Fantasy Football 2021 VaxPopuli

[HaemishM]

Someone poked me to remind me to renew our Yahoo Fantasy League, so if you participated last year, you probably got an invite. I'm imported last year's final rosters, so we could either do a keeper league or just dump it all and redraft.

Thoughts?

[Flood]

Thanks for the restart Haemish.  I just realized the league has been running continuously since at least 2008 (probably longer)   

so we could either do a keeper league or just dump it all and redraft.

I'd vote to stay redraft, it's the most streamlined / easiest to access for everyone.

[HaemishM]

Right now, I'm still set for a keeper league. There's no way to set the number of keepers for each team, so I'm going to allow a max of 2 players as keepers, the rest go back in the draft pool.

Unless we have any more objections. I've never done a keeper league in any form so this is new to me.

[Phildo]

I set my keepers.  Fine with whatever you guys, though.  I'm happy either way.

[Cyrrex]

My only dilemma being whether or not Aaron will actually try this year or if he is still pissed at the world.  Or just getting old.

[HaemishM]

If there's one thing for sure, Aaron Rodgers is not going to tank the season. He'll probably come out and MVP it up just so he can shove it in the Packers' organizations' collective face next season when they do something stupid like trade him for some magic beans and a slot cornerback.

[WayAbvPar]

I like the idea of keepers. I haven't gone anywhere overnight since before COVID, and naturally the draft is set to the weekend I am taking my family to the Oregon Coast. I will see if I can swing a phone draft from the beach or something.

[Llyse]

Amazing!!!

Happy with anything and will set my keepers now   

[HaemishM]

If we need to switch the draft date, I can do that. I set it to the latest possible weekend date before the season starts, but it can be earlier. I just have to change the keeper deadline to be before the draft.

[Llyse]

Question, are we still sticking to a 1 QB league? Any chance of joining the fads of 2 QB? 

[HaemishM]

Is that a thing? Because I'm not sure there are 24 QBs worth drafting. 

[WayAbvPar]

I vote no on 2 QBs.

[Phildo]

As a thought experiment, who are the 8 worst starting QBs in the league and how much worse are they than the middle ~10.

[HaemishM]

I expect Jameis Winston to be a mid-tier QB if he wins the Saints starting QB job, but only because he'll probably throw 40 TD and 41 INT.

[Llyse]

Is that a thing? Because I'm not sure there are 24 QBs worth drafting. 

Harsh!
Looking at 2020 season the 25 - 32 on Yahoo by points are

• Trubisky
• Fitzmagic
• Taysom Hill
• Darnold
• Red Rifle Dalton
• Tua
• Prescott (hurt)
• Hurts
• Foles

So there's about 24 goodish QBs... 

[MrHat]

I'd love if we added a super flex or any flex option.

How long are keepers good for? 9 years? What draft spot does a keeper take?

[HaemishM]

I have no idea the answer to those questions. I've literally never done a keeper league.

[MrHat]

Superflex is a QB/RB/WR/TE slot that can be filled by anything but is usually filled by a QB since that's typically more solid than the others.

Keeper leagues sometimes have rules where (1) you can only keep the same player for a certain number of years and/or (2) if you keep someone they take up your first round draft spot, if you keep 2 it's your 1st and 2nd draft spot and/or (3) if you keep someone they 'cost' one to two rounds higher than what you drafted the previous year, i.e. if you drafted Aiyuk in the 12th round last year, then to keep him this year would cost you your 10th round spot and/or (4) waiver adds that weren't drafted cost a generic like 12th round slot to keep.

Usually, the simplest version (what I run in an nfl.com league with local scrubs who half pay attention) is you can keep up 2 players, and if you do it's just (2) - they cost a 2nd round draft spot and a 1st round draft spot.

Not sure what Yahoo! by default has set up.

[HaemishM]

Yahoo is not very helpful when it comes to explaining this shit. 

How about this? Everybody can keep 2, but you can only keep 1 of any type (i.e. only 1 QB and 1 RB), and each one you keep is a draft pick (so if you only keep 1, you lose your first round draft pick, if you keep 2, skip your first 2 rounds). We'll see if that's something that works. In addition, I'd say that you can't keep the same guy for multiple years in a row - so if I choose to keep Mahomes this season, I can't keep him next season.

