The 2009 NFL Draft is in the books, here is a look at the AFC West's Draft Summaries, by team.
Denver Broncos
The Broncos surprised the NFL & fantasy world by selecting Knowshon Moreno with the twelve overall selection. They added a versatile, blocking TE in Richard Quinn at the end of the 2nd but the real news was Moreno. With the addition of J.J. Arrington & Correll Buckhalter this off-season, most thought the Broncos would patch together a backfield out of those two, Peyton Hillis, Selvin Young & Ryan Torain.
Summary: Moreno is the most versatile, NFL ready back who can play all three downs (he’s a great receiver & solid pass blocker), so he immediately becomes this year’s top rookie fantasy prospect – likely to fall somewhere in that mid RB2 range. His selection drops just about all those other Denver backs into the waiver wire group. Quinn won’t be fantasy relevant but it could eventually spell the end of Tony Scheffler’s run in Denver.
Kansas City Chiefs
The Chiefs went into this draft w/o their 2nd round pick, which was used to acquire QB Matt Cassel. The rest of their selections were used on the defensive side of the ball so they’ll enter ’09 with the same group of players.
Summary: The Chiefs are in rebuilding mode but have some decent skill position talent with Larry Johnson & Jamaal Charles at RB, Dwayne Bowe & Jeff Webb at WR and Brad Cottam at TE, unfortunately for them & fantasy leaguers, they didn't add anything to the offensive side of the ball in the '09 draft.
Oakland Raiders
The Raiders, once again, shocked the NFL by selecting a less productive, seemingly less talented WR Darrius Heyward-Bey over Michael Crabtree with the draft’s 7th overall selection. Their other picks were on the defensive side of the ball but its this selection that will have NFL fans & pundits talking for several years. If Heyward-Bey becomes a very good receiver and/or if Crabtree is a bust, they will look good but the odds are highly in favor of the other direction.
Summary: Heyward-Bey enters Oakland with the expectations that he’ll be a featured guy but he will need time to develop and the Raiders are expected to run the ball 65% of the time. This pick helps JaMarcus Russell and may take some heat off TE Zack Miller but likely it will take another year to realize that.
San Diego Chargers
The Chargers added an offensive guard in the 2nd round and an underrated RB (Gartrell Johnson) in the 5th round but beyond that they focused on the defensive side of the ball. So the Chargers will enter ’09 with the same core group of skill position players, which is good for another top 10 offensive finish.
Summary: San Diego has a top 5 fantasy QB (Phillip Rivers), the #1 fantasy TE (Antonio Gates), two potential fantasy starters at RB (LaDainian Tomlinson & Darren Sproles) and an up & coming top 20 fantasy WR (Vincent Jackson), so they don’t have much room for new contributors. That said LT’s value is declining & Sproles is probably a one year player for the Chargers so Johnson could be a deep sleeper, ala Michael Turner.
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