Perfect Draft - 12 Teams

Posted 8/17 by David Dodds, Exclusive to Footballguys.com

This is the first of a five-part series. The other versions will be 10-team, 14-team, Auction and WCOFF formats. I expect to have all completed before 8/24 and posted to the website.

The Perfect Draft. We have all dreamt of having it. Some of us have experienced it. And for those that have....we want it again and again. And why not? You surely did not purchase this subscription to be average. You want to dominate your league-mates. You want to have such a good roster that others salivate over who you have. You want them all to come to you when discussing trades. And in this article I am going to break down how to have that perfect draft.

Let's start with the two basic principles of Value Based Drafting (VBD). I will expound on them as we go through this.

All Players Have Value

Don't love anyone. Don't hate anyone. Get players that will significantly outperform their draft position and you will build a winning team.

Understand What the Average Guy Thinks

You may believe someone will be the 4th best WR, but if everybody else does not then you need to wait to maximize value.

If you don't follow these principles, you will not have a perfect draft. If you...believe rookie WRs are always bad...that drafting anyone over 30 is a sure sign he will get injured, etc then you will not have the perfect draft. Throw away the biases. Let value guide your team. Let others succumb to prejudices and generalities. You are here to win your league. And you do that by getting value every single round.

So what is value then? Value Based Drafting (VBD) has shown us that we can compare unlike positions for comparative value. The cornerstone of VBD starts with solid projections. And these projections can be manipulated to form Top 200+ lists. I have provided my own Top 300 list here (updated Top 300 coming will be posted on 8/18) that has been sorted by position. I have highlighted favorable differences in green to indicate players that may be bargains on draft day.

Let's have the perfect draft.

The goal is to get you the best possible team and to make sure you don't overpay for players that can still be had a few rounds later. What I look for are players that I project significantly better than where they are being drafted. The positional analysis tracks to my projections.

This article assumes a 12 team league using scoring that starts 1 QB, 2 RB, 3 WR, 1 TE, 1 Def and 1 PK. It also assumes this scoring criteria: 1 point per 20 yards passing, 1 point per 10 yards rushing/receiving, 4 points per passing TD, 6 points per rushing/receiving TD, -1 points for interceptions.

Quarterbacks

Based on average draft position (ADP) data, the trend continues in 2007 for fantasy owners to overpay for the elite quarterbacks. Fifteen quarterbacks are "expected" to be drafted in the first 100 picks. Let me repeat that so it sinks in. One fourth of the teams will take their SECOND quarterback by the middle of the 9th round.

Although I have been extremely critical of the quantity of QBs going this early in the past, this year the numbers mostly seem justified. There are a lot of shaky situations at QB for 2007 so after QB 19 or 20, the pool looks mostly bare.

So don't wait forever to get your QB this season. Personally I would avoid the top six names (Peyton Manning, Carson Palmer, Tom Brady, Marc Bulger, Drew Brees and Donovan McNabb). All are great players, but all will be actively sought after and are not likely to represent any upside from where they are being drafted.

The quarterback sweet spot appears to be the next group of guys (QBs 7 through 11). And that makes sense. Once six owners have drafted their QB, there is a lot less pressure on the remaining 6 teams to grab their first starter. So if the other owners rate some of these players differently from you, expect a few of these quality players to come at a bargain.

I project McNabb to score 278 fantasy points this season. His ADP is around the 52nd pick. I project Young, Romo, Kitna and Roethlisberger to all be within 10 fantasy points of McNabb (Roethlisberger the worst at 269 projected fantasy points) yet these players can be had near the 75-85th player selected. Roethlisberger actually has an ADP of 98 representing the best value at the position this season.

In the seventh round, grab Young, Romo or Kitna when it's your time to draft.

I prefer them in that order, but all have reasons why they could excel. Kitna is likely in the most stable of all of the situations and should yield consistent production ever week. Both Young and Romo will likely have some huge and bad games.

Here is what I love about these players:

Vince Young, Ten (Value = 65th best player, ADP = 75th) - He is a true dual threat in this league. I project him for 585 rushing yards and 6 rushing TDs (That's under 37 yards a game). If you buy into those minimal rushing numbers, realize that he only then needs to pass for 167 yards and 1 TD per week to finish where I have him. Although his receivers are among the weakest in the league, I suspect that Young will be playing from behind in many contests. This should yield a lot of garbage time stats (both passing and scrambling for first downs). I think Vince actually represents one of the safer situations this year (provided the Madden jinx doesn't get him).

