Guest Contributions are always welcome here at UTHDynasty.com. This post comes courtesy of Mark Russell, UTH listener and subscriber. Here is Mark’s story of remaking a devy IDP dynasty orphan roster:
I took over this orphan team in April 2015 after I had completed my 1st ever Dynasty start-up draft. I had only played redraft before but loved the idea of Dynasty. Safe to say I am hooked now and have around 15 leagues currently. I jumped straight in and was struggling to find a quality website with people who advised building their teams in the same way I wanted to which was with an emphasis on youth. I found UTH and began listening to the podcast and have been a General Manager ever since.
This is a 14-team devy league, PPR and IDP. 40 man rosters (extended to 50 in the off-season) and the scoring is pretty general. Starting requirements are RB-RB-WR-WR-WR-TE-Flex. The yearly fee is $100 and I was happy to invest that with UTH helping me along the way.
April 2015 Roster
QB
Matthew Stafford
Ryan Fitzpatrick
Zach Mettenerger
Logan Thomas
RB
Jeremy Hill
Bishop Sankey
DeAngelo Williams
Fred Jackson
Shonn Greene
Maurice Jones-Drew
WR
Jordy Nelson
James Jones
Greg Jennings
Stevie Johnson
Jerricho Cotchery
Andre Roberts
Dwayne Bowe
TE
Owen Daniels
Jermaine Gresham
DL (Notable)
Cameron Jordan
LB (Notable)
Jadeveon Clowney
Don’t’a Hightower
D’Qwell Jackson
Jelani Jenkins
DB (Notable)
Antoine Bethea
Kam Chancellor
Kenny Vaccaro
T.J. Ward
Charles Woodson
Draft Picks
1.07
3.06
5.03
5.07
Devy 1.07
Taking over this team seemed like a challenge but I was looking forward to it. Having listened to UTH Podcasts I decided to go all in and sign up for General Manager to help turn this team into a contender within a few years.
Notable Trades
I’ll be honest and say the hardest part for me was valuing rookie picks due to the devy factor. Add to that, I’m from the UK and watched little to no college football so I decided that trading away my devy picks would be my plan of action along with trying to trade my main pieces in Jordy Nelson and Jeremy Hill. I made 31 trades in all during my first season, some of which didn’t work out. I have put in brackets who was drafted in 2015 with the picks and what the picks ended up being for 2016.
27/04/15
Gave Jelani Jenkins, Danny Lansanah, T.J. Ward for Roy Helu, Larry Donnell, Michael Johnson, 5.06 (Frank Clark)
I knew my aim this year was to gut the team and build for the future so any picks I could get I would take. I also thought it would be easier to trade Helu and Donnell moving forward.
27/04/15
Gave DeAngelo Williams for 4.08 (Kenny Bell)
In hindsight this was a miss as I could have got a lot more had I held him during the season.
27/04/15
Gave Devy 1.07 (Leonard Fournette), Stevie Johnson, 5.07 (Michael Dyer) for Devy 1.03 (Tyler Boyd), 4.11 (Malcolm Brown)
This is where my lack of knowledge of devy leagues was exposed. Gutted to think I had Fournette and let him get away.
29/04/15
Gave Matthew Stafford, Bishop Sankey for Devy 1.08 (Malachi Dupre), Davante Adams
I have a soft spot for Bishop Sankey but this was a no brainer. Reading through the UTH archives only boosted my belief in Adams (although he didn’t make it to Week 1 on my team)
29/04/15
Gave Cameron Jordan, Kam Chancellor, 3.06 (Josh Robinson), 5.04 (Tyler Kroft) for Tavon Austin, Jace Amaro, 2016 2nd (2.03), 2016 3rd (3.03)
I focused on trying to build my 2016 picks up and Jace Amaro looked like the perfect TE target for building my roster. I traded away Tavon Austin for nothing in a few months (sometimes you can trade too much!!!)
01/05/15
Gave Dont’a Hightower for 3.12 (Ty Montgomery), 2016 3rd (3.11)
01/05/15
Gave Larry Donnell, 2016 5th (5.01) for Jeff Janis and 2016 3rd (3.14)
Jeff Janis is my man crush in fantasy football. I love the guy. I have him in all my leagues and to watch him breakout in the playoffs was quite possibly one of the greatest rewards all season. I find a lot of people forget that Dynasty should be fun as well as trying to win. I hear a lot of podcasts and sites write to “sell high” or bash people for liking a player like Janis or C-Mike as they don’t have any value. There is always space for a few players you want to pick from obscurity and hold on to during their NFL career just so you can say I believed and I was right.
02/05/15
Gave Jeremy Hill for Cody Latimer, 2.04 (Stephone Anthony), 2.06 (Javorius Allen), 2016 3rd (3.08)
At the time I probably didn’t get enough for Hill but I have never liked him. I did find future 1sts were hard to come by as it requires half of next season’s league fees up front and most seemed reluctant to pay the $50.
03/05/15
Gave Devy 1.03 (Tyler Boyd), Roy Helu, Jordy Nelson, Owen Daniels, 2.04 (Stephone Anthony), 2016 3rd (3.08) for Devy 1.14 (Bucky Hodges), Jordan Matthews, Donte Moncrief, Brian Quick
I felt I got a huge haul for Nelson in this, especially after he went down before the season started. He was my last big piece bar the devy picks and was happy to pull the trigger.
