What is the strangest draft strategy you’ve ever seen? (1 Viewer)

[Hot Sauce Guy]

I don’t see a topic for it, but just saw one tonight that was worthy enough to create one.

I may hit my limit.

NFFC Rotowire high stakes online championship. I realize $350 isn’t a lot of to some, but it’s certainly more than I’m comfortable pouring gasoline over and lighting on fire.

The format is 1 QB, 2 RB, 3 WR, 1 TE, 1 O-Flex, 1 D/ST, and 1 Team K.

As such, at most you can start 3 RB in any given week. Note that dear reader, as it will be highly relevant, very shortly. Also, of note, there is no trading in the NFFC.

Tonight, Team 1.03 did the strangest thing.

CMC fell to 1.03 - which was just lucky as heck. I had envy for real. (Lamb ~> Hill 1-2, for the curious). I haven’t seen CMC make it to 3 in any mock. I’d comfortably guess that it’s very rare for real drafts as well.

They followed it up with Etienne round 2. Ok, I can see that. Not something I’d do, but I get it. Boomer style is making a comeback. I don’t love it. I don’t hate it. I’d have taken Kupp, as 2.11 smartly did, or Nico, who also fell several picks past NFFC’s ADP.

Then Josh Allen - huh. Ok, with 3RR & some solid WR1 on the board, not at all what I’d do, especially if I went RB-RB. But again, I don’t judge. RB-RB-QB is a defensible strategy. No judgement. If you wanna do it, who am I to say no? This is a safe space. If you’re into that, I support you. We don’t kink shame around here.

Then, it takes a turn for the strange.

In order:
R.White
Kamara
Stroud (Allen was their 3.10)
Swift
Marquis Brown (his 1st WR) - honestly not a bad pick there, for a normal build. But with 0 WR, taking a guy who’s hurt is… a choice?
Ekeler
Chubb
Lockett
Zeke

Then Schultz, Thielen, Browns D/ST, Boyd, Slayton, Eagles K, Elijiah Moore, Juwan Johnson.

It’s hands down the strangest draft I’ve ever seen anyone do in my decades of playing this game.

In round 5 I started to wonder if he was auto-drafting, but the clock never hit 0, and I don’t think autodraft would do that, unless they had a pre-draft list of only RB, Allen, and Stroud?

Butwhy.gif

They took 8 RB & 2 QB through 12 rounds. His 1st WR was Hollywood, who’s hurt.

I-


Anyway, I thought it was worthy of the 1st entry in what could be a fun topic. Anyone else have any to share that come close to this level of madness?

 

[BlackCrowes]

WCOFF 2nd year. Start 1 QB, no trading. First two picks were Kurt Warner and Peyton Manning.

 

[Hot Sauce Guy]

WCOFF 2nd year. Start 1 QB, no trading. First two picks were Kurt Warner and Peyton Manning.

That’s absolutely wild in that format. I played once, live drafted in Vegas.
$1600 entry? Yikes. I had Ronnie Brown carrying me to a 6-0 or 7-0 start as one of the highest 20 scoring teams overall. before he got hurt and I didn’t win another game.

Thinking back, a friend did that exact same thing in my home league likely that same year. We had a preposterous 10 point bonus for 300+ yards passing.

Everyone thought they did it to deal one of them. Nope - and somehow, by some absolute miracle, they started the correct QB every single week. It was amazing.

They did not make the playoffs.

 

[Ilov80s]

I don’t see a topic for it, but just saw one tonight that was worthy enough to create one.

I may hit my limit.

NFFC Rotowire high stakes online championship. I realize $350 isn’t a lot of to some, but it’s certainly more than I’m comfortable pouring gasoline over and lighting on fire.

The format is 1 QB, 2 RB, 3 WR, 1 TE, 1 O-Flex, 1 D/ST, and 1 Team K.

As such, at most you can start 3 RB in any given week. Note that dear reader, as it will be highly relevant, very shortly. Also, of note, there is no trading in the NFFC.

Tonight, Team 1.03 did the strangest thing.

CMC fell to 1.03 - which was just lucky as heck. I had envy for real. (Lamb ~> Hill 1-2, for the curious). I haven’t seen CMC make it to 3 in any mock. I’d comfortably guess that it’s very rare for real drafts as well.

They followed it up with Etienne round 2. Ok, I can see that. Not something I’d do, but I get it. Boomer style is making a comeback. I don’t love it. I don’t hate it. I’d have taken Kupp, as 2.11 smartly did, or Nico, who also fell several picks past NFFC’s ADP.

Then Josh Allen - huh. Ok, with 3RR & some solid WR1 on the board, not at all what I’d do, especially if I went RB-RB. But again, I don’t judge. RB-RB-QB is a defensible strategy. No judgement. If you wanna do it, who am I to say no? This is a safe space. If you’re into that, I support you. We don’t kink shame around here.

Then, it takes a turn for the strange.

In order:
R.White
Kamara
Stroud (Allen was their 3.09)
Swift
Marquis Brown (his 1st WR) - honestly not a bad pick there, for a normal build. But with 0 WR, taking a guy who’s hurt is… a choice?
Ekeler
Chubb
Lockett
Zeke

Then Schultz, Thielen, Browns D/ST, Boyd, Slayton, Eagles K, Elijiah Moore, Juwan Johnson.

