Review of Top Ten 2008 TTFBA Picks

It's a year later. How are teams feeling about their first round draft picks from last season? Any surprises? Any studs turned to duds? Any reaches turned to peaches? Let's take a look.   1. Joe Thomas, OT, Death Valley Thomas, the 3rd pick of the NFL draft was a 9 rating last year and a 9 rating this year. An excellent choice for the Demons.   2. Adrian Peterson, RB, Philadelphia What do you do when you have two thousand yard rushers in your backfield? Why, draft another one, of course. The Liberty had several areas of need but none of the talent rated a 2nd overall pick. Peterson had back-to-back thousand yard seasons with at least 10 touchdowns.   3. Patrick Willis, ILB, Dayton The rookie Pro Bowler dropped from a 10 to a 9 but that doesn't diminish the quality of the Dragons' pick.   4. Marshawn Lynch, RB, Knoxville Lynch had a few less yards but added a TD (from 7 to 8) and significantly improved his reception numbers (18 to 47) and went to the Pro Bowl. He'll have a dip next year because of a 3 game suspension because of an arrest on a gun charge. Hopefully, this is not a preview of things to come and cause Knoxville to regret this pick.   5. John Beason, ILB, Real Charleston The Galacticos couldn't pass on 8 rated Beason in the draft and he rewarded them by improving to a 9.   6. Darrell Reavis, CB, San Pedro (Corsairs) Reavis jumped from a 7 to a 9. Fantastic pick by the Corsairs.   7. Ryan Grant, RB, Steeltown The undrafted NFL surprise rookie, Grant took a step back his 2nd season. Although he got 1,203 yds, up from 956; his average dropped precipitously from 5.1 to 3.9. His TD production halved from 8 to 4 and he caught fewer passes. Fortunately, the Roughcut have Larry Johnson and Ernest Graham on board but could have some concern for the future of Mr. Grant.   8. Calvin Johnson, WR, Mt. Pilot Johnson was a bit of a disappointment his rookie year in the NFL. The 2nd overall pick only caught 48 passes and there were whispers that he might be a bust for Detroit. But he blossomed  the next season and caught 78 passes and tripled his TDs from 4 to 12. Excellent pick for the Gamblers.   9. LaRon Landry, S, Transylvania  Landry turned out to be a solid pick for the Evil Dead, improving his rating from 7 to 8 and snatching his first two interceptions.   10. Anthony Gonzalez, WR, Dallas Have to take responsibility of this one. I purposely passed up 70 catch Dwayne Bowe for 37 catch Gonzalez because 1) Gonzalez is a Colt and Bowe is a Chief and I thought a Colt WR would be a better long term investment than a Chief WR, especially with the issues they had at QB. and 2) I figured Marvin Harrison was close to, if not already, done at Indy because of age and his magical pistol floating away and firing itself. Although Gonzalez improved to 57 receptions and is now the #2 guy, Bowe continued to shine and caught 86 passes. And his future looks even more promising with Matt Cassel becoming his QB. If I had to do it again - definitely Bowe.   So, there it is. Very good picks by every team with the exception of Steeltown and Dallas.