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Best Fantasy Call (1 Viewer)

Ilov80s

Footballguy
What fantasy player was your best call? Dynasty, redraft, whatever- who is your all time guy? 

For me it is MJD. I was a pretty novice fantasy player, but I remember seeing Youtube highlights of him and thinking, when this guy gets the starting role, he is going shine. He just looked so tough and had such incredible balance that to my novice eyes, I saw a guy that could rival Peterson as the best back in the league.

 
For the "O"

Kurt Warner

In a Sandbox.com league, yes, I'm old, drafted Peyton Manning and Trent Green. After that dirty P.O.S. Rodney Harrison took Green out in a preseason game, went to the Waiver Wire and looked over the options for the Saint Louis QB's. Decided to pick up the Arena League dude over whomever else was on the roster. Ran away and hid from the rest of the league on the way to a title.  :bowtie:

For the "D"

Brian Urlacher

Drafted him as a rookie in a dynasty league that paid big points for IDP. The, R.O.I., was out of this world :headbang:  

:banned:

 
Arian Foster. Drafted him in two local redraft bar leagues in 2010 when everyone thought Ben Tate would be the starter. Won 1st in one & 2nd in the other. "My" 2nd best, I talked my girlfriend into drafting Priest Holmes in a redraft when he was coming back from an ACL & slid to late 1st round, I then bombed the next two picks (can't remember who I picked but I think one was Peerless Price). I let her take over & she took Ahman Green, Brett Favre & Jerry Rice (her dad was a Packer fan & her brother grew up a 49er fan so she knew who Rice was). Career years for all 4 so she won her league & I had to eat crow as one of my teams didn't even make the playoffs & the other lost in the first round. She was registered under my login tho so I got the certificate. That counts, right?

 
Hard to say...  In 50+ seasons you're bound to make some good calls.  There have been plug-ins from the waiver to fill an injured position in Championship Games and obvious calls, such as rookie Randy Moss in dynasty leagues.

But, with more than a little recency bias, I'll say David Johnson.  I seldom get to draft early and have to find RBs a little off people's radar.  Landed DJ late first and early second in my two leagues and have since won 3 of 4 possible titles.

 
Zach Thomas.  Got him in the 15th round when I couldn't wait on him anymore.  I was sure everyone had him on their radar.  When I called his name, someone said Zach Who?...

 
First year I subscribed to FBG in 2004. I had drafted Thomas Jones that year and he proceeded to finally break out (948 and 7 + 427 receiving) and picked up Michael Pittman off FA a week before he was set to return from injury when he also had a great year (926 and 7 + 391 and 3 receiving). Rode the two of them to a championship.

 
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Assuming "best call" means "a guy you targeted as a foundational type before breakout" not "a random dart thrown that hit the bullseye", then mine are....(these are for dynasty since we've all hit on the "flavor of the year" in redraft at least once in at least one league, I'd wager)

Defense: I've had way more success calling defenders, but Navorro Bowman is still easily the best call I've had.  Had been keeping tabs on the SF situation at the time, as I had been attempting to trade for Patrick Willis for nearly the entire season prior to Bowman becoming a starter, and realized how well Takeo Spikes had done for a few years as the "other ILB" in that scheme.  I'm a PSU fan, so already was familiar with Bowman and felt he had what it took if he ever got a clear shot to start, so I checked out Spikes' contract status.  Sure enough, he was a UFA at the end of that season. I stopped pursuing Willis and picked up Bowman for free that offseason instead.  Ridiculous ROI.

Offense: Shaun Alexander.  Only offensive guy I ever truly "hit the jackpot" on. I landed him leading up to the '01 season as part of a package that included Ricky Watters as the "primary" get for me.  The Watters/Alex owner was not a huge believer in Alexander, whereas I was pretty much sold on the talent.  Landed the deal and five games into that year is when Watters blew up his shoulder, opening up the door for Alexander.  Rode him to a couple titles before he fell off the table.

 
What might been..  My best call, is also my worst call

I'm gonna go with Jammal Charles.  At the time, I was attempting to utilize concepts of the Pros.  "handcuffing"  My starter was RB Larry Johnson.  At the time of drafting/procuring, I recalled all the success KC had running the ball.  Read: In my local community College, I remembered all the talk of Priest Holmes!  I believe that I knew he was good, but these guys helped to cement the concept. 

