Another contribution by Katie Flower, @FF_Skyler399
Dynasty fantasy football is all about timing. I took over an orphaned best ball dynasty team on this week in response to a twitter cry for help. I assessed the roster, scoring rules and league quickly, the team was on the clock at the 1.04 and it was a minimal investment of both time and money, and said yes, I’ll take it.
The team was not the worst orphan I had seen, and it had some nice assets. It is my first best ball dynasty team, but I have played best ball before. In this format you want guys with high upside to put up big numbers in a week. You don’t have to pick your starters, the system does that AFTER they score.
Starting requirements and scoring: 12 team, 30 man rosters (35 in off-season), 8 starters, 0.5PPR, 1 QB, 2-3RB, 3-4WR, 1-2TE
Rookie/FA draft: 10 rounds split into 2 drafts Rounds 1-5 occurring now, rounds 6-10 take place in August. No waiver wire in season, but trading is allowed.
My Roster
QB: Tannehill, Carr, Dalton, L.Thomas
RB: Ellington, Sankey, B.Tate, Spiller, Ballard, Helu, Richardson, West
WR: OBJ, Robinson, G.Tate, J.Gordon, Ginn, Huff, Kearse, Kerley, Latimer, Wheaton, Brown, Jernigan, Saunders
TE: Kelce, Toilolo, Rudolph, G.Graham, Rivera
2015 picks: 1.04, 2.03, 3.03, 4.03, 5.03, 6.03, 7.03, 8.03, 9.03, 10.03
Teams don’t battle each other, you are battling the entire league each week. Teams are ranked from 1-12 based on the top 8 scorers at the starting positions. Any tie breaker is based on total roster score.
My first move was to take Kevin White. Gurley, Cooper and Gordon were gone and he was best player available. Next I jettisoned Brown, Jernigan and Saunders in order to make room for added players. I chose 4 players from my team to put on the trading block: OBJ, Ellington, Dalton, and Kelce.
Two guys made good trade targets because both had multiple picks in the draft, and some juicy spots. They also had good players and clearly were active owners. The decision to put my top asset on the block was an easy one, despite how much I love OBJ and his potential to be one of the best. He wouldn’t come cheap, and I had specific targets in mind that could diversify my lineup.
My discussions with the Gurley owner were close, we had a deal mapped out that would be beneficial to me and plug several holes at once. He wanted to see who fell to the 1.08 since that was part of the deal.
I also had offered OBJ to the Cooks owner that involved his 1.07, 2.01, and 2.06. I told the Gurley owner that I didn’t mind waiting but that I had other offers out on OBJ and I would go with the first best accepted package.
The Cooks owner declined and then proceeded to take Yeldon at 1.06 and Perriman at 1.07. I was sad because now the 1.08 had lost its shine and I was truly hoping the Gurley owner would decline my offer, and sure enough he did and took DGB with 1.08.
I resigned myself to keep OBJ and just do the best that I could to rebuild this team. The rest of the first round proceeded slowly and by the time I went to sleep Saturday night, Agholor, Duke Johnson, and Abdullah were off the board.
I woke up at 3am Sunday to a hard rain and the sound of the local train blaring its horn. I grabbed my iPad from the nightstand to check on my drafts, I had 5 going on all at once. In one email update I saw that Jameis Winston was selected with the 1.12, way too early for QB in a start 1 league, even in best ball.
Was I Crazy? Was This Real?
Then I saw the trade offer from the Cooks owner. “Cooks, Perriman, and the 2.01 for OBJ”. I blinked, rubbed my eyes, and sat straight up in bed. I looked at the draft board and 2.01 was OTC with Devin Funchess staring me in the face. Was I crazy, was this real?
It was only off from my original offer by the 2.06. And in many ways it was better because in my first offer I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to get Perriman at 1.07 or Funchess with the 2.01, this took all the guess-work out of it.
I accepted and then I took Funchess. Coleman went 2.02 and I happily scooped up David Johnson at 2.03. I was feeling great about my team and I tweeted the trade. You won’t believe how many people said they would prefer OBJ over Cooks/Perriman/Funchess, I was more than a little shocked.
In my opinion, Cooks is almost even with OBJ, but to get two top WR prospects that fit the best ball format and insulate my roster against one injury decimating me, I feel like that was a huge win for my team.
I saw comments like “I guess OBJ is getting too old already, time to sell”. They just don’t get it. Sometimes you have to sell a great asset for the overall good of your team.
I tried and was close to selling Ellington but no go. The next deal was for Kelce and Dalton and in exchange I received picks 2.09, 2.10, 2.11, 2.12. Prior to making this deal I had built my watch list of veterans that were included in the draft. There were several decent tight ends that played nicely in the best ball format, so I could afford to trade Kelce, Dalton was no loss.
Stocking the Running Back Cupboard
With those picks I grabbed Josh Hill, Matt Jones, Javorius Allen and Mike Davis and with my 3rd round pick I took Larry Donnell. Now my team was really starting to shape up. I reassessed my trading block and added Markus Wheaton and Cody Latimer so that Ellington wasn’t sitting there by himself.
Within minutes I got an offer of 2016 2nd and 2016 4th for Latimer. While this may not be stinky bad, I call this a “kick the can down the road” offer, you are getting a delayed value for a delayed player.
The only reason I added him to my trade block was to perhaps get a rookie or vet of equal value with some upside but who has a chance to produce for my lineup this year and in the future. Remember that the tie breaker is overall team points in this league.
I don’t expect Latimer to produce much in 2015, so I may as well keep him on my bench and not 2 future draft picks that won’t produce for me until at a minimum of 2016, but most likely even further beyond. At least 2016 will be Latimer’s 3rd season, the magic number when coming of age in the NFL. If this were in season and I needed the roster spot to grab a pop up producer off the waiver wire; that would be the right time to accept this kind of offer if I was so inclined now.
My new roster with the draft still in progress, my next pick is at 4.03:
2.0 Roster
QB: Tannehill, Carr, L.Thomas
RB: David Johnson, M.Jones, J.Allen, M.Davis, Ellington, Sankey, B.Tate, Spiller, Ballard, Helu, Richardson, West
WR: Cooks, K.White, Funchess, Perriman, Robinson, G.Tate, J.Gordon, Ginn, Huff, Kearse, Kerley, Latimer, Wheaton
TE: J.Hill, Donnell, Toilolo, Rudolph, G.Graham, Rivera
When I first took this team it had a lot of holes. By making quick assessments and bold moves I feel that I was able to breathe some life into an anemic roster and give it a fighting chance in 2015 as well as strengthen it for a long dynasty run at the top of the pack.
Sometimes you will need to make moves quickly, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t without thought. Trust your research, trust your board, trust yourself and build your dynasty!
