SDMB All-Pro Fantasy Football league

The Game Room
81

I’m sorry I wasn’t involved in the thread prior to this, but I’ve just sat down and read through it completely and I am pretty much in agreement with everything regarding the changes to scoring.

Here’s my thought process, it’s moot since things are decided but I think we all realize that I like to hear myself talk.

I understand that Sacks are a bit amorphous and determining their quantifiable effect on a real NFL game is vague at best, but I think looking at it from a FFL scoring standpoint is instructive. As noted a Sack of about 6 yards is worth .30 points of passing yardage points. A Sack is also a missed opportunity for a reception, which is worth .35 (.5 after the rule changes) and a fantasy worthy QB probably completes ~60% of his attempts. Therefore a sack a loss of .21 (now .3) potential PPR points. So the final tally of -.6 is pretty spot on.

This is OK, generally I’m not a fan of PPR leagues and if you want to give more value to a WR you should increase the value of receiving yardage, but this is a PPR league and I don’t propose that it be changed. Even though I prefer pure yardage leagues I’m glad this system is different than He Hate Me for the sake of variety. My biggest concern is that PPR scoring overvalues plays like zero gain screens and boosts west coast style passing ahead of vertical passing and a sound running attack. I’ve yet to be convinced that a 300 yard passing game with 45 completions is better than and 300 yard passing game with 30 receptions, in fact I know most would argue the opposite. Regardless, the extra .15 is a small change in the grand scheme of things. It only amounts to a point and a half difference when a WR explodes with a 10 reception game.

I’m a big fan of valuing return yards and special teams but I’ve always liked crediting defenses with this stat instead of individual players. Too many return guys are DBs and really good return players get kicked away from. I don’t think the stats ever really reflect the reality very well. I do like that it boosts the value of some marginal guys and makes RB3s and WR3s like Leon Washington and Ted Ginn valuable in bye weeks and closer approximates the value they have to their team.

As an aside, I’d really like to see a Fantasy League where the Special Teams stats were treated like the Defenses in FFL. Instead of drafting Kickers (which everyone agrees is a moot point and too random and/or closely bunched to require emphasis) you draft a team’s STs. In this scenario you get points for kicking points but you also get points for the entire return game and ST turnovers, all rolled into one and built to approximate the scoring of a defense. You could even include negative ST scoring to reflect a poor coverage unit. I know if you did this people would stop drafting Kickers in the final round and guys like Antonio Cromartie would get some attention.

I play in a league where missed PATs are -10 points. Missed FGs from inside 20 yards is -5. I think this a good thing. Missing easy points should be punished severely. I don’t think field goals shorter than 50 yards should be given anything more than 3 points, and then just barely. Negative points should not be assessed outside of 35 yards at all, just failing to gain 3 points is penalty enough. I don’t care if missed FGs are always the kickers fault or not. If a kicker plays in shitty weather on a shitty field you ought to account for that in your draft strategy, regardless of who’s fault it is it decides real NFL games.

I realize it’s a done deal since I’m late, but this is the only area where I disagree. Take it for what it’s worth.

Great idea. Here’s a little justification. Turnovers are worth 2 points for a defense. A Safety, in addition to being 2 points on the scoreboard, is a turnover. Therefore it should be credited 2 points for the scoring and 2 points for the change of possession just like a fumble. A INT-TD (aka TAINT) is worth 6 for the D plus 2 for the INT for a total of 8, Safeties should work the same. 4 points in perfect. If INTs and Fumbles are raised to 3 points, Safeties should go to 5 points.

Taking these together. I agree that Defenses get too many points compared to regular players in fantasy football, especially in He Hate Me. This doesn’t mean that I dislike crediting good defenses, since I think defense is every bit as important as offense. My issue is that FFL do a terrible job or reflecting the difference between a great, an average and a bad defense. The scoring can be pretty arbitrary and I don’t think that the scales used by FFL leagues are of much use. As such, I find emphasizing it to be a bad thing.

