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Stacked Lineup or Depth? (1 Viewer)

fantasycurse42

Footballguy Jr.
Would you rather have a team where you start all top 10 guys at every position and have absolutely no depth?

Or

Would you rather have a team with top 20 guys and good depth?

 
Ideally, a blend of both. But barring that being an option - stacked. If you have enough injuries that you're starting a lot of depth, you're probably not winning anyway so I'd rather be stacked and hope to stay healthy.

 
Depends, before or after the trade deadline?

I'm loaded with WR2s and RB2s, but I have no WR1 or RB1s. Some teams are really hurting and I can offer a trade such as: Decker + Ridley + LFitz for a RB1 and still have Gordon, TY as WRs.

If this doesn't work, then I'll be injury resistant, but not very explosive and I'll fizzle out against the top teams.

 
Yeah, stacked! I don't wanna just make the playoffs, I wanna win. Don't care if I come in #2 or #7 (obviously no money leagues).

 
Depth for the regular season, then if you still have any of that depth left around week 11-12, trade it away to maximize your starting lineup for the playoffs.

 
Idk, I'm completely stacked.

Here is the problem - I'm one Reggie Bush injury away from inserting Jordan Todman as my RB2.

It isn't fun spending your Sunday following the injury thread.

 
I only play in dynasty leagues, so my answer is based around that.

I've had success winning championships both ways, but if give the choice I almost always consolidate depth value into a better starting lineup.

 
I hate depth sometimes because it makes me second guess who to start. If you have 6 solid receivers and can only start 3 it can be painful to watch your bench pile up points.

 
I hate depth sometimes because it makes me second guess who to start. If you have 6 solid receivers and can only start 3 it can be painful to watch your bench pile up points.
Yeah, that's a situation where it's nice to consolidate that value into the starting lineup and have a couple strong flex options.

 
Yeah, stacked! I don't wanna just make the playoffs, I wanna win. Don't care if I come in #2 or #7 (obviously no money leagues).
This. The goal is to create a team that's an outlier, so you want to maximize variance. That means rolling out the best starting lineup possible and hoping for the best. Hedging your bets (getting a worse starting lineup, but better depth) decreases your chances of finishing as a bad team, but it also decreases your chances of winning the championship.

 
I hate depth sometimes because it makes me second guess who to start. If you have 6 solid receivers and can only start 3 it can be painful to watch your bench pile up points.
Exactly. So many people minimize the negative effect of depth. When your team is studs and duds you're guaranteed to score 100% of your studs. But when your entire roster is the Pierre Garcons, Cecil Shorts and Torrey Smith variety, 20-30% of their value will usually be lost on your bench.

 
I hate depth sometimes because it makes me second guess who to start. If you have 6 solid receivers and can only start 3 it can be painful to watch your bench pile up points.
Yes I agree. I like to have a stacked lineup and have my bench guys just worthy of a bye week fill in

 
Good thread and this is why I started the thread about players to target for trades based on ROS schedule last week.

I am a big believer that depth is important up until right about this time of the season. Just before the trade deadline, the best strategy is to target stud players on teams that still have a fighting chance of making the playoffs but have been riddled by injury and are trotting out players like Ted ginn at wr or mcgahee/ogbanaya at Rb. Those teams KNOW they have to make a move or some depth if they are going to make the playoffs.

So you offer them two solid depth players that are far and away an upgrade for their starting spots and you ask or a stud player with a favorable ROS schedule in return. The trick is you have to be willing to part with some valuable players. In a competitive league you're not going to acquire a stud without giving a few good 2nd tier players in return.

I just did that and it worked out even more perfectly than I expected. 2 days ago I traded away Blackmon and Julius thomas for jordy.

I was stacked at TE (also had Cameron) and had a bunch of very good wrs but wanted another stud to go with vjax and Gordon.

It's really the ONLY WAY to consistently get to the big game and win championships IMO.

The formula is first half of the season work the waiver wire/fa pool like a mad man and acquire breakout players that allow you the flexibility to trade. Second half of the season use those players to package 2 for 1 trades and acquire studs for the stretch run.

