Dugongs
The Dugongs were the laughing stock of 2006 by finishing dead last by far. By mid 2006 they had almost no chance of getting out of last place. However, the Dugongs did finish 2006 with two straight second place finishes behind the Spitoons so optimism was running high during the offseason. Based on the 2007 draft, the Dugongs should easily be the most improved team in the league.
The Dugongs’ first round pick is a perfect match with the team. Since the Dugongs are not close to being league favorites, they needed a boom/bust type of player to carry the team to a possible championship. Larry Johnson is that guy. He could either have a huge year, and combined with Frank Gore, those two RBs could dominate the PQBFL. Or LJ (and Gore) could get injured and the Dugongs will crash. LJ is a big injury risk. He was used so much in 2006 that he broke the record for the number of carries or touches in a season. In the past, RBs with so many carries broke down soon after: Terrell Davis, Jamal Anderson, Eddie George, and Barry Foster are examples of RBs who fell off a cliff after a heavy workload. Franchise player Frank Gore is also an injury waiting to happen. However he is very talented, and if he’s not injured (like in 2006) he can produce like a top 5 RB.
The Dugongs are also hoping that McNabb will be healthy enough to return to his pre-injury form. In the non-key positions, note that the Dugongs were first to draft a rookie by bringing back Adrian Peterson on the team’s roster. The Dugongs also took the first college player Colt Brennan who should dominate at his position.
Team Strength: RBs. The Dugongs have the second best RB duo in the PQBFL after LT/Parker for the BeaudoinBrothers.
Team Weakness: WRs. The Dugongs’ starting WRs Boldin and L Coles would be backups of some other PQBFL teams.
Best Pick: Anquan Boldin. The Dugongs gambled by waiting so long to draft a WR but fortunately found a gem at the end of the 5th round. After Boldin was gone, remaining WRs were not starting material.
Worst Pick: Ronnie Brown. The Dugongs already had their top 2 RBs and picked another RB despite not having a WR yet. Ronnie Brown has not even been named the starting RB for the Dolphins yet, and the coach is now using him on kickoff returns, which is not a good sign.
FlyingElvis
FlyingElvis went from dead last in 2005 to a nice third place finish in 2006 and even flirting with first place at mid season. The team is confident they can make the jump to the elite of the league in 2007. However, the road to first place might be more difficult than expected.
Several teams in the league questioned FE’s decision to drop Larry Johnson and keep Tom Brady instead. Was this a homer move? Brady is much safer and should have a good year, while LJ was a riskier player to keep. But this could come back to bite FE. Not keeping LJ forced FE to draft a mid-tier RB to be a starter. That guy is Maurice Jones-Drew who was taken in the third round. The problem is that MJD is not even an NFL starting RB. He will need a lot of long TDs like he scored in 2006 to be a valuable starter in the PQBFL.
FlyingElvis spent a very high pick on rookie M Lynch. Did FE panic after the Dugongs took A Peterson? Lynch was taken only two spots after Peterson, yet his prospects are not nearly as good. The Bills O-Line looks horrible in preseason and Lynch could have a tough time posting decent stats.
Team Strength: Depth at WR. When you can rotate Driver, P Burress, and Chambers as the 2nd starting WR behind TO, you are in good shape. Nobody has better backup WRs than FE except the Decepticons.
Team Weakness: Defensive players. FE took the always overrated Urlacher very early, Osi needs to return to his 2005 form to be an impact player, and FE’s DBs don't get many tackles - they rely mostly on INTs for scoring. FE's group of four defensive starters is the second worst in the PQBFL after the Dugongs.
Best Pick: Terrell Owens. The draft is not a popularity contest. FE picked TO despite not liking him, but TO was the logical choice in the second round. He will probably be a top WR once again.
Worst Pick: Champ Bailey. He was the 7th DB taken – way too early for a DB who does not get many tackles.
Spitoons
The defending champions return in 2007 with the benefit of a top notch saved team. That alone will make the team very competitive in 2007. The team is built to win now because they have many old guys who are about to go on a career decline (M Harrison, S Alexander, J Kitna, Z Thomas). This was the correct strategy to follow, at the risk of mortgaging the future a little bit.
