Fantasy Football League (NFL)

160 done. Is there really that much value in going all the way up to 260+? Don't think I can be bothered. 

From about 100 onwards just order guys you like. Or Rookies.

So now that we have completed the league, and all teams have their owners joined up, here are the divisions as they will be for 2014.

Looks like through pure randomness the Merrick Division has got a lot of the guys with Fantasy experience, but looking forward to however this all goes. Now we just need the draft order (comes out 1hr before we draft). Schedule is set and shouldn't change as well.

Boo, how did I end up in the division with people with Fantasy experience... :P

LOL pure randomness really. Blame Frankie Mac for joining.

Does it randomise each year? 

Also funny that Merrick is the good group and Herbert is the not so good one. #SackRicki

Fine, I blame Frankie then!!! And I have you up first too

Just a note for once we start trading, after the draft:

Future draft picks CAN be traded, but for this season it won't accept it because of the random draft order, so for now if you are offering a future draft pick in a trade put it in the comments on the trade for example "2015 1st Rd Pick", "2017 3rd Rd Pick" and I will keep track of these changes in a spreadsheet and update them here will keep a running record of all draft picks that have been traded.

bollocks - back in the office today and the ESPN Fantasy Football site is blocked, meaning I cannot just sit here going through my draft order. I will look at it tonight as out the next couple of nights and will not get another chance to otherwise. I should be online for parts of the actual draft, but have a couple of mates arriving from NZ/Aus around that time, so it might be a little off if I ignore them and focus on my team.

Haha just changed the draft to 7:30pm, was set as 7:0pm haha talk about a fail :P

I did get an email about the draft change and couldn't see what you had done... lol

I am now able to take my iPad to my friends 30th birthday party and connect to their internet while I'm there, so I can be rude and join in on the draft.

Nice decision!!!

Naenae Tegal? 

Based out of Naenae Park then?

Yep, A quality ground. 

Think my name that comes up is also my Dads, don't know why that happened and don't know how to change it. 

Did a practice draft last night, and it was fun. Everyone was online at the time so it goes pretty quickly which made it tougher for someone who only knows 3 NFL players (Kapernick, Adrian 'Purple Jesus' Peterson and The Fridge).  I would make a pick and then start looking at what position I wanted next, and who I thought would be the best out of who is available, and before I knew it I would be up again.

yeah I found the same thing when I did a practise draft. I have some ideas, but I'm sure there is some players I'm just going to choose as they are the top at the time I go to pick for the position I want.

Still think this is going to be fun and can't wait for the draft.

I am only in the office for the 3 days this week, and then only for 2 again next week.  While I am here, I have decided that the best use of my time is reading up on FF draft strategies, and constantly updating my spreadsheet of who I want. I will be lucky not to get sacked.

Interestingly I run a similar type competition for fantasy premier league, with a draft and each real player only being allowed in one fantasy team at a time.  As I know a load more about premier league footballers I have no problem thinking on my feet when players I wanted are taken by others.  With this, I am really quite nervous. Actually, I will re-phrase that - this is officially the most stressful thing in my life at the moment.

This is AWESOME! Also not the only one sitting at working doing fantasy stuff. I run a couple of leagues, so I do email outs for things, this week I have been attempting to get a run down of all the Running Backs in the league done, this has been insane.

Also currently involved in a email based 32 team draft (You get 8hrs to make a selection), which is insanity, 8 rounds gone is 256 picks, and that's just the starters...some insane names coming out now, I've been researching for that one.

That's pretty intense - I think I'm going to get absolutely pummeled.  Oh well, all in good fun and I'm sure I'll get more into it as the season progresses like I have the baseball.

Quick question - I made a couple of changes to make draft list last night, saved the list and later ran a mock draft.  The list when I went into the mock draft wasn't edited though - it was just the standard ESPN list.  Is anyone else experiencing this?  Would be a bit gutting to spend a bit of time to edit my list only to find when I enter the draft that nothing has changed.

I noted that the 'team' I was doing the mock draft for wasn't my Rammtallica team but ''Team Linley' - so that might have been the issue.

Yeah the list is based on the team you are drafting with, now I believe there is a way to load this list inside the mockdraft lobby as well, but I cannot remember where sorry. Used to do one list and export it to all of my teams.

Thanks for that - I suppose as long as the edited list is there for when we do the proper draft then it's all good.

I didn't really notice during the mock draft, but is there a chat function during the actual draft?  It will be fun to make other newbies nervous about what they have done by mocking their picks in a manner that suggests that I know what the actual fuck is going on*

* I will have no idea what the actual fuck is going on.

Yup is definitely a chat function...:OMG Peyton Manning in the first?!?" WHY!

Adrian Peterson!!!!!!???????  47 year old Adrian Peterson!!!!!????  Are we drafting for the 2012 season?  Megalolz.

You guys are mean...

Mean? Nah.

locked and loaded with all my pages set up in front of me. I am such a nerd.

Actually, I am fully prepared to go into full-blown panic mode and end up drafting Vince Lombardi and starting a small fire

Bloody nervous. Gonna screw this up

I don't know what I'm doing!

Are you logged in on an App? We can't see you in the draft room :)

Just looked as Mos' squad.  Must be favourite for this year - unfortunately I'm first up against him.

