2011 GOI Draft Write Up

EDITOR’S NOTE: Cubsfan4evr1's opinion was not originally in this post but it is currently in it now. I am still waiting on The 'Bright' One's opinion (although I might be waiting for a while)

This is a 14 team, PPR, auction league. The rosters look like this: 1 QB, 2 RB, 2 WR, 1 RB/WR, 1 TE, 1 K, 1 DEF, 6 BN.

SEXY REXY

My goal in the draft was to get a top 3 RB, a top 5 QB, two top 15 WR, a one dollar TE, K, and DEF, and two middle of the pack guys for my RB and flex with a bunch of scrubs and nothings and dollar bids for my bench. Like all my drafts, I have a sheet of how much I wanted to spend per position. But after a half an hour into the draft, after I had not picked up anybody yet, and after the one RB left that I wanted- Philly’s LeSean McCoy- went for WAY too much money (DME and I got into a bidding war where he paid $68 for McCoy and as much as I love McCoy and needed a #1 RB there was in way in hell I was going to spend at least $69 on him, McCoy ended up being the second highest paid player in the draft behind AD). At that point I literally crumpled up my draft prep sheet and threw it out the window (OK, I didn’t throw it out the window but I did throw it behind me and just started paying for talent and value as opposed to my original plan). While I always recommend having a plan going into an auction drafts, this is just a perfect example of how you need to do your homework in order to be able to adapt to your draft.

The running backs I did end up getting were Michael Turner ($51) and Matt Forte ($33). Before I got these two guys I had no backs and Adrian Peterson, Chris Johnson, Ray Rice, Jamaal Charles, Rashard Mendenhall, Arian Foster, Darren McFadden, Maurice Jones-Drew, and now LeSean McCoy were all off the board. I had both Forte and Turner in my top ten- not necessarily because I think they will end up being top guys but because I think they come with significantly less risk that about half the guys mentioned in the previous sentence. My quarterback, and actually my first pick in this draft was Tom Brady ($23). I think this was the best value in the draft and I have no idea how Brady came to me for this low. Brady came cheaper than both Matt Ryan ($26) and Philip Rivers ($28). I originally allocated $33 for a quarterback and I was targeting my man crush Rivers but I have Brady higher on my draft board and come on, for that price, how could I pass it up? My main wide receivers are Mike Wallace ($34) and Santonio Holmes ($21). I never really had a plan for my wide outs but I love Wallace and I don’t care that this is a PPR league. I was originally targeting Mario Manningham as my second receiver but when Santonio Holmes got thrown out there were plenty of other teams who still needed a second wide out, I knew people liked Manningham, I didn’t want to get into another bidding war and I felt like $21 was a really good price for Holmes. Manningham ended up going for $18 but what are you going to do. My other main starters are Reggie Bush ($8) and Ryan Grant ($16). I really like Bush and I think he’ll be this year’s Darren McFadden (this is based off of nothing but a gut feeling) and I like Grant. Truthfully, I drafted Grant before I realized Green Bay thought he was herpes but this guy had been too good in the league for too long that I refuse he won’t exceed the sixteen bucks I paid for him.

I spent most of my money at this point and that’s fine with me. Out of the 14 teams in this league only four had no money left over (three being GOI authors and one of them was not Cubsfan) and I prefer to use up all my money- that means I spent efficiently. My view of the bench is that you don’t need them until a bye- and even then chances are there’s a better guy that week to play on the waiver wire than the guy on your team. For me, I probably should have cared because three out of my four running backs (Forte, Turner, and Grant) and one of my receivers (Holmes) have a bye on Wee8 but whatever. I’ll lose one week and win every other. The rest of my team that I drafted was Colt McCoy ($2), Stevan Ridley ($1), Randy Moss ($1), Denario Alexander ($1), Alex Hendry ($1), and San Diego Defense ($1). I have already drooped Ridley, Moss, and Alexander for Isaac Redman, Greg Little, and Mark Clayton. The depth for wide receiver was barren and all the trendy sleepers like Emmanuel Sanders and Deion Branch went for more than a dollar because the rest of the league was dumb and didn’t spend their money at the front end of their draft like you should. That’s fine with me. I’ll sacrifice getting good starters than getting trendy sleepers.

Lastly, we get to my tight ends. I drafted Aaron Hernandez ($6) and Dustin Keller ($1). My philosophy was that I was only going to spend a dollar on a TE. I threw out my boy Rob Gronkowski early hoping no one else liked him. A team bid two dollars in him and I stupidly didn’t go three. In hindsight I really should have. Two hours later Aaron Hernandez got thrown out and even though I like Gronk better I started bidding up Hernandez just to price enforce. I also stupidly didn’t realize how little money my price opponent had. The max amount he could have spend was five dollars so once I went six I was stuck with him because he wasn’t able to bid seven. This was my biggest mistake of the draft because after this I was relegated to one dollar players. If I didn’t spend that much on a TE like I wanted maybe I could have gotten my wide out sleepers like Sanders and Branch. Oh well. C’est Le Vie. I still am super pumped at the way my team turned out and if my TE and bench guys are the worst part of my team then so be it.

