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the spanker

Strategy in Drafting Your Team

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I play in a PPR 12-man league but I believe this question applies to standard leagues as well.

 

I know there are many draft strategies: Zero RB, Zero WR, BPA, Value selection, etc, etc. But here's my question:

 

Does anyone draft with the intention of filling out their starting lineup right away with the exception of kicker, defense, and maybe QB? My league starting format is 1QB 2RB 2WR 1TE with one flex spot for RB/WR/TE.

 

The disadvantage of using this strategy is that it may cost you some quality depth at RB and WR but you're starters should be very strong and competitive at the start of the season to win games for you. The con is bye-weeks and injuries could derail your season quickly however if your really proactive on the waiver wire you should be able to find quality depth especially at the beginning of the season.

 

 

I'm curious to know if anyone has used this strategy in the past and if so, did it work out for you?

 

 

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I go with with my cheat sheet with the ideal of drafting WRs and Rbs in the first five too six picks.

 

So I can get my two starting Rbs and WRs plus a couple of flex players.

 

Then I start Looking at TE's and still watching what's on the draft board at Wr and Rbs

 

I don't even start looking at qbs until round 8.

 

By then I hope too have a combo of seven WRs and Rbs and a starting te.

 

I know depth is very important, so I look for it early and worry about TE's andQbs later.

 

Last two picks kicker and def in which I usally stream most of the season anyway.

 

Thanks for the post, fun question.

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I go with with my cheat sheet with the ideal of drafting WRs and Rbs in the first five too six picks.

 

So I can get my two starting Rbs and WRs plus a couple of flex players.

 

Then I start Looking at TE's and still watching what's on the draft board at Wr and Rbs

 

I don't even start looking at qbs until round 8.

 

By then I hope too have a combo of seven WRs and Rbs and a starting te.

 

I know depth is very important, so I look for it early and worry about TE's andQbs later.

 

Last two picks kicker and def in which I usally stream most of the season anyway.

 

Thanks for the post, fun question.

 

Question for you: Is that a hard and fast rule for you?

 

For example in Aaron Rogers fell to the 3rd round (considered now to be a value pick), would you still stick to your round 8 strategy to pick up a QB?

 

Thanks for your reply. I often wonder if drafting the strongest starting lineup is the best strategy because you are in position to win more games while working waivers to acquire quality depth.

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I watch the board. By round 8 you wont find a stud at QB or TE beyond falling into luck. Ill have 3 of each i value the same and keep the hammer at WR and RB. Ive even went after the best defense and kicker before drafting a QB and TE in last 2 picks. By the same token i might move up earlier to pick up a stud TE, but never a QB, pretty much bushleague move.

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RB heavy 3 of the first 4 rounds. WR the other pick. If you can get a top 4 TE in the 5th, go for it, else freelance on best pick available.

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Question for you: Is that a hard and fast rule for you?

 

For example in Aaron Rogers fell to the 3rd round (considered now to be a value pick), would you still stick to your round 8 strategy to pick up a QB?

 

Thanks for your reply. I often wonder if drafting the strongest starting lineup is the best strategy because you are in position to win more games while working waivers to acquire quality depth.

 

Yes it is.

 

I play only in ppr leagues.

 

Now over the years that I've played I have broken my own rule, and it always seems to hurt me.

 

So I do stick with those rules.

 

Last year there where 16'qbs that avg 20 plus points for game,and what would have happen last season if I did draft Rodgers early, who ended up playing in only 7 games.

 

And thank you for the reply.

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Yes it is.

 

I play only in ppr leagues.

 

Now over the years that I've played I have broken my own rule, and it always seems to hurt me.

 

So I do stick with those rules.

 

Last year there where 16'qbs that avg 20 plus points for game,and what would have happen last season if I did draft Rodgers early, who ended up playing in only 7 games.

 

And thank you for the reply.

 

No thank you.

 

You must research players and feel pretty comfortable where you rank them on your cheat sheet.

 

If you have a WR and RB at the same value, do you automatically select one position over the other?

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RB heavy 3 of the first 4 rounds. WR the other pick. If you can get a top 4 TE in the 5th, go for it, else freelance on best pick available.

 

That strategy is what I've done for years in my ppr league. However I will deviate from it if I think I'm getting good value at another position.

 

Another thing I pay close attention to is how fast a specific position is drying up. IF RBs are going off the board en mass at an alarming rate then there tends to be a supply at another position.

 

I won't always bite on the RB unless there are several players at another position I consider to be fairly equal in value.

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I watch the board. By round 8 you wont find a stud at QB or TE beyond falling into luck. Ill have 3 of each i value the same and keep the hammer at WR and RB. Ive even went after the best defense and kicker before drafting a QB and TE in last 2 picks. By the same token i might move up earlier to pick up a stud TE, but never a QB, pretty much bushleague move.

 

So are you saying you'll have a TE and QB drafted no matter what by round 8?

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No thank you.

 

You must research players and feel pretty comfortable where you rank them on your cheat sheet.

 

If you have a WR and RB at the same value, do you automatically select one position over the other?

