10 Team Draft Strategy -- Is it really different? (1 Viewer)

[austinball]

This is my first year playing in a 10 team league. We restructured from 12 team keeper to 10 team redraft with no keepers. So this is a straight up snake draft and I have the 10/11 turn.

I haven't found much info on the actual tactical differences in drafting for 10 vs 12/14 team leagues. Basically people say "its all about the studs" in 10 teamers -- but isn't it always about the studs, regardless of the league size?

I usually draft RB early and often. And this yearIll probably pair RB with stud WR at 11. I would then normally go some combination of RB/WR for my next 4 picks and start thinking QB or TE around round 7 or so. Is this a bad idea in a 10 team league?

Do you go QB or TE earlier than you otherwise would? DST earlier?


Any insight on how YOU draft differently for 10 teamer is appreciated.

 

[Freelove]

1 - It really opens up every possible variety of draft strategy. The big scarcity issue with most drafts (unless you're in a start-2-QB league) is the number of reliable running backs. With ten teams, there are plenty to go around, as long as you don't wait past the mid rounds. For me, that means the first few rounds are more about taking any great values that happen to fall to me, and less about being sure I don't get shut out of a position.

2 - EVERY team is going to be strong, pretty much every week. For me, this devalues boom/bust players like Hilton and Colston, since I no longer feel confident that on an average week for those guys, the strength of the rest of my roster is likely to give me an advantage anyway. It also devalues handcuffs and ANY sleeper/flyers that don't have CRAZY upside. You're going to sink or swim based on having guys that score lots of points. Not just guys who prove to be reliable week-in/week-out producers. To me, this means the only guys worth really reaching to take are those who I feel have a legit shot at ending up as WR1's or RB1's if everything breaks right. Bump Gordon, Britt, Bradshaw, and devalue nonsense like backup QB's, up and coming secondary wideouts on teams, and pass-catching situational RB's.

3 - Backup QB's, TE's, and D's are unnecessary luxuries. The WW will be deep ALL year. You don't need to waste a roster spot on Phil Rivers as your backup QB all year long when you can just pluck Palmer or Roethlisberger or whoever off free agency on the week needed.

4 - Even more D's in FA means rent-a-defense strategies work even better. I devalue defenses to begin with, but I devalue them even more in smaller leagues. There's almost always a couple very tasty matchups sitting in FA, and it's not unusual for weekly D and K churners to outscore the elite individual D's and K's.

 

[jumper]

This is my first year playing in a 10 team league. We restructured from 12 team keeper to 10 team redraft with no keepers. So this is a straight up snake draft and I have the 10/11 turn.

I haven't found much info on the actual tactical differences in drafting for 10 vs 12/14 team leagues. Basically people say "its all about the studs" in 10 teamers -- but isn't it always about the studs, regardless of the league size?

I usually draft RB early and often. And this yearIll probably pair RB with stud WR at 11. I would then normally go some combination of RB/WR for my next 4 picks and start thinking QB or TE around round 7 or so. Is this a bad idea in a 10 team league?

Do you go QB or TE earlier than you otherwise would? DST earlier?


Any insight on how YOU draft differently for 10 teamer is appreciated.

I think the "all about the studs" just reflects that since in a smaller league fewer guys get rostered period they're probably all going to be relatively high quality. There's less reason to carry a depth guy at a shallow position when 10 teams roster 160 players vs. 12 teams rostering 200, finding a WW guy to patch a bye week holes is a lot easier. Streaming is a lot easier too and I'd not expend a high pick on a DST or QB since I can get one fairly easily of the wire.

 

[Adam Harstad]

This is my first year playing in a 10 team league. We restructured from 12 team keeper to 10 team redraft with no keepers. So this is a straight up snake draft and I have the 10/11 turn.

I haven't found much info on the actual tactical differences in drafting for 10 vs 12/14 team leagues. Basically people say "its all about the studs" in 10 teamers -- but isn't it always about the studs, regardless of the league size?

I usually draft RB early and often. And this yearIll probably pair RB with stud WR at 11. I would then normally go some combination of RB/WR for my next 4 picks and start thinking QB or TE around round 7 or so. Is this a bad idea in a 10 team league?

Do you go QB or TE earlier than you otherwise would? DST earlier?


Any insight on how YOU draft differently for 10 teamer is appreciated.

When people say 10-teamers are all about studs, they mean they're all about studs regardless of position. Due to positional scarcity, 12-teamers are all about the RBs and WRs. With fewer teams and fewer starters, the scarcity isn't quite as dire at RB and WR in 10-teamers, so the desire to get a difference-making QB or TE starts to outweigh the concern of being caught on the wrong end of a positional run at RB or WR.