 
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Stacked. I work the wire hard every year for depth, and then package up deals for studs to guys who lack a good starters at a certain position. Two weeks ago I traded away Z Stacy, Blackmon, and Witten basically for R. Bush (I have Charles and Lacy and had J. Bell on my bench already.) This way I am starting 3 RB1 in the playoffs. Obviously this trade looks much better now that Blackmon got busted again, but you can't start depth. Studs win championships.

 
Definitely would prefer a stacked starting lineup in the abstract.

But I don't think it's really possible to pick 10 can't miss guys on draft day. So I always draft fair number of speculative picks, hoping to hit on a stud with one of them. And in practice this means I usually end up with pretty good depth.

 
I like depth at the beginning of the season but around midseason , identify the best players for the playoffs, trade away depth and go balls to the walls and hope for the best.

 
At the start of the season? Depth, no question.

Odds are that many of the "studs" at the start of the year won't be mid to late season. Odds are that some of your top 20 guys will turn into studs and you'll be just as "stacked" as the guy who thought he was at Week 1.

I read an article here at FBGs earlier this year that showed how accurate predictions were at the start of a FF season. I don't remember the numbers but I remember it wasn't good. As the season rolls on the numbers increase as situations get settled on NFL teams and players show who they are going to be for the current season.

Point being, all those "stacked" players oftentimes aren't who you think they are at the start of the season. Creating an outlier team is nice, but very difficult to do early. Personally, I draft for depth (think more consistant weekly points) and look for outliers during the season. If you make the playoffs every year because of your depth, and then find "boom" players that inevitably pop up out of your depth, and work the WW to find high ceiling players, then you are in the race to win a SB almost every year.

Go for only high ceiling players and your team hits the playoffs 50% of the time, then you have 0% chance to win it all 50% of the time, although you might have 80% chance to win if you get in.

I don't know, consistancy to start the season and trades/waiver wire picks ups during the season has worked well for me in the past. You'll almost always be "in the money" which means you are in that group that has a chance to win it all. I'm sure everyone has seen that guy win it all with a team that had no business being in the playoffs at all, but his team got hot, his opponents didn't, and he took the crown. Getting in the playoffs should be the #1 priority for every team. Hopefully you start to see that around week 9 or 10, and then can start working on your "winning it all" strategy.

 
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Prefer beastmode starting unit

I had depth last week

RBs:

Peterson

Bush

SJax

Ellington

Stacy

Traded away Ellington and Stacy for Spiller (going to be my RB4) since Elly and Stacy have deadlast rank for playoff schedule and Buffalo has the #1 easiest schedule and reports that he's nearing 100%

 
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Point being, all those "stacked" players oftentimes aren't who you think they are at the start of the season. Creating an outlier team is nice, but very difficult to do early. Personally, I draft for depth (think more consistant weekly points) and look for outliers during the season. If you make the playoffs every year because of your depth, and then find "boom" players that inevitably pop up out of your depth, and work the WW to find high ceiling players, then you are in the race to win a SB almost every year.
But this question doesn't factor that in. You can have one or the other, depth or studs, not factoring in how hard they are to identify.

 
Prefer beastmode starting unit

I had depth last week

RBs:

Peterson

Bush

SJax

Ellington

Stacy

Traded away Ellington and Stacy for Spiller (going to be my RB4) since Elly and Stacy have deadlast rank for playoff schedule and Buffalo has the #1 easiest schedule and reports that he's nearing 100%
Dead last schedule yes...but did you see how he ran against Seahawks. At this point even with the schedule I would want Stacy over spiller unless flax was hurt.

