Random Fantasy Football 2014 Rumblings

[TheBuckeyeKing]

You guys going to be doing a league?

[Hammer]

it starts already. my work league did the drawings for draft order. id be satisfied anywhere 1-6, 11 or 12 [in a 12 team league]. picking 9th, naturally. some of these guys are good, some can get kinda iffy... so im assuming the top 5 backs [lacy included], calvin, graham and peyton will be gone by the time i get on the board. that will probably leave me with a choice between aj green, demaryius or whoever i think the next back is [probably le'veon at the moment]. woo!

[Slyder]

Don't let the draft dictate to you. My league last year I felt confident in my team (and probably would have been a top 4 team) if Ray Rice does ANYTHING and I mean absolutely ANYTHING as my 2nd round pick. I passed up on a lot of points because I felt I HAD to get a RB, there is always diamonds every year.

[Hammer]

well, if jimmy graham falls to 9, im fairly set on taking him, and hoping any type of decent runner makes it back to 15... gio bernard, marshawn lynch even though its ppr, maybe even a flyer on arian foster bouncing back. i feel like every runner after peterson... including lacy... is interchangeable. i feel like 2-5 at receiver [green, thomas, marshall and bryant] are fairly interchangeable. if they stay healthy, youre winning... if they get hurt, youre fucked. those are the risks. id have felt much better guaranteeing myself [top 6], one of the top 4 runners, calvin or graham. orrrr... getting two b level talents at 11/14 ot 12/13... say getting gio bernard with one of those receivers on the bounce back.

in any case, ive never been a guy who HAS to take a runner in the first round. the one league i did that in last year... was a league i would have won [still made the semis], had i not hedged and taken trent richardson in the first round. every other league i went strong into the playoffs... taken a runner and two receivers in the first round [picking 4th i took arian foster, and the two receivers were both calvin, both around the 8-10 range].

[Witlon]

Early Training Camp Trends
Up On My List
Trent Richardson and Ahmad Bradshaw (RB- IND) - Just slightly after the Ballard injury. I'm now more likely to take Bradshaw at the end of the draft than Richardson in the mid rounds, since the backup competition is gone.

Marquise Lee(WR-JAC) - Cecil Shorts is hurt, already, though he's expected back by Week 1. Ace Sanders is suspended. Allen Robinson may even appear on my next ranking set in the low end. Chad Henne(is a bitch) has to throw to somebody when they're down by 30, right? Mike Brown and Marcedes Lewis are unchanged, BTW, I still want nothing to do with those two.

Andrew Hawkins (WR-CLE) - The Gordon suspension is official. This was already speculated, though.

Carlos Hyde (RB-SF) - Kendall Hunter is done for the year. It just means more opportunities for the Buckeye.

Downgrades

Marshawn Lynch (RB-SEA) - I dropped him a couple of spots with the holdout. He'll hop back up when he reports, I'd suppose.

Doug Martin (RB-TB) - Carl Nicks was cut, and while he was guarantee to play anyway, the Bucs guard depth is putrid.

Jonathan Stewart (RB-CAR) - Still don't trust DeAngelo enough to move up, but an early injury from Stewart will slide him a few spots.

Cecil Shorts (WR-JAC) - For reasons noted above.

Knile Davis (RB-KC) - Charles' holdout is over. He's just a handcuff, again.

David Wilson (RB-NYG) - Slight drop. Andre Williams is getting short yardage stuff already, and Jennings should stay in on passing downs.

James Starks (RB-GB) - More Lacy means less Starks.

[ucfinfan86]

Do any of you guys participate in auction leagues? I'm in an annual $200 buy in league and was wondering what your strategy is?

The mocks I've done I seem to end up doing a stars and scrubs approach. In my first mock I got McCoy, Brees, Julio, Alshon then filled out my roster with lower guys. 2nd mock I went with Luck, AP, rice, green, Keenan, with a deeper bench.

