Axe Elf's 2023 Campaign

General
41

Finally got in a FanDuel Best Ball ($2) where I focused more on my receivers than my RBs–and I still ended up with pretty good RBs.

QB: Derek Carr (11) 12.09, Matthew Stafford (10) 14.09, Sam Howell (14) 16.09
RB: Jonathan Taylor (11) 2.09, Aaron Jones (6) 5.02, Cam Akers (10) 6.09, James Conner (14) 7.02, Khalil Herbert (13) 11.02, Deuce Vaughn (7) 19.02
WR: Cooper Kupp (10) 1.02, Jaylen Waddle (10) 3.02, Calvin Ridley (9) 4.09, Drake London (11) 8.09), Brandon Aiyuk (9) 9.02, Jameson Williams (9) 13.02, Curtis Samuel (14) 17.02, Parris Campbell (13) 18.09
TE: Dalton Schultz (7) 10.09, Mike Gesicki (11) 15.02, Logan Thomas (14) 20.09

Loving the Stafford/Kupp stack (and the Howell/Samuel/Thomas mega-stack, lol)!

42

Today was a good day to draft!

ADPs are playing Chutes and Ladders as drafters react to all the injury/PUP news. Ja’Marr Chase just fell to 1.07 in my ($1) FanDuel draft today! I swallowed hard and passed on Jonathan Taylor at 2.07 just because I wanted to see what a Kupp/Amon-Ra start would look like–only to snag Taylor around the turn at 3.04!

(Of course, it helps when the guy with the #1 pick forks around with his auto-rankings and ends up autodrafting Justin Fields–not even Mahomes!–#1 overall, and then comes back at the 2/3 turn with Jalen Hurts and Lamar Jackson! LOL!)

Dobbins’ dobber is dropping like a fly (j/k)–I threw him a lifesaver at 8.07 and then added Gus Edwards later–BOOM! One solid RB every week in Best Ball. Najee Harris is falling too; came one pick short of having him on board instead of Mixon at the end of the 4th(!). And Kadarius Toney, who had crept into the 6th round in some drafts before being placed in bubble wrap for the preseason, found his home with Axe Elf at 10.07.

The only thing I’m not too happy about is Stroud as my QB3. I wanted Howell there, but he was taken 2 picks before me. I could have had Ridder, but he shares a bye with Carr, and if Stafford is hurt by then…? So ugh to one, two half-ughs to the other; maybe Stroud at least has some upside.

I also don’t usually pay such early attention to my TEs, but with Waller staring me in the face in the 7th, I couldn’t resist. Still, between Waller and Schultz a couple of rounds later–that’s basically why I don’t have Daniel Jones as my QB1 or Khalil Herbert instead of Deuce Vaughn rounding out my RBs. (But then of course my TEs would probly be Kmet, Gesicki, and Logan Thomas, so we’ll see…)

QB: Matthew Stafford (10) 11.04, Derek Carr (11) 13.04, C.J. Stroud (7) 17.04
RB: Jonathan Taylor (11) 3.04, Joe Mixon (7) 4.07, Cam Akers (10) 6.07, J.K. Dobbins (13) 8.07, Gus Edwards (13) 16.07, Deuce Vaughn (7) 20.07
WR: Cooper Kupp (10) 1.04, Amon-Ra St. Brown (9) 2.07, Deebo Samuel (9) 5.04, Kadarius Toney (10) 10.07, Jameson Williams (9) 12.07, Adam Thielen (7) 14.07, Curtis Samuel (14) 18.07, Parris Campbell (13) 19.04
TE: Darren Waller (13) 7.04, Dalton Schultz (7) 9.04, Mike Gesicki (11) 15.04

Got that Stafford/Kupp stack working for me again, and like the Dobbins/Edwards pair, having both Williams and Amon-Ra should add some consistency to one starting WR slot over the second half of the season.

43

Ok, this may literally be the perfect 10-team Best Ball draft.

It occurred from the #5 slot on this 28th day of July, in the Year of Our Lord, 2023, in a $1 FanDuel contest, born like a lowly babe in a manger to one day rule them all.

