Ian Allan's Mailbag
Posted Jun. 13 at 10:25 AM
Publisher Ian Allan fields your questions on strategy, how to run your league, player ratings -- and whatever else you think of. Updated every Friday during the season; Tuesdays and Fridays during the last two months of the preseason. You must be registered and signed-in to submit a mailbag question. After you sign in at the top of the page, the link to submit a mailbag question will become visible.
Question 1:
Looking forward to another great year of Fantasy Index!
You seem to be down on KC this year, I wondered if you think Chan Gailey will bring that KC running game back to the top half of the league? Gailey did, after all, revive the Cowboys' struggling offense back in the 90s, led the Steelers to the 2nd-rated rush offense in 1996, and the #1 rushing offense the following season ('97). In Miami, with a bad O-line, he coached a lackluster RB named Lamar Smith into a fantasy gem who rushed for 1,139 yards and 16 TD.
KC also plays one of the easiest schedules against the run in 2008.
Rob Dammers [MORRIS PLAINS, NJ]
A:
I looked into Chan Gailey. He's been in charge of offenses for six years in the NFL -- two seasons each with the Steelers, Cowboys and Dolphins between 1996 and 2001. He was the head coach in Dallas, and an offensive coordinator in Pittsburgh and Miami. Then he went to Georgia Tech. He's got a solid body of work. His six offenses in the NFL tended to finish with strong rushing numbers:
TD runs: 18, 19, 21, 16, 16, 14
Run yards: 2nd, 1st, 8th, 6th, 14th, 23rd
Not so good in passing production:
TD passes: 15, 22, 17, 20, 15, 20
Pass yards: 27th, 23rd, 9th, 24th, 27th, 19th
Overall points: 11th, 7th, 9th, 11th, 16th, 8th
But let’s not get carried away. All of those teams had good talent. All six made the playoffs. And all six had much better players than what he’ll work with in Kansas City. With this current team, Gailey might have both the worst quarterbacking situation and the worst offensive line in the entire league. Just one good wide receiver (Dwayne Bowe) as well. There’s only so much an easy schedule can do for this offense.
So while I like the Gailey hire, I don’t think he’ll get Kansas City back up to above-average in either rushing yards or rushing touchdowns – maybe next year, but not this season.
Question 2:
In the past we have always had our draft in person but as some of us get spread out over the country we have several members call in on a conference call during the draft. Our draft is an Auction-style draft so it is difficult to do it online. We currently use CBS sportsline for our league website but we would be willing to change if you know of another website that is more accommodating for an Auction.
ERIC SCOLNICK [Issaquah, WA]
A:
If you want to complete your auction in three or four hours, the website to use is www.fantasyauctioneer.com. I've done a few auctions on that site over the years. It definitely works. If you want to instead space out your auction over a few days (or a few weeks) then I'd instead go with www.myfantasyleague.com. With that website, you can set up an auction so that a player sale becomes final once the high bidder hasn't changed in 24 hours -- so each owner needs to visit the site only once per day until the completion of the auction. You can limit each owner to only nominating one or two players per day so the queue doesn't get too crowded. For myfantasyleague.com, I like that they have the "eBay style" bidding option -- you can bid $45 on LaDainian Tomlinson, for example, and if the next-highest bid is only $36, you would get him for $37.
Question 3:
As a follow up to my "drauction" question last week: Once a player has been nominated, do you allow free-for-all bidding to occur (i.e. anyone can holler in with a bid), or do you go around the table in a specific orderly process (i.e. Joe bids or passes, then Bill bids or passes, then Fred bids or passes, etc.)
Matt Tinker [ORLEANS, VT]
A:
I like the free-for-all system, but I have to confess that I've never tried the alternative. With the round-the-circle method, you have to keep track of who's in and who's out, and you would potentially have to wait 10-15 seconds for guys to decided whether or not to up the bid. I like with the open style that you can kind of tune out any particular auction and use that free time to update your rosters, figure out the next guy you're going to nominate or how much you might want to bid on a particular player or position. If you're using a laptop and have the thing configured correctly in a spreadsheet, you can use that free time to generate updated auction values on the fly -- with the numbers adjusted to account for the other owners either overspending or underspending.
