I will be going through each of the first few rounds, pick by pick to give some background on the thought process behind my rankings and how they come together when drafting a team.

Round 1, Pick 1 - Ladanian Tomlinson, RB, SDG. - There are quite a few sites that are touting Adrian Peterson in this spot and a few more who try to spin Tom Brady this high.  But I don't see how anybody but LT goes in this spot, although this is probably his last year on top.  I see him around 1800 total yards and 18 touchdowns.  Running backs are still key and with all of the job sharing situations around the league, LT gives you a huge advantage at this position.

Round 1, Pick 2 - Tom Brady, QB, NE. - This is a combination of concern over Peterson's injury history and a nod to the player who dominated 2007.  If Brady falls off even 20% he still ends up with 40 TD's and 4000+ yards.  With Moss and Welker, a creative playbook, and 6 games with the lame east division and he is probably going to put up another monster season. 

Round 1, Pick 3 - Randy Moss, WR, NE. - He probably won't set another TD record, but is likely to challenge 20 again.  After the top 8 or 10 WR, I doubt any other guys get to 10 TD's so Moss could be a bigger benefit to your team than could one of the other RB's that I will get to in a minute.

NOTE - Between holdouts, injuries, job sharing and red zone playcalling moving toward the pass, running backs have never been more bunched up which means that value can be more easy to identify in QB's and WR's than in the past. Everyone says you can't win your league in the 1st round, but you can lose it.  Just ask those guys who drafted Larry Johnson, Shawn Alexander, Reggie Bush, or Frank Gore in the first round last year...

Round 1, Pick 4 - Joseph Addai, RB, IND. - Addai had 15 TD's in basically 11 games.  The Colts should have a tougher time locking up their playoff spot than they have had in the last few years with the Jags catching up.  This means that Addai will be needed more down the stretch than he was last year.  Anyone who owned him last year probably has a bad taste in the mouth after his lack of production down the stretch, but if he stays healthy Addai should be the second best runner in the league.

Round 1, Pick 5 - Adrian Peterson, RB, MIN. - This guy is so up and down, mixing enormous games that can win the week for you, with games where he doesn't do squat.  Combine this with his injury risk and I have him lower than most, which means that I probably won't have Peterson in any of my leagues.

Round 1, Pick 6 - Steven Jackson, RB, STL. - CAVEAT - If Jackson is not in camp by August 15th, he will fall down this list considerably.  I drafted Jamal Anderson the year after Atlanta went to the super bowl.  He held out, missed most of training camp, and blew out his knee in the second week. Never doing that again.  If he does come in though, he could continue building on his momentum from the last 8 weeks he played last year.  Also works as a hedge pick against my Seahawks.  If he does well, I look good making this pick.  If he stinks and this pick looks bad, then the Rams probably stink and the Seahawks have one less competitor for the division title...

Round 1, Pick 7 - Marion Barber, RB, DAL. - I think he could be so dominant with a heavier workload.  Dallas drafted Felix Jones to play the Julius Jones role, but the key is that Barber still gets the goal line and now being the starter he could get 10 more touches per game with Felix being simply the change of pace guy.  Think 15 touchdowns in the great Dallas offense...

Round 1, Pick 8 - Brian Westbrook, RB, PHI. - Fantasy value is based on touchdowns.  TD's are hard to predict outside of guys that get alot of one yard td runs and Westbrook doesn't get many of those.  He had 7 rushing tds and 5 receiving last year.  The chances of him having 2000 total yards again and having 5 receiving tds are probably 50/50 at best.  If he falls short of these marks, he will be the last solid RB in the first round, but total fewer points than Barber or Jackson who get many more short yardage scores.

Round 1, Pick 9 - Peyton Manning, QB, IND. - Model of consistency and no reason to think he will do anything short of 30 tds and 4000 yards.  Not another player on the board you can write down the stats in ink.

Round 1, Pick 10 - Terrell Owens, WR, DAL. - Happy TO = TD TO.  Here is a good place to put in a plug for the HBO specials "Hard Knocks, Training Camp with the Dallas Cowboys".  It is a great look behind the scenes of the cowboys camp activities and you can see just how happy TO is in Dallas.  They have no real #2 WR so he will get all the looks outside.  

Round 2 coming up later...