So I did a draft analysis of my first IFSL fantasy draft experience last season, largely praising myself and thinking I had an easy 5 TPE coming my way only to end up very solidly in fourth place with a big fat stack of nothing in my hands. This year I changed my strategy from following Frost’s guideline and information from the fantasy help channel on discord (a wise decision since @gucci would then be privy to my whole strategy since he’s a Birddog teammate and also in fantasy Group 26 with me) to relying on my experience in fantasy football and the available stats in the ISFL Index. It didn’t occur to me to look at the scoring tables from last year until I came here to write up my “pat yourself on the back you fantasy savant” article, so hopefully that doesn’t come back to bite me in the ass as I use it for my analysis. So without further delay in any sort of way that would, I don’t know, artificially increase my word count for some unknown reason, let’s go ahead and check out this vaulted “super team” I created.
Round 1, Pick 3: Richard Gilbert, Running Back, Colorado Yeti
Third overall pick and thus the third running back in a row taken, Gilbert was coincidentally also the third overall fantasy point producer last year. Shockingly the first and second overall producers were selected first and second, so this was probably about the best pick that could’ve been made. Gilbert had the sixth most rushing yards (1046 yards at 4.8 yards per carry) and the seventh most receiving yards for running backs (435 yards at 6.4 yards per reception) with 15 total touchdowns last year. His prior year points may be a little inflated due to the removal of blocking points from non offensive line players (55 pancakes to 3 sacks allowed), which gave him a 15 point advantage to the next running back but hopefully that doesn’t mean much in the end of season scoring this time around.
Round 2, Pick 10: Ed Barker, Wide Receiver, New Orleans Second Line
With the second round pick I took the second receiver off the board, one pick after the first was taken, who also was the 5th highest scoring fantasy player last year and second highest scoring receiver. That makes sense as he put up the second most receiving yards (1752 yards at 15.8 yards per reception) and the second most receiving touchdowns (13 TDs) last year. Barker wasn’t super high on the pancake for wide outs either so it looks like his production should be more similar to last season than perhaps Gilbert’s will be.
Round 3, Pick 15: Baby Yoda, Running Back, Chicago Butchers
After a quick run of wide receivers and a tight end went off the board, it was time to collect my second running back, the ultra productive Baby Yoda out of Chicago. Yoda was the sixth highest fantasy scorer last season and put up the third most rushing yards (1217 yards at 4.2 yards per rush) and tallied 14 touchdowns on the ground to go with the eighth most receiving yards for running backs (415 receiving yards at 10.4 yards per reception) and another three scores through the air. Granted Yoda only had one more rushing yard than fourth place Jamar Lackson on 58 more attempts, I’m still confused as to why he was looked at so lowly compared to the other top producers at the position. I don’t know, I don’t really scour the depth charts or contracts so maybe there is something I missed in there.
Round 4, Pick 22: Jed Podolak, Wide Receiver, Honolulu Hahalua
With another 5 wide receivers and now a QB off the table as well, I pick up my second wide out in the draft, Honolulu’s Jed Podolak. Again, I’m surprised at the attitude for this guy as he was the 8th overall scorer in fantasy points last season and put up the third most receiving yards (1578 yards on 12.9 yards per reception) with the most receiving touchdowns at 15 scores.
Round 5, Pick 27: Colby Jack, Quarterback, Yellowknife Wraiths
With another slew of running backs and a tight end taken between my picks, I went with the second QB to be taken off the board, the original cheese man Colby from Yellowknife. This Jack was the 9th highest fantasy point scorer last season (second among QBs to only Slothlisberger who was previously drafted) and put up the third most passing yards (4633 yards with a second best 67.2 completion rate) and the second most passing touchdowns (35 TDs to a 5th best 13 INT). He was also only 15 passing yards shy of tying second place so the margin is definitely small in that regard.
