Scouting out the Scout Fantasy Online Championship
You know that feeling.
It's pushing noon on the ninth-to-last dead Sunday before THE SEASON begins. Saturday night's Bikini Bottom Beach (Garage) Party was a blast, but the Hair 'O The Dog you have sweating on the table beside your chair is evidence of the brutal hangover left behind by a few too many Tequila Sunrises.
You convince yourself that THIS Sunrise will be beneficial in some sort of equilibrium inducing blood level stabilizing sort of way. Tough to choke down at first, by mid-glass, the hangover-fever is starting to break. Bless you Baby Tenderlove.
With this newfound freedom from pain, your mind wanders back to default, and you rummage through your "investment" bookmarks, checking to see what looks interesting on Draft Kings this afternoon, or which major fantasy contests have a chance at fulfilling your need for instant gratification.
Nothing looks close enough to get too excited about, but then you spot just the tweet you were craving. "Two more to fill" quickly becomes one after a few mouse clicks (or finger taps) and you have entered your first Scout Fantasy Online Championship draft of the season!
No real need to adjust my FFPC-based cheatsheet, as I can mentally slide the Tight End position down a tad in priority (using simple PPR scoring), with the only remaining difference being the added wide receiver to your starting roster, which adds some spice to the strategizing. Going off memory, I recall past drafts gobbling up WR's early and often with the forcing of three starters, and I welcome that trend as I lean RB's early nine times out of ten.
A lung blessing of Durban Poison, backed by a suddenly delicious second Sunrise, and I'm once again slow-rolling a highly anticipated draft slot email, this time resulting in slot nine (1.09). I welcome this challenge as I've been looking forward to seeing what I can create from the back end of draft boards, after being gifted mostly early and middle range draft slots to date.
On a side note, I'd like to congratulate Jonathan Bales, Justin Phan, Pete Manzinelli and Team (Adam) Levitan for taking home the monies in the inaugural Gambling Olympics! This links to a daily event-by-event breakdown by Matthew Freedman of all the action that just went down in Vegas.
1st place: Bales, $10,000
2nd place: Phan, $6,000
3rd place: Manz, $4,000
Team prize: Team Levitan, $10,000
For Manz, "Shit Just Got Real" on Day Two!
Well done gentleman!
Here is a walkthrough from this Sunday night's Scout Fantasy Online Championship draft, noting some plans, counter-plans and team building strategies. This may prove handy to the many who are knee-deep in Scott Fish Bowl drafts as they wind their way into the deep water rounds.
The first couple things I noticed and liked about Scout's Online Championship's draft room is that it shows the past few picks right there at the top of the draft room in plain view, making it much easier to keep up with who is getting drafted in real time. They also had a nice interwoven color-coded draft board that was seamless to toggle between with zero effect on draft room performance. Both get a plus rating from me.
Now on to the draft!
After completing quite a few drafts in this roughly $300 price range, Saquon Barkley was the highest ranked (5th overall) player that I held a shred of hope that he could fall to me at pick nine, as I've seen him slide that far at times. He was wisely selected at 1.06, allowing me to pick my 6th ranked overall player in RB Dalvin Cook MIN at 1.09. Early reports have him ahead of schedule in his rehab back, and a chip on his shoulder after having to watch from the sideline as the Vikings enjoyed the playoffs last year. I'm a Happy Camper.
The top wide receiver tier was swallowed up on the first turn, but I still was thrilled to draft my 11th overall ranked player in RB Christian McCaffrey CAR at the 2.04. Loved hearing how coach Ron Rivera mentioned McCaffrey's heavy workload at Stanford, and knows CMC can handle the bigger workload he's about to get. Loved it even more when OC Norv Turner mentioned he plans to use McCaffrey in similar ways to how they used LaDainian Tomlinson when he was coaching for the Chargers. Underrated special season alert!
The long wait until my late 3rd round pick was a little stressful, as I've seen the player I was targeting start getting scooped up right in this draftboard territory. Lucky for me I get to keep "OPERATION POUND RUNNING BACKS" afloat, drafting RB Rashaad Penny SEA at the 3.09. I believe this kid is a special talent.
The top three picks were ripped right out of the pages of the Signal Focused articles ranking rounds one through three. This fourth pick I decided to zig from the script a bit in order to lock up four highly coveted running backs, before switching gears and focusing on everything else BUT running back from here on out. I selected RB Ronald Jones TB at pick 4.04. I'm extremely excited to see Penny and Ronald play with the pads on.
Many desired players went during this long turn, but I was happy to draft (5.09) the lone remaining player I have ranked in my top three rounds in WR Sammy Watkins KC. Very excited about Sammy with the Chiefs. Reasonable floor with a very high ceiling. I smell a career year for Watkins and his price is ridiculously delicious.