Tony Romo, Dal (Value = 68, ADP = 74) - Dallas has great players at the skill positions (Owens, Glenn, Witten, Crayton, MBIII, etc) to make Romo a very safe bet in 2007. Dallas finished 5th in the league in both passing yards and passing TDs in 2006 with Romo/Bledsoe splitting snaps. The Cowboys should continue where they left off last season. Romo is in no danger of losing his job this season, is playing for a new contract, and has an ofensive coordinator in Jason Garrett that should pass more in the redzone. All of these things spell fantasy success for Tony Romo in 2007.

Jon Kitna, Det (Value = 76th, ADP = 68th) - Offensive Coordinator Mike Martz loves to throw the ball. He managed to squeeze 3,820 passing yards out of the Detroit offense in 2006. This was good enough for 7th best in the league. The Lions added possibly the best WR in the NFL draft to come along in the last ten years. Calvin Johnson enters the league with all of the tools and should contribute immediately. He looks to be a great redzone target. Mike Martz led offenses have finished 7th, 4th, 5th, 3rd and 2nd in passing yards over the last five seasons with Detroit and St. Louis. I don't see a reason to believe this trend does not continue.

If Young, Romo and Kitna are gone by the time you draft in the seventh round, look to grab Ben Roethlisberger, Pit in the eighth round.

He is playing in an offense that is expected to throw more in 2007. The Steelers also have some young talented WRs (Santonio Holmes, Cedric Wilson, Nate Washington) to compliment Hines Ward. Willie Parker also has worked hard in the offseason to improve his receiving skills. Ben is poised to crush his ADP of 98.

If all of these players are gone then grab the next best available QB so you don't get shutout playing scrubs. This was a hard lesson learned by me last season. And even though I rallied by grabbing Cutler, Young, Romo and even Alex Smith off the waiver wire in most leagues, it's best to not put yourself in this situation.

I would target these values later in the draft for added depth:

Brett Favre, GB (Value = 94, ADP = 108) with pick 9.05 or later.
Alex Smith, SF (Value = 98, ADP = 117) with pick 9.12 or later.
Rex Grossman, Chi (Value = 101, ADP = 150) with pick 11.06 or later.
Byron Leftwich, Jac (Value = 133, ADP = 165) with pick 13.05 or later

Running Backs

The league is changing in front of our eyes. The days of most teams having a power-back to shoulder 75-80% of the load have been replaced with running back by committees (RBBC). The NFL is a copy-cat league and general managers consistently tweak their teams when another has success with a certain formula. So when the last four teams left in the playoffs last season (New Orleans, New England, Chicago, and Indianapolis) are all using RBBC, we have something more than a coincidence. We have a blueprint that other teams are likely to follow going forward.

In years past, the goal was to try and lock up RBs with your first two to three selections. There were not enough RBs to go around so hoarding these backs was the shark move. It forced other owners to reach in the middle rounds for players that would rarely yield production unless the starter was injured or benched. But with so many teams running RBBC these days, supply on the second, third and fourth tier backs has actually increased.

The interesting point to all of this is fantasy owners have actually begun to take more and more RBs early. All of these factors provide a great opportunity in your pursuit of the "Perfect Draft"

I count eighteen backs this year that do not appear to be in RBBC situations. They are:

LaDainian Tomlinson, SD
Steven Jackson, StL
Larry Johnson, KC
Frank Gore, SF
Willie Parker, Pit
Brian Westbrook, Phi
Travis Henry, Den
Joseph Addai, Ind (Team ran RBBC last season and has hinted that they still want to do it, but no one has emerged)
Rudi Johnson, Cin
Laurence Maroney, NE (Team ran RBBC last season, but Corey Dillon retired)
Shaun Alexander, Sea
Ronnie Brown, Mia
Willis McGahee, Bal
Cedric Benson, Chi
Edgerrin James, Ari
Cadillac Williams, TB
Jamal Lewis, Cle
Ahman Green, Hou

A few more backs are in unclear situations:

Clinton Portis, Was (Emergence of Betts and Portis injuries may create a RBBC)
Brandon Jacobs, NYG (Untested as a feature back)

I like a lot of these backs in the above two lists (especially at the right price) and these players are the cornerstone of my RB strategy this year.

