This is only my 2nd year in a dynasty league, so my first rookie draft is a few days away.I hear lots of talk about always taking the "best player available" in a rookie draft andignore positional need. Do the experienced dynasty folks here agree with this?Not to make this an Assistant Coach thread but as an example...
Even though I reeeeeally want to go RB at my 1.05 pick (assuming Ingram, Green, Jones and Thomas are taken),it looks like Little is going to be there and seems consistently ranked above the next tier of RBs(Carter, Hunter, Helu, etc etc).For experienced dynasty owners, is it a no-brainer, slam dunk to always draft the player you rank higher,regardless of team need? (assuming the need isn't dire).thoughts?
I'm definitely a proponent of ignoring positional need. In one league this year, my strength coming into the draft was at WR (using my own rankings, I had a top-5 WR, a top-10 WR, and two more top-24 WRs), while I had absolutely no depth at all at RB (JStew is my top backup, which obviously is sub-optimal when looking at the coming season). I also had 3 1sts in this year's draft. With those three picks, I took A.J. Green, Greg Little, and Randall Cobb. I also spent my 1st rounder last year on a WR (Demaryius), giving me a glut of young talent at the position. I still need an RB, but as I'm fond of saying, a dynasty owner's biggest goal should simply be accumulating talent and letting things work themselves out, and Green/Little/Cobb were far and away the top talents left on the board when I was picking. Don't be the guy who drafts Roy Helu Jr. over Greg Little.You have to remember that in dynasty leagues, trades are far and away the best means of filling holes in your roster (with an abbreviated draft and a lack of immediate contributors, you can't count on the draft to shore up needs). With that in mind, you want to stockpile talented players to maximize your trading chips.Now, it's not like there's absolutely no flexibility. If I have Ingram and Green valued pretty similar (and I do), then I might let team needs dictate which one I take. Players can be shuffled up and down within tiers based on outside considerations, but I make it a rule to never, ever, ever draft a player from a lower tier when there's a player from a higher tier still on the board. In other words, minor talent differences can be overlooked, but tier breaks are sacrosanct. Greg Little is a much, much, much better player than Roy Helu, Jr. The fact that Helu plays at a more valuable position and has a clearer path to immediate production is irrelevant. Besides, in my experience, all the opportunity in the world can't make a mediocre back into a stud- just ask Brandon Jackson.