Thanks for the question, and it's a very good one.

 

Wr and Rb same value I usally go with the postion that seems too be drying up the fastes.

 

And since it's a live draft I keep track of the other owners and what their needs are, and try to draft based on your I feel the draft will come around and what players I might have a second chance at.

 

Hey again thanks for the reply.

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I do a lot of mock drafts usually and have a general idea of who I'm going to take and when.

Then it all goes to crap because It never fails that my real draft goes completely different than mock drafts.

I don't try to pick positions before hand.

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I favor RBs most and WRs second, QBs distant 3rd.....I would say I am likely to end up round 5 with 4 RB and 1 WR.

 

I play in leagues where we play 2 WR. I always feel for your last WR spot (be it WR2 or WR3) you can nail one with a late sleeper pick. Take 1 top WR and 3 sleeper WRs, hope 1 of the 3 hits.

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We keep 6 so our first round is round 7. While most teams start out grabbing rookies I try to stick with best player or biggest need. I usually grab a def and kicker earlier than most depending on the flow of the draft. I like being able to draft the d or k I want over a 5th rb that I will mostly cut anyway.

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Go auction in your main league. It is way more fun to build your team based on a salary cap rather than on who's available when it's your turn to pick.

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So are you saying you'll have a TE and QB drafted no matter what by round 8?

Todays fantasy football you cant predict anything like you did in the past. Take a guy like Kordell Stewart, he may rush for a 100 yards but only get you 1 or 2 touchdowns. A lot of people would draft him thinking they were out-smarting everyone. But in them days you could predict also there would be some games where Stewart didn't have a TD and couldn't rush because the defense was to quick. That's why I never liked running QBs although Cam Newton has served people well. - Why Jonathon Stewart has never spoke up is beyond me.

 

I pulled my original draft paper from this year out and here what I had. I took 2 RBs and Kelce in the 3rd round, Rd 13 I took my only kicker -Justin Tucker, Rd 14, my only Def.-Houston, Stafford and Eli in Rd 15 and 16. Now this is all based on how things went in my draft and reacting to others. Obviously Eli wasn't on my team long but has served me well in the past for a guy I could wait on till the end.

 

I liked what I did, but to be honest with injuries and predicting who is a true stud at RB with so many teams using the committee approach I stunk. Pretty much welcome to Fantasy Football of today.

 

In the past was so easy to get 3 RBs on your team to get 100 yards and a Td for you. I even went as far as drafting Terry Glenn a few years expecting him to be injured half the year because I knew Bledsoe would throw him a TD when I did insert him in my line-up.

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Go auction in your main league. It is way more fun to build your team based on a salary cap rather than on who's available when it's your turn to pick.

 

I really want to do that but from everyone I've spoken to, auctions take a while to complete.

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I really want to do that but from everyone I've spoken to, auctions take a while to complete.

Probably about 2-3 hours longer depending on how efficiently you run it. I just plan for the extra time. The drafts are really fun.

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Probably about 2-3 hours longer depending on how efficiently you run it. I just plan for the extra time. The drafts are really fun.

I can't believe I'm actually gonna agree with the foamer on something. But he's right. You owe it to yourself to do an auction draft at least once in your fantasy football lifetime. It's a blast. Especially if you can have the league do it in person. I have 1 of my 2 leagues that does this. It is quit lliterally one of my favorite days of the year.

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I can't believe I'm actually gonna agree with the foamer on something. But he's right. You owe it to yourself to do an auction draft at least once in your fantasy football lifetime. It's a blast. Especially if you can have the league do it in person. I have 1 of my 2 leagues that does this. It is quit lliterally one of my favorite days of the year.

Yeah. You kind of have to do it in person or at least use conferencing equipment.

 

Having a salary cap also helps fix collusion (for those who worry about that), weekly blind bidding for FAs is straight forward and fair as can be, and overall, the owners are way more in control with how they structure their teams. Prepping for auctions is way more fun and interesting, especially if you add in multi year contracts for players or even simple keeper structures.

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I can't believe I'm actually gonna agree with the foamer on something. But he's right. You owe it to yourself to do an auction draft at least once in your fantasy football lifetime. It's a blast. Especially if you can have the league do it in person. I have 1 of my 2 leagues that does this. It is quit lliterally one of my favorite days of the year.

The best opening statement ever.

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I would love to have an auction draft but the way my league is structured makes it all but impossible to do.

 

Trust me I've contemplated it over and over again brainstorming possibilities to make it work, but because it takes so long to complete it's a no-go.

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Trust me I've contemplated it over and over again brainstorming possibilities to make it work, but because it takes so long to complete it's a no-go.

I won't labor in trying to sell you on it, as I think whatever format works for those involved is cool. I won't even put down TD only leagues. Fun is fun.

 

But I am interested in the time aspect of it being a deterent.

 

We have a guy in our league that is always struggling with being able to have the full time for the draft although he has been in the league for 15 years and just tries to rush the draft every year.

 

Can a person not take a day to themselves once a year unless of course for the obvious emergency situations?

 

Since you mentioned it is a time concern with yourself, are you that busy or is the interest just not there?