 
Point being, all those "stacked" players oftentimes aren't who you think they are at the start of the season. Creating an outlier team is nice, but very difficult to do early. Personally, I draft for depth (think more consistant weekly points) and look for outliers during the season. If you make the playoffs every year because of your depth, and then find "boom" players that inevitably pop up out of your depth, and work the WW to find high ceiling players, then you are in the race to win a SB almost every year.
But this question doesn't factor that in. You can have one or the other, depth or studs, not factoring in how hard they are to identify.
Fair enough. I was going a little more in depth. But I did answer the question flat out earlier - as in depth (depending on whether he means early in the season or late)

 
Point being, all those "stacked" players oftentimes aren't who you think they are at the start of the season. Creating an outlier team is nice, but very difficult to do early. Personally, I draft for depth (think more consistant weekly points) and look for outliers during the season. If you make the playoffs every year because of your depth, and then find "boom" players that inevitably pop up out of your depth, and work the WW to find high ceiling players, then you are in the race to win a SB almost every year.
But this question doesn't factor that in. You can have one or the other, depth or studs, not factoring in how hard they are to identify.
Fair enough. I was going a little more in depth. But I did answer the question flat out earlier - as in depth (depending on whether he means early in the season or late)
No worries, I liked your response and agree with everything you said.

 
If you're asking me if I want a crystal ball or depth, then give me the crystal ball. If you're asking if I want to give up my depth for the most stacked lineup I can get in week 8, give me the depth. A lot happens between now and week 14. Guys who looked like studs early start to tail off. guys get hurt. Matchups that looked juicy suddenly look terrible. Bad weather starts popping up. And guys who started out slow get hot. Remember how hot danario alexander was at the end of the season last year? That happens every year. You can't tell me right now who those guys are going to be, so your stacked lineup is a crapshoot. My depth gives me a better chance to have more of those guys. I also can choose more great matchups and fewer bad ones at the end of the season when you can tell which teams have checked out. I'm not locked in to some guy who had a good first eight weeks and tricked me into thinking my lineup was stacked. If chris johnson gets hot, I can start him against that soft second half schedule. If not, I turn to plan b. If you go with the stacked lineup approach, and your guys don't get hot/stay hot, you don't have a plan b. Yes its frustrating when plan b goes off on your bench while plan a puts up a bad score, but that happens on supposedly stacked lineups, too.

I'm not opposed to consolidating a couple good guys into one great one, but if I had to choose between good depth and no depth, good depth is going to trump all but the most ridiculous lineup.

 
beef said:
Stacked. I try to build to optimize my starting lineup + my backup flex.
this is how you win.
Same. The three weeks leading up to the deadline I try to start moving depth for the strongest starters possible, and the strongest FLEX I can get. If it's a WR/RB FLEX, I'll try to obtain 1 solid RB and 1 solid WR for that spot. In the instance that one of my starters goes down, one of these can take that spot and the other will be the permanent flex. Fill the rest of my roster with speculative adds; consistent, but unspectacular WW players such as WR3 types; and maybe a hit-or-miss player out there because of injuries (e.g. Cutler, Crabtree), and I'm good.

TL;DR: stacked lineup

 
I wanna stacked lineup my trade deadline wk 10 I just trade ellington Boldin and Nate Washington for Brandon Marshall last wk traded Gorfon and Jordan Reed for Gore now I got Stafford Charles gore MJD Verren Shon Green Dez Marshall Ginn Gronk

 
Tough question - I have won my championships with stacked lineups - and had some of my worst seasons with stacked lineups that get hurt by injury. My most consistent seasons seem to come from balanced depth with a few studs - but those types of lineups lead to headaches on who to play and kicking yourself for picking the wrong player. This season, in a 12 team redraft with a 24 man roster (7 off and 7 idp starters) - every single one of my players is in the top 50 at their position....in many positions all of my players are in the top 20....but I am only 5-3 because I don't have any (outside of Brees) "studs". I guess I like stacked lineup better but it is harder with more information available to everyone on the internet.

 
10 team PPR redraft...

I start:

Rivers

Dez, Mega

Lacy, Bush

Gronk

Marshall, J Thomas

Bench - Lev Bell, Jerome Simpson, Jeremy Kerley (in the lineup this week), Brady, Kenbrell Thompkins

I need another 7 weeks (including this one) with no injuries or I'm ####ed. One injury and I'm in trouble, two injuries and its over. I spend hours scouring the injury reports. I'd almost rather move Brandon Marshall for like Pierre Garçon and Alshon Jeffrey (just a hypothetical with two random guys) just to add some depth.

