This series will look at the process of a fantasy football orphan rebuild from start to finish.
I took over the skeleton of a dynasty team about a month ago – my first venture into the world of 2-QB dynasty leagues. I have played some redraft-style 2-QB leagues in the past, but dynasty is a whole different animal. With few players to actually build around, but a bevy of rookie picks, here is the skinny on this team when I started. Future posts in this series will outline more deals as I shape this team in the UTH mold.
Initial roster upon take-over
Quarterback – Jay Cutler, Carson Palmer
Arguably the worst duo in the league. Cutler a passable QB2 in this format, but a cameo as a lead guy leaves a lot to be desired.
Running Back – Stevan Ridley, Shane Vereen
In a start-2 format, this is pretty grim as well. Ridley has little value in my mind and was on my emergency sell list out of the gate.
Wide Receiver – Pierre Garcon, Mike Wallace, Cecil Shorts, T.Y. Hilton, James Jones, Anquan Boldin
The best position so far, but not one UTH-approved dynasty staple among them. What I did see though was some decent market value to pawn for rookie picks or youth I preferred. More to follow on who got dealt rather quickly off this depth chart. With the ability to start up to five receivers weekly, outside of quarterback, wide receivers are the position-to-own in this format.
Tight End – Dennis Pitta, Zach Ertz
Decent, but unspectacular options, at least Ertz has some 2014 and beyond pop. Pitta with some decent news could be a flip candidate prior to the season kicking off.
Rookie Picks: 1.01, 1.02, 1.03, 1.04, 1.09, 2.06, 3.06.
The rookie picks were THE reason I took this team as a fantasy football rebuild. Those picks were a majority of the dynasty value on this team in my database. My goal was to accumulate even more 2014 and 2015 picks along the way to dominate the first round at a minimum. With 10 teams instead of 12, those second and third round picks are more valuable than usual.
With the rookie pick values factored in, this fantasy football rebuild team graded out as 7th among the 10 teams in my personal power rankings early in the offseason. Time to get to work. I rarely take over an orphan in this shape, but wanted (and needed) experience truly building through the a rookie draft or two, back to relevance.
More to follow in the upcoming installments, stay tuned!
