Fantasy Football Draft – The Fantasy Sports Coach

Fantasy Football Proxy Draft
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Fantasy Football Proxy Draft

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Fantasy Football Proxy Draft

This past weekend I had the pleasure of joining some of the best minds in Fantasy Football at the Flex Cup Drafts at Monmouth Park Race Track here in New Jersey. In all honesty, I was just there for the free beer and to bet on the horse races, but you never know what can happen at live drafts, so I made sure I didn’t pre-game too early in case one of the experts needed some help. I got there a little early and placed some pick 5 bets and decided to walk around the grounds and check out the horses. It was a beautiful day at the Jersey Shore and before long one of my favorite friends in the industry, Pat Thorman of PFF, walked through the gates and the conversation started flying.

RotoeXperts along with FntasySportsNetwork were sponsoring the event and SiriusXMFantasy was doing live shows all day long from the event. As I walked in Nando Di Fino and Tony Cincotta were on air talking about the upcoming drafts and the room was already filled with Fantasy Analysts ready to talk about their favorite targets and pick the brains of the DFS players, like Tommy G and Mike Leone, for advice. There were even some celebrities walking around like Lisa Ann, Chris Doleman, and Wayne Chrebet.

One thing you’ll notice if you decide to get into the fantasy sports industry is everyone is so nice. When you go to events you are surrounded by like minded people who really, REALLY love sports and decided to concentrate on fantasy when their playing days ended. My friend Joe Pisapia of The Fantasy Black Book and FanDuel was going to be drafting in the 14 team .5 point PPR Flex Cup draft and he immediately asked my thoughts on strategy. It was fun to banter back and forth about safe versus ceiling and I think he talked himself into his strategy through the conversation.

While Jake Ciely (@AllinKid) was getting the draft ready they realized Brandon Marriane Lee of HerFantasyFootball.com and FanDuel wouldn’t be able to draft because she was going to be on air for SiriusXMFantasy from 3-5 with her sisters Courtney and Ashley. I walked over to my friends at HerFantasyFootball and Brandon realized right away that I wasn’t actually drafting today (I was just eating and drinking and betting) and asked if I could Proxy Draft for her. I would do anything for my friends (maybe even give up an hour or two of free beer and food) so I was in the second she asked. Now came what would normally be a frantic few minutes where she explains how she wants me to draft. Instead it was the easiest process in the world and I’ll tell you how each of us contributed to it.

The first thing you have to do when you proxy draft for someone is to put your own ego to the side. If the person you’re drafting for has a specific plan and or strategy you have to be a good listener and work as if you are literally the conduit through which they draft their team. The ladies from HerFantasyFootball.com were on point. Brandon brought a tiered cheat sheet that she wanted to go off of and we had a few minutes to discuss the individuals within each tier. You see all of us have these tiered draft sheets, but there are certain player we target over the others in the same tier. I picked her brain for a few minutes and I immediately got a clear picture of how she wanted to draft.

Lucky for me we had already had deep late-night discussions on a million Fantasy Football related topics earlier in August when we went to DC, so I knew her likes before she even asked. Brandon was picking fourth in a 14 team .5 point PPR and that’s the point where I would normally look at the best wide receiver on the board if it were my draft, but since this was THEIR draft Jamaal Charles was the easy pick based on their sheet. Charles was the fourth running back taken and it was a very safe pick. On the way back in the second round I was almost forced into a conundrum as Jordan Matthews and Brandin Cooks both slid toward Brandon’s pick. The cheat sheet had Cooks above Matthews, but I really really like Matthews more so i was going to be tempted to go rogue already. Lucky for me Matt Camp went with Matthews right before me and it made Cooks the easy pick. After that pick it was all about following her tiered sheet and building the best team possible for her.

After looking at the draft I think her team is one of the stronger teams in the league and even has some upside if one of her RB2’s outplays their draft position or if Austin Sefarian Jenkins makes a second year leap at TE. I had a blast drafting for Brandon and she thanked me a bunch, but she has no idea how much fun I actually have drafting. Drafting Fantasy Football teams, even for someone else using their rankings, is one of my favorite things to do in the world. I live for drafting and there’s going to be a point in a few days when the drafts are over and I’ll have to fill that empty void putting together Daily Fantasy Lineups that I’ll go through a short semi-depression. No more slow draft emails filling my inbox. No more random who do I draft questions from long lost college and high school friends, and even no more preseason rankings tweaks.