It sorta all happened kinda quick as far as Dynasty goes.  Johnson started the Season with a few rough games.  Think he was disciplined or something, but Charles was eventually seeing reps.  It wasn't three/four weeks later that I cut a starting NFL RB, for not providing consistent stats.  In all honesty, I wasn't so sure he would keep the job.

So yeah, I could tell ya all a story about watching some College game, listening to some announcer.  Then burning a 1st Rnd pick!  No sir, I'm talking about a handcuff player, who nobody else probably cared to roster (in my League) He was expendable in the upmost.  I had him, and let him get off the hook!

 
6th round, 2005 draft.  Priest Holmes goes #2 overall.  I took Larry Johnson right before that owner.  Johnson went on to having an amazing season once Holmes went down.   Won the title that year going 14-1.  Pretty hard to beat me when I had Edge and LJ in the backfield getting me 45-55 points every week.

 
6th round, 2005 draft.  Priest Holmes goes #2 overall.  I took Larry Johnson right before that owner.  Johnson went on to having an amazing season once Holmes went down.   Won the title that year going 14-1.  Pretty hard to beat me when I had Edge and LJ in the backfield getting me 45-55 points every week.
I had that same backfield that year, but what won it for me(besides them) was snagging Chris Cooley at the trade deadline and him having a 3-TD game in week 15. 

My best call is so tough to judge, so i'll narrow it down to 3. 

3. Drafting, and holding DeAngelo Williams all through 2015. Had Bell as my 1st rounder, but was really tempted to cut DeAngelo once Bell came back. 100% certain I wouldn't have won that year without him.

2. In 2010, about 3 weeks into the season I traded Steven Jackson(my 2nd rounder that year) and Matt Ryan for Michael Vick, Darren McFadden and Mike Wallace. Those three basically won me that season. That was especially sweet, because the league thought the trade was unfair, and some wanted to veto it, because I was "giving" Jackson away.

1. In a dynasty league, traded Larry Johnson after the 2006 season for the world. Ended up getting Brady(coming off a down year), MJD(splitting time with Taylor), and 2008 and 2009 1st rounders that turned into Chris Johnson and LeSean McCoy. 

 
Built an entire draft plan in a 16-team (incl idp) big money league from a round 4 pick I knew was going to "hit".

Curtis Martin his rookie year.

Allowed me to grab a WR and QB after getting Barry Sanders in the 1st.  Usually I wouldn't have even risked it and taken him earlier, but that year I knew nobody was on Martins jock leading into the season.

 
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Ah, I almost remember 2005 like it was yesterday... I was young so I was playing in like a million leagues... I've never been one to stick to a single draft strategy year-to-year, preferring to look for values (via ADP) each year and tailoring my draft strategy around those values. So in 2005 I saw so much RB value late that I guess I went with what would now be called Zero RB, but to me it was just the "all value RB team". I targeted the 32 yo Mike Anderson, the unheralded Willie Parker, the late blooming Thomas Jones, and of course Larry Johnson (and if I had a top 3 pick, I couldn't help myself and I took either LT, first choice, or Shaun Alexander). I don't remember all the WRs I loaded up on early, but I remember frequently landing Chad Johnson and Donald Driver. I've always been a late QB guy and targeted Carson Palmer in all my QB duos. He did so well I can't remember who else I was after (probably The Hass). TE of choice was either Gates or Heap. I've never had another fantasy season quite like that one and I probably never will.

 
Clinton Portis and Randy Moss.

Overdrafted both by at least two rounds based on gut feelings. Nobody doubted that either player would be good, but just felt both would be immediately great. 

On the flip side- I took Michael Bennett over Ladanian Tomlinson based on that same feeling. Had my fair share of misses too.

 
Built an entire draft plan in a 16-team (incl idp) big money league from a round 4 pick I knew was going to "hit".

Curtis Martin his rookie year.

Allowed me to grab a WR and QB after getting Barry Sanders in the 1st.  Usually I wouldn't have even risked it and taken him earlier, but that year I knew nobody was on Martins jock leading into the season.
I was playing mostly redraft at that time and an annual strategy was to target the "unproven" rookie RBs that were.for some reason, often ignored.

 
For me it was David Johnson.  I had some bias for liking him since he went to college an hour from where I live but boy did I nail that one.  He turned out to be much better than I imagined.