I really want to draw a distinction between good defenses and bad defenses but I dislike this way of doing it. First and most importantly a FFLer should never be put in a position where not starting a player is better than starting a bad one. A WR who has a terrible day will put up 0 points, or maybe -1 if he fumbles. A Defense that has a merely average day without any turnovers can have -5 point total. That is absurd. If I’m remotely considering leaving my DEF spot vacant in a bye week there’s a issue with the scoring system.

I’m OK with increasing the value of turnovers but doing so should coincide with a reduction in the points granted for points allowed. It’s comparable to a Yardage League versus a Touchdown League with offensive stats. You have to choose between rewarding touchdowns or big yardage and reduce the other. Points Allowed and Turnovers are the same with defenses. Pick one to emphasize and diminish the other.

Personally I lean towards crediting turnovers, sacks and scoring and greatly reducing the value of points allowed and reaching a point where a defense isn’t likely to score a big negative number. A FFL roster spot putting up a ZERO is punishment enough, you don’t need a defense giving you -5 points when they give up 28 points to the Pats or Saints and their team wins the game.

82

Great reasoning. You convinced me, and I was the most vocal opponent.

I don’t know, starting a defense that faces the Patriots or Saints sounds pretty foolish to me, so I don’t mind seeing that punished with a -5.

83

Even if that defense is the Ravens or Steelers? If I have those Ds I’m not thinking they should ever be forced to be benched or to drop someone to grab a backup D when facing a high powered offense. Like I said, one of only 9 roster spots posting a ZERO is punishment enough.

84

I don’t like this logic as it would be logically consistent to consider an incompletion a missed reception and hence should be punished. And I’m not sure there should be a logical connection between one player doing something that prevents another player from scoring FF points. Still, we agree on what the number should be, just with different reasoning.

I have some of the same thoughts. On the surface, I can’t even really justify a PPR setting. Receptions don’t seem to me like they innately have value. I don’t see why a 10 yard reception should be worth more than a 10 yard rush.

On the other hand, most of the savvier FF players are moving towards PPR or fractional ppr systems, and it does seem like it has a positive effect overall on the league in terms of diversifying draft strategy and a little more relative balance between the scoring of different positions.

I suppose you could make the case that Wes Welker type players have an added value in terms of sustaining drives that maybe a Santonio Holmes type doesn’t, and PPR adjusts the scoring to reflect this. I’m not sure I agree with that.

A full PPR does seem to be a fairly big shift from a non-ppr league. Our .35 PPR was maybe not quite different enough. Half a ppr seems like it may be a decent balance.

We had a discussion about this in years past and my argument was that it actually rewarded bad DSTs since having more opportunities for returns would be more valuable than having more efficient returns, and hence, the worse the defense is, and the more it lets the other team score, the more return yardage it would rack up. IOW, a team with a good kick return game might return 5 more yards per kick return than average - but a team with a bad defense may get 2 or 3 more kick returns per game, and the 20-30 yards per extra return would drown out the 5 yards increased average per return.

OTOH, this is balanced out somewhat by good defenses forcing punts, but the kick return yardage tends to dwarf punt return yardage.

I like the idea. I’d probably be willing to try it if someone implemented this.

I can’t get worked up too much over kickers in general. I don’t think we would lose much if anything if we just dropped them from our rosters entirely.

That makes a lot of sense and I hadn’t thought of it that way.

I can see your point, but I don’t agree generally. I’d like if there were more ways to quantify bad play and punish it, but it’s generally practically infeasible. For instance, if there were a reliable way to quantify drops by receivers, and we could score for it, I’d be in favor of giving negative points for it. So the areas we do control over - missed kicks, bad defensive play - I like punishing them with negative points.

I think you overstate how often or how many negative points defenses are likely to generate. In order to get a -6 score, a defense/ST would have to give up 28-34 points and not have a single sack/int/blocked kick/safety/fumble recovery/return TD. If they had that kind of performance, I’m fine with giving them negative points. I’m not saying this is objectively correct or anything, but it certainly doesn’t strike me as wrong philosophically. To get greater than -6 points, a team would have to allow 35 points while again not getting much in the way of the other scoring methods.

