A High Stakes Breakdown of Drake's Best Ball Draft

On June 2nd, our own Brian Drake completed a best ball 25 draft for FantasyPoints.com.  Veteran high stakes player Mike Sanda took Drake's picks and gave them a run under his fantasy lens.  Below are Mike's thoughts:

Mike Sanda's Bio:

"I’m a 57-year-old retired IT architect whose been playing fantasy football since the pre-internet late 1980s. A bit of a spreadsheet geek, with entirely too much time on my hands to enjoy obsessing over all things fantasy football. 

I mostly compete in NFFC and FFPC leagues, and weekly DFS. In a land far far away and many years ago, I earned a couple NFFC main event league titles."

Follow Mike on Twitter @MikeSandman62!

Last season:

NFFC:

- Inaugural 180-player Silver Bullet contest (4th overall), the prestigious 14-team Trendsetters best ball, an Online Championship, a Cutline, and five Draft Champions (best ball) leagues, as well as two weekly NFFC/Fanball DFS wins (free main event entries).

FFPC:

- Three FootballGuys Championships, and two FFPC best ball leagues.

Mike's Draft Thoughts!

"Brian drafted a very strong team, with lots of best ball upside. Great job! Looking at the draft board, Brian was team #12. Here are some slight tweaks for a little different perspective"

QB:

  • "Two great starters, plus insurance on one. Very well done!"
  • "Drew Brees at QB12 is one of the best QB values this year, likely due to many drafters focusing too much on his QB22 finish last year. But in his 11 games last year, he was QB3 in PPG and pts/attempt. And in his 15 games in 2018, he was overall QB8, and QB7/QB4 in PPG/PPA. Now, he also has a real WR2 in Emmanuel Sanders. QB12 seems to be his floor price."
  • "Tom Brady at QB17 is absolute robbery, with his ADP at QB10! He's finished each of the last two years as QB12, with Julian Edelman and no one else (besides RB James White) as receiving weapons! Last year, Edelman was WR9, and Brady’s next best WRs were Mohamed Sanu at WR58 (for half a season) and Philip Dorsett at WR70.  In 2018, Rob Gronkowski was TE11 in 13 games (9th in PPG). Edelman missed 4 games to suspension, but still finished as WR22 (WR16 in PPG). Brady’s next best weapon was WR Chris Hogan at WR70. Now he gets WRs Mike Evans & Chris Godwin, and TEs Gronkowski, O.J. Howard & Cameron Brate, plus two security blanket RBs in Ronald Jones & the rookie Ke'Shawn Vaughn."

 

RB:

  • "Great value with Derrick Henry falling to you."
  • "With Derrius Guice's health and the uncertain (though intriguing) role of the rookie Vaughn, you might’ve grabbed a reliable PPR RB where you took Hayden Hurst – like Tarik Cohen or Duke Johnson– and waited longer for a similar hopeful-breakout TE1. A stable high-floor PPR back could’ve helped balance your weekly RB production with some of the later nice upside plays you made at RB, who might take a while to contribute."
  • "I like the last two rounds dart throws at the old men (LeSean McCoy & Lamar Miller). One or both could end up with jobs this fall."

WR:

  • "Love your WR 1-5! You’ll obviously rack up weekly WR points with this corps – and that’s important in a format where you start 3 WRs and a flex."
  • "Given how infrequently you’re likely to ever use your WR6’s points though with how strong your top 5 are, DeSean Jackson probably could’ve been skipped and a similar upside dart thrown later at WR6."
  • "Pick 11.12 (Jackson) could’ve then been your TE1."

TE:

  • "I love Hayden Hurst, but TE9 seems to be his ceiling price. Not much room for error at that cost. I liked him much more in mid-April, when I got him as my TE1 at TE16 & 18."
  • "Where you took DeSean Jackson (at the 11/12 turn), you could’ve gone with a similar-to-Hurst upside TE like T.J. Hockenson, Jonnu Smith, or Noah Fant, or even considered stacking Gronk with Brady. Though I understand that Gronk isn’t for everyone this year. But at TE14, in a best ball league, back with his beloved QB… why not?"
  • "Given that you waited long to start TEs (a strategy I like, if you’re not taking a top-tier one!), you might’ve come back a little sooner on your TE2 than Dawson Knox, who’ll be competing with a lot of mouths to feed in a run-heavy BUF offense."
  • "Maybe forego A.J. Dillon (or Ryquell Armstead) for the upside of Chris Herndon or Jace Sternberger?"

DST:

  • "Personally, I’m not an early DST drafter because every year so many top ones come from the mid-rounds."

 

  • "But I get it that many drafters are drawn to last year’s top ones. For me, the sweet spot is getting two from the DST6-20 range. Alternatively, had you skipped BAL at DST3 and grabbed the last of the starting QBs (Drew Lock), you still could’ve had MIN, LAR or LAC to go with PHI. And you would’ve then had a 3rd starting QB in the mix each week instead of a [hopefully] seldom-used backup QB."

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