It’s hands down the strangest draft I’ve ever seen anyone do in my decades of playing this game.

In round 5 I started to wonder if he was auto-drafting, but the clock never hit 0, and I don’t think autodraft would do that, unless they had a pre-draft list of only RB, Allen, and Stroud?

Butwhy.gif

They took 8 RB & 2 QB through 12 rounds. His 1st WR was Hollywood, who’s hurt.

I-


Anyway, I thought it was worthy of the 1st entry in what could be a fun topic. Anyone else have any to share that come close to this level of madness?

Is there some kind of auto pilot draft where it was just taking top guys off a list without any recognition for position?

 

[Ilov80s]

WCOFF 2nd year. Start 1 QB, no trading. First two picks were Kurt Warner and Peyton Manning.

I do remember those early days and some idiots thinking by playing defense on elite QBs they were getting a big advantage.

 

[Hot Sauce Guy]

Is there some kind of auto pilot draft where it was just taking top guys off a list without any recognition for position?

I believe so, but the timer would time out for that to happen I think.

@Dez knows way more about NFFC than I do. Maybe he knows.

 

[Ilov80s]

Is there some kind of auto pilot draft where it was just taking top guys off a list without any recognition for position?

I believe so, but the timer would time out for that to happen I think.

@Dez knows way more about NFFC than I do. Maybe he knows.

Oh yeah probably, unless you timeout once and get set to autodraft? Maybe some kind of algo bot that was poorly programmed? Or maybe they host a streaming show and it's some kind of bit?

 

[Hot Sauce Guy]

by playing defense on elite QBs they were getting a big advantage.

Right! If I take both, you can’t have either!

In a 1 QB format. In an era where there were easily 20+ startable QBs. lol

 

[Ilov80s]

by playing defense on elite QBs they were getting a big advantage.

Right! If I take both, you can’t have either!

In a 1 QB format. In an era where there were easily 20+ startable QBs. lol

I distinctly remember a draft where someone took a QB round 1, 2 and then maybe 4. Now yes you could trade in this league but of course he was also so obnoxious about how highly he valued them that I don't think he ever made a deal....just sank with the ship.

 

[Hot Sauce Guy]

Or maybe they host a streaming show and it's some kind of bit?

I actually considered that around their 6th RB.

The comedy is that team 11 employed the 3 WR ~> TE ~> 3 WR strategy. Which might have worked fine, had team 3 not hovered up all the RBs!

I was at 1.07 sniping the best RB the rounds I was targeting them, so it somehow didn’t hurt me at all.

But for sure I thought, “is this a schtick? This has to be a schtick. I wonder if they’re streaming.

Because Occam never heard of any **** like this. There’s just no easy explanation.

 

[BobbyLayne]

by playing defense on elite QBs they were getting a big advantage.

Right! If I take both, you can’t have either!

In a 1 QB format. In an era where there were easily 20+ startable QBs. lol

First year of my 20 year redraft, less than half of us knew what we were doing. We had been meeting every fall in Gettysburg to meet for battlefield for walks, and discovered we all liked football. But most of the 10 founders had never played any fantasy sport before.

2005 highlights:

• one guy drafted 5 QBs, theory being he could acquire assets by trading them when bye weeks hit. we ignored him and traded with each other. he didn't get an invite to Y2.
• somebody took the Baltimore DT in the 2nd round.
• Fred Taylor, coming off a 1569 YFS season, was not drafted; soon as players came off waivers the guy who would win the first 2 championships scooped him up (he's still in our league and has never won a title since 2006.) literally the first transaction of our 20 year league was: ADD Fred Taylor JAC - RB Free Agent DROP Jimmy Kleinsasser Min - TE
  To Waivers
• first trade: Reggie Wayne (77-1210-12 in 2004) straight up for Jerry Porter (64-998-9.) BEFORE THE SEASON STARTED That's the 3.02 pick for the 7.05 selection. Geniuses at work.
• I put together a 10-player trade - 5 for 5 - after week 6, when I was 4-2. I finished 8-6 and missed the playoffs. My trading partner was 3-3 and finished 7-6-1. Brilliant.
• Later that year I traded rookie Heath Miller to the Steelers homer straight up for Tony Gonzalez in Y6. My trading partner was the founder, commissioner and supposedly had been playing for years. The would be the 15.01 for the 3.09.

You ever watch the first game of a Tee Ball season, where kids run to 3rd base and miss a ground ball because a butterfly flew past? It was a bit like that.

Eventually we found better managers and those who remained educated themselves and it became a fun, competitive league which has always had great camaraderie. Several FBGs are now in the league. I think we only have 3 old timers from the Gettysburg Fall Muster days circa 1999-2008.

 

[Ilov80s]

first trade: Reggie Wayne (77-1210-12 in 2004) straight up for Jerry Porter (64-998-9.) BEFORE THE SEASON STARTED That's the 3.02 pick for the 7.05 selection. Geniuses at work.

Love that lol.

In my league that just hit year 22, I remember one of our newbies drafting Marvin Harrison probably round 2. Someone else took Antwaan Randle El...who knows how late. Well after maybe week 1 or 2, Randle El got off to a good start and Harrison had a slow week or two so a more experienced owner offers the newbie a swap straight up and by god he took it. The whole league was furious, thought maybe it was a misclick but no he insisted that Randle El is off to a better start and will surely continue that way. He was adamant we didn't know what we were talking about and Randle El was the future of the league. Harrison probably had 1000 more yards and 10 more TDs than Randle El the rest of the way. Whoops.

