The Colbert Pro Fantasy Football traveling trophy has arrived! The league champion will claim this trophy and will be able to hold on to it until the next league champion is crowned.
Time is Your Friend and Enemy
Our league is set up so that once waivers close each week (at midnight on Tuesday), every unclaimed player can be freely picked up. Use this to your advantage.
(BTW, use a desktop or laptop computer to manage your team. The phone app does not have all the functionality available on a web browser.)
1) If you can manage to stay up past midnight on Tuesdays, do a quick search of the players in the league filtering under PLAYER STATUS for WAIVERS ONLY. This will show you which players had a claim against them. Not every one of the players in this sort will necessarily have a SUCCESSFUL waiver claim against them, but you will know which players people in the league were interested in or might have claimed.
For example, a Team Manager might enter the following waiver claims:
1) Add — Joe Prospect Drop – Billy Benchrider
2) Add – Larry Hopeful Drop – Billy Benchrider
In this scenario two waiver claims were made to drop a worthless player (Billy Benchrider) and pick up a player who could potentially help. Of course, only one of these claims can be filled. If you do the sort right after midnight, you will see that Joe Prospect and Larry Hopeful BOTH end up in your waivers list because claims have been made for each.
Note: The second bid would be considered a contingent waiver claim and would represent the Team Manager’s second choice should he/she get outbid on Joe Prospect.
2) After midnight, search through free agents or if you have been tagging players you’re interested in (by highlighting the star next to their name) you can search MY WATCH LIST under STATUS. This will let you know which players you could pick up, that you did not place a bid on, should you fail to win the players you did bid on.
3) Free Agents are FREE. You can pick them up at any time.
If you know you have a hole on your team, waiting to fill that position may cost you.
Example: Your star running back (RB) sprains his ankle during Sunday’s game and all reports are saying he will likely be out for 2-3 weeks. Sometime between Monday and Wednesday he gets a designation of QUESTIONABLE (Q) or DOUBTFUL (D) for next week’s game. At this point you are certain he will be ruled out at some point this week. The moment he receives the designation of OUT (O), you can move this player into your IR slot (provided you don’t already have an injured player on IR) and pick up another player.
Why wait 1-2 days to do this? While you wait to make a roster move, other Team Managers who are facing similar scenarios are highly likely adding a free agent to their roster that will help them. There are only a finite number of good players in the league. Don’t wait to add players to your roster unless you have a good reason to wait.
First Come first Serve.
You Snooze You Lose.
Time is of the Essence
The Early Bird Gets the Worm
4) Maybe you don’t really NEED to pick someone up because you have enough good players to fill all your roster spots. However, one of your benchwarmers this week gets ruled OUT right before the 10 AM games kick off. If you don’t already have an injured player in your IR slot, move this player to injured reserve and pick up your favorite RB handcuff. This is your LOTTERY TICKET.
You can always drop this player off your roster later, but if you have the space on your roster, or can make the space, why not pick up a speculative player? I can’t tell you how many times I have picked up the second-string RB in just this way and had a starter the next week because the first-string RB got hurt. NEVER let a bench spot go unfilled. At the very least fill empty bench spots with LOTTERY TICKETS.
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Individual Defensive Players – Studs or Stream?
When I created this league, I included individual defensive players, because I have never played fantasy football before utilizing them. I thought it would be fun to have some guys on the defensive side of the ball to root for occasionally.
The big question in my mind is how to play them. Last year the top scoring defensive player was Jordan Hicks (LB) from Arizona. Arizona had a bad defense last year and it makes me wonder if that fact weighed heavily on his opportunities to score points? It probably did.
Three and outs give your defensive players less opportunity to make tackles, sacks, intercept the ball or force/recover fumbles. When they have to stay out on the field for extended periods of time they are certainly going to have more chances to score points for your team.
Another factor I thought might be interesting to look into was how defensive players scored against bad offensive QBs. Last year QB Jameis Winston threw 30 interceptions, 7 pic sixes, was sacked 47 times and lost 5 fumbles. Defensive players must have fared well from a point scoring standpoint against him.