Try and obtain quality running backs in non-RBBC situations that should outperform ADP.

Then sprinkle in value RBs (that are likely in RBBC situations) to obtain a solid RB core without over-paying for the position. This is not the year to draft RB-RB-RB with your first three picks in twelve team leagues.

I have found the best way to end up with the perfect draft is to:

Simply select a RB in the first round regardless of draft slot.

The good news is that eleven of these selections all seem worthy of this selection. The bad news is there are 12 picks in the first round. My order looks like this: 1. Tomlinson, 2. Jackson, 3. Johnson, 4. Gore, 5. Parker, 6. Westbrook, 7. Henry, 8. Addai, 9. Johnson, 10. Maroney, 11. Alexander. Your order should reflect how you see these players though. All should be solid fantasy contributors. Hopefully one owner will take Peyton Manning or Reggie Bush or Maurice Jones-Drew so that you can one get at least one of these elite eleven running backs. With regards to Bush and Jones-Drew, these players are worthy of high draft status in leagues that reward points per reception. But in leagues that don't (which is what this article is based on), I think both are risky first round selections as both are in full-blown RBBC situations and will have limited carries. So most of their fantasy points would come from scoring TDs which is wildly inconsistent from year to year.

In the second round and beyond, I would draft any of the elite eleven listed above without hesitation. But I wouldn't expect these picks to last too long into the second round. No reason to panic though as this RBBC situation has extended the pool of decent RBs that can be taken later. And that's exactly how I would approach things. If the value isn't there, I would select a WR and let the draft come to me.

Specifically I would target these situations outside the elite eleven RBs for my second back. Note: if you grab a second back add an additional 7 draft slots before considering one of these players as back #3 or #4 (For example if you land Travis Henry and Brandon Jacobs, then Jamal Lewis should only be taken if you can get him at 5.10 or later):

RB2 Selection criteria:

Ronnie Brown, Mia (value = 15, ADP = 19) with pick 2.05 or later
Reggie Bush, NO (value = 16, ADP = 10) with pick 2.05 or later
Maurice Jones-Drew, Jac (value = 21, ADP = 18) with pick 2.09 or later
Clinton Portis, Was (value = 23, ADP = 20) with pick 2.11 or later
Willis McGahee, Bal (value = 26, ADP = 16) with pick 3.02 or later
Cedric Benson, Chi (value = 27, ADP = 26) with pick 3.03 or later
Edgerrin James, Ari (value = 29, ADP = 23) with pick 3.05 or later
Brandon Jacobs, NYG (value = 31, ADP = 40) with pick 3.11 or later
Cadillac Williams, TB (value = 34, ADP = 42) with pick 4.02 or later
Adrian Peterson, Min (value = 37, ADP = 48) with pick 4.04 or later
Thomas Jones, NYJ (value = 40, ADP = 27) with pick 4.04 or later
Deuce McAllister, NO (value = 43, ADP = 39) with pick 4.07 or later
Ahman Green, Hou (value = 46, ADP = 49) with pick 4.11 or later
Jamal Lewis, Cle (value = 47, ADP = 55) with pick 5.03 or later
Jerious Norwood, Atl (value = 49, ADP = 54) with pick 5.04 or later

Same players selected as RB3 or RB4:

Ronnie Brown, Mia (value = 15, ADP = 19) with pick 2.12 or later
Reggie Bush, NO (value = 16, ADP = 10) with pick 2.12 or later
Maurice Jones-Drew, Jac (value = 21, ADP = 18) with pick 3.04 or later
Clinton Portis, Was (value = 23, ADP = 20) with pick 3.06 or later
Willis McGahee, Bal (value = 26, ADP = 16) with pick 3.09 or later
Cedric Benson, Chi (value = 27, ADP = 26) with pick 3.10 or later
Edgerrin James, Ari (value = 29, ADP = 23) with pick 3.12 or later
Brandon Jacobs, NYG (value = 31, ADP = 40) with pick 4.06 or later
Cadillac Williams, TB (value = 34, ADP = 42) with pick 4.09 or later
Adrian Peterson, Min (value = 37, ADP = 48) with pick 4.11 or later
Thomas Jones, NYJ (value = 40, ADP = 27) with pick 4.11 or later
Deuce McAllister, NO (value = 43, ADP = 39) with pick 5.02 or later
Ahman Green, Hou (value = 46, ADP = 49) with pick 5.06 or later
Jamal Lewis, Cle (value = 47, ADP = 55) with pick 5.10 or later
Jerious Norwood (value = 49, ADP = 54) with pick 5.11 or later

