It’s NFL football season and once again fantasy football drafts are occurring all across the US. One of the leagues I’m in had their draft a couple of weeks ago on August 16 using Yahoo!’s fantasy football engine. I unfortunately was out of the country and had to rely on Yahoo! to auto-draft my team. I’ve had a chance to critique Yahoo!’s draft for me and compare to how I believe I would have drafted given the options available in my draft slot based on the actual results of the draft.
Before the evaluation, first the basic parameters of our league.
- 12 teams
- 15 rounds
- 1 QB, 2 RB, 3 WR, 1 TE, 1 K, 1 DEF and 6 Bench players
- Performance standard scoring league
- No Points per reception (PPR)
- QB TDs worth 6 points vs the standard 4 points in most league
- Return yardage and TD points for team defense and individual’s if you have the kick or punt returner starting for you at a position (i.e. Reggie Bush as a punt returner)
- Snake draft pattern
I had the 7th pick in the draft and given the snake draft rules, that meant I had the 18th overall pick of the draft in the 2nd round. Yahoo! does allow for adjustments to their pre-rankings of players, primarily for those who will have to rely on an auto-draft. Before I left on my trip, I spent only 10-15 minutes adjusting the Top 20 player rankings primarily to select the player I thought would be available at the 7th pick.
Below you’ll see the results of my auto-draft by round:
| ROUND | OVERALL PICK | PLAYER | TEAM | POSITION |
| 1 | 7 | LaDainian Tomlinson | SD | RB |
| 2 | 18 | Marion Barber | DAL | RB |
| 3 | 31 | Anquan Boldin | ARZ | WR |
| 4 | 42 | Tony Romo | DAL | QB |
| 5 | 55 | Antonio Bryant | TB | WR |
| 6 | 66 | Lee Evans | BUF | WR |
| 7 | 79 | Chris Cooley | WAS | TE |
| 8 | 90 | Tennessee | TEN | D |
| 9 | 103 | Stephen Gostkowski | NE | K |
| 10 | 114 | Kevin Walter | HOU | WR |
| 11 | 127 | John Carlson | SEA | TE |
| 12 | 138 | Shonn Greene | NYJ | RB |
| 13 | 151 | Mark Clayton | BAL | WR |
| 14 | 162 | Tampa Bay | TB | D |
| 15 | 175 | Shaun Hill | SF | QB |
ACTUAL YAHOO! AUTO-DRAFT RESULTS
In the above link, you’ll see a word document with the actual draft results round by round, slot by slot for the 15 rounds of the draft. Now, what I’ve done is taken a look at the draft results attached in the document and decided who I think I personally would have drafted in each slot had I been drafting live instead of Yahoo!. My assumption here is that for each draft slot, even if I had chosen a different player than who Yahoo! had selected, by the time my next round’s draft slot came, the same players who were actually drafted before that slot continued to have been drafted. In other words, the players that Yahoo! was choosing from in each round was the same players I had to choose from as I re-did my draft slots based on the actual results. Below you’ll see the revised draft results using my own selections instead of the computers and comments on why I would have chosen that way.
| RD | PICK # | APURVA PICK | POSITION | ORIGINAL PICK # | YAHOO! PICK | POSITION | |
| 1 | 7 | LaDainian Tomlinson | RB | 7 | LaDainian Tomlinson | RB | |
| 2 | 18 | Randy Moss | WR | 19 | Marion Barber | RB | |
| 3 | 31 | Anquan Boldin | WR | 31 | Anquan Boldin | WR | |
| 4 | 42 | Kurt Warner | QB | 43 | Tony Romo | QB | |
| 5 | 55 | Willie Parker | RB | 57 | Antonio Bryant | WR | |
| 6 | 66 | Anthony Gonzalez | WR | 75 | Lee Evans | WR | |
| 7 | 79 | Cedric Benson | RB | 86 | Chris Cooley | TE | |
| 8 | 90 | Ben Roethlisberger | QB | 92 | Tennessee | D | |
| 9 | 103 | Philadelphia | DEF | 107 | Stephen Gostkowski | K | |
| 10 | 114 | Percy Harvin | WR | 117 | Kevin Walter | WR | |
| 11 | 127 | John Carlson | TE | 127 | John Carlson | TE | |
| 12 | 138 | Leon Washington | RB | Undrafted | Shonn Greene | RB | |
| 13 | 151 | Robbie Gould | K | 163 | Mark Clayton | WR | |
| 14 | 162 | Kevin Curtis | WR | 164 | Tampa Bay | D | |
| 15 | 175 | Brent Celek | TE | Undrafted | Shaun Hill | QB |
- I pushed Tomlinson up in my pre-set rankings so that he’d get selected instead of DeAngelo Williams, who I have concerns about due to his history prior to last season and the presence of Jonathon Stewart in Carolina’s backfield. I think Tomlinson is primed for a strong bounce back season. Both my pick and Yahoo!’s pick are the same for # 1.