 

[austinball]

Appreciate the comments Freelove, Jumper and Adam.

Would you be more inclined to look at TE / QB earlier? If I go RB/WR at 10/11 would it make sense to follow with TE/QB at 30/31and then load up on RB/WR with the remaining picks?

 

[We Tigers]

Appreciate the comments Freelove, Jumper and Adam.

Would you be more inclined to look at TE / QB earlier? If I go RB/WR at 10/11 would it make sense to follow with TE/QB at 30/31and then load up on RB/WR with the remaining picks?

My inclination would actually be to go QB at 10/11 or wait a very long time unless you feel really strongly about someone outside the elite top 3. When guys like Cam and Kaepernick might not even get taken as starters, I'd consider taking Brees or Rodgers, or otherwise just waiting till everyone else in the league has someone. Even at the turn, you're much less vulnerable to positional runs in a 10-teamer.

 

[Montana16]

My strategy for 10 tm with no roster limitation is this...Dont draft backup qb, K, te or Dst. Im in a few yahoo pro20 10tm leagues and my entire bench is RBs and a wr or 2. Im serious, in one league my bench is 8rbs. You dont need backups and I didnt even draft a k or dst in either of them, just 2 more rbs! You can easily WW all those backups. the league laughed and yahoo graded me the worst but they are gonna crap when they see i have multiple breakout rbs.

 

[Adam Harstad]

Appreciate the comments Freelove, Jumper and Adam.

Would you be more inclined to look at TE / QB earlier? If I go RB/WR at 10/11 would it make sense to follow with TE/QB at 30/31and then load up on RB/WR with the remaining picks?

It's going to depend a lot on knowing your league and its tendencies. I participate in a lot of staff mocks and "industry drafts" with other writers and analysts from around the web. In a league like that, I would never dream of taking a quarterback in the first three rounds; the idea of waiting at quarterback has become so ingrained in "expert" culture that spending a first or second round pick at the position essentially amounts to needlessly wasting draft capital.

At the same time, I also have a few "Friends & Family" drafts; there I would think nothing at all of selecting, say, Peyton Manning at the 1/2 turn. I know that Brees and Rodgers will both be gone by the time the draft rolls back around to me, (and, if history is any guide, perhaps one or two second-tier quarterbacks will have joined them). I also know that I'll be able to consistently pick up sliding value through the rest of the draft to make up for a potentially weaker start at the beginning.

My willingness to take a QB or TE early, however, is contingent on the QB or TE in question. As the saying goes, it's all about the studs. If I miss out on Manning/Brees/Rodgers or Graham/Gronkowski/Thomas/Cameron, I'm probably ignoring the position for quite a while unless a Jordan Reed or Nick Foles starts slipping in the middle rounds.

Here's a 10-team mock the staff ran earlier this offseason; I drew the #1 overall pick and started out Charles, Peyton, Nelson, Cameron, and Brees. Part of that was curiosity about how the remainder of the draft would turn out if I grabbed two of the top three quarterbacks, but it illustrates how in a 10-teamer you can get away with a bold gamble like that because the positional depth is a bit less punishing.

For those who can't see the article, (I believe it is behind the paywall), here was my final team:

QB- Peyton Manning, Drew Brees

RB- Jamaal Charles, Pierre Thomas, Frank Gore, Bernard Pierce, Fred Jackson

WR- Jordy Nelson, Julian Edelman, Eric Decker, Brandin Cooks, Marvin Jones, Kelvin Benjamin, Kenny Britt, Josh Gordon

TE- Jordan Cameron

Obviously I'd be throwing stuff at the wall hoping it sticks at WR in the early going, but I think those situations will become much more clear by midseason (and there's usually quality help on the wire in a 10-teamer). I was also partially emboldened by the fact that this was early July and I figured I could grab some rookies at a discount before the buzz started building- neither Cooks nor Benjamin would be available quite so cheaply today. On the other hand, this was against FBG staff members, who as a group are pretty on the ball; in a less competitive league there would be even more value later in the draft to fill those WR2/3 and RB2/3 holes.

Toby Gerhart was selected before Drew Brees in that mock, which I think was just people not being familiar with the format. I guarantee you if I was so inclined I could trade Drew Brees for Toby Gerhart straight up a week or two into the season in a 10-teamer.

 

[Buffaloes]

3 - Backup QB's, TE's, and D's are unnecessary luxuries. The WW will be deep ALL year. You don't need to waste a roster spot on Phil Rivers as your backup QB all year long when you can just pluck Palmer or Roethlisberger or whoever off free agency on the week needed.

i've found this is not necessarily the case in league with especially large benches. in 10-team leagues I've played in, we've made it a point to expand benches so as to make the FA pool a little tougher to navigate,.