I hadn’t considered that yahoo stops letting you do drafts in mid-season. Does it still allow the importation of manual/offline drafts? Perhaps using a second yahoo account, I could create leagues for us to use later - but we’d still need a way to draft.
To recap, here are the ideas we’ve had for another league:
Efficiency, where yards per carry, yards per pass, etc. are heavily weighted against pure totals
Redraft league, where every X weeks rosters are reset and we hold a draft (possibly including an NFL playoffs redraft system)
No bench league - you get a roster with no bench. If a good player is on a bye, you have to decide whether it’s worth it to dump him or eat a 0 that week. If your star player is injured and out for a month - do you keep him?
Defense league. Using individual defensive player scoring, we make a league that has a real NFL defense - 2 DTs, 2 DEs, 3 linebackers, 2 corners, 2 safeties.
Anything I’m leaving out?
I like the idea of 4, but I haven’t played with IDP before. Maybe it sucks. It’s different enough that I’d like to give it a try, but no one seems interested.
Individual defensive players can be big fun, but it ends up being a run on the middle linebackers that pile up tackles and guessing what cornerbacks are going to defend passes.
Yeah, we had an argument a few years back on IDP scoring. I thought tackles should be valued for less, otherwise it just becomes a tacklefest. I like weighting other scoring measures more.
The main problem with IDP is that the boring tacklefest is the only way to make it a matter of smart choices. If their contribution is based on sacks or picks, those are so rare for individual players that no amount of research or knowledge is going to pay off on any kind of consistent basis. Sacks and picks quickly become just a random crapshoot.
To fix that you need to make tackles the primary IDP breadwinner so that their performance will be more reliably predictable. This is the same reason why everyone nowadays weights yards over TDs for the offensive positions.
I concede that an IDP tacklefest is boring, amounting to little more than white noise no matter how many points you give for them. You can always find a free agent to get you a few tackles, meaning that when using a tackle-based system, the VORP of IDP is minimal.
That’s why I’m not a big fan of IDP. As I see it, they add little to the league except a dull final x rounds of the live draft as everyone fills their roster with basically the same potential IDP points, making the draft super long and changing the league very little. Alternately, tackles are de-emphasized and we’re basically drawing lots to see who gets the big points. Quick: What NFL player will get the most picks this year?
I think IDP might be interesting from a spectating perspective. You’re normally so focused on the offense with one or multiple offense-oriented leagues that it would give you something different to look for when you’re watching the games.
It might be more crapshooty than typical FF leagues, but there could still be some excitement in the randomness.
I wouldn’t want it to be my primary league by any means, but I thought it might be interesting to try for a year as my 4th league.
Auction is the ONLY way to go. I’ve been in a league for over 20 yrs, since back in the “newspaper/pencil/paper scoring era.” About 10 yrs ago we switched from draft to auction, and we will NEVER turn back. In draft leagues, it’s like a “script” that the “actors” vary from only on occasion, whereas CRAZY things happen in auctions. You’ve got to try it.
I have grown to prefer auction drafts myself. You feel like you really have a lot more control over designing your team, rather than perpetually being put in the “damn, the guy I wanted in Round X went 2 picks before I was up” situation.
Edit: if you sign up for an espn account (free) you can take place in auction draft mocks to see if you like it. Sometimes you’ll get a rational group, sometimes you’ll get ADRIAN PETERSON LOL I BID $195 groups.
I definitely prefer auction drafts myself, for the exact reasons SenorBeef said. Every year I come up with a short list of players that I think are poised for a breakout and without fail 90% of them get picked a spot or two before I can get them. It isn’t as much fun to settle for a team of second choices than it is to go out and get the people you want.
I just wish auction drafts went faster. I don’t think I could handle doing more than one of them, and even then the league and roster size can’t be too big.
Alrighty. I’m starting to pull together my fantasy football crap, and have a quick question.
Where do I slot LT?
For years, he was the gold standard in fantasy football. Even last year, which was a disappointment, he had 1500+ all purpose yards and 12 tds. But only a 3.8 ypc.
I can’t decide if he’s a has been, or if he’ll bounce back to studliness after a down year. I’ve ranked him anywhere from 7 to 27, and I have no idea what to expect.
I have the same question. Currently I have no idea where to put him. I’m leaning towards somewhere around 10.
Oh man I know. I’ll probably end up watching the hall of fame game this weekend to see whoever’s third stringers battle it out because I want to see some big dudes beating other big dudes.
LT is a guy that’s tough to slot, but I feel like if I over rate him and he under performs I’m OK with that. He’s just so likable and fun to cheer for, and he gives me fond nostalgic memories of the days he was carrying my teams to wins back when I scooped him as a rookie sleeper.
There’s nothing worse that over rating a guy who’s an insufferable prick or a guy who’s single-handedly dragging down your home team. Or both, Bills fans I’m looking at you.
Remember 2006 when LT just flat out broke fantasy football?
1815 rushing yards, 28 rushing TDs, 508 receiving yards and 3 more TDs? Nuts.
In the all-pro league that year, Tazmanian Devil’s had an unstoppable team with LT, Vick and Bulger (both had very good seasons, FF-wise), another 2 1200+ yard rushers on his team (Thomas Jones/Westbrook), a 9-TD Antonio gates, and Andre Johnson. Absolute steamroller of a team. He went 13-0 in the regular season, after a bye won his way into the championship game… where he proceeded to get his ass kicked by yours truly. Ah, what a season - your only loss comes in the championship game. Greater upset than the 2007 Patriots.