Ever wanted to own your own franchise but find yourself the odd billion dollars short? Yeah, we’ve all been there, well in Fantasy sports that dream can become a reality by playing in a Dynasty fantasy league!
After playing a few years of your bog standard re-draft fantasy and thoroughly enjoying it, despite losing in the championship game twice running… the nerd in me wanted to step things up a notch and extend my enjoyment/pain over multiple seasons, Dynasty leagues are the way to do this, and a more involved way of playing fantasy sports which are a multi-billion dollar industry in the US alone. (“By 2020, entry fees are expected to generate $14.4 billion” – Forbes)
Many sites offer the dynasty version of the game, the roster I took over was on Fleaflicker.com, which describes itself as “is the world’s easiest and fastest fantasy sports platform” and so far I can’t say I have any issues with it. It’s a free platform and offers a simple clean interface which works well on desktop and mobile alike.
Now, on to the nitty-gritty, as It’s early in the pre-season instead of setting up a whole new league (which I may well do after the proper NFL draft) I took over a roster in an existing league, my only change was to rename the team “It’s got to be Burfict” (I am a Bengals fan after all), and it’s not hard to figure out why the owner of said team quit playing it. It stinks. Unsurprisingly the team finished dead last in the league. On the plus side that does grant me the first overall pick for the next draft that the league has, at least he didn’t trade that away as he seems to have done all talent and even future picks.
It reads like this – 1 QB, 2 RB, 3 WR, 1 RB/WR Flex, 1 TE, K, D.
- Picks for the upcoming draft – 1.01, 2.12, 4.09. – So 3 picks… 3 damn picks to try and improve this stinking pile of crap, and I looked back at the trade that cost the 3rd round pick. It was not a beneficial one.
- QB – Eli Manning – Yep, the never-injured, but gradually declining QB of the NY Giants, now I can’t say i’m over the moon with his future, but for a season or two, and now that Brandon Marshall has been added to his targets alongside OBJ and Sterling Shepard I’m hopeful he can produce for a season and I’ll have to try and sort out someone for the future in the draft or through trades as he’s probably got one more season left. And that’s it at QB. No backup in sight.
- RBs – Fortunately more than one here, and the “strength” to my current roster Jordan Howard, DeMarco Murray,
Zach Zenner,Adrian Peterson, James Starks– You can see now why I put strength in quotations… Jordan Howard is a top top dynasty player and I’m happy he’s there, Murray had a cracking season last term and seems to be the no.1 in Tennessee still for at least this coming season. That’s about it. Zenner is one of the best white RBs in the league, but stuck as 3 or 4 on the depth chart in Detroit. AP may not even play next year, and Starks is currently out of the league after being released by GB. Within a couple of days of taking control of the team I was offered a deal on Peterson. I acquired Ameer Abdullah and Tyler Boyd as well as 2 4th round picks for him. It did mean the unfortunate cutting of James Starks to free up roster space though, it’s never nice to cut a guy and leave him on the streets, but sometime needs must, it’s the harsh reality of fantasy sports management. Unfortunately we had to let ZZ go. There just wasn’t room on the roster for him and we wish him all the best in finding a new team - WR – A lot of quantity, not much quality Mike Wallace,
Kelvin Benjamin, Eric Decker, Taylor Gabriel, Travis Benjamin, Eddie Royal,Anquain Boldin– Where do we start here, well there’s a no.1 guy in there. Possibly two with Decker, but who is going to be throwing the ball to him? I guess Mike Wallace is the de facto no.1 in the Ravens offence with no Steve Smith? That’s about it. Gabriel is a decent pick because of his youth and explosiveness, but damn hardly an inspiring bunch to get me away from the bottom of this league. As above, picked up Tyler Boyd in the Peterson trade, no.3 at a Bengals team who unless something big happens aren’t going to be able to protect their QB long enough to get throws away, but at least he’s got youth on his side, and was decent enough in the action he did get last year. Kelvin has now found a home on a new roster, in a trade involving Martavis Bryant and Tyler Lockett in a move which has thrilled the “It’s got to be Burfict” home fans, freshening up the roster with a (hopefully) returning stud and a possible no.1 in years to come. - TE – So at least i’ve got Greg Olsen who along with Benjamin needs a bounce back from Cam Newton and the Panthers this year, at least the two I have got are currently the main weapons in that offence which is good, and if Cam levels out between MVP and last season then they will get me some points at least.