Here are a few notes I have on this draft as a whole:
- Quarterbacks went severely undervalued. I have no idea why considering this is a 14 team league where having a quarterback is extremely important. Friend-of-the-site D.B. originally bought Matt Ryan early and then spent $21 on Matt Schaub just because he saw Schaub for $20 and couldn’t let that stand. My friend Ted, another person I was drafting with, bought Tony Romo ($14), Kevin Kolb ($7), and Ben Roethlisberger ($17) just because the prices were too good. This means that the top 10 quarterbacks are on eight teams.
- The one quarterback that apparently everyone wanted was Josh Freeman as two owners got in a bidding war for him. He went for $16. One less than Peyton Manning. Two dollars more than Tony Romo.
- Even though I wanted McCoy, the fact that he went for $68, the second highest drafted player, was the worst value in the draft. I’m super pumped I didn’t end up getting him.
- Arian Foster went for $58 and was the second person drafted behind Michael Vick. I was so dumb. I knew he would be a great value and I was willing to spend $65+ on him yet I have no idea why I didn’t. Even knowing what I know now I think that’s the best value in the draft. (Well, behind Tom Brady).
- One team spent $71 on Adrian Peterson and $63 on Jamaal Charles. I’m sure he spent the rest of the draft bored out of his mind. His QB is Sam Bradford and TE is Gronk . That’s a damn fine core. Now his wide receivers are pretty bad (Danny Amendola, Mike Thomas, Davone Bess, Jacoby Jones, and AJ Green) but with Peterson and Charles he might win every week. He also drafted James Starks. Drafting two top 3 running backs is not a strategy I recommend or would ever do, but it’s very interesting.

CUBSFAN4EVR1

Going into the Game of Inches fantasy football draft I had a strategy that I was going to follow to the T; I thought I was going to be golden. It was the same strategy I used last year which would have been dominating if two of my key players would have played the entire season and I didn’t have a really bad week in the first week of the playoffs, which was just really bad luck. So I believed in this strategy as long as I could follow it………………………………

My original plan was to draft a top 5 running back, two mid tier wide receivers (from my target list), two mid tier running backs, and an average quarterback. As you will learn I did not follow this strategy at all and altered my strategy completely during the draft that TBO could see from the frustration on my face. I was not going to give into the over valuing of these elite RB though!

My plan was to draft a marquee running back to anchor my team. My first choice was Jamaal Charles who I think is going to have a monster season and could be the number one running back at the end of the season. I was willing to pay $60 for Charles and he went for $63. I was also willing to pay $60 for Rice and he went for $65. Those were the only top two running backs from the top tier that I liked enough to pay the big bucks for. I obviously like Adrian Peterson and Arian Foster, but did not want to pay $72 for Adrian Peterson.

After missing out on Rice and Charles and passing on the rest of the elite running backs I was targeting LeSean McCoy who is a great PPR player, but so was everyone for that reason. I was hoping to get him for under $40 but there was a bidding war for him and he ended up going at a ridiculous $68. That is more than Rice and as much as Charles who are both better. So I stopped bidding around 40 and turned my attention to Shonn Green who I actually won for won and over paid for at 37 dollar in a PPR league. He doesn’t catch at all, but I needed a good running back, and most of the good ones were going off the board in a hurry at values I didn’t want to pay. Another guy I wanted was LeGarrette Blount but he went for $31 which I thought was way too high in a PPR league. I bought Felix Jones at $24 who is a good PPR player and in a good offense. I also took a gamble on Ingram for $13 who could pay off. My goal was to buy a top RB in the 50 dollar range, but unfortunately this did not happen. Instead I ended up getting value running backs to fit PPR leagues such as Felix Jones, Ingram, and settling on Green if I needed a good running back. If this wasn’t a PPR league LeGarrette Blount is someone I would have paid more for.

Arian Foster ended up only going for $58 so I don’t know what I was thinking, or everyone else was for that matter, and I should have bid up to $60. He wasn’t part of my strategy because I thought he was going to be too expensive, but he turned out to be less that Ray Rice and Jamal Charles which is crazy!

I don’t like paying for a top wide receiver; instead I like to find the value wide receivers. I was targeting Miles Austin who I was willing to pay $34 for and he went for $36 to TBO. If I lost out on Austin I settled for two wide receivers I like a lot in Anquan Boldin for a great price of 20 bucks and Brandon Marshall for 23. I think both will have great seasons and be good PPR players. If you don’t want to pay the price for Roddy White or Andre Johnson, these are two great alternatives who may not be as good, but will be for half the price.

I was going to target a average quarterback like Romo, Freeman, Ryan, but with my strategy changing in the middle of the draft and having more money because I didn’t buy an elite running back I decided to buy a top quarterback. Out of all of the top quarterbacks I really like Phillip Rivers this year so I invested $28 for him to anchor my team. A great QB can carry your team in a deep 14 team league like this; even though Romo went for a great value at 14 dollars and Freeman at 16 dollars.

Typically I don’t invest in defense or kickers, but I had extra money to burn so I may as well buy the Pittsburgh Steelers defense for $4. I also bought Nate Kaeding for $3. I think Jared Cook, a tight end for the Titans, will have a big year so I got him for $5. The biggest regret was not bidding more for Daniel Thomas who is in the doghouse now, but I think will have a good season. Miami loves to run the ball and Reggie Bush can’t stay healthy.

With me changing my strategy on the fly I can’t say I love my team not having any elite players besides Phillip Rivers, but I think I have a solid team with a lot of potential so I like my chances.

DAVID “MVP” ECKSTEIN

My team largely consists of players my two fantasy football expert friends recommended that did not seem overpriced (LeSean McCoy excepted), and players whose name I recognized from the TV show The League. I'd love to give more analysis than that, but there really was none. If I beat Sexy Rexy this year, I'll never let him live it down.

(EDITOR’S NOTE: DME is lucky in the sense that he is fully entrenched in the fantasy community because of fantasy baseball that he magically happen to come across fantasy football experts, like those from KFFL, who gave him a draft cheat sheet. And no way we experts at GOI were going to give him any advice. Also, while I kind of do like the player’s on DME’s team (McCoy, Kenny Britt, Larry Fitzgerald, Mike Tolbert). He did not actually draft players based on The League although his team’s name, The Fear Boners, is from the show. Also, he is not going to beat Sexy Rexy.)