This year I am once again fortunate enough to be registered to play in the NFFC Cutline Championship in a league with John Hansen, The Fantasy Guru (@Fantasy_Guru).
The Cutline is a bit odd in that each league is only 10 teams, you draft 26 players, there is no trading and only 3 waiver periods. It’s also a PPR. The regular season is only 9 weeks and then it goes to a playoff format v. all of the other league winners/qualified teams from week 10 on. You may remember that last year I finished 2nd to the Guru in the Regular season in our league. I was also one of two teams to beat the Guru in head-to-head play. If Aaron Rodgers had not gone done in that 1st series in week 9, I likely would have taken the points championship from the Guru. I finished 13.3 points behind him and Rodgers got me a whopping 2.25 points in his one series. Needless to so say, that injury also pretty much sealed my fate in the playoffs. In this type of contest, I think our league is at a severe disadvantage in the playoffs. There are much more knowledgeable owners in our league of 10 than in most of the other random leagues. This year we are probably at an even greater disadvantage since we just had our draft this week. #WayTooEarlyToDraft
Let me start by saying that I am not a fan of the snake draft. Too much of your team is dependent on your draft position. Auction leagues are the way to go for a more educated fantasy player. That being said, I drew the #9 slot for the Guru league draft. I usually like the back end or front end of a serpentine style draft so I have plenty of time to refill my drink between picks. This time I was sandwiched between the Guru at #8 and a guy who calls himself The Guru’s Guru. He definitely gets points for the name and he only finished about 50 points behind me last season in this league so also a formidable owner. #BlitzSandwich
Once the draft order was revealed the day before, I did several mock drafts using The Fantasy Guru’s mock draft app. Every single time, Monte Ball fell to me at #9 and I took a quality WR with my second pick (Julio, Dez, AJ). I was pretty happy with this game plan. So, of course, guess what happens at the real draft……..The Guru takes Ball at #8. Suddenly I had 90 seconds to rethink my whole strategy. That’s not good. Either the App was not working as intended or the Guru does not subscribe to his own app. #Regroup
I quickly decided to take Jimmy Graham and then pondered the 2nd pick while Guru’s Guru went WR, WR. So much for coming back with a WR. I decided to go DeMarco Murray as I knew if I waited another 16 picks to get a RB, I was looking at not very good options as my RB1. And yes, I may be slightly jaded to the cowboys. #HomerPick
I won’t rehash the whole rest of the draft…..since @Fantasy_Guru already did that: http://fantasyguru.com/football/subscribers/articles/7-31-14cutline.php While I certainly respect John’s opinion, I would like to remind him that he ripped me last year for several picks as well…….and my team a) beat him head-to-head and b) likely would have won the league if not for the Aaron Rodgers injury. #LivingInThePast
I will say that I have my doubts about this team. In particular, I have Romo at QB and DeMarco at RB. Both have injury question marks, but the upside is huge. With the Dallas defense not getting any better (no Sean Lee, no Jason Hatcher, no DeMarcus Ware) and Linehan calling the plays on the other side of the ball, the Cowboys should be playing lots of games in the 30s. I also need to hope both Ray Rice and Arian Foster can return to more productive years. I have two tiny WRs leading my team with Cruz and Hilton. I generally stick with guys who are bigger and stronger, so I am not sure what I was thinking there. I did come back with Sammy Watkins and Colston. Watkins may have been a reach, but he’s going to get targets. You don’t trade up to #4 and trade away your longtime franchise WR to throw the ball to Robert Woods. I also have two good upside WRs in Kenny Britt and Eric Decker (who else is going to catch the ball there and he’s getting paid a bunch of money, they will throw it his way). Yes, I am trying to talk myself up. Leave me alone. You go draft 26 players starting at 10 pm in July and see how you do. At least Jimmy Graham should be my rock (you know he’s going down in week 1 and Jared Cook is now my TE). #cursed
Only 4 or 5 more weeks until we can see how this team will start………July, really? #LetsGo
Shades