Adaptability is the Key to Survival: Feldman’s DLF Live Draft Recap
The last weekend in July had been circled on my calendar for months before it arrived. Not only was it a little mini-vacation, but it was a chance for me to get to meet some people I’ve been talking with and working with for years. It was, of course, the Live DLF draft you have been hearing an awful lot about recently. The highlight was getting to meet some of the best and finest DLF has to offer, but we also put our skills to the test by starting a new league.
The startup draft posed some interesting challenges for me as I was trying to prepare for it. First and foremost is the level of competition. No one in the league could be described as anything close to casual when it comes to fantasy football. In fact, it was one of the rare times where I could look around the room and if I’m being completely honest with myself, realize I might not even be in the top half when it comes to fantasy knowledge. It was an unusual position for me to be in.
The second big challenge was the format. Not only is it my first 2QB league (okay, technically it is a superflex, but over half of the top 25 scorers are quarterbacks), but it is the first snake draft startup I’ve done in about five years. Sure, I’ve done mock drafts, but those are very different. I’ve switched almost exclusively to startup auctions, so going back to a snake draft, especially without trading during the draft, was a major change.
The third challenge, which made it very difficult to prep, was not finding out your draft slot until a few minutes before we started! I had a general outline of my plans for the draft, but when you don’t know where you are going to be in a snake draft filled with dynasty sharks it is difficult.
Heading into the draft, my biggest plan was to be adaptable and flexible to what was happening on the board. I have my general tendencies to put less stock into age than most (especially most of the DLF guys/gals), try to take proven commodities who present solid value even if they aren’t flashy, and remember the point of a league is to win not just have a team which looks good on paper. When it comes right down to it, this was going to be an exercise in thinking on my feet and trying to minimize mistakes, especially early in the draft.
When the draft order was posted, and I saw my name in the 10th slot, I wasn’t very happy. Granted, it was better than being on the very end of a round, but I was really hoping for somewhere in the 5-8 range. We were given about 5-10 minutes to compose our thoughts before the draft was in action. I knew things would move quickly once we got going, so I walked into the draft with a few assumptions.
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- The vast majority of people in the room would place a lot of value on youth, even if it is unproven
- The elite quarterbacks would go early as well as the elite receivers
- Several in the room would try the zero running back strategy
- Picking up older but still productive veterans in the middle rounds will be one of the keys to victory this season
Working under those assumptions, I developed a plan. I was picking 10th and 15th before needing to wait until the 34th pick in the draft to pick again. I was expecting to make a choice between an elite quarterback or an elite receiver with my first pick. Much to my surprise, the first nine picks didn’t feature a single quarterback! Instead seven elite receivers were off the board along with Todd Gurley and Rob Gronkowski. With all four of the elite quarterbacks still on the board, I decided to grab one of the last true number one receivers and I selected Dez Bryant in the first round.
There were four picks between mine, and I was hoping AJ Green or Keenan Allen would make it back around to my next pick. If so, I could grab whoever was there and hope the league continues to neglect the quarterback position. Unfortunately I think George (the guy who showed up with nothing more than a blank sheet of paper to put the rest of us to shame!) was reading my mind and he selected both of those players before the draft returned to me. This prompted a little change of strategy for me. The first of the quarterbacks was also taken, so I figured an elite signal caller wasn’t going to make it back to me in the third. I pulled the trigger on Andrew Luck, a nice consolation prize for not getting two elite receivers.
In the nearly two full rounds between my second and third picks a lot of talent went off the board. We were now well into the back end of WR2 territory, half the teams had a quarterback, and we were getting very close to a major drop off in running back talent as well. I debated going for a second quarterback, but I didn’t feel strong enough about any of them still on the board to pull the trigger here. I had other needs, so I went with one of the safest and more underrated rushers in the league, Mark Ingram. Not the flashiest name in the league, but he caught 50 passes and had almost 1200 total yards in just 12 games last season. Best of all, he’s proven to be very consistent from one week to the next, and I felt I could true him.
A few picks later I was on the clock again. Keep in mind the pace of this draft. In a world where 8-12 hour timers are the norm and you have time to analyze and debate your next move, this was very different. Not only were you trying to meet people and be social between your picks, but this draft was flying! We averaged less than one minute per pick over the course of the entire 22 rounds! Stop and think about that for a moment, but don’t take too long because three more players just came off the board. Looking ahead at the massive number of picks before I would get to add a fifth player, I decided my fourth had to be a wide receiver. The number of receivers I liked at this point in the draft was pretty slim. I debated Golden Tate, but I ultimately felt DeVante Parker was the right move. He is much less proven than I typically like from my players, but he looked pretty good towards the end of last season. I felt there was some value in taking him as my second receiver.
