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Andy Richardson

Experts Draft

What an Index team looks like

I got into a 14-team experts league this week. In general I try to avoid taking on new leagues, but I'm a sucker for a slow draft like this one, and it's a way to pass the time and see how different people rank and evaluate players. I drew the 12th draft spot, which seems to be the story of my year.

I've participated in several drafts this summer, as has Ian, and he also seems to be drawing a later draft pick more often than not. As a result, a certain sameness has settled over some of our early picks. You just can't pass up guys ranked a round higher when your picks come up.

This is standard scoring, 4-point TD passes, with a flex spot that can be a running back, wide receiver, or tight end. It is NOT a SuperFlex league, where you can start 2 quarterbacks. This will be important to remember later. Here are the first four rounds, with my picks in bold.

FF WEBMASTERS EXPERTS DRAFT, ROUNDS 1-4
PickPlayer
1.01Christian McCaffrey
1.02Saquon Barkley
1.03Ezekiel Elliott
1.04Alvin Kamara
1.05Michael Thomas
1.06Dalvin Cook
1.07Derrick Henry
1.08DeAndre Hopkins
1.09Aaron Jones
1.10Davante Adams
1.11Clyde Edwards-Helaire
1.12Kenyan Drake
1.13Joe Mixon
1.14Lamar Jackson
2.01Patrick Mahomes
2.02Josh Jacobs
2.03Miles Sanders
2.04Nick Chubb
2.05Julio Jones
2.06Austin Ekeler
2.07Le'Veon Bell
2.08Travis Kelce
2.09Tyreek Hill
2.10Melvin Gordon
2.11Todd Gurley
2.12Jonathan Taylor
2.13Cam Akers
2.14Leonard Fournette
3.01Raheem Mostert
3.02Odell Beckham
3.03A.J. Brown
3.04George Kittle
3.05David Montgomery
3.06Chris Godwin
3.07Kenny Golladay
3.08Chris Carson
3.09Mike Evans
3.10James Conner
3.11Allen Robinson
3.12David Johnson
3.13Cooper Kupp
3.14DeVante Parker
4.01Ronald Jones
4.02Mark Andrews
4.03Calvin Ridley
4.04Amari Cooper
4.05Tyler Lockett
4.06Terry McLaurin
4.07DK Metcalf
4.08JuJu Smith-Schuster
4.09D'Andre Swift
4.10Robert Woods
4.11Adam Thielen
4.12D.J. Moore
4.13Keenan Allen
4.14Zach Ertz

Biggest decision-making came in the first round. I was considering Drake and Joe Mixon, the latter of whom is a shade higher in our Standard rankings. My vote for Drake is a vote for the offense, quarterback and coach I have more faith in being successful in 2020. I think Arizona has a better line, and there's more of a track record with Kliff Kingsbury and Kyler Murray than Zac Taylor and Joe Burrow. That's pretty much it.

Ian would not have taken Sanders in round 2. Waiting for my pick, I was hoping for either Josh Jacobs (who went the pick before me) or Sanders. Straight off the rankings, either Jacobs or Chubb should have been my pick. Timing was a factor: Chubb had just been helped off the field after a practice injury of uncertain degree. Turns out it was a concussion, but at the time it could have been virtually anything. I am also slightly concerned about the presence of Kareem Hunt, a No. 2 that neither Sanders nor Jacobs currently needs to worry about. So Sanders was an easy choice for me, a first-rounder in most drafts.

This (to me) ridiculous bounty of options was influenced in part by the choice of Team 14, which selected Lamar Jackson and Patrick Mahomes with his first two picks. I'm not in the business of trashing other experts, but this curious choice in a non-SuperFlex league sure helped out with the quality of running backs left to me. I've actually seen this strategy employed before, with the stated idea (at the time) that one of the two quarterbacks is then trade bait. I personally have never seen that quarterback traded for a better player than could have simply been drafted at that spot, but maybe it's happened somewhere.

At this point I could have predicted that I'd probably be drafting David Johnson in round 3 and Calvin Ridley in round 4. And that's exactly what happened. We are higher on both players than most -- way higher on Johnson -- and they are usually there. Johnson almost always is, Ridley has been more 50-50. But it was easy to make these picks.

With Johnson, I generally understand the hesitance. Maybe he's washed up, and Bill O'Brien is an idiot.

But when I look at the 5-6 running backs who went off the board before him, I see similar if not greater flaws. Gurley, Montgomery, Gordon, Fournette, and don't get me started on the rookies. Whatever your thoughts may be on Johnson, I think getting him at 3.12 while a rookie who will spend at least some of the year in a committee with Marlon Mack and will be on the sidelines on passing downs went at 2.12...well, I'm pretty pleased.

Ridley, I was happy with, and I think I'd have also been happy with most of the next 5-6 wide receivers (Amari Cooper would have been my 2nd choice had Ridley been gone).

So now I wait to see what will be there in rounds 5 and 6. I think this trio of running backs and Ridley is about the best start I could have hoped for.

You can follow along, if you wish, at this link.

--Andy Richardson

Fantasy Index