A couple of weeks ago, Alex Miglio and I drafted a team together in the Pros versus Joes competition hosted by the Fantasy Football Players Championship (FFPC). Each division pits six high-stakes sharks, who are inaccurately labeled as “Joes,” against six “Pro” teams drafted by fantasy analysts like me and Alex.
The league is a 28-round draft with no in-season management. It's a best-ball, dual-flex, tight-end-premium, PPR league. Tight ends score 1.5 PPR, and our optimal lineup is set automatically after each week. This fun format inspires a wide range of strategies.
Alex and I had never co-drafted a team with anyone. We see eye-to-eye often, but we quickly realized where our opinions differ as we drafted this team together.
The following conversation outlines our FFPC draft strategy and suggests what to do—or not to do—the next time you draft with a partner. We also debate the value of key players, like Jimmy Graham, Bishop Sankey, Mike Wallace, Russell Wilson, and many others.
Here's the final draft board for the entire league. Our team is second from the left. Click on the image for a larger view.
Austin: I'm a control freak, so it was hard for me not to drive the drafting computer. It made sense for Alex to drive because we were at his house using his machine. It was a good growth moment for me, especially when I had to squirm through Alex's multitasking. I'm a terrible multitasker, but Alex was tweeting, checking Facebook, taking care of his kids, and placing an online pizza order between picks.
Alex: They say that you can’t multitask effectively. I beg to differ.
Austin: It's definitely a valuable life skill. My best life skill is nerdery, so we used my projections and VBD calculations as a starting point for our draft. Digging beyond gut rankings to build a projection system is especially helpful for assessing the value of tight ends in this 1.5 PPR tight-end-premium format.
Alex: It was nice to have these rankings because it informed several picks. When we didn't have a strong positional preference for our next pick, the rankings pointed us in the right direction. I didn’t pull my rankings up because I hadn’t tailored them to the FFPC scoring system, and I trust Austin’s projections.
Austin: Since I had the projections on my laptop and Alex was submitting the picks on his computer, it sometimes felt like I was a baseball catcher giving signals to Alex, the pitcher. Then he would either accept or refuse.
Alex: I did have a lot of "yea or nay" moments, which is a bit regrettable. I should have been a bit more flexible.
Austin: I wouldn't go so far as to categorize it as inflexible, and it didn't happen that often. There were a bunch of positive moments where we'd each name our top three guys at a position to find our next rankings match. That worked pretty well. There were times where we quickly agreed on our next pick and were giddy when he fell to us.
Alex: True. We were so happy when we were about to draft David Wilson. More on that later.
Austin: Our first dilemma was deciding what to do with our pick in the first round, the second overall. I felt strongly about getting Jamaal Charles if he fell to us, and Alex seems to get Jimmy Graham in the first round of every draft this year. I'm really glad that Charles was picked ahead of us at 1.01, otherwise our pick would have required a coin flip.
Alex: Indeed. It would have been a tough choice for me even though I was all-in on Jimmy Graham. I have even taken Graham number one overall in straight PPR leagues, so I felt that he was even more valuable in this 1.5-PPR format.
Austin: I didn't hate the Graham pick. We had the coin ready for flipping before the draft began, but we didn't have to use it.
Alex: Thank goodness—I misplaced my double-sided trick coin. In all seriousness, though, I would have been nearly as happy taking Charles with that pick if he was available. He’s liable to get over 100 targets again this season.
Austin: After Graham at 1.02, we easily agreed on waiting on running back once we saw wide receiver value slipping our way. We knew that making our first three picks a tight end and two receivers would set us back at running back, but in a best-ball format, we were comfortable with loading up on running backs in the middle rounds to make up for it. We strongly considered Reggie Bush at 3.02 but liked Alshon Jeffery more.
Alex: We couldn't resist starting with Antonio Brown—a PPR stud—and Alshon Jeffery. Having an advantage at tight end and a strong receiving corps in this format gives me peace of mind.
Austin: We also agreed to wait on quarterback. Peyton Manning was gone before our 2.11 pick. Aaron Rodgers and Drew Brees were selected before our 4.11 pick, making the decision easy for us. After dodging running backs in the first three rounds, drafting an early quarterback would have torpedoed our backfield.
We went with three straight running backs in rounds 4-6. We considered Pierre Thomas and Ben Tate at 5.02, but we felt pretty confident that one of them would get back to us at 6.11, which is where we picked Tate.
