If you want to get an early start to the fantasy football season, you can participate in an automatic draft league. Sites like NFL.com a Yahoo.com offer free leagues with an option to rank your players and have a computer draft for you.
Automated drafts aren’t as insightful as doing a real mock draft yourself or against a few live opponents, but it may give you some insight into draft strategy, your current rankings, and possible late round sleepers.
I recently did an automatic draft league on NFL.com and here is the team selected for me based upon my quick adjustment to the default NFL fantasy football rankings…
|
Rd |
Pick |
Player |
RotoRank Value Slot |
Drafted Slot |
Expected Slot |
Comments |
|
1 |
11 |
Fitzgerald, Larry WR ARI |
19 |
11 |
8 |
Top 5 WR. Would be even more valuable in a 1-point per reception league. |
|
2 |
6 |
Westbrook, Brian RB PHI |
15 |
18 |
12 |
Should be a top 12 RB. He is far more valuable in fantasy football leagues that give points per reception. |
|
3 |
1 |
Rodgers, Aaron QB GB |
4 |
25 |
43 |
Kurt Warner or Tony Romo would have been good plays as well. Each of these 3 has some uncertainty. In this league format, you really want to get a top 10 QB. |
|
4 |
8 |
Jones, Thomas RB NYJ |
28 |
44 |
36 |
Getting no respect in 2009 in any scoring format. |
|
5 |
3 |
Bryant, Antonio WR TB |
62 |
51 |
45 |
Could have big year, if he is healthy to start the season. |
|
6 |
10 |
Olsen, Greg TE CHI |
229 |
70 |
85 |
Should have good year with Cutler at QB. After the elite TE are gone, lady luck needs to guide you. |
|
7 |
5 |
Gonzalez, Anthony WR IND |
125 |
77 |
57 |
Marvin Harrison is gone. He could have 1000yd season. |
|
8 |
12 |
McFadden, Darren RB OAK |
81 |
96 |
53 |
Would have gone much higher in league using a swing position. |
|
9 |
7 |
Ryan, Matt QB ATL |
35 |
103 |
76 |
Decent backup QB. Better weapons in 2009. Wouldn’t rank as high in leagues where Pass TD is only worth 4 points each. |
|
10 |
2 |
White, LenDale RB TEN |
63 |
110 |
75 |
Should score 10+ TD. Start him against good rushing defenses. |
|
11 |
9 |
McGahee, Willis RB BAL |
33 |
129 |
94 |
Way too low if he is healthy. Could be the bargain of 2009 fantasy football season. |
|
12 |
4 |
Holt, Torry WR JAC |
140 |
136 |
80 |
No way he is around this late if you are in a league that gives 1-point per reception. |
|
13 |
11 |
Kasay, John K CAR |
111 |
155 |
218 |
Could be a little better, could be a lot worse. |
|
14 |
6 |
Packers DST |
101 |
162 |
180 |
Should have some decent scoring weeks. |
The NFL.com fantasy football games do not give points for each reception, they do not use a swing player, and they score all touchdowns as 6 points (including passing TD). Clearly the NFL fantasy football game favors quarterbacks, especially since each league has only 12 teams and each owner is limited to drafting only 14 players. The Free Agent pool is deep, and there really is no reason to draft multiple kickers or defenses.
If you decide to participate in an auto-draft league, make sure you rank all of your defenses and kickers after all of your favorite QB, RB, WR, and TE players. Since computer drafts are set up to build a balanced team, its algorithm may decide to draft kickers and defenses well before any set of live draft owners would making those picks.
One of the biggest benefits of joining a few automatic draft leagues is the fact that they are free way for you to identify some late round sleepers and value picks.
Darren McFadden is a great pick for your third runningback in 2009. He has the potential to be a top 20 RB since he will get many more touches than runningbacks in a platoon situation.
LenDale White, Willis McGahee, and Torry Holt look like they will be difference makers to the fantasy football teams that draft them in the mid-rounds of the draft. These three players could produce better numbers than some Top 60 draft picks, and these are the types of players you need to win a fantasy football league (and as long as your top 5 picks all stay healthy).
Next week I will try to identify some draft days bargains for 2009 by comparing my RotoRank projections versus Average Draft Pick selections from a variety of fantasy football sources.