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I drafted Duckett in round 6 and Anderson in like round 16 or something like that. So no I don't think I reached for either. Actually I mainly took Duckett cause he was the highest VB I had on my list and I knew I planned on dealing other RBs in the future so i wanted a solid fall back guy just in case.
I'm glad you posted this. This happens every year to someone. I was wondering how people react to past results. Do you think your plan was flawed or did your plan just get bit by injuries? I ask because it sounds like you plan doing something different this year. Let's go back to last year's draft. If you had not been decimated by injuries you'd be telling us how great your strategy was and how you'd be doing the same thing again this year I'm guessing. But because your team had some bad luck injuries you're going to change what was a great strategy? I'm sure this happens alot in FF. It's like investing money. The tendancy is to sell low and but high when what we really need to do to win is to buy low and sell high. We do so because we don't have the patience to watch our plan develope.
To go off on a slight tangent, I feel the same way about coaching decisions. If a coach goes for it on 4th down and makes it, it was a bold, gutsy, brilliant move. If a coach goes for it on 4th down and fails, it was sheer idiocy and the guy should get fired.Same thing with Marty Morninwheg. He wins the coin toss in overtime and elects to kick. His team loses, so he becomes the butt of every coaching joke for years. Meanwhile, just a handful of years earlier, Mike Shanahan won the coin toss in overtime, elected to kick, and WON... and nobody even remembers it happens.
FM, it's always nice to get some perspective and realize that ideas can be good or bad independent of how successful they are.
Why do you think Vick will be benched this year? Just wondering..I still say RB, RB, WR/RB. RB/WR.. unless its a point per catch league then maybe the WR idea above works better. And yes never draft a QB early. Normally after five rounds I like to have 3 RB's and two stud WR or Gates(if he has some value at that pick) and one stud WR. Again in points per catch leagues I find that WR's and TE(top 4-5) who get lots of touches are huge and it does change my strategy some. As far a trading RB's seem to be the easiest to move because other owners in your league will always end up hurting at RB before anything else. QB's can also have nice trade value if they are lock starters who produce(top12). But I do agree that sometimes you can get stuck with good talent that you cant trade for the same worth. Drafting strategy also changes with the number of teams in a league. In a 10 you can do almost anything..in a 16 you better get a stud RB early etc.
Podunker-the boded part of your message made me realize something I see frequently. In fact we see it posted in this thread so it's prevelant. That is that people will value WR's over RB's in PPR leagues even if the RB gets PPR as well. Westbrook seems to be a value play we all talk about. Yet he usually will score top 8 or better in PPG in PPR leagues. So why is he always a value? While the injuries may have something to do with it I suspect it may be something else. My guess is that because he doesn't rush for many yards or TD's so people think he's not a good RB. So even though his receiving yards and receptions keep him in the top 10 yearly he soesn't get the respect he desrves. Tiki Barber was like that most of his career. D. Davis is another that come to mind. Faulk was the exception because he could put up the rushing yards and TD's as well.So I always look for these type of players. Not just the one's everyone knows about but also the emerging players as well. Westbrook emerged when Staley was still there. After Staley was gone West didn't get the attention he desrved because he wasn't viewed as a good RB. It really pays to know how the scoring system affects player values.
This is the exact scenario in my league. We start 1 QB 2 RB/2 WR or 1 RB/3 WR 1TE 1 K 1DEF.To answer an earlier question, yes I do believe I had a good strategy last year despite all of my injuries. My point is, many guys try to take a STUD WR early in the second round. Is my thinking skewed by trying to take a top WR early myself because I know in the 3rd round a #2RB will be there? Because of my league starting requirements every year I draft 3 RBs in the first 3 Rounds I end up with a starting RB I can't play evey week that sits the bench and can't trade because either A) I can't get fair value for him or B) Nobody will trade me no matter what because teams fear they will be the reason I win a championship.
Not sure if it's fair to say it that way but if it works for a given draft then I usually go RB-RB-WR. I am not against going RB-WR-RB however if the values are there. In letting the draft come to me I prepare for numerous scenarios to see how things might play out and act accordingly.Now another thing that might change my strategy is the TE values. Gates (Gonzo before him) will usually command being drafted in the early to mid 2nd round. Sometime I will go for him. But I prefer to wait until the 3rd to get my high end TE. It just doesn't pan out these days as Gtaes even goes end of the first at times.
Thanks for the reply. Let me ask you this. After I go RB-RB-WR or RB-WR-RB should I then concentrate filling out the rest of my starters even if another good RB falls to me in the fourth or fifth rds? The reason I'm asking this is because of my starting line-up requirements and I won't be able to start 3 RBs. Do I take value or fore go it to field the best starting line up possible?