Alex: I was surprised Thomas went so high but was happy that Tate fell to 6.11. I like Tate a lot more than Austin does. The more I think about it, though, the more I wish Thomas was on our team. As it stands I don’t expect a running back to occupy a flex spot on our team more than once or twice this season. It’s built with a heavy reliance on tight ends and receivers.
Austin: I was bummed not to get Thomas, who I'm pretty high on, but I'm pleased with the top trio of backs we scored.
I'm glad Andrew Luck went right before our 7.02 pick, or we might have needed a coin flip there. I like Luck a lot this year, but I'm a big fan of waiting on quarterback.
Alex: I was enamored with the idea of drafting Luck if he had fallen to 7.02, but it would have been a mistake. Falling behind at running back meant we needed to wait at quarterback, and it worked out great.
Austin: Maybe we're Dolphins homers, but we easily agreed on Mike Wallace at 7.02. We're both forecasting better Tannehill-Wallace deep-ball chemistry in their second year together, especially with Bill Lazor running the offense.
Speaking of Dolphins homerism, I really wanted Lamar Miller at 8.11, but he went two spots earlier.
Alex: It looks like Knowshon Moreno might miss the preseason, which may make it harder to wait on Miller in drafts. As for Wallace, I do hope that this year he'll snag a handful of the deep balls he missed last season. I’m banking on an improved Dolphins offense all around.
Austin: I was a little surprised so see Terrance West go at 8.10, but his ADP keeps creeping up. We had him on our radar to pair with Tate at the 10/11 turn. It seemed like a reach at the time, but I guess I'm not as high on him as most people.
Alex: He's getting so much buzz this preseason that it was going to be impossible to get him as a handcuff, at least at an appropriate price. It stinks that we couldn't really hedge our Tate bet, but I tend to not trust fourth-round rookies who have a veteran ahead of them.
Austin: I wish we had gone with a running back at 8.11 instead of Martellus Bennett. We agreed on it, but hindsight is 20/20. I would have been fine getting Delanie Walker as our TE2 three rounds later. Devonta Freeman, DeAngelo Williams, or Fred Jackson would have been my pick there. I'm high on Freeman this year, but Alex doesn't have high hopes for him.
Alex: In hindsight it probably would have been better—we got greedy at tight end. DeAngelo Williams would have been my choice there, given his pass-catching ability and Jonathan Stewart's injury concerns. Incidentally, I loved the Stewart pick given how late we got him, but he's already been bitten by the injury bug in camp. I don't have high hopes for him putting up big numbers in any given week.
Austin: We took David Wilson at 10.11 the day before he was cleared for contact. We felt pretty smart for a day or two, but with Wilson now on injured reserve, that gamble obviously didn't pay off. Oh well. Some of your picks have to swing for the fences in a multi-division, best-ball setup if you want to win it all.
Alex: We felt so smart, especially when Wilson’s ADP began to rise as soon as he was cleared. He felt like a reasonable gamble this late given his home-run ability and the likelihood he’d see a decent workload if he was healthy. Good thing we didn’t strain a muscle patting ourselves on the back. I high-fived myself at least three times after that pick.
Austin: I love how our quarterback strategy played out though. I would have taken Romo instead of Russell Wilson at 11.02, but the difference is marginal to me. Alex is high on Wilson this year. I'm glad we didn't wait any later to get our QB1 since six quarterbacks were taken before our next pick.
Alex: I love Russell Wilson this year. The Seahawks are going to pass more, and Percy Harvin is healthy. Wilson's ability to get fantasy points on the ground is the cherry on top. I like Romo too, but I'm wary of him as he and Jason Witten age.
Austin: I'm glad we waited on James Jones. I was talking him up around our Cecil Shorts pick at 9.02. Alex poo-pooed getting Jones that early, and I was psyched that we were able to get him later. I'm not saying the Raiders are going to have a vibrant passing game, but the hate has gone too far on Jones.
Alex: Upon further review, I actually have Jones ranked higher than Shorts. I'm glad we waited too. It seems like we got a great value.
Austin: There was some weirdness at start of the tenth round that cost us Shonn Greene later on. The commissioner had to rewind several picks. We accounted for most of them but somehow missed adding Greene back onto our list after his drafting was reverted. I would have taken him at 14.11 if I had realized he was still available.
Alex: It was aggravating, but I'm also not a big fan of Shonn Greene. It was simply going to be a nice value, but Donald Brown is a nice handcuff for Ryan Mathews.
