The Back Nine: “The League’s Other Teams” | DynastyBlitz.com Fantasy Football

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Building a dynasty team can take many different forms and strategies. There have been three articles written by Eric Yeomans, Bryan, and myself documenting our particular ways of building a dynasty team in this league. This article will briefly mention those teams, but will also give a synopsis of the “other teams” that drafted and will take a look at their strategies. Let me be clear that there is no “perfect dynasty draft” or absolute fool-proof way to build a dynasty. Jim Day was also kind enough to write an article with his opinions about our draft as an unbiased observer who is known to challenge my strategies and thought processes. I promise no more articles about this draft after this one.

Hooksett Hurricane My quick first blush on Bryan’s team is he went young and stuck with the strategy. As my mentor Yoda always said “cloudy the future, it is,” as a lot can happen with the lockout, training camps being pushed back, etc. Things need to fall into place for his team to excel in 2012/2013. I’m not saying they won’t.

Fond Du Luc’s 52 Our Canadian friend, Eric, built a modified re-draft team, by getting an influx of youth. Eric was blessed to draft right in front of me at the 10th spot. Other than Vick, his QBs have limited upside and his RB situation is scary as he has a lot of secondary pieces of committees (P Thomas, Wells, Vereen) and the enigma known as Moreno. He did well with Nicks, took two huge maturity question marks at WR with Dez Bryant and Michael Crabtree. Eric’s TEs are solid and his IDPs are as good as any other team.

Plano Bleeding Frogs Brian Quinlan was blessed with the 1st pick overall. My general observation was that he built a team with strong starters and little depth. Rivers is a great starter at QB, Foster and a perhaps Madden curse-less Hillis, WRs Tampa Mike and Santonio Holmes, and Owen Daniels are all solid. Fitzpatrick as a backup QB is scary, but maybe Flynn will pan out next year.

Woodhead and Tolbert have defined roles on their team(s) who maybe helpful a few weeks. Ben Tate, Jaquizz Rodgers, and Joe McKnight may carve a role or may not. Collie and Benn each are huge boom or bust picks as they both have a lot of talent, but are coming off serious injuries. WR Titus Young has possibilities, and the backup TEs Shiancoe and Julius Thomas are not playable at this time. Brian did a good job with his IDPs. Team Grade B (discounted for lack of depth)

CNY Helmets Sen Sogah, the vivacious member of footballsickness.com, much like the Frogs who drafted right in front of him has good starters, but little offensive depth. He has far and away the best d-line with Cole, Mario, Suh, and McCoy. His starting QB is Brees, who is great, but backing him up are Garrard and Kaepernick. Hopefully for Sen, Brees stays healthy so the backup QB only comes into play one week this season. After Peterson at RB, Gore is a huge injury-risk. I would have liked to see at least one of the SF backups on this team. Gerhardt will hedge AP, and Reggie Bush and CJ Spiller will need to get more active in their return games to help. Five RBs is light for a team that needs to start at least two.

Depth is the key with ten WRs drafted by the Helmets. Bowe, Knox, and Manningham are solid players. Hines Ward and Braylon Edwards add some veteran support, while big boom or bust guys in Floyd, Danario Alexander, Jason Hill, and rookie Austin Pettis complete the WR core. Dallas Clark and Brandon Pettigrew are both good TE starters and DJ Williams may take Finley’s place at some point with Jermichael’s abilities to get injured. 1st LB is awesome with Mayo and stuck with pass rushers for the rest in Hali, D Ware, and Woodley. His first two DBs are awesome with Eric Berry and Adrian Wilson, but Revis and Samuel are bigger names than good IDP plays. Team Grade B (discounted for lack of depth)

Team Andy P At first blush, he seems to lack imagination with his team name, but I digress. This team drafted 3rd out of the 12. His QB core starts with Tom Brady who is solid and he took two wildcards with Henne and Orton. Just like the Bleeding Frogs QB situation, Andy P has to be hoping Brady is out of his lineup only on his bye week. Chris Johnson is a solid RB to start a dynasty team and backed him up with Ringer. Michael Turner is a back that may not last past this year, but is solid for 2011. Grant is going to be sharing time with two other backs. Dixon and Dion Lewis are injuries away from starting. He might be hard pressed to find two or three starters out of this position every week.

