Incorporating rookie draft in a redraft (keep 4) league? (1 Viewer)

[gliz]

Hey all,

I started an IDP league last season and it appears that everybody enjoyed it. Briefly, we have 30 roster spots and we start 10 on offense and 10 on defense. We can keep up to 2 offensive players and up to 2 defensive players. Keepers cost 2 rounds higher than prior year draft round (except for late-round keepers; see below).

One owner asked about including the NFL rookie draft in our league next year. He suggested something like having owners draft a bit before the actual NFL draft so that we won't know for certain which NFL team each rookie will join. His goal was to add a little more randomness to even things out for those owners who don't follow college football and/or the NFL draft all that closely.

I like the idea of having a minor off-season activity to add a little extra life to the league, but I don't want to ruin a good thing, so I'm seeking advice on how this might be incorporated to make it fun but not imbalanced, and, ideally, almost optional.

My first and only real thought thus far was to do a slow draft (by email) wherein each owner picks 3 rookies, all prior to the NFL draft. Then at the time when I require all owners to declare keepers (August), each owner would select one of their rookies to add to their actual FF roster. They could also choose not to draft rookies, or not to keep any of the rookies they drafted. So far, so good. Now I have to figure out where these rookies slot into our regular draft. My first thought was round 14 (remember, 30 rounds) because the way the keeper math works out, no keeper would ever occupy round 14 (because we are only allowed one keeper drafted in rounds 16-30, and he counts as our round 15 pick, while a round 15 guy costs the round 13 pick, leaving a gap at 14).

Does it seem like a problem that an owner might snag a guy like Gurley as his round 14 pick? At first glance it does to me, but if I give the worst team the first pick, is it really a bad thing? Any other problems jump out at you in the setup I described?

Sorry this is so long. Thanks for any thoughts.

 

[MattFancy]

In my redraft keeper league, we do a 1 round rookie draft before we start the actual draft. The order is the reverse order of the standings (last place picks 1st). The first 6 guys taken are considered 6th round picks, the last 6 are considered 8th round picks.

 

[eNdblu]

One owner asked about including the NFL rookie draft in our league next year. He suggested something like having owners draft a bit before the actual NFL draft so that we won't know for certain which NFL team each rookie will join. His goal was to add a little more randomness to even things out for those owners who don't follow college football and/or the NFL draft all that closely.

Wouldn't something like this massively favour the person who DOES follow college football?

 

[gliz]

One owner asked about including the NFL rookie draft in our league next year. He suggested something like having owners draft a bit before the actual NFL draft so that we won't know for certain which NFL team each rookie will join. His goal was to add a little more randomness to even things out for those owners who don't follow college football and/or the NFL draft all that closely.

Wouldn't something like this massively favour the person who DOES follow college football?

Maybe so. Although I would expect that expert consensus would pretty much level the playing field. My buddy who follows college football is not going to be better than expert talent evaluators at judging how players will translate to the NFL. Some may think they are, but I doubt it. Maybe I'm failing to consider another aspect of this, though. Let me know if I am!

One unmentioned reason for him suggesting this kind of approach was to make the NFL draft an event that we could hook into. If we waited until after the draft, that would not be the case. Any ideas how to structure this so that it meets both goals? I'm open to all ideas at this point.

Thanks!

 

[Mr. Irrelevant]

I really like the concept and the rationale behind it. I'd love some way to incorporate the NFL draft into our neighborhood redraft league since we're all usually watching it together, anyway.

But if you're going to go to the trouble of having 3 full rounds in your rookie draft, it doesn't make sense to force owners to cut down to 1 (at most) before any of them play a single NFL game. I'd want a little more potential upside for my trouble if it were me.

An additional carrot might be that in addition to being able to move a rookie onto the active roster, each owner keeps the rights to all three of their draftees. You could work that two ways:

• Players selected in the rookie draft but not kept form a "practice squad" for each owner, from which they can be moved onto the active roster at some point, say after Week 6 (but not back - any rookie dropped from an active roster goes to the WW just as a veteran would).
  
