that was a good post by billyjoe...
last line - "Don’t throw away a stud for a college highlight reel on youtube." is borderline sig material...
too often, others overvalue youth in dynasty leagues (i'm guilty of this at times)...
that said, it isn't always as cut & dry as having a team populated entirely with geezers that is win in 07 or bust, or having all rookies that may not be competitive for half a decade or more...
ideally you can construct a team that is balanced in terms of age, experience, production, potential... especially when you can use draft, waiver wire & trades to do so... in practive, though, it is probably hard to not emphasize one over the other...
i can tolerate being a little worse at certain positions in short term if by doing so i think i can gain a decided advantage in long term... how best to do that, is still an open question...
an interesting corollary to issue billy joe raised... the same critical eye that is levelled at bust rate of rookies, in the interest of a thorough study of the matter... could also be turned to & directed at vets... how often do vets bust...
boldin does seem like a pretty sure thing, so there are matters of degree here... chris chambers was coming off very good year in 05, & many had him as top 10-15 WR... he's not that old... did he bust in 06? maybe he comes back & he wasn't a bust...
so if you can get a truly "sure thing" vet, whatever that means, for a high pick, that could a great thing to do (qualifying it with depending on age... many would disagree on whether SA is worth 1.1... i don't think so, but 30 year old RBs coming off injury riddled season ((especially leg/knee/foot injury)) frighten me)... but making sure you have identified a sure thing can be difficult...
* edit/add - the divides in thinking on youth/experience, potential/production & on their relative merits is always provocative in dynasty discussions...
dynasty can be very challenging... the layer of complexity added by age concerns is what appeals to a lot of dynasty players... imagine chess if the pieces could not only get injured or suspended or have off year... but get old...
but these questions can also be reduced to something simpler... the teams that have the most above average players usually wins... good players can be young or old...
i've definitely seen different strategies win... some teams favor trading away first rounders to get underrated older players... though most of the teams i've seen do well at this, were also adept at trading back into draft in future when they had use of vets but before they became spent...
one advantage to rookies (& not necessarily talking about bush & AD here, but boldin may be good example)... their value is not known yet... many undervalued rookie QBs last year... same with MJD... colston... once players are vets & have 3-4 seasons or more playing at high level, its hard to acquire those players cheaply, & there is not as great a variance & disparity in value any more...
getting an LT, or steven jackson, or boldin, or getting a few of those players, BEFORE THEY BREAK OUT, is the kind of move that can win leagues... & in position to keep winning for many years...
in general, the successful teams i have seen, are not only adept at making shrewd trades & WW moves, but at manipulating the draft process... trading out of bad spots, & into good ones...
maximizing value can at times take the form of parlaying picks into players, & vice verce...