Did you e-mail dave to poke his friend and confirm he’ll be participating (and declare his keepers)?
I just emailed the whole league, hopefully Dave will see.
DeVonta Smith is confirmed as Can’t Chew the Leather’s only keeper, in the 5th. Everything should be set for the draft now - well, except that I really haven’t done much research 
Draft coming up in 15 minutes. If you’re interested in chatting with us in an environment that’s way better than the text chat yahoo provides, use the discord links found in this post.
So I definitely need less exposure to the SF offense. Make me an offer for Brandon Aiyuk or Deebo. Or even… gasp… McCaffrey.
These are the optimal roster scores predicted by yahoo:
| 1. | Disgruntled Goats | 1596.32 |
|---|---|---|
| 2. | Big Mack Attack | 1580.66 |
| 3. | Moridwon (Hamlet) | 1566.46 |
| 4. | Exploding Pancakes | 1547.43 |
| 5. | Spiritus Mundane | 1535.81 |
| 6. | Baltimore Weirdos | 1523.30 |
| 7. | Fourth & Nineteen | 1523.18 |
| 8. | Nine Inch Neils | 1489.29 |
| 9. | Can’t Chew the Leather  |
1485.56 |
| 10. | Chicago Cardinals | 1476.76 |
| 11. | (Frosty’s) Post Mahomes | 1470.76 |
| 12. | Omnipotents | 1469.43 |
| 13. | Hermits | 1439.11 |
| 14. | Carcosa Yellow Kings | 1302.83 |
Ha. It definitely doesn’t like that I didn’t draft a kicker and my backup QB is on the PUP.
I didn’t even realize you could not draft a kicker. I thought it was required. Good to know for next year.
ESPN forces you to, but not Yahoo. (In fantasy baseball, ESPN can really screw you over. Once they plug someone into your expected lineup, their algorithm won’t move them around. So if you drafted Max Muncy to fill your 3B, but it slots him into 2B, you still have to draft a 3B at some point. Rosters are bigger in baseball and there’s a lot of positional flexibility, but it’s bitten me before.)
I’m not totally sure why it hates my team so much. I probably have too many rookies and second year players, but there weren’t any stupid reaches. The AI report card hated my George Pickens pick which is just silly, yet it loves my Sharpe pick…
It’s grading purely on redraft value so it’s not factoring in the future keeper value of your young players. Not saying that totally corrects for whatever score it’s giving you, but it’s certainly a problem in the automated grades.
It also has big penalties for bye week conflicts, which is probably an issue for me.
DRAFT REVIEW!!!
My favorite one from last year’s draft reviews ended up being pretty spot on when describing our co-champion, Wilson’s draft:
“Best Pick: Fuck. You. FFFFFUUUUUUCCCCCKKKK YYYYOOOOOOUUUUUU!!!
Worst Pick: Every goddamn pick you made, you enormous pile of dog dung. From stealing Justin Jefferson at #9 and Mahomes at 37 to grabbing Drake London in the 7th and Wentz in the 14th. You RUINED MY FUCKING DRAFT YOU HALF WITTED PIECE OF HUMAN EXCREMENT.
Overall: My God I hate you.”
I was right to hate his draft, and he ended up winning. Points for me. Of course I hated dale’s draft, and he was a co-winner, so I’m batting .500. Shows what I know.
I’ve done movies, bands, and books to grade the draft. This year it’s gonna be celebrities. Hope you all enjoy it, and take it in the lighthearted manner in which it is intended
Let’s get it on (in reverse order of finish):
Fourth and Nineteen
Best Pick: Strategy. This team is set up to defend its co-title by relying on great keepers (Mattison and Akers) to nail one position, and then fill in the rest. It allowed Wilson to go WR/TE in 4 of the first 6 rounds, and still not be horrid. Tyler Boyd, although not flashy, in the 12th round was good value and provides solidity in a 14 team draft.
Worst pick: I’m not a fan of the Kittle, McLaurin, and Penny in the 3rd, 4th, and 5th rounds. They’re huge reaches with some serious question marks. I would have loved Hockenson, Keenan Allen, and either Gibson or Charbonnet much better.
