Empty the Bench

By Brian Spencer

On Tuesday, August 31, the dons of Empty the Bench joined friends and peers for the annual football nerd-out fest that is the ETB Fantasy Football League Draft. This year’s draft was one of the most challenging, stressful test of wills to date with 12 teams, 15 rounds of picks, and no kickers to thin the field out. Over the next few days we’ll reveal the results team by team, and take a quick look at how each one fared; compare and contrast with your league, and let us know your take in the comments section.

Disclaimer: many of our team names are lewd, childish, and downright stupid. We make no apologies for this.

Team:

Butt Cheese (Picked eleventh overall)

The Picks

1. (11) Rashard Mendenhall, RB, Pittsburgh Steelers
2. (14) Calvin Johnson, WR, Detroit Lions
3. (35) Jahvid Best, RB, Detroit Lions
4. (38) Dallas Clark, TE, Indianapolis Colts
5. (59) Brent Celek, TE, Philadelphia Eagles
6. (62) Ronnie Brown, RB, Miami Dolphins
7. (83) Santonio Holmes, WR, New York Jets
8. (86) Terrell Owens, WR, Cincinnati Bengals
9. (107) Kenny Britt, WR, Tennessee Titans
10. (110) Eli Manning, QB, New York Giants
11. (131) Vincent Jackson, WR, San Diego Chargers (?)
12. (134) Alex Smith, QB, San Francisco 49ers
13. (155) Willis McGahee, RB, Baltimore Ravens
14. (158) Miami, Team Defense
15. (179) Michael Jenkins, WR, Atlanta Falcons

Best Value:

Jahvid Best, RB, Detroit Lions: I’m allowed to be a homer, alright? This is right around the area where Best has been going and probably should be going, but in the past week the dynamite rookie’s value has gotten higher and higher. It’s a mild surprise that he lasted this long; I actually considered him with the 26th-overall pick, but ultimately couldn’t pass up on Greg Jennings. Though I’m not sure I buy this lofty praise just yet, don’t forget Best is currently ranked 27th on the Yahoo! Big(ger) Board. As I said earlier this week in my assessment of the Detroit Lions’ fantasy prospects, this sky is the limit with this kid and we could easily be talking about him as an early first-rounder next year.

Santonio Holmes is also a great get in the 8th round; hearing Jets head coach Rex Ryan say that Holmes “might be the best player on the field” during this week’s episode of Hard Knocks should assuage any concerns about Holmes missing the first four games of the season. He’ll make up for it, if his immature quarterback can get him the ball, that is.

Biggest Reach:

Brent Celek, TE, Philadelphia Eagles: We’re big fans of Celek and think he just might be the safest bet for steady production in the unproven, high-upside entity that is the Iggles offense. With Matt Forte still on the board, however, as well as arguably the last of the semi-viable QB1s in Brett Favre and Joe Flacco, doubling up on TEs one round after taking clear-cut TE1 Dallas Clark seems like a scramble pick. Celek is a real luxury pick here in a spot when a need could have been addressed. Of course, maybe the plan all along is to start Clark at TE and Celek at W/T.

ETB’s Take:

Butt Cheese raised a few eyebrows with his selection of Mendenhall over Drew Brees, but we all have our own rankings, and he clearly had him rated higher at that spot; always hard to argue with somebody’s first-round pick no matter what. I obviously love the Megatron and Best picks, and the roll of the dice on the trio of Holmes, Terrell Owens (ain’t what he used to be, but you can’t count him out in a competition of one-upsmanship with Ochocinco) and Vincent Jackson (will he play or won’t he, and if he does, where?) is one that could pay huge dividends.

This team is going to compete and should push for a playoff spot, especially if Ronnie Brown stays healthy, Best blossoms as many think he will, and at least one of the Holmes/Owens/Jackson trio breaks out. Quarterback could prove to be the Achilles’ heel, however, especially if you’re not a fan of Manning (like us).

Comments from El Bendito after the break…

Comments from El Bendito:

I had the option to trade to the 9th spot, but kept the 11th just to get Mendenhall and Calvin. Mock drafts had iffy results. I panicked when Benson and Foster went off the board in the 3rd and had no backup plan; now I have Jahvid Best and Calvin, plus one other RB with the same bye week.

With all the talk about how valuable QBs are I had my eyes set on Flacco from the beginning. When he was taken earlier than expected I kept pushing my QB draft back. I’m not entirely unhappy I got Eli in the 10th, but I was still banking on getting Big Ben too.

Santonio Holmes and Vincent Jackson: Santonio is a sure top-15 WR when he comes back; ditto for Vincent IF he comes back. If I can get through the first four weeks at .500 or better, then I’ll be right where I want to be.

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