It all leads up to this
The experiment continues. Instead of dropping the Lawyers League, I had an idea: Co-manage the league with someone who is both one of my best friends and the most aggravating fantasy football player I know.
If “conflict makes for good podcasts” then Travis and I co-managing a fantasy football team will surely be able to make this little experiment work.
We spent our first five episodes figuring out positional rankings and draft strategy. It didn’t take long to find massive differences in how we fill out a roster and build a team.
Take a look at the differences in how we build teams by looking at the teams we drafted to play against each other. League rules: 10 Team / $200 Auction / PPR / 3 Keepers with potential for a 4th with the Franchise Tag.

This is my team. I have won the league twice and made the playoffs all but 1 year.
Keepers: David Johnson, Melvin Gordon, Antonio Brown. (11% of budget)
Draft Strategy: Spend big on Julio Jones (40% of budget) and fill in with undervalued 3rd down RB, and young RB/WR.
Overarching strategy: Rookies are overvalued and usually underperform. Sophomores are priced based on last year’s typically uneven performance even though they still retain the vast majority of their potential. I like to avoid rookies whenever possible and wait for their prices to come down in year 2 (i.e. Melvin Gordon went for $30+ in his rookie year and $6 in his sophomore draft. He’s been a keeper of mine ever since). This strategy gives me the boom or bust picks of: Marlon Mack, Mike Williams, Kenny Golladay, and Tarik Cohen.

Here is Travis’ team. Travis has won the league once and been a solid playoff team most years.
Keepers: ODB, Funchess, Ajayi
Draft Strategy (so far as I can tell): Go cheap on QB, fill in around the very solid keepers with experienced guys that you can rely on to not be busts.
Overarching Strategy (again, so far as I can tell): Veterans on new teams combine the stability of drafting “veterans with a track record” with the upside of “hey they’re in a new spot, crazy shit could happen”.
Travis has a few guys here that I wouldn’t draft (Kelvin Benjamin, Randall Cobb, Doug Martin, Cordarrelle Patterson, Bilal Powell, Peyton Barber) and a few others that I’m not sold on but would draft if they fell low enough (Ajayi, Hyde, Crabtree, Cooper, Olsen). If you’re scoring at home that’s 11/17 picks that I’m thinking would not have been on my team for one reason or another.
The starkest difference is probably in age: nobody on my bench (other than Jimmy G who has only started 7 games) is on their 2nd NFL contract. Travis only has 1 player still on his rookie contract (Dede Westbrook).
All this brings us to the actual draft of the team we are co-managing. We decided in podcast #3 how we were going to govern the draft, waivers, and setting rosters: Basically we’re going to try and find consensus but final decision making power will alternate weeks (or draft picks).
Keepers: Antonio Brown, Alvin Kamara, Kareem Hunt
AB is AB and as valuable as any player in fantasy. I got very lucky with two rookie RB last year. Picking up Hunt early based off strong recommendations from Matthew Berry and others and Kamara with my last position player pick of the 2017 draft. Travis and I are in total agreement for these keepers. We’re off to a good start. We had to give up our first three picks to keep these guys, but since they were all likely to go in the first round anyways, we are starting from a position of absolute strength.
4th Round: Golden Tate (Nave)
There was some debate over this but since we decided to alternate picks (I got even numbered rounds, Travis got the odd) we went with Tate. Tate has caught between 91 and 99 balls every year in Detroit. We now have Kamara and Hunt at RB and Brown and Tate at WR. We’re off to a good start.
Players drafted after our pick: Zach Ertz, Josh Gordon, Jarvis Landry, Marvin Jones Jr
5th Round: Brandin Cooks (Travis)
I had JuJu Smith-Schuster just slightly above Cooks but not enough to cause our first argument. Cooks puts up numbers wherever he goes. Adding him to Brown and Tate and we have the makings of an excellent WR group.
Players drafted after our pick: (WR only since we decided to go WR heavy with first 2 picks): Garcon, E Sanders, JuJu, Alshon, Crabtree).
6th Round: Chris Hogan (Nave)
I’m not a Chris Hogan believer. In fact, I rarely own Patriots WR in any league. They usually are overpriced or overdrafted just because they have TB12 throwing them the ball. Avoiding the NE WR has worked out for me before, but this time feels like the right time to pounce on a Brady target. Edelman is out, Amendola is gone, and there don’t seem to be any reinforcements coming. This seems like it might be the year for Chris Hogan. I’m deferring to Travis with this pick. This is a starting spot for us since there are 2 flex positions.
Our roster at this point is: RB1: Kamara, RB2: Hunt, WR1: Brown, WR2: Tate, Flex: Cooks, Flex: Hogan.