Brian Westbrook returns to the Spitoons for a fourth year in a row, but this time as the team's first round pick. Westbrook’s value keeps going up every year. Unless Westbrook gets injured, he is a lock for top 10 RB. At WRs, the Spitoons end up with an interesting mix of old age and youth with M Harrison and Larry Fitzgerald. This duo should be able to compete with Wax’s S Smith / L Evans duo and UJ’s C Johnson / J Walker duo.
The Spitoons saved Winslow at TE and the Ravens on defense and this helped the team focus on other areas to draft while keeping a top option to start every week. The Spitoons spent a high pick to draft the first rookie LB for the second straight year. Posluszny will certainly be amongst the top scoring rookies this year, however the Spitoons might have picked the wrong LB again (last year D Ryans did better than AJ Hawk). This year, P Willis (Dec) might surpass Posluszny’s numbers.
Team Strength: Defense. Ravens, Jason Taylor, Zach Thomas, AJ Hawk, Chris Hope. There is not a single flaw in this group of starters. The Spitoons have the best defense in the PQBFL by far.
Team Weakness: QB. Kitna is possibly the worst starting QB in the PQBFL and the backups are not very good either (E Manning, R Grossman).
Best Picks: Correll Buckhalter & Maurice Morris. The Spitoons covered their problem at RB depth with injury protection for Westbrook and S Alexander. Smart move.
Worst Pick: Browns Defense. Seriously, we don’t get points for sucking.
BeaudoinBrothers
The BeaudoinBrothers led the league for most of the 2nd half of 2006 until a week #16-17 collapse caused them to fall behind the Spitoons. Franchise player LT is back with the BBs in 2007 and is without a doubt the best player in the PQBFL and he makes his team a top contender in the PQBFL.
Unlike 2006, the BeaudoinBrothers decided to support LT with a top RB to go along with him so the BBs took W Parker in the first round. Barring injury, LT and Parker will start all year. By saving Michael Turner, the BBs also have injury protection in case LT misses a few games. The BeaudoinBrothers waited until the 6th round before taking a QB. This position used to be a strength for the team in the past with Vick, Bulger, and Hasselbeck all being saved in 2006, but Bulger/Hasselbeck got cut this year, and Vick is protecting his butt but for different reasons than when he was on the football field. The BeaudoinBrothers had to rebuild the QB position and Roethlisberger is young and still improving. Later in the draft, the BBs traded for Rivers to obtain a decent QB combo to pick from based on the weekly matchups.
The BBros management seems to really like A Gates. The team spent a high draft pick once again on Gates despite already having a top Chargers player (LT) and despite already having a starting caliber TE (Shockey). Gates is therefore back in the BB uniform for the 4th straight year. After drafting Gates in 2006, the BBs tried to trade Shockey but no success, which was somewhat of a waste to have a top 4 TE on the bench. This year the BBs were able to pull the trigger with OldNo7 and obtain something more useful in return.
Team Strength: RBs. LT and Parker are the best RB combination in the PQBFL. Backups Portis and A Green are the best RB3 and RB4 in the PQBFL as well.
Team Weakness: WRs. Holt and TJ Housh are nice starters, but they both have injury issues going into the season and the backups are also not models of health (H Ward, D-Jax, Curry).
Best Pick: A Gates. The BBros picked Gates in the middle of the 2nd round in 2006, which might have been too much to pay. However, this year he only cost a late 3rd round pick. This is a bargain.
Worst Pick: B Roethlisberger. The team panicked when QBs went off the board earlier than expected and because they did not have a 7th round pick, they took Roethlisberger too early in the 6th round to avoid having to wait for the 8th round.
WaxOnWaxOff
WaxOnWaxOff used to be a top PQBFL team in the early 2000s but in 2004-2006 the team finished in the bottom half of the standings except in 2005 where Wax finished 3rd but had really no chance to win the league because the BeaudoinBrothers crushed everybody else. Last year was the worst year in franchise history with a 7th place and a winning percentage of only .378. Wax returns in 2007 with a better chance of competing especially with a decent saved team and having the gift of Randy Moss and Cadillac Williams surprisingly not being cut.
