DLF’s Reality Sports Online League: Jarrett Behar’s Review

Jarrett Behar

rso

I’ve wanted to play in an RSO league for a couple of years now, so I was excited when I got the chance to participate in the DLF Staff league. Not only did this league figure to be a challenge given the competition, but it also gave me the perfect excuse to get Matt Papson, the CEO of RSO, back on the DLF Dynasty Podcast. So this was a win-win for me.

League structure is where you always have to begin in any startup draft and there were many interesting components of this league to consider when planning out a strategy:

  1. Sixteen team league
  2. Expanded starting lineups: 1 QB, 2 RB, 3 WR, 1 TE, 2 RB/WR/TE
  3. Auction format that would be broken up into several one to two hour segments
  4. 25 player rosters with only two four-year, three three-year and two-year contracts available
  5. Rookie draft without players selected in the first two rounds of the NFL draft

All of these factors manifested themselves as the startup auction unfolded and not always in the manner that I expected. In fact, I found that trying to keep all of these straight as we moved from session to session was the biggest challenge. Especially in an auction format, the mere passage of time can be a formidable obstacle.

Sixteen Team League

Most of the leagues that I play in are twelve team leagues, but I do have experience in fourteen and sixteen team leagues. The biggest difference that I’ve found as you move away from twelve teams is quarterback values. Where even top quarterbacks like Andrew Luck and Aaron Rodgers may be had to get full value for where only 24 quarterbacks need to be rostered for everyone to have a starter and a backup, in a sixteen team league, this would require all 32 starting quarterbacks to be rostered and in some cases where the starter’s job is not assured – the Jets, Browns, Texans and Bills – even the projected backups. As a result, I knew players like Luck would go for a premium and likely a four-year contract. I also knew that I did not want to spend a great deal of money on a quarterback and I also did not want to use one of my precious four-year contract on one either. To accomplish this, I honed in on the Ben Roethlisberger, Eli Manning, Tony Romo, Philip Rivers tier of quarterbacks.

As expected, Luck went for the single highest contract of any player in the league – a four-year, $103.5 million deal, counting for $22.77 million against our $143,280,000 2015 salary cap. Indeed, Aaron Rodgers (four years, $97 million) was the third highest contract in the league as well.

[inlinead]Of my targets, Roethlisberger (two years, $42 million), ended up way out of my price range as the QB3 in terms of average yearly contract value. I completely understand this given the underwhelming nature of Pittsburgh’s projected defense and the quality of Big Ben’s targets. I bowed of the Eli Manning auction just before he was won at two years, $21 million (QB13) with the thought that I could do a little better. That would have certainly been true with respect to Tony Romo (QB20 at two years, $15.5 million) or Philip Rivers (QB22 at two years, $12.5 million), had I not lucked into Ryan Tannehill at two years, $22 million earlier on (QB10). While not quite the value I thought I was getting at the pre-Romo/Rivers time. I was certainly happy to get a young quarterback who I was high on at around the same price as Eli Manning. Still, given the contract allotment limitations, I did not want to waste a three-year contract on a quarterback.

Expanded Starting Lineups

Requiring two running backs and three wide receivers in your starting lineup even before you get to the two FLEX positions put a real strain on your ability to acquire depth in a 16 team league. My goal was to lock up starters at wide receiver and tight end with my four and three-year contracts and then focus on short-term production at my two main running back positions supplemented by cheaper PPR options.

I ended up with Frank Gore (RB24, one year, $9.5 million) and Justin Forsett (RB15, two years, $28 million) as my two main backs. I love Gore at that price. He should easily outperform it if he can stay healthy (my biggest concern due to the lack of depth). I was comfortable giving Forsett a two-year deal given the fact that he is signed through 2017 and my belief that Lorenzo Taliaferro (who I did get as a backup) and Buck Allen are not serious threats to Forsett’s bellcow role on the Ravens.

I snagged Roy Helu (RB29, one year, $8 million) as a backup, which looks bad to me next to Eric Hardter’s one-year, $7.5 million deal for Doug Martin and his two-year, $15.5 million deal for Jonathan Stewart. My running back stable is unfortunately very thin and I’m one injury away from not being able to compete. My one regret in this startup is not focusing in on the position earlier.

Auction Format

Breaking the auction into several sessions was an interesting wrinkle. This was the first time I participated in an auction like that and it was very different. I enjoy reading the tea leaves in an auction and riding or avoiding certain player waves and you can’t do that here. With this many resets, we ended up with more anomalous results that usual. For example, the last player in a tier can sometimes go for the most money even if he’s universally ranked as the last player in that tier by the entirety of the auction participants. With the session format, that expanded outside of tiers, and we saw Alshon Jeffery go as the WR2 (four years, $102.5 million), Odell Beckham, Jr. go as the WR13 (four years, $85.5 million) and Demaryius Thomas go as the WR15 (four years, $82 million).

I ended up grabbing Jordy Nelson late as the WR9 (three years, $69.5 million), Brandin Cooks as the WR23 (four years, $60.5 million) and Golden Tate as the WR31 (three years, $33.5 million). I didn’t have Cooks as a potential target, but when he came up, he looked like a value and a good use of my last four-year contract. The biggest value that I saw in the later tiers was Jeremy Maclin as the WR52 (two years, $15 million) to Brian Bulmer. I know people are down on Maclin in Kansas City, but I believe he will easily outperform that draft slot.

25 Player Rosters With Limited Contract Allotments 

The depth of teams suffered as a result of all of the above-mentioned facts and you could really see it as the auction wound down and teams still had money to spend and starting spots to fill. For example, Steve Smith went as the WR19 (one-year, $17 million) to Jeff Miller, not because Jeff values Smith at that slot, but because he had the money left and Smith was one of the only viable starting receivers left at that point in the auction.

 

I tried to manage my contracts and ended up with Cooks and Travis Kelce (TE4, four years, $47.5 million) in my four-year contract slots, Jordy Nelson, Golden Tate and Marvin Jones (WR72, three years, $13.5 million) in my three-year contract slots, and Tannehill, Forsett, Ladarius Green (TE10, two years, $18 million [same factor as Steve Smith]) and Marqise Lee (WR69, two years, $10 million) in my two-year slots. If I had this to do again, I would have been more liberal in my use of the two-year contracts earlier in the draft.

 

Rookie Draft

 

Another interesting wrinkle in this league is we had a snake rookie draft before the auction took place, but you were not allowed to select players that had been taken in the first two rounds of the NFL draft – this made it interesting for someone like me who selected towards the end of the first round, roughly the equivalent to the late third/early fourth rounds of a typical twelve team rookie draft. I was happy to get my two favorite late-round fliers, Kenny Bell and Justin Hardy, however, with each of them getting very cheap four-year contracts.

 

Conclusion

 

Overall, I’ll be starting Tannehill, Gore, Forsett, Nelson, Cooks, Tate and Kelce every week. My two FLEX positions will likely be filled by Marvin Jones and Roy Helu with the potential of Green or Lee filling in (especially Green early in the season). I like my starting lineup and ability to compete, but, like most teams, I don’t have a great deal of depth and likely will not be able to survive more than one injury. I’m really looking forward to the challenge that this league will present. RSO offers a great product and the closest experience to being a real NFL general manager.

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