Draft Strategy For a New Keeper league? (1 Viewer)

[solorca]

I've been playing Fantasy Football for many years, mainly as a part of one ultra serious league, and a few not so serious ones. This year, the serious league that I play in is switching to a 2 keeper league. There will be no restrictions about keeping anyone based on the round they were drafted, and whatever round you drafted them in this season will be the same round you use for the following season.

So, what kind of strategies do you guys employ for a new keeper league? I'm not looking for players, but rather the types of players/plans that work well for a start-up keeper league.

Do you simply draft the best players and let the keeper thing work itself out, or do you intentionally grab younger players that may not be as good for this season, on the chance that they will become a star? For instance, someone like Reggie Wayne is a great player, but would you take someone a slightly less impressive younger player instead of him, because of the chance he could be your keeper next year?

Personally, as no one in this league has used keepers before, I think it may be a good opportunity to simply draft as I normally would, and take advantage of some owners who are jumping too high to grab the big potential guys. I'm not sure if that's a dumb strategy or not though.

While this is me asking a question simply about my league, I still think it would be a good topic for discussion, as I think there are probably many who are in the same boat as me.

 

[Lehigh98]

Can you only keep players that were drafted or also FA's picked up throughout the year as well?

 

[We Tigers]

Early on, take whomever you want. With just two keepers, but keepers that are based on the round they were picked, the best thing you can do is find the guy in round 6-10 who'll carry a 1st or 2nd round value the next year. Hard to do, but you get better odds if you pick McFadden instead of Caddy Williams, or Mike Wallace instead of Derrick Mason, to use a few examples from last year. Upside is your friend.

Also, don't agonize too much about finding guys you can keep forever. With such a small number, there will be a lot of turnover every couple years.

 

[solorca]

Can you only keep players that were drafted or also FA's picked up throughout the year as well?

This is one of the things we are voting on over the next few weeks, but I believe it will be that if we pick up a FA over the course of the year, we can keep them as our last round pick. We Tigers - Thanks for the advice. I think that is the direction that I was leaning with my draft. I think that the late round values will be the ones that will be really valuable to keep.

 

[Sarnoff]

If you're just keeping 2, play for this year, every year. No need to think too far ahead.

 

[We Tigers]

If you're just keeping 2, play for this year, every year. No need to think too far ahead.

This is probably the best point. If you draft well, odds are you'll have a few good keepers anyway.

 

[GregR_2]

I wouldn't change my draft strategy much. Youth would only play a role amongst drafting starters when I had two very similarly rated players and one was a lot younger than the other.

When you get down to backups, then I might take more fliers on players in the hopes they become the next Foster, DWill, Portis, etc, who go from mid to late rounds to 1st rounder.

 

[Major]

I'm in a similar keeper league where our keepers count against the round they were drafted in. I like picking up players that were off the radar last year, suffered injuries or solid back-ups that haven't got their chance. This has nabbed me Larry Johnson in the 17th round before he replaced Priest, Brandon Jacobs in the 16th a few years back and last year Michael Vick in the 17th round. You have to be patient and stash players so hopefully you have a decent sized bench.

 

[Saint]

For me it doesn't much matter. Draft the way you normally would, but toward the latter rounds, I am more than willing to take a flyer on a young guy. For example, I've seen Titus Young sitting out in the 15th and 16th rounds and I may be more than willing to take a flyer on him rather than an Earl Bennett or someone like that. Basically I tend to draft more rookies or two-yr guys in the latter part of the draft when I'm in depth pick mode.