I’ll just let it melt into your mouth without any prejudicial preamble…

QB: Daniel Jones (13) 10.06, Jared Goff (9) 12.06, Matthew Stafford (10) 14.06

RB: Josh Jacobs (13) 3.05, James Conner (14) 6.06, Isiah Pacheco (10) 7.05, Rachaad White (5) 8.06, Khalil Herbert (13) 11.05, Deuce Vaughn (7) 20.06

WR: Cooper Kupp (10) 1.05, Amon-Ra St. Brown (9) 2.06, Calvin Ridley (9) 4.06, Keenan Allen (5) 5.05, Jameson Williams (9) 13.05, Curtis Samuel (14) 17.05, Parris Campbell (13) 18.06, John Metchie III (7) 19.05

TE: Dalton Schultz (7) 9.05, Cole Kmet (13) 15.05, Mike Gesicki (11) 16.06

You could say I’m pretty “STACKED”…

Matthew Stafford —> Cooper Kupp

Jared Goff —> Amon-Ra St. Brown

Jared Goff —> Jameson Williams (for 10 games over the last 11 weeks of the fantasy season)

Daniel Jones —> Parris Campbell

At least one of those elite QB/WR stacks should pay dividends on any given week, and I’m thrilled to be four deep with elite WRs after adding Ridley and Allen in the 4th and 5th.

Then I have basically half of the TDs that the Bears will score this year between Herbert and Kmet (who likes to score TDs in bunches, with a couple of 2-TD games last season), and receiving teammates Dalton Schultz and John Metchie III should also keep each other consistent to some degree through a slight negative correlation in general between receiving teammates. And of course I think Gesicki is a top 5 TE this season, so this TE Trinity should be divine.

The secret sauce might be at RB, where I avoided most of the expected punishment for taking 4 WRs in the first 5 rounds by exploiting the current wacky ADPs of guys like Josh Jacobs (the RB3 in half-PPR scoring last season) in the 3rd round, James Conner (who, after being injured for three games in October, came back in Week 9 and was the RB5 thereafter) in the 6th (!) round, Isiah Pacheco (RB14 over the last 8 games of his rookie season) in the 7th round, Rachaad White (a top 30 RB even playing second fiddle, now the Bucs’ unquestioned RB1) in the 8th round, and the RB1 for the most run-heavy team in the NFL, sporting a career average of 5.0 yards per carry, Khalil Herbert in the 11th round! All that beef allowed me the homer luxury of my fellow K-State alum, Deuce Vaughn, whom I am betting will contribute a Flex score (or better) a couple of times this season.

So zero RB from the middle of the pack–I like it!

44

Guys, get a room. I’ve had 2 messages complaining about someone’s diary being here. LOL

Have your private conversation by e mail. No one here wants to see it.

45

It’s not a conversation, it’s a monologue. People who don’t want to see it can avoid opening it, as its subject matter is clearly labeled.

People who want to win their fantasy leagues can follow it with or without conversing.

46

Ok, back to my serious (managed) leagues again…

So this is for a private prize league on Yahoo, $85 entry fee, typical full-PPR scoring with 1 pt bonuses for each first down receiving or rushing. Start 1QB/2RB/3WR/1TE/1Flex/1Superflex (no K/D) 6 Bench/1 IR, standard $200 auction budget.

Obviously, WRs are at a premium in full-PPR scoring with up to 4 starting WRs–so that’s where I focused my budget, spending $101 on three PPR beasts–Cooper Kupp (the WR1 in PPR ppg throughout 2021 and through the first 9 weeks of 2022 before he got hurt), Amon-Ra St. Brown (the WR2 in total PPR over the last 7 weeks of 2021 and the WR7 in total PPR in 2022), and Keenan Allen (the WR3 in total PPR over the last 8 weeks of 2022, after returning from injury). So potentially 3 top 5-ish WRs anchor this PPR team.

The next-most important position in a Superflex league is the QB; I paid the 11th and the 13th-highest prices for the QB5 and QB9 in this scoring system last season. In fact, I paid less for BOTH of my top-10 QBs ($27) than 7 of the other 9 teams paid for their QB1.

With secret-weapon Gesicki costing me less at TE than any other team in the league, that left me $71 for a RB corps, a Flex WR, and a bench.

