I'm proud of you all. You did it. You logged in on time - mostly - and you now have a full roster of NFL players ready to go. Are they the players you were targeting? Absolutely not, but that's beside the point.
I see it every year during the draft. You guys go in with a full head of steam ready and sure that you're going to get this or that player. But when your target player is nominated and the bidding begins, you quickly realize that you're not the only one who wants that guy.
What to do?
You were so sure you were going to be able to snag him for $40. I mean, you had five different salary cap valuation sheets and listened to hours of fantasy podcasts. He was supposed to be $35 but you were willing to pay the premium.
After a frenzy of clicks, the current bid is $44 and panic is setting in.
It's decision time: should you pay the extra $5 you didn't budget for that player or should you cut bait and fall back on one of your alternates? If you pony up and pay the extra money, that means you'll have to sacrifice somewhere else.
"Damn it, I knew I shouldn't have kept the Eagles D/ST for $11!"
That's OK...you'll just go with the alternate player so you can still keep the remainder of your strategy in tact.
"What?!? Oh, crap. All of my alternates are off the board already!"
And like that - poof - your draft strategy is out the window. You're winging it now.
The good news is that the draft is only the first step on your journey through the fantasy football season. If you were one of those who ended up with 15 completely different players than you targeted, there's still hope: the waiver wire and free agency. And if you ask me, that's truly where champions are separated from the castaways.
"But, Commish, I think I still finished with a good roster. How do I know for sure?"
I'm glad you asked.
Below are the report cards for this year's draft class and, before you fill up my inbox with complaints about your grade, you should know that they're not necessarily representative of my opinion - I would never give you an "A".
To compile your grades I use a scientifically proven combination of Twitter (X) polls, 20-sided die, and hamsters. Why hamsters? Because they're unpredictable little bastards that introduce chaos into the equation.
But, I digress. Here are your grades:
This is usually the part of the post where the folks who received an "A" expect accolades and congratulations. What I will offer instead are words of caution: You drafted a quality team but, remember, there have been plenty of owners who were at the top of their draft class and still finished near the bottom of the league at year's end. Remember the 2015 Los Perros Locos or 2017 NH Bounty Hunters?
If you're one of those who scored outside of the "A" and "B" groups, you don't need to look any further than last season to see that there's nothing to worry about.
The teams that made it to last season's championship games were Baby Got Dak, Jergoff Passout, The Real Slim Brady, and Chubby Chase. Of those four, only Slim Brady received a draft grade higher than "C". More, our two champions, Baby Got Dak and Chubby Chase, received grades of "D" and "F", respectively.
So how did they do it? How did they overcome their poor draft? Well, they went to work throughout the season and slowly reinvented themselves with their cunning use of the waiver wire, free agency, and trades. All you need to is take a quick look and compare their draft roster to their championship roster to see exactly what I mean.
Of the 15 players Baby Got Dak drafted, only 8 players remained throughout the entire season: Derrick Henry, Breece Hall (though he was on IR), Christian Kirk, Keenan Allen, Miami D/ST, TJ Hockenson, Garrett Wilson, and Tua Tagovailoa. That means 47% of their initial roster was replaced at sometime during the season.
If you thought Dak was busy during the season, Chubby Chase worked circles around them.
Of the 15 players Chubby Chase drafted, only 3 survived to see the Championship Game. Yes, you read that right...only 3 players Chase drafted remained on the team by the end of the year: Nick Chubb, Ja'Marr Chase, and Justin Jefferson. That's a turnover rate of 80% for those of you keeping track at home.
Truth be told, I'm not sure if that statistic says more about their ability to adapt or their inability to draft.
Nevertheless, let those examples above give you hope and motivation you need. Whether you're the valedictorian or you're in the corner eating crayons, I encourage each of you to focus, research, and make the changes necessary to take you where you want to go...even if it's only the Consolation Bracket.
Good luck this season!
-- Commish
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