Every year in June, the FSGA kicks off the fantasy football season in the month of June. Usually we are in some place like Dallas, Tampa Bay or Las Vegas, but this year because of the Covid-19 situation we’re all at home. Still, the lack of an exotic local doesn’t change that fact that it’s time to kick-off the fantasy football campaign, so myself and 13 others sat down and cranked out a PPR draft on Monday, June 22nd. Follow below to see how my squad came together. Before getting to that, a few notes.
- This is the first time I’ve had the #1 overall pick in a draft in forever. Who will I take? The choice will be Christian McCaffrey. Yes, I know, the guy I’ve been weary of for years. Still, he’s the right selection in the top spot. Watch him break down this season cause he’s on my squad after years of me showing concern.
- This is a PPR setup.
- Below you will find a write up about my squad. The writeup isn’t retroactive as it was written in real-time. Yep, pick-by-pick through the draft I shared my thoughts so you can see what I was thinking and whether or not my plans came to fruition, or ended up with me crying in a bowl of soap.
PARTICIPANTS
Draft | Company | |||
1 | SiriusXM/FantasyGuru | Ray Flowers | ||
2 | RT Sports | Tim Jensen | Mark Hanna | |
3 | Colton & The Wolfman | Glenn Colton | Rick Wolf | Stacie Stern |
4 | Rotoballer | Raph Rabe | ||
5 | USAT Sports Weekly | Howard Kamen | Steve Gardner | |
6 | ESPN | Mike Clay | ||
7 | Sports Illustrated Fantasy | Scott Atkins | ||
8 | USAT – The Huddle | Cory Bonini | Ryan Bonini | |
9 | Fantasy Alarm | Howard Bender | ||
10 | Fantasy Sports Services | Digger Turnbull | ||
11 | The Athletic | Nando DiFino | ||
12 | ZwillGen | Zach Lerner | Marc Zwillinger | |
13 | SportsHub Technologies | Greg Ambrosius | ||
14 | Rotowire | Chris Liss |
RULES
PASSING: • 1 point every 25 yards Passing • 4 points for every passing touchdown • 2 points for every 2-Point conversion • minus 1 point for every interception and fumble lost
RUSHING: • 1 point every 10 yards Rushing • 6 points for every rushing TD • 2 points for every 2-Point conversion • minus 1 point for every lost fumble
RECEIVING: • 1 point every 10 yards Receiving • 6 points for every receiving TD • 1 point for every reception for RB’s, WRs & Tight Ends, • 2 points for every 2-Point conversion (rushing or receiving) • minus 1 point for every lost fumble
KICKING: • 1 point for every extra point • 3 points for every field goal from 1-39 yards • 4 points for every field goal from 40-49 yards • 5 points for every field goal from 50-59 yards • 6 points for every field goal of 60 or more
DEFENSE/SPECIAL TEAMS: • 1 point for every sack • 2 points for every interception or opponents’ fumble recovery • 6 points for every touchdown (interception return, defensive fumble return, punt or kickoff return, blocked field goal return, blocked punt return). All special teams and defensive points are awarded to the team responsible, not the individual player. • 2 points for every safety • 6 points for a shutout by the entire team • 3 points for allowing 2-10 points by the entire team
FAAB: A blind bidding format will be used for free agent allocations. Each team is allocated 100 mythical dollars, with which to spend on free agents throughout the entire season (includes the one preseason also).
ROSTER REQUIREMENTS
STARTING LINEUP: QB, RB, RB, WR, WR, WR, TE, FLEX, KICKER, DEFENSE
BENCH: Six spots
MY ROSTER
*This is a round-by-round diary, in real-time, of how I put my team together.
ROUND 1: You could go in an off the chart direction here, but the correct choice is CMC. I almost wish I had the second pick so I could grab Saquon Barkley. The ability for McCaffrey to catch at least 80 passes (each of the last three years) is just elite and obnoxiously good (over 105 the last two years). Plus, the bye for CMC is Week 13, so he should be primed for the playoffs starting Week 14. For the second round, I’m hoping against ADP that Kelce/Kittle falls. If they don’t, I’ll potentially double tap WRs depending on how the running back situation plays out in Round 2.
