Fantasy Roundtable: LDT and Peterson Gone, Who's Next?

The Fantasy FanHouse team will occasionally debate pre-draft topics for your perusement and amusement. Any excuse for a Roundtable really. Today's topic: picks 3-6 in the first round.

Matt Snyder: Right behind the obvious top two picks is another tier of elite running backs. There shouldn't be much debate that the next four players off the board are Joseph Addai, Brian Westbrook, Steven Jackson, and Frank Gore -- unless someone wants to waste their top six pick on Tom Brady or Randy Moss, in which case you happily let them. The debate, though, is in what order they should be taken.

So, Fantasy FanHouse ... what order and why?

Matthew Greber: I'll let the assumption that it's obvious that Peterson is the #2 pick slide, because I acknowledge it may often play out that way. However, I think I'd take both Steven Jackson and Joe Addai before AP -- I just like to know what I'm getting and folks are going to be teeing off on the Vikes this year. I still expect big things from Peterson, but when you can stack against the run (see my man Frank Gore last year), things are a bit tougher. Therefore, I'd say it goes like this:

1. LDT
2. Adrian Peterson
3. Steven Jackson
4. Joseph Addai
5. Brian Westbrook

Honestly, you could put Westbrook up higher but I just have a sneaking suspicion that this year he's going to break in half. As a die-hard 49er fan, I'd simply LOVE to put Frank Gore in here, or even at #6 - but I don't see any reason that it's a lock that he rebounds from last year's dismal performances. Mike Martz didn't know how to use Marshall Faulk! If I had the #6 pick, I'd actually have to consider being one of the morons who take Tom Brady or Peyton Manning rather than roll the dice on whether a Gore, Portis, Lynch or LJ is going to earn his pay at that slot.

MS: Then I'll take this opportunity to hype Ryan Grant as Greebs' sixth pick! I'd take him over any of the dudes you listed at the end there and I'm not especially in love with Gore either.

MG: Snyder! YOU are the one that said "there wasn't much debate" that Gore was in that group. Flip-flopper! Naysayer! I agree that Grant is as good a pick there as any, but if we want to get into a discussion about RB poised to fall back a bit, I think Grant gets put in that discussion as well. But that's just as good an example as any of how mixed the talent is at that point in the draft. If I have the 6th pick, I might decide to lock up QB with Peyton or Brady and get one of those same RB at the 15th slot.

MS: I'd rank Gore 6th and Grant 7th. Just to clarify. I'm just saying that someone (cough, cough) said he'd take Gore third overall during a chat. I don't feel that.

Will Brinson: Easy, third. I said Addai was the lockjob third guy. I threw out Gore at fourth and I think he, Westbrook and SJax are in another tier at 4, 5 and 6. Each have a ton of upside and each have a ton of um, downside.

And I think rolling the dice on Grant or Lynch is dangerous. Two reasons: first, you're going to get one of the top five listed below, because you absolutely know Brady is going early in almost every draft. And second, I think that with Moss, Peyton and the other WR's (and maybe Romo), Jamal Lewis, LJ, to name a few, you can still grab Lynch or Grant in the second round pretty easily.

MG: I really hope I'm in a league where someone takes Jamal Lewis in the first round. That would make me so very happy. I love Jamal - I owned him when he broke 2000 yards - but he's nowhere near a first round pick, regardless of what the stats might say. But I think in principle we're in agreement -- there's a lot of folks after this top five (okay, or six) that get pretty suspect. I would guess that by the time actual drafts roll around, things will be a bit clearer - but right now, it's pretty unclear. Usually the real difference in drafts from league to league is the order that players get taken - the top 10 folks are, by and large, the same cast and crew. But as it stands now, there could be at least three slots or so that are different in many, many drafts.

What were we talking about again? Oh, right, the top five or six. Gore is my boy, but he's not the 4th best fantasy player, Will. I don't care if it is [editor's note: we did this yesterday] your birthday, that's crazy talk. He's at best worth choosing at the bottom of the first round - I don't think DeShaun Foster is an actual threat for carries, but I just don't buy the rebound this year. Wish it were so, but I think he's in that mix of RB like Grant, Portis and Lynch instead of a cut above.

MS: So -- if I can try to translate -- it sounds like our general consensus is that the very specific tiers go:

1 - LDT
2 - Peterson
3 - Addai
4 - Westbrook, SJackson
5 - Gore
6 - Grant, Lynch, LJ, Portis, Barber

Sound right?

Then the next group would include guys like Willie Parker, Willis McGahee, JLewis, MJD, Jacobs, Bush, etc.

WB: Fair enough. I'm thrilled for an entire season of hell, er, rooting for the 49ers while watching Gore blow up. My point was just that -- and I'm willing to concede a backtrack here -- that there's a first cut of LT/AP/Addai followed by a second tier of SJax/Westbrook/Gore.

As for J-Lew, he's not going first round. But after his season last year, I bet he's someone thinks about him in that early second round if they're desperate to go RB-RB and don't like Grant/Lynch et al. (Although what's not to like, right?)

The point of it is that, as is the case almost every year, you want a top three pick and if you don't get one, you want a late first rounder.

MG: Your last point is actually a pretty good roundtable discussion on its own, though I'm not quite prepared to answer it yet...but it would be, "What pick would you most want in the draft?"

Cause I'm not sure I even agree with your point that you want a top three pick. Is even getting LDT and whoever is left at 20 going to be that much better than pairing up, say, Marshawn Lynch and Clinton Portis? Or Tom Brady and Ryan Grant? (The latter of which I think should actually go in the second round)...I don't know the answer to that yet, but it's definitely on my mind.

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Oh, it's on everyone's mind. Yeah, that's right. We're leaving you wanting more. Our next roundtable is right around the corner. Meantime, keep your eyes on the Fantasy FanHouse page for our Team Previews. It's never too early to start thinking about fantasy football.

For the record, my top six:
1. LDT
2. Peterson
3. Addai
4. SJax
5. Westbrook
6. Gore