Anyone ever tried a vampire league? Seems like a great idea for a friends or family league.
1 team gets to be the “Vampire” and isn’t allowed to draft. Basically just pick up retired players during the draft. They key to it is the vampire can only pick up players off of waivers every week EXCEPT for when they actually beat somebody. If they beat someone they get their choice of player from the losing team. All other league members can’t use waivers at all so a smart strategy is for the other league members to try and work together to draft all or as many as possible of the potential “waiver” qbs.
"The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge" -Stephen Hawking
I am familiar with that type of league but have never played one. I think there is an added strategic component that the vampire can only take from the losing team's starting lineup that week (so for example, if CMac is on a bye he's not at risk if you lose to the vampire). So as the season goes on, you could conceivably tank against the vampire to protect your best players if you wanted to do so.
It's a fun idea, but I feel like there are a few issues: I realize the need to restrict things to make it fair for the vampire, but the lack of waiver access for the human teams means you have to make the rosters deeper because injuries happen. So there is a real risk that the league is either too easy for the vampire by week 3 or 4 or it's REALLY hard for the vampire if rosters are too deep.
Yes, ours is an 8 team league. At one time it was up to 10 teams but some of the team owners lost interest and dropped out. Each team has the following roster restrictions: 10 player/team starting lineup: 1 QB, 2 RBs, 2 WRs, 1 FLEX, 1 TE, 1 defensive team, 1 defensive player(Edge rusher, DT, DE, LB, Safety) and 1 Kicker. Position limits: 4 RBs, 5 WRs, 3 TEs, 3 QBs, 3 Defensive teams, 3 Defensive players, and 1 Kicker. However, the max roster is 16 players. We also can have 4 on IR that don't count against the limit. Players that are ruled out(O) can be put on IR as well. This was added to the rules because of Covid. I dropped Curtis Samuel and picked up Michael Thomas(O)who was on the waiver wire. I then added Thomas to IR. 2 days later picked up Samuel. I have two rookie WRs on my bench, Devonte Smith and Ja' Marr Chase that I got on draft night and I have no idea how they will turn out. If one or both are busts, maybe Thomas will be recovered from his injury and get's back to his All-Pro self. Our waiver limit is 80 for the season and no restrictions on how many players can be picked up on a weekly basis. Once you pick up a player off waivers, you go to the back of the line. I'm usually at the back of the line.
Even in an 8-team league with a max of 4 RBs (so a max of 32 rostered), a guy like Harris should probably be rostered, but it's close. He's a top-30 RB, but close enough to 30 that it could be considered fringe. And since only 40 WRs can be rostered and you have to have at least one defensive player, I can see how some teams might prefer to carry just 3 RBs. I'd personally keep Harris rostered, but can understand hesitance with Belichick. Gaskin absolutely should be rostered, as he's generally considered a top-25 RB.
In your league, Michael Carter shouldn't be rostered, as he's a mid-30s RB until the Jets show otherwise (get clarity on workload splits, show competence, etc.). But he's in a group of RBs that are right on the fringe and could find themselves being useful very early on in the season.
"The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge" -Stephen Hawking
Well, 2nd draft is in the books! This one is a 12 team league, with 3 WR instead of 2, and almost everyone is an experienced fantasy manager so the pickings were a little slimmer. I also massively botched a pick again this draft, waiting a second too long to select James Conner and ending up with Jamison Crowder instead, and leaving me searching for anyone with a pulse at RB for my bench (mitigated somewhat by Gus at the flex). Still, I think one of my WR will pop and give me a serviceable WR3. Decided to go for a QB a earlier than usual just for fun, because I've always wanted to have Aaron Rodgers (and I got him in a decent spot, I felt). Oh, and after not getting a single first round pick in almost 15 years of fantasy (probably 40-50 drafts?) I landed the #1 pick in both of my leagues this year!
QB: Aaron Rodgers
WR: Adam Thielen
WR: Kenny Golliday
WR: Jamison Crowder (ack)
RB: Christian McCaffrey
RB: Chris Carson
TE: Logan Thomas
Flex: Gus Edwards
D/ST: Indianapolis
K: Daniel Carlson (Raiders)
Bench:
AJ Dillon
Tony Pollard
Randall Cobb
Darnell Mooney
Henry Ruggs III
Daniel Jones
I just finished my 2nd Draft as well. You wouldn't be in the Indy Draft on ESPN would you? Ironic we drafted around the same time.
My team:
QB... Murray
RB 1...Taylor
RB 2...Mixon
WR 1...McLaurin
WR2 ...J. Jones
Flex... Gus Edwards
TE... L. Thomas
DFT... Patriots
K... H Butker
Bench:
RB... M. Davis
RB...Moss
RB... Mattison
WR... D. Smith
WR... C. Samuel
QB... Burrow
This is the first time I've been in more than one league, so it's probably going to be a little confusing at first. I got the 6th overall pick in this 10 team league. In my regular league(8 teams) I received the 5th pick. At a quick glance, it looks like my 2nd team is a much weaker team, I guess that's due to having 2 extra teams. One thing I didn't like was that 2 of the team managers used the auto draft and we had to wait 2 minutes when their pick came up.
