I got into a 14-team experts league this week. In general I try to avoid taking on new leagues, but I'm a sucker for a slow draft like this one, and it's a way to pass the time and see how different people rank and evaluate players. I drew the 12th draft spot, which seems to be the story of my year.
I've participated in several drafts this summer, as has Ian, and he also seems to be drawing a later draft pick more often than not. As a result, a certain sameness has settled over some of our early picks. You just can't pass up guys ranked a round higher when your picks come up.
This is standard scoring, 4-point TD passes, with a flex spot that can be a running back, wide receiver, or tight end. It is NOT a SuperFlex league, where you can start 2 quarterbacks. This will be important to remember later. Here are the first four rounds, with my picks in bold.
| FF WEBMASTERS EXPERTS DRAFT, ROUNDS 1-4 | |
|---|---|
| Pick | Player |
| 1.01 | Christian McCaffrey |
| 1.02 | Saquon Barkley |
| 1.03 | Ezekiel Elliott |
| 1.04 | Alvin Kamara |
| 1.05 | Michael Thomas |
| 1.06 | Dalvin Cook |
| 1.07 | Derrick Henry |
| 1.08 | DeAndre Hopkins |
| 1.09 | Aaron Jones |
| 1.10 | Davante Adams |
| 1.11 | Clyde Edwards-Helaire |
| 1.12 | Kenyan Drake |
| 1.13 | Joe Mixon |
| 1.14 | Lamar Jackson |
| 2.01 | Patrick Mahomes |
| 2.02 | Josh Jacobs |
| 2.03 | Miles Sanders |
| 2.04 | Nick Chubb |
| 2.05 | Julio Jones |
| 2.06 | Austin Ekeler |
| 2.07 | Le'Veon Bell |
| 2.08 | Travis Kelce |
| 2.09 | Tyreek Hill |
| 2.10 | Melvin Gordon |
| 2.11 | Todd Gurley |
| 2.12 | Jonathan Taylor |
| 2.13 | Cam Akers |
| 2.14 | Leonard Fournette |
| 3.01 | Raheem Mostert |
| 3.02 | Odell Beckham |
| 3.03 | A.J. Brown |
| 3.04 | George Kittle |
| 3.05 | David Montgomery |
| 3.06 | Chris Godwin |
| 3.07 | Kenny Golladay |
| 3.08 | Chris Carson |
| 3.09 | Mike Evans |
| 3.10 | James Conner |
| 3.11 | Allen Robinson |
| 3.12 | David Johnson |
| 3.13 | Cooper Kupp |
| 3.14 | DeVante Parker |
| 4.01 | Ronald Jones |
| 4.02 | Mark Andrews |
| 4.03 | Calvin Ridley |
| 4.04 | Amari Cooper |
| 4.05 | Tyler Lockett |
| 4.06 | Terry McLaurin |
| 4.07 | DK Metcalf |
| 4.08 | JuJu Smith-Schuster |
| 4.09 | D'Andre Swift |
| 4.10 | Robert Woods |
| 4.11 | Adam Thielen |
| 4.12 | D.J. Moore |
| 4.13 | Keenan Allen |
| 4.14 | Zach Ertz |
Biggest decision-making came in the first round. I was considering Drake and Joe Mixon, the latter of whom is a shade higher in our Standard rankings. My vote for Drake is a vote for the offense, quarterback and coach I have more faith in being successful in 2020. I think Arizona has a better line, and there's more of a track record with Kliff Kingsbury and Kyler Murray than Zac Taylor and Joe Burrow. That's pretty much it.
Ian would not have taken Sanders in round 2. Waiting for my pick, I was hoping for either Josh Jacobs (who went the pick before me) or Sanders. Straight off the rankings, either Jacobs or Chubb should have been my pick. Timing was a factor: Chubb had just been helped off the field after a practice injury of uncertain degree. Turns out it was a concussion, but at the time it could have been virtually anything. I am also slightly concerned about the presence of Kareem Hunt, a No. 2 that neither Sanders nor Jacobs currently needs to worry about. So Sanders was an easy choice for me, a first-rounder in most drafts.
This (to me) ridiculous bounty of options was influenced in part by the choice of Team 14, which selected Lamar Jackson and Patrick Mahomes with his first two picks. I'm not in the business of trashing other experts, but this curious choice in a non-SuperFlex league sure helped out with the quality of running backs left to me. I've actually seen this strategy employed before, with the stated idea (at the time) that one of the two quarterbacks is then trade bait. I personally have never seen that quarterback traded for a better player than could have simply been drafted at that spot, but maybe it's happened somewhere.
At this point I could have predicted that I'd probably be drafting David Johnson in round 3 and Calvin Ridley in round 4. And that's exactly what happened. We are higher on both players than most -- way higher on Johnson -- and they are usually there. Johnson almost always is, Ridley has been more 50-50. But it was easy to make these picks.
With Johnson, I generally understand the hesitance. Maybe he's washed up, and Bill O'Brien is an idiot.
But when I look at the 5-6 running backs who went off the board before him, I see similar if not greater flaws. Gurley, Montgomery, Gordon, Fournette, and don't get me started on the rookies. Whatever your thoughts may be on Johnson, I think getting him at 3.12 while a rookie who will spend at least some of the year in a committee with Marlon Mack and will be on the sidelines on passing downs went at 2.12...well, I'm pretty pleased.
Ridley, I was happy with, and I think I'd have also been happy with most of the next 5-6 wide receivers (Amari Cooper would have been my 2nd choice had Ridley been gone).
So now I wait to see what will be there in rounds 5 and 6. I think this trio of running backs and Ridley is about the best start I could have hoped for.
You can follow along, if you wish, at this link.
--Andy Richardson