Keep in mind that we credit the DST of a team as well as the individual player for a return touchdown, which adds substantially to the scoring. Negative points for playing a defense in our league requires quite a feat of failure on the part of the DST.

I’m open to the idea of reducing the points allowed amounts in our league and beefing up the points for the other methods of scoring - and we can discuss that next year as it’s obviously too late for that with the draft being 14 hours away.

Is there a way to see individual scores per week on yahoo? I can go back to the past year view and see the scores each week, but not a breakdown. I was going to look up how often one of our defenses posted a negative score.

85

Oh, the other thing I brought up earlier but haven’t brought up again recently was the issue of waivers.

Yahoo now has an automated system that resembles the system we’ve been using for 2 years, where by free agents automatically go on waivers between Sunday and Tuesday so that the person closest to their computer doesn’t get to pick up the backup to an injured player, but rather everyone has a shot at claiming them through waivers. In the past we’ve done this manually by having people e-mail me and me posting the results, but this usually leads to grumbling earlier in the year as I revert pickups and people forget what we’re doing or get confused by the rules.

I’d much prefer to just let yahoo automatically handle the whole process. There are a few problems with this, however:

For one, the only options are that players go on waivers from either 1) the first game of the week or 2) sunday at 1pm eastern. There’s no option for “5 minutes before their game starts” like in yahoo pick 'em leagues, even though that’s obviously what they should do. Setting it as 1) is too much of a burden - we would have to have all our free agents done by thursday afternoon once those games start. So to counteract this, I propose we it up to run from Sunday to Tuesday with the rule that no one may pick up a free agent from a player involved in the thursday/saturday night games until after the waiver period begins on sunday. This way everyone has a fair shot at those players, but we aren’t locked out of picking up free agents between the Thursday night game and Sunday at 1pm. If someone jumped the gun, it would be reverted.

The other negative consequence is that 1pm on Sunday is a hard line. If you’re debating whether you should pick up the free agent backup of a gametime decision who’s playing after the early games, you couldn’t do it. But you’d still have the option of picking them up before Sunday at 1pm and not making the actual roster decision until gametime.

As the automated process is simpler, less confusing, and requires less work by everyone, I’d prefer we do it that way. It also gives us the option to do the other new feature this year - free agent acquisition budgets.

"In a Free Agents Acquisition Budgets (FAAB) waivers system, each manager receives a dollar amount to place blind bids on waived players. The manager with the highest bid at the end of the waiver period claims that player and that bid amount is deducted from the team’s acquisition budget. If multiple managers place an equal bid on a player, tiebreak options are available as described above.

FAAB w/ Continual rolling list tiebreak
FAAB w/ Reverse order of standings tiebreak
FAAB w/ Weekly rolling standings tiebreak "

In other words, a silent auction where you bid on how much a player is worth to you, and it’s deducted from the set amount you have to set for the year. This allows people more control over how much a waiver is worth it to them. I’d like to give it a try - and if we do, then we need to use the automated waiver system I talked about above.

So I’m leaning towards automated waivers, Sunday-1pm to Wednesday at 3am, using the FAAB system with a rolling list tiebreaker. What do you guys think?

86

My vote is to keep the same manual waivers system we’ve been using in order to accomodate SNF and especially MNF game-time decisions. I’d rather experiment with the auction-style waivers in the auction league.

87

I’m guessing the added value to a high-reception possession guy mostly boils down to killing the clock, and by extension keeping your own defense fresh.

88

I want to reiterate that trading during the draft is allowed. But you’ll have to figure it out quickly amongst yourselves and be responsible for the terms of the trade - you’re on your own getting it worked out, and we can’t pause the draft or anything so it has to be quick. As long as the commitment is clear, it’s binding. So say you see the player you think is the #8 overall player and he’s fallen to round 2 pick 2. You can say “hey, [whoever has that pick], I’ll give you my 2nd rounder and my 8th rounder if you give me your pick now and take X player”… then when that player’s 2nd and 8th round picks roll around, the player who drafted X will then ask him who he wants taken with those picks. After the draft I’ll swap them around on the rosters.

