A few of us participated in a mid-season football draft on Wednesday night. It's an interesting format that I'd recommend if you've never tried one: best ball. Just like the wonderful golf game I take advantage of whenever I can (due to my horrible game) and it's maintenance-free. Basically, the site you use will automatically plug into your lineup your top scorers for the week.
With only eight owners in this league, we went 20 rounds using a starting lineup of 1 TMQB, 2 RB, 3 WR, 1 TE, 3 Flex (RB/WR/TE), 1 PK, 1 coach. Scoring is a standard 1-point, PPR league.
Using my second grade math skills, you'll have eight bench players. But those are incredibly important players. In this format you won't have to worry about having Darren McFadden, Kenny Britt or David Garrard on your bench.
Last thing, notice the 1 coach requirement? This is another great addition to the fantasy realm. Basically you're taking the team by taking their coach. You get the number of points the team wins by if they win or a -5 points if they lose. It would have been nice to have Tom Cable the last two weeks.
By now you're seeing the possibilities and strategies. Do you take a chance with one kicker, QB, TE or coach? Probably not considering potential injuries or weeks were a player could lay a goose egg or something close. Or if you pick a solid early-round player there, do you help a weaker position with an extra pick and keep only one player at that position? Although it's a PPR league, is it better to take a feast or famine guy like Mike Wallace, Brandon Jacobs or Robert Meachem? Better yet, it's a clear picture of guys we've discussed in our columns and backing up what we've said about them going forward, showing our true feelings. Here's the four teams from the RotoWire contributors:
Payne
Coughlin, T
Harbaugh, J
Colts, I
Cowboys, D
Barber, M
Blount, L
Brown, R
Jackson, F
Rice, R
Spiller, C
Austin, M
Evans, L
Meachem, R
Ochocinco, C
White, R
Williams, M
Celek, B
Daniels, O
Akers, D
Longwell, R
Pianow
Cable, T
Caldwell, J
Lions, D
Packers, G
Charles, J
Hillis, P
Jackson, B
McFadden, D
Amendola, D
Bess, D
Breaston, S
Mason, D
Owens, T
Sims-Walker, M
Smith, S
Ward, H
Gonzalez, T
Tamme, J
Bironas, R
Hanson, J
Del Don
Fisher, J
Haley, T
Singletary, M
Bills, B
Eagles, P
Addai, J
Best, J
Gore, F
Mendenhall, R
Moreno, K
Thomas, P
Collie, A
Holmes, S
Jackson, V
Knox, J
Marshall, B
Moss, S
Rice, S
Gates, A
Reed, J
Stopa
Belichick, B
Tomlin, M
Falcons, A
Titans, T
Brown, D
Jacobs, B
Johnson, C
Jones-Drew, M
Williams, R
Woodhead, D
Fitzgerald, L
Floyd, M
Garcon, P
Jackson, D
Johnson, A
Wallace, M
Lewis, M
Miller, H
Folk, N
Gostkowski, S
I'll talk about my team and hope that the other three will comment when they get a chance. First, other than Robert Meachem, I took everyone on my team partially because they were past their bye. I took Roddy White as the first WR with the fifth overall pick since he's gotten a ton of targets. My second pick was 12th overall with Ray Rice (how the mighty have fallen with Willis). I made sure I had backups for every position even after drafting Coughlin and the Indy TMQB pretty high for their respective position picks. I obviously still believe in Miles Austin despite no Romo and think Chad Ochocinco will pick things up with teams keeping a closer eye on Terrell Owens. I went a tad early on LaGarrette Blount because I wasn't happy with my RBs and thought I should gamble.
Enough boring talk about my team. This was a draft with solid owners so let's look at some notable picks.
- The first round went – Foster, Ch. Johnson, AP, Gore, White, McFadden, Turner, Ca. Johnson. Run DMC will turn out to be the most brilliant or worst pick of this round. I'd hedge on the brilliant part.
-The second round went – McCoy, Nicks, Charles, Rice, Mendenhall, Jackson, A. Johnson, Wayne. I like Stopa's pick of Andre Johnson there despite the ankle thing (wrap it really, really tight).
-First TMQB taken? First pick of round three (17), SD. I took Manning (21), then went Brees (35) and Big Ben (39).
-Terrell Owens and Brandon Lloyd went before Miles Austin, Larry Fitzgerald, Marques Colston and Greg Jennings. This didn't happen in any preseason draft.
-Ryan Mathews went pick 42.
-Mike Williams (TB) went 37, Mike Williams (SEA) went 67.
-Randy Moss went at pick 65. I'm beginning to think he pushed to switch teams to have a bye this week. I think he'll like the Tennessee BBQ.
-Steve Johnson went 78, Lee Evans 92.
-Jacob Tamme went 107. Marcedes Lewis, Heath Miller, Owen Daniels, Visanthe Shiancoe and Brandon Pettigrew all went after him. Did you know who Pierre Garcon was before the start of the 2009 season? None of us knew Tamme's name in the 2010 preseason either. There's fantasy gold to be struck here…
-Dalton took Brandon Marshall with pick 20. This is a crazy target guy who hasn't found the end zone and I would have taken him if Dalton hadn't. A great buy-low guy this week and going forward, especially in PPR formats.
-Notable omissions (maybe?) from our draft of players not taken: Deion Branch, Justin Gage, Golden Tate, Seyi Ajirotutu, Anthony Armstrong, Jason Avant, Bears TMQB, Arrelious Benn, Kenny Britt, Brad Childress, Tashard Choice, Patrick Crayton, Josh Cribbs, Justin Forsett, Robbie Gould, Mike Hart, Devery Henderson, Chris Ivory, Jacoby Jones, James Jones, Willis McGahee, Tony Moeaki, Jordy Nelson, Greg Olsen, Neil Rackers, Brandon Tate, Nate Washington, DeMaryius Thomas, Mike Thomas, Kevin Walter and Roy Williams.
-Any thoughts about the draft? Likes/dislikes? Don't be shy.
- I may be very late to answer any comments as I'm off to watch Joe Paterno's 400th win as they take out Erickson's NW Wildcats. WE ARE…PENN STATE!