*Season 19 NSFL Draft Recap

[ddrector]

The season 19 draft is officially in the books and rookies throughout the league are joining their new teams. As a member of the New Orleans Second Line it was exciting to see all the new additions to the locker room. I decided to cap off my season 19 draft series with a quick recap and draft grades for each team. I’ll start with the NSFC teams and then go through the ASFC teams.



The Wraiths had 2 picks in the first round and drafted wide receiver Rayne Gordon and defensive end Jayson Kearse. They then added another defensive player in the second round with Tormund Bjornsson. This is a great haul for the Wraiths with a much needed young receiver to take over and a couple young pieces to keep their defense strong. I think the Wraiths did a good job at taking best player available at all their draft spots. The one interesting thing is that they took Kearse ahead of Vassallo, but they were pretty much even, so that’s just up to personal preference.

Grade: B+



The Hawks made a trade with Philadelphia to move up to the top of the second where they took the aforementioned Stevie Vassallo. This is a great pick here. I’m not sure if the trade was too much to move up or not, but the player that the Hawks got was definitely the best player available and a player that probably fell a bit farther than he should have.

Grade: B-



Chicago had a couple of first round picks as well as a guaranteed pick in the second round. They took wide receivers with both of their first round picks with Sean O’Leary and Sweet James-Jones. A controversial selection as SJJ had expressed he wasn’t interested in playing for Chicago, and yet they drafted him anyway. This reminds me of when the Tampa Bay Buccaneers sabotaged Bo Jackson’s college baseball eligibility and then even when he told them he wouldn’t play for them they drafted him at the top of the first round anyway. He ended up playing major league baseball and never played a down of football for the Bucs. Now the Butchers are in a similar position with SJJ demanding a big rookie contract and this debacle has lead to one of Chicago’s general managers stepping down from the position. Chicago had an automatic pick at the end of the 2nd with their former general managers player, Willie Hardagain. If not for all the drama with the general managers and uncertainty about where these players will actually play this would be a very good draft class, but as it stands they may have only grabbed one good player in Sean O’Leary.

Grade: D+



The Yeti grabbed a kicker in the second round. They also added a bit of money to their cap and a 2nd round pick from NOLA with a trade. Jordan Jackson seems like he will be a good kicker, and with no other actives left at this point this seems like a good pick. I can’t really give too high of a grade since they only got a kicker.

Grade: C



The Liberty only had one pick in this draft and it was Avon Blocksdale who they had to get, but they did a good job of being able to trade back in the second and gaining assets, taking advantage of their automatic pick. I actually think this is an exploit that shouldn’t be allowed, but I’m just a lowly safety and my opinions on the rules of the league don’t matter **cough** teams should bid for inactives **cough**.

Grade: B-



The rich get richer. You hate to see it. The Otters had a great draft getting the top corner in the middle of the first as well as a great safety in Lazer-Eyes at the end of the first. They did a great job of just letting the draft play out and making good smart decisions. I was pretty upset when Dream fell to them as I hate to see the Patriots of the NSFL get another great player for their defense, but that’s what a good general manager does.

Grade: A



The Outlaws only had one pick in this draft and it wasn’t until near the end of the 2nd, but they did a great job in finding an active player at safety in Beat. I had a feeling he might fall under the radar due to his late create and low total TPE, but this is a great pick for the spot in the draft.

Grade: B



How do you grade a team that didn’t get a pick in this draft?

Grade: N/A



I was shocked that the SaberCats drafted Deondre Thomas-Fox at #2 overall, but rumor has it that he will be changing positions, so that makes a lot more sense. With their pick at #12 they took running back Quin Tyerucker. Not knowing what position DTF makes it hard to judge this draft. With the SaberCats current roster they could pretty much use help everywhere, but I would be shocked if he wasn’t going to be a much needed addition to their defense.
Grade: B+



I had to save the best for last. The Second Line had a plethora of draft picks with three in the first and two in the second after the trade. As I predicted New Orleans got their top two players on their board with Mack Arianlacher and Austin McCormick, who I’ve been told is the highest tight end ever drafted. A well deserved accolade. These two studs are huge additions to the team and I’m so happy to have them in the locker room. After that we drafted the top safety in the draft in Mayson Blaylock. I’m excited to be playing safety with Mayson. We are gonna wreak havoc in the secondary for years. Early in the second we added a complete stud muffin at running back in Jed Podolak. He’ll spend this season racking up stats in the dsfl before becoming another offensive weapon for us in season 20. In the middle of the second we traded back into the draft and grabbed kicker Herbert Prohaska. What a huge haul for us in this draft. We legit added five active players to an already big locker room. There is definitely an extreme amount of bias in this draft grade, but I don’t care.

Grade: A+

There you have it. Did I give your team a fair grade? Was I too harsh? Did I have too much bias towards my own team? I hope you enjoyed my season 19 draft series. This may be my only season doing this as I’ve been asked to join the Second Line War Room, which I am super excited about.