2022 Draft Recap
Alec
Textbook "Hero RB" draft which is similar to the Zero RB strategy, except it usually ends up working. Jonathan Taylor is good enough to be 2 RBs all by himself; whichever one(s) amidst the rest of the group here end up with the most playing time will be a decent enough RB2.
JuJu in the 4th as WR3 is great, and I wouldn't be surprised if the "Mahomes bump" ends up being the new "Peyton bump" (see: mid-2010s Eric Decker, Julius Thomas, etc.). Also like Doubs as the mandatory homer sleeper, he was on my list if he could have made it to me.
Negative points for taking a second TE instead of Alec Pierce.
Draft grade: Madison/10
Paul
James Connor and Josh Jacobs are two RBs that I think will outperform a lot of people's expectations this year due to their respective depth charts suddenly becoming less crowded. The Cardinals got rid of Chase Edmonds, and the Raiders got rid of Kenyan Drake.
I don't know if Cooper Kupp will put up 1900 yards every year, but like, he's still Cooper Kupp. Nothing wrong with taking him 2nd overall IMO. Mandrews is already in the nickname HOF, and anyone reading this could be Brandin Cooks' quarterback and he'd still put up 1000 yards.
Negative points for the combination of Dak Prescott and Cowboys DST, because now you have to cheer for a Mike McCarthy team every week.
Draft grade: Fuck it, Kupp down there somewhere/10
Collin
Do I think Michael Thomas will ever be fully healthy again? I have no idea. Do I like Michael Thomas as a WR4? Hell yeah I do, especially when Tyreek Hill, DJ Moore, and Courtland Sutton are the guys in front of him. I feel like they've all gotten kind of shit on unnecessarily this offseason. I don't think Tua is "bad" enough to affect Hill meaningfully, DJM has been an automatic 1200 yard guy with QB's way worse than Baker Mayfield, and Sutton is the best receiver that Russell Wilson is throwing to.
Obviously can't say anything bad about Derrick Henry. Sanders and Penny seem like question marks (either in terms of production or health) every year, but as flex plays they're excellent
Negative points for rolling with Cleveland DST into week 1 where they will hopefully get eviscerated by Baker's 690 yard, 7 TD revenge game (please football gods I need this).
Draft grade: Fuck the Browns/10
Chris
Christian McCaffery. Chris Godwin. Chris Conley. Chris Boswell. Chris Manhertz.
These players are all of varying quality, but the one thing they do have in common is that they are undeniably Chris.
Onto serious notes, this is simultaneously the best RB group in the league by a mile and also the biggest glass cannon I've ever seen. Is that good or bad? Who cares, it's fantasy football. But just imagine if CMC and Saquon both stay healthy. Holy shit. And even if they do miss time again, I don't hate Zeke and Breece Hall as RB3 and 4.
Also, Derek Carr in the 10th is a phenomenal value QB pick. Personally I couldn't believe he's been outside the top 12 of some "expert" rankings -- how the hell is anyone going to cover Hunter Renfrow and Darren Waller and Davante Adams?
Negative points for not drafting Christian Kirk, Chris Olave, or Christian Watson.
Draft grade: Chris/10
Sean
I can't criticize this team because I play against it Week 1 and The Karmic Laws of Fantasy Football state that I will get my ass kicked if I do
Negative points for not leaving any Elijahs left for the rest of us. Rude.
Draft grade: Elijah/10
Emil
For seemingly the entire season last year, Cordarelle Patterson would have a massive game at a brand new position and the fantasy world would go, "Yeah, but there's no way he can do it again." Followed of course by Cordarelle Patterson having massive games again, and again.
Now it's the next year and people are saying, "Yeah he was great last year, but there's no way he can do it again." What I'm trying to get at is that Patterson is a damn good RB3, and fits very nicely into the draft strategy here which began with Ekeler and Chubb, probably the best one-two punch in the league.
This team's probably a little light on WR, given that DK Metcalf doesn't have Russ anymore, and Chase Claypool is probably supplanted by George Pickens. But, that's really the only criticism I have.
Negative points for Justin Fields just because fuck the Bears
Draft grade: I don't have anything good for this one. Team's fine though/10
Ben
The only team that opened the draft with WR-WR in the first two rounds, except one of them is Deebo Samuel, so not really.
This team is the truest Zero RB strat that played out in our league, and since I set up the joke about ZRB being shitty in Alec's write up, I have to follow through now. Honestly, I really don't hate AJ Dillon and JK Dobbins as the starters with the rest of the roster shaping up how it did. Josh Allen is obviously un-fuck-with-able, and Jefferson/Deebo/Allen Robinson is probably the strongest set of starting WRs in the league. Also just noticed that Robinson's team is wrong on the graphic (no I'm not fixing it) since he's on the Rams now.
