Real Draft: Yahoo 10-Team 1/2 PPR (Position 1)

This draft came up suddenly, as my wife didn't seem to know when her company's league would be drafting until a couple of days prior. It turns out to be one of four leagues, to accommodate the employees who wanted to play this year. I made up some "Cheat Sheets" and then sat in the background, as my wife called out to me who was being drafted and I sent in suggestions as to whom she should put in her queue to draft when her turn came up, luckily at the end, so she could just draft two players in a row. There were two robot-drafters, from Slot 2 and Slot 6. One was the HR person running the draft, and the other is apparently going to be a computer-controlled team that was needed to even out the number of teams in the league. Yahoo gave us an A+ draft grade, and a 2nd place projected finish. I made a glaring mistake, having her draft Rashee Rice, fresh off the announcement of a six-game suspension, in Round 4/5 and then following that up with George Pickens, to build a complement of three WRs (including Ja'Marr Chase) all with Week 10 Byes. There were definitely some "odd" picks in this draft (I've highlighted noteworthy other picks in Red below), making this much closer to the "Home League" than any of the real or mock drafts that I participate in. At first, I tried to track which team was taking which players, but it proved way too hard, and I satisfied myself with just trying to keep track of which players were drafted. I missed crossing out Drake London (picked at 1.04), and thus confused my wife by telling her to look for him in the draft list until I gave up and figured he was gone.

1.01 Ja'Marr Chase WR I told my wife she could grab Chase, who is pretty much the consensus #1 pick, or Christian McCaffrey, the injury-prone back who I am projecting as the most likely #1 overall if he plays the whole season.

1.02 Jahmyr Gibbs, 1.03 Bijan Robinson, 1.04 Drake London, 1.05 Saquon Barkley, 1.06 Justin Jefferson, 1.07 CeeDee Lamb, 1.08 Amon-Ra St. Brown, 1.09 Derrick Henry, 1.10 Christian McCaffrey

2.01 Ashton Jeanty, 2.02 Nico Collins, 2.03 Puka Nacua, 2.04 Breece Hall, 2.05 Malik Nabers, 2.06 Brian Thomas Jr., 2.07 Bo Nix, 2.08 Josh Jacobs, 2.09 Josh Allen

2.10 De'Von Achane RB Current news story is that he will play in Week 1. He will be a steal at this draft spot if things go the way I think they should without Jonnu Smith in Miami.

3.01 Jonathan Taylor RB The reach for two QBs leaves AJ Brown on the board, but I'm putting more priority on getting two good running backs this year because the middle rounds have a lot of decent wide receivers.

3.02 Bucky Irving, 3.03 Tee Higgins, 3.04 Jalen Hurts (this is the team that drafted Bo Nix in Round 2), 3.05 Brock Bowers, 3.06 Chase Brown, 3.07 Tyreek Hill, 3.08 AJ Brown (this seems way too low), 3.09 Ladd McConkey, 3.10 George Kittle

4.01 Jaxon Smith-Njigba, 4.02 Lamar Jackson, 4.03 James Cook, 4.04 Rhamondre Stevenson, 4.05 Trey McBride, 4.06 Jayden Daniels, 4.07 Marvin Harrison Jr, 4.08 Kyren Williams, 4.09 Mike Evans

4.10 Rashee Rice WR This was a reach, but the last top-tier TE and top-tier QB had just been taken, and we were in a little dead zone with no standout options.

5.01 James Conner RB Not liking any of the other WR, TE, QB options here, maybe Joe Burrow would have been a reasonable alternative.

5.02 Philadelphia DST (my analysis shows the Eagles could maybe be worth 1.5 PPG over the waiver wire team, nothing to sneeze at, but the same analysis shows the next pick Terry McLaurin is worth 4.3 PPG over a waiver wire undrafted receiver), 5.03 Terry McLaurin, 5.04 Alvin Kamara, 5.05 Omarion Hampton, 5.06 Garrett Wilson, 5.07 Travis Kelce (congrats to the fiancé, but you could have been drafted much later; it occurs to me that maybe this drafter, who took Breece Hall earlier, was using last year's ranking sheets?), 5.08 Kenneth Walker III, 5.09 Chuba Hubbard, 5.10 DeVonta Smith

6.01 Joe Burrow, 6.02 TreVeyon Henderson, 6.03 RJ Harvey, 6.04 Patrick Mahomes, 6.05 Tony Pollard, 6.06 DK Metcalf, 6.07 Jaylen Waddle, 6.08 Davante Adams, 6.09 Courtland Sutton

6.10 George Pickens WR Hoped that Waddle would fall here, but he didn't. Probably take Tetairoa McMillan if I had realized that we already had two Week 10 Bye receivers.

