Fantasy Football

[Rando]

Anyone else into it?  Love Fantasy football and it totally gets me looking forward to the season each year.  This year has been a big question mark but now with the flurry of free agency it's pretty exciting.

Main league is a 12-team money league that allows up to 3 keepers.  Deciding who I want to keep and evaluating the rest of the teams to see who I think they'll be keeping to plan for the Labor Day Draft.

Anyone else play, obsessed, looking for team/trade feedback???   

[Hoopz]

Yep.  Started in 95 and have been in 2 leagues for the last 14 or 15 years.  Sometimes have done 3 but that's a pain.

In one league, we keep all our players every year and draft only rookies.  Draft order is the reverse of how we finished.  I'm "lucky" enough to have the #1 pick this year.   

In the other league, we don't keep anyone.  The one interesting aspect of that league is that we randomly draw numbers to decide the draft order.  The kicker is that whoever draws number one doesn't automatically pick #1.  They get to select where in the draft that they pick.  I enjoy that aspect because I prefer to pick lower in the draft (assuming it's a serpentine/snake draft). 

I'll also run a Pick Em here in a few weeks.  Chad ran it for a few years but stepped down last year so I took over.  It's just for fun and I'll be one of the first ones out again.   

I'm pretty excited for football.  I've got a laundry list of teams that I hate and the Jets are right up there.  Should be a good season.

 

[wp34]

I can't play it.  I would only draft Chicago Bears players (and Peyton Manning).   

[yotsuya]

If someone starts a league, I'm down for it. I was in two last year for the first time. One I had been in for 6-7 years with buddies of mine, the other was a new one I joined with one guy I knew, and no one else. I came in first in the new one, but I would rather have come in first in the other one. I stunk in that one.

[CCM]

This is the first year since 1994 that I won't be in one.  I just lost interest in it for some reason.

[ChadTower]

Been playing fantasy football for nearly 20 years.  We made up our own rules for the first few years because it was a fringe offshoot of rotisserie baseball. 

Over the years I've learned that few things are more boring to hear about than somebody else's fantasy team.   

[Rando]

Over the years I've learned that few things are more boring to hear about than somebody else's fantasy team.   

Too true,
Most exciting topic to talk about, your own Fantasy team.
Most boring topic to hear about, someone else's Fantasy team.

Having said that though, I'd be happy to critque trade offers and draft strategies here!

I'll start:
12 Team, 1/2 point PPR, 6 Pts per TD, able to keep up to 3 players, those players would account for your first 3 draft picks.  Draft is in reverse order last years finishing order and then snakes, but 4th Round restarts with the last place team again picking first.  So Last place team picks: 1st, last, 1st, 1st, last, 1st, last, 1st, etc.

My Definite keepers:
Jamaal Charles - Slotted to be top 5 pick on most draft boards, loved him last year, think will be better this year
Peyton Manning - Slotted to be 2nd/3rd round on most draft boards assuming is healthy, consistent points, had him for years

My two other keeper options are basically Austin Collie (often banged up receiver for Indy) and Santonio Holmes (#1 WR for run first Jets).  Both are round 4-6 guys and have questions, so I'll probably drop them and try to grab another good RB and then load on WR's.  Keep in mind though that many other teams will be keeping the better players, though some teams are so stacked that players like Frank Gore, Miles Austin, Michael Turner, could be available in the draft.  I finished 4th from bottom, so will have a decent draft pick, but couple teams (like last place team) will be cutting entire roster and picking in front of me.  But 3rd and 4th rounds I will have early picks, so leaning towards keeping only two.

General draft strategy tip for above format: Review rosters and try to figure out who will be keeping what players, so you can get an idea of the players that will be available to you.  You won't be 100% accurate, but if a player DOES drop someone you thought they should be keeping, it's one more player potentially available to YOU.  Try to limit surprises and stupid picks.

Feedback?

[Hoopz]

Over the years I've learned that few things are more boring to hear about than somebody else's fantasy team.   

It's like poker.  Everyone has stories of bad beats and wild wins.  Nobody cares to hear about somebody else's stories because they lived through both sides of them.

Most of the stories revolve around some player in the playoffs who blows up for 4 TDs that hadn't scored 4 TDs in 6 years total.  Or it happens to a guy that's trying to make the playoffs or knocks a guy out of the playoffs.  I've had about 40 teams through the years and it evens out over time.

