Team-by-team draft recap

Saturday night's MVFFL Draft was held at Buffalo Wild Wings in Fairview Heights and was a great success. The food was good and the beer was cold. Wasn't wild about turning every TV in the place over to the UFC at 9:00, but you can't have it all.

Here is a team-by-team rundown of the Draft.

Benchpressers
Wes was not present for the draft, but phoned in his picks through Troy. He got Brandon Jackson in the Rookie Draft, used his 1st rounder on Roy Williams (great pick) and his 2nd on Clinton Portis (ouch). Later he snagged Hines Ward (3rd rd) and Terry Glenn (5th rd) to which I wonder why he didn't draft Art Monk or Steve Largent in the Reserve Draft. Reserve Draft highlights include Byron Leftwich, Eddie Kennison & Ben Watson.

Best value pick-Getting Ladell Betts as his Reserve Draft Free Agent was huge. He'll be in Wes' lineup more than Portis this season.

Buffet Boys
Hoffman got Adrian Peterson in the rookie draft and then got kicked in the balls by free agency. Both of his selections-Rudi Johnson and Lee Evans- were blocked. Possessing the 2nd and 3rd overall picks he snagged Rudi and the Ravens D. His 3rd 1st rounder (#6 overall) was new babydaddy Tom Brady, a guy many hoped would fall to the 2nd round. He got WRs T.J. Houshmymomanddad (13th) and Marquis Colston (19th) in the 2nd round and D-Jack (Darrell Jackson) in the 3rd and that was pretty much it for Hoffman. Later added Jake Delhomme, Matt Jones & Reggie Williams in the Reserve Draft.

Best value pick-Eric wisely secured Chester Taylor in the 2nd round of the Reserve Draft. I'm not sure how he lasted that long, but as was the case with Wes' RBs, having Peterson and Taylor should bode well for the Boys.

Burrowing Owls
TQ had Scott making his picks as he was somewhere in Maine, I believe. Bar Harbor? Anyway, TQ may want to go there for next year's draft as well because somehow, someway he was able to land Lawrence Maroney at pick #7. He then took Plaxico in the 2nd, Matt Hasselbeck in the 3rd and the Dolphins D in the 4th. His rookie pick was Brian Leonard and Reserve Draft picks include Alex Smith, Jerious Norwood, L.J. Smith & Eric Moulds.

Best value pick-Alex Smith. I think that he's ready to explode as a legit #1 fantasy QB. Getting him six picks into the Reserve Draft may leave many owners kicking themselves in the butt later this year.

Carpetbaggers
Al was absent as well, but phoned in his picks through Hoffman. He began the day well, signing Anquan Boldin as his free agent. He didn't make his first draft choice until the end of round three and chose the Steelers D. He then took Alge Crumpler, Joey Galloway & Isaac Bruce. He made Ben Roethlisberger the #1 pick of the Reserve Draft. Other Reserve Draft highlights include Muhsin Muhammad, Joe Horn & Kevin Jones.

Best value pick-In the NFL draft he is known as Mr. Irrelevant. In our draft, he may be the biggest steal in draft history. Al took Daunte Culpepper with the last pick of the night. At that point, it obviously wasn't much of a gamble, but the payoff could be huge.

Creamers
Pietsch got his night off to a good start by getting both his free agent choices, Jon Kitna and Andre Johnson. He then used his first pick (2nd rd, #15 overall) on Cedric Benson. He also drafted Laveraneaoueaououas Coles and the Jags D. He stole Poop McAllister as his Reserve Draft Free Agent and, in a bit of a shocker, made Brett Favre his #2 QB. Other Reserve Draft choices were Greg Jennings, the Packers D (I'm sensing a theme here) & Jason Witten.

Best value pick-Brandon Jones. Not taken until the 4th round of the Reserve Draft he has a shot to be the #1 WR for the Titans.

Double Down
Daniels didn't mess around Saturday. First he snagged Marshawn Lynch with the first pick of the Rookie Draft. Then he picked up Javon Walker as his free agent. From there he took the Patriots D (1st rd), Donald Driver (2nd rd) & Thomas Jones (3rd rd). He added Jay Cutler with the third overall pick of the Reserve Draft and then selected LaMont Jordan, Jerry Porter, & Michael Jenkins.

Best value pick-the Arizona Cardinals D. They were one of the last D's taken and I'm not sure why they went so late, but they could be a #1 unit based on matchups at times this season.

Hitters
When he wasn't pounding Guiness, Hud was busy picking players that had already been drafted or in some cases protected. Hud took the Bears D in the first round (#4), Randy Moss in the second, Reggie Brown in the third, Brandon Jacobs in the fourth & Cadillac Williams in the fifth.
He got Mark Clayton, DeAngelo Williams, Steve McNair & Leon Washington in the Reserve Draft.

