Taking Home the Hardware

Welcome to the 2009 Nelson League Blog! I'm glad to be back with you after a long offseason!

The Northboro Steroids collected the Nelson Trophy on a sunny Sunday afternoon in beautiful New Jersey - the third championship for the franchise and the first since the Clinton administration. Then they dug in, and with the Brains of the Outfit linked up through Skype, they drafted the 2009 Northboro Steroids.

The resulting team was handed the Stephen Award for The Worst Draft in the Nelson for 2009. This was controversial. Let's take a look:

Phillip Rivers - 34 TDs in 2008. One of the top 5 QBs in the NFL according to every list I had access to. I had him fifth on my list behind Brady, Manning, Brees and Aaron Rogers.

Deangelo Williams - 20 TDs in the 2008. The #1 running back in our league in scoring.

Larry Fitzgerald - The #1 receiver on most preseason draft boards. He was clustered in the top group with Moss and Calvin Johnson.

Stephen Gostkowski - The #1 kicker on most draft boards. Brady is back, so more singletons this year, but two years ago he kicked 72 extra points. I can live with that.

Greg Jennings - The #1 receiver in pass-happy Green Bay. He had 1292 yards and 9 TDs last year. He was #4 on my board.

It's a little hard to improve on that part of the club. I contend that these were the best players available at the #5 slot.

The part of the team Stephen didn't like was this group:

Jonathan Stewart, Darren McFadden, Cedrick Benson - These guys will spend the most time in my RB2 and RB3 slots this year. Stewart had 10 TDs last year, and only a preseason achilles injury and the stout Philly run defense is keeping him on the bench in week 1. McFadden has been handed the starting job in Oakland after a terrific preseason. Benson resurrected himself in Cincinatti at the end of the year. He's a pounder, and he's the only option in the Bengal running game. I'm hoping for Red Zone love there.

Chad OchoCinqo, Josh Morgan - These guys are the #3 wide receiver in some combination. Everyone in San Francisco, who was badly burned by the Michael Crabtree disaster in the draft, is pointing to Morgan as a key to the San Francisco offense. He's never done it, but he has the tools to be an elite receiver. Ocho is the big question mark, and that pick was based on the preseason football I watched this year. I saw a guy whose pride was hurt by his poor performance last year. I saw a guy who is on a mission. And, more importantly, he has his Quarterback back after a year on the shelf. I'm hoping for big things there.

Is this the worst team in the league? In the Nelson, where competition is so fierce that strange bounces and weird happenings decide championships, it could very well be. But DeAngelo Williams just ran 11 yards for an early score against the Eagles. Let's play some football and see how this works out.