• And/or, each owner retains next year's keeper rights to all rookies they draft, whether or not they're moved to the active roster. So if I somehow landed Gurley, Jordan Hicks, and Stefon Diggs last year and chose Gurley to move to my 2015 active roster, I could still keep all three of them for 2016 (for my 14th/13th/12th rounders, or 10th/15th/20th rounders, something like that).
  

I'm sure there are other variations that would work just as well - the thinking in my mind is that if you are diligent (and lucky) enough to land two or three solid rookies, you should get rewarded for it to some extent at least. Good luck!

 

[heckmanm]

I'm in a long-standing keeper/contract league and we have always had a 2-round rookie-only draft before the "main" draft starts.

Our rules allow rookies taken in these 2 rounds to be retained for 2 years (rookie year and "sophomore" year) before they must be given a contract, and counted against the "keeper" rules. Our keeper rules don't involve forfeiting draft picks to keep players, so that removes the issue of what pick to give up in order to keep them. Mr Irrelevant's 2nd bullet point above would seem like a similar approach.

 

[gliz]

Thanks for all the replies thus far. Life got busy there for a minute.

I'm gathering ideas from all that is being posted. I'm sure whatever I end up with will contain elements of all these ideas.

@MattFancy: I like the straight reverse order of finish. I'd repeat it all 3 rounds with no snake.

@Mr. Irrelevant: I get what you are saying about cutting down from 3 to 1 before any NFL games are played. There's certainly plenty of room for adjusting that initial idea. That was just my attempt to make it an event but not let it become something that sways the league too greatly. A big piece of this is that some owners don't follow college football nor the NFL draft, and I don't want them to feel like they are getting hosed by setting up a system that appears to be overly influential in our league. So... I need a relatively easy sales job, but I do think they all trust me plenty.

@heckmanm and @Mr. Irrelevant: With regard to keepers/contracts/practice squads, we use Yahoo and I want to keep it all a "one stop shop" for the owners. Any ideas on how to automate the practice squad or inactive roster idea on Yahoo? It won't work to just tell my owners to treat their rookies differently than their other players on some sort of an honor system; it needs to be enforced by the Yahoo system. Not because I don't trust them, but because human error will inevitably enter the equation.

 

[Borden]

Having your rookie draft before the NFL draft favours the person that follows CFB greatly. Regardless of the landing spot, typically the NFL teams draft the better prospects higher. Since your league is IDP it reduces the significance of the Rookie Draft first overall. It is still more valuable but not as much. And this should make it a little better for "fairness."

Since you want to make it just a small thing to have fun with in the offseason and also make the NFL draft more fun, do a 1 round email draft on the second day (April 29th). I'm not sure how many owners are in your league but for those who don't really follow the draft they can just take the highest drafted remaining player at whatever position they choose. That way you're league is actually drafting during the NFL draft.

I wouldn't go with last place gets first pick, I'd go last place gets to choose where they'd like to pick. You do this because...

Each pick is assigned a keeper round.

First pick = 5th round

Second = 7th round

3rd = 9th round ...

To avoid confusion, I'd send out the email like this;

First pick in the Rookie Draft costs you, your 5th Round selection in our main draft.

Second Pick costs you, your 7th Round selection in our main draft.

3rd costs you a 9th Rounder

4th costs a 11th Rounder

5th costs a 13th Round selection

Bill since you finished in dead last you get to choose which pick you'd like in the Rookie Draft. Sarah since you were the second worst you'll get to choose which pick you want from what's left. Then Harry... You all get the picture.

So, this year we are going to have a 1 round rookie draft on April 29th. It will be a slow email draft.

I by no means am trying to be insulting but I've been a commish of a league where even the smallest change or suggestion is meet with mass confusion. Use as little words as possible because people have quickly read the email (probably while doing something else) then start machine gunning questions and issues at you. Don't mention the NFL draft until someone asks you and respond to that person only. Not to be secretive, it's just to avoid people getting the 3 different drafts mixed up.