So, who do you pick, a stud defensive player or do you stream different players each week hoping the matchup will be fruitful? I tend to lean toward picking matchups. I don’t think it will be evident early on which individual defensive players will end up on top at the end of the season, but if I can put players in who will have many opportunities to score points for me, i.e. on the field a lot or against a struggling QB, I’ll likely lean that way.
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Lots of Teams with Big Rosters – Good or Bad?
If you’ve been involved with fantasy football in the past, you likely have encountered a discussion about either the size of the league or the number of players on each team’s roster (or both) as it relates to game play. I know I have. I’ll give you my thoughts about each of these factors and how it may affect game play.
Lots of Teams
Lots of teams is a bit tougher to manage for the Commissioner or Co-Commissioners because rules have to be put in place to make sure some positions can be filled during bye weeks. While there are plenty of WRs and RBs out there, there are not enough QBs and Team Ds available for Team Owners to roster more than one of these positions when you have more than 14 teams.
The CPFF league is shooting for 20 teams. Even if we don’t reach that goal in the first season, I would eventually like to get there. That means if we have more than 14 teams in the league, each team will only be able to roster one QB and one Team D each week unless the Team Owner is replacing a QB or Team D on bye that week. This really isn’t that big of a deal since many owners may decide that streaming the QB or Team D position (filling a roster spot based on the matchup) is a valid strategy. Of course if you’re holding an elite QB or Team D, you’re not going to do that. When byes come around, we want to make sure everyone can roster a full team.
Big Rosters
In my opinion, small rosters are boring. I personally want to enjoy football all weekend and watch how my players do. Small rosters compress this experience and also magnify two other factors, 1) studs and 2) luck.
With small rosters, much more weight in weekly scoring is attributed to a few key players. A big roster will have the tendency to normalize or deemphasize the contribution of one or two great players. In this way, more weight is placed on the consistency of the entire team creating better all around game play for Team Owners.
Luck can act like a stud on a small roster. In any given week, any player can have a monster game. Small rosters magnify the contribution luck can play each week and detracts from solid strategy and well thought out decisions by other Team Owners. Here again, large rosters deemphasize the contribution of a lucky monster week by one player.
Drawbacks
One obvious drawback to lots of teams and large rosters is the availability of high quality players on waivers each week. There won’t be any. But there will be plenty of players who do contribute and might contribute more or less based on that week’s matchup. This will give Team Owners the opportunity to mix up their roster each week based on matchups. After all, fantasy football is a game of strategy. It doesn’t take much effort to put RB Christian McCaffrey in your lineup. Making decisions between two marginal players however, adds excitement and reward when it works out.
Advantages
One big advantage to lots of teams and big rosters is more opportunities for trades. In small leagues with limited rosters I’ve found trades are hard to come by. No one wants to give up their studs and trading players on the bench doesn’t hold much appeal. In deep leagues with many teams there is more reason to trade and more people to trade with.
I would rather have 19 other teams to work with than 7. It’s hard to get deals done when there are only 7 other teams and 4 of them refuse to even acknowledge you sent them a trade offer. Deeper leagues utilize more of the marginal players and this lends to more opportunities for mutually beneficial trades, or trades that help both teams.
Another benefit to lots of teams is there will always be waiver bidding action to acquire QBs and Team Defenses each week once byes begin since teams are limited to one of each of these positions on their roster. Not only will Team Owners be competing against other Teams facing byes, but they might well be competing against Team Owners who are streaming a position.
Conclusions
While there are some drawbacks to many teams in a league and deeper rosters, there are certainly advantages as well. On the balance a larger league with deeper rosters lends more opportunity for strategy, interaction between teams and an expanded fantasy football experience each week as you watch how your team performs.
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Successful Auction Drafting
Using an auction to draft players is the most equitable way a league’s Team Owners may acquire players. Unlike a snake draft where every Team Owner must wait their turn to select players and hope their favorite player remains undrafted when their turn comes, every Team Owner gets an equal shot at every player in the league.