- At # 2, Yahoo! ended up picking Marion Barber while I would have gone with Randy Moss. However, Yahoo!’s pick of Barber is my fault due to my adjustment to the pre-set rankings. I moved up Barber ahead of Clinton Portis who I was afraid would be available at # 18 and am not that enamored with, however, in doing so, I didn’t pay attention to Moss’ ranking. I should have moved him up in the pre-set rankings; in a live draft, I would have picked him before Barber, giving me a Tier 1 Running Back and a Tier 1 Wide Receiver.
- At # 3, Boldin was drafted by Yahoo! and by me in my critique; I would have been thrilled to see Boldin available at # 31. Teaming him with Moss would be a strong 1-2 WR combination.
- At # 4, Y! picked Romo for me at QB. Given that Barber was picked at # 2, I wouldn’t have picked Romo as it puts too much reliance on Dallas for me. Overall, at that spot, with Kurt Warner available, I’d go with Warner given his season last season. Even with Boldin and a potential for over-reliance on Arizona, I’d take the combo of Warner and Boldin given the prolific Arizona air attack.
- At # 5, I’d go with the 2nd running back and would take the best available at that point with Parker. At this point, I believe I’ve built a much stronger 1-2 combo at WR, a better QB and a slightly worse RB combo than the Y! picks.
- At # 6, I’d push the envelope a bit and take Anthony Gonzalez at # 66, 9 spots higher than where he was taken in the actual draft. Without Marvin Harrison on the Colts , I think Gonzalez is poised for a break-out year. I now believe I’ve got a stronger trio of starting wide receivers in Moss, Boldin, and Gonzalez vs Boldin, Bryant, and Evans along with a better QB option in Warner vs Romo and a slightly less potent RB combo in Tomlinson and Parker vs Tomlinson and Barber.
- For the remaining picks, I start picking up depth with Benson, Roethlisberger, and Harvin. I’m particularly high on Harvin who I’ve read has demonstrated remarkable speed that the Vikings will be very tempted to leverage. One shocking part of the draft for me was that Leon Washington was not drafted in my league’s draft and for some reason Y! selected Shonn Greene, also from the Jets, instead of Leon Washington for me. I’d have selected Washington in the 12th round.
- I think Carlson was a steal for the 11th round and would again be thrilled if he was still available in the 11th as my starting TE.
- My philosophy is to take kickers and defenses a bit later in the draft so I’d take the best available kicker in the 13th round vs the 9th round when Yahoo! selected Gostkowski and my defense selection a round later than Y!
Overall, my philosophy is to take the best available in the early rounds and attempt to get a Tier 1 RB, WR, or QB if available vs going in with a rigid strategy that is myopically focused only on 2 RB in the first two rounds or RB, WR in the first two rounds, etc. Overall, my biggest complaint with Yahoo! would be they select defense and kickers too high. There should be some option to indicate when one wants to draft those positions in the draft. Additionally, sometimes one would like to select the best available player and create more depth at one position instead of selecting depth at every position which Yahoo! doesn’t typically follow in their auto draft.
