All Pro Football 2k8 - Season 3 Draft - Tactics, Discussion, etc.

I mean Dante Lavelli was barely on my radar screen. Then someone swiped Dwight Clark from me. I had to find another receiver and I started playing around, in game, with some silver receivers. Next thing you know I pick someone I wouldn't have previously looked at.

Now the only question is which Bronze HB am I picking eventually. Oh, and do I dare go with a Bronze QB. I might. With Cunningham off the board and my experience from Season 1 it's awfully tempting to choose QB last and snag a DT, OLB, etc. in between.

Or one really kooky idea I've been playing around with offline... no starred HB.

I think that may be ruthlessmuffin's plan. If not, he is going to have one horrid defense, but an offense that is going to be a nightmare to defend. Dan Marino, three WR's and Shannon Sharpe. Jesus, I may have to play the dime defense the entire game. I keep waiting for him to take Billy Sims, but he just keeps building that perfect aerial beast.

Elliot keeps making my picks a round earlier than when I thought I should make them. I wanted the Fridge. Thankfully he's out of Bronze picks now. So he can do no more damage.

Well, the second half of this draft will expose any mistakes we have made. As I had feared, I reached for Novacek much too early. I should have taken Ricky Sanders with that pick. Then ertic really bursted my bubble after I had decided Dwight Clark would be my pick.

Like you, I have been playing around with tons of players that last few days. I have assembled my team with the guys I have so far, and then the guys I expect or hope to have. Then I switch out different lineups. Maybe a gold HB, maybe a gold QB, but I have to see how that fits into the other players I would then get. It's been fun trying out different combinations. Not so much fun watching ertic destroy my strategy!

Blame it all on Dsgamer.

When I saw Rob Moore go I thought it was probably time to solidify my WR corps before a true run on that position started. Before the draft started I believed I had selected a fairly obscure lineup, yet two of my choices are already gone, Rob Moore amongst them.

I am starting to question my own moves now, but that's the fun of a draft. See how well you adjust your pre-draft strategy to compensate for players not being there.

Ertic

See, my plan was that I get Rob Moore AND Dwight Clark. So I fail to see how I'm the guy to blame.

Oh, I have no problem blaming DS. He really is the root of all evil.

BTW, I took the initiative and created yet another doc. I have created everyone's roster so far, and even went so far as to use the background color to show what tier each player is. Hope this is useful, or at least entertaining for some of you.

My strategy is actually not all that messed up. I have been keeping lists of players by position in each tier that I want. That way, I already know where the dominos are falling as guys get taken. Seeing the rosters of the other teams really clarifies where I am at.

*edit* I was just looking over the rosters, and I had amde some errors. Let me know if you find anything funky with your rosters.

Otto Graham sucks.

Jayhawker wrote:

Otto Graham sucks.

In the offline game, I've found myself saying "F**k you, Otto Graham!" more times than I'd like to admit...

firesloth wrote:
Jayhawker wrote:

Otto Graham sucks.

In the offline game, I've found myself saying "F**k you, Otto Graham!" more times than I'd like to admit...

Well, I'm taking a chance, then.

DSGamer wrote:
firesloth wrote:
Jayhawker wrote:

Otto Graham sucks.

In the offline game, I've found myself saying "F**k you, Otto Graham!" more times than I'd like to admit...

Well, I'm taking a chance, then.

No, no...I was playing against him!

Oh, good. Then I look forward to the first time we play, in that case.

So, I decided now would be a good time to run some numbers, to see how teams are shaping up. My first post in this thread detailed the point system for setting up a team. The point of which is to see if your team is balanced, or if it is unbalanced in favor of offense or defense. I understand that this is by no means a scientific look at the issue, but interesting nonetheless.

This is an 18 point system (Gold=3, Silver=2, Bronze=1, each tier is worth six points). A perfectly balanced team will have nine points allocated on each side of the ball. This can altered if a team takes a punter or kicker, but no one has done that yet.

The first number is offense, second is defense, and the number of picks left in parentheses.

Grumpicus - 7/7 (4)
Jayhawker - 5/6 (4)
Ruthless - 13/1 (4)
Prederick - 9/5 (4)
Elliotx - 3/5 (4)
DSGamer - 8/5 (4)
Frankie - 12/1 (4)
Firesloth - 6/8 (4)
Ertic - 5/8 (3)
Bagga - 7/8 (3)

Looks like we know who the offensive juggernauts are going to be! These last few rounds will really define most of our teams, though. Several have the ability to still be just as lopsided, depending on who we pick at the end.

What's weird about a draft like this, as we talked about last night, is how many defensive HOFers get left on the table in the process. Okoye is a first round pick and probably no one will pick Derrick Thomas or Mike Singletary.

