FF2012: Fantasy Football 2012 general catch-all

If it's not specifically about one of the GWJFFL leagues, you're in the right place.

To talk about the GWJFFL, the official fantasy football league of GWJ, go here.

So... what draft prep systems are people using this year? I'm having trouble getting enthused about doing the multiple source search I end up doing every year but I'm not sure how to avoid that and still get decent info.

I'm with you... but I don't have a better answer. It's time to start scraping the web.

The mock draft definitely helped me out. I have my players in mind but the draft happens faster than I felt it would, so it's good to know the interface before the real draft happens.

I'm also doing a lot of mock drafts on ESPN. You can usually get into one in 5 minutes. It's great practice and you can get a feel for drafting anywhere in the order.

Mock drafts are definitely the way to go. Try and reserve the pick number that you have in your actual league(s). It's the only way to get a feeling for the unpredictability of drafting (Oh snap! The guy before me took the guy I was expecting to get, what do I do now?)

I used CheatSheet for my draft prep. The interface is a bit clunky but there's lots of useful information including the ability to make a draft sheet which averages the ADP for each player based on the rankings of dozens of recognized Fantasy Football "professionals" (guys from FF websites, etc.).

I'll make my cheat sheet, print it out (one for every league I am participating in), and then make handwritten notes for each player (injury risks, who I want to "reach" for, who I want to stay away from, etc.).

I may have skipped over it somewhere but do we have a draft date and time?

So yeah, I'm in a ton of leagues this year. Tonight was my first draft. I couldn't strategize since draft order is established mere minutes before draft time. I ended up with the 5th pick. 10-team, no flex, QB/RB/RB/WR/WR/WR/TE/K/DST

First Round - Calvin Johnson - With Rodgers and the top RB's off the table, had to go with the best player at his position.
Second Round - DeMarco Murray - With DMC and even more RB's off the table, I needed to grab the best available.
Third Round - Larry Fitzgerald - Risky pick with the QB situation in Arizona. Still, with the top RB's gone, the top QB's gone, I knew everyone was about to go on a run drafting WR so I grabbed the best one available before it started.
Fourth Round - Darren Sproles - Needed another RB1 badly. The only top RB's left at this point were Turner, Martin, Bush. I opted for Sproles who is perfect for the NO offense.
Fifth Round - Aaron Hernandez - Just about everyone had picked a QB already and I knew if I waited one more round I would still get a decent QB so I grabbed the best TE available.
Sixth Round - Phillip Rivers - It was either him, Matt Ryan, or RGIII. I went with the proven Rivers.
Seventh Round - Torrey Smith - Needed to get a WR3 and with my other two, I figured I could afford a little bit of a gamble. I like what I've seen of Smith at the end of last year. His attitude, his work ethic, his drive. I'm hoping for a big year from Smith.

With the exception of my Kicker and DST, the rest are bench players.

Eight Round - Shonn Greene - Needed some RB insurance.
Ninth Round - Michael Crabtree
Tenth Round - Stephen Gostkowski
11 - Lance Moore
12 - Carson Palmer
13 - Tony Gonzalez
14 - Houston DST
15 - Tim Hightower

Still need to let it stew for a bit before I decide what moves I'll need to make. Just glad to have the first one out of the way.

I'm in a keeper league with the second pick. I'm surprised at the people who have been thrown back into the mix. We keep 4-6, have a flex, and qb's score 5 points per td. So I'm trying to decide who to pick in the first round. I'm assuming the first place guy will take Richardson. I'm not positive he will, though.

My current roster is:
Adrian Peterson
Ahmad Bradshaw
Peyton Hillis
Mike Wallace

Some of the guys I'm thinking about:

Phillip Rivers
Andrew Luck
Matt Ryan
Doug Martin
Miles Austin

QBs in this league score large amounts of points (top 5 scorers were qbs). If Richardson is there I know I'm taking him. Otherwise, I'm leaning towards Rivers. He's likely got another 5-6 years of very good production, never gets injured, and plays for the Chargers (homer pick). Before keepers were submitted I was debating Luck and Doug Martin. One other thing. This keeper league has no stipulations on the keepers. I drafter Peterson and I can keep him forever with the cost only being that if I keep 5 players (vs 4) I don't get a pick in the first supplementary round. If I keep 6 I don't get one in the second. The supplementary rounds are not serpentine so I get pick 2 in round 1 (6 teams have a pick) and I get pick 2 in round 2 so essentially it is 2 and 8.

Finally, 3 of the 6 teams have a QB already (Eli, Romo, Rogers) so I'm not sure how much they will target a QB. Martin is a good pass catcher and this is a PPR league.