Additionally I would keep my eye on these RBs throughout the draft. They all should represent great value against their ADP:

Fred Taylor (value = 56, ADP = 71) with pick 6.04 or later.
Tatum Bell (value = 59, ADP = 73) with pick 6.05 or later
DeShaun Foster (value = 55, ADP = 102) with pick 6.08 or later
LenDale White (value = 70, ADP = 104) with pick 7.10 or later
Leon Washington (value = 80, ADP = 144) with pick 9.01 or later
Brian Leonard (value = 148, ADP = 198) with pick 14.01 or later

Some other RB considerations:

If you are getting locked out of getting a RB2 (all backs are getting overpriced, hold off for as long as possible stockpiling quality receivers but you will likely eventually be forced to overpay for at least a decent #2 RB. Then target Deshaun Foster, Fred Taylor or Tatum Bell as RB #3 (even if you have to overpay slightly).

Every once in awhile (usually against uninformed drafters, a lot of these players will be available at great value. At some point though you can't win the league with 7 backs (even if they all represent great trade value). After you have 4 RBs on your roster, look for only the sweetest of deals before selecting another RB. It's usually correct to let some value at the position slip in these situations while you grab your starting WRs, QB and TE.

Wide Receivers

The biggest key to having a great wide receiver corps is implementing the QB and RB strategies from steps one and two above. By waiting at QB until round seven or later and grabbing an elite RB in round one, you position yourself to nab the top talent at wide receiver in rounds two through six. At the end of round six, you should have approximately 3 RBs and 3 WRs.

Although a team constructed like this may look weak at quarterback, it will provide you with a powerhouse weekly roster by locking down great WR talent. This will allow you to draft for value the entire draft and stockpile talent that likely can be used to trade for a QB or RB that breaks out this season.

RBs Frank Gore, Joseph Addai, Maurice Jones-Drew, Marion Barber and Travis Henry were not early picks last season, but could have easily been acquired via trade in the early going. QBs Vince Young, Tony Romo, Matt Leinart, Jay Cutler and Alex Smith were either drafted late or available on the waiver wire in many leagues (I know I ended up with a lot of these guys because I waited forever at QB last season)

Besides going after the top WRs (Steve Smith, Chad Johnson, Marvin Harrison, Terrell Owens and Reggie Wayne), here are the WRs I believe will have exceptional value in the draft:

TJ Housmandzadeh, Cin (value = 20, ADP = 33) with pick 3.01 or later. He has a great situation this year with the suspension of Chris Henry for half of the season. Chad Johnson will get the tighter coverage in most games and none of Cincinnati's other WRs are stepping up to claim the hole vacated by Henry. I am looking for TJ to have his best year yet.
Javon Walker, Den (value = 25, ADP = 32) with pick 3.04 or later. He has looked like a man on a mission in camp and has a great deep ball thrower in Jay Cutler. With Rod Smith likely to start the year on the PUP, Walker is going to be heavily involved in the passing offense this year.
Donald Driver, GB (value = 33, ADP = 43) with pick 4.02 or later. He is always on this list yet consistently outperforms his expectations. I have seen nothing from the Green Bay running game to think this team won't throw a lot in 2007.
Plaxico Burress, NYG (value = 42, ADP = 47) with pick 4.09 or later. I expect the Giants to be playing from behind a lot in 2007 leading to a lot of targets for their #1 WR.
Santana Moss, Was (value = 45, ADP = 57) with pick 5.03 or later. He is the clear #1 WR on the Redskins. He is having a great training camp and looks poised to a rebound season.
Calvin Johnson, Det (value = 48, ADP = 58) with pick 5.05 or later. This rookie is special and plays in the Mike Martz led offense. Enough said.
Braylon Edwards, Cle (value = 52, ADP = 62) with pick 5.09 or later. He emerged last year yet gets no love on the anemic Browns. But someone has to catch the ball.
Deion Branch, Sea (value = 54, ADP = 61) with pick 5.10 or later. He is now the #1 WR on the Seahawks after the departure of Darrell Jackson. He is one of the safer draft picks this year at the WR position.
Jerricho Cotchery, NYJ (value = 71, ADP = 83) with pick 7.05 or later. He is flying way below the radar despite a break-through season in 2006.
Santonio Holmes, Pit (value = 77, ADP = 95) with pick 8.02 or later. His stock is rising fast so he could be long gone this late in your draft. He has the talent to supplant Hines Ward as the #1 WR option in Pittsburgh.
Isaac Bruce, StL (value = 100, ADP = 123) with pick 10.01 or later. Left for the dead with the Drew Bennett signing, but guess what....he is still running with the first team. He is all upside at his current ADP.
Brandon Jones, Ten (value = 111, ADP = 139) with pick 10.04 or later. He is currently the #1 WR in Tennessee. Vince Young's scrambling ability (buying more time for the WRs to get open) should elevate his game. Another all-upside selection.
Bobby Wade, Min (value = 124, ADP = 213) with pick 14.01 or later. He and Troy Williamson are the current starters at WR.
Demetrius Williams, Bal (value = 127, ADP = 219) with pick 14.01 or later. The Ravens tried to move Derrick Mason in the offseason. That should tell the real story about how much they love Demetrius Williams going forward. He has looked great in camp and is clearly a big target in the redzone. Stash him on your roster if you can.
Roddy White, Atl (value = 132, ADP = 300) with pick 16.01 or later. He is running with the first team and is having a great camp. At this ADP, he is worth a shot on your bench.
Eric Moulds, Ten (value = 162, ADP = 223) with pick 17.01 or later. An after-thought in drafts, Moulds could be exactly what Vince Young needs (a veteran WR that runs crisp routes. We know Moulds isn't what he used to be, but at this price he offers no risk.

