DLF’s Reality Sports Online League: Nathan Powell’s Review

Nathan Powell

rso

When I was invited to join the DLF Reality Sports Online league earlier this off-season, I quickly said yes, excited about the prospects of a new dynasty format to try out. Reality Sports Online presented a lot of firsts in my dynasty career. This is my first contract/salary cap league as well as my first ever live dynasty draft/auction. The intensity of a live auction was very fun, but also had its challenges, especially in a format that was brand new for me.

My strategy was definitely different than my strategy going into other startups. For the startup, we were allotted (2) 4 year contracts, (3) 3 year contracts, (4) 2 year contracts with the remaining 16 players on the roster on 1 year deals. With only 5 players on 3+ year contracts, I treated this startup more like a keeper league than a dynasty league. In most dynasty leagues, I have a youth centric strategy, but with the limited amount of long term contracts, I was more okay with investing in short term assets than I normally would be.

The Initial Rookie Draft

This league started with an interesting concept for a rookie draft. Since there are no previous years standings to go by, the rookie draft order was randomly drawn and it was a serpentine rookie draft to attempt to give each team a fair shake. Another wrinkle to this inaugural rookie draft is only players selected in the third round of the NFL draft or later were available to be drafted. I drew the fourth slot in the draft order. At first, I was a bit frustrated because I thought (and still do think) there are a clear top three in players selected after the second round of the NFL draft. The first two players off the board were Jaelen Strong and Tevin Coleman. In a bit of a surprise, Matt Jones went off the board at #3 overall, which meant Duke Johnson (the #3 player on my “Big Board” fell to me at #4 overall). Due to the watered down rookie draft, picks were given the $ value of third round rookie picks rather than first round rookie picks. So, while Duke Johnson isn’t worth paying the 1.04 in salary cap, I think he was a bargain at 3.04 price tag.

My second round selection is a testament to my trust in draft capital. At the time of the pick, I didn’t know much about Ty Montgomery other than the fact he was taken in the third round of the NFL draft and by one of the more well respected general managers in the NFL. Even if Montgomery only ends up being a special teams player with little to no fantasy relevance, he’s who I considered the best player with the highest upside left on the board at 29 overall. The other player I considered there was Vince Mayle, but I opted for the higher drafted player.

My Team and my Thoughts

Mike Glennon– $500,000- 1 year
Jameis Winston– $10,000,000- 2 years
Ben Roethlisberger– $42,000,000- 2 years

[inlinead]This is a 16-team league with 5 points per passing touchdown, which I feel increases the value of quarterback by a decent amount compared to 12-team leagues with four points per passing touchdown. With this in mind, I wanted to be sure to grab one of the top quarterbacks. Aaron Rodgers and Andrew Luck both went off the board at $97+ million over four years, so I knew I was going to have to pay up at quarterback. When Roethlisberger was nominated, I had won only one other player, so I had tons of cap room and felt like then was the time to spend it. Retrospectively, when I see that Peyton Manning went off the board at 1 year, $18 million and Philip Rivers went off the board at two years, $12 million, I think what I spent on Roethlisberger was a bit of an overpay, but that’s just how auctions work sometimes and you have to stick to your convictions. While I may have overspent of Big Ben, I think I got a bargain on Jameis Winston at two years, $10,000,000. My only regret with Winston is he was early on in the auction so I was a little afraid of doling out a 3 or 4 year deal to a #2 QB, but in retrospect, I’d rather have him on a 3 year deal with Stedman Bailey on a 2 year deal, – that is a price I will pay when I attempt to resign Winston in 2 years.