Best value pick-it would've been Marshawn Lynch in the third round of the Reserve Draft, but unfortunately for Hud, Daniels had taken him off the board about four hours earlier. In my opinion, Hud's best value pick was getting the Bears D at #4-I thought they'd go #1 or 2.

Horned Puffins
Thrown for a loop five minutes from Buffalo Wild Wings when Daniels took Lynch with the #1 pick in the Rookie Draft, the Draft strategy was immediately up in the air. Calvin Johnson became a Horned Puffin, Santonio Holmes was added in free agency and the first draft pick-which didn't come until the 3rd round-was DeShaun Foster. Bernard Berrian (4th rd), the Broncos D (5th rd) & Philip Rivers (8th rd) were also picked. Following a trade to move up in the Reserve Draft the Puffins took Tatum Bell with the 5th overall pick. Other selections were Anthony Gonzalez, the Panthers D, Marcedes Lewis, Keary Colbert & Warrick Dunn.

Best value pick-Warrick Dunn. At some point this guy is gonna be done (excuse the pun), but new head coach Bobby Petrino has stated that Dunn will be the starter and with Joey Harrington as the QB, Atlanta may actually have a passing game.

Kamikaze Maddogs
Scott got Brady Quinn in the Rookie Draft, signed both Santana Moss and Jeremy Shockey as free agents and then drank for three hours until it was his turn to pick. That occurred at the end of the 4th round (#48), right after Troy took Shayne Graham to finish his regular draft. Anyway, Scott took Jamal Lewis, Adam Vinatieri, Kevin Curtis, the Raiders D & Eli Manning to round things out. He added Dominic Rhodes as his Reserve Draft Free Agent and then Troy Williamson, Matt Schaub, nnnnnnnnnnnDallas Clark & Ted Ginn Jr in the Reserve Draft.

Best value pick-Schaub. I know a lot of owners would have been happy leaving BWW (I'm tired of typing Buffalo Wild Wings) with Schaub on their roster. He may be in for a breakout season---as long as his O-Line doesn't get him killed.

Pietschskins
Troy picked Chris Henry in the Rookie Draft, but was shut out of free agency. He had the #1 overall pick and took Chad Johnson. He followed that up by getting Terrell Owens (#9), Ronnie Brown (#16), Tony Romo (#23), the Cowboys D (#33), Chris Chambers (#40) & Shayne Graham (#47). And that was that-Troy was done drafting by the end of the 4th round. In the Reserve Draft he took J.P. Losman, Brandon Marshall, LenDale White & Wes Welker.

Best value pick-Brandon Marshall. The Broncos WR could be in store for a big season, but much of his development will hinge on the development of Jay Cutler. Starting opposite of Javon Walker will ensure single coverage and going against Champ Bailey and Dre Bly in practice cannot hurt.

Rampage
Due to a death in the family Terry was unable to make the trip to BWW. Our condolences. Milt made Maurice Jones-Drew his first pick (#5 overall) and then grabbed Deion Branch (2nd), the Eagles D (3rd), Jericho Cotchery (4th), Heath Miller (5th) & Mike Furrey (6th) the following rounds. Key selections in the Reserve Draft were the Giants D, Ronald Curry, Julius Jones, Ashley Lelie, Jeff Garcia & Reuben Droughns.

Best value pick-Julius Jones. Everyone has given up on Jones in favor of Marion Barber, but with Parcells out of Dallas will Barber be the TD machine he was a year ago? Getting Jones in the 3rd round of the Reserve Draft was a good gamble.

Wild Hogs
Hoping to catch the lightning in a bottle that Milt did last year, new owner Randy Olson selected JaMarcus Russell in with the last pick of the Rookie Draft. He then announced his presence to the league with authority by signing Trent Green as a free agent. This made everyone wonder if he used the same magazine TQ did when he signed Brian Griese a few years ago. Then again, I was shocked when Al signed Drew Brees as his free agent one year and that seems to have worked out ok for him. Anyways...the Hogs 1st rounder was Willis McGahee-a nice choice. He then took the Chargers D, Braylon Edwards, Vernon Davis, Donte Stallworth & Drew Bennett. The Reserve Draft brought Chad Pennington, Fred Taylor & D.J. Hackett. Overall, not a bad first draft for the rookie.

Best value pick-D.J. Hackett. Man I wanted this guy. I'm not sold on Deion Branch as a #1 WR, which is good news for Hackett. I think he'll finish the year with 800 yards and 5 TDs.