Being successful in your auction draft will depend on at least these few factors:
- You need to be logged in during the draft and actively participate
- You need to be familiar with what roster spots you will have to fill on your team in the auction and how scoring works in the league
- You should take some time to get to know how players are being ranked this season and decide what you would be willing to pay to acquire a player you want
- You should create a strategy about how you want to balance your team in each position and create a budget for each position or devise a similar strategy
- You should attempt to conduct at least one practice mock auction draft before the real draft
In addition to the above things you can do, you may also wish to pay close attention to what other Team Owners are doing during the auction. For example, how much money a Team Owner has left, what positions other Team Owners still need to fill and how Team Owners bid (passive or aggressive).
Practicing in a mock auction draft on either Yahoo.com of Fantasypros.com (mock draft or draft simulator) will give you a leg up on your competition. It will give you practice on watching what is going on and will help you with bidding.
Maximizing Season Points
Keep in mind what you are really buying at each position is a projection of future points for your team. So one strategy is buy the most future points at each position your budget will allow.
For example:
Let’s say Christian McCaffrey is projected to score 464 points and the winning bid for him ends up being $71. That means the winning bidder just acquired roughly 6.5 points per dollar to fill the RB position.
Another Team Owner bids on and wins Ezekiel Elliot for $55. Elliot is projected to score 331 points so that Team Owner just acquired roughly 6 points per dollar to fill the RB position. Who got the better deal?
Studs and Consistency
Top players, studs, like Christian McCaffrey and Ezekiel Elliot, offer more consistent weekly performance, usually. Unfortunately they are in short supply so they often demand a premium when bidding. Buying these top players means that Team Owner may not be able to get quality players at other positions. It’s a trade-off.
Decide what caliber of players you want at each position before the auction starts. If you have to pivot and go in a different direction because a player goes for too much money so be it. At least you came in with a plan and can adjust.
Don’t let your emotions goad you into paying too much for a player but by the same token, don’t let good players go too cheaply to other Team Owners. For example, say Leonard Fournette, who you think will score 260 points this season is currently going for $29. That’s roughly 8.9 points per dollar and it may be that other Team Owner is about to steal this player at a bargain price. Don’t be afraid to run your opponents up a bit so they aren’t getting too sweet a deal. You might occasionally get stuck with a player you didn’t really want but if that player is still in your value range it will often work out.
Balanced Team Approach
You certainly can get a few key players to cornerstone your team, but as we discussed, this could cripple you later in the auction when you don’t have enough cash left to pick up decent players to fill positions on your team. Another valid strategy is to roster a team of value players and shoot for a weekly team score that will win you the majority of games.
You don’t necessarily need any studs on your team if you have a roster of overall consistent weekly producers. If you build a team this way, you might start by asking what will each player on my team produce on average each week. Sure some weeks a few players will flop, but with this approach you’ll also have players that return high scores. Building a value team that delivers a consistent score week in and week out has helped me make it into the playoffs many years.
The Gold Nuggets
A final way I’ll mention to building a great team is evaluating and picking turn around players and sleepers. Turn around players are players who underperformed in the past season that, due to circumstances, you expect to do much better this season. These players are often purchased at a bargain and then overperform all season long.
A great example of this is QB Lamar Jackson. In 2018 he started the last half of the season at quarterback and was a hopelessly inaccurate passer, but showed signs that he had potential. In 2019 he was typically purchased at a huge discount and if you bought him, you likely won your league or got close because he was on fire and ended up being the MVP.
You can also pick up sleepers. These are players that have great potential but just need a chance to start. Often this is an up and coming talent that is playing in the shadow of a solid starting player. For example, in 2017, Kareem Hunt was the backup RB for the run intensive Kansas City Chiefs. When the starting RB went down, Hunt proved to be an extremely valuable player if you owned him. Likewise, Alvin Kamara went undrafted in many leagues his rookie season. Out of the gate, he was putting up solid scores each week and was becoming a household name.
Conclusions
There’s no right or wrong way to approach building your team and conducting your auction draft. Sometimes your plan will work, sometimes it won’t. Having a plan will give you a leg up on the competition. After all, fantasy football is a strategy game. Sure we can’t predict the future with 100% accuracy, but with a plan, we can walk out of the draft with a decent foundation for the rest of the season. Good luck!
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