Yahoo! AutoDraft Strategy

by faketeams on Aug 13, 2008 8:00 AM EDT in Football

A couple days ago, I signed-up for an autodraft league at Yahoo!. I wanted to see what my roster would look like if I played a lot of hunches and set-up the first 35 selections to get me a couple RBs, a QB, Wrs and a TE. In order for this to work, I would need to rank players at the various positions much higher than thier Yahoo! rankings.

What the autodraft does is fills each active position with the top-rated player on the rankings list at that position. With a standard set-up, each team gets a QB, 2 RBs and WRs, and a TE.

Here are my pre-draft rankings that reflect this strategy. What do you think?

1. Adrian Peterson
2. LaDainian Tomlinson
3. Brian Westbrook
4. Joseph Addai
5. Marion Barber
6. Marshawn Lynch
7. Frank Gore
8. Reggie Wayne
9. Braylon Edwards
10. Randy Moss
11. Clinton Portis
12. Maurice Jones-Drew
13. Steven Jackson
14. Tom Brady
15. Darren McFadden
16. Drew Brees
17. Terrell Owens
18. Peyton Manning
19. Ryan Grant
20. Brandon Jacobs
21. Michael Turner
22. Larry Fitzgerald
23. Marques Colston
24. Brandon Marshall
25. Andre Johnson
26. Tony Romo
27. T.J. Houshmandzadeh
28. Chad Johnson
29. Plaxico Burress
30. Antonio Gates
31. Thomas Jones
32. Jason Witten
33. Santonio Holmes
34. Calvin Johnson
35. Kellen Winslow

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Comments

If it’s not a keeper league, I drop AP down below LT and Westbrook. How is Moss behind ANY WR? Wayne and Edwards should be 5 picks lower, and Colston up with them. RBs too deep this year to drop Brady that far – you’d still get two good ones if Brady wound up being your first pick. (I base this on the extreme questions in NE’s defensive backfield – John Lynch? – which means Tom Terrific will be throwing a whole bunch, IMO – shocked if he throws less than 35, and I expect more like 40 TD).

Stephen Jackson would be a crazy bargain as a second pick – you’re not going to get him if you keep him at 13. Marshall should not be ahead of any of the WRs on this list – you’d be better off with Roy Williams or Steve Smith (who are both conspicuously absent from your list). Calvin Johnson is getting a lot of hype right now – are you falling for it? If you’re putting him above Roy Williams, it seems you are.

That’s the thing about hunches (esp. with the Brandon Marshall position) – you can put guys higher on the list that you think are going to be more valuable, but you’re really just ensuring that you don’t get the guys you drop lower and you won’t get the guys you think are going to outperform them at relative bargain prices (even if a bargain is just one round later than where you think they should go).

Good luck.

by Cased on Aug 14, 2008 9:43 AM EDT reply actions

NE Secondary

I had the same thought on their secodnary. I just don’t think repeating 40+ TDs is likely. If Moss tugs a hammy….

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by faketeams on Aug 15, 2008 9:02 AM EDT up reply actions

The problem with autodraft...

is it’s hard to strategise with a take the best available mentality. If you are in a smaller league (10-12 teams) you might get away with this kind of ranking but in a big league (14 teams) like mine, you might find yourself with only one good player and a bunch of mediocre ones. I tried the best player available strategy once and ended up in 14th at the end of the year because I only had Moss (the Raider version) and Tom Brady. The rest of my team was a bunch of scrubs and yardage gainers. I rank my players by round & position. My league has 14 teams so I know I will be picking no worse than 14th in the first round and no better than 1st in the second round. If you want to take a QB in the 1st round then make your top 14 QBs (or whatever position you want to draft first, I typically take a RB). I typically do this again in the 2nd round ranking my next 14 players in order of preference with the assumption being that all the top 14 will be gone by the second round (but if another of your top 14 RBs is still available, sweet). I’ve never missed the playoffs in my league except once, when I ranked according to a best player available strategy. Last season I lost the championship to Romo, Edwards, Housh, and Reggie Williams. The season before I won the championship with Rex Grossman as my QB. But really it’s all the luck of the ranking with auto draft.

Elway is in, Zimm is in but don't forget: Floyd Little, Randy Gradishar, Steve Atwater & Terrel Davis

by BlueNOrangeNIdaho on Aug 14, 2008 3:57 PM EDT reply actions

Thanks

Autodrafting is a crapshoot. With a live draft, teams will scoop up all the sleepers or the obvious player left on the board. The teams that get to the free agent pool earliest post-draft get a chance to waive their second TEs, K and DEFs in exchange for the top sleeper RBs and WRs.

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by faketeams on Aug 15, 2008 9:04 AM EDT up reply actions