Some things to think about... and instructions.

Here we are, two days before the draft. I don't know where many of you are at in preparation... I know I feel the weight of a few hours in Excel looming over me, forever up until now being put off. You'd think I spend time doing stuff like this while being unemployed. You'd be surprised at how many other things seem more important!

Anyway, I want to write a quick post regarding the value you may be placing at certain positions in the draft. Don't worry, I'm not changing anything, but I think there's something present in this league that if you haven't already considered it, you should very soon. Like... now.

A while ago I wrote a few of you in an e-mail about some of the major changes in the league. One of the significant differences I mentioned was the new value of Special Teams play for individual players. While Kyle mentioned this in a post not long ago, I don't think that the real point was communicated as much as it needs to be. Special Teams players receive fantasy points in this league in a very similar, if not exactly similar, way to regular offensive players.

Consider this: The Green Bay Packers, the chumps they are, kick off to Devin Hester on 9/13, assured that Hester will continue his slump from last year. On the opening kick, Hester receives the ball and WHAM... runs it back for a ninety yard return touchdown, jumping over two Packers along the way, hitting A.J Hawk in the mouth, green gold and blood all over his unifor... okay, no... 95% (and lowering, Josh) percent of leagues award 6pts to whoever was sly enough to grab the Chicago D/ST this year, while you watch the StatTracker and notice that the obviously inexperienced or moronic team who took Hester in the 5th round just got 15 pts to start the game, without even playing one offensive down. You see, Hester received 1pt for every 10yrds he returned (exactly like an offensive player), and another 6ts for making a touchdown (yup), totaling 15pts.

This kind of production will be awarded to ALL players of Special Teams. Is it going to radically change the first round of the draft? Probably not, but maybe! Will it change the middle rounds? We'd be stupid to think it wouldn't. Guys like MJD, Hester, Sproles, etc. have enormously increased value, and I won't be surprised to see them go very, very early.

So my warning to you is: Think about this. Consider it, and know the value of the players before you draft assuming that this is a normal league. There are significant changes, so understand them before Sunday.

If you haven't really decided how your draft is going to look, or if you haven't done much to prepare, you're in the same boat as me. Though, you're probably not lucky enough to be unemployed to devote free time like I can. So get ready while you can, Sunday is fast approaching.

One more thing. I'd like everyone to be here between 12:30pm and 1pm, and be ready to START DRAFTING at 1:05pm. I imagine the draft to take a while, but it shouldn't drag as long as we follow the very intuitive time schedule I have made.

Please let me know if you need anything. I am going to provide chip-like snacks and soda for the draft. If anyone wants beer, please bring a six-pack at your leisure. I'd also like to ask everyone who wants to order pizza following the draft to bring $6-7 CASH to contribute to the bill, as I have time being unemployed, but no money. Below is my address, with simple instructions from Kenosha.

Take 31 north to Racine.

Take a right onto HWY C/Spring St.

Take a left at the first light, Spring Valley Drive.

Stay left

Go to the end of the road, the house is green on the left hand side.

1518 Spring Valley Drive

Racine

Good luck to all. Please let me know if you have any questions!

New Roster Structure

League,

Here is what the new roster setup will look like according to the final vote.

QB

RB

RB

WR

WR

WR

TE

Flex (QB/RB/WR/TE)

K

IDP

IDP

IDP

BN

BN

BN

BN

BN

BN

IR

IR (thanks Josh)

There are 18 roster spots. I'll post some final things soon regarding the draft (nothing that will change the rules, just some last minute things).

If there is ANYTHING else that is unclear, please let me know on this blog so it can be clarified. The last thing I want is someone to say on draft day "I didn't know THAT'S what we were doing!"

Peace.

Keeper Side of things

I was wondering if you could explain in a little more detail the "keeper" side of things. I know we briefly talked about it, but it would be great to see some official stuff on it. If this is something that you have already posted then just point me in the right direction. Thanks Pat!

Rules and Stuff. Important Stuff. Stuff you should read.

Some may be wondering "what are the rules to win this league over a three years span?" I admit I have not given much insight into this, though a few of you have given your opinion in how this should work, which I believe I have incorporated well. This post should sufficiently explain how to win the main jackpot of the league.

There will be two modes of play in this league, and accordingly, two modes of reward. There is the one-year term and the three-year term.

One Year Term

Each year you will pay me $25 which will go toward the winners of the league that year. The rewards will be distributed as follows:

1st: $175

2nd: $75

3rd: $25

The last $25 will be given to the winner of a separate game we will play, which will be similar to a playoff pick'em style game, only online. I thought this would be a good idea for us to stay interested throughout the playoffs. NFL.com usually has a game called Playoff Challenge which involves picking winners and individual player performances throughout the playoffs. We can see what's available when the time comes, though.

Three Year Term

This will be a little more complicated. It will reward wins, player performance and league performance via a points system as follows:

League Performance

100pts - 1st Place (if you get 1st Place one year, you get 100pts towards the 3 year term)

60pts - 2nd Place

35pts - 3rd Place

25pts - Best Record

25pts - Most Fantasy Points

(EDIT) 25pts - Any team to make the playoffs but not reach 1st, 2nd or 3rd

Each of the following performance categories will be awarded 25pts on a yearly basis.