I can feel the depression coming on already. Lucky for me I have a few more live drafts to get me through and then there’s always Fantasy Basketball to look forward to. (I know, it’s not the same!)

Here’s a link to Brandon Marriane Lee’s Draft for the Flex Cup 2015. http://football20.myfantasyleague.com/2015/options?L=23918&O=113&DISPLAY=LEAGUE

Let me know how you think we did? I know one person who hated/loved the 3rd round pick….@AllinKid

2015 Flex Leagues Draft Review
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2015 Flex Leagues Draft Review

Fantasy Football

2015 Flex Leagues Draft Review

I feel like the Fantasy Football Frenzy has officially begun after spending the weekend in Washington DC with some of the best Fantasy Football minds in the business. I was lucky enough to be invited to participate in the 2015 Flex Leagues Standard Draft by Jake Ciely (@AllinKid) of RotoExperts and this time we took the show on the road to Washington DC and the Sirius XM Studios. The weekend was amazing as I got to spend a lot of time with some of my friends in the industry as well as meet people I only knew through Twitter avatars or Podcast Voices.

The PPR draft went off first on Saturday morning and all of us in the Standard League got a sneak peek into some of the values “experts” placed on players. While we had completely different scoring systems, watching the PPR draft happen was definitely a great primer for all of us. John Halpin of Fox Sports was helping do the draft board and he commented on the Podcast that will post next week, that he really benefited from getting the bigger picture of how 2015 drafts are going. While the PPR Draft had two owners drafting by phone, we had a full house for the standard draft with only Jamey Eisenberg of CBS showing up a little late after inciting a brawl at the Houston Texans/ Washington Redskins joint practice.

The Standard League Draft Order

So I drew the the second overall pick in the Standard League Draft and I was a little disappointed. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy taking a really good player at the top of the first round, but picking so high this year really makes it difficult to get a solid second round player on the way back. From about the 5th spot back I can be happy in drafts and especially happy in PPR drafts. My hope against all hope was Alshon Jeffrey or Mike Evans would fall to me in the second and I knew I was going to be disappointed, but I digress. I’m only going to discuss the picks I made and the ones that happened around my pick as I really don’t like critiquing or judging other people’s drafts.

Did I mention that we were drafting LIVE on Sirius XM Radio with Matt Camp and Joe Dolan doing their show live in the studio as they drafted with us and analyzed our picks? No….well than you now know why I tried my best to draft the best team possible under all that pressure. I’m only kidding, as it was such a loose, cool environment as we all cracked on each other as both drafts were happening. Just word to the wise, don’t put a live Microphone near Eric Mack of Fanduel.

Any way, I was saying how much I hated the second overall pick and it proved to be a really difficult spot in an “expert” draft. Josh Collacchi of RotoCurve was picking in front of me and John Halpin of Fox Sports was picking right behind me. Being that I’m right near the turn I’ll concentrate on those picks as I analyze my draft.

1st Round:

Josh started the draft off with Adrian Peterson and honestly that was a huge relief to me. I passed on Peterson in last year’s Flex Standard Draft in a much later spot and I’m not sure why I would want to take a player coming off of a year lay off that high in a draft. I think he’ll have a solid year, but I’m not betting on it in the first five picks of drafts. With Peterson off the board I selected Le’Veon Bell with the second overall pick and I was pleased. I teased Jake Ciely that I might take his man-crush C.J. Anderson second overall, but that was a bluff. I like Anderson, but I’m not passing on Bell there. John Halpin threw a bit of a curveball in the three spot as he took Antonio Brown third overall. That’s the highest i have seen Brown go in a Standard League draft and I asked John about it when he came on the podcast.

