Fantasy files: Drafting PPR style

It’s exciting to be wanted. I was invited to a Twitter Draftmaster league hosted by the tireless Taz, who does approximately 46 hours of fantasy podcasts on blogtalkradio.com. Check him out. This is a ‘draft only’ league, which means you draft your players and are done. There are no roster moves during the season and your scoring is “best ball”. No lineups. The only thing that matters is the draft.

So the draft started. As often happens with these kind of quickly put together leagues, I had no idea what the rules were or even how many teams were in the league. It’s a 16-team league. There’s one starting QB, 2 RB, 3 WR, a TE, and a flex RB/WR/TE. There’s also a PK and a defense/special teams squad. It’s PPR and passing touchdowns are worth four points.

I had pick 1.07. I liked this because in my upcoming keeper draft I know that this is one of the interesting spots in the first round. Will things go to form or will there be a monkey wrench pick? 1.03 was the wrench. Peyton Manning went third. He’s not the usual first QB selected. At 1.04 Andre Johnson went. Sadly Ray Rice and MJD went ahead of me. At 1.07 I didn’t hesitate. I took Frank Gore.
What’s tougher than sitting in a live draft with a pick in the middle of a round, constantly waiting? Being in an online draft with a 24 hour clock. My next pick could come up in 20 minutes or it could be next Tuesday. The first round hasn’t ended. This is the downside of drafting. At least it’s not like the NFL Supplemental Draft, where no one has been selected in the first five rounds. Now that’s a lot of waiting for nothing.

Second round update: Due to the PPR nature of the league, wide receivers were popular. I went rogue and took my second running back in Knowshon Moreno at pick 2.10. He was the 12th running back taken. I feel like I have a shot at two of the top ten running backs. Now I get to wait for the third round to see who my first wideout is. I doubt that I'll take a QB, but you never know.