Passing Yards

Rushing Yards

Receiving Yards

Tackles

Interceptions

Sacks

Each week, I will draw two performance categories out of a hat, one offensive and one defensive, from the categories listed above. The team(s) to have the best performance in each category will receive 5 points.

*If the unlikely scenario occurs where a team wins 1st Place all three years, but does not have enough points to win the league, they, by default, win the league anyway.*

The Three Year Term award money will be distributed as follows:

1st Place - $700

2nd Place - $325

3rd Place - $175

Below is a possible scenario where Wally wins the league by winning 1st place one year and having a very strong performance all three years. I didn't include the weekly 5pt awards.

Other players are competitive, but not enough. I made the points system structured in a way that rewards 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winnings the most points, because I believe they are the closest resemblence to the way the NFL awards teams (its all about W's). However, I think that in a three year league, we can respect those teams that may perform well but have bad playoff weeks from year to year. This is why I also want to award points to overall performances.

I'm going to update this blog weekly with how everyone is doing in regards to this on either Tuesday or Wednesday every week in a very easy to read table.

I hope this sounds good to everyone. I'm open to minor changes, but I think this really is a good way to award teams throughout the course of the league. Please let me know if you have any questions, complaints, or yes, even praises! E-mail, comment on this post, or whatever...

Two-QB Controversy -Please vote!

Okay.

I understand that there are some drawbacks to having 2 QB's with 12 teams. Bye weeks, injuries, etc. If someone drafts Peyton Manning, and he goes down in the 2nd game, that player is at a serious disadvantage, considering that all of the starting QB's will inevitably be taken already. I don't want to put anyone through the situation of having to leave a roster spot empty every week. I don't think that I can produce a feasible solution to the bye-week/injury debate with the current set of rules. In my opinion, this is a problem that we are all facing evenly and fairly. I intend on punting the missing QB slot for my team during bye weeks, and hoping that no one goes down on injury. But, I can't persuade anyone else to play like that.

While I still want to keep 2 QB's in this league, I also want to make it as fun as possible while culturing competitive play. Therefore, I am going to put it to vote. I know if anything changes now, it may affect your draft analysis thus far. Though, in my experience, the major parts of my draft analysis happen within the week before the draft, being finalized the day before. I want to apologize in advance if this ends up affecting any draft analysis you've already done.

These are the three options:

1) Keep the league as-is. Two quarterbacks, and the QB/Flex option.

2) Change the roster spots to 1 QB, but keep the Flex position to allow a 2nd starting QB. Also, add another IDP position (I will want to add another IDP spot if Option 2 was voted best to attempt to recover the lost depth at QB strategy).

3) Only allow 2 QB's to be owned by any team at any given time (except in injury situations), and make the Flex position only RB/WR/TE.

Please let me know your vote as soon as possible. I will see what everyone thinks and change the rules accordingly (if necessary) on Tuesday at noon.

Looking to trade my 2nd overall pick!!!

If anyone is interested in my 2nd overall pick please let me know. You can contact me at pcampen568@gmail or text/call me at 262-620-7774. Please feel free to make an offer!!! Thanks and good luck everyone!!

HAHAHAHA

Really? A 1st and 2nd round pick for the #1 overall?

Just so everyone knows, I have the 3rd overall, and it is also available for a much much lower price than a 1st & 2nd round pick.


Assuming Peterson and Turner are taken 1 & 2, that leaves me to pick Forte or Jones Drew. I don't trust Jones Drew, and Forte is a Bear. Make me an offer.

Draft Trades

I am willing and open to hear trade offers for my 1st overall draft pick. I would like a 1st and 2nd round pick for my 1st round pick and another pick or assortment of picks. Please email me at jfreeborn1@gmail.com or call/text me at 262-358-2026.

John Freeborn

Draft Order

I have completed the draft order. This is an excellent opportunity to refine your draft strategy and should allow you to realistically target players. For those of you that are curious as to the process employed, you can watch the entire process at http://www.twitvid.com/3DEF3. And now to the important stuff...

1. John Freeborn - Bobby Jones Gospel

2. Paul Campen - Hit and Run

3. Josh Aulozzi - I Get My Butt Kicked

4. Kyle Jolly - Jay Cutler

5. Tim O'Keefe - Pattymakers

6. Miguel Pulido - Freeborns mom

7. Brian DeCesaro - Wheaties

8. David Hamilton - PRE-PRE-SEASON

9. Tony Barriere - Kenosha Moose

10. Pat O'Keefe - The Bluths

11. Wally Matoska - (not yet signed up)

12. John Herrin - Vipers

ENJOI

How to win your Two-QB league

How to win your Two-QB league

Spread the scarcity: Two-QB leagues might be truest fantasy test

---

By Christopher Harris
ESPN.com

If there's one complaint I hear all the time about standard fantasy football leagues, it's that fantasy owners don't get to fraternize with cheerleaders.