I have Kerley in one flex spot and I don't even know who I'm putting in the second tomm - it's risky playing with zero depth behind your starting roster & the fact that I still don't know who to pick up and play tomm makes me feel depth is that much more important.

 
I want depth through most of the year; injuries and situations are too fluid. But as the season progresses, I want to try and stack my team at the expense of my depth.

 
Stacked. Even if one guy goes out and you replace him with a ZERO, your lineup should still be good enough to win anyway.

 
Would you rather have a team where you start all top 10 guys at every position and have absolutely no depth?

Or

Would you rather have a team with top 20 guys and good depth?
early in the year I like depth...over the past couple weeks and I try and move that depth for positional upgrades for the 2nd half. Going down the stretch I want to have studs in my starting lineup each week. Yes, there's some risk if guys get injured but this strategy has worked really well for me over the years.

 
I think what we're looking at is churn. I'm always willing to sacrifice roster for talent 2-for-1 type stuff and bolstering for depth with waiver. Ideally there is always a slot for speculation. When you're missing that, you need to unstack your lineup.

 
I like a team with depth during bye weeks. Once my bye weeks are clear, I'd much rather have a team that is stacked every week. Makes submitting that lineup much easier knowing you don't have to pick and choose between 3 of 4 guys at 1 position. Especially during playoff time. I just want the best team out there every week.

 
Early in season (through bye weeks) = depth.

For playoffs = stack it!

I always try to trade depth for better front-line talent as we near the playoffs. Playing in a dynasty league makes this process a little easier, as everyone is trying to do the same in redraft. In dynasty you have some teams willing to part with guys like Frank Gore or even P. Manning if they are out of the race for this year - and will often trade for draft picks or younger players with good upside (or a combo).

 
Early in season (through bye weeks) = depth.

For playoffs = stack it!

I always try to trade depth for better front-line talent as we near the playoffs. Playing in a dynasty league makes this process a little easier, as everyone is trying to do the same in redraft. In dynasty you have some teams willing to part with guys like Frank Gore or even P. Manning if they are out of the race for this year - and will often trade for draft picks or younger players with good upside (or a combo).
+1

Beginning of the season, depth, and end of the season for playoff push and playoffs, starters.

 
If you're asking me if I want a crystal ball or depth, then give me the crystal ball. If you're asking if I want to give up my depth for the most stacked lineup I can get in week 8, give me the depth. A lot happens between now and week 14. Guys who looked like studs early start to tail off. guys get hurt. Matchups that looked juicy suddenly look terrible. Bad weather starts popping up. And guys who started out slow get hot. Remember how hot danario alexander was at the end of the season last year? That happens every year. You can't tell me right now who those guys are going to be, so your stacked lineup is a crapshoot. My depth gives me a better chance to have more of those guys. I also can choose more great matchups and fewer bad ones at the end of the season when you can tell which teams have checked out. I'm not locked in to some guy who had a good first eight weeks and tricked me into thinking my lineup was stacked. If chris johnson gets hot, I can start him against that soft second half schedule. If not, I turn to plan b. If you go with the stacked lineup approach, and your guys don't get hot/stay hot, you don't have a plan b. Yes its frustrating when plan b goes off on your bench while plan a puts up a bad score, but that happens on supposedly stacked lineups, too.

I'm not opposed to consolidating a couple good guys into one great one, but if I had to choose between good depth and no depth, good depth is going to trump all but the most ridiculous lineup.
This is the new reality but the minority view, similar to the way going RB-RB in your draft became outdated.

Old school thinking is to trade all your depth for studs in the starting lineup and combine with SOS to ride to a championship.

But there is FAR too much turnover in today's NFL even on a week to week basis, primarily due to injuries.

For example, just last week Julius Thomas and Jordan Reed were injured and may miss time. These guys are high-end TE1's and arguably the type of "studs" that people either would trade for or rely upon if they had just packaged their otherwise expendable low-end TE1 in a deal. If it happened in weeks 14-16, you would be going to the WW to find Scott Chandler as a replacement.

