The Fanex experts leagues are well under way (both are in the 8th round right now) and quarterbacks have been really cheap. The price tags were really cheap on guys like Peyton Manning, Drew Brees and Matt Ryan, which surprised me.
These are two separate leagues. There’s a 12-team American Conference, and there’s another 12 teams in the National. In reality, they’re actually a “First Division” and a “Second Division”, with the bottom 4 teams from the American getting relegated each year (replaced by the three division winners and the wild card from the National). But too many owners were intimidated by this format, so wanted to keep it hidden behind “American” and “National”.
Apologies, but right now I’m down in the National. I’ve had a very good run in my 15 or so years in this circuit, but I had an off year in 2013 and was unable to get promoted back up in 2014. So I’m down the B league this time around.
Regardless, both are working with the same pool of players, and quarterbacks have been undervalued in both.
Aaron Rodgers and Andrew Luck went pretty early in both, but then crickets.
After those two, the next quarterback taken was Peyton Manning, at 4.12 in the American Conference (No. 48 overall), and he remarkably didn’t go until pick 7.05 in my league.
Drew Brees, meanwhile, wasn’t selected until picks 7.06 and 7.09. I was part of that. I passed on Brees at choice 7.08 because I felt he was pretty similar to Matt Ryan and Eli Manning (and I wound up getting Ryan at 8.05).
All along, I’ve been banging the drum that there’s not much difference between the seven quarterbacks after those big two, and that’s how it’s playing out in these leagues. Many others seem to have them scouted in a similar way. If you’re comfortable settling for a second-tier quarterback, looks like you can get one in the seventh round.
That’s in this format, anyway. It’s a PPR league, with three starting wide receivers and a flex. TD passes are worth only 4 points. This helps shove quarterbacks down some.
If you would like to follow along some with these drafts. Go to this here link.
Here’s how it’s gone so far, with average order of players. Quarterbacks are in bold.
Note that Arian Foster was selected in the second round in one of these drafts. Then his injury occurred, and he hasn’t yet been chosen in the other.
| FANEX EXPERTS LEAGUES | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Amer. | Nat. | Post | Player |
| 1.02 | 1.01 | RB | Adrian Peterson |
| 1.03 | 1.02 | RB | LeVeon Bell |
| 1.04 | 1.04 | RB | Jamaal Charles |
| 1.06 | 1.03 | RB | Eddie Lacy |
| 1.01 | 1.10 | RB | Matt Forte |
| 1.07 | 1.05 | WR | Antonio Brown |
| 1.08 | 1.06 | TE | Rob Gronkowski |
| 1.10 | 1.08 | WR | Odell Beckham Jr. |
| 1.11 | 1.07 | WR | Dez Bryant |
| 1.12 | 1.12 | RB | Marshawn Lynch |
| 1.05 | 2.02 | RB | LeSean McCoy |
| 2.04 | 1.09 | WR | Julio Jones |
| 2.05 | 1.11 | WR | Demaryius Thomas |
| 2.02 | 2.01 | WR | Jordy Nelson |
| 2.01 | 2.04 | RB | C.J. Anderson |
| 2.03 | 2.03 | RB | DeMarco Murray |
