This is not a "rate my team" thread. Rather, it shows owners what to expect from a DD draft in "Real World" conditions.

We completed a 14 team serpentine draft Saturday morning.

All TDs 6 pts
1pt=20 yds pass/receiving
1pt=10 yd rush
1pt per reception WR/TE only

We play Team QB so I set the Dominator at 1.3 starting QBs. With our scoring system that brought Culpepper up to the #6 overall. Considering how QB heavy our league is I figured that was about right. CPep went 1.07.

I drafted in the #1 slot. My team:

QB:
CLEVELAND (Garcia) 8.14
GREEN BAY (Farve) 5.01 (Never owned him. I'm excited)
RB:
GRIFFIN,QUENTIN 4.14
HENRY,TRAVIS 2.14
HOLMES,PRIEST 1.01
WHEATLEY,TYRONE 9.01
WR:
BRANCH,DEION 7.01
KENNISON,EDDIE 10.14
LLOYD,BRANDON 6.14 (Shark Pool favorite, non-DD pick)
WARD,HINES 3.01
TE:
CHAMBERLAIN,BYRON 15.01
GRAHAM,DANIEL 12.14
K :
BROWN,KRIS 16.14
ELAM,JASON 11.01
Def:
GREEN BAY 13.01
PITTSBURGH 14.14

According to DD my team would go 9-1-3 (3 being too close to call) in regular season using "total team strength". I'd go 8-2-3 using the "Starters Only".

Over all I was pleased with the results. I didn't follow DD on every pick with the notes I made and comments from FBGs swaying a decision or two. In the early rounds DD picked well, I swayed to my gut for a few mid rounds and let DD handle all the later rounds.

I play in a 10-team league, draft serpentine.

Scoring: passing yds 1/20
rush/rec yds 1/10
all td's 6
int -2
bonuses at 100 rush/rec, 300 pass

sack 2
fumble/int 3
td 6
pts allow -1 for each offensive pt scored (bonus for <10)
bonus for total yds <200
(yes, our defenses regularly lose points overall)

01.09 Kevan Barlow
02.02 Randy Moss
03.09 Travis Henry
04.02 Michael Bennett
05.09 Santana Moss
06.02 Chris Chambers
07.09 Plaxico Burress
08.02 Jeff Garcia
09.09 Rod Smith
10.02 Warrick Dunn
11.09 Jake Delhomme
12.02 Joey Galloway
13.09 Travis Minor
14.02 Josh McCown
15.09 Travis Taylor
16.02 Green Bay
17.09 Dennis Northcutt
18.02 Joe  Nedney

also used Dodd perfect draft as a guide, but totally forgot to use the dont suggest until X taken stuff. Still think I did fairly. I feel like I had a better team last year (used DD then also) but last year I started with 2 keepers, LT and Travis Henry. We had a reset year this year, and I ended up draft 9th, for the second year in a row.
My opponents started ribbing me about not taking a defense, the first one went in like round 5, but I stuck to guns, even while one owner was trying to get everybody to draft defenses so I wouldn't have one and would have to take a -35 points each week.
My biggest prize was getting Randy at 2.02. I thought for sure he would go first round in our league. Had I known then what I know now about Bennett, woulddn't have made that choice.

10 team, keep 1 league, drafted out of the 1.10/2.1 spot. start 1qb/2rb/2wr/1te/1d/1k with 1 per 50 pass, 1 per 20 rush+rec, 4 pass td, 6 other tds.

QB Steve McNair, TEN
QB David Carr, HOU
QB Tommy Maddox, PIT

RB Edgerrin James, IND (keeper)
RB Travis Henry, BUF
RB Michael Bennett, MIN
RB Tyrone Wheatley, OAK
RB Steven Jackson®, STL
RB Dominic Rhodes, IND
RB Sammy Morris, MIA

WR Darrell Jackson, SEA
WR Jimmy Smith, JAC
WR Donte Stallworth, NO
WR Corey Bradford, HOU
WR Eddie Kennison, KC
WR David Givens, NE
WR Nate Burleson, MIN

TE Bubba Franks, GB
TE Byron Chamberlain, DEN

PK Joe Nedney, TEN

Def Ravens, Team Defense, BAL

Some owners went (I thought) early after QB and WR, so I started with Henry and Bennet. Thought the dominator coupled with the perfect 10 team draft article helped a ton.

