New Beginnings

I have decided to restart this blog but with a new direction in mind. I feel like I spend way too much time obsessing over sports, staring at numbers that most people do not even pay attention to, including your average sports' fan. WAY too much time, ask my girlfriend...

I might as well put all this knowledge to good use and start a blog, maybe actually make something out of this addiction of mine. I'll start by bitching about my luck this fantasy football season.

I had the number 1 pick, I took Peterson, obviously, but only after a long debate between him and Brees. I know I wasn't the only one who saw Drew's monster season last year and a much easier schedule this year as a reason to take him over a questionably healthy Tom Brady, but let me state here and now that I saw New Orleans as a viable Super Bowl contender. I also saw Baltimore making waves in the AFC, but after a few close loses to some good teams, it's looking more and more like New England might be the team to beat. But getting back to the point...

Having the number 1 pick in a draft always puts a person in a difficult situation. You get the first pick sure, but in a league of 14 teams, the next picks come in at 28 and 29. Luckily I got Romo as my QB, as most people were too worried about his inconsistency, but picking your top wide receiver is always a gamble at this draft position, which brings me to the decision that broke my fantasy season.

What happened to Greg Jennings? And why, if I knew that Brees was going to be a monster this season and I had Marques Colston ranked ahead of Jennings, did I pick him? hindsight is 20/20, but I had the hindsight. I had it all planned out, all typed out, Moss, Fitzgerald, Johnson, Smith, Johnson, COLSTON, JENNINGS. This is what happens when you draft next to someone else and you let their opinions sway yours. After all, Jennings was the higher-ranked wide receiver in most preseason rankings, ESPN had him as their 6th ranked receiver and Colston as 12th, so on paper it looked like I had made the right decision. But my gut told me differently and I didn't listen, and now I have to sit back and live with my errors.

The problem isn't that Jennings is doing that poorly, or that Rodgers isn't throwing the ball well, it's that Rodgers has another target. The aging Donald Driver is currently the Packers' go-to guy at the ripe age of 34, and it might just be because he had a milestone within his radar. Earlier this season Driver made his 596th catch as a Green Bay receiver, setting a franchise record. Pair that with an early-season injury that didn't hamper Jennings' minutes, but certainly the number of passes thrown his direction, and Jennings numbers are definitely down from his 80 receptions for 1292 yards last season. Most disconcerting is his number of touchdowns. He has only caught 2 touchdown passes all season, compared to 9 last year and 12 in his sophomore season. Even his yds/catch has decreased steadily from 17.2 two seasons ago, to 16.2 last year, to 14.6 this season. With a potential pro-bowl quarterback throwing to him, this does not look promising for the young wide-receiver or my fantasy football team. I'm not ready to bench him just yet, but it may be a possibility in the near future. I may just have to wait until Driver retires before he becomes a viable top-tier receiver. Well, at least I drafted Vincent Jackson!