[Hammer]

im assuming $200 is the league fee, right? what was the budget? im usually pretty frugal early on, and i always auction the high priced qbs that i dont want early... the newtons [though i like cam this year], staffords, etc.... and let guys fill their qb spot early, and then try to get fair market value on a brees or rodgers. im a big believer in all fantasy leagues in getting a star qb though... some guys arent, so thatll change the strategy obviously.

and then i look for steals at rbs and wrs. iin auction leagues, i dont often walk out with the top guy at any position [except maybe qb]. to get calvin and then have my number 2 receiver be say... dwayne bowe. or shady at rb, with lamar miller as my number 2. id rather have two legit guys... say keenan allen and victor cruz. or le'veon bell and gio bernard. something like that. and this season would seem to be pretty good for that, since at rb... from 5 to like 12, are interchangeable to me... and at wr, 2 through 5 are interchangeable, and then 6 to like 11-13 are interchangeable. so i just look for value after that, i try not to get into bidding wars, and i always go right to my price, or thereabouts. if i like keenan allen at 30 dollars lets say [im just throwing numbers right now, i havent done an auction mock this year so i dont know what the prices are like this year]... ill jump right to $27 dollars. if a guy increases to 28, then ill jump to like 31. 2-3 dollar increases usually kill those stupid 1 dollar bidding processes that carry on far too long. maybe check at 32, if he goes higher, he can have him. i usually dont quibble over a dollar or two... i realize that having that extra dollar at the end could be the difference in getting one of your sleepers or not... but yea. would i rather get keenan allen, or settle for an eric decker and hoping that knowshon moreno takes the job in miami [or something to the effect]?

[ucfinfan86]

im assuming $200 is the league fee, right? what was the budget? im usually pretty frugal early on, and i always auction the high priced qbs that i dont want early... the newtons [though i like cam this year], staffords, etc.... and let guys fill their qb spot early, and then try to get fair market value on a brees or rodgers. im a big believer in all fantasy leagues in getting a star qb though... some guys arent, so thatll change the strategy obviously. and then i look for steals at rbs and wrs. iin auction leagues, i dont often walk out with the top guy at any position [except maybe qb]. to get calvin and then have my number 2 receiver be say... dwayne bowe. or shady at rb, with lamar miller as my number 2. id rather have two legit guys... say keenan allen and victor cruz. or le'veon bell and gio bernard. something like that. and this season would seem to be pretty good for that, since at rb... from 5 to like 12, are interchangeable to me... and at wr, 2 through 5 are interchangeable, and then 6 to like 11-13 are interchangeable. so i just look for value after that, i try not to get into bidding wars, and i always go right to my price, or thereabouts. if i like keenan allen at 30 dollars lets say [im just throwing numbers right now, i havent done an auction mock this year so i dont know what the prices are like this year]... ill jump right to $27 dollars. if a guy increases to 28, then ill jump to like 31. 2-3 dollar increases usually kill those stupid 1 dollar bidding processes that carry on far too long. maybe check at 32, if he goes higher, he can have him. i usually dont quibble over a dollar or two... i realize that having that extra dollar at the end could be the difference in getting one of your sleepers or not... but yea. would i rather get keenan allen, or settle for an eric decker and hoping that knowshon moreno takes the job in miami [or something to the effect]?

Ya $200 budget. My strategy as of now is to try and get one of the top 5 RB for under $60.

I'm not gonna spend big money on a QB unless it's a good deal. And then go pretty deep at WR. This league is QB, RB, RB, WR, WR, wr, fllex.

I feel like there is a lot of depth at WR but it's imparitive to get a top 5 RB

[Witlon]

Is it an online draft, or do you do it with friends? What's the competitive level?

I would probably budget quite a bit for WR, go top tier at HB(McCoy, Charles, Peterson, Forte, Lacy) and fill with the RB2 types with cheap talent mixed in(Anyone from Toby Gerhart to Jeremy Hill should be relatively cheap to build depth downward.)

QBs AAV's are rather low(Cutler, Rivers, Ryan and Romo are $1-2 on ESPN leagues, so budgeting low there isn't bad a bad idea.)

