first-round pick and I would have drafted Tom Brady (one spot ahead of Bob). With my next pick, I would have drafted either Michael Turner, Steven Jackson or Jahvid Best. With a lineup of Brady, McFadden, V-Jax, D-Jax and let’s say Best, Id’ be undefeated right now.

Category Two: Kept Vincent Jackson (Rd 6) – Right Call Jackson has been a little inconsistent (two great games, two really bad games), however he is ranked 5th right now among all receivers. Something that can’t be said about Settle’s Mike Williams, the other player I was thinking of keeping.

Category Three: Kept Darren McFadden (Rd 11) – Right Call McFadden is currently a first-team All-Robio player. Um, yeah.

COLBY HALL

Category One: Frank Gore (Rd 1) – Frank Gore – Should have kept Wes Welker in the 4th This one may have been the mistake of the year. Don’t you love hindsight? Now I can vouch for Colby that in early August, he was entertaining the idea of keeping Wes Welker. In the end, he decided to stick with the safer pick, Frank Gore. Man, that has to hurt. Welker is the highest scoring non-Quarterback in the league, while Gore has struggled. He did have a good game this past week, but Colby had already benched him.

Category Two: Kept Ben Green-Ellis (Rd 6) – Right Call No real great options here. Jay Cutler is the only other starter in Colby’s category two, but he sucks (25th best QB). Green-Ellis is ranked 25th, but has yet to reach 200 fantasy points.

Category Three: Kept Hakeem Nicks (Rd 14) – Right Call It was either Nicks or Akers. Currently Nicks is back in the top-10 among all receivers.

GRIFF COOMER

Category One: Jermichael Finley (Rd 4) – Right Call The second round was too early for Larry Fitzgerald as a keeper, so Finley was an easy choice. He’s fifth among all tight ends, but ironically, only one of the TE’s ranked ahead of him right now was drafted ahead of him (Witten).

Category Two: Arian Foster (Rd 10) – Right Call He’s finally healthy and he looked great against the Steelers. While Griff did have other good keeper options (Steve Johnson, Ahmad Bradshaw) in this category, none can do what Foster can do.

Category Three: Jamaal Charles (Rd 10) – Should have kept no one The simply face is, Charles played two games before going out for the year. Maybe Griff gets more out of Mark Sanchez as his backup quarterback or the Chargers defense has a sub-in defense, but in the end, it wouldn’t have mattered.

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