 
My biggest hit recently was Antonio Brown. Had a feeling he'd be very special. 

I got lucky in 2001 with Tom Brady. Won't count him. 

Historically 15-20 years WRs have been my best position. RBs have been tough for me in general, but I've had some successes. David Johnson was one I thought would be something but had to cut him early in the season for roster space (short bench) and someone scooped him up. So I can't necessarily include that one because I did drop him due to injury problems on my roster. 

 
My biggest hit recently was Antonio Brown. Had a feeling he'd be very special. 

I got lucky in 2001 with Tom Brady. Won't count him. 

Historically 15-20 years WRs have been my best position. RBs have been tough for me in general, but I've had some successes. David Johnson was one I thought would be something but had to cut him early in the season for roster space (short bench) and someone scooped him up. So I can't necessarily include that one because I did drop him due to injury problems on my roster. 
I did the same thing with Johnson his rookie year.  I was high on him but then had to make the extremely tough choice of dropping him early in the season.  Someone picked him up but then dropped him again a couple weeks lately.  I was able to grab him again before he finished his season strong and he was a huge reason for my success in the playoffs that year.

 
Recent history has to be M Thomas last year in both leagues in 13th and 14th round.  No brainer with Brees at QB. 

 
I remember in 2017 when everyone forgot who Martavis Bryant was. Got him as my WR3 in my leagues and get this, the guy finished as a Top 10 WR.

Crazy!

 
2008:  Drafted both Matt Forte and Chris Johnson as rookies that year - I don't think either was before the 4th round in our keeper league.   This was before my league got crazy about drafting rookie RB's (trying to find the next great thing).   

Runner up (not a draft pick):  2005 grabbing Frank Gore off the waiver wire when he was back up to (Barlow?) before the (Barlow?) owner had a chance - was a perennial keeper for several years... 

 
Local league, I drafted kordell stewart with Wr eligibility.  ( I asked commish beforehand if he keeps his wr eligibility even if the plays qb.  He said yes). I destroyed the league that season, having kordell at wr in a 2 qb league was incredible.  I was starting 3 qb's, no one had a chance.

 
Mine were Le'Veon Bell and David Johnson.  Not that people weren't generally high on them but I reached and overpaid bigtime for both (which I don't generally do often if at all) because I was all-in on them.

 
Doug Baldwin for me.

After Tate left I liked him, but his price was too high for me that 1st year. Once he didn't start out that well in 2014 I started buying him for 3rd and 4th round rookie picks in dynasty.

I also scooped him up in a ton of redraft/draft and go leagues in 2015 after the 12 round.

I don't know what it was, I just liked him and thought he was still developing and the losing a 12th round pick or 3rd round rookie pick really wasn't that big of deal.

 
I've had a few season-long ones that were usually TEs, but I'll still pick the 2004 fantasy playoffs. I had Drew Bennett on my team and he'd just gone off for a few weeks in a row and enter into a playoff matchup with a long time friend and fantasy rival.

I had McNair and whomever my backup was had a pretty crummy matchup so I rolled the dice and picked up Billy Volek. I completely obliterated my friend's best team ever largely with Volek's 400+ yards and 4 TDs paired with Bennett's 200+ yards and 3 TDs. He's STILL mad.

 
Jayded said:
I've had a few season-long ones that were usually TEs, but I'll still pick the 2004 fantasy playoffs. I had Drew Bennett on my team and he'd just gone off for a few weeks in a row and enter into a playoff matchup with a long time friend and fantasy rival.

I had McNair and whomever my backup was had a pretty crummy matchup so I rolled the dice and picked up Billy Volek. I completely obliterated my friend's best team ever largely with Volek's 400+ yards and 4 TDs paired with Bennett's 200+ yards and 3 TDs. He's STILL mad.
I still remember that crap, my first fantasy league ever. I had a great draft, made one great trade to get T.O. paired with McNabb and I went 11 - 2 or 12 - 1 and breezed to the super bowl, problem was this was a 8 team league and everyone made the playoffs the 2nd worst team in the league kept getting 2nd waiver priority, and the worst team was inactive. His Volek, Bennett, Johnson, Julius Jones beat my entire team that week and what makes it worse is he only had one player on his team that he even drafted. It was Larry Johnson and he only had him because he drafted him in the 3rd round to piss off his buddy that took Holmes 1st.