Players drafted after our pick: Marshawn, D. Lewis, TB12, Mark Ingram
7th Round: Devin Funchess (Travis)
Funchess is a guy that Travis is really high on and has him in at least 2 leagues. I’m on board. He’s young and seems to be the #1 option for Cam Newton. Funchess takes the first spot on our bench. Some risk here in filling out our bench. We’re hoping for Delanie Walker to fall to our next pick.
Players drafted after our pick: Cam, Robert Woods, Marquise Goodwin, Julian Edelman, Burkhead, Crowder, Tevin Coleman, Corey Davis, Randall Cobb, Will Fuller, Jimmy Graham, Trey Burton, Delanie Walker, Deshaun Watson
8th Round: Evan Engram (Nave)
We might have waited another round to get Engram, but in the 8/13 slots, one of the two teams picking between us did not have a TE. I’d targeted Engram for his solid rookie season and expected growth in his second year. Hoping for a top 5 season, but falling to the bottom half of the top ten wouldn’t kill us.
Players drafted after our pick: Duke Johnson, Crowell, Russell Wilson, Sammy Watkins
9th Round: Carlos Hyde (Travis)
I personally hate Carlos Hyde. As a 49ers fan I’ve seen every carry of his career. I expect him to get hurt trying to get extra yards when he doesn’t need to. Nevertheless, he’s a great RB3 as he’s being devalued for being on the Browns and splitting duties with Duke Johnson and the rookie Chubb.
This pick came down to the top WR on my board (Robby Anderson) vs the top RB on Travis’.
Players drafted after our pick: Chris Thompson, Robby Anderson, Patrick Mahomes, Ronald Jones, Jordan Reed, Allen Hurns, Cooper Kupp, Rashaad Penny, Jaguars D/ST, Sterling Shepard, Chris Carson, Sony Michel, Tarik Cohen, Kelvin Benjamin
10th Round: Keelan Cole (Nave)
Cole led the Jags in receiving yards last year and averaged nearly 18 yards per catch. He has competition for playing time this year, but the upside is worth it.
Players drafted after our pick:
Andrew Luck, Kyle Rudolph, Josh Doctson, DeVante Parker
11th Round: Drew Brees (Travis)
This was an easy pick for both of us. Only concern at this point is Brees’ age.
PDAOP: Nelson Agholor, Jamaal Williams, Aaron Jones, Rams D/ST, Kenny Stills, Mohamed Sanu, David Njoku, Tyler Lockett, Kenny Golladay, Kirk Cousins, Philip Rivers, James White, Peyton Barber, Giovani Bernard
12th Round: Marlon Mack (Nave)
Mack is nursing a hamstring injury but is one of my favorite late picks. He averaged 10 yard per reception last year and was top ten in yards after contact. Travis disagrees and doesn’t like that the Colts drafted two RB. I’m not worried. Mack is explosive. Tune into the podcast, I’d expect you hear his name a lot regardless of how he performs.
PDAOP: Jordy Nelson, Paul Richardson, Cameron Meredith, Danny Amendola
13th Round: DJ Moore
This was a clusterfuck and we couldn’t decide on who to pick. Neither of us wanted this guy… BUT he is a rookie and former Panthers WR and future Hall of Famer Steve Smith calls Moore his “spirit-animal”. We’ll see, but he’s going to have to perform early or we’ll find a reason to drop him. Having two Panthers receivers on the team is probably at least one too many.
I really like Mike Williams from the Chargers. I wish he had been the pick.
PDAOP: Mike Williams, Michael Gallup, Chase Edmonds, Adrian Peterson, John Ross, DeSean Jackson, Marcus Mariota, Ty Montgomery, Latavius Murray, Jack Doyle, Matthew Stafford, Chris Godwin, Rishard Matthews, Donte Moncrief
14th Round: Cordarelle Patterson (Travis)
This pick baffles me, but Travis is taking a flyer on CP rekindling his rookie season when he set the world on fire. I feel like this is just as much of a wasted pick as Travis thinks of my next one.
PDAOP: Ben Roethlisberger, Theo Riddick, Matt Ryan, Calvin Ridley
15th Round: Jimmy Garoppolo (Nave)
I like grabbing two QBs especially when I think that both of them are going to finish in the top 10. Jimmy G was the highest rated passer in the back 1/3 of the season, moved the ball well (4/5 games over 290 yards) and now has a full offseason in the system and better weapons surrounding him. I think he has the potential to be our starting QB early in the season.
Travis, on the other hand, would drop him tomorrow because you can pick up good quarterbacks anytime. My argument is I think Jimmy G is going to be great.
16th Round: Broncos D/St
17th Round: Robbie Gould
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