Austin: I like the Brown pick. Stewart is the one I'd toss back for Greene. I think the Tennessee backfield is going to be more of a timeshare than people think. Bishop Sankey is going way too high for me.
Alex: I actually like Sankey, just not as much as some others. Greene has always been one of those players I hate in fantasy football. He's this generation’s Thomas Jones for me, though Jones did have a couple of nice fantasy seasons.
Austin: Let's not get crazy. Thomas Jones was an unsexy fantasy pick, but he was better than Shonn Greene is today. I think of Greene as more of a poor man's Michael Turner.
Alex: Jones was absolutely better than Greene. So are about 40 other running backs in the league today. But he has fantasy appeal in the same way that Rashard Mendenhall and BenJarvus Green-Ellis did last year because Sankey is a rookie.
Austin: Yeah, those are fair comparisons.
We picked up Geno Smith as our QB3 at 19.02. Making start/sit calls on Smith in a traditional league would be unnerving, but his upside is tasty in a best-ball format.
Alex: If he gives us two big weeks, he will have been worth it. He's capable of that, especially given he scored six rushing touchdowns last season.
Austin: I think it was around this point, near the twentieth round, where Alex brought up the possibility of drafting Josh Gordon. I shot it down quickly, but I'll look dumb if Gordon ends up playing this year. Someone else ended up nabbing him in the last round at 28.04.
Alex: I wasn't too upset about not drafting him. I just thought it was a good gamble that late. But it seems like Gordon will be gone for the season, so it’s a good thing we eschewed drafting him in the end.
Austin: I played in the Pros versus Joes competition back in 2012, and I would have won my division if I hadn't botched my kickers so badly. I waited until the last two rounds, and because of the slim pickings, I drafted two kickers that didn't have jobs in Week 1. I missed out on over 100 points that season. This is the only format where I take kickers before the end of the draft.
Alex and I game-planned for the kicker shortage in advance, but we still had to take kickers earlier than expected because 17 of them were gone with six full rounds to go. We selected Zach Miller, Davante Adams, Austin Seferian-Jenkins, Geno Smith, and three running backs between the first kicker selected in the draft and our first kicker selection.
Alex: More value at skill positions for us! I realize it's important to have multiple kickers in a best-ball format like this, but I was shocked so many kickers went so early. We wound up with two fine kickers later in the draft, and we got a leg up on some of the deeper skill players because we were patient.
Austin: We almost got hosed on team defense though. Our first D/ST pick was the 25th one off of the board, and the position nearly disappeared before we could pick a second one.
Alex: We were really sweating this. There were a handful of defenses left, and there was a run just as our pick approached. We had two left to choose from, one of which (Oakland) had the same bye week as our first defense (Miami).
Austin: We were lucky to get Dallas as our second defense. I'm also glad Stephen Hill slid. Alex wanted him for a few rounds. I'm not a big Hill guy, but his upside is worth a 27th-round pick.
Alex: It stinks that Vick Ballard, our final pick, is out for the season. I'm glad we drafted so many running backs, but it's a bummer given we need a few of them to pan out in some fashion.
Austin: I wonder if we should have taken a third kicker or team defense. Seven teams drafted three defenses, and six teams have three kickers.
Alex: Oakland was still available. I almost wish we had taken them, but I'm not sure having three kickers or defenses is all that advantageous, even in this format.
Austin: At times our picks felt watered down or ended up being reaches because we couldn't agree. We'd list off our next 4-5 guys, and we wouldn't find agreement until the fifth guys on our lists.
Alex: I didn't feel this way for the most part. I think we had one or two picks where we had disagreement and waited until the last second to pick, but I feel like we had a great draft all around.
Austin: Yeah, we only had to dig deep into our rankings on a few picks, so overall I'm pleased, both with the team and the experience of co-drafting for the first time.
Alex: When Austin and I play against each other, we tend to foil each other's plans. We have similar tastes, values, and strategies, so it's always interesting to see how that dynamic plays out in our fantasy leagues. Drafting a team together was fun, and there was more dissonance than expected. All in all, though, the team shaped up nicely. We might be sweating at running back, but the rest of the team is darn good.
It’s also nice to have a guy like Austin be totally focused on the draft while I bounce around on my computer and try to wrangle children.
Austin: Thanks, Alex. “Focused” is my middle name. It was good to debate the possibilities and have you provide sanity checks for some of my far-out picks. Hopefully we'll win our division prize of a free entry into the 2015 FFPC Main Event so that we can draft together again.
