numberFire's Round 4 Mock Draft

(Round 1, Round 2, and Round 3 can be found by clicking the links.)

After a bit of a delay, it’s time to get back on the horse with the nF mock fantasy draft. Just as a reminder, this draft was done at the beginning of August, that peaceful time when Chad Johnson was a happily married and employed man. Looking back, seems like a much simpler age. The world where a reality TV star and a man who once named himself after the incorrect version of a Spanish number can’t be together is just sad, really.

Round four quickly turned into the reception round, with 5 wide receivers and two tight ends coming off the board. But who will have the reception of the T-Mobile Girl and who has early iPhone 4 reception skills? It’s all covered below.

Round Four

My Match – Jordy Nelson
After going with two RBs and a QB in my first three picks, it was obvious that I had to jump on the receiver bandwagon with everybody else, and fast. I was sitting on Mike Wallace, hoping that the contract concerns would knock him down a few pegs. Leave it to Keith the Stats Man to take him before I had a chance, though, leaving me with the Pu Pu Platter of Nelson, Colston, and Steve Johnson. While my thoughts on Johnson as a steal are well known, and late-fourth to early-fifth round is the time I’d begin looking at him, I just couldn’t pass up a thousand yard, 15 TD receiver whose position on the team didn’t change much in the offseason.

Blazing Glory – Matt Forte
Oh no, the Bears signed Michael Bush and Forte isn’t happy with the organization and they’ll be passing more with Brandon Marshall and LAKE SHORE DRIVE IS ON FIRE! Hold up there, Chicken Little. You’re telling me that you don’t trust a 2011 Pro Bowler who by all accounts is fully focused on this season? A player who, by the way, has had at least 900 rushing yards at 450 receiving yards every single year of his four-year career? A man who had played 60 out of a possible 60 games in his career before being knocked out for a bit at the end of last season? If you can’t answer those questions, then have fun passing on Forte. I’ll be over here with my fourth-round starting-caliber back drinking Pina Coladas poolside. The sky isn’t falling in Chicago quite yet.

Burned Out – Tony Gonzalez
My feelings about Tony Gonzalez are also well known – I have him as a huge sleeper who could be the “key to a stable tight end position for the entire year". However, it seems that Terence just skipped over the first part of that sentence: “if you can pick him up late in the 8th or 9th round”. Tony Gonzalez will likely have another good season, that’s not the point. In fantasy, you have to play the other people in your league as much as your own personal draft board. Regardless of whether numberFire has him in the top 40 or not, Gonzalez is going somewhere around the 10th round of most mock drafts. He could have easily waited until picks 60 and 61 if he really wanted Gonzalez that badly.

Potential Wildfire – Mike Wallace
I already talked earlier about how I was sitting on him with my own #37 overall pick, but he was snatched up by Keith before I could get to him. True to form, Wallace is now likely to be in camp, contract concerns or no. It seems like the Steelers do an even better job of keeping guys around and happy than other teams; going into the draft, I wouldn’t have any concerns about Wallace getting on the field whatsoever. And there never has been that concern once he's gotten there – two straight 1100+ yard seasons and 8 TDs at least in each will put that to rest. Since the draft in early August, he’s already been propped up to the #29 overall player on numberFire’s big board and could climb even higher.