Round 6, Pick 34: Ragnar Krashwagen, Tight End, Honolulu Hahalua
I had to alter my strategy a tiny bit for this pick, as my top three choices for tight end (out of five tight ends already selected) were already off the board, and with the remaining players all fairly close in receiving yards I went with the standout in TD production, Jed’s Honolulu teammate Krashwagen. Krashwagen had the fourth most receiving TDs for tight ends with 6 last season and put up a respectable 688 receiving yards, good for 7th place in the position group. He wasn’t in the top 50 fantasy scorers last season so I’m not exactly sure where he placed, but only 3 tight ends made the top 50 anyway so i’m not all that concerned with it
Round 7, Pick 39: Simon Tremblay, Offensive Line, Philadelphia Liberty
I went with the second offensive lineman taken (the very next pick after the first offensive lineman was taken) and pulled out the 25th highest fantasy scorer last season, who I also believe was the top offensive line scorer. The big nasty put up a league best 127 pancakes and only allowed 3 sacks. Unless there are some serious regression worries that I didn’t bother to look into, I have no idea why big ol’ Tremblay wasn’t snatched up ealier
Round 8, Pick 46: Matthew McDairmid, Kicker Punter, San Jose Sabercats
In the 8th round I got my second choice of kicker (not bad for two being taken ahead of me), the San Jose kid McD. No kicker made the top 50 fantasy scorer list so I’m not 100 percent sure how they lined up, but Matty here had the most field goals made last season with 34 while tying for the second most attempts at 38 (that’s 89.5 accuracy on the kicks for you non math folks out there). He also had a perfect 35 for 35 on extra points last season, however that was the 6th lowest extra point attempts in the league. Hopefully the San Jose offense continues to stall at the same pace to give him some more opportunities to kick field goals instead of extra points since that’s where the moneys made anyway.
Round 9, Pick 51: Colorado Yeti Defense
Granted defense is by far the most unreliable scoring mechanism there is, and thus always a total crapshoot. However, basing my decision solely on the numbers from last year, and not on the fact that my player was drafted to be a part of this defense in the future, I went ahead and picked the Yeti D as the 6th and final defense off the board. Last season the Yeti gave up the tenth most points allowed (granted that number also includes defensive scores that the defense didn’t surrender but I don’t feel like going back to subtract those out) but also had far and away the most defensive touchdowns at 6, with a blocked kick and a safety to boot. They also led the league in INT and passes defensed, while ranking roughly in the upper middle of sacks and forced fumbles and fumble recoveries (64 sacks, 16 forced fumbles with 14 fumble recoveries for a 87.5 conversion rate).
Round 10, Pick 58, the final pick: Joshua Campbell, Wide Receiver, Chicago Butchers
The last pick fills my vacant flex spot,and seeing as there were far more talented (and by that I just mean yard producing) options at receiver than running back left, I went with the highest yardage man from last season, Mr. Campbell. Joshua was actually the 29th highest fantasy scorer last season and put up pretty impressive numbers for how late in the draft I got him, delivering the 12th most receiving yards last year (1305 yards on 14.5 yards per reception) and tied for 9th best with 10 receiving touchdowns. Pretty studly for a last round guy.
So with my picks now determined, let’s take a look at what my full team looks like:
Format
Pos: Name Team (Season 27 Fantasy Overall ranking, Season 27 Fantasy Position Ranking)
QB: Colby Jack YKW (9 OVR, 2 QB)
RB: Richard Gilbert COL (3 OVR, 3 RB)
RB: Baby Yoda CHI (6 OVR, 4 RB)
WR: Ed Barker NOLA (5 OVR, 2 WR)
WR: Jed Podolak NOLA (8 OVR, 3 WR)
TE: Ragnar Krashwagen (74 OVR, 6 TE)
FLEX: Joshua Campbell SJS (29 OVR, 12 WR)
OL: Simon Tremblay PHI (25 OVR, 1 OL)
K: Matthew McDairmid SJS (102 OVR, Tied 2 K)
DEF: COL (11 OVR, 2 DEF)
I was able to copy the fantasy rankings spreadsheet and do some of my own legwork to get the figure out the overall rankings and position rankings, plus do some other fun stuff like see what the total for my team would be in last year’s rankings. For fairness sake I will state that the defense overall ranking is where it would be if it were counted as a player, however the way the spreadsheet was didn’t format it that way so I just stuck it in where it would belong. Anyway, with a total fantasy point score of 2623.2 for the team as built, this would be the number one overall producing team. So hopefully my players can produce at the same level, if not better, than last year and I should have no problem wiping the floor with the rest of the league. Overall I would say my new draft strategy seems like a solid one and I would grade myself out pretty highly, but again we’ll just have to wait and see how the season plays out.