When looking at both sets of picks, if I look at Yahoo!’s Week 1 projections for the starting line up from Y! auto-draft vs my picks, my picks are 8 points higher than Y!’s picks. However, most of that is solely due to a Warner vs Romo comparison for Week 1—Warner is projected at 21 while Romo is at 14, primarily due to the defenses each faces in Week 1. Of course, all of this is a crap shoot and injuries and other factors clearly will impact each player’s performance during the season. Ready for the season to start and to see what happens.
Reading, Writing, and Reflecting 
good post
thanks for visiting my blog.
This comment is going to be bigger than your post.
Nice informative blog.Here is my detailed answer but first let me give you some background.
I’ve been following football for a long time. Been playing fantasy football for a long time also.
Between 1999-2006 I played 6-10 leagues EACH YEAR!
I burned out after 2006 and quit. Have not gone back (but I do play
Pick’em and Survival still).
With that being said here is what I think about your team and the draft.
First, auto-drafting is the worst thing that can happen in fantasy football.
That happened to me only once in my life and I made sure it never
happened again
(and I ranked 100+ players and spent days and days of research –
remember I was a junkie).
Round 1: LT was the pick in both scenarios.
I agree with that pick. He is the right pick for that choice. Grade A+
ALWAYS ALWAYS take a RB in the first round.
The Stud RB theory leads to playoffs and championships without fail.
The more RB’s the better.
Round 2: Barber was the AD pick and Moss was your pick.
I’m a huge Cowboys fan but I agree with you that Moss was the better pick.
Moss is the greatest WR in the history of the NFL (Yeah, I said it).
With a healthy Brady, Randy will go off again this year. Grade A+
(Moss) Grade A- (Barber)
Round 3: Anquan Boldin was the pick in both scenarios.
Excellent selection. Fitzgerald will face the top DB from the
opposing defense and Boldin will get the
#2 DB. He will eat them alive and never face double coverage. I
love this pick. Grade A.
Round 4: Romo was the AD pick and Warner was your pick.
Like I said I’m a huge Dallas fan but this pick is a major problem
for your team.
I am a huge propenent against having a QB and RB from the same NFL
team on my fantasy squad.
That is bad, bad, bad. Romo and Barber is a bad idea.
By themselves thay are ok, but on 1 team…not good.
Only 1 person can score at 1 time and only 1 person will get the yards.
The chance of Romo passing to Barber is rare for you to “double dip”
the points.
On the flip side if you would’ve taken Warner…oh baby…that
would’ve been a nice pick.
The only problem with Warner is…will he play for 16 games?
He has never done that in back to back seasons – last year he played
16 games.
I hate the QB/RB same team combo. I LOVE the QB/WR same team combo.
You can double dip all game long. Whenever Boldin scores…Warner
scores and you can double score.
Grade A- (Warner) Grade B- (Romo) – if you didn’t have Barber I’ll
give Romo a grade B+.
Round 5: Antonio Bryant and Wille Parker.
Bryant is a HUGE reach at this point. I am not a fan of Tampa’s
passing attack.
There are sooo many good RB’s left here that I would’ve snatched one
of them instead.
Reggie Bush, Knowshon Moreno, Joseph Addai, etc.
You said you would’ve taken Fast Willie – that helps but other RB’s
were better.
Parker Grade C+ – Bryant (I’m sorry but this gets a D minus)
Round 6: Lee Evans and Anthony Gonzalez.
Lee Evans is not bad. With TO on the other side he’ll get some
easier looks from the defense.
However Buffalo’s O-Line is horrible. Trent Edwards will be running
for his life all game long.
When you have 1.5 seconds to throw you will suck!
Gonzalez is a better play than Evans. Again Reggie Wayne will take
the tougher DB’s and Manning is awesome.
I still say draft an RB here even if you can only play 2. They are
such a precious commodity and there are sooo many WR’s still left.
Lee Evans Grade C (for the round he was chosen) Gonzalez Grade B-.
Round 7: Cooley and Benson
I will never take a TE before round 10. I wll never take a kicker
before round 14. I will never take a defense before round 12.
Cooley is a good TE so grade B but in round 7 is a huge REACH Grade D minus.