2-3 Turn:

I was starting to get hopeful that one of my wide receiver targets could get to me when Jake Ciely took Justin Forsett with Alshon Jeffrey still on the board. John Halpin had already taken a wide receiver in the first round so I thought he might go RB, but instead he doubled up and took Jeffrey right out of my Chick Fila covered hands. I went with the last receiver I still have on that tier in Randall Cobb and I hated doing it. I like Cobb as a player, but I hate buying off of a career year. Josh took DeAndre Hopkins with his first pick at the turn and then he went outside the box and took Jordan Matthews. I had contemplated Lamar Miller in the second round and would have taken him over Forsett had Cobb not fallen to me, so I jumped at the chance to take him. TY Hilton went with the next pick to Halpin and he now had his three starting wide receivers with his first three picks.

4-5 Turn:

The fourth round is where it really starts to become who you like as an individual and how you want to build your particular team. John took Andre Ellington in front of me and I would have loved to go wide receiver, but there wasn’t anyone that jumped off the board to me. I liked Allen Robinson, but in a standard league I decided for the upside of Latavius Murray at the RB position. Josh took Brandon Marshall and LaGarrette Blount (RB24 picked) and then it was back to me. My plan in a double flex league is to really shy away from the tight end position if I can help it. The upside of Travis Kelce was just too much to pass up on. John took Amari Cooper with the next pick and I like Cooper, but I’m not as high on him standard leagues as I am in PPR leagues.

6-7 Turn:

In round six I started to get excited about Doug Martin falling to me, but Jake Ciely took him two spots ahead of me and then John Halpin took Tevin Coleman. I’m not a huge Coleman fan so I was happy to have my choice at WR. I really like Charles Johnson this year and I wanted to make sure I got him so I grabbed him a little early. Josh went with Larry Fitzgerald and Bishop Sankey. Josh was taking “his” guys and at this point it’s tough to really talk value. I was basically forced to take Eric Decker with my next pick as his value in a Standard is a little better and he was the 36th WR off the board when i took him. Halpin took Arian Foster with his next pick and we talked about it on the podcast.

8-9 Turn:

As the 8th round went on Russell Wilson started to slide down the board and he looked might enticing in this 4 point passing TD league, but once again Ciely grabbed a guy I hoped would last a few more picks. Halpin took Victor Cruz and then I decided to take Marques Colston. Josh took Alfred Blue (which I thought Halpin would take) and Drew Brees. The Brees pick made me really think about going QB as I could feel a QB run coming. Instead I went with Julius Thomas. Before you say Ewwwww, let me explain my thinking. This is the Flex Leagues after all and you have the opportunity to start up to three tight ends as long as they are better options than the running backs and wide receivers you have. With so many wide receiverss already off the board I saw Thomas as a bit of an upside value in the 9th round. A possible number one target on a team that should improve on offense. Why not? I immediately regretted it as Cam Newton came off the board with the next pick and from then on it was a bunch of QBs for the rest of the round. I thought Matt Camp got a great value with Ben Roethlisberger in the middle of the 9th round.

10-11 Turn:

After those top QBs went there was no need to go back there so I decided to keep trying to load up on Wide Receivers. I was really happy to get Brian Quick in the 10th round, especially after so many wide receivers had already gone and then i followed that up with Rueben Randle who could benefit from the extra attention Odell Beckham should be getting. John Halpin went with Michael Floyd right in front of me and we discussed it on the Pod because I would have taken Floyd as well, even with the injury. Josh took Dwayne Allen, who I like in this format, and Kevin White, who definitely has upside now that he’s going later in drafts. Halpin took Andre Williams after I took Randle and that could be a sneaky pick if Jennings gets hurt again.