Yikes! In Yahoo (I've been Yahoo exclusive since like 2013/14 so it was not me in the Indy draft!) the autodraft teams make their auto picks after 10 seconds come off the clock (I assume to give the person some time in case they had just stepped away for a moment) and then the pick is made. Waiting the full allotment for each would be brutal.
That squad looks pretty good to me, but I would be on the lookout for waiver/FA or trad opportunities to shore up WR.
My first league drafted last night. I think this was the first time in like 30+ drafts that I was 10th in a 10 team draft. No PPR:
QB: Tannehill
RB: Taylor
RB: Barkley
WR: Jefferson
WR: Julio Jones
FLEX: James Robinson
TE: Pitts
D/ST: Pats
K: Zuerlein
Bench:
Javonte Williams
Damien Harris
Corey Davis
Marvin Jones
Mike Williams
Philip Lindsay
Trey Lance
I was hoping to take Kelce in the round 1/2 turn, but he was gone by pick 9. So instead of TE/RB and RB/RB, I went RB/RB and WR/RB. I feel pretty fortunate that Jefferson fell to 30. Just missed on a couple of WR targets in the mid rounds, but my strategy going in was to go WR for most of rounds 6-12. Then I took Tannehill in round 11/12 and a flyer at RB and QB in rounds 13-14.
Well, my first big decision of 2021 is looming as I try to decide whether to roll out Antonio Brown, Myles Gaskin, or Diontae Johnson (half PPR league). Johnson seems like the safe bet but Brown is so tempting...
So in my other league (also a 10-team non-PPR with QB/2 RB/2 WR/TE/FLEX/DEF/K), there is a wider range of expertise. QBs and TEs went earlier than they should have, and there were some defenses taken WAY too early as well. I went in with the same strategy as in my first draft: go heavy on RB early, grab one of the 3 top-tier TE if opportunity presented, and hammer the WR in the middle rounds. And like the other draft, the elite TE market closed before I was ready to take one. I also missed on my fallback (Pitts) by two picks, so after that I just punted until round 14. Here's the turnout:
QB: Prescott (Round 7)
RB: Cook (R1)
RB: Gibson (R2)
WR: Allen Robinson (R5)
WR: Lockett (R6)
FLEX: Mixon (R3)
TE: Tonyan (R14)
DEF: Steelers (R15)
K: Zuerlein (R16)
Bench:
Edwards-Hilaire (R4)
Aikuk (R8)
D. Harris (R9)
Robby Anderson (R10)
Deebo Samuel (R11)
Chase (R12)
Chark (R13)
I obviously don't like my TE position, but there were only 6 guys I was interested in at that spot and they all went too soon for me. After that, I was okay with whomever was available late. But what was crazy was how long the WR spot stayed fruitful in that draft. Now, several of the guys I took (Anderson, Aiyuk/Samuel, Chase, and Chark) have question marks (mainly crowded WR rooms), but I feel like I got each guy a round or 3 later than they should have gone. Most of the other guys were trying to fill in depth at RB. There are maybe 3-4 teams with 3 useful RBs, and the rest are hoping for injuries or to luck out on timeshares.
Robby Anderson is being massively underrated, he is a good get. I'm disappointed I couldn't grab him in any leagues.
People seem to be treating him with the "new QB uncertainty" question marks, but Robby Anderson played most of his career to this point with Sam Darnold, and has had some big production in that time. I think Sam will be happy to look for him early and often this season.
In my last ESPN fantasy league, for some reason I picked up Ty'Son Williams, RB for Baltimore last night. Low and behold, today Gus Edwards sustains a bad knee injury is most likely out for the year. Gus was one of my starting RBs but I know how hard a runner he is and I wanted a back up if he got hurt. From all the reports I saw, Williams really impressed the coaching staff in preseason. I'm not too worried about Lavon Bell taking too many carries from him when he get's in shape. I hate the style of running Bell uses. Now if I could upgrade my wide receivers.
The amusing aspect of fantasy football (and specifically playing in more than one league): I had Dak in one league and faced Dak in another. So my pleasure with Dak's high-scoring performance last night was somewhat deflated by my opponent having Dak in the other league.
I was sweating Greg the Leg's -1 points late in the first half, but thankfully he picked it up in the second half to finish with 10. I have him in both of my leagues.
Looks like it was a great move on taking AB as he had a very good game.
Now back to the Gus Edwards saga. As I mentioned I picked up Ty'Son Williams when Gus was put on IR. Then the Ravens added FA Latvious Murray to their team. Murray was released by the Saints over a salary/contract dispute. Needless to say with no limit on waiver claims, I now have Murray and Williams on my 2nd ESPN Fantasy team. That league has a limit of 8 running backs and 8 wide receivers that make leaves little value on those waiver claims.
All of those guys were already rostered in this league somehow. I ended up picking up Mark Ingram and Devonta (wow I'm glad I looked that up, I completely botched it on the first try) Freeman and Mark Ingram. Sent out a trade offering Ruggs and AJ Dillon for James Conner and David Johnson (to the Aaron Jones owner).
ESPN leagues have a trade assistant with Watson program on their site. It has potential trade partners suggesting players that can be traded with what they call a fair trade. The only problem it seems like almost every possible trade I have to give up my #2 running back in the deal and get back a #4 running back, and 1 or 2 wide receivers that want make my weekly starting lineup.