 

[Mr. Landry]

Third year or fourth year of the WCOFF. Guy (I still remember his name, but I'm not calling him out here) picking in the middle (pick 6, I think) went RB, RB, RB, QB, RB, RB, RB. He may have actually took a 7th RB, but I'm not 100% sure. That was in the days when everyone went RB early, but it really pissed off the guys who were waiting on the position. Needless to say he did not finish in the money.

 

[msudaisy26]

Not an entire draft, but Isaiah Pacheco went 1.01 in FFPC draft last week that I was in.

 

[Chardo1]

Our first draft, in 1984, saw kicker Ali Haji-Sheik taken in the first round. Guy figured kickers score the most so he should take a kicker first.

We were sort of inventing this game on the fly.

 

[efactor]

WCOFF 2nd year. Start 1 QB, no trading. First two picks were Kurt Warner and Peyton Manning.

That’s absolutely wild in that format. I played once, live drafted in Vegas.
$1600 entry? Yikes. I had Ronnie Brown carrying me to a 6-0 or 7-0 start as one of the highest 20 scoring teams overall. before he got hurt and I didn’t win another game.

Ha. Had the same thing happen to me in WCOFF in 2005. Decided to draft a "high upside" team. Was 5-0 and in the top 10 in points scored. A couple injuries and the Moss/Oakland situation going to crap and dropped 6 straight to end the season.

 

[packdog]

you do enough you see strange stuff all the time. i had a free entry to $100 league last year cause some guy drafted a bunch of tes then bailed after paying. i just took over to manage for free and be in league this year. who knows what went on.

this year the weirdest one i saw was a guy in a cheap league a week or so ago. drew 1.01 in a ppr 12 team triple flex. just regular flexes so start 1 qb...

he picks jalen hurts 1.01 (cmc did fall to 1.03 in this one)

followed by josh allen at 2.12. maybe he thought it was a superflex but the strangeness continues later. and he's talking and picking and not on auto. ain't defending his picks though.

3.01 achane is ok

4.12 mostert. maybe a reach but he has achane. some logic there.

5.01 kw3 is ok

6.12 ben sinnott. strangeness continues. was right after engram with tes like ferguson, njoku, goedert still on board. maybe high on the rook

7.01 freiermuth. all those other tes still there plus he has no wrs at this stage in a ppr with three flexes. backup te and qb with no wrs is strange

8.12-13.1 now the wrs flow. his top wr is addison followed by samuel, hollywood, lockett, roman wilson, theilan

idk what he was trying to do. i've seen teams go no wr before but this was weird. two qbs right away, plenty of reaches, and no explanation. i theorize he was just fine losing the 20 bucks or whatever it was and was just trolling a little by making sure the sleeper draft was color coordinated. all positions drafted in a row starting with qb to rb, te, wr

 

[Golden Gopher]

I don’t see a topic for it, but just saw one tonight that was worthy enough to create one.

I may hit my limit.

NFFC Rotowire high stakes online championship. I realize $350 isn’t a lot of to some, but it’s certainly more than I’m comfortable pouring gasoline over and lighting on fire.

The format is 1 QB, 2 RB, 3 WR, 1 TE, 1 O-Flex, 1 D/ST, and 1 Team K.

As such, at most you can start 3 RB in any given week. Note that dear reader, as it will be highly relevant, very shortly. Also, of note, there is no trading in the NFFC.

Tonight, Team 1.03 did the strangest thing.

CMC fell to 1.03 - which was just lucky as heck. I had envy for real. (Lamb ~> Hill 1-2, for the curious). I haven’t seen CMC make it to 3 in any mock. I’d comfortably guess that it’s very rare for real drafts as well.

They followed it up with Etienne round 2. Ok, I can see that. Not something I’d do, but I get it. Boomer style is making a comeback. I don’t love it. I don’t hate it. I’d have taken Kupp, as 2.11 smartly did, or Nico, who also fell several picks past NFFC’s ADP.

Then Josh Allen - huh. Ok, with 3RR & some solid WR1 on the board, not at all what I’d do, especially if I went RB-RB. But again, I don’t judge. RB-RB-QB is a defensible strategy. No judgement. If you wanna do it, who am I to say no? This is a safe space. If you’re into that, I support you. We don’t kink shame around here.

Then, it takes a turn for the strange.

In order:
R.White
Kamara
Stroud (Allen was their 3.09)
Swift
Marquis Brown (his 1st WR) - honestly not a bad pick there, for a normal build. But with 0 WR, taking a guy who’s hurt is… a choice?
Ekeler
Chubb
Lockett
Zeke

Then Schultz, Thielen, Browns D/ST, Boyd, Slayton, Eagles K, Elijiah Moore, Juwan Johnson.

It’s hands down the strangest draft I’ve ever seen anyone do in my decades of playing this game.

In round 5 I started to wonder if he was auto-drafting, but the clock never hit 0, and I don’t think autodraft would do that, unless they had a pre-draft list of only RB, Allen, and Stroud?

Butwhy.gif

They took 8 RB & 2 QB through 12 rounds. His 1st WR was Hollywood, who’s hurt.