Also, if I go according to my current plan I will end up at roughly 9/9 or 10/8. Weird how that works out. It's not intentional. I just get a feel for wanting to be balanced and thus my picks have fallen that way.

Right now, offensive gold players-taken outnumber their defensive counterparts by a margin of 11-6. So that is pretty dominant. There are three more golds to be taken, so that may even up, and get us to a more reasonable 11-9.

but this is videogame football, and offense rules. We love shutting down opponents, but is there a better feeling than threading a bullet pass in to your WR for a big gain. It's the nature of the game, and it is why I always try to shore up my pass defense before my run defense. I will say thatthis game does reward a strong running game, though. So I still think balance is the key.

*whoops*

I'm enjoying the draft so very much more than just selecting a roll-call of players that my opponent may have as well. Although I went against my own usual tactics this time by going Offense-Offense with my two gold picks. Ususally i'd strive for absolute balance by going Offense-Defense (usually a HB and a LB).

Exactly one lineman has been selected so far. I forsee a healthy amount of scrambling being done by QBs.

Yeah, this has been a fun exercise. Too bad some mechanism to do this sort of thing wasn't included in the code for the game or in the 2k website...then again, we still get hockey scores for some games!

Also, I think the GoogleDocs route was a fine way to go. It's been fun to occasionally see someone else on there and get chatting...

We are truly in the final stretch at this point. Can you believe some teams now have nine players! Two and half more rounds to go, and it will be time to fling the pigskin around.

Some random thoughts:

The draft exercise is really one of my favorite parts of playing in online leagues. APFB is perfect, in that we are only going 11 rounds of primary players. Can you imagine those 25-50 round drafts for football and baseball games! I played in a DMB league where we not only drafted our teams, but each season we had several rounds of a minor league draft. Each season, as the new files came in, if your minor leaguer saw big league action, you already had rights to him. It was fun, but a little overkill.

Part of the fun I've had in this draft is keeping a working copy of the team I hope to have when the draft is over, as well as variations based on different directions the draft may push me. I ended playing with so many players that I had not touched before. DS may have had the biggest revelation when he found that FS Willie Wood is some kind of super hero when it comes to kickoff returns. Seriously, having played him, Wood is the APFB's Devin Hester. Thank God getting into the open on punt returns is so tough. Otherwise, Wood may just be the MVP this season.

It has been pretty cool chatting with DS and Elliot on GoogleDocs. well, except for when I was telling DS who I was going to take with my next two picks, since I would be getting them before he picked again, only to have Elliot show up right at that moment. Whoops!

I wish I had made the Roster doc sooner. It really turned out to be a great way to visualize where teams were stocking up and where teams that drafted around you were likely to be which positions and tiers. Prederick's theft of Lem Barney really drove that point home. Had I not been forced to go Gold on a CB at that time, I'd be sitting with two Golds picks left right now, instead of a Gold and a Silver. That doesn't seem like a big deal, but it would sure make my last two picks easier.

I just had a thought(first one today). After the draft, how about the idea of free agency? You could drop a player you realize didn't go with your overall team and replace him with some other player who wasn't drafted? Perhaps free agency throughout the season?

I've heard people talking about how their draft plans had been blown up and this way, they could maybe tweak the team in the direction they were actually wanting.

DS and I discussed this, but decided it would make for some trouble. It would take away the danger in drafting too early. Such as with this last round. I already have a Bronze ILB. Had I not taken him, I would be able to take Singletary now. But that would be unfair to the guys that might have taken Pepper Johnson with their bronze, but had to take an OL or K, something else. Pretty soon it would be a mess as guys drop and add. Then we would have to run a waiver wire, because who gets dibs on dropped players?

For this reason we decided even post draft trades would be a bad idea. We can discus this further, but I would prefer to make any changes like this for NEXT season. We all went into the draft knowing we had to take the guys we picked. If there was going to be FA after, that is something we should all know BEFORE we start drafting.

I think this could open up a pretty nasty can of worms, personally. I mean, I like the idea for me personally. I'd love to go back and decide if maybe I should have taken Johnny Unitas instead. Or if I should have gone with a Bronze QB and another Gold defender. I would do that in a heartbeat. But how would we keep track of that? How would we timebox it and make sure that everyone got a shot?

I can imagine a scenario where I decide I want to grab Cliff Harris, for example, and shore up my defense. What if someone else wants him? How do we decide who gets him? Another draft? More X is on the clock?

I'm not trying to be snarky, so please don't take it that way. I'm just running it through my head and I can't imagine a way that works smoothly. If someone can come up with one, as always I'm just a facilitator for your wishes. But I can't see how that would work.

I completely understand what you're saying. The big problem is the management. Well I guess the idea will have to be buried as I don't have any ideas for implementation really.