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I won't labor in trying to sell you on it, as I think whatever format works for those involved is cool. I won't even put down TD only leagues. Fun is fun.

 

But I am interested in the time aspect of it being a deterent.

 

We have a guy in our league that is always struggling with being able to have the full time for the draft although he has been in the league for 15 years and just tries to rush the draft every year.

 

Can a person not take a day to themselves once a year unless of course for the obvious emergency situations?

 

Since you mentioned it is a time concern with yourself, are you that busy or is the interest just not there?

 

No it has nothing to do with me. Let me explain:

 

My ppr league consists of 24 teams. Those teams are broken into two 12-man conferences.

 

Each conference has it's own separate serpentine 15 round on-line draft. We play double headers every week. One game you play within your conference and the other each week you play someone in the other conference. As an example, say you and I are not in the same conference but we both drafted Antonio Brown (AB). Points generated by AB for our squads that week would cancel each other out and winner would be determined by remaining players on our team.

 

Because folks live in different time-zones (Participants are located all over the U.S. and sometimes overseas), it's challenging enough to have two drafts on one day (Saturday every year) never-mind have two auction drafts.

 

Now if there was a way for me to get everyone to agree to have one auction draft on Saturday and one on Sunday it would probably work, but for some guys Sunday is reserved for church and family day making it a no-go to make it happen.

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No it has nothing to do with me. Let me explain:

 

My ppr league consists of 24 teams. Those teams are broken into two 12-man conferences.

 

Each conference has it's own separate serpentine 15 round on-line draft. We play double headers every week. One game you play within your conference and the other each week you play someone in the other conference. As an example, say you and I are not in the same conference but we both drafted Antonio Brown (AB). Points generated by AB for our squads that week would cancel each other out and winner would be determined by remaining players on our team.

 

Because folks live in different time-zones (Participants are located all over the U.S. and sometimes overseas), it's challenging enough to have two drafts on one day (Saturday every year) never-mind have two auction drafts.

 

Now if there was a way for me to get everyone to agree to have one auction draft on Saturday and one on Sunday it would probably work, but for some guys Sunday is reserved for church and family day making it a no-go to make it happen.

Totally get it. That is a lot of teams. Sounds like a cool league.
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We run a slow vet auction through MFL. Players are nominated, everyone can bid and if a player receives no further bids in 24 hours he's yours.

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We run a slow vet auction through MFL. Players are nominated, everyone can bid and if a player receives no further bids in 24 hours he's yours.

Works well too.

 

The one thing I wish MFL offered during slow auctions is the ability to bow out on a player. Sometimes the nominating process can slow to a crawl in the final hours of a player no one else has interest in.

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Here's an interesting early mock draft article written by Jamey Eisenberg on CBS Sports. Jamey writes:

 

"We recently held our first 12-team standard mock draft for the upcoming season, and running backs were prominently featured in the early rounds of that format. That's expected.

 

We followed that up with a 12-team PPR mock draft, and there was more of an emphasis on pass catchers in this league. Again, no surprise. It's obvious that when you get rewarded for receptions, you want as many players as possible who are going to catch the ball.

There were only four receivers drafted in the first round of the standard league and a combination of 10 receivers and tight ends drafted in the first two rounds. By Round 3, 17 receivers and tight ends were drafted out of 36 players, while the other 19 guys were running backs.

In the PPR mock draft, we had six receivers drafted in Round 1, 12 receivers and tight ends selected through Round 2 and 19 of those guys drafted through Round 3. It flipped from the standard format, as only 17 running backs were selected in the first 36 picks in this league."

 

 

In standard leagues the amount of ratio of RBs to WRs/TEs in the first 3 rounds looks about right to me.

 

But in the ppr mock do you guys agree with the 6 WRs drafted in round 1? And how heavy WRs and TEs were selected through rounds 2&3? That seems to be extremely WR heavy.

 

Thoughts?

 

Here's the full article and who the experts took in each round:

 

https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/football/news/fantasy-football-our-first-ppr-mock-draft-for-2018-leans-toward-receiver-in-early-rounds/

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No I'm not shocked.

 

Sounds about right.

 

That's only two more te and wr drafted in the first three rounds then in a standard league

 

I'm only in one league it's a ppr, and I cheat sheet too draft five to six rb/wr in the first five to six rounds.

 

Now that doesn't always mean I will get 3 Rbs amd 3 WRs.

 

Last seasons draft, my first three picked where all Rbs, and that is in a ppr league.

 

It just depends on the draft rolls around make too me, and then I draft off my cheat sheet.

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I never go into a draft with a plan set in stone, but right now I'll likely target RBs and a TE early, then WR's in the mid rounds and draft two QBS back to back in the late rounds. I wouldn't be shocked if I took a back up RB before I had two or three WR's. If you look at the list of championship matchups, there seemed to be a theme of needing a top RB and a top TE. I'll probably pass on WRs early, unless the value is there. After the top handful, it's a deep crap shoot position, with the weekly separation between a low end #1 and mid range #2's, being minor and a more of a guessing game than other positions.

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