But it’s gotta be quick and clear, since we’ll be on a tight timeline.
Also, I recommend that everyone either try a mock draft today (at least a partial one) or at least use the “test your system” link within the league to make sure you don’t have any technical issues running the draft.

89

I’ve grown addicted to fantasy football. I’ve been waiting all day for the draft like a kid on the night before Christmas.

I’m pretty good at it too - maybe I should start joining money leagues.

90

I’d vote for automated waivers without the auction.

91

I think we should use a waiver system that’s simple to use and understand. I’d vote for an automated system that starts at the beginning of the first game. If there’s a Thursday game them you have about 40 hours to get your lineup squared away after waivers end. It’s a challenge for sure, but I don’t particularly care about that so long as everyone is in the same boat. Also, if we go with the Sunday at 1PM system I’m not sure what the issue is with Thursday games. It’s a hard, easy to use deadline. Thursday players are ineligible to start after their game regardless, so they don’t need to be on waivers for the current week and Monday and Sunday night games simply carry that previously mentioned challenge of guessing who will be playing.

Frankly, the only purpose of waivers is to ensure that people don’t vulture players simply by default of watching a game in front of a computer while others are at a bar or offline. Any of these systems accomplish those goals fine.

92

The purpose with not allowing free agent pickups after thursday games is the same as with the weekend games. Let’s say the QB that plays in the Thursday game is knocked out with a serious injury - if we have the waiver period set to sunday 1pm, then whoever is closest to the computer when they hear the news Thursday gets the backup quarterback.

The rule I proposed simply forbids anyone from picking up a player who played in that early game between that game and sunday at 1pm, at which point all players from the thursday game go into the general waiver pool with everyone else.

IMO, setting it for the first game is impractical, since we often don’t have a realistic idea of who will be playing or not due to injury by then. By implementing the one rule I just mentioned, we can have the benefits of having the thursday (and saturday) night games covered under the same waiver pool as everything else, while still getting all the benefits of free agents being available until 1pm sunday.

93

I’m fine with the Sunday at 1PM deadline with a condition that all Thursday players are unavailable after their game starts. That cuts the honor system portion to a small fraction of what it was last season.

94

Less than an hour to go. Preloading sometime before that. Hope to see everyone there.

95

You can load the draft now and chat pre-draft.

96

Here’s the quick and dirty draft results.

Quentin’s JAMmers - Jules Andre

  1. (1) Adrian Peterson
  2. (24) Marques Colston
  3. (25) Peyton Manning
  4. (48) Darren McFadden
  5. (49) Roy Williams
  6. (72) DeSean Jackson
  7. (73) Jay Cutler
  8. (96) Zach Miller
  9. (97) Donald Brown
  10. (120) 	Jerious Norwood

  11. (121) 	David Garrard

  12. (144) 	Steve Smith

  13. (145) 	Dallas

  14. (168) 	Green Bay

  15. (169) 	James Davis

Exploding Pancakes - SenorBeef

  1. (2) Maurice Jones-Drew
  2. (21) Pierre Thomas
  3. (28) Steve Smith
  4. (45) Marion Barber
  5. (52) Anthony Gonzalez
  6. (69) Ray Rice
  7. (76) Knowshon Moreno
  8. (93) Matt Hasselbeck
  9. (100) Lance Moore
  10. (124) 	LeSean McCoy

  11. (148) 	Visanthe Shiancoe

  12. (165) 	Devery Henderson

  13. (167) 	Joshua Cribbs

  14. (170) 	Jerome Harrison

  15. (172) 	Cleveland

Kid_A - Kid A

  1. (3) Michael Turner
  2. (22) Roddy White
  3. (27) Greg Jennings
  4. (46) Kevin Smith
  5. (51) Donovan McNabb
  6. (70) Marshawn Lynch
  7. (75) Chris Cooley
  8. (94) Willie Parker
  9. (99) Devin Hester
  10. (118) 	Chris Henry