No TE? If there is, I'm buying on a Zach Ertz at $2 instead of spending $25-35 for Gronk.

[ucfinfan86]

It's a pretty competitive league. It's a live draft we do at the commissioners house every year. I think this is going on year 6.

I think I agree with alot of your strategy. I'm thinking if I can't get one of the big 3 QBs for a reasonable price then go for a Romo, Ryan, Cutler etc for a few bucks. Doesn't seem much difference between them and a Brady, Kaep, RG3 group to justify spending the extra money.

I agree on RB2. Probably best to spend $5-$10 on like 3 or 4 RB2 and hoping one of them pops to pair with one of the top 5.

No TE position in this league but TE are considered WR. In my mocks it seems best to get a few elites at WR and there are plenty of young potential WR for cheap that a couple should break through. I guess how deep you can go at WR depends on what you do at QB.

I'm thinking it's probably best to get my QB situation settled first so that I know how much I have to allocate at other positions.

I always put alot of time into this league. Along with the $200 buy in it costs $3 for every FA pickup. The winner usually walks away with close to $1500.

[ucfinfan86]

im assuming $200 is the league fee, right? what was the budget? im usually pretty frugal early on, and i always auction the high priced qbs that i dont want early... the newtons [though i like cam this year], staffords, etc.... and let guys fill their qb spot early, and then try to get fair market value on a brees or rodgers. im a big believer in all fantasy leagues in getting a star qb though... some guys arent, so thatll change the strategy obviously.

and then i look for steals at rbs and wrs. iin auction leagues, i dont often walk out with the top guy at any position [except maybe qb]. to get calvin and then have my number 2 receiver be say... dwayne bowe. or shady at rb, with lamar miller as my number 2. id rather have two legit guys... say keenan allen and victor cruz. or le'veon bell and gio bernard. something like that. and this season would seem to be pretty good for that, since at rb... from 5 to like 12, are interchangeable to me... and at wr, 2 through 5 are interchangeable, and then 6 to like 11-13 are interchangeable. so i just look for value after that, i try not to get into bidding wars, and i always go right to my price, or thereabouts. if i like keenan allen at 30 dollars lets say [im just throwing numbers right now, i havent done an auction mock this year so i dont know what the prices are like this year]... ill jump right to $27 dollars. if a guy increases to 28, then ill jump to like 31. 2-3 dollar increases usually kill those stupid 1 dollar bidding processes that carry on far too long. maybe check at 32, if he goes higher, he can have him. i usually dont quibble over a dollar or two... i realize that having that extra dollar at the end could be the difference in getting one of your sleepers or not... but yea. would i rather get keenan allen, or settle for an eric decker and hoping that knowshon moreno takes the job in miami [or something to the effect]?

I agree with you on the WR being interchangeable this year. I have a few preferences but really could be happy with about any of the top 10 as my #1.

I just hate the RBs after the top 5. The Lynch, Foster, Bell, Ball, Murray etc group scares me, especially after being burned by Richardson, Rice, Foster, MJD group last year who were all part of that 2nd tier.

I agree on bidding up $2-3 instead of $1. Usually doing 2 or 3 will scare a team off instead of doing 1. I know sometimes I have stopped bidding when teams do that to me. It's definitely a lot more aggressive approach.

[Witlon]

Don't want to get off topic here, but some outliers from my early drafts:

1. Tom Brady: #19 overall.
2. One guy's first four picks: Peyton Manning, Seattle Defense, Carolina Defense, San Francisco Defense
3. Frank Gore: #6(!) overall.

I'm sure I'll have tons more as I go along, but those one definitely have caught my eye.

[Kingdom]

Um. Frank Gore. So.. you're in a league full of retards, Cyanatics, and Brakos'es?

[Witlon]

Nah, I think Kaepernick was bored this afternoon and had to take his Miami/SF boy.

[Witlon]

And Tom Brady just went #1 overall.