Well, I used the DD and the top 200 with some deviations for taste and so forth. I end up with a .500 according to the GxG, which I'm not thrilled with. However I am LOADED at RB and will make some trades soon to get better. I feel it is the best draft of the 10, despite the GxG...

10 team, TE req, 2RB/3WR, 1/50 pass 1/20rush/rec., 6/TD

1.10 LT (keeper)
2.01 Dillon I have Barlow in my other $$ league so I didn't want to double up
3.10 C Brown
4.01 C Johnson
5.10 C Martin DD said Green and a WR for this turn but can't pass up CMart here
6.01 T Green
7.10 Porter
8.01 Burress
9.10 Stallworth
10.01 Lloyd
11.10 Delhomme
12.01 Graham
13.10 Witten
14.01 Denver
15.10 J Feeley
16.01 TYRONE WHEATLEY

There's 3 or 4 teams that will be dying to trade for Wheatley in a few weeks, but even still I have the deepest team. I'll be even stronger then. Every one I took, I got at least a round past their ADP. Most of them were DD selections, even ones I wasn't sure on, like Green and 2 TEs in a row. Holding out for a D and a kicker until the end was tough but I followed the DD on that. I don't know, the lack of "W"s is disturbing.

I'm curious about this function. Bruce, is there a way to see what other teams' in the league's records are "supposed to be" according to the FBG projections and their actual picks (which I've loaded into DD)?

I see that I am "supposed" to go 9-2-3, losing two of my first three games (to division opponents). While I'm not going to get worked up over that, I am curious what "their records are supposed to be." If they are less than mine, then I would be less worried about possibly losing to them.

It would be fun (or not, depending on the results) to watch this evolve over the next couple of weeks until the season starts... I don't have anything else to do now that the draft is over!

Thanks!

The only way is to change the My Team check box on the Team Names tab, and then change the schedule for that team. I've heard of several people doing this... They write down the records for each team and there playoff scores. Then they look to see which teams will make the playoffs and look at the playoff scores to see which one will win... I'm curious too, as to how close this will be...

Read 'em and weep boys...



This is at my local league this past Sunday that has been going on for eight years or so... This is my 6th year in the league... and I was totally amazed that I got Green, Dillion and Brown...

Do you realize that 3 of your RBs have a bye Week 9?!?!

RB, RB, RB, WR, WR, WR then Brady in the 7th and Dunn in the 8th. Looks very nice!

The Picks that really stand out to me are, Steve Smith at 4.09, and Dunn at 8.05!
Mcmichael at 9.02 is nice too.

I suspect this was better than any MOCK drafts you ran, as DD really took advantage of the value of players that dropped to you.

I always wanted to start 3 WR with the same last name!

This was my first time using DD. I didn't always go with the recommendations but I did some of the time. Here's how I ended up and I think I'm looking pretty good. It's a 12 team league and I picked 8th.

QB
Steve McNair (6.05)
Jeff Garcia (10.05)

RB
Deuce McAllister (1.08) - I was stunned he dropped to me
Corey Dillon (2.05)
Chris Brown (4.05)
Warrick Dunn (7.08)

WR
Darrell Jackson (3.08)
Peerless Price (5.08)
Brandon Lloyd (8.05)
Eddie Kennison (9.08)

TE
Randy McMichael (11.08)
Desmond Clark (14.05)

K
Josh Brown (12.05)

DEF
Denver (13.08)
Indianapolis (15.08)

Overall, I loved the tool. Usually when it's my turn to pick I'm frantically looking to see who's available and who I should take. This year I pretty much knew who I was going to pick a couple of picks before my turn. I guess we'll see how I end up but right now I am very pleased with the tool.

In a 10-team league. 1 point per reception, 1 point/10 rush yards, 1 point/20 pass or receive yards, all TDs woth 6 points. Start 1 each QB, RB, WR, TE, K, Def plus 3 flex RB/WR.

I went RB-heavy, consistent with VBD, and plan to normally start only 1 WR.

QB: Peyton Manning

RB: L Tomlinson
Kevan Barlow
Thomas Jones
Chris Brown
Moe Williams
Warick Dunn
Julius Jones

WR: Eric Moulds
Andre Johnson
Brandon Lloyd

TE: R. McMichael

Chris Brown seems to be a common component. I definitely had a target on him as my #2 but he was grabbed three picks before me (2.10). I setteled on Henry.