  11. (123) 	Kyle Orton

  12. (142) 	Josh Morgan

  13. (147) 	Dustin Keller

  14. (166) 	Carolina

  15. (171) 	Nate Kaeding

New York Fanboys - Ellis Dee

  1. (4) Matt Forte
  2. (23) Ryan Grant
  3. (26) Aaron Rodgers
  4. (47) T.J. Houshmandzadeh
  5. (50) Braylon Edwards
  6. (71) Owen Daniels
  7. (74) Felix Jones
  8. (95) Donald Driver
  9. (98) Domenik Hixon
  10. (117) 	Philadelphia

  11. (119) 	Michael Crabtree

  12. (122) 	Trent Edwards

  13. (141) 	Kevin Jones

  14. (143) 	DeShawn Wynn

  15. (146) 	New York

Court Jesters - D_Odds

  1. (5) Brandon Jacobs
  2. (20) Reggie Wayne
  3. (29) Ronnie Brown
  4. (44) Antonio Bryant
  5. (53) Eli Manning
  6. (68) Lee Evans
  7. (77) Jeremy Shockey
  8. (92) Darren Sproles
  9. (101) Ben Roethlisberger
  10. (116) 	Tennessee

  11. (125) 	Muhsin Muhammad

  12. (140) 	Sammy Morris

  13. (149) 	Hakeem Nicks

  14. (164) 	Kevin Boss

  15. (173) 	Kris Brown

Omni’s Omnipotents - Omniscient

  1. (6) DeAngelo Williams
  2. (19) Tom Brady
  3. (30) Wes Welker
  4. (43) Vincent Jackson
  5. (54) Eddie Royal
  6. (67) Greg Olsen
  7. (78) Jonathan Stewart
  8. (91) Beanie Wells
  9. (102) Torry Holt
  10. (115) 	Ahmad Bradshaw

  11. (126) 	Joe Flacco

  12. (139) 	Fred Taylor

  13. (150) 	San Diego

  14. (163) 	Ronald Curry

  15. (174) 	Jason Elam

No Use For A Name - RetroVertigo

  1. (7) Brian Westbrook
  2. (18) Andre Johnson
  3. (31) Anquan Boldin
  4. (42) Antonio Gates
  5. (55) Santana Moss
  6. (66) LenDale White
  7. (79) Carson Palmer
  8. (90) Rashard Mendenhall
  9. (103) Steve Breaston
  10. (114) 	Shonn Greene

  11. (127) 	Percy Harvin

  12. (138) 	Jake Delhomme

  13. (151) 	Chicago

  14. (162) 	Josh Brown

  15. (175) 	Chase Coffman

Tazmanian Devils - Tazmanian Devil

  1. (8) LaDainian Tomlinson
  2. (17) Steve Slaton
  3. (32) Dwayne Bowe
  4. (41) Jason Witten
  5. (56) Hines Ward
  6. (65) Matt Schaub
  7. (80) New York
  8. (89) Stephen Gostkowski
  9. (104) Jamal Lewis
  10. (113) 	Willis McGahee

  11. (128) 	John Carlson

  12. (137) 	Michael Jenkins

  13. (152) 	Miami

  14. (161) 	Jason Campbell

  15. (176) 	Mason Crosby

Isotopes - Petey

  1. (9) Chris Johnson
  2. (16) Calvin Johnson
  3. (33) Terrell Owens
  4. (40) Philip Rivers
  5. (57) Tony Gonzalez
  6. (64) Joseph Addai
  7. (81) Bernard Berrian
  8. (88) Kevin Walter
  9. (105) Julius Jones
  10. (112) 	Ted Ginn Jr.