Overall: Very good team. It looks a lot like my live draft team (Akers, Mattison, Watson, Brown), so I’m down with those players, but I think it’s missing that stud or potential stud (I’m not sold on Akers/Mattison being anything more than solid) to really push it over the top, but damn I love me some AJ Brown/Davante Adams. They might be enough. That QB position could be a nightmare though.
Celebrity: Jennifer Anniston. Pretty great at first glance, and very solid in performance. But so incredibly boring and uninteresting to me personally.
Chicago Cardinals
Best Pick: Loved getting Raheem Mostert, a very good scorer when healthy, so late in the 7th round. Great! Van Jefferson in the 14th was pretty good too, seeing as how somebody needs to catch passes for the Rams.
Worst Pick: Dak in the 5th seems like desperation, but taking all 3 heads of the three headed monster in KC will be a year long headache unless there’s injuries. I get wanting insurance, but you’ll likely not be able to start more than one a week.
Overall: I like this team, but I don’t like, like it. I’m not sold on a RB crew of “pick the KC RB”/James Cook as your starters, but Mostert might be able to help out there. That WR crew will have to do some heavy lifting for a mediocre QB and RB positions.
Celebrity: Reese Witherspoon. She’s fine. Just fine. Not great, not horrible. I like her a bit, but is easily forgotten.
Omnipotents
Best Pick: I loved you getting Tua in the 6th round to pair with Fields as your keeper. Tua has huge upside, with some risk, and was great value there. I, of course, also love me some Michael Wilson late in the draft.
Worst Pick: While I love your WR crew, it came at a cost at RB. Pickens was a bit of a reach, but everyone else is very good value and you could have the best WR crew in the league. But relying on Kamara (3 game suspension and dropoff in his receptions the last two years) or Etienne as your #2 is troubling to me. Too much shared time. Stay healthy!
Overall: If you can get past the first few weeks of the season as LaPorta develops, Kamara is suspended, Chark comes back from injury, and the Fields/Moore connection develops, you should be in pretty good shape. But it could be a rough start of the season.
Celebrity: Colonel Sanders. Stick with me here. Sanders was 62 before he started his chain restaurants, and struggled early in his careers. But after the rough patch, he hit it big. Plus I like to picture you in a white suit, bow tie, and moustache.
Carcosa Yellow Kings
Best Pick: Keenan Allen at 46 was great value, even with his injury risk. Getting Quentin Johnston in the 8th round to back him up/keeper was fantastic. Well done. Kudos on Kyler Murray flier too.
Worst Pick: Samaje Perine. With Javonte being relatively healthy and Jaleel McLaughlin being the star of training camp, I’m not sure Perine will ever start for you. Taking him before Mostert, Bigsby, or even Gainwell was a wasted pick.
Overall: Lots of potential, but I fear it will be unrealized. Mixon has maybe one more year in him, but the rest of your RB crew are backups/neverwillbes (except maybe Bigsby). I feel your pain on Kelce (I drafted him 1st round of my money league), losing him for any amount of time could make it tough.
Celebrity: Paul Hogan. If things break exactly your way, you could be the biggest star for a bit. But I’d be afraid that any little bit of adversity or just not getting lucky, will make success short lived.
Frosty’s Post Mahomes
Best Pick: Keepers Olave and Amon Ra made it possible for you to load up on Rbs. You went with volume plays (Jacobs, Najee, maybe Montgomery) rather than flash, which may work in your favor.
Worst Pick: With those keepers, you might have used a pick on a TE earlier. I know Okonkwo is a huge fantasy favorite, but with him as your only TE may cost you a week or two.
Overall: Better than it should be. Once again, two stud Wrs kept is a huge advantage, and I like how you balanced upside with production. I just worry that you have 3 4th tier Qbs taking up space and a risk at TE.
Celebrity: Seal. The flaws may be just surface level. With really good depth and some studs at the RB/WR positions, you may have a #1 hit and a supermodel wife. But there is still a chance you’ll show support for a Eastern European dictator (or your weakness at QB and TE) and it will all fall apart.
