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Draft Buddy RotoBowl I – Week 15 Update

December 19, 2018 By Chris Spencer Leave a Comment

Drew Brees probably still wins the MVP award for Chris’ Draft Buddy RotoBowl I squad, but Derrick Henry is making a late push helping him crush the rushing categories the last month.

A roto scoring fantasy football league? You bet. Check the origin story, participants and league details and my Week 5 and Week 10 updates for some history about the league.

You’ve surely heard everyone’s sob story of their tough losses in Week 15. We hear it every year but this year it seems to be a little louder (recency bias?). My personal story is being down 6.06 points going into Monday night. He still had WR Samuel but I still had QB Brees… and I still lost… by 0.44 points.

While I’m focusing my blame, rage and sorrow on Brees in that league, I’m over here in the roto league preparing MVP campaign posters for him. That’s just one example of the difference between the two styles of leagues. Another is the fact that, unlike roto baseball, you can make significant moves in the standings in just two weeks (see: Derrick Henry over the last two weeks).

The standings through 15 weeks:

Draft Buddy RotoBowl I standings through NFL Week 15

You can check the updated standings.

Passing Stats

My options: Drew Brees

Passing Yards – 4075 (7th down from 2nd in Week 10)
Passing Yards per Attempt – 8.2 (4th down from 1st)
Passing Touchdowns – 35 (2nd down from 1st)

He’s faltered a bit these last 5 weeks, but he’s still keeping me at the top. With only 6 interceptions, he is also keeping me at the top of the Turnovers category. With home games against Pittsburgh and Carolina and sights on the #1 Seed, I feel confident that he’ll bounce back with good games.

Receiving Stats

My WR options: Doug Baldwin, Alshon Jeffery, DeSean Jackson, Tyler Boyd, Dante Pettis and Taywan Taylor
My TE options: Jordan Reed, Vernon Davis, Vance McDonald

Receptions – 471 (7th down from 5th in Week 10)
Receiving Yards – 5427 (8th down from 5th)
Receiving Touchdowns – 35 (8th down from 7th)

I may have oversteered a bit in my quest to improve my rushing stats as I find my WR corps thin and banged up. There isn’t much out on the wire so I’m crossing my fingers and hoping for a Christmas miracle.

Rushing Stats

My options: Saquon Barkley, Derrick Henry, Phillip Lindsay, Ronald Jones, Rex Burkhead and Justin Jackson

Rushing Yards – 3028 (5th up from 9th in Week 10)
Average Yards per Rush – 4.8 (2nd up from 12th)
Rushing Touchdowns – 34 (1st up from 6th)

Boom goes the dynamite. I’ve been laying waste to the league when it comes to rushing over the last few weeks.

Week 15 – 281 rushing yards, 3 TD
Week 14 – 449 rushing yards, 7 TD
Week 13 – 387 rushing yards, 4 TD
Week 12 – 243 rushing yards, 2 TD
Week 11 – 267 rushing yards, 4 TD

Nearly End-of-Season Observations on the Roto Format

Ladies and gentlemen, may I introduce you to the roto football poster boy, Derrick Henry. Many people had him on the bench in Week 14 because of his erratic week-by-week fantasy production. In roto all you care about is the end of the season, stat line… which is quite nice: 882 rushing yards, 5.0 yds/rush and 11 touchdowns. He even chipped in 78 receiving yards on 16 receptions.

Unlike, standard fantasy football in roto we play through all 17 weeks. That being said, I have two more weeks to hold off @Razzball_MB for the RotoBowl I Championship.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Fantasy Football Playoffs Over? Try Fantasy Throwdown

December 18, 2018 By Draft Buddy Leave a Comment

Screenshot of an example Fantasy Throwdown game, mid-draft, between Mike and RotoChris.

Fantasy Throwdown is traditional head-to-head fantasy football, reduced from a season-long game between 10-12 owners to a single week, two player battle. There is a fantasy football serpentine draft between you and your opponent. The player pool is limited to three NFL games on the upcoming week schedule, selected by the players, to allow for appropriate depth of talent for your draft. The team that scores the most fantasy points for the week, wins.