03/05/15
Gave Devy 1.08 (Malachi Dupree) for Charles Sims, 3.02 (Tre McBride), 4.13 (Jordan Hicks)
As I stated before, I wasn’t confident enough in Devy picks or their value and wanted to get what I could. Spoiler: It works out well in the end.
05/05/15
Gave Dwayne Bowe for 3.09 (Shaq Thompson)
Just. Wow. Who knew someone would pay for him
09/05/15
Gave Logan Thomas, Marlon Brown, Denarius Moore for 2016 2nd (2.11) 2016 5th (5.02)
09/05/15
Gave Chris Matthews, 3.05 (Benardrick McKinney), 3.09 (Shaq Thompson) for Montee Ball, Richard Rodgers
In hindsight not the greatest move but I was learning as I went.
17/05/15
Gave Davante Adams, 2.06 (Javorius Allen), 3.02 (Tre McBride) for Robert Turbin, Justin Hunter, Demario Davis, 1.05 (Breshad Perriman)
Clearly I wasn’t learning quickly enough. Could still work out but one of the trades I have slight regret over. There is a new buying opportunity for Adams though.
17/05/15
Gave Jordan Matthews, 1.07 (Eric Kendricks) for Brandin Cooks
Both of these are UTH guys and if I was considering this trade now I would hold Matthews and the pick as I could have taken David Johnson.
17/05/15
Gave Devy 1.14 (Bucky Hodges), 3.05 (Benardick McKinney), 3.09 (Shaq Thompson), 2016 2nd (2.11) for 2.01 (Jameis Winston), 5.07 (Michael Dyer), 5.13 (Dreamius Smith)
This probably seems like a lot and the UTH way tends to not spend on a QB but from what I read Winston was a good choice to anchor my team at QB going forward.
25/06/15
Gave Tavon Austin for Dan Herron and Jared Abbrederis
Quite possibly the worst trade I’ve ever done. In any league. Safe to say Herron and Abbrederis didn’t even make my final roster of 40.
10/09/15
Gave 2016 2nd (2.09) for Danny Woodhead
Trades slowed down in the run up to the season and my thinking on this was I could trade Woodhead in season to a contender. Which was easier said than done.
27/10/15
Gave Danny Woodhead, 2016 5th (5.02) for DeAndre Smelter, MyCole Pruitt, 2016 4th (4.03)
I had shopped Woodhead to everyone for picks but no one was biting. Once this was offer I accepted as quick as I could.
29/10/15
Gave Charcandrick West for Tre McBride, 2016 2nd (2.08)
Props to the weekly waiver wire article from Chad for highlighting West as a guy to get.
10/11/15
Gave Charles Sims for Devy 1.03 2016
The team that took Sims was still in the hunt for the playoffs but eventually fell away. With JuJu Smith, Courtland Sutton and Christian McCaffery available this could be a steal. (Also I started learning about college players for the upcoming year)
13/11/15
Gave Brandin Cooks, 2016 2nd (2.03) for Kevin White and D’haquille Williams.
I was hoping Williams would improve his stock during the draft process but unfortunately it seems to have gotten worse.
When I read back over the trades there are some regrets but I see them as a learning curve. I have put a lot more effort into researching devy picks and using the UTH devy rankings has helped a lot. I have also got a better handle on rookie pick value with the devy players missing.
I managed to go 1-12 for my rookie season in the league which landed me the 1.01 (Which looks to be Josh Doctson) and I feel my team is in a lot better shape. Add to that the Devy 1.01 and Devy 1.03 things could be looking up.
There is no way this would have been possible without UTH and all their articles and advice. Quite simply the best in the business.
Current Roster
QB
Jameis Winston
Johnny Manziel
Bryce Petty
RB
Zach Zenner
Ka’Deem Carey
Malcolm Brown
Robert Turbin
Terell Watson
Tyler Gaffney
Josh Robinson
Joique Bell
Kapri Bibbs
Jonathan Grimes
Akeem Hunt
Dreamius Smith
Tyler Varga
Terrance West
WR
Kevin White
Donte Moncrief
Breshad Perriman
Kenny Bell
Jaron Brown
Michael Campanaro
Aaron Dobson
Quincy Enuwa
Justin Hunter
Jeff Janis
Charles Johnson
Cody Latimer
Tre McBride
Ty Montgomery
Brian Quick
Paul Richardson
DeAndre Smelter
Darren Waller
D’haquille Williams
TE
Jace Amaro
MyCole Pruitt
DL
Frank Clark
Kony Ealy
Akiem Hicks
Danielle Hunter
LB
Jadeveon Clowney
Paul Dawson
Dee Ford
Jordan Hicks
Sio Moore
Jake Ryan
Ramik Wilson
DB
Adrian Amos
Kemal Ishmael
James Sample
2016 Draft Picks
1.01
2.01
2.02
2.08
3.01
3.03
3.11
4.08
4.11
4.14
2016 Devy Picks
1.01
1.03
