2015 Dynasty Start Up Draft

After writing about purely baseball for the past year, I've decided to dip my toes into the fantasy football writing pool.  I am a participant in a very competitive and deep dynasty baseball league, known as PWW.  PWW also has a dynasty basketball league, and now has added a dynasty football league to the group.  This league is like nothing I have ever taken part of before; here is the roster breakdown.

10 Teams

2QB

3RB

4WR

1TE

2Flex

1K

1Def

5 Bench

3 Practice Squad

2 Injured Reserve

Our scoring system is unique, but to avoid typing it all out imagine standard scoring, plus a half point per reception, 1 point for 25 return yards, and 1 point per 20 yards passing instead of 25 yards.

I was given the 7^th pick in the draft, and was happy to sit here as it gave me the opportunity to land either Russell Wilson, one of the elite wide receivers, or Rob Gronkowski.  Given our scoring, the only thing I knew was that Luck and Rodgers would be the #1 and 2 picks in the draft.  Below I have posted an image of our draft, which was a snake draft.

Now I'll narrate my picks round by round, and explain anything I thought was note worthy prior to my pick.  I'll note that while some teams had obvious strategies of building a young core, or having an older group that would win a championship now, I was sure I wanted to take what the draft gave me, and get every undervalued player I could.  I was willing to be young or old after finishing the draft, so long as what I had, gave me surplus value at every pick, a strategy I have in all sports.

Round 1, Dez Bryant:  A Christmas Miracle came early.  Dez Bryant was my #3 player and he somehow made it to me at 7.   I could not be happier about starting my team with him as my cornerstone WR.

Round 2, Russell Wilson: I was hoping for one of Julio Jones (my WR 2), Antonio Brown (WR3), Demaryius Thomas (WR4), or AJ Green (WR5) to make it to me at pick 14.  None of them made it, and while I did have Russell Wilson as my third QB, and a top 10 ranked player, I was nervous to take him this early. Looking forward, he will be a strong player to build around in the future.

Round 3, Cam Newton: Cam is coming off a bad year, but looks to be another strong performer.  Amari Cooper, whom I had ranked #20 overall, was my target, but was taken by Steve's team, which as you can see now, was built for the future, something I did know about at the time of the pick.

Round 4, Jimmy Graham: This was bittersweet.  While I will enjoy the Wilson to Graham connection for years, I must admit I missed on my ideal target by 1 pick, such is the nature of snake drafts.  To say I am all over Todd Gurley is an understatement, whom I had ranked #29.  Graham will be a strength for my team, but I did not plan on having a TE this early.  He was undervalued, but looking at the draft afterwards, all TE's were undervalued due to it being the only position that didn't require extreme depth.

Round 5, Allen Robinson: Please Bortles, get better.  Robinson was looking very, very good before getting injured versus the Cowboys on 11/9.  Robinson is my WR20, and I'm happy to have him as my second WR alongside Dez.  Getting the ball in his hands may prove difficult, but Robinson has stud potential.

Round 6, Nelson Agholor: Let the ablution of WRs continue on my team.  Agholor catches the ball and runs great routes.  The Philly scheme rewards guys like this, so a WR3 of his caliber is fine by me.

Round 7, Giovani Bernard: and the sexy picks end and I am now avoiding the rotten fruit and vegetables you would throw at me if you met me in person, but hear me out.  Bernard is not bad, he's just worse than Hill who is great. But if you place Bernard and all other RBs in a neutral environment, how would he grade?  I have him ranked 15^th, but I think he'd be even higher if all things were considered equal for all the other RBs.  I realize this isn't going to feed my team points like other players, but Gio is also a very good pass catcher, and in half point PPR, that just further increases his value.  So while there are warts, at pick 67, I was the last team to take a RB, and I had to stop the madness.

Round 8, Arian Foster: Now we are back at the bargain bin.  At pick 73, I was getting the guy I had at 61 overall.  While he's presently hurt, there are no other RBs available that could be top 5 running backs that were just sitting around, and with Foster potentially returning week 3 or 4, I had to take the gamble.  Even if he comes back later, I love this pick.