I-


Anyway, I thought it was worthy of the 1st entry in what could be a fun topic. Anyone else have any to share that come close to this level of madness?

That's indefensible. I was with you through White (you can make an argument that that's good value at 4.10, etc.). Heck, normally, getting Kamara in the 5th MIGHT be value as well, but not when he's on the bench! Then, it goes completely off the rails.... Taking Stroud and Swift with zero WR's makes absolutely no sense. And, like you mentioned, there's probably better options than Brown for his WR1. With Brown hurt, he's starting Lockett (if HE is healthy), Thielen, and Boyd/Slayton/Moore). That's rough.

I had a couple of free $35 entries on FFPC, so I'm basically using them as "test" runs for some slightly bigger money leagues I'm doing there (I've got some credit from winnings last year). Got the 1-slot in one draft yesterday, took CMC, then watched as 7 RB, 10 WR, and 5 TE went off the board before my next pick. Thought long and hard about following suit and grabbing a TE (Engram), but that just seemed like a bit of a safe/conservative reach, so I decided to "zig" a bit when others are zagging. Took Etienne and Pacheco.

Now, keep in mind, I usually do the opposite (wait on RB and load up on WR/TE in PPR.... especially with 1.5PPR for TE). This was a risk, for sure. And, I'm moreso just doing this to see how it pans out (and to see if I CAN recover and still put together a decent squad after going RB-RB-RB). I can start all three RB, obviously, and it somewhat ensures that I'll have two solid RB's to start weekly (barring injury... big "if"), including byes. I'm pretty confident I can still get a 200-ish pt scorer at TE (Pitts, Kittle, Njoku, Ferguson) at the 4/5 turn, along with a WR something along the lines of Metcalf, Evans, Deebo, Moore, etc.

Worst case, nobody takes any RB in the next 22 picks, and I get "stuck" taking Allen or Hurts, plus either a WR or TE. I can't imagine that happening, though (there are going to be some RB's taken). We'll see how this plays out.

 

[Golden Gopher]

you do enough you see strange stuff all the time. i had a free entry to $100 league last year cause some guy drafted a bunch of tes then bailed after paying. i just took over to manage for free and be in league this year. who knows what went on.

this year the weirdest one i saw was a guy in a cheap league a week or so ago. drew 1.01 in a ppr 12 team triple flex. just regular flexes so start 1 qb...

he picks jalen hurts 1.01 (cmc did fall to 1.03 in this one)

followed by josh allen at 2.12. maybe he thought it was a superflex but the strangeness continues later. and he's talking and picking and not on auto. ain't defending his picks though.

3.01 achane is ok

4.12 mostert. maybe a reach but he has achane. some logic there.

5.01 kw3 is ok

6.12 ben sinnott. strangeness continues. was right after engram with tes like ferguson, njoku, goedert still on board. maybe high on the rook

7.01 freiermuth. all those other tes still there plus he has no wrs at this stage in a ppr with three flexes. backup te and qb with no wrs is strange

8.12-13.1 now the wrs flow. his top wr is addison followed by samuel, hollywood, lockett, roman wilson, theilan

idk what he was trying to do. i've seen teams go no wr before but this was weird. two qbs right away, plenty of reaches, and no explanation. i theorize he was just fine losing the 20 bucks or whatever it was and was just trolling a little by making sure the sleeper draft was color coordinated. all positions drafted in a row starting with qb to rb, te, wr

Good lord, that's brutal.

 

[Pip's Invitation]

you do enough you see strange stuff all the time. i had a free entry to $100 league last year cause some guy drafted a bunch of tes then bailed after paying. i just took over to manage for free and be in league this year. who knows what went on.

this year the weirdest one i saw was a guy in a cheap league a week or so ago. drew 1.01 in a ppr 12 team triple flex. just regular flexes so start 1 qb...

he picks jalen hurts 1.01 (cmc did fall to 1.03 in this one)

followed by josh allen at 2.12. maybe he thought it was a superflex but the strangeness continues later. and he's talking and picking and not on auto. ain't defending his picks though.

3.01 achane is ok

4.12 mostert. maybe a reach but he has achane. some logic there.

5.01 kw3 is ok

6.12 ben sinnott. strangeness continues. was right after engram with tes like ferguson, njoku, goedert still on board. maybe high on the rook

7.01 freiermuth. all those other tes still there plus he has no wrs at this stage in a ppr with three flexes. backup te and qb with no wrs is strange

8.12-13.1 now the wrs flow. his top wr is addison followed by samuel, hollywood, lockett, roman wilson, theilan

idk what he was trying to do. i've seen teams go no wr before but this was weird. two qbs right away, plenty of reaches, and no explanation. i theorize he was just fine losing the 20 bucks or whatever it was and was just trolling a little by making sure the sleeper draft was color coordinated. all positions drafted in a row starting with qb to rb, te, wr

This dude took many of the same WRs as the dude in HSG's original post. Are we sure they're not the same dude?

 

[Golden Gopher]

you do enough you see strange stuff all the time. i had a free entry to $100 league last year cause some guy drafted a bunch of tes then bailed after paying. i just took over to manage for free and be in league this year. who knows what went on.

this year the weirdest one i saw was a guy in a cheap league a week or so ago. drew 1.01 in a ppr 12 team triple flex. just regular flexes so start 1 qb...

he picks jalen hurts 1.01 (cmc did fall to 1.03 in this one)

followed by josh allen at 2.12. maybe he thought it was a superflex but the strangeness continues later. and he's talking and picking and not on auto. ain't defending his picks though.