Big Mack Attack
Best Pick: Darren Waller could be the #1 pass catcher on the Giants, and if he stays healthy, he’s got the opportunity to really shine this year. Backing him up with Juwan Johnson in the 13th round was excellent too.
Worst Pick: This is likely a me thing, but your RB corp scares me. Doubling down on “old and high mileage” backs in Henry and Connor in the first three rounds would scare the heck out of me, and I’m not a fan of Rachaad White and his 3.7 ypc is the very definition of “get whats there” RB, which may work with a great Oline.
Overall: If the geriatric RB crew can keep it together, this team could be competitive. But I think one or the other of them will break down, and I don’t like Geno Smith to repeat and Derek Carr is just a guy. I don’t expect much from this team, but I’ve been wrong before. Often.
Celebrity: Harvey Keitel. Been around forever and has a great resume on paper, but nothing he’s done by himself really clicked with me. He’s supposed to be great, but I just don’t see it. And Bad Lieutenant is a shitty movie.
Can’t Chew the Leather
Best Pick: I really loved this draft … if it were 3 years ago. I do think Rashid Shaheed has a good chance of being a good keeper for next year. Devonta Smith is a stud too.
Worst pick: There wasn’t one pick that just struck me as horrible, it was as if someone had a list of good players from 2 years ago and drafted off of that. Was this an autodraft?
Overall: With Barkley, Pitts, and Smith, anything is possible I suppose, but it seems more of a “draft a big name” than a competitive team every week. Cooper Kupp needs to be healthy and great for this team.
Celebrity: Jojo Siwa. Pretty good from what I’ve been told, but so 2020.
Exploding Pancakes
Best pick: I really liked the mix of high floor and upside on this team. Getting the volume of Miles Sanders and Diggs combined with the potential of Thomas, Mims, and Achane is nice. I liked the last round flier on a potential starting RB in Zach Moss.
Worst pick: Reaching for Diggs before Wilson or Barkley and Mahomes before Hall or Jones puts a lot of pressure on the keepers to be studs. You need to be able to rely on Dobbins and Watson to be studs to make a run at the championship.
Celebrity: Chris Farley. I can see the potential for greatness there, and I like little parts of it, but it’s definitely not my usual cup of tea. Hopefully you’ll survive longer.
Hermits
Best Pick: Perennial disappointment Courtland Sutton has a chance to way outperform his ADP thanks to injuries at his position and hopeful improvement by Russell Wilson. I suppose I could say the same about OBJ too, but I think he’s done.
Worst pick: Zeke Elliot and OBJ are all but done and I’d be surprised if they offer any value on a week to week basis. Zeke might fall into the end zone twice in one game and OBJ might make a highlight reel catch, but you’ll never want to start them on a week to week basis.
Overall: I like this team more than I should. If Walker stays healthy (you missed out on Charbonnet), Pickett gets better as a QB, Lawrence takes the next step into studville, you’ll definitely have a chance to make the playoffs. Waaaaaaaaayyyyyy to much is invested in Steelers though. Diversify!
Celebrity: Conan O’Brein. I like him more than a bunch of other better, more well known, celebrities, but I understand that he’s not everyone’s cup of tea.
Moridwon
Best Pick: Austin Ekeler. Getting him at 5 was a complete chalk pick, but the best one I made. I do like Jonathon Taylor’s value, but he carries huge risk.
Worst Pick: Doubling up on top tier Qbs. Had I known of Herbert’s availability, I likely wouldn’t have drafted Allen (although he was good value as the #4 QB off the board), but it cost me at my other positions. I hope I can either make a trade or get lucky on my lottery tickets.
Overall: I have a ton riding on Calvin Ridley and either Brian Robinson or Tyler Allegeir. If they work out, I like my chances. It could be a tough start to the season with Jonathon Taylor being unavailable, a “wasted” pick on a backup QB, and too much youth at the WR position. But I like my team.
Celebrity: Will Smith. Has been who is more a butt of jokes than performer anymore. But there is still a twinkle of hope of greatness.