  11. (129) 	Chris Chambers

  12. (136) 	Chester Taylor

  13. (153) 	Chad Pennington

  14. (160) 	Ryan Longwell

  15. (177) 	Indianapolis

The Gridbirds - brianjedi

  1. (10) Steven Jackson
  2. (15) Clinton Portis
  3. (34) Tony Romo
  4. (39) Chad Ochocinco
  5. (58) Dallas Clark
  6. (63) Baltimore
  7. (82) Donnie Avery
  8. (87) Matt Ryan
  9. (106) Rob Bironas
  10. (111) 	Cedric Benson

  11. (130) 	Deion Branch

  12. (135) 	Le'Ron McClain

  13. (154) 	Vernon Davis

  14. (159) 	New England

  15. (178) 	Patrick Crayton

Last Place - Kiros

  1. (11) Frank Gore
  2. (14) Randy Moss
  3. (35) Kurt Warner
  4. (38) Brandon Marshall
  5. (59) Santonio Holmes
  6. (62) Reggie Bush
  7. (83) Jerricho Cotchery
  8. (86) Kellen Winslow
  9. (107) Matt Cassel
  10. (110) 	Leon Washington

  11. (131) 	Nate Washington

  12. (134) 	Fred Jackson

  13. (155) 	Tim Hightower

  14. (158) 	Tampa Bay

  15. (179) 	John Kasay

Frosted_Lightning - Frosted Lightning

  1. (12) Drew Brees
  2. (13) Larry Fitzgerald
  3. (36) Thomas Jones
  4. (37) Larry Johnson
  5. (60) Derrick Ward
  6. (61) Pittsburgh
  7. (84) Laveranues Coles
  8. (85) Heath Miller
  9. (108) Derrick Mason
  10. (109) 	David Akers

  11. (132) 	Minnesota

  12. (133) 	Brett Favre

  13. (156) 	Mark Clayton

  14. (157) 	Anthony Fasano

  15. (180) 	Nick Folk
97

Wow, only four teams took RBs with both of their first two picks, and one team waited until the third round to take their first RB. I suppose that’s partly due to only having one dedicated RB slot, but I think it points more to the fact that RBs have increasingly been devalued by time shares.

98

Alright, so here’s my draft:

  1. (2) Maurice Jones-Drew

Some sources put him as the #1 RB in a standard scoring format. Add a half PPR and he’s even better. I hope those tackle picks they made early in the year improve their run blocking some, and he could be a monster. Happy with this pick.

  1. (21) Pierre Thomas

Reggie Bush mostly sucks. Thomas played consistently well last year when given the chance, but doesn’t have much of a track record. Still, he’s going to get most of the carries in one of the most potent offenses in the league. I like this pick. Although I almost picked Roddie White… I hoped he’d last till my next pick but he was taken immediately after.
3. (28) Steve Smith

I’ve never been much of a Steve Smith fan, and I can’t really tell you why. But he consistently puts up big yardage totals every year. Receivers were going higher this year than they typically do, and I didn’t want to miss out on a #1. I almost picked Welker here.
4. (45) Marion Barber

I don’t like Barber, but I felt with who was left on the board he was too good a (consensus) value to pass up. In retrospect I don’t like the pick that much.

  1. (52) Anthony Gonzalez

We saw a lot of receivers gone by round 5. Gonzalez is taking over Harrison’s position this year in an offense where both of the top receivers typically have big seasons. He’s got a good all around skill set and he’s a third year WR ready to blow up. I’m happy with this pick.

  1. (69) Ray Rice

Rice is undervalued. He’s going to get the bulk of the carries in Balitmore and will probably put up solid RB2 numbers. The main concern is whether McClain will be a goal line vulture this year. A lot of savvy people are high on Rice this year so even though I already had 3 RBs, I felt like I couldn’t pass on him.

  1. (76) Knowshon Moreno

Ok, this sucked. Clock was running down on me and I had no clear direction. I had Moreno ranked fairly highly, so I ended up just taking him. But he’s the 5th RB on my roster. I should’ve picked up Carson Palmer or Matt Ryan here.

  1. (93) Matt Hasselbeck

He’ll have the best receiving corps this year that he’s had in a while. And he’s certainly capable of being a productive starter. But he’s a huge injury risk, and I didn’t want anything to do with him predraft. But QBs were going fast, and I didn’t want to get stuck with a 5th or 6th tier QB as my starter. Much of the success of my season hinges upon him being healthy.