Word Count: 1751
Round 1, Pick 3: Richard Gilbert, Running Back, Colorado Yeti
Third overall pick and thus the third running back in a row taken, Gilbert was coincidentally also the third overall fantasy point producer last year. Shockingly the first and second overall producers were selected first and second, so this was probably about the best pick that could’ve been made. Gilbert had the sixth most rushing yards (1046 yards at 4.8 yards per carry) and the seventh most receiving yards for running backs (435 yards at 6.4 yards per reception) with 15 total touchdowns last year. His prior year points may be a little inflated due to the removal of blocking points from non offensive line players (55 pancakes to 3 sacks allowed), which gave him a 15 point advantage to the next running back but hopefully that doesn’t mean much in the end of season scoring this time around.
Round 2, Pick 10: Ed Barker, Wide Receiver, New Orleans Second Line
With the second round pick I took the second receiver off the board, one pick after the first was taken, who also was the 5th highest scoring fantasy player last year and second highest scoring receiver. That makes sense as he put up the second most receiving yards (1752 yards at 15.8 yards per reception) and the second most receiving touchdowns (13 TDs) last year. Barker wasn’t super high on the pancake for wide outs either so it looks like his production should be more similar to last season than perhaps Gilbert’s will be.
Round 3, Pick 15: Baby Yoda, Running Back, Chicago Butchers
After a quick run of wide receivers and a tight end went off the board, it was time to collect my second running back, the ultra productive Baby Yoda out of Chicago. Yoda was the sixth highest fantasy scorer last season and put up the third most rushing yards (1217 yards at 4.2 yards per rush) and tallied 14 touchdowns on the ground to go with the eighth most receiving yards for running backs (415 receiving yards at 10.4 yards per reception) and another three scores through the air. Granted Yoda only had one more rushing yard than fourth place Jamar Lackson on 58 more attempts, I’m still confused as to why he was looked at so lowly compared to the other top producers at the position. I don’t know, I don’t really scour the depth charts or contracts so maybe there is something I missed in there.
Round 4, Pick 22: Jed Podolak, Wide Receiver, Honolulu Hahalua
With another 5 wide receivers and now a QB off the table as well, I pick up my second wide out in the draft, Honolulu’s Jed Podolak. Again, I’m surprised at the attitude for this guy as he was the 8th overall scorer in fantasy points last season and put up the third most receiving yards (1578 yards on 12.9 yards per reception) with the most receiving touchdowns at 15 scores.
Round 5, Pick 27: Colby Jack, Quarterback, Yellowknife Wraiths
With another slew of running backs and a tight end taken between my picks, I went with the second QB to be taken off the board, the original cheese man Colby from Yellowknife. This Jack was the 9th highest fantasy point scorer last season (second among QBs to only Slothlisberger who was previously drafted) and put up the third most passing yards (4633 yards with a second best 67.2 completion rate) and the second most passing touchdowns (35 TDs to a 5th best 13 INT). He was also only 15 passing yards shy of tying second place so the margin is definitely small in that regard.
