Two paths to the FF Super Bowl

[norseman 0]

There are a lot of different ways to make it to your FF Super Bowl. In our league this year (12-team redraft, standard perf scoring, WR/TE combined), the two teams that made it followed totally opposite paths. (One of them is mine.) Here are the two likely starting lineups:

 

Team 1 (mine)

Romo

LT2 & AD

Wayne, A Johnson, Jennings

Akers

Vikings D/ST

 

Team 2

Warner

Grant & Stecker

Holt, Colston, Crayton

Vinatieri

Chargers D/ST

 

Every single starter on Team 1 was drafted by me in the initial draft. I made some good choices, but I also got incredibly lucky in terms of both performance and lack of injuries. The only FAs that I picked up on the WW to be starters were a K and D/ST to use in bye weeks. I ended up the reg season 11-2 and the top-scoring team in the league. But, again, it was mostly good fortune on my part. I've never had a team of original draft choices perform this well. I made it to the championship game completely on the strength of my initial draft picks.

 

On Team 2, in contrast, half of the starters were picked up off the waiver wire during the season. This owner had busts and injuries galore from the initial draft -- e.g., LJ, Benson, Reggie Brown, Cutler -- and not a single sleeper who ended up hitting pay dirt. He made it to the championship game by clawing and scratching -- grabbing the best available talent off the WW and running with them. He started out 1-5, ended up 6-7, barely made it into the playoffs, and then cleaned house when he got there.

 

It's kind of a classic struggle -- shows you that a great initial draft is a tremendous help, but lack thereof is not necessarily a death sentence. For what it's worth.

[jgcrawfish 232]

See, I got the worst of this. I had a good draft and really good start. Started off 4-0 and was blowing teams out, but got hit by injuries. I figured to lose one or two around the bye weeks but nagging injuries killed. But because i started off strong, every week i was at the end of the WW order. Guys were jumping on Derek Anderson, Ryan Grant, Earnest Graham and Justin Fargas...because of my strong start I got hurt down the stretch, despite having a good team. Bottom line is that it's a lot luck.

[Jokers 0]

See, I got the worst of this. I had a good draft and really good start. Started off 4-0 and was blowing teams out, but got hit by injuries. I figured to lose one or two around the bye weeks but nagging injuries killed. But because i started off strong, every week i was at the end of the WW order. Guys were jumping on Derek Anderson, Ryan Grant, Earnest Graham and Justin Fargas...because of my strong start I got hurt down the stretch, despite having a good team. Bottom line is that it's a lot luck.

 

This is the reason we changed our waiver process to blind bidding this year instead of the "worst to first" waiver priority we were using (barely passed with a 7-5 vote in favor). No reason a successful team should be penalized, and it adds an additional strategy of how to manage your blind bidding money (we start with $100 phoney money).

[zaurg 0]

This is the reason we changed our waiver process to blind bidding this year instead of the "worst to first" waiver priority we were using (barely passed with a 7-5 vote in favor). No reason a successful team should be penalized, and it adds an additional strategy of how to manage your blind bidding money (we start with $100 phoney money).

 

Jokers, how did the blind bidding work for you guys this year? Any major problems? Did some owners run out of $ early on and get screwed with bye week problems? I'm considering this for my league next year, just curious.

[zaurg 0]

There are a lot of different ways to make it to your FF Super Bowl. In our league this year (12-team redraft, standard perf scoring, WR/TE combined), the two teams that made it followed totally opposite paths. (One of them is mine.) Here are the two likely starting lineups:

 

...

 

It's kind of a classic struggle -- shows you that a great initial draft is a tremendous help, but lack thereof is not necessarily a death sentence. For what it's worth.

 

 

Yep, good post. Every year I end up making free agent pickups at the K and DEF positions, as do most owners. But it's been the years when I've made a key FA pickup in the RB/WR position I make it far into the playoffs. In 2004 it was Muhsin Muhammad and Michael Pittman. This year it has been Nick Folk, Chargers defense, and Kolby Smith. 100% Luck got me into the Championship though (I played the Brady owner )

[norseman 0]

See, I got the worst of this. I had a good draft and really good start. Started off 4-0 and was blowing teams out, but got hit by injuries. I figured to lose one or two around the bye weeks but nagging injuries killed. But because i started off strong, every week i was at the end of the WW order. Guys were jumping on Derek Anderson, Ryan Grant, Earnest Graham and Justin Fargas...because of my strong start I got hurt down the stretch, despite having a good team. Bottom line is that it's a lot luck.

No question that it's a lot of luck. And, of course, there are countless other paths that run somewhere between these two extremes. Team 2 was able to build up (or, rather, rebuild) his team because of his poor record early on (we do our WW draft in order of worst to first as well). But thems the breaks. We had an owner who took two QBs in the first two rounds, and he nearly made the playoffs because one of them was named Brady. Anyway, that's the great and terrible thing about FF -- you never know.

[jgcrawfish 232]

This is the reason we changed our waiver process to blind bidding this year instead of the "worst to first" waiver priority we were using (barely passed with a 7-5 vote in favor). No reason a successful team should be penalized, and it adds an additional strategy of how to manage your blind bidding money (we start with $100 phoney money).

 

Yeah, I've already proposed that we change to the waiver wire order rolls over from week to week, but I like the blind bidding process as well. For 10 weeks I was dead last in waiver order and by then it was too late for me to do anything, even then I never moved below 3rd to last out of 10. Guys are getting rewarded for sucking and kicking ass at the end because of it.

[Jokers 0]

Jokers, how did the blind bidding work for you guys this year? Any major problems? Did some owners run out of $ early on and get screwed with bye week problems? I'm considering this for my league next year, just curious.

 

It worked out great. Everyone has the same chance at a free agent each week. Some minor problems the first couple of weeks with folks figuring out the system (went through it manually, then all automatic the rest of the season), but other than that, no complaints aside from the high maintanence guy that always complains anyway.

 

Managing your bids is important though, for instance, one guy blew $55 the first week on Derrick Ward, and the next highest bids were $19, $8, and $2. He had R. Brown, LJ, and Lynch for his RBs, and as his RBs went down, didn't haave the cash to get the high end guys. He won his games the first 10 weeks, and hasn't won one since (he is playing for 3rd this week).

 

Four of the teams ran out of money, but not untill the end (including me two weeks ago). One guy didn't spend a dime, and the rest have anywhere from $25 to $65 left, but with this season of the 3rd and 4th string RBs getting starting gigs,and a RB seemingly getting hurt every week, I think this is more of an anonmaly than the standard. The site is set so you can still pick up players for free, but you won't win the free agents. This is good for kickers, D's, and way under the radar players.