Wax suffered in 2006 due to a lack of a good QB. They quickly resolved that situation by taking Bulger in the third round. Bulger is always a top QB when he's not injured. Steve Smith was also a great second round pick and gives Wax a top WR duo with Lee Evans. Wax also has a great WR for the future in rookie Calvin Johnson. It remains to be seen how productive Calvin Johnson will be in 2007 because many rookie WRs struggle early, but he will be a good candidate for a saved player. Wax opted for college RBs instead of college QBs. This decision makes sense because it will improve Wax's saved team in 2008 and Wax probably does not expect to compete in 2007 as confirmed by the Vegas odds.
Wax has the second weakest team in the league according to Vegas mainly because of the team's starting RBs. Wax has the worst franchise RB in the league with Rudi Johnson. He simply does not stack up with LT, Shaun Alexander, Frank Gore, and Steven Jackson. Laurence Maroney is back with Wax as the team's first round pick. He must show he can carry the load before we can be convinced he is a top RB. How often will the Patriots run now that Brady has R Moss, Stallworth, and Welker? That's not even counting TE Ben Watson.
Team Strength: WRs. S Smith / L Evans is a top 3 WR combo in the league with M Harrison / L Fitz (Spi) and Chad Johnson / J Walker (UJ).
Team Weakness: RBs. Maroney and Rudi are below average starters, and backup RBs are shaky. Cadillac only scored 1 TD last year - can he rebound? Julius Jones might not even be the number one RB on his own team due to Marion Barber III.
Best Pick: Bulger. After C Palmer and McNabb were taken, Bulger was there for Wax and there was a huge dropoff between Bulger and the next best QB available.
Worst Pick: Ben Watson. Brady now has many other options to throw to, so Watson could be used less in 2007 than 2006. Wax had Tony Gonzalez available with his 6th round pick but let T Gonzalez go. Because T Gonzalez was taken in the 7th round, Wax panicked and took Watson in the 8th round.
OldNo7
After finishing last in the franchise's first two seasons, Old has been very average since then (3rd / 6 in 2002, 4th / 6 in 2003, 5th / 6 in 2004, 5th / 7 in 2005, and 5th / 8 in 2006). The team has never really been in the championship hunt since 2002. We can expect another middle of the road year from Old based on the Vegas odds.
OldNo7 quickly recovered from the loss of Priest Holmes as franchise player with the emergence of Steven Jackson as the second best franchise RB in the PQBFL behind LT. Old used their first round pick to select another young RB with Reggie Bush. OldNo7 contributed to the early rush on top QBs by selecting C Palmer in the 2nd round. Based on how the draft developed afterwards with QBs going fast, this proved to be a great selection. Old upgraded their TE position by trading for Shockey and getting rid of J Witten. Nice move by Old who did not really need Rivers with Palmer the starter.
On defense, Old will be very strong again. Old saved Ju Peppers, L Briggs, and C Tillman from last year. In addition, Old drafted a top DB with Sean Jones and a top 5 LB with London Fletcher. Old had huge problems with the team defense in 2006 (Browns and Bucs) and solved that problem by taking the Bears D in the 4th round. It was expensive, but if the Bears perform like 2006, it will be worth it.
Team Strength: Defense. Old has the second best team defense + individual defensive players in the PQBFL after Spi.
Team Weakness: WRs after Reggie Wayne. Braylon Edwards is Old's WR2 - but who is the Browns QB? M Clayton and D Stallworth are gambles. Old should have drafted more than 4 WRs because the team's WR2 is the worst in the PQBFL by far.
Best Pick: Rivers. Old did not need him with Palmer, but was smart by taking the best available talent and getting a TE in return who was not available in the draft because so many TEs were part of opponents' saved teams.
Worst Pick: Anthony Gonzalez. Sure P Manning is the QB, but R Wayne / M Harrison are the starters in Indy, and Moorehead is currently ahead of Gonzalez on the depth chart. A sixth round pick for a non-starting rookie was too expensive.
Decepticons
The Decepticons had a strong return to the PQBFL last year with a surprising 4th place finish, almost finishing 3rd but falling flat with a last place in week #17 of 2006. Dec won the league in 2003-2004 so other teams will watch Dec with interest in 2007 to see if their draft will be as effective as a few years ago when Dec won by taking a few gems late in the draft.
