My favorite time of the year for Football is back again, and its getting even more stressful than ever. I’m in a total of four different leagues once again, and the first draft of the season was for my long time, high school friends, All VETO n NO TRADE league. Its our 9th year together and while i might have won the 1st year of the league, I haven’t been able to repeat that success since.
12 team league, 6pts for passing TD, and 1/3 point per reception $300 auction draft
This year i put in a lot of time putting together my draft sheet, and a basic strategy for how much i wanted to spend per position. My normal strategy is getting an elite QB, and two strong RBs. This year I adapted my strategy to include focusing on at least one top 10 WRs.
Once the draft got started I had to adapt my initial budgets to accommodate for the money flying off the board for all the super elite talent. After five RBs, five QBs, two WRs, and Jimmy Graham went for 10-20% more than expected i picked up Stevan Ridley for less than i was willing to pay, and went back to back with LeSean McCoy who i used the extra money i saved from the Ridley draft pick to go up a few extra dollars. I’m really hoping that New England leans on Ridley now with their receiving core gone, and Chip Kelly’s high octane offense to get McCoy into the end zone more regularly than Andy Reid’s offense.
For my elite wide receiver I picked up Larry Fitzgerald on a discount as well, and i’m hoping that Carson Palmer will do a WR good, and bring him back to being a top 3 WR after having to deal with the likes of Kevin Kolb and John Skelton.
The hardest position that i had to deal with was my quarterback. I did my best to grab Aaron Rodgers, Drew Brees, others but everyone else wanted them just a little bit more. The QBs were starting to get thin and as I started putting in my bids for RGIII, I realized that the commish (who already drafted Drew Brees for 30% of his budget) was bidding me up. I thought it was worth it to drop an extra QB onto his roster just to get a laugh, and to basically eliminate him from getting anything more than a $1 player.
With Russell Wilson the last top 12 QBs left i got into a little bidding war with last year’s league winner. I’m hoping that the trend that Wilson had towards the end of last year continues on for the entire season which would put him towards the very top of the scoring leaders.
I eventually got him for 12% (where i earmarked 25%) of my budget which allowed me to have some money left over to play with to fill out the rest of my roster. I grabbed a bunch of tier 2/3 WRs who are their team’s primary receiver and grabbed another starting RB in Daryl Richardson. Three hours later, I’m really hoping this team sets me up for a championship run in December.
- 1. (17) Stevan Ridley (NE – RB) $57
- 2. (18) LeSean McCoy (Phi – RB) $87
- 3. (43) Larry Fitzgerald (Ari – WR) $49
- 4. (55) Russell Wilson (Sea – QB) $36
- 5. (67) Mike Wallace (Mia – WR) $17
- 6. (74) Hakeem Nicks (NYG – WR) $13
- 7. (75) Cecil Shorts (Jac – WR) $5
- 8. (81) Antonio Brown (Pit – WR) $11
- 9. (110) Blair Walsh (Min – K) $2
- 10. (113) Daryl Richardson (StL – RB) $6
- 11. (115) Fred Jackson (Buf – RB) $5
- 12. (129) Vincent Brown (SD – WR) $3
- 13. (141) Michael Vick (Phi – QB) $1
- 14. (153) NaVorro Bowman (SF – LB) $1
- 15. (156) Richard Sherman (Sea – CB) $2
- 16. (164) Brandon Pettigrew (Det – TE) $1
- 17. (175) Sean Lee (Dal – LB) $1