Was this pick a DD benefit, a FBG darling or just a coincidence?

10 team league QB: 1/25 4/TD; RB/WR: 1/10 6/TD

Start: 1 QB / 2 RB / 2 WR / 1 RB-WR-TE Flex / 1 TE-K-D

Two common denominators that I see: Chris Brown and Daniel Graham. I actually had 5 RB's of my first 7 picks - and was so shocked that Chris Brown fell to 7.08 that I grabbed him when DD told me to despite my need for WR's. I ended up trading D. Staley (6.03) for Moulds after the draft. I didn't really want a QB so early either, but Vick fell in my lap.

03.08 QB3 Michael Vick Atl/9
09.08 QB10 Jeff Garcia Cle/8
01.08 RB5 Edgerrin James Ind/6
02.03 RB8 Kevan Barlow SF/7
04.03 RB14 Curtis Martin NYJ/3
07.08 RB21 Chris Brown Ten/9
05.03 WR13 Eric Moulds Buf/3
05.08 WR15 Koren Robinson Sea/4
08.03 WR22 Amani Toomer NYG/6
11.08 WR25 Brandon Lloyd SF/7
12.03 WR35 Eddie Kennison KC/5
13.08 TE8 Daniel Graham NE/3
14.03 PK7 Sebastian  Janikowski Oak/10
10.03 DEF5 Miami Mia/10

I used DD and the perfect draft articles just as I planned. When complete, I redid the draft on my home PC. What was interesting was how some of the picks varied based on other teams draft by ADP or by VBD.

Another cool thing about DD - I used the ADP and the team data to use the turn to my advantage - for example grabbing Garcia and letting Miami slide since my opponents both needed QB's and not defenses.

My projections (Total Team Strength) is 7-4-4

Great job Bruce!

Bruce, Great work on the DD this year. It really does make drafting a pleasure, I can spend more time trash talking, and less time crossing names off lists. For this league, I used customized ADP and Projections. 12 team, 16 rounds, start 1QB, 2RB, 3WR, 1TE, 1PK, no defense.

1.04 Deuce McAlister

Not a surprise, this matched most of the Mocks I ran, and was the RB I wanted in the 1st.

2.09 Travis Henry

DD reccomended Chad Johnson, But several of my mocks had Henry falling this far, I had decided if this happened I would take Henry and wait on WR until the next pick. The Mocks indicated Chad or Hines ward would fall to my next pick.

3.04 Corey Dillon

Ok, this I didn't expect. Chad Johnson also was still available. And in my Mocks this was a decision point. WR or RB, I had planned to take either Ward, Chad, or Chris Brown. But Dillon dropping this far surprised me, So I took him.

4.09 Tony Gonzalez

DD was screaming Tony G, as the value play. I knew if I drafted him here, my WR would end up being my weak spot. The choice was between Tony or Moulds. I grabbed the value.

5.04 Eric Moulds

Pleased that he made it around the turn, 5 or 6 WR I had ranked lower went off the board, and Moulds fell to me. Unfortunately there is not a lot of good WR left, and my luck was about to change.

6.09 Isaac Bruce

DD said Aaron Brooks, but 7 QB's were off the board, I felt I needed to start considering QBBC, and was going to wait on the QB. My bad luck the previous two picks were Rod Smith & Chris Chambers, either of whom I would have taken before Bruce. I had Hoped that Fitz would fall to the next round.

7.04 Warrick Dunn

Fitz was off the board and Lloyd was best WR available, I hoped I could wait on Lloyd, Dd was still recommending Aaron Brooks. Dunn Was the last starting RB in my target list. My need wasn't too high, but he had the second highest drop value (QB being the highest).

8.09 Aaron Brooks

Ok, DD had been recommending him for the last two rounds. 12 QB were already off the board, and soon backups would start to be drafted. Decent value.

9.04 Eddie Kennison

Not real good value here, but was my highest ranked WR with an ADP near this pick. Besides I will need to get lucky at WR for this team to work. DD reccomended a kicker (Vanderjagt), Forgot to check the wait until 6 kickers box.