I know, I know :ptts:

 
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Kelce was another pretty good call, I drafted him late in a lot of leagues knowing I would have to stash him, and in the offseason I made teams "throw him in" to even out trades.

 
My last two non-kicker/defense picks in 1995 were rookies Curtis Martin and Terrell Davis, who wound up combining for 3200 yds and 23 TDs.

 
Priest Holmes in his first year in KC in 2001. Took him in the 5th and he ended up leading the NFL in rushing. 

Was my 2nd year playing FF.  Kind of thought fantasy was for nerds but got talked into joining a work league in 2000 and got hooked immediately. The guy who won the league my first year was a masssive shiot talker so I did a lot of prep work for the 2001 season. Holmes was kind of under the radar but KC had a good line and he had a 1000 yard season in Baltimore before they drafted Jamal Lewis so I targeted him a round or two early to make sure I got him.  What a player he was for 3 1/2 years before he got hurt.  So much fun to watch.  

 
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Eminence said:
I remember in 2017 when everyone forgot who Martavis Bryant was. Got him as my WR3 in my leagues and get this, the guy finished as a Top 10 WR.

Crazy!
Has a QB ever supported two top 10 WRs with <4500 yards and <35 TDs?

 
Has a QB ever supported two top 10 WRs with <4500 yards and <35 TDs?
Closest I could think of was Roddy and Julio.

Ryan had 4100 and 29 in 2011. White was WR7 and Julio missed 3 games but was WR10 in ppg. 

Ryan had 4700 and 32 in 2012.  Roddy and Julio were WR9 and WR10

 
For me it is MJD. I was a pretty novice fantasy player, but I remember seeing Youtube highlights of him and thinking, when this guy gets the starting role, he is going shine. He just looked so tough and had such incredible balance that to my novice eyes, I saw a guy that could rival Peterson as the best back in the league.
I felt the same way about him and was able to get him for Rudi Johnson and a 2nd in my keep 5 league (offered by other owner)

FWIW, I get a lot of similar feels watching Carlos Henderson

 
Closest I could think of was Roddy and Julio.

Ryan had 4100 and 29 in 2011. White was WR7 and Julio missed 3 games but was WR10 in ppg. 

Ryan had 4700 and 32 in 2012.  Roddy and Julio were WR9 and WR10
Good call. So basically Ben is either going to have to have a career year at age 35 or AB is going to have to drop down quite a bit (from top 3 to 8-9) for Bryant to be a top 10 WR.

 
Good call. So basically Ben is either going to have to have a career year at age 35 or AB is going to have to drop down quite a bit (from top 3 to 8-9) for Bryant to be a top 10 WR.
It's always possible that Bryant's presence helps create that career year though...

 
It's always possible that Bryant's presence helps create that career year though...
Many things are possible. Our job is to discern the difference between possible and probable. Bryant and AB both being top 10... that is not probable.

 
In redraft I tend to use WW a lot, then I remember getting Thomas Rawls (2015) and Jordan Howard (2016) exactly a week before their 1st good game... for no reason, just a luck bullseye shot.

...but probably my best call was in 2011, my 1st year playing fantasy football. Drafted Jimmy Graham something like 9th or 10th round in his sophomore year, his breakthrough season. Again, more luck than a good shot.

PS.: I'm not from US, and English is not my native language. General media (TV, radio, newspaper) gives ZERO space to football. Information depends on internet search and understand of the language. So sometimes I think rankings, tiers and numbers tends to have "less value" to someone who is not living football culture. It's like to being more difficult to "extract" the correct analysis from information. But this is for another topic....

 
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In redraft I tend to use WW a lot, then I remember getting Thomas Rawls (2015) and Jordan Howard (2016) exactly a week before their 1st good game... for no reason, just a luck bullseye shot.

...but probably my best call was in 2011, my 1st year playing fantasy football. Drafted Jimmy Graham something like 9th or 10th round in his sophomore year, his breakthrough season. More luck than a good shot.

PS.: I'm not from US, and English is not my native language. General media (TV, radio, newspaper) gives ZERO space to football. Information depends on internet search and understand of the language.
In dynasty, I picked up Graham off the WW late in 2010.  Wasn't so much a brilliant move - it was more that I had an open roster spot, needed a TE, and Graham was a young guy who was starting to show promise in a high-powered offense.  Dumb luck.