Andy P took B-Marsh and Harvin to start off his WRs and used the shotgun approach to the St. Louis WRs getting Amendola, Avery, and Gibson. Davone Bess and Deon Branch is a group of solid vet WRs who should help. The selection of Watson and Tony Gonzalez seemed to be afterthoughts. His IDP selections are solid though he only drafted two DLs without accounting for bye weeks. Team Grade B-

Asian Sensation Susan Shan drafting out of the 4th spot built a team “wicked” strong on WRs. She can start four of Mike Wallace, D-Jax, V-Jax, Colston, NYG Steve Smith, Andre Roberts, and Royal every week. No one is close to having her at WR depth and hopefully she will trade from her strength to acquire needed players. Her RBs, after Jamaal Charles, are a bit scary with Felix Jones, Seattle guys Lynch and Forsett, and Rashard Jennings. JC is a superstar without a doubt, but all other RBs don’t have a strong role or a firm grasp on playing time.

Eli and Kolb, together, is probably the worst starting QB tandem in this league, but to her benefit, she was the last team to select a starting QB. Selecting Kolb was a leap of faith right now, as it is unknown which team he will play for or what role he will have. The TE selections of Celek and Moeaki are adequate, but did not take into consideration the 1.5 PPR premium scoring that TEs receive. Sensation’s d-line and linebackers are solid, but a bit old on the DL side. The selection of Troy Polumanu seemed to be more on name recognition than IDP prowess. 3 of 4 DBs all have week 11 byes. Team Grade B-

Redwood Zombies Pete was drafting 5th in this draft. His clarity throughout the whole draft was awesome as Pete was getting married while the draft was going on, so big ups to Pete! This is another team that has good starters but is lacking on the depth side. I really liked what he did with his QBs. Matt Ryan, Matt Stafford, and Andy Dalton are all young and have fantastic young WRs to catch their passes. The top two RBs are good with L McCoy and Blount. A lot is riding on Helu to help as Choice, Jacob Hester, and Hightower are the 3rd RBs of their teams.

He has a great start at WR with Jennings and Maclin. Emmanuel Sanders, Jonathan Baldwin, and Andre Caldwell have a lot of upside, but Hartline, Gage, and Gaffney seem to be a waste of roster space. Witten was the best TE in the 1.5PPR scoring last year and will be a big part of Pete’s offense. John Carlson has been a huge disappointment (I know I own him in another league) and Jordan Cameron is a good flier for 2012. All the IDP selections are solid. Team Grade B+

Team Venton Another team owner aka @FantasyFiend who also didn’t meet with investors about team name marketing, hopefully that will get taken care of soon. This is the old/young team. What I mean by that is he has old starters and young backups in many areas. Peyton is Peyton, but having Locker and Newton backing up, Venton has to hope that the neck is fine and that one of these rookies can play right away. The RBs are solid, but not spectacular after Ray Rice. Shonn Greene may or may not be a starter depending on the coachspeak and week. Sproles is a good flex with the scoring and Daniel Thomas has an opportunity to start in Miami.