Question 4:
I've been buying your magazine now for a few years, and it always helps me put together a strong squad, however last year the football Gods were against me. Despite having L.T. and A.P. and finishing 3rd in points I finished 8th in my 10 man league. We can keep 3 players, my first two choices are obvious, but I need help with the 3rd. We have the standard starting lineups (2 RBs, 3 WRs) and my final choice comes down to one of the following three players: Chad Johnson, Brandon Marshall or Michael Turner. We do get .5 points per reception, so that makes both Johnson and Marshall more appealing than they would be in a normal league. I'm leaning towards Marshall, but part of me says to keep Turner and use my first 3 picks on WRs instead. What do you think?
Jeff Fell [Sarnia, ON]
A:
I think it's safe to say that Marshall is going to be a top-10 receiver. He might rank in the top 5. He caught an NFL-high 57 passes during the second half of last season. With your league requiring three starting wide receivers, he's definitely the guy I'd go with. Chad Johnson is a huge question mark, and Turner potentially could play only two games for you. As crappy as the Falcons should be this year, I can't imagine you starting him ahead of either Tomlinson or Peterson, regardless of matchup.
Question 5:
Our league would like your opinion/suggestions on the most fair way to handle the weekly waiver wire process. We have previously tried the "first come, first served" and "worst weekly record" methods with limited success or parity.
JAN RISSMAN [SAN ANTONIO]
A:
Give each team a $1,000 payroll to purchase free agents. At 3 pm Wednesday (or by some deadline around that time), bids are due on free agents. At that time, the bids are revealed and the players are awarded to the highest-bidding teams. In the event of a tie, the player goes to the team with the lesser record. After those players are awarded, teams for the rest of the week may purchase free agents on a first-come, first-serve basis for $10 per player. Once a team is out of money, it can no longer pick up players.
This system is fair, and it doesn't penalize teams for winning games. I don't like the idea of giving the worst teams first shot at the best free agents, because there's so little separation between teams in this game. I'd rather give the best teams the opportunity to separate, and have those lesser teams truly have to work their way back into the thing -- or wait until next year.
Question 6:
In a 14 team ppr league which starts 1qb, 1rb,2wr,1te and 1 flex. I want to keep Clinton Portis, Willie Parker and Michael Turner while cutting loose Chad Johnson. I pick 5th in a straight line draft. Is this justifiable?
Giovanni Alessi [HAMMONTON, NJ]
A:
I think Portis and Turner will be on your team. It will come down to picking between Chad Johnson and Willie Parker. You start only one running back in your league (two including the flex player). Let's see how likely it is that Chad Johnson even plays. He desperately wants out of Cincinnati, to the points that there could be major incidents, distractions and suspensions involved. He showed up at the team's mandatory practice on Thursday, but this saga is far from over.
Readers' Comments
Add a Comment
Already a registered user? Please sign in to add comments.
To add comments, you must become a registered user of our site. To register, please click here.
Question 1: Looking forward to another great...
Posted by Paul Desimone | Jun. 13 at 01:19 PM
One tendency that Gailey has displayed is to spread the defense out with multiple WRs, somewhat similar to the way mike Martz likes to, but then run the ball out of that given formation much more than Martz. So, if healthy, you can expect LJ to get plenty of carries, but it remains to be seen if the offensive line can create much room for him. In the passing game, Gailey tends to spread the distribution out much as Martz does as well, so Dwayne Bowe's numbers may take a tumble from last year's total.
Question 2: In the past we have...
Posted by ADAM HOLTZ | Jun. 15 at 06:40 AM
ESPN.com has opened auction drafts for this season. A huge boon for the game, if you ask me.
Question 3: As a follow up to...
Posted by MICHAEL ROPER | Jun. 13 at 12:07 PM
Matt, here's what I'd suggest based on my league's expierence. If everyone will be in the same room drafting together, I think you could consider the "shout it out" free-for-all. If you guys have anyone calling in by conference call I would go with the more organized way of bidding. In my league I've always had one of my friends come over and be our auctioneer as I don't want to have to worry about running the auction, I want to be able to focus on my team. The first year we did the organized method because everyone was new to the idea of auctioning and it seemed less chaotic. I assigned seats, so that everyone was sitting in the order they would be nominating players. Then we just followed the circle around to bid on players. Last year, figuring that everyone was familar with auctioning now and that we could save a few minutes by going free-for-all with every pick, we went to the shout it out method. After the draft, the guys that weren't there in person with us pleaded to go back to the more organized method this year. They said that they had a much more difficult time following who had the high bid and in the auction, part of the strategy is not only getting the guys that you want, but making sure other owners don't get the guys they want too cheap. Anyway, just my two cents...