An even better question yet. I don't know if I can give you a blanket answer on this one. Alot depends on who you drafted. For example, did you draft 1 or more RB's with high risk? If so taking another RB might make sense. Assumming that's true then I would look for another starter. 2 reasons:1. Bye week coverage.
Great info to consider. I'm going to archive this thread. Based on what you've stated, your basic strategy is to draft RB's and perhaps a STUD WR and wait on your QBs and TE unless real value falls early to you in the draft and then you modify your tactics from that point on. That's precisely the same strategy I try to execute in my drafts.However, I've been playing FF now for 4 years and I've only reached the championship once and lost. I've been in the playoffs 3 out of 4 years. It used to be fun just playing the game but now I feel like I'm a veteran and I should be at the very least play deep into the playoffs, year in and year out.
You may not like this response but I will tell you that in any league I've played in I have not seen a conservative drafter win the championship. I know it's happened but it seems more rare than frequent. And often the high reward player does com with risk. I usually judge risk based on that players history.But the underlying point is that no matter how well we try to avoid it, injuries happen and they can happen to anyone. So you've been bitten frequently and that's unusal for sure so I can't comment except that's going to change. Or so I would think.
Congrats on winning the championship!
Would the other team have won if he could of started James? His misfortune was that James got a week off. Not expected for sure but he likely would've fared much better with James in there.You don't have to worry about me taking any of this personal. Even if it was, I'd still consider everything you said with an open mind because of my desire to win so badly.To answer your question about backing up my players, here is the complete lineup I drafted last year. I had the 5th pick in the draft BTW:You may not like this response but I will tell you that in any league I've played in I have not seen a conservative drafter win the championship. I know it's happened but it seems more rare than frequent. And often the high reward player does com with risk. I usually judge risk based on that players history.But the underlying point is that no matter how well we try to avoid it, injuries happen and they can happen to anyone. So you've been bitten frequently and that's unusal for sure so I can't comment except that's going to change. Or so I would think.
Another factor is do you handcuff? I usually handcuff my stud RB's. Whenever I drafted Holmes last year I made sure to get LJ no matter the cost. That simply was a must for me. (I missed getting him in 1 league and it cost me dearly). Well it paid off because I won 4 championships last year. I knew Holmes was risky and I knew LJ was the man if he got injured so his value was unusally high because everyone also knew that. I knew I had to get him in the 4th-5th round. Now there was much debate as to if it was worth doing. I think the evidence proves it was worth it.
Most teams are going to have some sort of injury and will have to address it by drafting quality later in the draft or getting free agents to replace your injured players.
Without knowing your situation I will comment on this:
When drafting you must not only draft your studs well, you must also draft for depth well. IOW-the last 10 rounds of the draft are just as important as the first 10 rounds. Many leagues have been won because of drafts that have been great in rounds 4 thru 8. These are rounds that usually seperate the men form boys.
Consider this:
Everybody gets good-great players in the first 4 rounds. But what happens in rounds 5-10? Who are the next teir of good players that might become RB1's or WR1 & 2's? This is where the homework comes in. You've got to know who these players are in order to have quality depth on your team. In my local league I find starter quality players all the way in rounds 12-14 sometimes.
If you're finding you have good teams that suffer from injuries then maybe you could improve your team by who you draft in later rounds and/or what you get in free agency. I don't know if that helps or not but be honest with yourself and evaluate what you're doing. Is there something you can do differently? Better?
Lastly there are trades. Sometimes you find the perfect trade partner. You know, the guys needs what you have and you need what he has. That's a great tarde partner because everyone gets what they want.
I hope you don't take any of this personal because I do not know if that's a concern for you or not. I'm just putting the ideas out there for you to evaluate and decide what, if anything, you should do differently.
I too have had teams that had soo many injuries that I just had to wait until next year. 2 years ago I had a team that so bad that every player was injured at the same time. I couldn't filed enough players to have a starting team and that's after I did some free agent pick ups. It was aweful.
Hey Family:
Nice job on starting a valid thread that tracks an evolving issue we should all be thinking of and tinkering with. Spending the time you have on the thoughtful answers has made a difference, I haven't had time to jump in in detail but it's much appreaciated.
Also a shout out to spanker, your examples and willingness to talk outloud in an honest and thoughtful manner have also made a considerable contribution. This thread is why I come here to read the latest word!
PS: Hey Family, if you remember I live down in Dayton, should you and I get MOHAWKS just to support CJ during the summer?
Count me in on the Mohawk. He's going to need the support because the Stiller fans are going to be all over him fro that.Thanks Family Matters for all of your advice and Keysersoze666 for the compliment.Family, your right, 14 roster spots is very tight indeed but everyone loves it. It forces you to make decisions in advance (play around bye weeks and make hard decisions on injuries) but more importantely it keeps a good pool of free agents available.
