Fantasy Football Party Mock Draft #3

by Anthony Maggio | Aug 22, 2016 | 2016 Season, Fantasy Football

Another awesome mock draft event in the books! Thanks so much to Tin Whiskers and to all our participants for coming out to support the show. We had mock drafters AND folks there just to hang out and watch, ask questions, and enjoy the fabulous Tin Whiskers brews. Now, to the mock review…

This was a two-horse race for my favorite team, one of them being mine, and the other being Bobby’s. I’m supposed to be OK at this so I’ll simply note the values I got at QB and TE (seriously, wait on those positions on draft day) and move on. Bobby got great value all over the place as well. This is a standard league draft, but David Johnson dropping that far is surprising. There’s some risk here that Chris Johnson and Andre Ellington sap some of David Johnson’s volume, but that offense is explosive enough—as is David Johnson—that it shouldn’t matter much. Following up with Brandon Marshall and CJ Anderson was wonderful too. And that Tom Brady pick followed by Eli for the first four weeks, bravo!

Dave LaVaque went against the grain with Aaron Rodgers second overall, though being a 10-team league his team didn’t wind up suffering much from it as a result. Not handcuffing Christine Michael to Thomas Rawls is a mistake, and there are other sleeper TEs I prefer to Kyle Rudolph, but all-in-all not bad for a guy who admittedly hasn’t played fantasy football in six years.

Mike D did well to snag Gronk at the turn after going Antonio Brown #1 overall, and I also like Brees in the sixth round. I’m just not feeling Carlos Hyde this year, but that pick is fixable with LeGarrette Blount and Ryan Mathews backing them up. Also a lot of risk here with three rookie wideouts, which historically don’t produce well enough for Mike’s team to be a championship contender. But with Brown/Brees/Gronk, he’s got as much week-to-week upside as anybody.

Jake picked a great team (of players others had already selected in previous rounds). He was understandably distracted having just come from a full-day fantasy football draft event, but still did well for himself with Cam/Gurley/Evans/Watkins as a formidable top four. I also like the Fitzy pick in the seventh round, but Bortles in the 8^th after already snagging Cam was ill advised.

Adrian Peterson continues to fall to mid-first round in these, which I think is a mistake—one that Doogie capitalized on. AJ Green also inexplicably fell, giving Doogs arguably the best 1-2 punch in this league. From there I didn’t love the combined risk of Jordy (injury), Demaryius (quarterback) and Langford (injury, average talent), but a return to form from Andrew Luck and two of those three question marks turning out and Doogs has a squad that week-to-week would be among the toughest to face.

Rob went four straight wide receivers—all four can start—which I commend for the ballsiness but overall I feel like is unnecessary. There’s enough RB value out there to go three straight WRs if you want, but in a standard league I wouldn’t go four even though you can start all four of them. As John Tuvey noted at our draft, Matt Forte has never finished outside of the top 12 at his position. And Frank Gore should be a workhorse in a great offense. But both guys are long in the tooth. Danny Woodhead should help some and Bilal Powell provides at least Forte insurance—if not just being the better fantasy player at some point this season. But in non-PPR, those two don’t offer as much value. I probably would’ve passed on taking two more bench receivers after starting the draft with four straight just to give me a couple more bites at the apple to make sure the RB position works out.

Mitchell (not Bo—he went straight MC on us for the event) would dominate in a Raiders-only league. He’s obviously bought into the retooled offensive line there and is expecting the Silver and Black to rise again. Overall I wouldn’t recommend that many pieces of any offense, regardless of how good it is. It simply limits your upside too much. A big Latavius game means the Carr/Cooper combo is less likely to go boom. Same for the inverse. I liked that he locked up Tennessee’s backfield and handcuffed in Atlanta (a situation I think warrants it in all formats), but overall I think the Raiders-heavy approach dooms this squad to nothing more than a .500 finish.

Tuvey, meanwhile, went RB early—which is an approach I love near the first turn in both 10- and 12-team leagues. It used to be RBs would fly off the board and this is where you’d zig towards WRs. Now the opposite is true. And Tuvey, in a standard league, landed two of the probably six or seven guys in the running for RB1 overall this season. I loved the TY Hilton follow-up too, and don’t mind Baldwin. I’m not in love with Hurns, though, an area where Tuvey and I are gonna agree to disagree. I just see too much regression coming from that passing game, and think it’s going to ultimately ding Hurns the most, after Bortles.

Thanks again to everyone who showed up to Tin Whiskers. Our next event is this Sunday, August 28^th, at Northgate Brewing. We’ve still got mock draft spots available! Just reach out on twitter or email FFparty@zoneblitz.com if you want in. And special for this one event: If you bring your league draft to Northgate, we’ll add a $50 Zubaz gift card to the pot for the league champ. Just let us know you’re coming and bring along at least 8 league members and the gift card will be entrusted to your commissioner.