Anyway, anyone have any additional thoughts?

TempestBlayze wrote:

I may have skipped over it somewhere but do we have a draft date and time?

You're looking for this thread over here.

Jolly Bill wrote:

So... what draft prep systems are people using this year? I'm having trouble getting enthused about doing the multiple source search I end up doing every year but I'm not sure how to avoid that and still get decent info.

Pony up for Fantasy Guru.

Second draft of the year. Same Yahoo scoring. 10-team, no flex, QB/RB/RB/WR/WR/WR/TE/K/DST

I ended up with the 5th pick again! Yeesh. However this draft was far more volatile than the last one.

  • 1st Round - LeSean McCoy - Couldn't believe he dropped to 5th in a non-PPR format. The first four picks were: Foster, Brady, Rodgers, Rice. This pick was a no brainer.
  • 2nd Round - Trent Richardson - The crazy first round completely changed my strategy in the draft. By getting McCoy at 5, it opened up many more options. I decided to draft a second top RB.
  • 3rd Round - Greg Jennings - With the top QB's gone, I imitated my strategy from the first draft and figured I would hold out to draft a QB until the 5th/6th round.
  • 4th Round - Marques Colston - Was shocked he fell this far.
  • 5th Round - Matt Ryan - Got the QB I was targeting.
  • 6th Round - Jermichael Finley - Run on TE's was starting and I wanted to get a solid TE.
  • 7th Round - Torrey Smith - Another WR I tend to target in my drafts. High upside.
  • 8th Round - Beanie Wells - Probably should have gone with Shonn Greene here. This is the one pick I would change if I could.
  • 9th Round - Donald Brown - Happy to get an RB1 in the 9th Round.
  • 10th Round - RGIII - I'll take him as a QB backup any day of the week.
  • 11th Round - Denarius Moore - Nice young WR with high upside.
  • 12th Round - Michael Crabrtree
  • 13th - Houston DEF
  • 14th - Garrett Hartley - I think he'll be Saints #1 kicker.
  • 15th - Jared Cook - Very happy to get him in the 15th round.

So far, I think this is the team that has the best chance to win it all.

Ugh 8th pick.

karmajay wrote:

Ugh 8th pick.

9th here. Don't hose me Karma or you will regret it soon.

I highly recommend Fantasy Football Calculator (free). It collects data on hundreds of mock drafts every day and can show you what the likely/popular picks are. It even lets you customize with numbers of teams, PPR, flex, etc. Click the link and select ADP - Average draft position and bye weeks are provided, and you can also view as a draft board. Everything is printable.

A very handy tool.

garion333 wrote:
Jolly Bill wrote:

So... what draft prep systems are people using this year? I'm having trouble getting enthused about doing the multiple source search I end up doing every year but I'm not sure how to avoid that and still get decent info.

Pony up for Fantasy Guru.

I'm an old subscriber to footballinjuries.com, which in the '90s and early 2000s was the source of up-to-date injury and practice information. They merged with FantasyGuru and so that's how I came to read the FantasyGuru stuff, which is good.

I miss the raw practice reports of footballinjuries.com, not being filtered through a fantasy football lens, but I guess being fantasy focused brings in a much wider client base.

So, in a non-PPR league that has 6 points for QB tds we had an interesting draft. It's always interesting as QBs are overvalued, which means you usually have to take one a round or three earlier than you'd like to. I ended up with the 9th pick overall, which is not the best place, but it worked out okay. I think. Here's what I ended up getting:

1.9 - Darren McFadden - I hate drafting people who are injury prone. Hate it. I almost took Matthew Stafford here, but I couldn't deny McFadden's fantasy talent.

2.20 - Jamaal Charles - Lookie here, another injured RB. Well, Graham and Gronk went at the top of the 2nd round so they went off my board and while a WR would've made sense here I figured that I couldn't pass up Charles' potential. Trent Richardson was also on my radar, but seemed entirely too early for my tastes.

3.37 - Matt Ryan - I don't like him, but I sure as hell like his receiving targets. When I passed on Stafford in the 1st I knew I'd want to target Ryan by the 4th round. His ADP has him in the 4th or 5th round so I knew I'd have to step up. When Matt Schaub went at the top of the 3rd my hand was pushed. I don't need Ryan to be a top 4 QB (a la Brady et al), I'm fine with his steady, if unspectacular, fantasy showing.