By the time my fifth round pick was back on the clock, pick 58 overall, I was feeling like I needed to start thinking about a second quarterback as well as getting an elite tight end since this was also a tight end premium league. Double digit quarterbacks were off the board already but only a pair of tight ends in Gronk and Jordan Reed. I was debating between the two positions and ultimately went with Philip Rivers, hoping that Greg Olsen would make it through the next four picks. In hindsight, I should have gone Olsen because he never made it back to me. Getting my second quarterback at this point was a good move though, because there were eight more taken before it got back to me in the seventh round.
What about my sixth round pick? With my preferred tight end in Olsen off the board, I had to once again adjust. The next tier of tight ends is fairly large in my book, so I decided to wait on the position. Instead I went with upside and grabbed Melvin Gordon. This was another risky pick, which isn’t my normal style, but I wanted to try something new. With Ingram anchoring the position, I figured I could take a swing at Gordon. I would need to get a few dependable veterans later to make up for it, but I wanted to give it a try.
Through six rounds, my team was much more balanced than I was expecting. Here is what I was looking at as the core of my team:
QB: Andrew Luck, Philip Rivers
RB: Mark Ingram, Melvin Gordon
WR: Dez Bryant, DeVante Parker
Heading into the middle portion of the draft, my plan was to go with one dependable veteran and one high upside player with each pair of picks. I wasn’t terribly worried about positions at this point in time outside of tight end. I was hoping someone like Julius Thomas or Eric Ebron would be around in the 11th round for me. Both have question marks about them, so I thought I had a chance.
For the seventh and eighth rounds, I went with a pair of wide receivers who are pretty much polar opposites. Julian Edelman presented great value with potentially high end WR2 production for another year or two. Considering he was the 39th receiver off the board, I was really happy with this. He’ll help cover for Parker. In the eighth, for my high upside pick, I felt it was time to take a chance on Josh Gordon. This is a very uncharacteristic move for me, but as the 87th pick overall and the 43rd receiver off the board, it felt right. I’m not expecting anything from him, but if he comes back to form it will be huge for my team.
At the next pair of picks, I went with Michael Crabtree for my dependable veteran and Jared Goff as the upside player. As my fifth receiver drafted, Crabtree is a likely flex play and bye week fill-in who can get me WR2/WR3 level points. More insurance in case something happens to my other receivers. As for Goff, the quarterback market was getting slim at this point. I wanted to go tight end here, but I had a feeling if I wanted a quality third quarterback for bye weeks I had to pull the trigger. It was basically down the three rookies and Teddy Bridgewater. I like Goff’s upside the best and went there.
We were about 130 players in before I could pick again, which meant things were getting pretty slim at a few positions. Unfortunately I missed the window on tight ends as there was a run just before my pick. At this point the value seemed to be at the running back position which fit perfectly with my team since I only had two at the time. I grabbed Tevin Coleman and Arian Foster at this turn. I think Coleman will be a decent flex play this year and Foster could prove to be a steal if he does become Miami’s starter this year. My next four picks continued to mix quality veterans with high upside youth as I added Chris Conley, Martellus Bennett, Charcandrick West and Davante Adams.
Sixteen rounds in, it was time to reflect. I took some risks early on with players like Parker and both Gordons, but I felt I covered them up well with proven veterans and potential upside youngsters to feel good about it. It was a very different looking roster for me, but it will be fun. Adams is a player I never expected to have, but as the 183rd player off the board I was willing to take a chance on him becoming an every down receiver for Aaron Rodgers. The one spot I wasn’t happy about was tight end, so I decided to spend the last six rounds of my draft focusing on the tight end position as well as backup running backs who might see some time.
Here is what I ended up with:
QB: Andrew Luck, Philip Rivers, Jared Goff
RB: Mark Ingram, Melvin Gordon, Arian Foster, Tevin Coleman, Charcandrick West, Bilal Powell, James Starks
WR: Dez Bryant, DeVante Parker, Julian Edelman, Josh Gordon, Michael Crabtree, Chris Conley, Davante Adams, Mike Wallace
TE: Martellus Bennett, Kyle Rudolph, MyCole Pruitt, Jeff Heuerman
With the exception of Mike Wallace, I stuck to the plan for the last six rounds. Wallace just presented too much potential value for basically nothing to pass up when I picked him. As for the others, Powell is behind the aging Matt Forte while Starks is likely to cut into some of Eddie Lacy’s playing time, especially if Lacy disappoints like last year. As for tight end, it is a major weakness of my team, but I’m hoping someone can step up and be starter worthy.
Overall, there are of course a few things I wish I had done differently, like drafting a tight end, but I’m pretty happy with my team. It is very different from most of my other rosters, but I had to adapt my strategy several times to take advantage of what others were doing. It isn’t a very flashy team, but I feel like I capitalized on the potential value more often than not. I have a solid mix of veterans and youth to compete now and in a few years. If a few of the gambles pay off, I’m going to be in great shape, and I should be competing for a playoff spot. Not bad at all considering who was in the room with me! Time will tell if I’m right, but it was a lot of fun doing a live draft again, not to mention getting to meet everyone.
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