Reviewing Last Year's Real Drafts

 I feel like I should have done a review of my three drafts after they occurred, but now that the 2025 Fantasy Football season is rapidly approaching, let me bring out my notes and try to go over what went well last year as I prepare for this season.

Draft 1: August 25th PPR with PPA for rushing using NFL.com (Championship)

This is a ten-team league started by one of the parents in my kids' coop nursery school; so it mostly features parents of kids who attended the school together. Because it was a coop school, most of the parents worked together at times.

I drafted in the #10 (out of 10) spot. The defending champ drafted in the #1 spot and took McCaffrey. I got 1.10 AJ Brown and 2.01 Saquon Barkley with my first two picks. I preferred Jonathan Taylor to Barkley at this spot, but he had just been taken with 1.09. Puka Nacua and Jahmyr Gibbs were the next two off the board. I got 3.10 Jalen Hurts and 4.01 James Cook with my next two picks. Starting the draft with three players from the same team is something I don't think I'd ever done before. I guess it helps that they ended up being a championship team because I ended up winning this league this year. Clearly, Saquon and James Cook ended up outperforming their draft positions. I also drafted 5.10 Tee Higgins, 6.01 Malik Nabers, 7.10 Rashee Rice, and 10.1 Jayden Daniels on this team. Daniels was somebody I'd been getting a lot of in Round 10 of the mock drafts I did last year, and once I had the courage to just start him instead of Jalen Hurts, my team did really well.

1.10 WR AJBrown, 2.01 RB Saquon Barkley, 3.10 QB Jalen Hurts, 4.01 RB James Cook, 5.10 WR Tee Higgins, 6.01 WR Malik Nabers, 7.10 WR Rashee Rice, 8.01 RB Javonte Williams, 9.10 RB Jerome Ford, 10.01 QB Jayden Daniels, 11.10 RB Chuba Hubbard, 12.01 WR DeAndre Hopkins, 13.10 TE Taysom Hill, 14.01 DEF Jets, 15.10 K Jake Bates

Draft 2: August 31st PPR using Yahoo.com (missed playoffs)

This is a ten-team league started by my sister-in-law's husband, and it mostly includes my wife's relatives.

I drafted in the #1 (out of 10) spot, taking 1.01 Christian McCaffrey and not paying attention on Monday night and actually putting him into my starting lineup. The guy in the #2 draft spot took three tight ends, all just as the pick was coming to me. I was counting on getting Brock Bowers with one of those picks near the end of the draft, too. He offered to trade me a tight end for McCaffrey on draft day. The rest of my team was good enough, however, that I was able to start the season at 7-1. When McCaffrey came back, though, I made some horrible mistakes to maintain playable rosters during the Bye weeks. I dropped Brian Thomas Jr (his quarterback had just gotten injured) and Bucky Irving (I had already dropped Chuba Hubbard after week 1), and I never won another game, and then to add insult to injury, I outscored the entire league the first playoff week (when I wasn't playing).

1.01 RB Christian McCaffrey, 2.10 RB Kyren Williams, 3.01 WR Drake London, 4.10 WR DeVonta Smith, 5.01 RB James Cook, 6.10 QB Kyler Murray, 7.01 WR Tee Higgins, 8.10 WR Chris Godwin, 9.01 RB Jonathan Brooks, 10.10 WR Brian Thomas Jr, 11.01 WR Jaxon Smith-Njigba, 12.10 RB Chuba Hubbard, 13.01 K Brandon Aubrey, 14.10 RB JK Dobbins, 15.01 TE Taysom Hill

Draft 3: September 4th 1/2 PPR using Yahoo.com (Runner-up - lost Championship match)

This is a fourteen-team league that my wife is in with her fellow co-workers and she pulled me in to draft and manage the team. There were only 13 humans; so a robot drafted one of the teams. I had never drafted in a league with this many teams before, and the managers all were drafting two quarterbacks, which was new to me (one even drafted three quarterbacks). The quarterback I drafted (Jalen Hurts) had a Bye in Week 5, and there was really nobody worthwhile (it seemed) to draft as a second QB. Hurts, Conner, McBride, and Thomas Jr led this team to best regular season record and into the Championship match.

1.06 RB Breece Hall, 2.09 WR Cooper Kupp, 3.06 QB Jalen Hurts, 4.09 TE Trey McBride, 5.06 RB James Conner, 6.09 WR Chris Godwin, 7.06 WR Brian Thomas Jr, 8.09 WR DeAndre Hopkins, 9.06 RB Jonathan Brooks, 10.09 RB Chuba Hubbard, 11.06 WR Keon Coleman, 12.09 RB JK Dobbins, 13.06 RB Jordan Mason, 14.09 K Jake Bates, 15.06 DEF Seattle

Recap

So, it does seem that I had some players I was "targeting" in the mid to lower rounds, based on drafting them two or more times in three drafts. Some of them ended up being very valuable (Brian Thomas Jr., Chuba Hubbard). Some of them were complete busts (DeAndre Hopkins, Jonathan Brooks, Taysom Hill, JK Dobbins).

If I draft McCaffrey this year, I need to target Isaac Guerendo. Zach Ertz will probably be on waivers in Week 1 again; so if I miss out on the top TEs, I can probably just wait until the end on picking one.

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