Christine Michael – $4,000,000- 1 year
Fred Jackson– $4,500,000- 1 year
Duke Johnson – $3,842,510- 4 years
Matt Asiata – $1,000,000- 1 year
TJ Yeldon – $30,000,000- 3 years
Matt Forte – $34,000,000- 2 years
Denard Robinson – $4,500,000- 1 year
Joique Bell – $6,000,000- 1 year

In order to compete in just about any dynasty league, you need a RB1 who you can trust week in and week out, as well as some depth. Similar to Roethlisberger, I was one of the teams with the most money left when Matt Forte was nominated, so I decided I had to spend my money somewhere and I thought Forte on a 2 year deal would be a good place to spend it. With Joique Bell, I consider him an extremely short-term option, I think he will be my RB2 for the first few weeks of the season, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he starts losing carries to Ameer Abdullah mid-season and TJ Yeldon steps into the RB2 slot for me. My strategy as a whole was to get some solid running backs, but not to commit too many years/$ to them as running back rankings fluctuate greatly each year and giving a long-term deal to an older running back can end up burning you and your cap. I felt comfortable with Yeldon on a 3 year deal and Forte on a 2 year deal was the only other multi-year deal I gave out to a running back during the auction

Malcom Floyd– $2,000,000- 1 year
Michael Campanaro – $2,000,000- 1 year
Miles Austin – $1,000,000- 1 year
Louis Murphy – $500,000- 1 year
Ty Montgomery – $2,917,704- 4 years
Vincent Jackson – $10,000,000- 1 year
Michael Floyd – $76,500,000- 4 years
Jeremy Maclin – $15,000,000- 2 years
Devin Smith – $15,500,000- 4 years
Stedman Bailey – $11,500,000- 3 years

This definitely isn’t my favorite wide receiver corps of all-time, but I think it has enough good pieces to survive. On the DLF Podcast with Dan Meylor, they talked about this league and auctions in general, and they talked about hitting the 1-up button versus typing in bids. I think I fell victim to bidding too high on a typed in bid with Vincent Jackson, as it was 1 year, $4 million when I decided to up it to 1 year, $10 million. While I don’t think that is a terrible price for Jackson, I probably would have still nabbed him cheaper had I used the 1-up button. When Michael Floyd was nominated, he was clearly the best player left on the board for me, so I knew that I was going to have to go all out for him. I ended up landing him at $76,500,000 over four years, I was willing to go up to $80,000,000 on him if I needed to. I think I got solid value on Maclin, I think he will be a WR2 I can count on the next two years. I went cheaper on my long term deals at wide receiver, so while I may have not landed the big fish, I have two guys in Stedman Bailey and Devin Smith, who I think both have decent upside and I have them on fairly cheap long term deals which will give me an advantage in years 2 and 3 for those who gave large cap numbers to their 3 and 4 year deals.

Garrett Graham– $1,000,000- 1 year
Brent Celek – $500,000- 1 year
Maxx Williams – $49,500,000- 3 years
Richard Rodgers – $2,000,000- 1 year

If you looked up patchwork tight end corp in the dictionary, it would look a lot like this. Maxx Williams was an example of having to overpay for the best player available at the time of his auction and the other three tight ends are bottom of the roster players who I’ll be lucky to get one or two startable weeks out of. My main concern with my tight end grouping is rookie tight ends rarely produce consistently and this is a team I want to compete in year one. I know it seems like we say this every year, but Maxx Williams may be the exception to the tight end rule – not because he is the most talented tight end to come out in recent years (he most likely isn’t), but because he is stepping onto a team that has shown they like to use the tight end and Maxx arguably steps onto the field as Flacco’s second best receiving weapon after 1st round pick Breshad Perriman.

Projected Week 1 Lineup

Ben Roethlisberger
Matt Forte, Joique Bell
Jeremy Maclin, Vincent Jackson, Michael Floyd
Maxx Williams
TJ Yeldon, Duke Johnson

For a 16-teamer, I think this is a contending week one lineup. The issues I will face are injuries/bye weeks will be tough to handle with my best bench players being Fred Jackson, Miles Austin and Stedman Bailey. But these are issues that every team has to deal with (especially in a 16-team league) and I think if the chips fall correctly, I could be a playoff team in 2015.

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