  1. (100) Lance Moore

It’s hard to argue with taking a young receiver that had 1000+ yards and will be returning to the same system. It’s hard to say if other WRs in the squad being healthier will take away from his production, but in that offense he has a high upside.

  1. (round 11, 124) LeSean McCoy

I’m surprised he’s lasted this long. He’s likely to see a lot of action to spell Westbrook so that Westbrook stays fresh and healthy. And Westbrook being healthy all season isn’t that likely. He’s probably the second best handcuff/backup RB in the league (behind Sproles) so I was happy and surprised that he lasted until the 11th round.

  1. (round 13, 148) Visanthe Shiancoe

He put up 7 TDs and 600ish yards from the TE position last year, and his offense will likely be getting better. Favre will throw to the TE a lot, and even if Shaun Rogers permanently settles the retirement issue in game 1, Jackson was improving and seemed to like to hit his TE a lot. I think he’ll finish as a top 10 TE by the end of the yea so I’m happy to get him in round 13. I barely missed out on Zack Miller earlier, who I am high on and thought was a good value.

  1. (round 14, 165) Devery Henderson

800 rec yards available in round 14? I’ll take it. Though it’s not likely that Moore and Henderson will both be all that productive, so it’s not great strategy. Still, it’s a 14th round pick and he has too much potential to pass up.

  1. (round 14, 167) Joshua Cribbs

He has a real shot at being the #2/3 receiver this year, in addition to all his return yards. If he can manage to become a real receiver and still an awesome kick returner, then with our league scoring system he could be a productive starter.

  1. (round 15, 170) Jerome Harrison

Jules thought I was going to go for James Davis here and so he snatched him out from in front of me, but Harrison is who I wanted all along. He’s the best RB you’ve never heard of. I don’t know what Harrison did, but Crennel absolutely hated him and refused to let him play even when he was clearly the best runner on the team and did nothing but make plays. I’m worried that because he’s had an injury during the preseason, and Davis has shined and is a Mangini/Kokonis draft pick, he’s going to be the one to get the carries when Jamal Lewis breaks his hip from falling down in the shower. But Harrison is clearly the best pure runner on the team, and if he gets the bulk of the carries, which he should, he’s going to be a star in this league. He reminds me of Tiki barber, both in stature and running style - small but solidly built, good at avoiding taking direct hits, more an agility/change of direction guy than a burner, with good vision and short area quickness.

  1. (round 15, 172) Cleveland

Kind of scraping the bottom of the barrel here. Cleveland is a not horrible fantasy defense because they tend to be a leader in interceptions (which is impressive given the historical lack of pass rush), but they’re not much good in points allowed which is going to hurt. I’ll probably pick up defenses from free agency and swap them around from week to week. I’m hoping Mangini can improve the defense schematically, especially in terms of pass rush, so I expect them to perform better than they did last year.

99

Quentin’s JAMmers - Jules Andre

QB - Peyton Manning, Jay Cutler, David Garrard
This is easily the safest QB situation in the entire league. Perhaps not the best, if Brady, Brees and Rodgers play all 16 games, but this one is rock solid secure. Manning might not put up the numbers he used to but you can almost certainly count on consistent top 5 QB production. Just the fact that he spent 3 picks on QBs is cautious but all three of these guys played all 16 games and Manning and Cutler essentially take every snap of every game they play.

Manning at the top of the 3rd round is a pretty good value, I like Rodgers point potential slightly more but it’s close, and I think he’ll be a rock week to week. The risk with him is his receiving corps this year, they are really shallow and if either Wayne, Clark or Gonzales get hurt his numbers could suffer badly. He also faces several stout defenses and plays in 3 domes on the road. Of course if anything goes awry with Manning, Cutler will probably be a really good backup. I’m a homer here, but Cutler should reliably put up big numbers as well. The Bears system will eliminate a lot of his INTs from past seasons and the security blankets in Forte and Olsen will keep his production up. You probably won’t get many 25+ point weeks out of him but he’s highway robbery in the 7th round. I don’t love Garrard but him as a 3rd QB in the 11th round is absurd. He’s better than some teams’ starters.