But if there's a second complaint I hear all the time about standard fantasy football leagues, it's that the most important position in real football -- quarterback -- is too normalized and commodified, and thus marginalized, on fantasy draft day. I mean, an NFL franchise would sell its first-born mascot (and spend hundreds of millions of dollars) to find a great starting quarterback, but when it comes to fantasy drafts, we "experts" routinely tell you to take two running backs and often one or two receivers before you grab a signal-caller?

Well, there's a flavor of ESPN's fantasy football game that solves this issue. When you play the "Two-QB" version of our game, you're forced to start a second quarterback (as well as a third receiver). Even in a 10-team league, quarterback scarcity now becomes an issue, in a way that previously applied to only running backs. (Sorry to those of you in search of a "Two-Kicker" game.) Not only must you select two quarterbacks for your starting lineup, but you have to seriously consider grabbing a third for bye weeks. When the 20 best signal-callers are in starting fantasy lineups, it gets a heck of a lot harder to troll for decent options if you're in need of a backup.

In addition, Two-QB leagues inject another starting wide receiver into the mix, so you now have 11 starters: two QBs, two RBs, three WRs, one RB/WR, one TE, one K and one DEF. The overall intention here, clearly, is to try to balance the top of your fantasy draft. Even in standard leagues, the strategy of always going RB-RB in your first two rounds has become at least mildly suspect; in Two-QB leagues, it is downright bankrupt. No, the idea of a Two-QB league is to spread scarcity more evenly across fantasy's three primary positions. Let's look at a handy little chart to see what I mean; let's compare scarcity in standard leagues and Two-QB leagues:

Two-QB League Scarcity Analysis
Pos	Starters (Real NFL)	Starters (Fantasy)	Percent Started
QB - Standard	32	10	31%
QB - Two-QB	32	20	62%
RB - Standard	32	20	62%
RB - Two-QB	32	20	62%
WR - Standard	64	20	31%
WR - Two-QB	64	30	47%

In other words, whereas in a standard fantasy league, RB scarcity tends to be twice as urgent as QB and WR scarcity, in a Two-QB league, you have the same percentage of starting NFL players at RB and QB who will wind up starting in fantasy leagues. Now, these percentages aren't entirely accurate, because there's a RB/WR flex starting position in each of these league types. But the point stands: We've substantially leveled the playing field among positions.

Does this mean you should ignore that tried-and-true fantasy maxim about RB primacy? Not quite. A look at the standard deviations among the top performers at each of the three major fantasy positions reinforces that getting a stud rusher is still important:

Fantasy Point Standard Deviations, 2007
Position	Top 10 Std. Dev.	Top 20 Std. Dev.	Top 30 Std. Dev.
RB	41.5	43.3	45.9
QB	27.8	43.6	59
WR	22.6	21.9	22.7

Translation: The drop-off among the elite running backs is nearly instantaneous, whereas the drop-off among the elite quarterbacks happens in the 11-to-20 range, and there really is no drop-off among elite receivers -- they're spread out relatively evenly.

Thus, despite the fact that scarcity now is evenly spread among QB, RB and WR, it still makes sense to try to grab what we currently consider an "elite" rusher in the first round of your Two-QB draft. Certainly, that includes LaDainian Tomlinson, Adrian Peterson, Brian Westbrook, Steven Jackson and Joseph Addai. (However, if you can't get one of those guys, taking Tom Brady or Randy Moss in the first round continues to be a fine strategy, as it is in a standard league.) Where things start to get confusing is after your first pick.

Now you have to start thinking quarterback. The stars (Brady, Peyton Manning, Tony Romo and Drew Brees) all should be second-round picks, and whereas in standard leagues, my advice always is to wait a long, long, long time to take your quarterback if you miss out on the elites, in a Two-QB league, you don't have such luxury. Now, grabbing your first quarterback is as urgent as grabbing your first wide receiver and your second running back. And frankly, the beauty of our Two-QB format is that I really can't prescribe, round by round, which positions you should take in the third, fourth and fifth rounds. After you make sure to secure that top-10 rusher, the best strategy I can offer is to take the best remaining players on the board, regardless of position, with the caveat that you'd better spread the love among QB, RB and WR. Focus too heavily on any of these, and the scarcity bug will bite you in the positions you ignore.

In summary, my draft strategy recommendations for Two-QB leagues go like this:

• Continue to lean toward RB in the first round, and continue to try like heck to get one of the top 10 rushers.

• Take your first quarterback in the second or third round, unless it's Brady.

• Stick to the "best available" premise in the first four or five rounds.

• However, in those early rounds, don't focus on one of the "big three" positions to the exclusion of any other.

• Think seriously about drafting three quarterbacks, because bye weeks will be tough to fill.

Christopher Harris is a fantasy baseball, football and racing analyst for ESPN.com. He is a six-time Fantasy Sports Writers Association award winner across all three of those sports. You can e-mail him here.

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Dynasty Rankings

Here is a link to a website that I use very often for fantasy baseball. They have some good dynasty rankings online that one could use for pre-draft analysis specifically tailored for non-PPR long term dynasty-style leagues.

You have started your pre-draft analysis, haven't you?

http://www.fantasyfootballcafe.com/2009/player_rankings_dynasty.php