Brees was named the Decepticons franchise player. Brees is good, but he sure is not a top 8 player in the PQBFL. There are at least two other QBs better than him (P Manning, C Palmer), and Brady is probably ahead too. So the franchise player might be a bit of a drag on Dec's chances in 2007. Fortunately Dec made a few trades in 2006 and during the offseason to move up in the 2007 draft. The 'Cons had eight draft picks in rounds 5-9. This means the team will be decent in 2007, but it also means they should have a great saved team in 2008. Dec is probably one year away from being a menace. College RB Ian Johnson could also contribute to Dec's saved team next year. If Dec can find a top franchise player for 2008, they will be the team to beat next year.
Dec took two second-tier RBs with their first two picks: W McGahee and T Henry. Both are on new teams and they could perform better than in the past since they are in more RB-friendly offenses than in 2006. At WR Dec has two young WRs with Roy Williams and Andre Johnson. Their 2008 value is greater than their 2007 value, but nothing prevents them from being top options right away, especially since A Johnson now has an upgrade at QB (Carr out, Schaub in). For a second straight year, Cooley will be Dec's TE as the team refused to acquire Shockey and continues to believe that Cooley is better than Shockey. This proved to be incorrect in 2006. We'll see what happens in 2007.
Team Strength: RB depth. The primary backups are T Jones and B Jacobs. As if it was not enough, Dec also has L White and J Norwood who could emerge if they win the starting job and could improve Dec's 2008 saved team.
Team Weakness: Franchise player is below average.
Best Pick: Roy Williams (WR). With Calvin Johnson on the other side of the field, opposing defenses won't be able to double-team and triple-team Williams anymore. He is a candidate for a huge year.
Worst Pick: Jon Beason. Dec built a team for 2008 but took a second LB at the rookie position after Patrick Willis. This did not make sense. Rookie LBs have very little value for the next year.
UncleJack
Since winning the league in 2002, UJ finished last or next to last in 2003-2004-2005. Last year was only a slight improvement with a 6th place finish out of 8. The Vegas bookmakers see UJ as the worst team in the league in 2007, although the team's odds improved after the draft because UJ was able to field a team more competitive than expected. The weak saved team from 2006 is what hurts UJ the most.
UJ went with safe veterans in the first two rounds. E James should be better than in 2006 with an improved offensive line. Chad Johnson is always near the top of WR rankings. UJ took a gamble at the rookie position by taking Brandon Jackson in the 5th round. Adrian Peterson and M Lynch were already gone so B Jackson was obviously the last viable rookie RB available. He could have a A Green type season but he could also crash and lose his job to V Morency later in the year. Pass protection is B Jackson's main problem (not running the ball). If he can't protect Favre with good blocking, the Packers will elect to use Morency instead to avoid Favre getting killed. Remember how Steve Young's career ended? Botched pass protection by an inexperienced RB with poor blocking skills (Lawrence Phillips).
Despite having P Manning as a franchise player, UJ spent two early picks on QBs. V Young was taken in the 4th round and T Romo in the 6th round. UJ had other holes to fill. If UJ finds a trade partner for one of those QBs during the season, this could be a good move. Otherwise it will be a huge waste. On defense, UJ took the Chargers to add to the Steelers who were saved from 2006. Rotating them based on matchups should result in pretty good production during the year.
Team Strength: Receivers. Chad Johnson, J Walker, and Tony Gonzalez is the best trio of WRs/TE of the PQBFL.
Team Weakness: RBs. God bless UJ if E James or J Lewis get injured. The backups are C Brown (not even starter for the Titans), Mike Bell (now a fullback), and Greg Jones (also a fullback).
Best Pick: Tony Gonzalez. How the hell was this guy still available in the 7th round? Great catch by UJ.
Worst Pick: Well... the worst pick is actually a ghost. UJ did not draft a college player. This will be a handicap of a few points every week for UJ until week #13. Nobody in the PQBFL drafted 3 college players so it's uncertain whether UJ will be able to get one via trade.
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