ROUND 2: Are you as tired of me of playing TE roulette each week? Following the lead of Mr. Mans, I’m going in with Travis Kelce here, something I don’t normally do. Part of arguably the best offense in football, Kelce has gone 80-1,000 each of the last four seasons, and if I’m not mistaken, he is the first tight end in football history to pull off that trick.
ROUND 3: Amari Cooper, James Conner or a wideout? That’s where I was at with this one. I always go two running backs in the first three rounds. I’m switching up the damn thing this season. Covid-19 as has caused the world to spin off axis, so why not let that situation change how I put a team together here. I went with Odell Beckham. Don’t like the guy, never have (heard the rants at any point in the past?) but again, as Mr. Mans has discussed, Beckham is part of a Browns’ offense that should take off this season, and Beckham needs to get it done this season or he will no longer be considered elite. I can’t believe I took Beckham, so no need to let me hear about it as it clearly is off the standard Ray-Flowers-Model for drafting. Will be back to RB/WR most likely with the next turn.
ROUND 4: It REALLY hurt my heart to see Zach Ertz still sitting there at this point. Like, my soul hurt. I could have gone RB/WR/RB the first three rounds and still accomplished my goal of getting an elite tight end. Makes me regret the decision to go with Kelce in Round 2, big-time. Figures, the one time I just go for it at tight end… really doesn’t work out as hoped as I’m surprised that Ertz fell past his ADP. Oh well. D.J. Chark will be on a Jags’ team that will be behind all season long, so they will be passing a lot. Chark saw 118 targets in his first full season going 73-1,008-8. He should better all three of those totals this season (well, maybe not the touchdowns, but let’s hope for a repeat there). Chark is a fairly ideal #2 wideout in a league of this size. Additionally, if Kelce is really my WR2, will Chark better the production of everyone else’s TE1? You bet your rear end he will. I ended up with a top-4 of McCaffrey/Kelce/Beckham/Chark. If I had gone RB in the second round I would have ended up with McCaffrey/Conner/Beckham/Ertz. Gotta admit, I would have preferred the second group, but that’s how things go in snake drafts sometimes.
ROUND 5: The running back spot will be a spot I chase a bit this season, that’s what happens when you take an early tight end, so I end up with some uncertainty at the second spot in Ke’Shawn Vaughan. Tom Brady likes to drop balls off to the back, and it is certainly possible that Vaughan has a significant role in the offense this season. Certainly not ideal to have KV as my second back, but Ronald Jones just hasn’t stepped up to this point. I’ll try to grab Jones later in the draft.
ROUND 6: Marvin Jones is a bit hit or miss from game to game, but he is very productive from season to season, and he’s an ideal WR3. He’s scored nine times in 2-of-3 years, and he was able to score nine times last season in just 13 games, and don’t forget that Matthew Stafford went on the shelf with only eight games played last season.
ROUND 7: A pivotal pick here. A tipping point call. Don’t need a tight end, and don’t think it’s wise to go quarterback at this point. So, do we handcuff Vaughan? Ultimately, I just couldn’t do it and will hope I can later with Jones. I thought to go with Damien Williams or the back I grabbed in Alexander Mattison and feel pretty darn good about it (here is some audio about a back and forth with the choice of Mattison). Great offense. Great scheme. Uncertainty with the contract and all of that with Dalvin Cook. Plus, don’t forget that Cook has played just 29 of 48 games in three years. Even if the contract stuff gets worked out, he’s had a hard time staying healthy (even in his great effort last year he played just 14 games). Ideally, I’m looking to grab a quarterback and RB Jones with the next two picks. We shall see how it plays out since I have a loooooong wait.
ROUND 8: Jones didn’t make it back as he was the final pick of Round 7 which opened up this pick a bit. Hoping that Matt Breida or Tevin Coleman would fall after Jones was grabbed… and Coleman was the only one who did make it back to me. Raheem Mostert is the guy, we think, in San Francisco. Problem with that line of thought… is that the Niners never seem to settle on one guy. There’s a lot of movement with guys drifting in and out of importance in this offense, though I do really like Mostert this season. What we know is this – whoever is leading that backfield is a weekly play in the fantasy game with zero doubt. Coleman isn’t going to star at this point, but as a fourth running back I’ll certainly take it.