Brian Robinson would be a stellar RB3 in ZRB strategy, but it turns out that the world is cruel and horrible. Get well soon.
Negative points for autodrafting which renders this entire section totally moot more moot than usual.
Draft grade: Fantasy football is meaningless/10
Jon
Oh hey it's me. I think this is the first time I've ever done the early TE strat in this league, and one of the few times I've ever done it in general. I... somewhat regret it, lol
I think my starters are in pretty good shape, though I was really hoping for someone better than Damien Harris as RB3. He had an insane amount of touchdowns last year but obviously that's not sustainable. Broncos play whoever the hell Seattle and Houston have at QB in the first two weeks so that should be a decent DST to start with.
As a response to missing out on the cool new rookies all the time, I swung the pendulum the other way hard this year. Without counting it up for every team, I think I might have taken more rookies than anyone. Drake London, Treylon Burks, and Jalen Tolbert are all "fuck it, <insert respective QB> has to throw to someone" picks, and Tyler Allgeier is a "I'm a fantasy football tryhard" pick.
Negative points for being the first guy to take a TE everyone knows you're not supposed to do that you idiot come on
Draft grade: R is for Rookie, that's good enough for me/10
Connor
Fuck this one looks really good. Shit
There's only really two things I can think of that might make this team not good. One, will the Broncos actually give Javonte Williams a larger share of the work like they should be doing, and two, is Trey Lance actually Jesus or has the SF coaching staff been blowing smokescreens everywhere?
Fact - I had Rashod Bateman at the top of my list when Connor took him, leading me to pick Damien Harris (see above). That, then, led me to not pick Rhamondre Stevenson, who ended up on Connor's team as well.
Negative points for sniping my picks you ASS
Draft grade: I mean it's Connor so he's probably gonna win/10
John
I was hoping Swift would make it back to me two picks after this -- he's a great pass-catching RB on a team that loses a lot, which is the magic formula for fantasy points. Travis Etienne is somewhat mysterious, since he was injured all of last year, but either he or Chase Edmonds should be a perfectly cromulent RB2.
WRs are great on this team. Ja'marr Chase speaks for himself, and then while AJB and Gabriel Davis are no slouches themselves, I (unpopular opinion) honestly like Amon-Ra as a WR2 more than them. Maybe I'm looking too much into the end of his season last year, but I think he's their best receiver, and again, they're going to be losing a lot. Because Detroit, lmao
Big ups for the Rodgers and Watson homer picks, if Christian Watson is as advertised that stack could actually win games.
Negative points for drafting Stafford, he's not even a Lion anymore what are you doing
Draft grade: football is a sport, go packers/10
Austin
I miss Davante, but it's pretty cool that he gets to play with his college quarterback for his childhood favorite team. And, he's still going to be amazing, too. Not sure how successful MVS will be with his new team, since the man is still a walking coin flip, but as WR3 or 4 he's pretty good.
The RB group here is something of a coin flip too, since nobody's 100% sure that Kamara won't be suspended, and Dameon Pierce has been one of the biggest recent fantasy football meme. Seriously every other day I see different articles saying that he's shit and the Texans are shit, or that he's amazing and a steal. Fuck it I have no idea
Finally I can't believe Joe Burrow was the 8th QB off the board. Not that the other 7 guys shouldn't have been ahead of him, just a testament to how good QB depth is this year. Great pick.
Negative points for reminding me about Davante Adams. wolverine_looking_at_photograph_meme.jpeg
Draft grade: The 2021 Packers/10
Erik
The app apparently malfunctioned causing Stefon Diggs to be drafted in the first round, but thereafter this team was "drafted from the heart."
If you're gonna accidentally autopick a round, the first is the one to do it, because you pretty much can't miss, and Diggs is a good one. So is Mixon to follow up at RB1. I'm not mad about Mahomes in the 3rd since he's like, really fucking good and stuff, but I gotta say Lazard seems pretty reachy at 4.1. Like, I'm hoping he'll put up 1500 yards and 12 TDs but I don't think it's gonna happen. That role will obviously belong to Romeo Doubs.
Anyway, everything else looks pretty good here, the double QB is unnecessary but if you're gonna do it you might as well guarantee yourself a great one every week. I've seem Cole Kmet mentioned a lot as a top sleeper TE this year so I wouldn't be surprised if he pops off.
Negative points for not drafting Romeo Doubs.
Draft grade: Heart of the Cards/10