Round 6, Pick 34: Ragnar Krashwagen, Tight End, Honolulu Hahalua
I had to alter my strategy a tiny bit for this pick, as my top three choices for tight end (out of five tight ends already selected) were already off the board, and with the remaining players all fairly close in receiving yards I went with the standout in TD production, Jed’s Honolulu teammate Krashwagen. Krashwagen had the fourth most receiving TDs for tight ends with 6 last season and put up a respectable 688 receiving yards, good for 7th place in the position group. He wasn’t in the top 50 fantasy scorers last season so I’m not exactly sure where he placed, but only 3 tight ends made the top 50 anyway so i’m not all that concerned with it
Round 7, Pick 39: Simon Tremblay, Offensive Line, Philadelphia Liberty
I went with the second offensive lineman taken (the very next pick after the first offensive lineman was taken) and pulled out the 25th highest fantasy scorer last season, who I also believe was the top offensive line scorer. The big nasty put up a league best 127 pancakes and only allowed 3 sacks. Unless there are some serious regression worries that I didn’t bother to look into, I have no idea why big ol’ Tremblay wasn’t snatched up ealier
Round 8, Pick 46: Matthew McDairmid, Kicker Punter, San Jose Sabercats
In the 8th round I got my second choice of kicker (not bad for two being taken ahead of me), the San Jose kid McD. No kicker made the top 50 fantasy scorer list so I’m not 100 percent sure how they lined up, but Matty here had the most field goals made last season with 34 while tying for the second most attempts at 38 (that’s 89.5 accuracy on the kicks for you non math folks out there). He also had a perfect 35 for 35 on extra points last season, however that was the 6th lowest extra point attempts in the league. Hopefully the San Jose offense continues to stall at the same pace to give him some more opportunities to kick field goals instead of extra points since that’s where the moneys made anyway.
Round 9, Pick 51: Colorado Yeti Defense
Granted defense is by far the most unreliable scoring mechanism there is, and thus always a total crapshoot. However, basing my decision solely on the numbers from last year, and not on the fact that my player was drafted to be a part of this defense in the future, I went ahead and picked the Yeti D as the 6th and final defense off the board. Last season the Yeti gave up the tenth most points allowed (granted that number also includes defensive scores that the defense didn’t surrender but I don’t feel like going back to subtract those out) but also had far and away the most defensive touchdowns at 6, with a blocked kick and a safety to boot. They also led the league in INT and passes defensed, while ranking roughly in the upper middle of sacks and forced fumbles and fumble recoveries (64 sacks, 16 forced fumbles with 14 fumble recoveries for a 87.5 conversion rate).
Round 10, Pick 58, the final pick: Joshua Campbell, Wide Receiver, Chicago Butchers
The last pick fills my vacant flex spot,and seeing as there were far more talented (and by that I just mean yard producing) options at receiver than running back left, I went with the highest yardage man from last season, Mr. Campbell. Joshua was actually the 29th highest fantasy scorer last season and put up pretty impressive numbers for how late in the draft I got him, delivering the 12th most receiving yards last year (1305 yards on 14.5 yards per reception) and tied for 9th best with 10 receiving touchdowns. Pretty studly for a last round guy.
So with my picks now determined, let’s take a look at what my full team looks like:
Format
Pos: Name Team (Season 27 Fantasy Overall ranking, Season 27 Fantasy Position Ranking)
QB: Colby Jack YKW (9 OVR, 2 QB)
RB: Richard Gilbert COL (3 OVR, 3 RB)
RB: Baby Yoda CHI (6 OVR, 4 RB)
WR: Ed Barker NOLA (5 OVR, 2 WR)
WR: Jed Podolak NOLA (8 OVR, 3 WR)
TE: Ragnar Krashwagen (74 OVR, 6 TE)
FLEX: Joshua Campbell SJS (29 OVR, 12 WR)
OL: Simon Tremblay PHI (25 OVR, 1 OL)
K: Matthew McDairmid SJS (102 OVR, Tied 2 K)
DEF: COL (11 OVR, 2 DEF)
I was able to copy the fantasy rankings spreadsheet and do some of my own legwork to get the figure out the overall rankings and position rankings, plus do some other fun stuff like see what the total for my team would be in last year’s rankings. For fairness sake I will state that the defense overall ranking is where it would be if it were counted as a player, however the way the spreadsheet was didn’t format it that way so I just stuck it in where it would belong. Anyway, with a total fantasy point score of 2623.2 for the team as built, this would be the number one overall producing team. So hopefully my players can produce at the same level, if not better, than last year and I should have no problem wiping the floor with the rest of the league. Overall I would say my new draft strategy seems like a solid one and I would grade myself out pretty highly, but again we’ll just have to wait and see how the season plays out.
Word Count: 1751