A look back… at the 2001 Draft

The oldest league draft on record is that of the 2001 season, in which the Red Bank Mallrats won the title as a 10-3, #2 seed, and the ChicksDigTheLongBall (CTan) posted an 11-3 tally. We also saw Trigger go a perfect 0-14, a mark that to this day stands as the worst record in league history.

But here we are, roughly 20 drafts later, and I thought it might be fun to look back and see what we thought were good decisions back when I was still sneaking by Mrs. Battleaxe to use the SCHS Library computer to update my team…

THE FIRST ROUND

Kurt Warner – ChicksDigTheLongBall (C Tan)
Marshall Faulk – Red Bank Mallrats (Kronner)
Brian Griese – Nacho Team (You Know Who)
Peyton Manning – Timbo’s Terrorizers (Kristin Cunningham I assume?)
Donovan McNabb – St. Lunitic (Matt)
Jeff Garcia – The Other White Meat (Scott “You Are Below Me, So You Can Blow Me” Mollan)
Daunte Culpepper – The Flying Dutchmen (Mr. 0-14)
Randy Moss – sc4_skippers (Mr. About to Draft 3 DL from the Lions)

Hey, remember that time that Brian Griese got drafted before Peyton Manning cause Davers was such a U of M fanboy? Yeah, that’s how far back we are. No wonder Kronner and Tan finished at the top of the league this year, grabbing the two most important members of the “Greatest Show on Turf” and getting to compete against teams that took Jeff Garcia and Brian Griese in the top 6 picks…

Kickers and Defense

How did the draft look on the other side of the ball? Well, we started in the 2nd round, when Matt Alley took Javon Kearse. To show how clueless we all were about how little the D was worth back then, the next guy taken was by Kronner, in the 3rd when he selected Warren Sapp. Before the next D player was selected (Ray Lewis in Round 4 by Kronnner), Matt Alley bucked another trend and took Dave’s favorite player out from under him – Martin Gramatica. That’s right a Kicker in round 4. This started a mini-run that saw Dave take Jason Hanson two picks later, and Timbo came back with Olindo Mare early in the fifth.

Maybe my favorite trivia here is that Jones would go on to draft not one, not two, but THREE members of the Detroit Lions heralded Defensive Line this year. Robert Porcher, Luther Ellis, and Tracy Scroggins would all join the Skippers for their historic 7-7, 4th place finish.

Full Kicker Results; Look how stupid we were about Kickers…

Matt – Martin Gramatica (28)
Dave – Jason Hanson (30)
Timmy – Olindo Mare (36)
Trigger – Mike Hollis (39)
Scott – Mike Vanderjagt (43)
Jones – Matt Stover (57)
Kronner – Sebastian Janikowski (63)
C Tan – Jason Elam (80)
Dave Again – Ryan Longwell (115) [drafting a backup K before a backup RB – bold move]
Scott Again – Gary Anderson (123)
Kronner Again – Adam Vinatieri (143)

HALL OF FAME TALENT

Here’s how many future HOFer’s we each drafted that year… (as of now)

Kronner (7) – Ty Law, Ray Lewis, Junior Seau, Jerome Bettis, Michael Strahan, Warren Sapp, and Marshall Faulk.
C Tan (5) – Kurt Warner, Brett Favre, Marvin Harrison, Tim Brown, and Shannon Sharpe.
Scott (4) – Jerry Rice, Tony Gonzalez, Champ Bailey, and Cris Carter.
Jones (4) – Edgerrin James, Randy Moss, Derrick Brooks, and Rod Woodson.
Timmy (3) – Terell Owens, Curtis Martin, and Emmitt Smith.
Dave (1) – Issac Bruce
Matt and Trigger (0)

If we added in guys who are likely going to get in, but aren’t there yet;