This article is part of our NFL Observations series.
This is our annual Steak League draft wherein the league (winning a couple hundred dollars) isn't the main concern, but the side bet -- watching people gorge themselves on shrimp cocktail, steaks and drinks on your dime. For years, I gorged like no one else, rarely ever having to shell out a penny. Entree-sized shrimp scampi as an appetizer, large surf and turf, soup, salad, wine, drinks, dessert, coffee, after-dinner port? I've done it all.
The last two years I had to shell out as a single buyer (double-buyer is last place), and it was painful, so hopefully I did enough below not necessarily to win the league, but to eat for free.
(For the LA crew, the sidebet usually entailed six bettors, top three eat for free, fourth buys his own steak (1/6th of the bill), fifth buys his own and one other (1/3), and sixth his own and two others (1/2.) For some background, it's a 14-team, 1-QB, 2-RB, 3-WR, 1-TE, 1-FLEX, half-PPR auction with three IDPs, $200 budget.)
Here are the results:
My strategy was to buy two top running backs early, which I did, and then to wait until everyone else got down to my level of cash and fill out the rest of my roster. I got a little impatient late, taking Anthony Miller, Diontae Johnson and CeeDee Lamb for most of my money, but that was the going rate for that level of receiver, and there wasn't much left to save it for. I like my cheap QBs and TEs too.
I made two errors early, but was lucky to be bailed out on both. First, after buying Barkley and Edwards-Helaire early, I sped up the bidding on Jonathan Taylor by going 37 and almost got stuck. I like Taylor this year, but it would have broken my budget, so I was very lucky he went for 38.
I also already had Aaron Donald and reflexively bid three on Danielle Hunter, forgetting I had no room for him. But he went for $4, and again I was off the hook.
All in all, my team is fine for a 14-team league. I'm strong everywhere except WR, and I'll need one of my three starters to pan out big and one to be useful enough. I can figure out the rest in season.
Food is cheaper generally in Portugal than in the US, but I'll make up the difference in quantity. Moreover, even if I'm the double-buyer, I'd still only be picking up half the overall check -- i.e., while I can't control what anyone else does, everything I'd order for myself is half price. But let's hope it doesn't come to that.
