6am: Wake up. 14 hours to go until Draft time so time for an early morning 8 mile jog to get the body going. Followed up with some muesli and 3 Espressos.
8am: 100 sit ups, before settling down for a few Mock Drafts. The aim is to memorize my entire Draft Order from 1-262. Thus I can cover off any eventuality during the actual Draft.
9am: Mental Preparation is also key to a successful Draft. Therefore, I use the next couple of hours to play Sudoku. To fully test myself I opt for the "Bastard Hard Level" games that just contain one pre filled number.
10:30am: To continue my mental preparation I go through my daily Tai Chi routine. This involves standing on one leg for 3 hours, whilst occasionally moving my left arm and mouthing a mantra of "Don't pick Tebow" continually.
1:30pm: Lunch - Massive bowl of pasta and 3 cans of Relentless.
2pm: Gym. 150 Lengths of pool whilst mentally reciting every NFL 53 man squad.
5pm: Final Mock Draft...done blind!
6pm: Pre Draft meal - A bowl of brown rice and 4 cans of Relentless.
7pm Listen to Eye of the Tiger on loop for 45 minutes.
7:45pm Log on to Draft Centre. Discover I'm drafting 13th(!) out of 18...go for another can of Relentless.
8:17pm Finally get to Draft a player. I've read a few theories on how it's now better to Draft a top end QB if possible and to leave RBs for a few rounds. However, position 13 means there aren't any elite QBs left, so I plump for Ryan Matthews. Bit of a punt as he is injury prone, but if he can stay fir he'll score a shed load of points. The "snake" draft means I'm back on the clock very quickly. This time I go for another RB in the form of Michael Turner. Turner has served me well in the last couple of years and I think he'll go well again.8:30pm Rounds 3 and 4 see me take a couple of high end wideouts in the shape of Miles Austin and Jordy Nelson. Austin had been taking a bit of stick in the Draft chatroom, but my complex mental preparation ensured that I paid no attention and drafted him regardless.
8:35pm Rounds 5 and 6. Time for a Tight End - Gonzalez was easily the best available at this point. In round 6 I dabbled with a QB, but there were about 6 left of equal quality, so I decided to go for another WR. Robert Meachem was the best available.
8:50pm Now I really need a QB or 2, so I went for 2 in consecutive rounds. Ryan Fitzpatrick and Joe Flacco are hardly elite names in Fantasy land, but I can see them both being mid ranking players and getting enough points to supplement my team.The rest of my squad was padded out with a couple of back ups in Kendall Hunter and Alfred Morris (my sleeper tip), a couple of decent fill in players in Sidney Rice and Tony Moeki plus the obligatory Kicker (Josh Scobee) and Defence (Chargers..not much left).
In the finally round I took a punt on Julian Edelman. Whilst the Pats have established starters, they only have 4 WR on the roster, so it will only take an injury or 2 for Edelman to be a regular starter.
9:15pm Draft over. I get a well deserved massage and toweling down. Overall, I was pretty pleased with my squad. Matthews is a bit of a gamble and I'm a bit weak at QB, but an 18 team league makes things a lot harder, so all in all I'm satisfied.
Now I've got my Draft out of the way, I'm all set for the Eagles season. I may post my PreSeason report before Sunday, but if not, my next post will be a report of my 1st experience of watching an Eagles Regular Season game. How will they play? How will I react? Will I get emotionally involved? And will my relationship be able to cope with another NFL season?
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