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2. Tell us about your draft class. Is there anything that makes it special in comparison to other classes? Where did your fellow draftees land, how are they doing? Did anyone turn out to be an unexpected steal of that draft based on what you know today? Do you think anyone in your draft class will become a hall of famer? If you’re new to the league, how do you think your class will do? Where do you think people will get drafted to?
My draft class was the S38 ISFL draft. I think we're at a really good place in the draft class, where we're about halfway through the careers before regression, so most players should be in the ISFL by now, and the busts and steals have truly established themselves.
You can't really mention the S38 draft without the biggest bust of the class staring you in the face almost immediately. Zavier Perkins was drafted 4th overall by the San Jose Sabercats, and retired after playing just 1 season in the ISFL. You obviously have high hopes for any high draft pick, but at the very least with most busts, you can probably get some value out of them long term. An inactive LB at 450 TPE is usable, in a 3rd string role. A retired linebacker, is of no value. That's a much bigger bust than most. There have been a couple of other early retirements, but the next highest pick to have retired is 29th overall.
Another early bust was Brian Duke, taken 10th overall - another LB, but this time one who didn't retire. He only hit 490 TPE, but Chicago has still used him, and Duke was good for almost 100 tackles last season. He unfortunately won't live up to the 10th overall billing, and Chicago will almost certain regret passing up on Bridge Burner in order to take Duke, but at the very least they still have a player on the field, so they have that over San Jose.
It's somewhat difficult to call certain positions steals, because of the overall lack of demand for them. Players get picked up much later than they should almost all the time, and you don't need hindsight to know it. Despite missing out on their earliest pick of the draft, Chicago did manage to hit on both their other picks, adding a 2nd round OL turned QB in Painted Penguin, and a 3rd round kicker in David Doug. Doug doesn't have a massive amount of TPE - 530 to be exact - but he was the last kicker taken. Certainly Baltimore would rather have Doug than Makmur. Penguin would have been drafted fairly late as OL or QB, but he's pushed into the top 10 in TPE for the class. The only player drafted as a QB no longer plays the position, and Penguin is the only player in the S38 class who does.
Wide Receiver is an interesting position, one that I feel also gets in general drafted lower based on value. There's only 4 WRs left in the class, but most rank higher in TPE than their draft position. Jeff Newman, drafted 12th overall, switched to a full time running back role (he's 18th in TPE). Teenie Hodges was a top 10 pick, only the 3rd offensive player taken in the top 10, 2nd skill position player, and the 1st WR off the board, but is down at 19th in TPE and is about 250 behind the class leader, and 150 behind the leading WR.
Despite the look of it, it's hard to argue for either Sherwin Blue Jr or Carly Rae Jensen to be the biggest steals of the draft. Bother were drafted in the 2nd round, however now sit top 5 in TPE. Great, right? They are GMs for their respective teams, and are locked into selections with the team's earliest 2nd round pick. Everyone knows how good they are at the time, but those are the rules, so they get far more value than anyone else in that 2nd round.
A true steal I think can only be looked at as Bridge Burner for the Baltimore Hawks. Burner was drafted 21st overall, and is now 5th in TPE. Now THAT is a huge jump, and no GM benefit there. What makes it an even bigger robbery for the Hawks is just how desirable Linebackers were in this class. 6 LBs were drafted in the top 10. Burner wasn't taken until 21. That's the one I can point to as a massive steal on a number of different points.
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