4.48 - Marques Colston - At this point I sorely needed a wideout and while I would've preferred Steve Smith he got snagged the pick before mine. I considered another RB, but made the safer play here for Colston. I like Colston. He gets his targets and he brings them in. He tends to quietly put up good numbers every year. Good enough for me.

5.65 - Dwayne Bowe - Can't deny the talent, that's for sure. Now that he's signed his tender and showed up for camp I'm happy to have him. Percy Harvin, Antonio Brown, Eric Decker and Miles Austin all went in the picks before mine and all were in play.

6.76 - Donald Brown - Ick. Jeremy Maclin went a few picks before mine and that left me rushing around for a pick. I don't really like Donald Brown, but they've got him running behind a fullback again and for right now he's a starting RB. Getting a starting RB in round 6 isn't a terrible value. FSeven got him in the 9th round, which blows my mind. Regardless, I have three #1 RBs on my team now. Nice.

7.93 - Pierre Garcon - Stevie Johnson, Reggie Wayne and Justin Blackmon all went in this round before I picked and while I would've love to have had Johnson things have looked really good for Garcon and RGIII this preseason. The rapport is there and I'll take that.

8.104 - Jermaine Gresham - I'm hoping he gets more targets this year now that Cincinnati is depleted at receiver outside of AJ Green. Denarius Moore went the pick before me, he was my other option.

9.121 - Greg Little - Upside pick. Looking back at it I probably would've rather have gone with RB Daniel Thomas here because Miami is probably going to have to run all the time this year, but I'll take a Browns player over a Dolphins player this year. If Miami wins 3 games I'll be surprised.

10.132 - Sam Bradford - Kid has talent. Let's hope it doesn't die under the pressure of being perpetually sacked. Interesting tidbit: 4 defenses had been selected by round 10. There's some savvy drafters in this league, but there are also stupid decisions like taking the Broncos D in round 9.

11.149 - Brent Celek - Backup TE. I'm good with that. If someone other than Vick were throwing the ball I'd like him a lot more.

12.160 - Mikel Leshoure - Kevin Smith will fall apart a couple games in. Jahvid Best is probably done (and probably should be if he wants to have a brain). Leshoure is suspended the 1st two games, but I don't think I'll need him so I'm happy with his upside.

13.177 - Danny Amendola - If only this were PPR ...

14.188 - Jerome Simpson - So glad he fell to me. I love this kid. Suspended for the beginning of the season, oh well, but looking forward to getting him on the field later.

15.205 - Sebatian Janikowski - Love him. Hope he stays healthy.

16.216 - Bengals - There were no good defenses left. Crap shoot.

Overall this was something of a strange draft. Kickers and defenses went way earlier than they should've, which left some good players on the board. We didn't have as big of a run on QBs in the earlier rounds as we normally do, so Matt Ryan might've been taken a bit too early, but MATT FRICKIN SCHAUB went at the top of the 3rd. Wow.

Interesting tidbit - Who was the last player drafted? Mark Sanchez. Hahahahaa. Matt Flynn got drafted before him and he's not even a starter. As did Tebow. In the 14th round, which was funny at the time but I hope it bites him in the ass. Big time.

How big of a league is this? 16 team? Personally, I like the J. Charles & the D. Brown picks. Both are starters & you should get better production than you think from them.

sr_malo wrote:

How big of a league is this? 16 team? Personally, I like the J. Charles & the D. Brown picks. Both are starters & you should get better production than you think from them.

Ah, yeah, forgot to mention this is a 14 team league which makes the round selections a bit off from the norm.

Well sh*t. Jones Drew (my first round pick) might not even play for the first couple of games, maybe the whole season.

I was in a 14 team 2QB/2TE league a couple of years ago. Not fun due to a lazy Commissioner.

I've been in a crazy 12 team PPR IDP league for several years now. That draft is on 9/2. I love this time of the year.

Said I was only doing four leagues this year because I'm doing my first turn as a Commissioner.

Now I'm doing five thanks to a Direct TV app that allows you to track your (NFL.com) team while watching games on Sunday Ticket.

Heaven.

TempestBlayze wrote:

Well sh*t. Jones Drew (my first round pick) might not even play for the first couple of games, maybe the whole season.

I wouldn't worry about it beyond the first game or two.

MJD is not going to leave $4 million of salary on the table.

And since he has 2 years left on his deal, he won't be able to pull the "come back for the last 6 games" trick to get his accrued year and hit free agency next year (I still call that the "Errict Rhett"). Well, he can pull that trick, but it will still leave him with one year left on his deal. So he'd have to do it again next season and leave $8 million of salary on the table. (Or play that year, in which case, what was achieved by sitting out the previous year?)