Fantasy Throwdown allows for various lineup options, including flex players, superflex (flex QB) and even individual defensive players. Plus, players can choose between standard performance and PPR scoring. There are unique strategy aspects to the game, including choosing who wants the 1st or 2nd overall pick in the draft, the game selection for the player pool, and the unique Block. Make sure to read the Fantasy Throwdown rules about the Block.

Throwdown is completely free to play right now. Create an account and play as many games each week as you like for Weeks 16 and 17 of the NFL season, plus Wild-Card Weekend and the Divisional Playoffs. People who play Throwdown love the format, and I hope you will like it too.

Draft Buddy RotoBowl I – Week 10 Update

November 16, 2018 By Chris Spencer 1 Comment

QB Drew Brees has Chris’ RotoBowl team currently 2nd, 1st and 1st in passing categories: yards, yards per attempt and touchdowns.

Roto fantasy football? It is true, it is a thing. Check the origin story, participants and league details and my Week 5 update for some history about the league.

Week 10 has come and gone and I’m currently sitting in 2nd place.

Draft Buddy RotoBowl I standings through NFL Week 10.

You can check the updated standings for yourself.

Passing Stats

My options: Drew Brees.

Passing Yards – 3004 (2nd)
Passing Yards per Attempt – 8.7 (1st)
Passing Touchdowns – 25 (1st)

That’s me driving the Brees for MVP wagon. He’s been a beast.

Receiving Stats

My WR options: Doug Baldwin, Alshon Jeffery, DeSean Jackson and Tyler Boyd.

My TE options: Jordan Reed, Vernon Davis, Vance McDonald.

Receptions – 315 (5th)
Receiving Yards – 3867 (5th)
Receiving Touchdowns – 24 (7th)

As I predicted in the last update, I regressed in TDs down from 3rd to 7th. The pleasant surprise is how I’ve been able to climb up in receptions and receiving yards when I’ve been focusing more on rushing. Getting Jeffery and Baldwin back and Boyd’s breakout season have certainly helped.

Rushing Stats

My options: Saquon Barkley, Derrick Henry, Phillip Lindsay, D’Onta Foreman, Ronald Jones, Chris Ivory, Rex Burkhead and Malcolm Brown.

Rushing Yards – 1401 (9th)
Average Yards per Rush – 4.0 (T-12th)
Rushing Touchdowns – 14 (T-6th)

In the last update I mentioned that I might need to pull off a trade. I was right. In Week 8 I traded WR Taylor Gabriel to @PJHofer07 for RB Phillip Lindsay. I now have Barkley & Lindsay as my two RB’s to plug in every week. After that it is matchups and lottery tickets.

Trades

Week 10 – @EvFWFB makes two trades: trades WR Golden Tate to Killer Fins for RB Josh Adams and trades WR D.J. Moore to Fighting Chance Steve for RB Ito Smith.

Week 11 – Fighting Chance Steve trades WR Kenny Golladay to @FantasyTaz for QB Ben Roethlisberger.

The running theme with these trades and my trade is it is not so much that you are trading players but that you are trading categories… which is a common Roto practice.

Mid-Season Observations on the Roto Format

I firmly believe giving each team the ability to start more than one QB is essential to maximizing the strategic potential of roto fantasy football. I’ve come across 2-QB formats in points leagues and prefer them for the shear fact that someone will have to start Eli Manning occasionally (if not every week). Now, in points leagues you’re just hoping for a few TDs to make his score palatable. In roto, your hoping he doesn’t kill your Yards/Attempt and other ratios. Chess over checkers.

When putting this league together I was asked by some about doing a Best Ball format. If you are not familiar with Best Ball it is where you draft players and never have to worry about setting the lineup as your top scores each week will be used to fill out the starting lineup to maximize your point total. It is becoming more popular each season in the fantasy industry. Well, in regards to the roto format it isn’t as easy to put into practice.

Since the scoring isn’t a cut and dry point total to judge players against it is nearly impossible to determine who the “best” player is each week. The only way you could do it would be to make the stats count for every player drafted. Due to the low participation in this year’s RotoBowl (only 4 of 15 teams have submitted a complete lineup every week), I may be forced to go that route in future years.