1st Mock Draft

Well the Super Bowl and Senior Bowl are behind us, the Combine and free angency are just on the horizon and that means that we are squarely inside of draft season. In this lull in the sporting calendar we all need something to keep our attention and my sports drug of choice is the NFL Draft and the niche of mock drafts which are fascinating and utterly pointless. They are good content and they are great thought exercises and should be taken as such. If you disagree leave a comment and start a discussion. Now onto the picks... (Had this all written up and it didn't save so this original mock is presented without comment)

Way Too Early 2015 Fantasy Football Rankings

These are just a preliminary set of rankings and only starters at each position. Any specific questions about players let me know but I'm not going to write up comments on the rankings yet.

Running Backs

1) Jamaal Charles, Kansas City

2) Le'Veon Bell, Pittsburgh

3) Matt Forte, Chicago

4) Marshawn Lynch, FA

5) Eddie Lacy, Green Bay

6) LeSean McCoy, Philadelphia

7) DeMarco Murray, FA

8) Arian Foster, Houston

Ramblings Fantasy Football Post-Season Review

Another season in the bank and as always it was a lot of fun. Hope everyone had great years in fantasy and a lot of success. I wanted to take a look at how my rankings did and recap them just a bit. Each positions starters at years end are ranked along with my previous ranks and value over first replacement player along with end of year rankings. (Original, June, Final, Value over replacement) The end of year ranks are based off of scoring for a league I'm in in which INTs/FUMs are not counted and you get a point for every ten yards rush/rec and 30 passing, as well as 3 pts for pass TDs and 4 for rush/rec/def. I feel these points pull out some of the variance that comes along with INTs/FUMs/TDs from year to year.

Ramblings Sports 2014 CFB Prediction Review

Alright, the season is over the games are done and there is no football on Saturdays until next season. This is a review of all my picks from before the season and how they turned out. I think it's a good exercise to find points of improvement.

AAC

Predicted

1) Cincinnati 2) UCF 3) ECU 4) Houston 5) SMU 6) USF 7) Memphis 8) Tulane 9) Tulsa 10) UCONN 11) Temple

Actual

1) Memphis 1) UCF 1) Cincinnati 4) ECU 4) Houston 6) Temple 7) USF 8) Tulane 8) Tulsa 10) SMU 10) UCONN

My AAC predictions weren't bad, with ties in mind I got six correct out of the 11 teams in the conference. My biggest mistake was Memphis who I predicted to finish seventh and who tied for 1st with wins over both UCF and Cincinnati. I didn't realize how good of a coach Fuentes was, nor the potential for a year 0 in his first leading to a large jump in "year 1". My biggest overrate was SMU who fired June Jones mid-season and didn't win until last week over UCONN.

College Football Playoff - Chapmionship Game

The final game of the year and the final college football preview. We've seen unbelievable games. Sat through noon slates and #Pac12AfterDark. Most of  all we eagerly await the return of #MACtion. For now we'll have to entrance ourselves in the inaugural playoff championship game and a match up of two of the most exciting teams in the country.

Monday, January 12th, 2015:

CFP National Championship Game presented by AT&T: #4 Ohio State (68.90) vs #1 Oregon (97.35) (Arlington), 7:30 pm ESPN, The first thing that stands out here is that we have the Heisman trophy winner against the Buckeyes third string quarterback. Cardale Jones played well in the Big Ten Championship game and at a slightly lower level against Alabama but didn't make too many mistakes and had the pressure taken off by the coaching staff by leaning on the running game. Let's talk about the running game. Ezekiel Elliot rushed for 230 yards on 20 carries against Alabama and afforded Ohio State the game icing 85 yards touchdown run. On defense Ohio State was good not great, allowing five yards a carry to the Tide as a whole but over three a carry to Henry. The defense was bend don't break most of the night but will meet a whole new test in Arlington. Marcus Mariota and the Ducks head into the championship game healthier on the line and potent on offense. Mariota is accurate and makes wise decisions and Ohio State will have to stay disciplined to not allow the run game to gash you with mismatches between the tackles. On defense the ducks have been better than at any point during their run. Allowing a little over 22 points a game and just .286 points per play out of the Pac-12 makes them one of the best defenses in the country. These teams are pretty evenly matched. Ohio State has the edge in coaching, slightly, and Oregon has a good cushion at QB with Mariota, which is my deciding factor. Power Pick: Oregon by 28.45 My Pick: Oregon 52-45 Line: Oregon -6.5

So there we are, I may be wrong, but it's gonna be a lot of fun to watch.

P.S. Thank you for reading this year and hopefully you'll be back. Draft season is quick approaching and that's always a fun time for me.