Ultimate Fantasy Football Draft, Pick #1

First of all, today is the one-year anniversary of me re-starting this blog (on SN.com at least) and making the commitment to post regularly. This is my 184th post in that span (better than once every other day), and I had about 30,000 hits on TSN before they removed the hit counter. So I'd say I've done all right. Yay, me.

To celebrate, I'm going to launch my most ambitious project to date. It's based vaguely on the ESPN SportsNation mock draft from last month and my experiences with gymrome's mock draft exercise, where he enlisted various TSN members to each pick for their teams in the first round. (I picked for the Vikings, before the Jared Allen deal, of course). I had such a blast with it, I thought, "Why not let everyone share in the fun?" It's a touch too early for the 2009 draft, but it's only a few short months until fantasy football season, so why not run a mock fantasy football draft and invite everyone to participate over the course of the next few months?

Why not, indeed?

Participation is easy. On the right, you'll see a poll listing 40 players. Of those players, who would you draft #1 overall if your FFL draft was right now? The player with the most votes will be "drafted" #1 and, the next time I post, he'll be removed from the list and you'll be asked to pick the #2 player. Then you'll pick #3, and so on, down the line until we've completed 24 picks (I typically play in 12-man leagues, so that gives us two rounds' worth of picks). I'll post twice a week, on Wednesdays and either Saturday or Sunday (being that today is Thursday, I'll probably ask for #2 on Sunday), and 24 picks should take us through all the way to the early parts of the pre-season in August, when you'll be gearing up for your real draft!

A few notes about the list. Yes, it's huge and unwieldy. It'll get smaller, but I wanted to include everyone I thought had at least a reasonable chance of being drafted in the first two rounds. At the least, I'm sure I've included everyone who'll be picked in the first round of fantasy football drafts. Once we get past the first 12 or so picks, if you have suggestions on who to add, feel free. Until then, I'd rather not make it any bigger. As some convenience, I've ordered the players alphabetically by first name (that's how my spreadsheet handles it) and by position (RBs first, then QBs, then WRs). Don't worry too much about scoring -- assume just that you get points both for yardage and TDs and that you just want to draft the "best" player available.

Also, this won't completely replace my regular posts. You'll still see the same old deranged ramblings and attempts at humor (really, I thought those Dick Wood jokes from yesterday were the height of middle-school humor) from me a few times a week. And if you want to mention this project on your own blogs and invite others to come vote, I won't stop you :)

I won't vote, except in the case of ties, in which case I'll cast the deciding vote. And please, don't be stupid (like by selecting Chester Taylor #1 overall).

The poll for the #1 pick will close on Sunday, May 18 at 6:00 P.M. Eastern. I'll post the results and update the poll Sunday night. So get out there and vote!