One more day!

Less than twenty four hours to go before the HAFFL Draft and I'm still torn . Larry Johnson? Ladanian Tomlinson? Larry Johnson? Ladanian Tomlinson? I keep going back and forth on the matter of who I want to take with the second overall pick. My good buddy Dave (co-founder of the IFFL with me) came over yesterday and made a strong case for Larry Johnson. And when Dave makes a case, it's a lot like Altoids. (The Curiously Strong Mint!) He pointed out several reasons why he believed LJ to be the better choice. One being that the San Diego Chargers face one of THE strongest schedules against run defenses this year and that Tomlinson is going to have to face eight men in the box until the unexperienced QB Phillip Rivers can prove he can beat teams through the air. Another point Dave brought up, with the help of an interesting article in The Sporting News, is that Willie Roaf's retirement and Tony Richardson's defection to the Minnesota Vikings may not have such a negative effect on Johnson's performance as one may think. According to the Sporting News article, Roaf's absence due to injury for six games last year had only minimal impact on Johnson's numbers and there were also several games that Roaf played but was not one hundred percent healthy that Johnson still put up big numbers. As far as Richardson's impact, the article says that while he IS a good blocker, he was only in on about thirty percent of Kansas City's offensive snaps last year. One other point Dave made, and this one is a good one...... Herman Edwards loves to work his featured back to death. Two years ago, he ran 30+ year old Curtis Martin almost to death and won him the rushing title. Now if Edwards can do that with a back on the tail end of his career ... how much do you think he can do with a 26 year old in the peak of his career who has little mileage on him? Alright Dave, maybe I'm convinced ... maybe I'm not ... arrrrghhhh! Guess I'll just wait and flip a coin when my pick comes up.

But no matter which one I get, I plan on drafting their backup as insurance. If it's Tomlinson, then I'm going to grab Michael Turner. If it's Larry Johnson, I'll grab Michael Bennett. I'm a strong believer in drafting backups at QB and RB. Just because they may not be available to you in free agency when your starter goes down to that torn ACL. I'd rather already have Matt Leinhart on my bench ready to go if Kurt Warner gets his knee destroyed by Larry Little. Leinhart may not put up the big numbers or play very well since he's a rookie who missed a lot of training camp, but he has the weapons to fake it.

I also have every intention of drafting a RB duo who may or may not split time. Since I am drafting toward the end of the rotation and have only two picks between my even numbered rounds and my odd numbered rounds, there's a good chance I could bag maybe Cory Dillon and Laurence Maroney .... or DeShaun Foster and Deangelo Williams. There are at least a dozen other duos in the mix at the RB position I could grab. I hope to get at least one, possibly two.

Seventeen hours until the draft. I will be up bright and early, ready to go. Wish me luck!