12-13 Turn:

I couldn’t ignore the QB position any longer as I could tell some owners were itching to grab backups. Matt Camp threw a wrench into my late QB plan as he took Sam Bradford to back up Big Ben in the middle of round 12. I had a choice between Phillip Rivers and Matthew Stafford and I chose Rivers. I was tempted to double up at QB, but I needed to grab DeAngelo Williams for those two suspension weeks for Bell and of course it’s never terrible to hand cuff the 2nd overall pick, especially if it doesn’t cost you much. A 13th rounder is so cheap that it makes taking Bell and Williams a no-brainer. The funny thing is Chad Parsons waited forever last season to grab his QB in the Flex Standard League and this year he out-waited everyone and still ended up with Stafford as his starter in the 14th round. Last year he tried to wait just a little too long so I thought he did the right thing there. 14-15 Turn:

Because I took such a late QB with Rivers I wanted to take an upside QB to team with him and maybe play some match ups to make up the difference that the top QB’s will score over Rivers. I got lucky that John Halpin valued Jameis Winston over Teddy Bridgewater so I was able to grab Dwayne Bowe and Bridgewater with my two picks. I really like Josh’s two picks at this turn as he took Kenny Britt and Nick Toon. I think both could be valuable this season and they were a great value there.

I won’t bother you with the last round, which was almost all defenses, but I did like Jamey Eisenberg grabbing Colin Kaepernick to team with Matt Ryan. I did slightly regret not grabbing the Bills Defense in the second to last round and then trying to grab Bridgewater int he last round after as I was stuck taking the Patriots as the 11th Defense off the board.

Here’s the Draft Board provided by David Gonos:

The 2014 Standard Flex League Draft
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The 2014 Standard Flex League Draft

Fantasy Football

The 2014 Standard Flex League Draft

First and foremost, I want to thank Jake Ciely, @Allinkid, for inviting me to participate in the Flex Leagues this year. Jake and The Fntasy Sports Network put on a hell of a draft with a virtual murderer’s row for a list of participants. The fact that it was a live draft where I would be rubbing elbows and talking fantasy football with so many of the fantasy experts that I converse with on Twitter made it a very unique experience. The hospitality and of course the excellent food and drink from Hibernia Pub were just the icing on the cake.

A few nights before the draft I got the bad news that I would be picking from the eight spot in the standard scoring Flex League. Not only was I picking from the eight spot, but I would be picking next to my buddy Pat Thorman from PFF Fantasy for the millionth time this summer.

The eight spot is the ultimate “What’s your flavor” spot in standard scoring fantasy football leagues. All the sure-fire running backs are off the board and usually Montee Ball is scooped up right in front of the eighth pick. You can go best running back available, best wide receiver available or go with the ultimate tight end weapon in Jimmy Graham.

On the drive in with Jim Day, @FantasyTaz, and Mike Stein, @FantasyJudgment, I was hoping that some of the owners in front of me would be throwing curve-balls and selecting wide receivers or Jimmy Graham so that I would have an easy decision between Eddie Lacy and Montee Ball at the eight spot. Unfortunately the first eight picks were pretty typical for a standard scoring league, except for Michael Salfino going with the best wide receiver on the board at number three overall. Usually that pick doesn’t get made until the middle or late part of the first round in standard leagues so it was an interesting shake it up pick.

Jake Ciely then put the nail in the running back coffin by going with Montee Ball at sixth overall and I had to really think about not going running back in the first round.

My first thought was to go Dez Bryant or Calvin Johnson and then hope to grab Brandon Marshall on the way back and build my team through the Wide Receiver position. Not a bad option, but I like that approach a lot more in PPR or 1/2 Point PPR Leagues and not as much in standard scoring leagues. The other major decision I had, was to go Jimmy Graham in the first and then grab Rob Gronkowski in the second to wipe out the tight end position and get a monster standard flex option for this type of league.

If I had decided to go tight end-tight end to start the draft, I’m sure I would have gotten some face time on the network and probably been the talk of the early part of the draft, but I wanted to approach this draft as if money was on the line. I looked at what running backs would be available to me on the way back in the second round and I didn’t like it. I would have been forced to gamble on an Arian Foster type of back and that’s someone I’m trying to avoid. If I reached a little at running back in the first round I had a very good chance to get one of the top six wide receivers on the way back.

So I gambled on DeMarco Murray and that Dallas Cowboys’ Offensive Line with my first round pick and grabbed Brandon Marshall with my second round pick. The start was nothing to brag about on Twitter, but it was pretty solid and I could try to make up for the slight reach in the first by grabbing talent through out the draft.