10.09 Julius Jones

DD recomended Donald Driver, but that has a lot to do with team need, looking at the drop value RB was 39, WR was 12. Decided to grab my 5th RB as trade bait, even though WR need was greater.

11.04 Donald Driver

He fell to me here, with DD showing a +18 DVBD, Nice example of letting the value drop to me.

12.09 Josh McCown

Not exactly the backup QB I was looking for, DD was recomending a kicker(Vinitieri) only 5 kickers were off the board, I thought I would wait another round for kicker. 22 QB were off the board, I filled the backup so I could move on.

13.04 Adam Vinitieri

Ok, it was time 7 Kickers off the board. And Vinitieri should be a solid pick. Besides this completes my base team. My next 3 picks are all going to be my personal sleeper's.

14.09 Eric Parker

DD recomends Desmond Clark, But I have a sleeper TE planned for round 16. Best WR from DD is Kelley Washington. Actually he is my next sleeper, but I beleive he will be around until the next round. Though Parker is unknown and who would want him, I notice he is the next CBS sportsline recommended pick. So I grabbed him now since he is one of my sleeper targets.

15.04 Kelley Washington

DD reccomends Clark again, But think Washington has 'potential' this is what round 15 is for.

16.09 Jerramy Stevens

OK, thats it. Stevens could be top a top 6 TE, or a bust again this year. probalbly a bust, but I like my late round picks to have talent and potential, hoping they get oppurtunity.

QB - Brooks, McCown

RB - McAlister, Henry, Dillon, Dunn, Julius Jones

WR - Moulds, Bruce, Kenison, Driver, Parker, Washington

TE - Gonzalez, Stevens

PK - Vinatieri

Could be worse, game by game shows 10 wins, 3 losses, 1 ?, for the regular season, and a ? and a win for the playoffs. I have RB depth to help shore up my average (at best) WR corp. QB might be a weak spot if Brooks has an off year.

PS. At least 2 other owners use FBG, and one for certain used the Dominator, which I didn't pick up on until around round 5. Both have what I consider to be very strong teams. So if either of you are reading this .... Welcome! and do you have any WR for me ?

It seems that the DD follows along with the FBG mantra of a strong RB corps. I too feel my team is a bit weak at WR2 but DD kept suggesting RBs. I analyzed my draft a little more a few nights ago and saw that I had all of my skill positions, QB, RB and WR, filled before I went for K's, TE's and DEF's. That was interesting I thought. I did comment to another owner, who I consider a shark in our league, that the other owners were "building teams" and not building depth at skill positions. They were busy grabbing top kickers and defenses while true skill value was still on the board.

Now their #3 and #4 position players look like mine used to look. I already have owners foaming at the mouth looking at my RB corps.

Mocking your draft a few times always helps. Good notes and being current on injuries are a must. If you have faith, DD will bring you good results.

That depth is going to pay off in the long run too, and is one of the biggest keys to having a very successful season.

I'm seeing some good teams here guys. Should be a good year for all.

This is in a 12 team money league with 1 QB 3 WR 2 RB and 1 Flex



Needless to say im rather happy with this team and I like my chances of making money. I drafted this team right around the time of the Bennett injury and didnt think he would miss so much time. But i think i more then made up for it with my other RB picks. My team is predicted to go 11-1-2 (2 Undecided).


P.S Thanks for the help Bruce... It looked spaced fine in MS Notebook but then i realized when i copied it from Excel it would just put in one giant space.

-I also used a great depth chart from fftoday.com last yr. Too bad they don't have it. There was a grid in the middle with each position grouped together (i.e. qb1, qb2, qb3 ) next to each player, there was a 1 liner note if anything was noteworthy pertaining to their position and spot on the depth chart.
On the left of the grid were the AFC teams, NFC on the right. You clicked on the team and the positions filled in. It took 2 seconds to load, and I saved it on my laptop for during the draft. Now the DD has a depth chart on it, I used it heavily during later rounds in my mock. Not as easy, cause you have to flip through each team to get from AZ to Washington, but great to have built in.
I also love having the at a glance S.O.S. built right in. Awesome.


-Bruce, When did you have time to draft?!! Beautiful by the way, except for the wk 9/bye thing (new pop up on next yrs version?)
-Anon, beautiful write up of a draft unfolding. You shouldn't be ANON.

