I’m thinking maybe move the Dynasty draft to before the week 3 preseason games, under the logic that seeing the starters play is less important for that league because we already drafted 95% of the starters last year. That would give us some breathing room and help reduce FF draft overload.
I wouldn’t do Sunday the 5th, but I’m not saying it’s unworkable. (I’m not in the Big League anyway.) Instead, I would do the Big League Tuesday the 7th, because I think that league has the biggest need for injury status updates, and also I’m pretty sure it has the least crossover with the keeper league, meaning few people would be doing back to back Monday/Tuesday drafting on the 6th and 7th.
I’m a big fan of the Tuesday / Thursday idea between the preseason weeks 3 & 4 for the auction and All-Pro.
Maybe Wednesday the week before (specific day doesn’t matter) for the Dynasty league?
I think this would help those of us in four of the leagues to space out the drafts nicely, plus leave the entire Labor Day weekend free to drink and smoke and fool around without having to think.
I’m in the Big League, and I’m available to fill an opening in another league if there are openings. The Big League was great fun last year. Glad to see it back. Hoping to improve my middle of the pack standing this year.
On the draft, for the Big League, I’ll vote for “not Saturday of Labor Day Weekend”. Tuesday-Wednesday would be better for me, give some time to take a look at final rosters, get in a mock draft or two before the real deal.
I changed the draft times. This isn’t set in stone - I’m just reserving these slots now in case we eventually go with them, since the draft slots around this time period end up getting reserved/filled the earliest.
As of now
Auction League, Tuesday Aug 31 9:45pm eastern
All-pro league, Thursday Sep 2 9:45pm eastern
Big league, Tuesday Sep 7 9:15pm eastern
With the auction and all pro leagues, the day is the same but I bumped up the starting time 45 minutes to better help people on the west coast get home from work. This leaves enough time for the draft to finish before midnight EST.
The big league was moved from saturday to tuesday, but starts a half hour earlier than the other drafts because it’s going to take longer.
Again, these aren’t set in stone and I’d still like to hear what’s best for people. It’s much more enjoyable if everyone attends the draft. Especially in auction leagues, where it can be hard to get players at good values early on when there’s a computer always willing to snatch that player up at average auction value. Varlos controls the dynasty league so I couldn’t change the time on that one, but we could reserve a wednesday the 8th slot if people don’t want to worry about it over the holiday weekend. That draft will end up being very short (probably 50 picks or so?) so you can start it late if everyone prefers.
Any thoughts on doing the Dynasty draft the week of the 25th? Watching the starters won’t matter because we already drafted them last year, so the third week of preseason isn’t as relevant for it as other leagues. Also, because we’re mostly just drafting rookies, injuries shouldn’t matter as much because we’re looking to keep them for multiple seasons (their entire career?) anyway.
Senor, if you have an open spot in a league or two, send me an invite. I’ll participate faithfully, and probably help bolster every opponent’s numbers from week to week!
Personally I’m fine with an early draft along the lines of the 25th, and might even prefer it just for the sake of spacing out everyone’s draft schedule. I’d want to see what everyone else thinks first, though.
I had missed that we were full up already, which is cool. Within the next few days I’ll assign keepers on Yahoo and start the league thread here, where we can tally opinions on draft time and any tweaks to rules and structure. Of course, we have a minimum of two months before the draft, so I’d expect a low-intensity discussion for a little while.
Since it’s largely a rookie-only draft, we’ll pretty much be into hit-and-hope territory by midway into the second round, so it’s fine by me. I’d prefer a weekend, since I’ll be back in school by then, but whatev.
Exactly. If it were our only league I’d want it in a primo timeslot. But since we have five leagues going, with many people (including me) participating in four of them, there is value in spacing them out as much as possible. If any league is well suited to drafting before week 3 of preseason, it’s the Dynasty league. All the others really need to be after the week 3 games. (And the Big League really needs to be after the the entire preseason.)
Nobody cares about kicker. Most people drop their kicker every week, taking whichever is available that is projected to get the most points in the coming game. There’s a term for this, but I forget what it is. Let’s call it “rotating kicker.”
If I were in that league, my bench would probably be:
QB, RB, RB, WR, WR, TE/DEF
The TE/DEF bench spot would obviously only go to one of them. The other position would be a rotating one, much like kicker. Unless by some crazy circumstance I had both a stud TE and a stud DEF, in which case I’d just go one week with no TE and one with no DEF.
You can safely drop your kicker in all but the rarest circumstance, and even if he’s snatched up (and no one will ever spend a waiver claim on a kicker, so you’ll always have a chance to get him back) you can find a replacement with like value for the rest of the season off the wire.
I’d only hold a backup Defense if the second defense has some value to you, either as a bargaining chip in a trade, or as a very juicy matchup during your regular defense’s bye.
Knowing how many times a kicker or a defense has swung a matchup for, and mostly against, me, I would never, ever go a week without starting one or the other. That’s just too many points to handicap. If I had a stud defense, I would drop my worst WR/RB in order to pick one up for one week and avoid dropping my stud defense. I wouldn’t ever protect a kicker in that way, though. On my kicker’s bye, I’ll just drop him for another kicker and try to pick him up the next week. Or not.
To reiterate what Ellis Dee and Jules Andre said, the other thing is to not get attached to your players, or assign value to them based on where you drafted them. A lot of new players will be one of the first to draft the top kicker thinking “gotta get a good kicker, and no one’s jumping on them!” There’s very little predictable difference between kickers - don’t be afraid to switch them up.
How do you guys feel about handcuffing (or doubling up/hooking up) your QB and WR1?
I really like the idea of handcuffing a stud QB/WR combo (say, Schaub/AJ or Manning/Wayne), especially if your league awards bonus points over a certain yardage, like mine does.
I’ve heard the arguments against handcuffing, such as if one gets injured, production for the other will likely fall, or if one has a bad week, then most likely the other will too.
For the most part though, I think think the upside outweighs the down, and I’m thinking about employing this strategy this year for my draft.
It’s a boom or bust strategy. I’ve had Manning to Wayne before, and when it hits, it hits big - but if they have an off day, you don’t get much from either. I don’t shy away from it - I’ll take a QB/WR combo if they’re the best guys on the board at the time, but I don’t typically go after it specifically.
I’m a big fan but not for any strategic reason. I just like that it makes it easier for me to keep track of who I’m rooting for. Especially now that I’m in four leagues.
Btw, I thought “handcuffing” meant taking your starter’s backup, like you would take both Shonn Green and LaDainian Tomlinson so if Green gets hurt you still have a starting RB to put in his place. I’ve never heard it in the context of pairing a QB up with his WR, but then again my sole FF experience is in SDMB leagues so I’m not overly aware of the greater FF culture.
But, I’ve also heard it used to refer to a QB/WR pairing. Although, to avoid confusion with the RB handcuffing, I’ve heard the QB/WR combo referred to as doubling up or hooking up.
I’m replying here because I’m not sure if you check your PMs and hopefully you subscribe to this thread, but we’re 9 days out from the all-pro league and you haven’t signed up yet. I assume you will, but I need to know soon so I can recruit replacements if necesary. Check PMs for league info.