Draft Strategy: Different Size Leagues (1 Viewer)

[Instinctive]

Playing in different size leagues can alter drastically the values of different players, specifically QBs and the uberstuds of any position. Typically, any player is a "RB1" if he's a top 12 guy...but in a 14 team league, there's 2 more guys that qualify, as in 16 teamers.

I thought it would be interesting to put to the Shark Pool some questions of value and draft strategy considering only a difference on the size of a league, and a carbon copy scoring system. Do you take a QB earlier? Typically, QBs have lower value because of less positional scarcity, however, when everyone can barely get a QB and a backup, do you value the best guys more?

Do guys like AD become even more valuable to you, because now there's 10 people without an uberstud RB instead of 8? Does this affect trades you make?

In short, how do you change your cheatsheets for different sized leagues?

 

[We Tigers]

Last year I made the jump to some bigger leagues, and what I noticed immediately was the additional challenge it puts on drafting near either end of the snake. Your ability to respond to position runs seems to decrease exponentially in a 14 team league versus a 12.

The value of an elite player cuts both ways. If you have him, you distinguish yourself very well. Of course, now that 10 or 12 teams are without elite backs, the pressure to have one drops on a week to week basis and you can remain competitive against more opponents. When the haves outweigh the have nots, however, you really don't want to be a have not. The 4 teams in my 14 team league who didn't have one of 2009's 4000+ yard passers were always feeling severely outgunned.

 

[karmarooster]

QBs are more valuable as you mentioned.

Studs are still studs, but the greatest challenge for larger leagues is finding late round gems. IMO this is easier to do at WR than at RB. As such I recommend targeting 3 RBs, a top 8ish QB (Cutler and above), and 1 top flight WR in the first 5 rounds. It's also possible to wait on QB longer and look for someone in the Henne/Palmer/Stafford/VYoung area, but it's gutsy.

You don't want to be the guy starting Kevin Faulk at RB2/flex. You want to be the guy with a solid RB corps and smart, late round WRs like Schilens, Gaffney, the Joneses (GB and HOU), Burleson, Massoquoi, etc.

Also I think it's important to target safe-but-sure guys as opposed to high risk/high upside guys. Reason being that you won't have as much depth as you would in a regular league if, say, Felix Jones is still a 10 carry RB, and you have to start a bench player.

In general, I think 14 and 16 team leagues with deep rosters (ie 2 RB, 3 WR, TE, plus Flex) are really fun because they are so challenging.

 

[Ray_T]

Playing in different size leagues can alter drastically the values of different players, specifically QBs and the uberstuds of any position. Typically, any player is a "RB1" if he's a top 12 guy...but in a 14 team league, there's 2 more guys that qualify, as in 16 teamers.I thought it would be interesting to put to the Shark Pool some questions of value and draft strategy considering only a difference on the size of a league, and a carbon copy scoring system. Do you take a QB earlier? Typically, QBs have lower value because of less positional scarcity, however, when everyone can barely get a QB and a backup, do you value the best guys more?Do guys like AD become even more valuable to you, because now there's 10 people without an uberstud RB instead of 8? Does this affect trades you make?In short, how do you change your cheatsheets for different sized leagues?

well, it really depends on a couple of things.your scoring system & starting roster sizes being the main factor.in most scoring systems I've played in, the top 3 or 4 highest fantasy point totals are usually QB's. That leads people to ask why people draft RB's early and often?The answer is this: The dropoff from the #3 RB to the #10 RB is larger than the drop from the #3 QB to the #10 QB in most years. This means that if you decide not to draft a RB in round 1, your next RB could get you 40-50 fewer fantasy points. If you dont draft a QB in round 1, you could lose maybe 30 fantasy points.These numbers are hypothetical and I havnt taken any real numbers out to support it, but about 2 years ago I did a study and found this to be the case. This is why Manning and Brady have gone later in round 1 rather than first overall even after they had those huge years.with QB's the big dropoff seems to come after the 15th or 16th QB goes off the board. So in a 10 team league, this will only affect how early you pick your backup QB and will not affect where you pick your starters all that much.In a 16 team league, it is a totally different ballgame. I cannot tell you exactly the point where you need to draft a QB, but I would expect you would take your first QB an average of 5-15 picks earlier than you would in a 10 team draft. Of course that will vary depending on how the draft goes, but I think it is a fair assumption.another key difference, in this type of format is that you will see guys going RB-RB-RB with the first 3 picks in a 10 team league, but you wont see so much of that in a 14 or 16 team format because if you do that, you may end up with a crappy QB AND crappy WR's. The solution most people go with is to fill out your starting lineup before selecting backups (unless the backup is so talented you'd be dumb not to take him)some will select the most talented player regardless of position with the thought that they will trade for the Players they want.as I dont know the scoring rules for your league, this is the best answer I can give you.good luck.