[HaemishM]

This should not affect your keepers (remember to select 2 keepers by Tuesday, Aug. 31) and set your draft order - I'm going to change the roster positions. I've added the super flex (so QB/RB/TE/WR) and removed one of the WR positions (because holy shit, finding 2 good WR is almost impossible, much less 3). In addition, just because we've never done this, I'm going to add 1 defensive player position. It can be any player but for scoring, all that counts if Sack (2), INT(3), Defensive Touchdown(6), Fumble Recovery(2) and Safety (2).

I figured fuck it, this is going to be a different season in how we run this thing, let's mix it up a bit.

[Llyse]

 

[HaemishM]

I've finalized the keepers and the draft order which was determined using a random draft order generator. We'll have snaking live draft rounds on Sunday, September 5 @ 4:00 pm CDT (5 pm EDT, 2 pm PDT). Each keeper pick you chose takes up a draft pick at the beginning of the draft, so those with 2 keepers forego their first two rounds. You can view the draft order and keepers here - https://football.fantasysports.yahoo.com/f1/181186/draftresults

[MrHat]

Just to confirm that the IDP player gets no stats for #tackles?

[HaemishM]

Correct - I felt like that was a defensive stat akin to receptions for receivers or carries for running backs. It's easy to pile up points with those stats on players who are basically shit otherwise. Looking at you, Blake Martinez. 

[Cyrrex]

So what DO the defensive players get points for?  Because my random player is predicted to average 1 touchdown a game or something, and that seems unrealistic.

Also, my team fucking sucks, but that is not new.

[HaemishM]

I might have made a mistake with the defensive players points totals - their stats are Sack (2), INT(3), Defensive Touchdown(6), Fumble Recovery(2) and Safety (2). I thought adding tackles would make the defensive players too points heavy, but it might be a way to make them worth more than just a few points a game.

Should I add tackles to the defensive player or keep them the same?

[Cyrrex]

Well honestly, if you just leave it as it is, most defensive players will end up contributing jack shit most weeks, and will then have some freak game with a Pick 6 and a Sack and go over 10 points.  Seems too random.

[MrHat]

Well honestly, if you just leave it as it is, most defensive players will end up contributing jack shit most weeks, and will then have some freak game with a Pick 6 and a Sack and go over 10 points.  Seems too random.

It's basically adding a roll of the dice to every week, akin to starting a second kicker.

I don't mind it tbh, just leave it as is and we'll figure it out better for next year. I would've picked a LB over a CB if tackles mattered.

 Now would be the time to talk actual keeper rules for next year.

[Cyrrex]

Well honestly, if you just leave it as it is, most defensive players will end up contributing jack shit most weeks, and will then have some freak game with a Pick 6 and a Sack and go over 10 points.  Seems too random.

It's basically adding a roll of the dice to every week, akin to starting a second kicker.

I don't mind it tbh, just leave it as is and we'll figure it out better for next year. I would've picked a LB over a CB if tackles mattered.

 Now would be the time to talk actual keeper rules for next year.

I mean...the rules apply equally to all of us, so it is fine either way.

As far as keepers go, I have Aaron Rodgers and fully expect him to become instantly useless at some point within the next calendar year for any number of reasons, so...

[HaemishM]

I did mention up above that you can't keep the same guy 2 seasons in a row (kind of like a franchise tag that gets prohibitively expensive).

[Cyrrex]

I did mention up above that you can't keep the same guy 2 seasons in a row (kind of like a franchise tag that gets prohibitively expensive).

Ah, sure.  Of course, that just means I have to go for 2 other guys on my team, and FUCK THOSE GUYS.

[Phildo]

Ended up not having good enough reception where I was to join the draft.  Pre-selected a few QBs to be my first picks and got none of them, so now I have two kickers.  Thanks, Yahoo!

Last time I did defensive players, we had four slots (CB, LB, DE and S) and that took some of the randomness out of it.  Really put a premium on the top guys (JJ Watt that year), but it mostly evened out over the season.

[WayAbvPar]

Trying to research the 25th best LB for drafting is more effort than I am willing to put in at this point. I don't mind having 1 snowflake, but adding extra positions just makes managing the team an even bigger hassle for injuries and bye weeks. Another reason I was against QBs as a flex. It is too important a position to leave until the last minute, and there aren't enough good ones to begin with, so it just becomes an nightmare when byes start (or people get hurt). People are going to be starting backups and hoping for injuries by the end of the season.

[MrHat]

Well, that was a really dominate season until the very end :(



Congrats to Burrow of Cin for never giving up on Cincinnati.

[Phildo]

I watched folks in two other leagues leave Chase on the bench, including one in the finals.  Well done to have him playing!