EoFF Fantasy Football (American)

[Jiro]

I wanted a name that sufficiently acknowledged my foreigness and my final fantasy forumness. The Downunder Blitzers and Downunder Duggles were options, but I'm going with Australian Abes. Now if only I could get Tidus on my team...

[Relena Peacecraft]

I just did a mock draft to test some draft strategies. I ended up with 14 quarterbacks. Something tells me that is not going to be the recipe for success.

[Raistlin]

That would probably work about as well as Spuuky's 3 kicker strategy a couple of years ago.

[Relena Peacecraft]

My final team was:

QB - Drew Brees
QB - Colin Kaepernick
QB - Tom Brady
QB - Robert Griffin III
QB - Eli Manning
QB - Ben Roethlisberger
QB - Alex Smith
QB - Philip Rivers
QB - Ryan Tannehill
QB - Jay Cutler
QB - Sam Bradford
QB - Brandon Weeden
QB - Christian Ponder
QB - Matt Flynn
RB - Vick Ballard

Oh yeah, best fantasy team ever. Can Eli Manning play wide receiver?

[Spuuky]

That would probably work about as well as Spuuky's 3 kicker strategy a couple of years ago.

I never drafted 3 kickers and object to this slander. You're probably thinking of edczxcvbnm.

On the other hand, I did play without a QB one year, but I still almost won because my third RB was Michael Vick.

[Raistlin]

Didn't Nicky draft 3 kickers for you one year when you couldn't make it (which might have been the same year Miriel drafted for Del)? I thought I remember you making a post about your 3-kicker strategy... shortly before dropping two of them.

Though I'm sure ed probably live-drafted (as opposed to auto-drafted) a kicker earlier than anyone else ever his first year haha.

[Raistlin]

I sent an invite to DK, and once he signs up that will put us at 12 teams. We can have a maximum of 14 teams (and some people prefer that), so there's still room for 2 more people!

[Jiro]

Anybody want to give me a quick explanation of the way the draft works. I assume I'm trying to populate my team as I would if it were actually being fielded, right?

I promise I will try and be competitive

[Del Murder]

In your first year, I honestly would suggest you use the auto-draft. Yahoo usually does a good job of fielding your team. The only bad thing they'll do is draft you a kicker very early (as in, other than the last round).

[Raistlin]

Anybody want to give me a quick explanation of the way the draft works. I assume I'm trying to populate my team as I would if it were actually being fielded, right?

I promise I will try and be competitive

Yes, you're trying to pick players who will give you the most points. Take a look at the league settings (under the league tab, something like "Scoring & Settings") for the roster positions we use (QB, 3 WR, 2 RB, 1 TE, 1 WR/RB/TE flex, 1 Kicker, 1 Defense), as well as what we give points for (6 pts for any TD, 1 pt for every 25 yards passing, 1 pt for every 10 yards rushing/receiving, 0.5 pts per reception, etc.).

You do not have to be at the live draft. If you're not there, the auto-draft that Del pointed out kicks in. That uses Yahoo's default rankings to automatically select your picks on your behalf. You can edit those rankings yourself if you want to auto-draft but still have some control over it, under the Draft tab -> Pre-Draft Rankings.

Yahoo usually does auto-draft a decent team. It's certainly not a bad option for new players trying to get the hang of things. But you don't need to miss the draft if you don't want to. IIRC (and who knows how Yahoo changed up their program this year), I believe you can view the player Yahoo would select for you at the live draft (or just let 90 seconds pass and let Yahoo pick automatically). And we're not playing for money or anything, while the draft is good experience even if you want to follow Yahoo's recommendations. As long as you have a basic knowledge of the current NFL players and you're not stupid and generally select higher-ranked players, and don't something silly like draft a kicker or defense in the first rounds, then you'll probably be fine.

[Jiro]

I'll figure it out, I'm a quick enough learner. Letting Yahoo help me out early on would be great though.

[Del Murder]

You can also do a few mock drafts in Yahoo to get a feel for it. They have them daily.

[Raistlin]

One more week for anyone else to sign up. We're currently at 12 teams, but we can accept up to 14 (though we'd need 2 new players, as we can't have an odd number). If anyone else is interested, just PM me an email address where I can send the invite.

Next weekend, whether or not we have any new signups, I'll close signups, finalize the teams, and determine the draft order.

[Del Murder]

12 is the best number of teams so just keep it at that. To compensate we can include the flex player like last year.

[Raistlin]

Yeah I believe the flex player is already there, and I was going to keep it unless we got back up to 14 again, which doesn't look likely. I know some people still prefer the challenge and lack of available depth of 14 teams (or at least, so Spuuky said last year), so I would still be ok with adding 2 more people who really wanted in. Though I agree that I now prefer 12 with the flex.

If everyone wants me to just close signups now, I'll do that.