3.01 achane is ok

4.12 mostert. maybe a reach but he has achane. some logic there.

5.01 kw3 is ok

6.12 ben sinnott. strangeness continues. was right after engram with tes like ferguson, njoku, goedert still on board. maybe high on the rook

7.01 freiermuth. all those other tes still there plus he has no wrs at this stage in a ppr with three flexes. backup te and qb with no wrs is strange

8.12-13.1 now the wrs flow. his top wr is addison followed by samuel, hollywood, lockett, roman wilson, theilan

idk what he was trying to do. i've seen teams go no wr before but this was weird. two qbs right away, plenty of reaches, and no explanation. i theorize he was just fine losing the 20 bucks or whatever it was and was just trolling a little by making sure the sleeper draft was color coordinated. all positions drafted in a row starting with qb to rb, te, wr

This dude took many of the same WRs as the dude in HSG's original post. Are we sure they're not the same dude?

Might be time for an intervention.

 

[Rubi]

In a league where CMC fell to me at 1.3,the team at 1.12 and 2.1 went back to back tight ends,then at 3.12 he went tight end again.
That's my odd ball league of the year.....so far.

 

[Hot Sauce Guy]

In a league where CMC fell to me at 1.3,the team at 1.12 and 2.1 went back to back tight ends,then at 3.12 he went tight end again.
That's my odd ball league of the year.....so far.

Wait - he took TEs with his 1st 3 picks? Is it at least TE-P? I mean, that doesn’t make it better, but… yeah.

Dying to see his roster as a result.

 

[wlwiles]

2023 Season. $25 league with a bunch of coworkers. One of our members accepted another job and was leaving the company, so 1 week before the draft he opted out of the league. We invited one of the new engineers to play, and he gave us the usual "I've never played before, but I'll give it a go". We explained how the draft worked, he said he watched football so he knew who was who, just never played fantasy before. We get to draft night and he's in the 1.04 spot (12 teams).

1 - Patrick Mahomes. Ok nobody ever takes a QB in the first, but not too egregious. Get your guy I guess.
2 - ETN. Fine pick.
3 - Aaron Jones. Seems standard...but still no WR yet so a bit of a backwards strategy...
4 - Deebo. Ok there's him a WR, he's not doing too bad here minus going QB first...
5 - Drake London. Looks like he's recovering fairly well...
6 - Darren Waller. Standard pick it seems.
7 - Christian Watson. cool cool cool
8 - Justin Tucker. And there's the first K, of course it's by the new guy
9 - SF DST. We all knew this was coming.

10th round now and he says "how do I filter by the BN position?" We explain that's the bench, they can be any position, and he says "oh ok, so I don't have to keep drafting them in order by position anymore?" And that's when it dawned on us all....he's filling out his roster top to bottom in order as it appears on the roster list. First on the list is QB, so he just filtered the available players list by QB and selected the top name. Rounds 2 and 3 he filtered by RB, top name each time. Then 2 WRs, then a TE, and so on. He apparently paid no attention to the other players selected around him, or looked at anyone else's roster to see nobody drafts in order like that. Honestly he didn't end up with a terrible squad, and he caught onto the waiver wire pretty easily and ended up taking 3rd place in the league.

 

[Scoresman]

2023 Season. $25 league with a bunch of coworkers. One of our members accepted another job and was leaving the company, so 1 week before the draft he opted out of the league. We invited one of the new engineers to play, and he gave us the usual "I've never played before, but I'll give it a go". We explained how the draft worked, he said he watched football so he knew who was who, just never played fantasy before. We get to draft night and he's in the 1.04 spot (12 teams).

1 - Patrick Mahomes. Ok nobody ever takes a QB in the first, but not too egregious. Get your guy I guess.
2 - ETN. Fine pick.
3 - Aaron Jones. Seems standard...but still no WR yet so a bit of a backwards strategy...
4 - Deebo. Ok there's him a WR, he's not doing too bad here minus going QB first...
5 - Drake London. Looks like he's recovering fairly well...
6 - Darren Waller. Standard pick it seems.
7 - Christian Watson. cool cool cool
8 - Justin Tucker. And there's the first K, of course it's by the new guy
9 - SF DST. We all knew this was coming.

10th round now and he says "how do I filter by the BN position?" We explain that's the bench, they can be any position, and he says "oh ok, so I don't have to keep drafting them in order by position anymore?" And that's when it dawned on us all....he's filling out his roster top to bottom in order as it appears on the roster list. First on the list is QB, so he just filtered the available players list by QB and selected the top name. Rounds 2 and 3 he filtered by RB, top name each time. Then 2 WRs, then a TE, and so on. He apparently paid no attention to the other players selected around him, or looked at anyone else's roster to see nobody drafts in order like that. Honestly he didn't end up with a terrible squad, and he caught onto the waiver wire pretty easily and ended up taking 3rd place in the league.

That's actually good for someone who didn't play fantasy and doesn't know the nuances. Picking a QB first is going to be the first instinct since it's the most important position on a real NFL team.