Some other WRs will undoubtedly slip in your drafts besides the above targeted bargain list. In recap:

Grab 3 receivers in rounds 2 through 6 and then wait for exceptional value to emerge at WR because it always does.

Tight Ends

Antonio Gates is in a class by himself. But with an average draft position of 31, he should be avoided. In fact, most of the big names at this position should be avoided due to the depth at the position.

Go ahead and scratch off these names: Antonio Gates, Tony Gonzalez, Jeremy Shockey, Todd Heap, Veron Davis and Chris Cooley this year. Only Jeremy Shockey looks like he could represent value from that list, but still comes at too big a price to pay to warrant selection over RB and WR options in the first six rounds.

But fear not. There are usually bargains at the tight end position late in a draft. In fact once the top 6-7 names come off the board, there is minimal pressure on the TE position the rest of the draft. It's no surprise that since TEs catch a relatively small amount of passes, primarily on short and intermediate routes (again, excluding the top tier guys), there usually isn't a great deal of variance between the fourth-best TE and the 12th best, witness:

2006 - 4th (113 points), 12th (81 points) = 32 points difference (2.00 per game)
2005 - 4th (119 points), 12th (77 points) = 42 points difference (2.63 per game)
2004 - 4th (113 points), 12th (69 points) = 44 points difference (2.75 per game)
2003 -- 4th (74 points), 12th (65 points) = 9 points difference (0.56 per game)
2002 -- 4th (91 points), 12th (63 points) = 28 points difference (1.75 per game)
5 YR AVG -- 4th (102 points), 12th (71 points) = 31 points difference (1.94 per game)

So ultimately, once you get past the big TEs, you're really debating over a point or two per week (which is why it is wise to just wait until the later rounds to select a TE).

The tight end that I will be targeting in most of my drafts this year is Jason Witten (Value = 106, ADP = 105) with pick 10.01 or later. He isn't overpriced, but has been steadily increasing his ADP all summer. It's not a sexy pick, but I expect he will be solid all year long. He only scored 1 TD last season, but managed 6 in each of the previous two years. This lack of TD production translated into his fantasy value sliding to 12th overall (from 6th in 2005 and 3rd in 2004). But the fact that his targets increased from 2005 to 2006 (from 89 to 93) indicates the TD decline could have been a fluke. He is being drafted as TE9 which to me represents his floor. He could easily yield top 5 production for a fraction of what a Todd Heap costs.