After the short wrap turn, I keep pounding high ceiling wide receivers with WR Corey Davis TEN at the 6.04. Corey flashed in the playoffs after being so injured he missed the combine and most of training camp. That injury may have lingered most of the season. He's a tough dude and may not have wanted to use it as an excuse. Healthy now on a team with higher scoring hopes after adding rising star Offensive Coordinator Matt LaFleur. Excellent upside on a value priced player.
A player I'm willing to reach for in this 7.09 range is WR D.J. Moore CAR. My draft plan of pounding RB's early usually leads me to stockpiling these high talent, short record players who are in prime roles for high volume should things play out well for them. I think Moore and McCaffrey will be quite involved in the game plans each Sunday.
This eighth round range is where I usually disconnect from my WR rankings and start filling out my roster. A guy I've been adding in bunches is TE George Kittle SF (8.04). He flashed as a rookie with lots of moving parts swirling around him in SF last year. A season under his belt will have him primed for a breakout campaign. He's a stud. Talented tight ends dry up fast, and his price has been excellent so far.
The wait for my 9th round pick got stressful when there was a run on quarterbacks, but thankfully the player I target in the 9th round range in most all of my leagues has been QB Patrick Mahones KC (9.09). He's a guy I'd reach for in the 7th round if it came to that. I want him big time as an impact player for 2018. Andy Reid will make him a Rock Star.
I was so content with how my team was turning out (and not super excited about what was bouncing around in my queue) that I decided to push the pedal to the metal and added JAC Defense at pick 10.04 (Good Buddy!).
Switching back to WR in an attempt to sift for gold in these later rounds, I drafted WR Dez Bryant at 11.09 with the expectation he signs with a team soon and jumps up the board a few rounds once he's settled somewhere and the chatter starts.
At pick 12.04 I went with growth upside (and had plans to hook him up next round) TE O.J. Howard TB. He also had flash games as a rookie and should benefit with the seasoning that rookie lumps give tight ends. Everyone is getting lip served this offseason, but sometimes you can buy in a little to the coachspeak when it's regarding talented 1st rounders.
Like I mentioned, the plan here was to add QB Jameis Winston TB (13.09) to backup Mahomes and give me two explosive players at quarterback. The Bucs play at home against the 49ers when KC is on BYE week 12. That game should have a nice sized over/under.
With the 14.04 pick, I continued shooting those Buccaneer cannons drafting WR Chris Godwin TB who has a real shot at earning more of a target load, as the team learns he's more talented than his WR competition.
After fading wide receiver I felt the need to start hording and drafted promising rookie WR Christian Kirk ARI at the 15.09. He should have a fairly large piece of the target pie after Fitz gets his fill. Great opportunity for a strong weekly workload and talented enough to be able to work some magic with it.
In round sixteen I took a shot. I figure there is a chance he doesn't even make the team, but there is also a chance he's healthy and gets more involved than many are thinking. I went with WR Brandon Marshall SEA at 16.04 with the crap shot that he has one playable season left helping Russell Wilson put in work. Did he really fall off the cliff, or was it something else? We shall see.
In the 17th round I decided to add another exciting young player in TE Mike Gesicki MIA (17.09). His involvement is only limited by how fast he catches on, but the upside is there. Once people start to see some of these rookies in pads they are going to rise up draft boards. He's well worth the price here.
While this pick was winding my way, I had typed in my chat box "This pick is for you, Scott" ("Mr. Red" Louisville fan Scott Atkins was commishing our draft) in anticipation of drafting Louisville QB Lamar Miller and hitting enter in the chat, but he was selected right in front of me, forcing me to send the message to Oblivion instead. I pivoted toward rounded out my starting roster by adding my favorite (most owned) K Harrison Butker KC at 18.04. Pairing him with Mahomes, I now can lick my fantasy scoring chops each time KC drives inside the 30 yard line.
With my final two picks (19.09 and 20.04) I doubled up on the Forty Niner reserve running backs RB Joe Williams and RB Jeremy McNichols SF. I had plans in the 15th round of drafting RB Matt Breida SF and then also adding these two late, hedging the entire (non-McKinnon) Shanahan backfield, but got sniped right before my turn. Something will shake out in my opinion, leaving one of these two guys involved.
Overall, I came away with a team that gets my blood going.
Exciting team. (projected starters in BOLD)
QB: Patrick Mahomes, Jameis Winston
RB: Dalvin Cook, Christian McCaffrey, Rashaad Penny, Ronald Jones, Joe Williams, Jeremy McNichols
WR: Sammy Watkins, Corey Davis, D.J. Moore, Dez Bryant, Chris Godwin, Christian Kirk, Brandon Marshall
TE: George Kittle, O.J. Howard, Mike Gesicki
K: Harrison Butker
DEF: Jacksonville Jaguars
Hope to see you in the CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND of the Scout Fantasy Online Championships in 2018!
As always, thank you for reading.