Whenever I talk to people about my fantasy football hobby, the most common first thing they ask me is "Who's your QB?" I always know they dont play FF themselves when I get asked this.

 

[Rubi]

In a league where CMC fell to me at 1.3,the team at 1.12 and 2.1 went back to back tight ends,then at 3.12 he went tight end again.
That's my odd ball league of the year.....so far.

Wait - he took TEs with his 1st 3 picks? Is it at least TE-P? I mean, that doesn’t make it better, but… yeah.

Dying to see his roster as a result.

He took LaPorta,McBride and Pitts...It's an FPC league so TE's get 1 1/2 ppr.
Rest of his roster is: J.Daniels,K.Cousins
J.Warren,T.Pollard,JK Dobbins,R.Dowdle,J.Mason,R.Johnson,E.Hull
J.Waddle,C.Godwin,T.Higgins,J.Addison,A.Mitchell,X.Legette

 

[jm192]

I think the wildest is the the 2 QB's in the top 5 rounds.

I've seen it a few times in best ball. Guys for whatever reason ruin all of my stack options only to leave themselves with no elite WR's or RB's.

I had it happen once last year in a re-draft league. Dude took Allen and Mahommes like rounds 2/3. I suppose the right move is to refuse to trade with those guys to punish them for that.

I wanted to upgrade at QB so I sent some offers. Got told the only way he'd move either one was if I sent him CMC. Like c'mon.

 

[steelcityman]

years ago a fella in my league took Vanderjadt(kicker Colts) in the 2nd rd. We all laughed and next guy picked real quick so he couldnt change his mind.

 

[TVT 0 N S T A]

First year of a home league w/ buddies - guy took Adam Viniateri - K, for the Patriots... guy, to this day, has never lived it down.

He cited point totals as the reason he took a kicker... we joke about who he will take after his kicker and backup kicker in rounds 1 & 2.

 

[-OZ-]

Not an entire draft, but Isaiah Pacheco went 1.01 in FFPC draft last week that I was in.

Nice of Ms. Pacheco to play.

Could work out

 

[-OZ-]

2023 Season. $25 league with a bunch of coworkers. One of our members accepted another job and was leaving the company, so 1 week before the draft he opted out of the league. We invited one of the new engineers to play, and he gave us the usual "I've never played before, but I'll give it a go". We explained how the draft worked, he said he watched football so he knew who was who, just never played fantasy before. We get to draft night and he's in the 1.04 spot (12 teams).

1 - Patrick Mahomes. Ok nobody ever takes a QB in the first, but not too egregious. Get your guy I guess.
2 - ETN. Fine pick.
3 - Aaron Jones. Seems standard...but still no WR yet so a bit of a backwards strategy...
4 - Deebo. Ok there's him a WR, he's not doing too bad here minus going QB first...
5 - Drake London. Looks like he's recovering fairly well...
6 - Darren Waller. Standard pick it seems.
7 - Christian Watson. cool cool cool
8 - Justin Tucker. And there's the first K, of course it's by the new guy
9 - SF DST. We all knew this was coming.

10th round now and he says "how do I filter by the BN position?" We explain that's the bench, they can be any position, and he says "oh ok, so I don't have to keep drafting them in order by position anymore?" And that's when it dawned on us all....he's filling out his roster top to bottom in order as it appears on the roster list. First on the list is QB, so he just filtered the available players list by QB and selected the top name. Rounds 2 and 3 he filtered by RB, top name each time. Then 2 WRs, then a TE, and so on. He apparently paid no attention to the other players selected around him, or looked at anyone else's roster to see nobody drafts in order like that. Honestly he didn't end up with a terrible squad, and he caught onto the waiver wire pretty easily and ended up taking 3rd place in the league.

It’s crazy that it took that long to recognize it, by us reading this post.

 

[wlwiles]

2023 Season. $25 league with a bunch of coworkers. One of our members accepted another job and was leaving the company, so 1 week before the draft he opted out of the league. We invited one of the new engineers to play, and he gave us the usual "I've never played before, but I'll give it a go". We explained how the draft worked, he said he watched football so he knew who was who, just never played fantasy before. We get to draft night and he's in the 1.04 spot (12 teams).

1 - Patrick Mahomes. Ok nobody ever takes a QB in the first, but not too egregious. Get your guy I guess.
2 - ETN. Fine pick.
3 - Aaron Jones. Seems standard...but still no WR yet so a bit of a backwards strategy...
4 - Deebo. Ok there's him a WR, he's not doing too bad here minus going QB first...
5 - Drake London. Looks like he's recovering fairly well...
6 - Darren Waller. Standard pick it seems.
7 - Christian Watson. cool cool cool
8 - Justin Tucker. And there's the first K, of course it's by the new guy
9 - SF DST. We all knew this was coming.

10th round now and he says "how do I filter by the BN position?" We explain that's the bench, they can be any position, and he says "oh ok, so I don't have to keep drafting them in order by position anymore?" And that's when it dawned on us all....he's filling out his roster top to bottom in order as it appears on the roster list. First on the list is QB, so he just filtered the available players list by QB and selected the top name. Rounds 2 and 3 he filtered by RB, top name each time. Then 2 WRs, then a TE, and so on. He apparently paid no attention to the other players selected around him, or looked at anyone else's roster to see nobody drafts in order like that. Honestly he didn't end up with a terrible squad, and he caught onto the waiver wire pretty easily and ended up taking 3rd place in the league.