Here are the other TEs that I believe will have exceptional value in the draft:

Ben Watson, NE (value = 109, ADP = 111) with pick 10.05 or later. He is getting absolutely no love since the Patriots acquired Randy Moss, Donte Stallworth and Wes Welker in the offseason. Last year, I saw many instances where Watson was being double-covered. I even remember some games where he had a spy watching him (I laughed pretty hard at that). Teams feared his run after the catch abilities and absolutely feared none of the New England receivers. I expect the additions of deep-threats Moss and Stallworth will actually open up the Watson routes. So before leaving him for dead, understand that Watson has a great opportunity to have his best year yet. Against single coverage, he could rise to the elite status many of us thought he would achiev in 2006.
Bo Scaife, Ten (value = 189, ADP = 253) with pick 18.01 or later. He is running with the first team and Tennessee has bad WRs. He could be among the league leaders at the position and comes at a bargain basement price.

Place Kickers

Who cares right? Well...kind of right. Definitely nothing you should even look at until round 14 this season. But all drafts are different. In leagues that go after kickers early, just wait. You can get an adequate PK three rounds after every other owner has their first. In leagues that draft this position real late, look towards the top of the kicker list in round 14. If your top kicker is available then draft him. Suffice it to say that in a lot of leagues now, people wait too long to take their kickers. As a rule of thumb:

You can generally maximize kicker value by taking the fifth to eighth kicker off the board.

In waiver wire friendly leagues (most), don't be afraid to draft just one kicker and add others as necessary during the season to cover the bye weeks and/or exploit matchups.

Defenses

Scoring systems generally come into play and define when defenses are taken. I suggest you wait until round 12 to assess what to do about this position. If Chicago, Baltimore or New England are on the board when you pick in round 12, grab one, and be done with this position. If those three teams are gone, I would wait until six to eight defenses have been drafted and then see where the value is.

Because owners rank defenses so differently, you can generally get good value just by waiting for the value to emerge.

A winning strategy to deploy after the draft for defenses is simply to look two games ahead in the waiver process. Most teams will have one or two defenses meaning that half of the defenses are available as free agent pick ups each week. By looking two to three weeks ahead at who will be playing Oakland, Tampa Bay, Miami or Houston, you likely can find a cheap defense that should perform well against sub-par offenses. Drop this defense after their "quality game" so that you can continue to pick up other defenses that will have good weeks. Because of this strategy, I advise you to draft just one quality defense and look to play matchups the rest of the way. Every year two or three defenses are predicted to be terrible but end up playing great.

In Summary

Look to draft one of the eleven elite RBs in round 1. Your draft spot will determine who you are able to get. If you are lucky enough to have a shot at two of these players, grab them both without hesitation.
Use rounds 2-6 to lock up talent at WR and to get additional RBs. Don't reach for RB2 or RB3. It's ok to start the year a little weak at this position as long as you continue to draft for outstanding value. This value can be packaged later to solidify the RB2/3 spots on your squad after the draft.
Look to grab Young, Kitna, Romo in round 7 or Ben Roethlisberger in round 8 as your QB1. If you fail to land any of these QBs, make getting your QB your next priority. Don't try and get too cute by waiting until real late in the draft to ghrab your first QB. The talent pool looks weak after QB19 this year.
Let the other owners grab the top TEs. Target Witten and/or Ben Watson in the tenth round.
Add value at QB, RB, WR and TE in the middle rounds to protect bye weeks and give yourself a chance to trade off talent to bolster your squad as the season progresses.
Wait on defense unless the top three (Chicago, Baltimore and New England) are still on the board when you get to round 12. If one is there pull the trigger and do not draft another defense. If you are unable to get a top 3 defense at the right price, wait until 6-8 defenses have been selected before grabbing one that represents value. Use the waiver wire to add depth at defense and play matchups against bad offenses.
Wait on kicker unless the top one is available (Vinatieri) when you get to round 14. Generally waiting to select the 5th to 8th kicker leads to getting a great player at a good price.

Well that is it folks. Hope you all do well in your coming drafts. Remember, the key is not to just follow the Top 200 list but to see where it differs substantially from average drafts. This is how you get value with every pick. And value is how you build winning fantasy teams.

Note: I know there is more than one way to have a great draft. I have seen teams take players like Manning and Chad Johnson with their first two picks and run away with titles by picking undervalued players the rest of the way. I am not going to state that this article is the ONLY way to be successful in your twelve team draft. It's simply one way to end up with a very competitive team.

One of the hardest things about writing this "generic" solution is it does not take in the tendencies of the people you are drafting against nor the specific rules that make all leagues unique.