7.01 D'Andre Swift RB Seems like he is the only option for the Bears as a starting RB. Isiah Pacheco is another worthy consideration in this spot.

7.02 Sam LaPorta, 7.03 Isiah Pacheco, 7.04 David Montgomery, 7.05 Xavier Worthy, 7.06 Brock Purdy, 7.07 Harrison Butker (I have Butker at +0.2 PPG higher than a replacement kicker, whereas even previous pick Brock Purdy is +2.1 over replacement and next pick Zay Flowers is +3.5 over replacement), 7.08 Zay Flowers, 7.09 DJ Moore, 7.10 Tetairoa McMillan

8.01 Calvin Ridley, 8.02 Aaron Jones, 8.03 TJ Hockenson, 8.04 Christian Kirk (I didn't even have Kirk on my draft sheet, I should still add him, but at the bottom), 8.05 Jameson Williams, 8.06 Chris Boswell, 8.07 Mark Andrews, 8.08 Tucker Kraft, 8.09 Cameron Dicker 

8.10 Ricky Pearsall WR Looks like he will be starting week 1 because Rice will be suspended, but Jauan Jennings might not be there; so he'll be in line for big things, I hope.

9.01 Emeka Egbuka WR Chris Godwin did not get placed on the PUP; so maybe Egbuka's stock will fall a little in the next week. Travis Hunter was still on the board here, as well, as I looked for receivers who didn't have a Week 10 bye.

9.02 Tyrone Tracy Jr, 9.03 Dak Prescott, 9.04 Travis Hunter, 9.05 Denver DST, 9.06 Rome Odunze, 9.07 San Francisco DST, 9.08 Kaleb Johnson, 9.09 Tyler Warren, 9.10 Jordan Mason

10.01 Jaylen Warren, 10.02 Deebo Samuel, 10.03 Joe Mixon, 10.04 Tank Bigsby, 10.05 Braelon Allen, 10.06 Chris Olave, 10.07 Stefon Diggs, 10.08 Baltimore DST, 10.09 Matthew Golden

10.10 Kyler Murray QB Seemed like a good spot to grab our QB. Yahoo agreed, although Baker Mayfield was also still on the board here. I have Baker rated 0.1 PPG higher, but opted for the running QB.

11.01 David Njoku TE Filling the other onesie position. Hoping that Flacco will mean good things for Njoku. Was surprised that Tyler Warren went ahead of him.

11.02 Jakobi Meyers, 11.03 Jerry Jeudy, 11.04 JK Dobbins, 11.05 Evan Engram, 11.06 Baker Mayfield, 11.07 Zach Charbonnet, 11.08 Jordan Addison, 11.09 Jauan Jennings, 11.10 Justin Herbert

12.01 Jake Ferguson (I actually have Ferguson rated as the #4 TE, but I'm betting on Njoku's opportunities), 12.02 Michael Pittman, 12.03 Travis Etienne, 12.04 Jahan Dotson (is he even on a roster?), 12.05 Dallas Goedert, 12.06 Brandon Aubrey, 12.07 Dalton Kincaid, 12.08 Javonte Williams, 12.09 Kyle Pitts

12.10 Jacory Croskey-Merritt RB Go Bill!

13.01 Bhayshul Tuten RB Two late-round flyers before grabbing Defense and Kickers. My other favorite Jaydon Blue didn't get drafted.

13.02 Jared Goff, 13.03 Caleb Williams, 13.04 Drake Maye (he was in the queue to draft when we took Kyler, wouldn't be surprised if he has a better season than Kyler), 13.05 Pittsburgh, 13.06 Justin Fields, 13.07 Keaton Mitchell, 13.08 C.J. Stroud, 13.09 Cam Skattebo, 13.10 Jake Bates

14.01 Kansas City, 14.02 LA Rams, 14.03 Minnesota, 14.04 Trey Benson, 14.05 Detroit, 14.06 Trevor Lawrence, 14.07 LA Chargers, 14.08 Ka'imi Fairbairn, 14.09 Tyler Bass

14.10 Houston DST I have the Texans rated at +1.2 PPG, so not far behind that Round 5 pick of the Eagles.

15.01 Chase McLaughlin K I have McLaughlin rated at +0.2 PPG above replacement; so basically the same as that Round 7 pick of Butker.

15.02 Buffalo, 15.03 Cooper Kupp, 15.04 Wil Lutz, 15.05 Rashid Shaheed, 15.06 Evan McPherson, 15.07 Tyjae Spears, 15.08 Younghoe Koo, 15.09 Will Reichard, 15.10 Keon Coleman