Benson is a solid choice here – Grade B-
Round 8: Tennessee and RAPElisberger.
I hate the DEFENSE pick in round 8. WAAAYYY TOO EARLY!
Tennessee gets an A- even without Haynesworth. They are a nasty
relentless defense but taken in round 8 – that pick gets an F.
Please redraft. Yahoo autodraft is stupid.
RAPElisberger is ok but why take a second QB so early? I say wait
until round 10 to take a second QB.
Big Ben grade B.
The best pick for you would have been Darren Sproles. You have LT
and he will not last 16 games.
You MUST have his backup. Sproles is an excellent backup and will
start somewhere else next year or the year after.
Try to trade for Sproles if you can.
Round 9: Gostkowski and Philadelphia
OH MY GOD! Somebody kill me now.
Grade A and A- if taken after round 10.
In round 9 I’ll give Philly a grade C. I think they’ll honor Jim
Johnson’s passing away with a great defensive season.
Gostkowski in round 9 gets an F minus…if there is such a thing.
There is no question who the pick should have been here – RAY RICE!
This is the steal of the entire draft. The 9th round for Ray Rice?
He is going as high as Round 3 in other leagues. His ADP (average
draft position) is about round 6.
I’m not going to comment on the later rounds except that I do like
your sugeestion of taking Percy Harvin.
Your overall teams has some good players however, as it stands you
probably will not make the playoffs unless you tweek it a bit.
Here are my suggestions –
You’ll never need to carry 2 TE’s and 2 DEF’s on your roster.
Trade them or cut them immediately.
I would suggest using Cooley, Tennessee, and Gostkowski as trade bait.
They all carry good names at their respective positions,
Package 1 or 2 of them with some of your other position players and
get some depth at RB.
Try to get Addai, Rice, Moreno, Lynch, etc with another RB/WR.
A quick observation tells me that TEAM 3 is solid.
Team 6 and Team 9 are playing some game – I don’t know what that game
is but it’s not fantasy football.
Also, try to get Sproles – he is on Team 6.
That moron drafted Crabtree! That pick will not pan out and Sproles
will get limited carries in the first 3 weeks.
After week 2 or so people hit the panic button. Scoop up Sproles for
a cheap trade.
Trade your WR for Sproles. He’ll go for it once he realizes that
Crabtree aka CRAPtree won’t play (and if he does he’ll suck).
Don’t be afraid to make transactions early and often. Pick up
players with favorable matchups if you have to.
Remember that after every draft there are 3-5 top players who will
emerge via free agency.
Scoop them up before your opposition and you are playoff bound.
Good Luck!
SG– thanks for this fantastic analysis. I think you need to end your self-imposed ban from fantasy football– time to get back at it with this type of interest and knowledge.
Couple of comments to your points…
1. Regarding Willie Parker– I think it is fair point that he may be over-rated– I’m not to high on Moreno because of the rotating Denver model and all of the backs they have there even with a new coach… I was intrigued by Addai quite a bit as he’s only two year’s removed from being a top 5 pick…what do you think his chances for a bounce back year is? This league isn’t PPR and with the potential 3 way rotation at NO wasn’t as high on Reggie Bush but i do always have that nagging feeling that he will break-out.
2. Regarding Roethlisberger- i would have selected him probably higher than normal for a backup QB as I wasn’t sure about the health of Warner but again Warner played 16 games last year. I probably could have gotten a QB later like a Hasselback that would have also been serviceable and not much different and if that would have allowed me to take Sproles, I agree that would have been a better move and a handcuff worth taking.
3. Ray Rice would have been a good guy to pick up…the thing with this draft that shocked me was that Leon Washington went undrafted in the real draft— that’s quite a shocker– i already picked him up.
I’ll be looking to make some trades to help at WR. I’ll also try to move Barber or Romo to reduce the Dallas reliance.
Separately, I’ve got one more draft to come which I will actually do myself– a 14 person draft and i have the # 1 slot. Any views on strategies for my 2nd, 3rd pick at # 28, and # 29?
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