| 2.07 | 2.06 | WR | Calvin Johnson |
| 2.08 | 2.05 | RB | Jeremy Hill |
| 1.09 | 3.04 | QB | Aaron Rodgers |
| 2.06 | 2.11 | WR | A.J. Green |
| 2.09 | 2.10 | WR | Randall Cobb |
| 3.01 | 2.09 | RB | Melvin Gordon |
| 2.10 | 3.02 | WR | Alshon Jeffery |
| 2.11 | 3.03 | QB | Andrew Luck |
| 3.02 | 2.12 | WR | Mike Evans |
| 3.06 | 2.08 | RB | Justin Forsett |
| 3.04 | 3.01 | WR | T.Y. Hilton |
| 3.03 | 3.09 | WR | Brandin Cooks |
| 3.05 | 3.07 | WR | DeAndre Hopkins |
| 3.08 | 3.06 | RB | Frank Gore |
| 3.10 | 3.08 | WR | Emmanuel Sanders |
| 2.12 | 4.06 | TE | Jimmy Graham |
| 3.12 | 3.12 | WR | Kelvin Benjamin |
| 4.04 | 3.05 | WR | Jordan Matthews |
| 3.07 | 4.04 | RB | Lamar Miller |
| 4.06 | 3.10 | RB | T.J. Yeldon |
| 3.09 | 4.11 | RB | Alfred Morris |
| 4.03 | 4.01 | WR | Andre Johnson |
| 4.02 | 4.02 | RB | C.J. Spiller |
| 4.05 | 4.08 | RB | Mark Ingram |
| 4.09 | 4.05 | WR | Julian Edelman |
| 5.07 | 3.11 | WR | Keenan Allen |
| 3.11 | 5.12 | RB | Joseph Randle |
| 4.01 | 5.01 | RB | Carlos Hyde |
| 5.02 | 4.09 | WR | Amari Cooper |
| 4.10 | 5.02 | TE | Travis Kelce |
| 5.06 | 4.07 | WR | Golden Tate |
| 5.01 | 4.12 | WR | Jeremy Maclin |
| 4.08 | 5.05 | RB | Latavius Murray |
| 4.07 | 5.07 | RB | Todd Gurley |
| 4.11 | 5.03 | RB | Ameer Abdullah |
| 5.08 | 5.04 | WR | Brandon Marshall |
| 5.05 | 5.08 | TE | Greg Olsen |
| 6.08 | 4.10 | WR | Sammy Watkins |
| 5.12 | 5.11 | TE | Martellus Bennett |
| 5.03 | 6.05 | RB | Andre Ellington |
| 6.02 | 5.10 | QB | Ben Roethlisberger |
| 5.11 | 6.02 | RB | Giovani Bernard |
| 7.11 | 4.03 | WR | Martavis Bryant |
| 6.10 | 5.06 | WR | Allen Robinson |
| 4.12 | 7.05 | QB | Peyton Manning |
| 5.10 | 6.10 | RB | Shane Vereen |
| 6.12 | 5.09 | WR | DeSean Jackson |
| 6.01 | 6.01 | QB | Russell Wilson |
| 6.04 | 6.03 | WR | Jarvis Landry |
| 6.05 | 6.07 | RB | Doug Martin |
| 6.07 | 6.06 | RB | Jonathan Stewart |
| 6.09 | 6.08 | RB | Tevin Coleman |
| 6.11 | 6.09 | WR | Mike Wallace |
| 5.04 | 8.02 | QB | Tony Romo |
| 6.03 | 7.08 | WR | Roddy White |
| 6.06 | 7.07 | QB | Cam Newton |
| 7.01 | 7.12 | WR | Vincent Jackson |
| 8.02 | 6.12 | WR | Nelson Agholor |
| 7.06 | 7.09 | QB | Drew Brees |
| 7.12 | 7.06 | WR | Steve Smith |
| 8.04 | 7.02 | WR | Charles Johnson |
| 7.05 | 8.05 | QB | Matt Ryan |
| 7.10 | 8.01 | RB | Joique Bell |
| -- | 2.07 | RB | Arian Foster |
| 5.09 | -- | RB | Alfred Blue |
| -- | 6.04 | WR | Eric Decker |
| -- | 6.11 | RB | LeGarrette Blount |
| -- | 7.01 | RB | Isaiah Crowell |
| 7.02 | -- | TE | Julius Thomas |
| 7.03 | -- | WR | John Brown |
| -- | 7.03 | RB | Theo Riddick |
| 7.04 | -- | RB | Knile Davis |
| -- | 7.04 | RB | Tre Mason |
| 7.07 | -- | WR | Kevin White |
| 7.08 | -- | QB | Eli Manning |
| 7.09 | -- | TE | Zach Ertz |
| -- | 7.10 | RB | Chris Ivory |
| -- | 7.11 | WR | Brandon LaFell |
| 8.01 | -- | WR | Torrey Smith |
| 8.03 | -- | QB | Philip Rivers |
| -- | 8.03 | WR | Rueben Randle |
| 8.05 | -- | WR | Larry Fitzgerald |
| 8.06 | -- | QB | Tom Brady |
—Ian Allan