We look forward to seeing you!

Free Zubaz Gift Card to Your League Champ!

by Anthony Maggio | Aug 21, 2016 | 2016 Season, Fantasy Football

This just in: any league (8 or more individuals in attendance) that holds its draft at Northgate Brewing during The Fantasy Football Party mock draft event on Sunday, August 28^th, will get a $50 Zubaz gift card courtesy of Zubaz and the show to be given to the league winner at the end of the season. That’s right—we’re adding $50 of Zubaz to the pot for your league champ just for hosting your draft at Northgate, starting between 1 and 4 pm. But to be eligible, you MUST let us know beforehand so we have the appropriate number of gift cards.

Simply email FFparty@zoneblitz.com and let us know you’ll be there drafting on Sunday, August 28^th. Then check in with us when you’ve started and the gift card will be entrusted to your league commissioner. And, of course, Bo, John and magsh will be there to provide expert draft advice in real time. Pretty fancy, right?

So, call your friends, get your draft set for Northgate Brewing on Sunday, August 28^th, starting between 1 and 4 pm, and your league will have expert draft help plus $50 in Zubaz for the 2016 champ. We’ll see you there!

https://www.facebook.com/events/1058963974170598/

Fantasy Football Party Mock Draft #2

by Anthony Maggio | Aug 17, 2016 | 2016 Season, Fantasy Football

Our second mock draft is in the books! Thanks to Ryan and all the wonderful folks at Eastlake for hosting us. The brewery, the beer, the swag—it all rocks. If you haven’t been there yet, I highly recommend it.

As for the mock draft, we had some interesting twists and turns. Harley went with the 0-4 strategy—drafting Le’Veon Bell, Josh Gordon AND Tom Brady, all of whom will miss the first four weeks of the season. I could only endorse such a move if you’re in a shallow league with a LOT of bench spots. Even then, you’d better be a smooth operator on draft day to make it work. Don’t get me wrong, I think Harley’s got a team that would be tough to beat after the first four weeks. But starting 0-4 means needing to basically run the table the rest of the way, navigating bye weeks and injuries to make the playoffs. No easy feat.

Pooch didn’t draft his first  running back until round 6, where he went on a run of Arian Foster, Chris Ivory, Giovani Bernard, and then after taking Michael Thomas in Round 9 returned to the RB well for the Cleveland backfield tandem and Christine Michael. Waiting on RB will work just fine this season considering some of the names that are falling in drafts, but this shows the risk of such a move: only Foster truly has a chance to be a legit workhorse, and if he achieves that status seems destined for injury. Personally I prefer jumping into the RB pool for guys like Latavius Murray and Jonathan Stewart, who continue to be undervalued clear No. 1 RBs behind solid offensive lines.

Dave Campbell’s go big or go home strategy was admirable (Jordan Reed in round 2, Tyler Lockett in round 5), but he got some very nice value with Murray, Melvin Gordon, and the Atlanta backfield combo of Devonta Freeman and Tevin Coleman. Soup and I both showed the value of waiting on QBs as well, with Dave snagging Eli in the 10^th, while I took Philip Rivers in the 13^th.

Overall I liked where people drafted QBs, though, even the folks who didn’t wait on one. Aaron Rodgers in the 4^th and Russell Wilson in the 5^th were particularly shrewd, and Carson Palmer in the 9^th was a steal.

Bo put together a very solid squad, with Travis Kelce in the 10^th along with the aforementioned Rodgers pick standing out to me. My squad has a few injury concerns, but I mitigated it by waiting so long to take a TE, QB, K and DEF.

Noah got some great value in the 1^st and 3^rd rounds, and his Brees selection in the 4^th was solid, but I felt like he reached a bit on Amari Cooper and DeMarco Murray, ultimately leaving him with a very risky WR corps.

Dave Handeland put together a solid squad top to bottom. Very much a let-the-draft-come-to-you team, getting value in basically every round, mitigating his risk on guys like Kelvin Benjamin and Frank Gore because of how far they fell.

Tellijohn’s squad has my favorite WR tandem among those who drafted, but this is another example I think of waiting too long on RBs. Even in a standard league, which this is, I’m not sure I could stomach Jeremy Hill, Matt Jones and Derrick Henry as my top three RBs.

Brian Hall put together a nice draft too, much like Handeland letting the draft come to him to mitigate risk on players like Demaryius Thomas (QB concerns) and Carlos Hyde (crappy team concerns). He’s too thin at that RB position in my opinion, relying on Hyde/Ryan Mathews to be his RB2, but overall he built a team that can compete.

Want to get in on a mock draft with us? We’ve got three preseason events left! Check out our event page and let us know when you’d like to join us.