I like Venton’s first two WRs in Miles Austin and Kenny Britt, but after that I thought he went too old with Randy Moss, Ocho, and Carolina’s Steve Smith. Brandon Tate will be valuable with his returning ability, but word out of NE is that his role will not increase. His TE position is average at best with Greg Olsen and Jared Cook. Olsen is not used by Martz and Cook had a good end of the season, but who knows with the changes in Tennessee. His d-line and DBs are good, but after Derrick Johnson and Clay Matthews, the rest are just guys. Team Grade B

The SoCal Sickness The man with the voice that sounds like it should be “The Watcher” from Marvel’s What If ? fame, Ryan Burns out of the 7th slot. I really like this team as it is a win now team, but has contingency plans like every lawyer should. Rodgers and Cassel at QB is solid, but Sicky has to hope that Cassel won’t have to start more than two games this year. RBs he went solid vets with S-Jax, F-Jax, and Benson. Acquiring Goodson and Taiwan Jones were excellent choices for PPR; however, Donald Brown and Hardesty were head scratchers, but at least they were acquired late.

Ryan embraced the PPR scoring at WR with the first three selections of Larry Fitzgerald, Wes Welker, and Pierre Garcon. He took solid upside guys with Edmund Gates, Leonard Hankerson, Greg Salas, and Golden Tate. At TE, he took the best one in Antonio Gates and backed him up with Keller and forgotten man Fred Davis. I like the upside there. I really like his DLs with Fairly, Calais Campbell, and Justin Smith. Willis and Orakpo are solid LBs, but the rest are long in the tooth: London Fletcher, Ray Lewis, and even my favorite James “Silverback” Harrison. DBs Collins is solid, where does Weddle end up, and how much will Taylor Mays play? Team Grade A-

Bay Area Thunder Sam aka @gridironguy is the commissioner of this operation who got to draft 9th. Sam just wants the money this year, no doubt about it. He came strong at QB with Romo and Schaub while taking Ponder for the future. I’d say that would be the best QB combo in the league. RBs were also very strong with MJD, Darren McFadden, and Ryan Matthews to start. He did pick Deji Karim to help with a perhaps injured MJD, but also swung for the fences with Torain, BJGE, and Bernard Scott. I would have liked to see him grab Tolbert/Michael Bush instead of taking chances with Torain, etc.

Solid WRs were drafted with Reggie Wayne and Sidney Rice. Hester may have some value with the return yardage scoring and Shipley is intriguing, but the rest of the WRs are blah. Sam definitely went “old is gold” with his TEs adding Heap, Cooley, and Heath Miller along with Tamme. His d-line other than Raji are all coming off injuries. The LBs have question marks with older LBs such as Brackett and Urlacher. DeMarco Ryans is solid, but where Tulloch will end up is unknown. The DBs are solid, but not sure about Pollard as who knows where he will end up. Team Grade B+

Richardson Hornfrogs Who let this guy in? Oh yeah, this is my younger brother Ben. I used to say “little brother”, but since I am a towering 5’8” and 185lbs and Ben is 6’2” 215lbs, I’ve since changed my tune. He drafted at the 12th turn spot which he figured out wasn’t the best as he was drafting right in front or behind me. As originally drafted, the QB combo of Freeman, McCoy and Flacco was a very good start. Ben later traded Eric, Flacco and picks, for James Starks and picks. He later acquired Carson Palmer and Ryan Mallett. I like Freeman and have serious questions about McCoy, Palmer, and Mallett.

His RBs are excellent with Forte, Bradshaw, D-Will, and 2/3rds of the GB backfield. Jacobs to back up Bradshaw along with rookie Johnny White will be solid for this team. I love the two Johnsons at WR (Andre and Stevie). Ford is a big upside guy and Massaquoi, Santana Moss, and Jerome Simpson are all big swings. Great 1.5PPR start with Vernon Davis, Winslow, and he originally drafted Gronkowski (but traded with Eric, again). Also, Ben picked up the top two TE rookies in Rudolph and Kendricks. He drafted solid IDPs all over. Team Grade B

Conclusion Yes, I know I didn’t slam anyone too hard or praise too much (worst grade B-, best grade A-) as who knows with this crazy season. I hope this proved to be helpful. Please feel free to drop me or Bryan a line on twitter and keep checking back to see how the season will develop.