I think we’d go as simple as possible. Keep three (I agree with mouth on that one), and go from there. Some leagues try to make it as complicated as possible - keep three, but lose the draft round of wherever you picked that player up + 3 rounds (i.e. pick Donte Stallworth last year at round 14, keep him, you lose round #11).
It’s an interesting way to do it, but just impossible to do online. If everyone promised to be very careful during an online draft you could do it, but the potential to screw it up is just astronomical.
So the object is to have three guys at the end of the year that would all go in next season’s draft before the end of round 3? Makes sense. I never really understood because most of the things I have read have talked about guys being good pickups in keeper leagues, but they’re always real young guys at least a year away from making an impact. Why would you spend a keeper pick on a guy like that instead of drafting him in round 10 or something? That’s what I don’t get. Maybe that’s for a league like you mention where there are byzantine rules about the whole thing. Which sounds like a lot of fun too, btw.
I’m not sure that you understand correctly, or maybe I just misread your post. When you start a league like this, we will have a normal draft. Just keep in mind that you “protect” 3 players at the end of the year who you want to keep, and then all the remaining players are dumped for the draft the following year.
Pretty much you have to give some added value to young players overflowing with potential and take away some value for old fogies who are on their last leg. More or less, players like LT and Vick are pure gold, while players like Gannon and Farve, while they will probably do you well this year, are not good prospects for the long haul.
Apologies if I’m not understanding your post.
Also, some leagues keep 5 or as many as 8 from year to year…this is where getting the rookies early is key. People are salivating to find young talent. However, this would (IMO) kill the fun of the draft, because think about it…it would be like starting the draft in the 9th round…those are the caliber of players you are talking about. And once you have assembled a crappy (or dominating) team, players you select that late are not going to have much outcome on what’s already decided. I Think 3 is good because you can give yourself a good step up with 3 studs (Imagine holding LT, DueceMac and Harrison!) but, it’s not something that an injury or general bad luck from the FF gods cannot unseat. Each year remains competitive for everyone.
Also, some leagues keep 5 or as many as 8 from year to year…this is where getting the rookies early is key. People are salivating to find young talent. However, this would (IMO) kill the fun of the draft, because think about it…it would be like starting the draft in the 9th round…those are the caliber of players you are talking about. And once you have assembled a crappy (or dominating) team, players you select that late are not going to have much outcome on what’s already decided. I Think 3 is good because you can give yourself a good step up with 3 studs (Imagine holding LT, DueceMac and Harrison!) but, it’s not something that an injury or general bad luck from the FF gods cannot unseat. Each year remains competitive for everyone.
(Server timed out, sorry if this doubleposts)
Right, that’s what I mean. So the way that you use the ‘keeper’ feature to get ahead (IOW ‘the object’ as I said above) is to end up with 3 players at the end of the year that will be worth more than your hypothetical 1-2-3 round picks in a normal draft. Last year if I had chosen to keep Gannon, Antowain Smith, Donald Driver I would have done a bad job because those three players would not all be taken by the end of 3 rounds in a normal draft. If I had kept Portis, LT, David Boston, I did a great job because those three players are worth more than your hypothetical first three picks in a regular draft.
No need to apologize. I didn’t explain myself well.
So what mock veterans have checked in? Munch, mouthbreather, NurseCarmen, me, mrchan, ShibbOleth… have I missed anyone?
I’m all for anything and everything that feeds my obsession with football. Speaking of which, for those jonesing for a fix, I found a site that does an interesting take on teh mock draft. It’s called a survivor league, and I have created one for us to play with:
I suggest that we perhaps take our time and hash out the details before setting up a account and posting a password. I’d like to get into a league that features the primaries from the years past to keep a little continuity.
For the league in the OP, can we bump it up to 12 to get the regulars like WL and Shibb in?
Also, I’d like to consider the idea of a league that has a roster that has only 1 RB, 2 WRs and one WR/RB position. Since most teams in reality only have on RB that gets any action, it seems a little anitquated and unbalanced to have every team trying to fill two RB positions when the position is so incredibly thin. There’s no way that a 12 team league can have any parity when you need to be starting 24 RBs. Just one mans opinion.
Spiritus, I take that thats just the mock draft league, not the true keeper league, right?
You might be right, but every league I’ve been in has a 2 RB lineup and the draft inevitably turns into a run on all the starting RBs in the first 2 rounds. It seems like it put too heavy a load on the draft order and makes it nearly impossible to win if there’s one freak injury. I agree that this situation is compelling in its own way, and adds a dynamic to the play, but I’d like to try out a league that didn’t. I wonder (and am inclined to believe) if using my method might create more excitement since you can actually win the league without a stud RB. My plan doesn’t marginalize RBs since you can still start 2, and having the stud still makes your team tough to beat. I could very well be wrong, but I’d like to play a league that way to try it out.
mouthbreather, thats another possible idea worth discussing. But, in a way, it sorta contradicts the true nature of the game. While it might balance fantasy scoring, it doesn’t really reflect what wins football games.
An important part of my rationale is that so few teams in the NFL actually use 2 RBs at once, why should every fantasy league? Would San Diego be a much better team if it had both LT and Deuce? I doubt it since there’s only one ball. Why should a fantasy team with that lineup be virtually unbeatable?
Your arguement probably would balance the scoring, but does really put a high value on the possesion receiver. And as a person who watches the Bears and their use of Marty Booker, I can tell you that his typical 9 catch, 85 yard, 1 TD days don’t equate to winning football. However on a fantasy team, that amounts to a HUGE 19 point day. Seems a little unrealistic don’t you think?
Thats not to say that that plan wouldn’t create an exciting fantasy football league, but I don’t know that it’d be my first choice.
omni: it’s a slight variation on the mock draft. No transaction, substitutions, selection of starters, etc. But records are kept each week. Points are allocated according to your top performers in each scoring category and the low scorer each week is “eliminated”.
Playoffs occur when 4 teams are left and in the playoffs score totals aggregate over 2 weeks instead of one. On the end . . . there can be only spiritus.
On the RB quesiton–I think that teh original intent of most leagues was to mimic a lineup with 6 offensive skill position players: 1QB-2RB-2WR-1TE
I play in a couple of leagues that use: 1QB-1RB-1RB/WR-1WR-2TE/WR. The idea is that htis mimics the actual substitution patterns of everything from a 2 back power set to a 4-wide run-and-shoot. Practically, of course, this has meant that except for Tony Gonzalez (and perhaps Heap and Shockey this year) no TE sees the field regularly. To me, this is a weakness.
I would definitely be up for 1QB-1RB-1RB/WR-2WR-1TE, though. I think in most cases 2RB’s would stiull be the standard, but it gives the wideouts some love.
I hat ethe idea of removing credit for receptions/receiving yards from an RB, though. To me, that penalizes a back for being versatile and staying on the field on 3rd down. That’s just wrong.
Okay, I just joined the first league listed here, by Osip. It seems to have ten teams right now, and maybe 14 can join if I haven’t conflated the many leagues here. Who else is in? Certainly White Lightning, the perennial thorn in my side should be in there, as it guarantees him two wins off the bat. Anyone else? Now I need to search through and see what other leagues are in here. I will probably limit myself to two, it would be nice if one were the folks involved in the mock drafting, as that one would be balanced and then we could see who was actually RIGHT at the end of the mock draft season. (My guess is Munch or mrchan, those cunning bastids!)
