We finished the Fanex draft earlier in the week. This is a PPR league, with 12 teams picking 20 players each. This is a head-to-head format, with lineups each week and owners allowed to make waiver claims throughout the year.
I picked out of the 10th spot, and my team ended up like this:
| IAN'S FANEX ROSTER | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Pick | Pos | Team | Player |
| 7.10 | QB | WAS | Kirk Cousins |
| 9.10 | QB | DAL | Dak Prescott |
| 5.10 | RB | NO | Mark Ingram |
| 6.03 | RB | NYG | Paul Perkins |
| 10.03 | RB | WAS | Robert Kelley |
| 12.03 | RB | CAR | Jonathan Stewart |
| 14.03 | RB | BUF | Jonathan Williams |
| 15.10 | RB | PIT | James Conner |
| 19.10 | RB | LAC | Branden Oliver |
| 1.10 | WR | NO | Michael Thomas |
| 2.03 | WR | IND | T.Y. Hilton |
| 3.10 | WR | KC | Tyreek Hill |
| 4.03 | WR | ARI | Larry Fitzgerald |
| 11.10 | WR | CLE | Corey Coleman |
| 16.03 | WR | HOU | Will Fuller |
| 20.03 | WR | SEA | Paul Richardson |
| 8.03 | TE | PHI | Zach Ertz |
| 13.10 | PK | NE | Stephen Gostkowski |
| 17.10 | ST | PHI | Philadelphia |
| 18.03 | ST | ATL | Atlanta |
If you want to look at the other rosters or an overview of the entire draft, it can be seen at MyFantasyLeague.com.
Most of these picks are self-explanatory, but I’ll give you a brief overview of my thinking by position.
QUARTERBACKS: I wanted to get two guys who can play. Rodgers, Brady and Brees would deserve some attention if they fell to a certain range; otherwise the emphasis was on calculating how long I could wait and still get a decent pair. Ended up with Cousins and Prescott with the 82nd and 106th pick. Slight error here in that I need not have chosen Cousins in the 7th. Both Philip Rivers and Eli Manning last until the 10th round.
RUNNING BACKS: This is a PPR format, so you want running backs who can catch the ball if you can get them. Values weren’t right for running backs in the first four rounds, so I didn’t address this position until the fifth and sixth. At that point, satisfied to land Ingram and Perkins. Ingram is sharing times with other backs but should catch a ton of backs. Perkins’ value may now be slipping – supposedly, he’s been so-so at camp. That’s not a standout pair, so I later bolstered this position with Kelley and Stewart. Kelley could prove to be a steal in the 10th round – looks like Samaje Perine isn’t ready to play much. Later picked up three handcuff guys who might have some quality starts at some point – Jonathan Williams, James Conner and Branden Oliver. I thought I would also get Kenyan Drake in the late rounds, but somebody beat me to him.
WIDE RECEIVERS: It may seem odd that I selected wide receivers with my first four picks, but we start three in this league, and there’s a flex position. With this being a PPR format, the best strategy is to play four every week, so I wanted consistent producers in these spots. Some of those guys, of course, have byes, and injuries could occur. Plus Andrew Luck might miss games, which would really hurt T.Y. Hilton. So I also spent some later-round picks on reserves. Corey Coleman is my top reserve (though since making this pick, I have now downgraded him behind Kenny Britt on his own team). Will Fuller (collarbone) and Paul Richardson (shoulder) are both injured, but when they’re healthy they could be viable options. I have a good feeling about Richardson – looks like he might be Seattle’s 2nd-best wide receiver.
TIGHT END: In this format, Zach Ertz was the No. 1 tight end in the second half of the season. He was a guy I was targeting, keeping me out of worrying about injuries with Gronkowski, Reed and Eifert. I figured I’d use my last-round pick on Erik Swoope or Austin Seferian-Jenkins as a reserve, but other teams surprised me by selecting those players.
KICKER: I value the kicker position more than most. I consider Stephen Gostkowski a very safe choice to score 140-plus points (he’s gone over 150 five times). So he was a player I was targeting. In most drafts I have been in, Justin Tucker has been selected before Gostkowski, which surprises me – I see the Patriots as a much safer choice than the Ravens. When Gostkowski has a bye, I will pick up a fill-in kicker. Until then, I’ll use that spot on a backup running back who’s an injury away from greatness.
DEFENSES: I decided to carry two defenses. In this format, you’re playing mostly for sacks and interceptions, and there are a lot of quarterbacks nowadays who are tough to get much off of. So I wanted to have some ability to get out of those matchups. Philadelphia has scored a league-high 12 TDs on special teams in the last three years. Atlanta has stockpiled a lot of young defensive talent, and that defense was a lot better in the second half of last year.
Four notable players who weren’t even selected in this league. Chris Boswell and Caleb Sturgis at the top of my list. They were top-5 kickers on my board, and I have no idea why the other 11 teams didn’t pick them. (Only two of those 11 teams, in my opinion, have a kicker who’s better than those guys.) In this league, 26 quarterbacks were chosen (most teams carry two), but nobody selected Jay Cutler or Trevor Siemian. One of the teams is carrying only one quarterback (and it’s Brian Hoyer), and I imagine he’ll pick up one or both of those guys before long. I’m actually playing that team in Week 4 and mulling whether to use one of my roster spots to carry a third quarterback, because Cutler has a great matchup that week (against the Saints in London).
—Ian Allan