In redraft, I've got to go with drafting 2005 Larry Johnson in the 6th round, although I was doing everything I could to trade him before Priest got hurt.  Also dumb luck.  

 
Antonio Brown in a 3-year keeper league back in 2011.  I got ridiculed for choosing him in the 16th round because "there [wasn't] even a sticker in the draft kit for this guy!"  Uproarious laughter and derision.  Over a 16th round pick.

Fast-forward 3 years and I ultimately gave up a 10th round, 12th round and 14th round pick over 3 seasons.  For 245-3394-15 over that stretch (PPR no less.)  Best pick I ever made.

 
Odell's rookie year he went undrafted due to injury but I kept hearing how awesome he was going to be so I put my faith in him and picked him up off waivers before the hype got big.  Boy did that pay off handsomely.

 
Hawkeye21 said:
Odell's rookie year he went undrafted due to injury but I kept hearing how awesome he was going to be so I put my faith in him and picked him up off waivers before the hype got big.  Boy did that pay off handsomely.
came here to post this as I thought this would dominate the posts in here....we have a league that has 21 rounds and you have the "option" to keep players you draft in rounds 18-21 for life as long as they stay on your roster (you can't drop and then pick them back up).....you don't have to keep them, and you can drop them at any time if they don't pan out...but then the guys you keep just become your last few picks the following year etc....well one guy got OBJ in the 18th round.....that guy is now getting 21st round value for OBJ forever (he dropped the 19-21 round guys).....we did this to try and spice up the last few rounds......it has made them very important...and it actually makes the preceding round (17) very interesting as people start drafting guys just so they don't make it to the "keeper rounds".....Josh Gordon fell into this category when his status was uncertain....a guy drafted him in the 17th even though he didn't want him, just so somebody else couldn't get lifelong value if he ever got his #### together...

 
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In 1995, I saw some pre-season highlights of the Rams and they made a comment that second-year WR Isaac Bruce had 4 TDs in 4 pre-season games.  I pulled out my FF book (had a book, not a mag) and found the write-up on him saying that injuries had hampered him his rookie year but that if he could stay healthy he could be "a major player."  I drafted him in the last round of my only league at that time (re-draft) and watched him finish with the second most single-season receiving yards ever (would have been the most ever if Jerry Rice had not set the record that same year).

I even tipped off a couple of my buddies who were in other leagues so, needless to say, I rode that success for a while as the guy who could find sleepers (they were real sleepers in those days).

 
I was in on the Jimmy Graham breakout season as well and remembered getting some weird looks when I pulled the trigger....the lesson I learned there is to really listen whenever you are lucky enough to get some good comments from good QB's.....it doesn't happen very often in a big way from the stud QB's..... and in the preseason, I understand most guys get pimped by everybody.....but that year Brees was fawning over Graham as was Sean Payton to an extent.....found many of the comments from Brees here in the shark pool....I really struggle with how much importance I put on actual preseason game performance as I often think teams don't actually show their true usage intentions for some players as they don't want to tip their hand so to speak....I say that and I could be wrong, but I'm not sure NO really showed what their plans for Graham really were that year in the preseason....but if you listened to Brees during camp, etc...he kind of hinted at the breakout...

 
In two different dynasty leagues, I drafted Aaron Rogers and Tom Brady at or earlier than their ADP at the time. The whole expert industry is fixated on late round QBs - that's fine for redraft - but dynasty fantasy football is so much easier when you have a top QB in your lineup every year.

 
In 2007 I won a league on the back of Derek Anderson and Braylon Edwards when I had my first 2 picks bust, and essentially had no RB or QB that were startable on my drafted roster. It was my first year doing fantasy and was given a cheat sheet from a friend. I started the season off 0-5 and squeeked into the playoffs. I was saved by someone drafting them before me the following year...

Also in 2009? I ended up with 3 of the top 5 RB with McCoy, Rice, and Foster. Went undefeated the whole season with 500 more points than everyone, then lost first round of the playoffs.

 
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2013 ... Josh Gordon in the 10th round.  Combined with Megatron in the 1st round and Antonio Brown in the 4th round, I set all kinds of league records that season.  But Gordon was the key, as you don't expect that type of production from a 10th round pick.

 

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