Round 9, Dorial Green-Beckham: And the Jack Cecil stamp of approval is slammed on this guy.  He may be crazy, but stupid is as stupid does, this is my kind of guy.  Listed at 6'5" 237 He is simply built to catch touchdowns.  Throw in that he's also running a 4.49, and you have a bonafide freak of nature.  He was drafted with Mariota, so when you include rookie camp, he's the WR who has been with Mariota the most so far in his pro career.  Harry Douglas and Hakeem Nicks do not scare me, DGB is coming, get ready.

Round 10, Duke Johnson: Another young unproven guy.  He had some nice tape, and is a good receiver.  Crowell isn't exactly a sure thing either, yet another guy who can outperform his draft position.

Round 11, Phillip Dorsett: This kind of shows my opinion on the Moncrief vs Dorsett debate.  He was drafted in the first, and as good as Moncrief looked at times, the Colts didn't give him much of a chance, he also wasn't an incredibly efficient pass receiver when he was on the field.   Truthfully, I think there is room for the both of them as I'm one of the few who thinks Andre Johnson is on his last legs.

Round 12, Bishop Sankey: Say what you want about Sankey, I was desparate for a starting RB, and Sankey is just that.  The recent injury to Cobb only makes Sankey safer for this season.  He obviously has some talent, if he was the first RB taken in the draft last year, I'm hoping something like RB25 in our scoring from this pick, and a healthy season.

Round 13, Josh Gordon: After filling out my lineup, the pickings were looking slim, and the surrounding picks were bench players and handcuffs.  I've never been one to shy away from a good flyer once the draft starts getting long, and this is just another example of that.  Gordon definitely lives the "wearing a ten dollar hat on a five cent head" but since I haven't heard of anything about him lately, I'm assuming the Browns have him in a straight jacket.  But seriously, this is a dynasty, if he doesn't manage to screw everything up again, where would you rank Gordon among wide receivers knowing he's in perfect health after all this time off.  Top 30 WR, maybe top 20 if you're a real believer.  Guys like that aren't lying around in the 13^th round, and don't have the known talent Gordon has, I'll take my chances knowing every week he gets through without an issue, he becomes more valuable.

Round 14, Torrey Smith: I need a backup WR, and he was the guy lying around.  He's the deep threat in SF, and I don't think SF will be winning many games this year.  When trying to figure out who my WR6 is going to be, I'm willing to take a gamble.

Round 15, Jay Ajayi: This is looking like a big mistake.  He's the backup, but he's already on the IR with the same knee issues that have been his question mark coming into his NFL career.  He's a talented player, but who knows if that talent will ever make its way onto the field consistently.

Round 16, Jaelen Strong: Right now, he's presently behind Nate Washington, not really a major concern for me.  The 6'2" 217lb WR has the big body TD receiving build.  How many Hoyer/Mallett will be able to deliver is up in the air, likely not many, this completes my ogdoad of WRs.

Round 17, Terrance West: This was prior to his trade, but I guess I now have the Sankey handcuff.  Not really an exciting player, at the time I just didn't think much of Crowell and hoped to land a few starts out of West, and have a guy I can stash on my practice squad.

Round 18, Christine Michael: Another player drafted before his trade.  Has talent, has never really been given a shot.  Whether it be because he's not an NFL caliber back or because Lynch never gets off the field remains to be seen.  I suppose I like him in Dallas, but this was not part of the plan.

Round 19, Saint Louis D/ST: Good young defense, had a player in mind for my last pick, so was willing to buck the trend and go a little early on a defense.

Round 20, Roy Helu: solid late round RB in a PPR format.  I like Latavius Murray, but does Oakland?

Round 21, Adam Vinatieri: Just the kicker who was available.

Round 22, Johnny Manziel: This was the sleeper to end all sleepers.  I know his 2014 was a flaming train wreck/dumpster fire/ nuclear disaster, but apparently he had problems that were deeper than football. QBs that can run will always have my attention.  I'm ok with giving him another shot on my practice squad.  McCown is just not very good, we'll see what happens.

This is how my dynasty draft concludes.  I have never participated in a league this deep while I knew some teams would go with a totally devoted strategy whether it be a win at all costs now strategy (Dan) and others would be entirely focused on youth (Steve).  As I said earlier, I decided I would take whatever was most valuable, and worry about week 1 standings later.  So tell me what you think?  Should I have defined my team more clearly?  Are my assessments totally off base?  Is anyone listening to me?  Verbalize your thoughts in the comments section below, because i'm definitely open to suggestions.