ZoneBlitz participated in it’s first fantasy draft last night–a free league sponsored by the proprietor over at RandBall, featuring a bunch of regular commenters from the site.   It’s a free league, which we participated in last year, and made a late push in despite saddling ourselves with Marvin Harrison and Torry Holt (two normally safe picks) with our first picks (fortunately we dumped Harrison in a deal for Willis McGahee right before Harrison went down).

This year, we had the somewhat unfortunate position of drafting #5 overall–which according to Paul Charchian, would be one spot too early to start the ‘Do The Opposite’ strategy.  Fortunately for us, we don’t always listen to the experts.

The top four picks were as expected–Tomlinson, Brian Westbrook, Purple Jesus and Joseph Addai–with the only surprise being that Westbrook went #2 over Peterson.  That left us with the choice of the #5 back in Steven Jackson, or starting down the path of the Do The Opposite strategy.

We knew that Jackson had ended his holdout–but we also knew that he hasn’t been the most consistent RB in the world, and logic would say that his hold out might make him a bigger injury risk.  He also killed us in another league last year–so in our eyes, the choice was easy:

1) Tom Brady, QB – Top QB on the board.  Yeah, there’s some concern about the latest injury, and no, we don’t expect him to match last year’s numbers.  But barring catastrophe, our QB is locked and loaded for 15 of the 16 weeks.

2) Reggie Wayne, WR – We debated between Harrison and Wayne last year, and regretted it all year.  Not this year.

3) Andre Johnson, WR – We were Braylon Edwards or Marques Colston might make it back around–but no such luck.  Hopefully Matt Schaub and Johnson can both stay healthy.

4) Jason Witten, TE – The league gives a point for every 10 yards and requires a starting TE, so we decided to grab the top TE on our board maybe a little earlier than we normally would have.

5) Michael Turner, RB – This was the one spot we were a little disappointed in–a breakdown in communications led us to believe that Edgerrin James and Calvin Johnson were off the board, when they weren’t yet–we would have considered them here as well.

6) Kevin Smith, RB – I’m not crazy about this year’s rookie RB class, but if you’re looking for sleepers that will hopefully get a lot of carries, Smith may fit the bill.  Teams will have to respect the WR corps in Detroit, and Smith will be competing with Tatum Bell for carries in an offense that hopefully won’t forget about the running game this year.

7) Lee Evans, WR – We were thrilled to get Evans in the 7th round.

8) Rudi Johnson, RB – We heard he’d come into camp in pretty good shape, and we figured if he could stay healthy he would get the majority of the carries.  We hadn’t heard he was already missing some time.  Guess it’s back to the scouting room for us.

9) DeAngelo Williams, RB – Jonathan Stewart might be the better overall back in Carlina, but I’m still not convinced the toe isn’t going to hinder him from carrying the majority of the load in his rookie season.  We’ll gladly take Williams in the 8th, as defenses start coming off the board.

10) Jerious Norwood, RB – He killed every team I was a part of last year, because the Falcons refused to give him the ball.  But now we’re grabbing him as a handcuff for Turner.  In a year or two, someone will make him their Michael Turner, if he keeps putting up huge yard-per-carry numbers.

11) Ray Rice, RB – We noticed he looked good against Minnesota last week, and figured he might steal some early carries, as McGahee deals with injuries.  Today’s speculation about McGahee being cut made us even happier.

12) Robert Meachem, WR – Conflicting reports as to whether Meachem is on the verge of starting, or still stuck at #4 WR in New Orleans–but if he continues to play solid, it won’t take him long to pass up Devery Henderson.

13) Jabar Gaffney, WR – Probable 3rd WR for the Patriots, he could find himself open frequently for our QB.

14) James Hardy, WR – Doubling up on Bills WR?  Not historically a great move, but at 6-6, Hardy could be a great red zone target for Trent Edwards.  If he can get back on the field.

15) Cowboys Defense – The 15th round, and the Cowboys defense was still on the board?  We hate to say it, but it’s time to officially re-instate Pac-Man, Roger Goodell.  I’m sure he’s reformed.

16) Mason Crosby, K – He was the leading scorer in the NFL last year.  As a rookie.  And frankly, we expect his team will score fewer touchdowns this year–meaning he might have more FG opportunities.  If not–he’s a kicker.  He’s easily replaceable.

So that’s our team.  The league starts a ton of guys–QB, 2 RB, 3 WR, TE and a Flex–and we’re already debating between Gaffney, Williams and possibly Rice for our opening week flex spot–what do you think?   How did we do on our ‘Do The Opposite’ strategy?  Leave your comments below, and check back to see how we do this season (in this league and the other five we participate in–the next draft is an auction tomorrow, followed by a Saturday afternoon draft that we’ll likely let the computer do for us).