I am here - recovering from surgery so my wits are appropriately blunted for deciding matters of consequence
Proposal 1: Remove the D/ST position, replace with bench slot No
Proposal 2: Remove kicker position, replace with bench slot Yes, but for no really good reason. I just hate kickers.
Proposal 3: Rework defensive scoring to eliminate or reduce the possibility of negative scores No - bad defensive games should be penalized just like a bad offensive game.
Proposal 4: The top seed can pick their opponent for the semi-final game No. Ducking an opponent in round 1 in hopes that they stumble and you won’t have to face them is not the mark of a champion.
Early roster thoughts - will confirm once the narcotics wane. @SenorBeef - what is the rulke in this league for players on PUP/IR to begin the season? Do I need to allocate a roster spot to Christian Watson during the draft and then move him to IR and fill from waiver once draft ends?
You know what, I really need to create an official document of bylaws, because this has come up before, and I recall we discussed it, and I think we may have treated draft picks that got injured differently than existing players… and I can’t remember what we came up with. I’d have to dig through old threads to remember. Can anyone remember what the outcome of this discussion was? And I’m going to go ahead and start a document of by-laws because my memory isn’t what it once was.
IIRC, the rule is if you keep a player, he’s on your roster for the draft. There are no IR spots until the draft is completed, so if you want to keep a guy, even if he’s injured, it is still a roater spot.
The comparison does not work. There are 32 starting QBs and another 10 or so rookie/sophomore backups you could roster at any one time. And every year there are new rookies entering the league which QB needy teams can draft and existing QBs age out and get injured. There are 32 Defenses, full stop. They never get injured. They never get IRL traded. They never retire. You can’t draft more, there will never be more. If streaming defenses became a popular strategy there wouldn’t be enough to go around and those owners without a horde would never be able to change their fate.
If we want to avoid roster limits, then an alternative would be that you cannot keep defenses, period. Everyone must draft one or more and if you want to roster more than 2 early in the season that comes directly at the cost of drafting rookies. It simply does not make sense to allow a team to keep 4 team defenses in perpetuity (or any defenses really).
I thought it was this, but I remember a few years ago someone had a newly drafted player injured in the preseason and we gave him some sort of pity pick at the end of the draft, and then there was debate on it, and I couldn’t remember if we did anything other than simply not take IR into account for rosters before the season starts.
Omni raises good points about how D/STs are unique among positons in dynasty, but I don’t think I can agree with the conclusion that they should not be keepable. That would introduce weirder elements into the league than treating them like normal players I think.
Limiting people to two is an interesting idea – people could always have a bye week backup and it would leave 8 defenses on the roster for streaming. People may not want to drop their second defense for a waiver wire / matchup fill in, though, so maybe an additional rule saying you can carry 3 only during weeks when one of your defenses has a bye.
Like others, I remember the rule being that there are no IR slots going into the draft.
I also remember this situation you describe. The way I remember it, the player went down for the season after he was drafted to a roster. I remember wanting/voting to give them an extra draft pick at the end of the draft because that just sucks.
Again I ask, is there a reason you can’t trade for a defense?
That is a fair counterpoint. We don’t do enough trading in this league in general. A few players represent like 90% of trades. I’ve always thought that a few of you won’t make a trade unless you’re winning it by 50%+ which ultimately ends up hurting you as you miss a lot of opportunities to improve your team.
Random thoughts: I drafted Kyle Pitts over Jamar Chase. Everyone remember that? I sure do. I think the decision is still defensible but man I could be a powerhouse if I had drafted Chase.
Brian Thomas is ranked as a top 5 dynasty asset by some people’s lists. I don’t think I’ve owned a top 5 dynasty asset (by “pro” rankings) at any point during the history of this league. My only top tier studs have always been QBs and experts massively underrate them in their rankings, I think in part because no one expects dynasty leagues to last 10+ years and so they don’t plan for it.
I’m not sure if I’m better or worse than last year. My RBs are aging out. I need De’Von Achane to be a star because I’ve got very little behind him. David Montgomery is slowing down, Rhamondre Stevenson and JK Dobbins are RB3s. Nick Chubb never recovered from that knee injury and his career is practically over.
Not doing great at WR outside of Thomas either – Lockett fell off a cliff very quickly. Deebo is poised to unfortuantely too drop off a cliff. Leaving me with Jaylen Reed? Rashid Shaheed? Not good.
Fortunately I have God’s most beautiful creature, Josh Allen. That keeps my floor pretty high.
In don’t really understand the angst about DEF in this league. I think in every year since I joined there have been 1 or two DEF that hit the waiver wire. So even apart from trades there have been opportunities for folks to grab speculative future value if they wanted to devote roster space for future potential. Isn’t that one of the expected features of a dynasty league?
I don’t see the issue. If you have 2 really good defenses, you’re unlikely to be interested in streaming. If you’re streaming you by definition are rotating at least one really weak defense that you should be willing to drop for bye weeks/matchups. The only potential issue is if you plan to keep the same 2 defenses every year and the schedule gods decide to put them both on bye the same week, but in that case you can fix that on draft day by dropping one and drafting another. If you’re not comfortable with that you can not start a defense or work out a trade before the bye weeks. I think that’s feature, not a bug, since it forces a little change in a league bereft of it at times.
Didn’t you have Gronk and Kelce both at one point or some equally insane TE tandem? I also seem to recall a time or two when you ended up with like 3 top 6 RBs.