Happy enough with my squad, pretty ace bunch of wide receivers which is fun, good QB, solid TE trio, just a matter of hoping that either Bernard or Ellington turns into a top 7 RB this season to give me a shot.

think I may have gone too in between in trying to compete and trying to get young guys. Shall see. 

I think QB is your biggest problem Tegal, but it could turn into your biggest piece of brilliance if Manziel turns out

Round by Round analysis

I am going to go through the draft and make some comments as I go. Will talk about how I made my decision and also comment on some of the other picks throughout as well as where I got sniped lining up a player. Once it gets past starting line--ups I'll probably do three rounds at once and just comment on major thoughts. After this I may do a team by team analysis, but mainly because I enjoy writing so sorry if this all gets too wordy for you. Also if anyone else wants to add analysis you are more than welcome.

My Pick: I had figured McCoy was going first so my decision was going to be CHarles, Megatron or AJ Green. Both WRs were likely to be around for longer and in Dynasty are ranked higher, but in the end picking at the top the fact of RB scarcity and knowing there are tonnes of young WRs available later I took Charles (Will make sure I get Knile Davis later)

Other Points of Note: McCoy & Megatron picked themselves, think Lacy was a pick early, as I'd rather have Green, but if you wanted Lacy you had to take him. Was a bit surprised to see Peterson & Peyton go in the first round, both a bit older with less seasons left, though will both be very strong for this season, so maybe target this years title instead of the future. Loved the pick of Bryant at the end of the first round, probably my favourite pick of the round.

My Pick: Was at this point Julio or Marshall, took the younger guy in the end with the hope he stays healthy. I had wanted Jeffery, but in an ongoing trend it was Default taking him 2 picks before me. Pretty happy to get Julio at the end of the second round, he isn't a Top 5 guy, but definitely a TOp 10 WR in Dynasty.

Other Picks: The Troopers is really going to be a team for this season with the auto pick adding Lynch to Rodgers, be interesting to see whether the lot of older guys can win this season to get them off the mark. Tegal being the only team to go RB RB as they add Ball to Forte, having two top 10 RBs could be huge this season. Bernard & Jeffery were good value picks in this round as both are top 10 value in dynasty leagues, young guys with great futures in good positions are what you ultimately want. The third QB also came off the board, with Brees going to Midas Whale. 

My Pick: Le'Veon Bell, I LOVE this pick, getting a young RB who has a starting role at number 22 in a Dynasty draft is excellent, especially when I saw Foster go the pick before, and adding him to Charles & Julio as my starters. With a solid pass attack in Pittsburgh, the run game gets some good usage, hopefully puts himself into the elite RB group earlier rather than later.

Other Picks: Foster is a bit old and injury prone for me, especially with an extreme lack of an idea who the back-up is going to be there now. If he does well he can be Top 5, but I think the risk is too much for round 3. Andrew Luck is a QB for Dynasty, you can build your team around one of the best young QBs in the league, hopefully Indy improve their offensive line though because it was horrible last season, played a major part in TRich being even worse than expected. Picks 26 & 27 saw two of my favourite Dynasty WRs go as Allen & Brown went to Billikids and Tegal, both look to have solid QBs throwing to them, and good run games there as well. Andre Ellington is another young RB who already has the starters job and a big future ahead of him, Arizona appear to be a team on the way up going forwards, if Ellington can cement his role he will have a great career.

My Pick: I love Michael Floyd, he was actually third on my board going into Rd 4, behind Cobb & Patterson, Cobb is top of this list because he has the best QB, but has injury worries, Patterson is going to be a superstar in the future, but am very happy to end up with Floyd in this round, he will be a Top 15 WR this season, and tend towards top 10 in the future with a long career infront of him as he replaces Fitzgerald in the Cardinals attack.

Other Picks: Biggest surprise here for me was seeing Vereen, Watkins, Andre go 3 picks in a row, think Vereen was a bit of a reach in round 4, especially watching the Patriots play this morning, they are using all their RBs everywhere this year, Ridley, White, Bolden, Vereen & Develin are all getting play, could make it a bit tough to know what is happening in any given week. Sammy Watkins is the first Rookie off the board as well, going to have a huge career, but the young pass offense in Buffalo is going to need some work, Manuel didn't really do the job in 2013, he will need to make a step up, of course an improvement in their receiving corps should help with Watkins, Woods & Williams there now (DubDubDub!). Andre Johnson goes 36th overall to Midas Whale, another player I expected to go later in this draft as he is older, has some injury issues and wants to leave his current team.

My Pick: I wanted to ensure I got one of the rookie WRs, and I actually have Evans ranked just above Watkins, so pretty happy to get him in the fifth round, though also wanted to make sure I backed him up with solid WRs for this season as not sure I will be wanting to start him in 2014. Definitely a big pick for the future.

Other Picks: Sankey went 44th overall as the first Rookie RB off the board, this gave Team Default a combo of young guys in Patterson and Sankey, nice young line-up, could be a case of giving up this season for more long term success. Stafford becomes the 5th QB off the board, no real surprise there as he is only middle in age, and is already a Top 5 QB here. A bunch of meh WRs through the middle of the league as VJax, DJax & Garcon all go in the same round. The Billikids finally take a RB as they add Michael as their first RB, is a bit of a risk this season, but should have a starting job for 2015 and into the future as well.

Well there is 5 rounds covered, I will put some more together later on.

Great work Jono - it's good to get some analysis on the draft and hear another persons thoughts (especially as I still don't really know how I did).