Radballs, the league I'm in is a pretty unique one. It is a 24-man league broken into 2 conferences of 12 man teams. One 12 man conference consists of local players here in Texas. The other 12 man conference has players from all over the U.S. and the world (Japan, Canada, Europe) our non-local conference. Without getting into too much detail (unless you ask) our WW is ranked by activity, not by win or losses or by total points. To give an example, say you are the number #1 team on the waiver wire list and decide not to pick up any free agents; team #2 then gets the first request for any player. After team #2 picks up a player, that team will move to the bottom of the list while team #1 will retain the highest priority for next week’s free agent request. In other words, players do not lose your ranking on the waiver list unless they decide to pick up a free agent.
Which player to void? That's a great topic by itself. There definately some players to avoid IMO. I'll give a few examples:Culpepper-even if he's haelthy there are so many red flags right now that he's as risky as anyone out there. Why take so much risk unless he's your 2nd QB? Plus in order to get him I would have to pay more the risk is worth to me. That's the part I don't like
Very interesting posts, FM and GW. Excellent insights and a lot of good thoughts to consider, IMO.Two things struck me (1) determination of value, and (2) "trap players" or players to avoid at all costs.
My thoughts exactly. This is the type of info that keeps me coming back here. Granted, some of the info is *common* sense, but it's always a good idea to see others' thought processes - especially relating to draft strats - and re-enforce the "little things" that could make or break your draft/season.
While part of me wants to disagree with taking a guy later than his than his ADP, even if he's on your "do not draft" list, I have to agree with the logic. This may be splitting hairs but for me if a guy is on that list it usually means regardless of where's he's drafted at. The reason I say this is due to the other needs I have on a team. Let's say I have to find my back ups for my WR's & TE's with the remaining picks I have. And a RB (that was expected to go earlier) unexpectedly is still available. Do I take that player because of the exceptional value at the risk of not completing my team? Or do I stay the course and draft my needs and ignore the distraction?
This is where my redraft philosophy differs from my dynasty philosophy.Redraft, I'm much more inclined to fill a need, while in dynasty, I'll take the better value almost automatically. This is also different for RBs - redraft, I'm more inclined to take the value at RB early, but in a dynasty, I'll wait on RB and if a good value falls later, I'll take the RB. Take backup RBs for a prime example, in a dynasty they usually fall later than they should, so I'll take top players at other positions first, and grab talented backup RBs later, ahead of other prospects.
I was willing to take him at 4.10. Someone else took him as their #3 RB at 4.3 but struggled all year with no WRs or QB.Congrats on winning the championship!
Would the other team have won if he could of started James? His misfortune was that James got a week off. Not expected for sure but he likely would've fared much better with James in there.
Also I would've taken LJ in the 5th instead of Moore then it wouldn't of matter if James played or not. In fact I would've been willing to take LJ in the 4th.
I was willing to take him at 4.10. Someone else took him as their #3 RB at 4.3 but struggled all year with no WRs or QB.Congrats on winning the championship!
Would the other team have won if he could of started James? His misfortune was that James got a week off. Not expected for sure but he likely would've fared much better with James in there.
Also I would've taken LJ in the 5th instead of Moore then it wouldn't of matter if James played or not. In fact I would've been willing to take LJ in the 4th.
I had the same thing happen in 1 league. He went much sooner than anyone thought he would. I ahd Holmes and my team didn't fare well at all. I ended up with some other issues as well so it may not of mattered in the end.Anyone else notice that it seems the injuries tend to ravage a team or barely bother it? It's been that way for me a few times.It seems clear that you're drafting for the future and not to win now. In order to win now Benson would have to be the man (and I think he will be) and Perry would need to become the man, which he could if he stays healthy and that's in question right now. But clearly Perry is the more talented back. And there's an outside chance that Houston could land a starting gig in a year or so.Now thinking along the same track as you, I would think you could land Addai in the 4th and then you have a team that might compete now. Then you're not fishing for a "hopeful" so much as landing one that will likely be the man. You can then get your WR3 with the Turner or Houston pick. You compete now and have a foundation for the future.
I value Benson considerably higher than Addai, but if you like Addai, I see your point.Maybe benson @ 3.10, Addai @ 4.03, still have Fitz/Walker/Clayton, which is a pretty nice trio. I just prefer Moss to Addai. The WR I could land in place of Houston could be Wilford, Curtis, Mike Williams or Antonio Bryant - you make a strong point. Santana Moss and Houston vs. Wilford and Addai. I prefer Moss/Houston, but you might be right.