The third round was tough because there wasn’t any clear cut value at either the wide receiver position or the running back position. Randall Cobb was tough to pass up, but I decided to gamble on C.J. Spiller in the hopes that he can overcome his rough 2013 and put up solid yardage numbers across the board. His TDs will always be a little disappointing with Fred Jackson getting the bulk of the carries from inside the 20 yard line, but he can score from anywhere on the field when he’s healthy. My hopes of Joique Bell getting back to me were immediately killed when Pat Thorman took him right after I took Spiller in the 3rd.

With Bell gone I decided I was going to go with the best wide receiver available and grabbed Vincent Jackson with my fourth round pick. I really like Jackson in standard scoring leagues and I can live with his up and down output in the fourth round. When it came back to me in the fifth round I had Jordan Cameron sitting on a platter for me to grab, but I instead went with Ben Tate as the last upside starting running back left on the board. Pat immediately scooped up Cameron with then next pick and that pick immediately gave me a case of picker’s remorse. With the news of Josh Gordon‘s season long suspension coming down today, the Cameron pick looks even better for Mr. Thorman.

The sixth round offered up a bunch of PPR stud wide receivers, but I decided to go with the big play potential in Mike Wallace. I’m hoping Ryan Tannehill can improve in the new Dolphins’ Offense and get his big-play weapon involved. If Wallace can once again become a downfield threat he will be worth the sixth round price tag in standard scoring.

When it came back to me in the seventh round I was struggling between taking Terrance Williams and Kyle Rudolph. I have Rudolph rated as my fifth overall tight end in standard scoring and Williams was bunched up with a lot of other upside wide receiver twos. I decided to make my play with Rudolph in the seventh instead of gambling on him getting back to me in the eighth. In retrospect I may have been able to dodge Jake and Paul taking Rudolph and come out of the 7th and 8th with both of my targets, but ending up with DeAndre Hopkins instead of Terrance Williams is not that big of a drop.

The ninth round was where I decided that Cam Newton was actually a value in this scoring system. Newton hasn’t finished outside of the top five in four point passing touchdown leagues since he stepped foot on an NFL field. The run on QBs was going to come and I wanted to grab the guy I want before it starts, especially when there was no one else that stood out to me as a value on the board.

The 10th round is where I finally made a pick that got me some face time on the Fntasy Sports Network. Of course it was because Pat Mayo wanted to figure out who in their right mind would take Mark Ingram in the 10th round of a Fantasy Football Draft. To make a long story short he was the 45th running back taken and I have him just outside my top 30 for STANDARD Scoring running backs. Chris Wesseling put a lot of the reasons why people should give Mark Ingram one more chance into his article here at NFL.com.

The next two picks were just roster fills as I took Greg Jennings and Tyler Eifert in the 11th and the 12th round. Jennings isn’t anything special and I’m not going to delude myself into thinking he was some major bargain as the 52nd wide receiver off the board, but Eifert could be interesting in a standard flex league, especially with touchdown vulture Marvin Jones on the shelf for the first four weeks of the season. The fact that Eifert is still not ready to play in week four of the preseason has me a little concerned.

The 13th round is where the darts usually start getting thrown in all directions, but Colin Kaepernick was just too good to pass up as my QB2 in a four point passing TD League. Kaepernick’s ceiling is in the top six of QBs and his floor is just outside the top twelve so getting him to back up Cam Newton was a nice surprise. With Cam Newton suffering a cracked rib in the preseason this pick may end up being a pretty big one. If someone suffers a major injury at QB I have some ammo to make a trade.

James Jones at wide receiver 66 could be a steal. He had ten targets in the last preseason game and the only reason he’s been sliding down the rankings is because he was behind Andre Holmes and Rod Streater in the first two preseason games. My thoughts were that the Raiders knew what they had when they signed Jones away from Green Bay and wanted to see which receivers were going to be in their plans going forward.

The Rams Defense was my next pick and it allows me to start streaming defenses early in the season with their week four bye. My last pick was spent on Bryce Brown and it was done as insurance for Spiller and because I think he can really excel if he’s give a chance this year. If Fred Jackson gets injured Brown could explode this season.