Spiritus Mundane
Best Pick: I love, love, love Sean Tucker’s potential and hard to beat getting him in the 14th round. I think Tyler Higbee and Antonio Gibson could be sneaky good this year in fantasy.
Worst Pick: I’m not sure of your studs. Chubb (he’s awesome, but lack of pass catching limits his points scoring and I think we’ve seen the best he’s capable of last year) before Ekeler. Metcalf before Breece Hall and DJ Moore. Lamar Jackson before Josh Allen. It’s a bit nitpicky, but almost every early pick, I thought there was someone better on the board.
Overall: Good to great team that will compete every week. With this lineup and the keeper of Tony Pollard, I think they have a good chance of the playoffs.
Celebrity: Hugh Jackman. An all around great guy who I like a lot and have high hopes for anything he does.
Baltimore Weirdos
Best Pick: I like Harrison Butker in the 15th round. And you have 6 Rbs. So there’s that.
Worst Pick: Bijan at 3 was interesting. Get your guy, I guess. But after spending your 1st and 2nd round picks on Rbs, you then spent another 4 picks at the same position. I don’t think that’s wise for building a solid roster.
Overall: I don’t like it. Amari Cooper is your #1 WR, and Gabe Davis is your #2. But more importantly, the rest of your roster is all guys who won’t likely contribute without an injury to another team’s players. Swift, Edwards, Lazard, Foreman, and Mitchell all need injuries to contribute.
Celebrity: Justin Bieber. If you like him, you REALLY like him. But if you don’t, you REALLY don’t.
Nine Inch Nails
Best Pick: Gainwell, who should get you points every week, is the titular starter on a high powered offense. Great value in the 8th round. I also like Aiyuk to have a good year, but doubling him up with Deebo could be troubling.
Worst Pick: Lots of 49ers. Unless their offense takes a huge step forward, there are just too many mouths to feed for everyone to get a taste each week. Great for a floor, but tough to reach the ceiling. I’m also questioning the “wait on a QB strategy”.
Overall: As the Niners go, so goes this team. I do love the starting lineup of McCaffrey, Hall, Samuel, Aiyuk, and Goedert. But Purdy and Ridder might have you pulling out your hair every week.
Celebrity: Tom Cruise. Fantastic at what he does, if you like what he does. But his Scientology (or in your case the QB position) will always be a major flaw.
Disgruntled Goats
Best Pick: Javonte Williams in the 5th round could be the pick of the draft. And Jeff Wilson with the last pick could be fun.
Worst Pick: Kicker at the start of the 9th round. You do you, but it was 6 more rounds before another kicker was drafted.
Overall: IF, and it’s a big IF, Javonte Williams emerges as a true #1 RB, this team could be outstanding. With a starting lineup of Hurts, Williams, Gibbs (slow start last night), Jefferson, Williams, and Herbert, you have one of the best starting lineups in the league. I think your bench is garbage though.
Celebrity: Brad Pitt. Everything looks fantastic on the surface. If you get lucky with injuries and performance, you could be the biggest star in the sky. But there’s also some darkness lurking behind the facade. Just ask Angelina Jolie.
Enjoy!!! And Good Luck everyone!!!
Wow, in twelve months I’ve gone from human excrement to Jennifer Aniston!
Thanks for the recaps, Hamlet. Enjoyable reads as always!
Thanks for the reviews, look forward to them every year
I don’t believe in Ekeler - think we saw his peak last year and he regresses now. I do believe in Jackson - and MVP level Lamaar is better than Allen, in fantasy and real life. Metcalf over Moore is purely about the QB situation. I would not have gone Hall because he would have been my 3rd RB and I needed to stack other positions. Also too many Cooks in that kitchen.
I can’t tell you how many times I have been mistaken for Hugh Jackman. It’s starting to get embarrassing, actually.
Someday it may happen when I am awake, too Thanks for the write ups - always a pleasure to read.
Sent out a few trade offers yesterday, and they are BIG.
I drafted and kept JK Dobbins all last year to have a great keeper and… half a game and his career is over. Damn. Double hit too because I have him in the dynasty league, even bigger hit there.