It took several tries... but I saved the team from the Draft Dominator File->Save->Teams... and then double clicked on the CSV file that it created to bring it up in Excel. I then highligted and copied my team into MS Word... and changed the font to Courier (fixed font)... and then spaced everything out so that the columns looked good. When I posted it I used the Code button (next to the quote button). Even then I might to have had to change the Font to Courier inside of this window too...

It was a pain... but I think it does look pretty good... and you can see the corresponding ADP too.

yea, I limit myself to two leagues a year. I'm in a local league of 8 years... where most of the owners are the orginal owners... and I'm also in the FBG staff league this year.

I'm not too worried about the week 9 bye thing... One, it is late in the season... and I've got plenty of time to let things unfold before then, and Two, even if I do end up throwing that week, it makes the other weeks all that much stronger. Most teams would love to go 13-1.

1QB / 2 RB / 2 WR / 1 Flex (TE/WR only) / 1 PK / 1 DST
10 Team Draft

I know I have a lot of people with a 5th round bye, but that's where the value was...
I love my team -- DD and the Perfect Draft article I think helped me a lot.





I think I got value from:
-- Tony Gonzalez in the 6th Round (easily the best pick I made I think)
-- Brett Favre in the 8th Round
-- Warrick Dunn in the 9th Round
-- Reggie Wayne in the 11th

Thoughts?

TeeJayOrTj and Watsonrm, I like the looks of both teams... and I'm impress with the formatting too.. I noticed both you guys took Deuce with the 3rd pick... I ended up passing on Deuce to take Ahman... I hope I'm not kicking myself at the end of the season... I really don't think you can go wrong with either one though.

DD worked well for me this year. I followed the suggest picks for 90% of the draft, with slight variations only in a few middle rounds. 12 team local league, 1 keeper, 17 rounds, performance scoring (mild though, almost basic scoring), 1 QB 1 K 1 DT 5 FLEX (max 3 RBs 4 WRs or 2 TEs.) I went from division weighted bias to using the complementary system at about round 8.

DD shows me ending up with a record of 9-2-3 with Starters Only and 10-3-1 with Total Team Strength with in addition sadly a strong playoff week 15 but weak SuperBowl week 16.

Look up a couple of posts....

[CODE]
Pick Pos Player Team Points VBD ADP
01.07 QB10 Michael Vick Atl/9 266 -11 03.12
09.07 QB12 Jeff Garcia Cle/8 261 -17 07.10
03.07 RB10 Kevan Barlow SF/7 211 127 01.11
04.06 RB11 Chris Brown Ten/9 202 118 03.05
02.06 RB12 Rudi Johnson Cin/5 201 118 02.02
07.07 RB27 Warrick Dunn Atl/9 137 53 05.08
10.06 RB28 Tyrone Wheatley Oak/10 128 44 06.07
08.06 WR25 Rod Smith Den/10 102 -16 07.03
11.07 WR29 Brandon Lloyd SF/7 95 -24 07.12
05.07 TE2 Todd Heap Bal/6 88 29 05.05
06.06 DEF5 Tampa Bay TB/8 182 -2 10.08
12.06 DEF12 Seattle Sea/4 141 -3 14.10


Arggghh. I did my draft online, and couldn't figure out how to change the pick sportsline picked for me.

I was pick 7 in a 12 team league. 1/10 rushing yds, 1/15 receiving, 1/25 passing. +increasing bonuses for bigger yardage plays. Clearly, RBs have a big value. On top of that, you can play 3RB/1WR or 2/2 or 1/3. We play 1 QB,TE,D, & K. Our draft was only 12 rounds for 14 positions (you pick up 2 more using the waiver wire). whatever

Using the Perfect Draft Logic and DD, my strategy was going to be to get whoever I could of the top 23, even if it was 4 or 5 of em, since I could start 3 any week.
The WRs seemed deep, and there wasn't much value, same with qb. I thought I might pull the trigger on a TE early, if I could get the top 2, and I had my RBs already, assuming the top 3 WRs would be gone.

Rnd 1:While I was gloating watching guys ahead of me waste the #3,4&6 pick on QBs, I couldn't change the damn thing to get Ahman Green and ended up with Vick.

