4 QBs @ $46
6 RBs @ $73
8 WRs @ $73
3 TEs @ $39
3 PKs @ $ 9
3 Ds @ $10
-----------
27 players, $250
(snip - detailed team roster and rationale in link to post)
(snip - detailed week 3 breakdown)
(snip - detailed week 4 breakdown)
(snip -detailed week 5 breakdown)
(snip - detailed week 6 breakdown)
(snip - detailed week 7 breakdown)
(snip - detailed week 8 breakdown)
(snip - detailed week 9 breakdown)
Week 10:
Knock knock. Who's there? The Turk! ####!
Missed the cut by 3.55 points, but I'm surprised I lasted this long. Still, if Welker could crack just 9 points which still would have been his season low, I'd be alive. Anyway,
onto the post-mortem:
QB strategy: I went overboard with the "best ball" strategy at QB, choosing 4. Would have absolutely been fine if I stopped at just QB1 Luck and QB2 Wilson. Even the weeks QB3 Locker and QB4 Ponder scored for me, the gap from them to Luck/Wilson wasn't the difference between dead or alive. That's $15 overspent at this position. As for Luck/Wilson, their $31 combined I think was worth it in this best ball format. I hoped that both would have good 2nd seasons and they have. Cracked 30pts once, 25pts four more times, sub-20 only twice with 16.55 the low score. The drawback is no huge upside like Brees or Rodgers (injury notwithstanding) which may not have gotten me much further.
RB strategy: Wanted 5+ RBs all along for best ball purposes, but knew due to budget concerns that could only really afford two decent guys and the rest would be hit-or-miss. Then I went out and missed on RB1 MJD. Thought he would have a bounce back year. Oops. As a Pats fan, with the new faces at WR this year I figured that the Pats would use the running game a lot more and RB2 Ridley would be the guy. After his fumbleitis game in Buffalo to start the season, he got shelved until week 6 then started performing as I had hoped. Missed him on his bye this week. Of the hit-or-miss guys, my big hit was RB3 Jacquizz Rodgers. While Steven Jackson was hurt, Rodgers put up two 20+pt games and a 14pt game. Even after Jackson returned, he put up two double-digit games thanks to PPR. $10 well spent all told. Wish I could say the same about the $20 spent on RB4 Pead, RB5 Redman and RB6 Michael. Admittedly, Michael was a flyer...looked good in preseason and hoped he could see reps later in the year as the Seahawks may start rotating him in to keep Lynch fresh for the postseason. Any production from him was expected later. The other two guys? :cringe: I think next year I may go thin and top-heavy at RB, spending money on guys like Peterson and Lynch, picking up an RB3 who gets PPRs like Rodgers or Woodhead and focus the money elsewhere for my flex scores.
WR strategy: Between PPR and the high variance WRs offer in yardage, I figured this would be the position to load up on quantity and I did with 8 guys. My focus was on PPR and I anticipated that WR1A Welker and WR1B Amendola would thrive with their new QBs. What I didn't expect was how Welker would become a TD machine; Manning uses him down by the goalline like Brady uses Gronk. Welker was my team MVP (which also explains why I wasn't long for this contest). When healthy, Amendola and Brady clicked. Like Ridley, could have used him this week. The remaining 6 WRs were a pu pu platter of low cost with high variance, but I do say I missed big-time on WR3 Givens. WR4 Hartline was $9 well spent with 6 double-digit scores. WR5 Streater ended up scoring 5 times for me, but only twice in double-digits, but that's what $6 gets. I thought I was getting a steal with WR6 Jacoby Jones at $5, that he would build on his excellent post-season and offer a random kick return TD or two, but didn't happen. WR7 McCluster was a $3 flyer on someone who perhaps could thrive with new coach Reid and he did have 3 double-digit scores with one 20+pt game that likely saved me that week, so not bad. WR8 Thompkins was everyone's $2 favorite who made some noise until both Gronk and Amendola returned. I would use this strategy again next year, but tweak it just a bit to squeeze in a home run threat like Calvin or Dez as someone like them is probably needed to win the whole thing.
TE strategy: Wanted TE1 Witten going into this contest, figuring he's a PPR machine and more reliable than Jimmy Graham week-to-week. Meh. That being said, he did put up three 28+pt games and 3 other double-digit games. But for those 4 games he didn't crack double-digits, that's not going to cut it, especially at 1.5pts/catch for TEs. I thought I was getting value at TE2 Fleener, figuring his 2nd year with Stanford teammate Luck would boost him into the upper echelon of TEs...all for $10. Aside from his three games with 17+pts, he was indeed a TE2 and even this production was likely boosted due to Dwayne Allen's season-ending injury. My big miss was at TE3: Celek over Julius Thomas. Next time I need to pay attention to more preseason action. This definitely cost me this week. Next year I will look at perhaps two studs (Graham, Witten) as 1.5pts/catch is nothing to sneeze at. Maybe even go 4+ TEs.
PK strategy: Went 3 kickers for best ball purposes, all at the cheapest cost of $3. Figured Crosby and Hauschka would get FG opportunities on their teams and that Carson Palmer would put Feely into better positions to score. Probably will do this again next year.
D/ST strategy: Went 3 defenses for best ball purposes. Wanted to go $3 for all 3 so I picked Saints and Chargers, hoping that a full season of Sean Payton and Rob Ryan would mean sacks and turnovers galore and that 4 games vs. Oakland and KC would get the Chargers some decent scoring chances. Hit on the Saints, miss on the Chargers. Didn't see a good option at the time for a third $3 defense, so spent $4 on the Giants, hoping for sacks and forced fumbles by their front four (and games vs. Tony Romo). Didn't see much there, either. Next year I'm weighing going with two defenses, spending the same total $10, but on guys like Seattle and KC.
Next year I'm definitely going to start looking into this contest earlier when the prices are set. Then use the preseason to see where the pricing inefficiencies may lie. Maybe simply paying attention at all will help a ton (hello, Julius Thomas).
Good luck to everyone left.