I’d be looking to leverage one of those QBs in a early season trade for a WR2 or RB2. Grade: A+

RB - Adrian Peterson, Darren McFadden, Donald Brown, Jerious Norwood, James Davis
There’s not much to quibble with when it comes to taking All-Day #1 overall. He’s a horse. I wouldn’t have criticized you if you’d have gone with MJD or Burner Turner there since AP will probably miss a game or two and has been known to disappear entirely some weeks, but that’s over thinking things. McFadden is a pretty iffy RB2 considering the pressure from Michael Bush and the overall pathetic-ness of the Oakland offense but in this format you can flex a WR instead and hide him. That said, there wasn’t really anyone left on the board when you took him who was clearly better so those are the breaks.

Brown, Norwood and Davis are all excellent upside replacements. Popular consensus is that Turner will probably miss some time due to the curse of 370 and having his backup is a wise move in the 10th round. Donald Brown could be a star in Indy but the situation there is murky. Addai might retain the lead job and the Colts running game could just be crummy all around, neither guy has really impressed in preseason. James Davis will probably get the ball if Jamal Lewis finally gets put out to pasture but who knows how productive the Browns running attack will be. Fabulous value in the 15th round though.

You might not have a clear RB2 but it’s almost a certainty that at least one of these guys will end up being reliably productive. A future handcuff trade could net you dividends too. Grade: B+

WR - Marques Colston, Roy Williams, DeSean Jackson, Steve Smith
Here’s where you paid the price for the depth at QB and RB. I like Colston a lot but you can’t ignore his injury history (microfracture!). I’m not convinced he’s clearly more valuable than anyone in the group of guys drafted in the 3rd round after him. Considering the format of this league WR depth is very important. Roy Williams is equally questionable. He’s hurt right now (during a non-contact walk-through in shells no less) and it’s unclear if he can be productive in Dallas at all. On paper it should work, him being the #1 in a high powered offense, but I’ve never seen anything impressive out of him in about 3 years and he looks out of shape to me.

I love DeSean Jackson and I bet he replaces Williams as your starter early in the season but he’s a bit slight and he can’t be counted on week-to-week. If you’d have landed Berrian here instead I’d have loved it. I guess a little homerism is to be blamed. Steve Smith might pan out but if you have injuries or if you need a WR to play flex you could be in trouble, bye weeks might be especially painful.

A trade for another WR would be very helpful and you have the tools. Grade: C-

TE - Zach Miller
Miller’s an excellent option. Someone has to be the bail-out option in Oakland and Miller is the most likely candidate. I worry about Russell’s accuracy getting him killed over the middle at some point but until that happens Miller should net some catches. It would be nice if they developed him as a Red Zone threat but that probably not going to happen. The only issue is that you took him in the 8th round, that’s way too early. There are useful TEs still left in FA and that pick would have been much better used on another WR. Grade: C

K - N/A
Um, you do need one. You have depth at QB and RB and you’re gonna need to dump one before week one because you didn’t draft a guy here and you’ll be stuck with remainders. You could have had a top 5 kicker in your back pocket all season if you’d have ditched the 2nd defense. Grade: INC

DEF - Dallas, Green Bay
You put yourself in a pickle here. I like both defenses quite a lot and playing matchups with 2 defenses week-to-week can be a very productive strategy but it’s a luxury to do so. You have issues at WR and K and might have to abandon this strategy before it even begins. At least you waited until your 13th and 14th picks. Grade: C+

Overall: I like this team quite a bit and the QB and RB positions will win you a handful of games, but the deficiencies elsewhere could undermine what wee some savvy selections. Because of those great depth picks you have the tools to fix your problems but as it stands this team is only half-baked. It just doesn’t do you any good to have the highest scoring bench if you have to play FA roulette at 2 or 3 positions.

Preseason Grade: B-

100

I was happy to see 11 of 12 made the draft. We were only missing Taz. Hopefully everything is alright with him. He did get punished by a pretty bad autodraft team.