Luckily, it created a run on QBs. By the time my pick came around, DD said Taylor, Barlow or Brown, but I preferred Rudi J. with only a couple of points difference, and no injury that i know of. I also saw Barlow and Chris Brown were lower on the sportsline ADP which was nice to have right there. (I knew what recommendation they were making to everyone, since it was right on the draft screen).

Rnd 3-4:The #1 pick, who already had LT, took Harrison and T.O. and started a run on WR, which put me back in business. Barlow, and then Chris Brown both slipped down to me the next 2 rounds. Definitely, back in business, but pissed I already had a QB. A couple fools even grabbed Baltimore and New England Ds in the 3rd round.

Rnd 5:Since I lucked out, and had 3 of the top 12 RBs, I hunted for value. DD still had C. Martin, Griffin, Thomas Jones, Lee Suggs, Kevin Jones for me to pick. I was hoping, with the way people had been picking, one of them, might still slip down to me. Wheatley, Dunn and a few other values were also there, but they were very low on the ADP. Heap was on top of the Sportsline heap, so I grabbed him. Big dropoff (24pts)after that, and I have to start a TE everyweek. My original plan was TE or First WR around this round anyway. Martin was awfully tempting at 179 VBD.
It had been 2 rounds, since the first TE had gone, and by now, everyone had a QB, a WR or 2, and an RB or 2. I was the only one with 3 RBs. Since they all seemed to be filling positions and not depth, I figured I could start a run on TE.

Rnd 6:It didn't happen, people took kickers, wr, a couple tight ends, and RBs. The sportsline screen went blank on me when I tried to display available RBs only, and by the time I got the screen back up, it had picked Tampa Bay D for me.
Plenty of the #11-30 WR were still available then. %*#@! They were even there the next round, but I had to take the pick I would have made in the 6th round.

Rnd 7-8: Took Dunn (wheatley was much lower on the ADP) then figured i'd been patient enough, time to get a WR.

Rnd 9-11: Found lots of value slip down to me. Was going to wait on a risk:benefit QB until round 12, but hey, Garcia in Round 9 had lots of upside. (risk on an unkown, or risk on a known, hmmm). There was a big dropoff after Garcia. Got Wheatley and Brandon Lloyd -the next Moss?

Rnd 12: (our last round, then 2 more waiver wire pick ups) I took Seattle's D becasue I like their schedule, AZ and St. Louis in their division. Bulger, I think, led the league in INTs last yr, and FBG keeps talking about how decrepit their O-line is. There are other sleepers available, that I don't think others will get, or want on the waiver wire.

I had checked this on the SOS, before doing the draft, but never ended up using it, during the draft to decide between 2 players. I did in mock drafts though. I imagine FBG used it to, when doing their projections.

In the end, DD doesn't think I'll do that well vs the other teams. I'm not that worried. I drafted 7th, and think I did pretty well. I also have huge depth at RB and can trade around, not to mention free agent pick ups.

I loved using the DD. Seemed too difficult to use in years past. Great for analyzing the draft afterwards. Looking back at the draft, it will be great next yr, when I plug in my own ADPs. (I am also insisting we do a live draft next yr, so I don't get screwed again.) At least this is my "cheap league", a good dry run for my live draft in my $300 league.

I recommend you run a mock draft using dd so you get used to it, and what it has available. ...and if you're drafting on-line, you want to go to the site ahead of time and input your draft order.

Thanks again Bruce for all your hard work.

12-team serpentine. draft position #2. Must draft 2 QB/3RB/3WR/2TE/1K/2DEF/1FLEX.

Pick Pos Player Team
08.11 QB17 Rich Gannon Oak/10
10.11 QB15 David Carr Hou/7

01.02 RB2 LaDainian Tomlinson SD/10
02.11 RB10 Kevan Barlow SF/7
03.02 RB11 Chris Brown Ten/9
07.02 RB15 Thomas Jones Chi/5

05.02 WR8 Darrell Jackson Sea/4
09.02 WR23 Larry Fitzgerald - R Ari/6
06.11 WR25 Rod Smith Den/10

04.11 TE2 Todd Heap Bal/6
12.11 TE8 Daniel Graham NE/3

14.11 PK11 Joe Nedney TEN/9

11.02 DEF12 Seattle Sea/4
13.02 DEF27 Kansas City KC/5

DD went RB/RB/RB/TE. TE in Rd.4 surprised me but I guess DD thought Heap a good value at 4.11.