MJD has no leverage. Hence why Khan and the Jaguars have not budged. His only exit strategy is to force a trade, and that's what Khan and Gene Smith are publicly slamming the door shut on.

He's a 27 year old RB, wasting the next 2 years of his career is just not an option.

I expect the Jags will be willing to waive MJD's absence penalties when he comes back, but that's all he's getting.

This is really one of the worst timed and least effective holdouts in recent memory.

*Legion* wrote:
TempestBlayze wrote:

Well sh*t. Jones Drew (my first round pick) might not even play for the first couple of games, maybe the whole season.

I wouldn't worry about it beyond the first game or two.

MJD is not going to leave $4 million of salary on the table.

And since he has 2 years left on his deal, he won't be able to pull the "come back for the last 6 games" trick to get his accrued year and hit free agency next year (I still call that the "Errict Rhett"). Well, he can pull that trick, but it will still leave him with one year left on his deal. So he'd have to do it again next season and leave $8 million of salary on the table. (Or play that year, in which case, what was achieved by sitting out the previous year?)

MJD has no leverage. Hence why Khan and the Jaguars have not budged. His only exit strategy is to force a trade, and that's what Khan and Gene Smith are publicly slamming the door shut on.

He's a 27 year old RB, wasting the next 2 years of his career is just not an option.

I expect the Jags will be willing to waive MJD's absence penalties when he comes back, but that's all he's getting.

This is really one of the worst timed and least effective holdouts in recent memory.

Well your logic certainly put me at ease.

He might have a Chris Johnson year though where he won't be up to speed until later in the season. We'll see.

I took mojo in a league too hoping he got traded. Dag nabbit

TempestBlayze wrote:

Well your logic certainly put me at ease.

Being a Jag fan, I've monitored the situation closely. I'm really not worried. I think one shouldn't expect him to lead the league in rushing again this year, but his carries were already headed downward due to an offense that will pass more (not necessarily prolific, just no longer anemic) and the presence of Rashad Jennings (who has made it clear in preseason that he is back healthy and completely capable of starting, lowering MJD's already nonexistent leverage).

I'm betting he misses Game 1, plays Game 2 as a rotational player, and resumes starting Game 3, and finishes the season around 270 carries (which still would fall within the top 10 most seasons).

I just can't envision MJD going any further than the start of the season with the holdout. He has everything to lose and no obvious path to any sort of gain.

I'm noticing a clear trend in my fantasy football keeper drafting. Year 1, build up value by taking all mid-round players. Year 2, take the studs from Year 1 and combine them with flashy picks(ray rice, roddy white, tony romo) and make a championship run. Year 3, build up value by taking all mid-round players...

Elliottx wrote:

I'm noticing a clear trend in my fantasy football keeper drafting. Year 1, build up value by taking all mid-round players. Year 2, take the studs from Year 1 and combine them with flashy picks(ray rice, roddy white, tony romo) and make a championship run. Year 3, build up value by taking all mid-round players...

I am also noticing a clear trend.

Year 1: Suck.
Year 2: Suck.
Year 3: Suck?

I'm actually pretty happy with my team this year. We'll see what happens. I feel like I've got a lot riding on Peyton Manning coming back and being Peyton Manning.

*Legion* wrote:
TempestBlayze wrote:

Well sh*t. Jones Drew (my first round pick) might not even play for the first couple of games, maybe the whole season.

I wouldn't worry about it beyond the first game or two.

MJD is not going to leave $4 million of salary on the table.

And since he has 2 years left on his deal, he won't be able to pull the "come back for the last 6 games" trick to get his accrued year and hit free agency next year (I still call that the "Errict Rhett"). Well, he can pull that trick, but it will still leave him with one year left on his deal. So he'd have to do it again next season and leave $8 million of salary on the table. (Or play that year, in which case, what was achieved by sitting out the previous year?)

MJD has no leverage. Hence why Khan and the Jaguars have not budged. His only exit strategy is to force a trade, and that's what Khan and Gene Smith are publicly slamming the door shut on.

He's a 27 year old RB, wasting the next 2 years of his career is just not an option.

I expect the Jags will be willing to waive MJD's absence penalties when he comes back, but that's all he's getting.

This is really one of the worst timed and least effective holdouts in recent memory.

garion333 wrote:

He might have a Chris Johnson year though where he won't be up to speed until later in the season. We'll see.

And that, my friends, is why I'm staying far away from MJD this season. No good comes out of a holdout like this. Draft at you're own risk.

Reddit league. 4th pick.
RB is the biggest ?
http://www.fleaflicker.com/nfl/team?...