[CCM]

I'd say people's half-baked knowledge of their family background... whenever someone starts saying, "I'm 1/16th Dutch on my..." it's time to leave the room because everyone in this country is 2/3s Irish and has a black great grandfather and lies about it.

 

[Rando]

Just to log my misery so far this season:

My Keepers from last year:
- Peyton Manning - Repeated neck surgeries, played  0 games, out for season
- Jamaal Charles - played 1 full game, season ending knee injury in week 2

My starting lineup:
- Brandon Lloyd - Leg issues, didn't play week 2, iffy week 3
- Dez Bryant - Leg issues, lesser role, pulled from my lineup as was iffy going into week 3
- Kenny Britt - played 2 full games, season ending knee injury in week 3

I fear for my TE Vernon Davis, he is next in line for a season ending issue.

Woot!   

[JMB]

Just to log my misery so far this season:


- Peyton Manning - Repeated neck surgeries, played  0 games, out for season

This is killing me. I fully expected him to be back and I drafted Wayne and Clark. Needless to say they aren't meeting expectations.

[Cakemeister]

I feel your pain. I have Arian Foster on my team.

I took a one-point loss in week 1 when my kicker got injured, Foster was out, and Tom Brady threw for 512 yards.

[Rando]

My brother's team was decimated by injuries last year, starting with Grant and then Finley I believe.  This year it looks like my turn to ride the injury bus.  Sitting at 1-2, scrambling the waiver wire to field a serviceable team.  Lucked out with Fitzpatrick at QB but stuck with Gore as my main RB which is an issue.

Season don't look pretty, but I'll make something happen!

[Dartful Dodger]

The guy in my league who picked first, picked Vic.
He rolled the dice and played him last week for a total of 8 points and is rolling the dice with him again this week.
Unfortunately I don’t play him for another 2 weeks. By then Vic will either be back to scoring big, or he'll have a suitable substitute.

[hypernova]

I hate PPR leagues.  We've been playing at work for about 10 or so years with 10 teams each time.  If that PPR crap is ever enacted I will immediately quit.  And there isn't any money involved.  I simply refuse to reward players just for catching a damn ball.  Points should be given for doing something productive.  Catching a screen pass 5 years behind the LOS and getting immediately tackled should not get you a point.  Although in Ochocinco's case, I might make an exception.    (I don't have him, he's just a joke concerning that.  Big mouth, tiny hands.  Did it in Cincy, now it's in NE.)

PPR to me is like giving an award in sports for participating.  Absolutely f'n retarded.

First two years, it was all done by hand.  Painstaking work...which thankfully I wasn't a part of.  Guys who did said it took hours.  They said to a point it was fun, but got old real quick.  Second year I easily had the best team, and was in the SB...and lost to the guy who, at four games in, wanted to basically give up.  He never bothered to change his lineup.  He made the playoffs (only because we had divisions back then-bad idea, as their division was really weak, thus why he managed to win enough to make it) and my guys decided to lay a big, fat, stinking egg that game.  I had Faulk that year, when he had his then-record TD total for the year.

Few years ago I barely made the playoffs.  6-7.  Only team ever to make it with a losing record.  Not because I sucked, but I did have a few games where I got beat by someone who simply scored more.  Won the wildcard game (6 of 10 teams get in).  I then plowed through the 1 and 2 seeds on the way to my first SB win.

Made it again last year, but lost to a better team.  Mine laid another "egg".  Thing was, so did his that week.

This year?  This will be the first (maybe second, I can't remember) year that I won't make the playoffs.  My RB, WR positions are not getting it done.  I was hindered by my keepers' salaries.  (Foster, Rivers, R. White).  I then took bargain picks.  Week 1, got 1 TD out of 5 total RB/WR positions, with Vinatieri getting me squat.  DEF, TE, and QB made it a game.  Week 2 got the same exact thing, other positions made it a game.  Week 3...well, everybody poops apparently, and my team let out one big, stinking pile.  Nobody hit double digits.  In our league, 70 is respectable, though 80 should get you a win...usually.  Some teams have been hitting 90, and two have cracked 100 three times combined.  My outputs?  57, 64, and 36.

This is gonna be one long season.  My next opponent is the one who's scored the most so far.