It’s crazy that it took that long to recognize it, by us reading this post.

a lot of sites will fill the lineup similarly if you're autodrafting without any presets - it'll fill out your starting lineup before your bench, which means K & DST in the mid-rounds. That's the point when we all sort of realized what he was doing, but we didn't realize it was exactly QB-RB-RB-WR-WR-TE-Flex in that specific order until he started asking questions

 

[Payne]

Many, many years ago in an auction draft I watched a guy do the following:

Overpaid for a starting QB. I don't recall who and it doesn't matter. The owner was upset he paid too much.
Very next player thrown out was P Manning and the same owner instantly yelled "40!". That too was an overpay and nobody bid him up as he expected.

D'oh!

 

[Hodag]

In a work league we had a Taco Broncos fan who drafted Peyton, Knowshon, Demaryius, Decker, DST, K that one year that Peyton went bananas in Denver.

He didn't win the championship but did pretty well.

 

[Hot Sauce Guy]

He took LaPorta,McBride and Pitts...It's an FPC league so TE's get 1 1/2 ppr.
Rest of his roster is: J.Daniels,K.Cousins
J.Warren,T.Pollard,JK Dobbins,R.Dowdle,J.Mason,R.Johnson,E.Hull
J.Waddle,C.Godwin,T.Higgins,J.Addison,A.Mitchell,X.Legette

Thanks I hate it.

 

[Dr_Zaius]

I think the wildest is the the 2 QB's in the top 5 rounds.

I've seen it a few times in best ball. Guys for whatever reason ruin all of my stack options only to leave themselves with elite WR's or RB's.

I had it happen once last year in a re-draft league. Dude took Allen and Mahommes like rounds 2/3. I suppose the right move is to refuse to trade with those guys to punish them for that.

I wanted to upgrade at QB so I sent some offers. Got told the only way he'd move either one was if I sent him CMC. Like c'mon.

Years ago in my work league one guy (who had ~5 years experience at this point) took Brees and Manning with his first two picks. Fast forward to week 9 or 10 and I've got 3 of the top 5 RBs but QB issues, and he is not surprisingly short on RBs and struggling around .500, right near the playoff cut line. I offer him any of my 3 RBs (one of which I'm pretty sure was Charles, who I had taken 1.3 that year) for either of the two. He tells me he's not trading either of his QBs??? And he never did, and missed the playoffs. So bizarre.

 

[Dr_Zaius]

As far as the OP, I think it's a bad strategy, but my best defense of it is this : he's definitely hurting the other league members who did not take RBs early as the position is now artificially scarce. I had a similar thing happen to me one year at TE where inexplicably two different league members drafted 3 or 4 TEs, and my strategy of waiting resulted in me having comically bad TE production all year.

If you think that you can lock up elite production at the RB position, deny a decent chunk of the league good RB production, and do okay enough at WR by streaming then it could be a winning strategy. It's the last part that strikes me as highly implausible, but that's my best shot at defending the posted draft as a genuine effort and not a troll or sheer lunacy.

 

[Statorama]

I can call myself out on this one. Last year I went the studs and duds route (not a new strategy), but I added a wrinkle (because I was soooo smart). I paid a little less for my studs and a little more for my duds, with a focus on the theory I could pinpoint the older guys that had one last hurrah in them. And of course, I could do this by doing as little prep work as possible before the draft.

What a dumpster fire. Dalvin ("time share with Breece! Rodgers loves him!"), Mike Thomas ("finally healthy! fresh legs!"), Zeke ("he's Zeke!") - it was like living a nightmare.

The only good thing - It was the season-long lesson in humility I desperately needed.

 

[Ignoratio Elenchi]

Not an entire draft, but Isaiah Pacheco went 1.01 in FFPC draft last week that I was in.

Nice of Ms. Pacheco to play.

Could work out

I mean, of all the things in this thread, this one jumps out as pretty defensible. People get really hung up on ADP. If you've got conviction that Pacheco (the young starting RB on one of the league's best offenses) is going to be a league-winner this year, and you don't think he's going to make it back around to your next pick, there's nothing wrong with taking him. Especially if it's in one of those big contests where there's additional value to having a differentiated roster from the rest of the pack.

I'm not saying I agree with the pick specifically, but in general people seem to overlook that if you have the first overall pick and your 2nd pick is, say, 24th overall, then whichever one of the top 23 players you want is fine to take there, because they probably won't be there later. When you're sitting at 3.02 or whatever and looking at available players by ADP, you shouldn't only be looking at players who typically go around the top of the 3rd round - your pool of candidates should be every player expected to get drafted by the end of the 4th. (If your league allows trades it's less of a good idea to pass up on consensus value but you get the point).

If you have 1.01 and are a believer that Pacheco or Jonathan Taylor or Saquon Barkley or whoever are going to come back in a big way and lead the league in TDs, take them! Who gives a crap if everyone else thinks it's "too early" - if they're not going to be there when your next pick comes around, by definition it's not too early. /rant

 

[Hot Sauce Guy]

As far as the OP, I think it's a bad strategy, but my best defense of it is this : he's definitely hurting the other league members who did not take RBs early as the position is now artificially scarce. I had a similar thing happen to me one year at TE where inexplicably two different league members drafted 3 or 4 TEs, and my strategy of waiting resulted in me having comically bad TE production all year.

