Last night I took part in my first 2018 fantasy football auction draft (league price was $40) on Yahoo sports dot com. It was a 10-team "Super Flex" league where a person starts a QB, RB, RB, WR, WR, TE, FLEX, SUPER FLEX (which means you can use a QB, RB, WR or TE) and a Defense. In this draft each team was able to fill their roster (9 starters & 7 reserves) using a $200 dollar budget.
Now I know what everyone is thinking right now: "Informer no one gives a damn about your fantasy football teams."
And to that I say, "I totally agree and understand."
But that is not why I am sharing my team with you today. No, I am sharing my team, and the reasons behind why I drafted said team, in order to try and prepare you the reader for your upcoming drafts.
The thinking is that you will get a chance to see the mistakes, or great picks, that I made and when it comes time for your fantasy draft you will be able to learn from my experiences to help you build the perfect fantasy football team.
Furthermore, the reason I pointed out that this was a "$40 money league" is because I wanted everyone reading to know that this was an actual draft with real money at stake and not some mock draft where three people didn't show up and two guys bid $150 on Kirk Cousins because they graduated from Michigan State. I have used those types of drafts in the past to write my previews and it always seems like I end up not giving you the readers a true reflection of how a draft is going to play out in real life.
So again, while you are reading about my team please keep in mind that these are the real results, from a real draft, with real people and real money at stake.
Okay, now that we all agree this draft was realer (Is realer a word?) than an episode of WWE Monday Night Raw, here are the results from The Informer's 1st official 2018 Fantasy Football team.
QB: Andrew Luck ($9) Russell Wilson ($27) Lamar Jackson ($1)
The first thing everyone needs to remember is that this is a "start two quarterbacks each week" league which means it was absolutely critical that I was able to draft two elite quarterbacks. So getting Luck and Wilson on the same team was a win. Now, with that said; the problem with having Luck and Wilson on this team is the fact that I did not want to spend $27 on Russell Wilson.
You see what happened was I got too cute trying to run up the bid for Wilson (a classic auction draft strategy gone wrong) that I accidentally ended up spending $27 for one guy when I could have had any combo off Cam Newton, Matt Ryan, Ben Roethlisberger, Kirk Cousin, Philip Rivers, etc . . . for less than $27 dollars.
Basically, I could have had a roster of three elite QBs, but by messing around with the bid I ended up blowing all my money on Wilson and now my only backup quarterback in a two QB league is literally a back up quarterback.
In other words: "I done f-up trying to keep it real" and now I have to pray to Tebow that Lamar Jackson, Sam Darnold or Josh "The Torpedo Missile" Allen turn out to be real NFL quarterbacks or else my chances of winning this league may be gone before training camp ends.
RB: Joe Mixon ($30) Derrick Henry ($17) Nick Chubb ($1)
The goal going into the draft was to get a three RB combination of Leonard Fournette, Derrick Henry, Christian McCaffrey and Joe Mixon. So getting two of the four guys counts as a sort of win. But the reality is I ended up not bidding on some other quality backs trying to get my guys and that left a glaring hole in my team.
On the bright side though, it is only July 30th, which means my strategy has changed from getting three of "these" four guys to "I sure as hell hope there is some fourth round running back who turns into Kareem Hunt this August so I can pick him up off of waivers and complete my team".
I admit, it is not the best strategy, but as of now it is the only one I have so I am rolling with it.
WR: Julio Jones ($47) AJ Green ($37) Josh Gordon ($11) Cory Davis ($4) DeVante Parker ($1) Cooper Kuup ($1) Randall "Corn On The" Cobb ($1) Calvin Ridley ($1)
The truth of the matter is I have too many WRs on the roster. I know that. But if I am being totally honest, I would say that I just drafted the best WR trio in the history of fantasy football, and I did it for under $100 bucks.
That folks is called winning.
TE: Evan Ingram ($11)
Ingram was listed as a $22 dollar value heading into the draft, so getting him at half price was a complete steal. These are the types of deals you have to be ready to pounce on in order to have great fantasy auction drafts. And last night that is exactly what I did.
Defense: Denver Broncos ($1)
It's a defense. I paid a dollar for them. That pretty much sums up the thought process behind getting the Von Miller's.
IN CONCLUSION:
If healthy and everyone plays I have great upside guys (Henry, Mixon & Ingram all year 2 players looking to make the leap), I have the fantasy veterans who I know will deliver (AJ, Julio & Wilson) and I have one guy who could win me the league for me if he returns to MVP form (Andrew Luck).
So overall I am happy with how things turned out. With that said, I am man enough to admit that with this being the first draft of the year -- and also being the first time I did a fantasy auction draft for a 2-QB league - - I made too many mistakes to call this a 100% success (I will be having nightmares for months about blowing $27 bucks on Wilson when I could have had Cam for $17).
In the end I don't think the mistakes made will keep me from winning my league, but they are mistakes that I will learn from and hopefully can avoid making again during my quest to help you the readers draft the perfect 2018 NFL Fantasy team.