In addition, also as a result or injuries there have ALWAYS been a late-season WW stud available in the last few weeks, so keeping dry FAAB powder is essential. Last year, it was Bryce Brown and Knowshon Moreno, among others.

 
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In addition, also as a result or injuries there have ALWAYS been a late-season WW stud available in the last few weeks, so keeping dry FAAB powder is essential. Last year, it was Bryce Brown and Knowshon Moreno, among others.
I'd like to agree here but reality is that every team's got a different need. I started 0-3 1-4 and had to throw down to get some talent on the wire. I certainly overpaid but ended up with a really solid team- now 6-5. Pretty nice lineup and decent back ups but literally two bucks in FAAB. It's not a comfortable place to be.

My adds for the year.

Team's at the end.

Caveat- this isn't a rate my team, simply using it as an example.

Added

Edelman for $17 <-Traded with Morris for Charles)

Kellen Winslow for $5 <-waste)

James Jones for $13 <-traded for D.Wilson)

Eddie Royal for $13 <-chasing points)

VIkings D for $3 <-should have only spent $1)

Fleener for $2 <-have Gronk will flail)

Rainey for $1 <-prescient... too prescient)

Haushca for $1 <-nice)

Holmes $8 <---dropped Rainey!?!)

H.Miller for $2 <-flail)

Bryce Brown $4 <-mccoy insurance but dropped)

Rams D $1

M.Floyd $1

Winslow $1

Pierre Thomas $2 <-nice)

B.Myars $1

K.Allen $7 <-reached but was glad)

T.Williams $7 <-reached but was somewhat glad)

Texans $1

H.Miller $1

P.Harvin $8 <-reached... we'll see)

Ravens $

A.Brown $1 <-lucky-traded for A.Jeffrey)

Bengals $1

M.James $1

Henne $1

R.Jennings $2 <-lucky reach)

Ravens $1

(Start 2QB/Keep 2/.5PPR)

QB-STAFFORD --KEEPER

QB-FOLES --DRAFT

RB-CHARLES --TRADE

RB-MCCOY --KEEPER

WR-A.JEFFREY --TRADE

WR-T.SMITH --TRADE

TE-GRONKOWSKI --DRAFT

FLEX-R.JENNINGS --WAIVER

D-BENGALS --WAIVER

K-HAUSHCA --WAIVER

BN-TANNEHILL --DRAFT

BN-P.THOMAS --WAIVER

BN-S.JACKSON --TRADE

BN-K.ALLEN --WAIVER

BN-P.HARVIN --WAIVER

BN-RAVENS --WAIVER

 
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I enjoy having depth if I have at least one good starter at each position and someone with an acceptable floor as my second player.

This season I actually had too much depth and would end up benching guys who could start on anyone's team and lost 2 games with the winning player going off on my bench.

So now as we head towards playoffs I want to upgrade shedding some depth, which is what I did. However my goal is to have a startable bench guy for injury protection even if it means I do not have the best stud I could have gotten. Rather have 2 10 point guys than a 13 point and 6 pointer. Cuz if 13 pointer gets hurt I am in trouble.....

 
I enjoy having depth if I have at least one good starter at each position and someone with an acceptable floor as my second player.

This season I actually had too much depth and would end up benching guys who could start on anyone's team and lost 2 games with the winning player going off on my bench.

So now as we head towards playoffs I want to upgrade shedding some depth, which is what I did. However my goal is to have a startable bench guy for injury protection even if it means I do not have the best stud I could have gotten. Rather have 2 10 point guys than a 13 point and 6 pointer. Cuz if 13 pointer gets hurt I am in trouble.....
Same with me. I have guys that I could plug in if an injury were to occur to one of my starters. The only thing I don't have is a backup TE behind Cameron, which now I kinda regret. But I also like to have handcuffs for my top RBs. I have both Charles and Gore and have Davis and Hunter as their handcuffs. If they were to go down, I'd rather not get into a FAAB with the entire league. So I scooped them up early for cheap.

 

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