ROUND 9: Aaron Rodgers I do not like, but he can still play football, and really, at a pretty darn high level. As I’ve said before, I’m seriously going to be targeting Rodgers this season if this is the cost (his NFBC ADP is 12th, and in this draft he went 10th at the quarterback spot). Rodgers doesn’t beat himself, he has thrown a total of 12 picks the last three seasons, still has that impressive arm strength and he will produce, even with the talk of the continued involvement of the running game.
ROUND 10: Alshon Jeffrey has trouble staying healthy, and he really can’t do much other than get first downs at this point. Still, he has a connection with Carson Wentz and when on the field 4-60 efforts are kinda the norm for Jeffrey. He’s stable when active, but aging, hence his fall to this point of the draft.
ROUND 11: After taking an old fella with the last selection, I went young with this one. It was either Parris Campbell or the guy I ended up going with… N’Keal Harry who had a disappointing first season with a mere 12 grabs, but he will be needed to step up this season and he could easily be second on the club in targets behind Julian Edelman. Standing 6’4”, weighing in at 225 lbs., he has the physical tools to produce significant numbers and he could be a red zone threat this season.
ROUND 12: What do you know, Parris Campbell was still sitting there, so I grabbed him up. T.Y. Hilton has grown frail over the years, and there is Zach Pascal and Michael Pittman around. This is a tough year to be a rookie wideout, and I think there is little debate that Campbell is more exciting than Pascal. The offense will be good, and Philip Rivers should bring weekly consistency to the group.
ROUND 13: I damn near went Baltimore Ravens here. I never have an elite defense, so I almost went that way. In the end, I went with Darrynton Evans over Reggie Bonnafon. Why? Though I have CMC, if he does go down Bonnafon is likely “the guy” though he wouldn’t come close to the target share or the workload of CMC, no chance. Honestly, does anyone have any confidence that Bonnafon would be anything more than a flex option, even in a league this deep? I went with Evans who can take over and do a good job with 15+ touches a week if Derrick Henry goes down with the Titans.
* I believe in hanccuffing your running backs. Interestingly, about the only two spots amongst the top-20 running backs that I wouldn’t handcuff would be Saquoan Barkley and CMC. Both players backups would not have the same skills or the same role if they were to take over. Neither offense figures to be dynamic with those two backs out of the mix and they would likely struggle to produce top end results from their backfield. Remember, the idea is to handcuff backs in good systems so that when Player A goes down, Player B steps into the same productive role. That wouldn’t happen with CMC. As to why no one in this draft handcuffed any of their backs, allowing me to grab them all, I do not know.
ROUND 14: So, this was the dilemma. With everyone grabbing two QBs, should I grab Philip Rivers or take a running back? Rodgers should play every week except for that bye in Week 5 for me, so I’ll go with whomever is starting that week who is on waivers, though I will admit that Rivers would be a stellar QB2 this late. I went with Ryquell Armstead. Why? Do you trust Leonard Fournette to be on the Jaguars in Week 1? Even if he is, will he stay healthy? Will he be a problem off the field, as he has been for a long while? Ultimately, I decided that going with a “scrub” in Week 5 at quarterback was not preferable to taking Armstead who could quickly become a weekly flex option if something were to happen to Fournette.
ROUND 15: Really wanted the Colts, but they were taken right before I was up so I defaulted to the next best option on the board – the Chargers. They also have a late bye week too (Week 10).
ROUND 16: The Browns’ offense better get it done this year. The final pick of the draft was Browns’ K Austin Seibert.
MY SQUAD
QB | Aaron Rodgers |
RB | Christian McCaffrey |
RB | Ke’Shawn Vaughn |
WR | Odell Beckham |
WR | D.J. Chark |
WR | Marvin Jones |
TE | Travis Kelce |
FLEX | Tevin Coleman |
K | Austin Seibert |
D | Los Angeles Chargers |
BENCH | |
RB | Alexander Mattison |
WR | Alshon Jeffrey |
WR | N’Keal Harry |
WR | Parris Campbell |
RB | Darrynton Evans |
RB | Ryquell Armstead |
Here is a link to the results. You can also just check out the board below.