If you think that you can lock up elite production at the RB position, deny a decent chunk of the league good RB production, and do okay enough at WR by streaming then it could be a winning strategy. It's the last part that strikes me as highly implausible, but that's my best shot at defending the posted draft as a genuine effort and not a troll or sheer lunacy.

OTOH, I picked at 7, and landed Gibbs, KWIII, Stevenson, Ty Chandler, Pierce & Vidal. Worked out great for me.

It hurt the teams that weren’t paying attention to team 3 who didn’t adjust their strategy at all & kept going WR heavy.

Also teams 1-2 probably weren’t thrilled. lol

 

[FarFromHome]

I'll also call myself out. In 30 plus years I have never done this. This year, outside of defense and kicker, I didn't draft best available, I filled out my starting lineup first. QB, RB, RB, WR, WR, WR and Flex. Kinda felt good.

 

[Ignoratio Elenchi]

I'll also call myself out. In 30 plus years I have never done this. This year, outside of defense and kicker, I didn't draft best available, I filled out my starting lineup first. QB, RB, RB, WR, WR, WR and Flex. Kinda felt good.

You should pretty much always do this unless extreme value falls. The "best available" player who's going to sit on your bench is not nearly as valuable as the guy who's going to be in your starting lineup.

 

[Runkle]

My home league is 12 teams, .5 PPR, start 1 QB, 1 WR, 1 RB, 1 TE, and 3 flex wr/rb/te. It's also "Keep 2": every team must keep 2 players. There's no cost to do so, and you can't choose not to keep two guys. So, basically, the draft starts in round 3, with 24 guys off the board. Some teams have kept the same guy for years, like the guy who got CMC in his rookie season.

Five teams kept QBs. FIVE. Allen, Mahomes, Lamar, Stroud, and Burrow were all keepers so we're starting the draft with them gone.

Jalen Hurts was not kept, in favor of Tee Higgins. The guy who dropped Hurts drafts in like the 9th slot. Hurts... will not last that long in the 3rd round, even with 5 teams drafting ahead of him already rostering a QB.

 

[Hot Sauce Guy]

I'll also call myself out. In 30 plus years I have never done this. This year, outside of defense and kicker, I didn't draft best available, I filled out my starting lineup first. QB, RB, RB, WR, WR, WR and Flex. Kinda felt good.

I always try to do this. I never want to draft bench spots before a starting lineup. Unless exceptional value falls to me, of course.

 

[Hot Sauce Guy]

Jalen Hurts was not kept, in favor of Tee Higgins. The guy who dropped Hurts drafts in like the 9th slot. Hurts... will not last that long in the 3rd round, even with 5 teams drafting ahead of him already rostering a QB.

That’s a wild decision in that format. lol

 

[FarFromHome]

I'll also call myself out. In 30 plus years I have never done this. This year, outside of defense and kicker, I didn't draft best available, I filled out my starting lineup first. QB, RB, RB, WR, WR, WR and Flex. Kinda felt good.

I always try to do this. I never want to draft bench sports before a starting lineup. Unless exceptional value falls to me, of course.

Interesting. I guess I've always just drafted value in the mindset of I will trade later

 

[Hot Sauce Guy]

Interesting. I guess I've always just drafted value in the mindset of I will trade later

IIRC this is one of those “perfect draft” strategy recommendations by one of the FBG writers as well. Can’t remember which - it’s been a while since I read it.

 

[habsfan]

I have a couple people in my league that I theorize go into their draft with a couple "draft thoughts". It's like "swing thoughts" in golf. You want to focus on doing (or not doing) a couple of things but any more than that and you're just going to dribble it out the end of the tee box. For one in particular it's "load up on RBs" and "take a QB late". The trouble is, they struggle when others do something unexpected. The draft morphs in real time and suddenly they're like "I Love Lucy" and the conveyor belt of chocolates. They either abandon the "draft thoughts" or stick to them and go down with the ship (so to speak).

 

[Rubi]

OK just had this happen.
12 team ppr redraft
slow online draft
20 roster spots
pick 11.4........Justin Tucker

 

[Zow]

I didn't mean to do it, but I drafted three tight ends in the first six rounds of a 10 team, 1 QB PPR league the other night. I had the first pick and took McCaffrey. Then the following just seemed like way too much value given that you are only required to start 2 WRs.

2.10 Kelce
4.10 Laporta
6.10 Kincaid

According to the draft dominator these were screaming values and it recommended I not pass them up - especially Laporta and Kincaid (in hindsight, I probably grab another player there than Kelce but I had him and Laporta as the top two choices clearly there and was shocked when LaPorta came back around).

I still wound up with the following lineup:

QB: Allen
RBs: McCaffrey, Javonte Williams (Pollard is primary backup)
WRs: Garrett Wilson, Amari Cooper (McLaurin, who I'm high on, is primary backup)
TE: Kelce
Flex: LaPorta

I definitely had Kelce or LaPorta targeted at 2.10 and didn't fully strategize in taking 3 of the top 5 TEs on my board, but I'm pleased with how it worked out. Doubt I'd be this pleased in a 12-teamer and obviously for this strategy to pay off I need another owner to get desperate after starting like Dallas Goedert for a couple of weeks and losing.