Jesse Jamesis backup on the Steelers roster, and firmly back-up in my roster as well. His season will depends on the far more talented Ladarius Green’s concussion issues. If they continue every time he gets a knock then he’ll be worth something in fantasy. – Unfortunately JJ has joined fella double inital ZZ on the free agent waiver wire. - K – Janikowski – Ghost as he’s known. A solid kicker in a high scoring. YES! I have a good kicker, well done previous owner guy.
- D – Pit, Cin – For what it’s worth on defence, these two should be pretty good again this year.
So, skill player positions are my weakness at the moment, K and D are above average.
My picks at this moment in time 11/4/17 are 1.01, 1.02, 2.12, 4.04, 4.08, 4.09 in a 4 round rookie and free agent draft. So not a complete mess but will need a lot of luck to get players I want. I have however had quite a few offers for the first overall pick. I wouldn’t mind trading back a few spaces and picking up an extra 2nd round or 2 as well as moving back in the 1st. Given the amount of work I feel the roster needs the picks are more important to me at the moment and it’s a good draft for skill players. Fournette, Cook, McCaffrey, Mixon, Davis, Williams, Ross, Howard, Njoku, Engram in no particular order will all be tempting picks depending on where they land, and that’s just off the top of my head for the rookies. Add to that possibly Marshawn Lynch who is probably top of the free agents out there in the league and that’s the whole first round with choices that would upgrade the crap I’ve taken over. Also tempting to cash in on Murray or Olsen this time around as Murray probably only has a year or two left, same with Olsen and this is a very good TE draft. If I can get some high picks for them then who knows.
One thing I was a little surprised about was the aggression of a few other owners in the league, still 16 days until the NFL draft and I’m having offers every other day about moving picks or trading players. I will more than likely hold on to the 1.01 pick until the draft has been and gone I know where players have gone and I can settle on which pick in the first I would be happy to trade down. There’s a lot of good resources out there ranking the rookies and a lot of the fantasy nerds have already done a 4 round rookie draft which looks like it will come in very handy http://www.rotoworld.com/articles/nfl/70885/71/rookie-dynasty-mock-draft
So that didn’t last long, with Eli Manning a season away from retirement I realised I had to freshen up at QB, and I manage to get a deal done on trading down one spot to 1.02 but acquite Dak Prescott in the process. Someone who could potentially be on the team for years to come. While i’m not completely sold on Dak, I do believe they’ll feature more designed runs for him this year which will help his scoring, and he’s still playing behind a cracking O-Line with decent receivers.
So in my short time in charge of the team I have (in my eyes anyway) managed to freshen it up and improve in a couple of areas. – Roster as of 13/4
Eli Manning, Dak Prescott, DeMarco Murray, Jordan Howard, Ameer Abdullah, Mike Wallace, Tyler Lockett, Eric Decker, Travis Benjamin, Martavis Bryant, Taylor Gabriel, Tyler Boyd, Eddie Royal, Greg Olsen, Janikowski, Pit and Cin defences. – A little lop-sided now in terms of WRs to RBs, but it’s an RB and TE heavy draft so I feel I can fix that in the draft with the first 2 draft picks at least.
Draft picks – 1.02, 2.12, 4.04, 4.08, 4.09
So to everyone else in my league I say “challenge accepted” and prepare yourself for another disappointing season for my team before I destroy you all in 2018. Hopefully.
Adam. @cavey007
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