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Draft Buddy RotoBowl I – Week 15 Update

December 19, 2018 By kopasetic 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!

Draft Buddy RotoBowl I – Week 10 Update

November 16, 2018 By kopasetic 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.

Draft Buddy RotoBowl I – Update

October 12, 2018 By kopasetic 3 Comments

Week 5 is in the books and I’m way overdue on giving you an update on how the roto fantasy football league is going. In case you missed it back in late-July, here is the origin story, participants and league details of this unique fantasy football league format.

I’m currently sitting in 4th place overall… but in trouble.

Draft Buddy RotoBowl I standings through NFL Week 5.

This update is as of the end of NFL Week 5, but check the current standings to follow along at home.

Passing Stats

My options: Drew Brees, Jameis Winston

Passing Yards – 1666 (2nd)
Passing Yards per Attempt – 8.7 (2nd)
Passing Touchdowns – 11 (T-4th)

As Brees goes, I go. Barring injury I should stay towards the top of the passing categories. I had Brees as the 3rd best QB going into the draft behind Wilson and Brady. I ended up getting him in the 6th round as the 6th QB off the board.

Receiving Stats

My WR options: Doug Baldwin, Alshon Jeffery, DeSean Jackson, Kenny Stills, Tyler Boyd, Taylor Gabriel, Allen Hurns

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

Receptions – 146 (11th)
Receiving Yards – 1905 (8th)
Receiving Touchdowns – 14 (T-3rd)

Work to be done here. Touchdowns are more random so I shouldn’t expect to stay towards the top in that category. Getting Baldwin and Jeffery back will (hopefully) help me move up in receptions and yards. In a 15 team league you’re going to see the likes of Gabriel and Boyd contributing.

Rushing Stats

My options: Saquon Barkley, Derrick Henry, Doug Martin, D’Onta Foreman.

Rushing Yards – 687 (9th)
Average Yards per Rush – 3.7 (15th)
Rushing Touchdowns – 5 (T-11th)

Losing Rex Burkhead and Jeremy Hill to injury didn’t help my poor showing. Even the guys not injured are dragging me down. Henry is pulling down my yards per rush and I don’t have any other options. I missed out on Wendell Smallwood this week and took a flyer on Kapri Bibbs hoping Adrian Peterson and/or Chris Thompson can’t go this week. Unfortunately for me I can’t confuse hope for a plan. I may be forced to try and pull off a trade to land a RB worth a damn and try and improve my standing in these rushing stats.

Early Observations on the Roto Format

Too much emphasis on one QB? The perfect roto league would seem to have the ability to start more than one QB each week so that the passing stats aren’t driven predominantly by one player. In roto baseball it would be like tracking home runs and RBI hit by catchers separately from other hitters.

You still need balance. I know this in roto baseball and I thought I knew this coming into this league. I’m in a bad spot with my RB and need to adapt. Much like in roto baseball you need to aim for finishing high in each category. Not necessarily 1st in each but in the 3rd to 4th place territory.

Make sure you have your lineup in each week! Unlike the head-to-head format where you can start a player on a bye and risk just losing the week, in roto that wasted opportunity could create a gap too big to make up. Take Rushing Yards for example, I’m in 9th place: 51 yards behind 8th; 149 yards behind 7th; 283 yards behind 6th and 364 yards behind 5th… and that is with filling out my lineup each week!

Best/Worst through First 5 Weeks

Category	Best	Worst
Passing Yards	464 – Week 4 / @MStepney71	118 – Week 1 / @MikeKAdamson*
Passing TDs	5 – Week 3 / @kingsperry37	0 – 10 Times
Receptions	54 – Week 2 / @Razzball_MB	17 – Week 5 / @Roto_Chris
Receiving Yards	646 – Week 5 @MikeJAdamson	172 – Week 4 / @PJHofer07
Receiving TDs	7 – Week 3 / @FantasyTaz	0 – 5 Times
Rushing Yards	447 – Week 2 / @PJHofer07	38 – Week 4 / @Razzball_MB*
Rushing TDs	4 – Week 1 / @PJHofer07	0 – 24 Times
Turnovers	0 – 16 Times	5 – Week 1 / @FFzinger

*Removed @EvFWFB since he hasn’t set a lineup the past few weeks.