Derrick Henry tends to get snubbed in PPR leagues, even though he was the RB4 in PPR scoring last season, so I got him for the 9th-highest RB price; a steal at $32. I thought I could lock in a solid RB2 on the cheap if I could just land J.K. Dobbins and Gus Edwards for a total of $15 or less; but they cost me $17 total. Ce la vie. And then it almost didn’t matter any more when I was able to sign James Conner (who was the RB6 in PPR after returning in Week 9 from his injury last season) for $7! When I threw my last $6 (before my dollar store players) at Isiah Pacheco and it stuck, suddenly I’m SWIMMING in RBs! And I used the last $6 before that on a top 20 Flex WR, Diontae Johnson, so my starting lineup is pretty much loaded for bear.

SONS OF OVERTIME
QB: Geno Smith (5) $15, Daniel Jones (13) $12, Sam Howell (14) $1
RB: Derrick Henry (7) $32, J.K. Dobbins (13) $16, James Conner (14) $7, Isiah Pacheco (10) $6, Gus Edwards (13) $1
WR: Cooper Kupp (10) $50, Amon-Ra St. Brown (9) $34, Keenan Allen (5) $17, Diontae Johnson (6) $6, Adam Thielen (7) $1, Curtis Samuel (14) $1, Parris Campbell (13) FA
TE: Mike Gesicki (11) $1
REMAINING: $0

Right after the draft, I dropped Dobbins into the IR slot and picked up Parris Campbell for the Giants’ stack, so that’s why there’s an extra player listed.

And absolutely ZERO bye week conflicts! The only two players on a bye in the same week at the same position are Dobbins and Edwards, but they basically function as a single player anyway. And I don’t have to worry about covering Gesicki’s bye until Week 11.

I’m curious where others might rate this team, on a scale of A+ to A-…?

47

Sorry I’ve been lazy and haven’t been keeping you up to date on all my drafts–I’ll try to bring everyone up to speed before the season starts–but OMG! The wacky ADPs these days! I am absolutely KILLING these 10-team FanDuel Best Balls from the late draft positions (7-9), and today’s $1 team from the 7-slot was no exception.

Between the Taylor and Kamara discounts, the inexplicable slide of Garrett Wilson to my 3.7 pick, and the fact that Keenan Allen was the WR3 after he came back from his injury last year, I kind of feel like I had 6 picks in the first two rounds.

This draft was just about as disrespectful to QBs and TEs as it could possibly be–as I spent the first 12 picks exclusively on 5 RBs and 7 WRs, before spending the next 3 picks on QBs, and 3 of my last 4 picks on TEs (Gesicki in the 18th!!!).

And for all my distaste of handcuffing RBs in Best Ball leagues, I thought the 16th would be early enough to snag Deuce Vaughn for my 6th RB, but when he fell two picks before me, it was pretty much Edwards or Singletary at that point–and I opted for Edwards. I’ll probly regret it, but that may be the only fly in the sweet, sweet ointment that is this team. Note the Stafford/Kupp, Pickett/Diontae, and Howell/Dotson/Logan stacks…

QB: Matthew Stafford (10) 13.7, Kenny Pickett (6) 14.4, Sam Howell (14) 15.7

RB: Derrick Henry (7) 2.4, Jonathan Taylor (11?) 4.4, Alvin Kamara (11) 6.4, J.K. Dobbins (13) 7.7, Jerick McKinnon (10) 11.7, Gus Edwards (13) 16.4

WR: Cooper Kupp (10) 1.7, Garrett Wilson (7) 3.7, Keenan Allen (5) 5.7, Brandon Aiyuk (9) 8.4, Diontae Johnson (6) 9.7, Jahan Dotson (14) 10.4, Kadarius Toney (10) 12.4, Parris Campbell (13) 19.4

TE: Jake Ferguson (7) 17.7, Mike Gesicki (11) 18.4, Logan Thomas (14) 20.4

I still can’t get over those first few picks. It sounds like it had to be an auction draft, and I ended up with a bunch of dollar players or something…

“Yeah, I just got Kupp and Wilson as my WR1 and WR2 in my draft.”

“Ok, but who do you have at RB?”

“Henry, Taylor and Kamara.”

" … "

48

Name a league as others have been asking for over a year. All BS.

49

I thought you weren’t interested in my team diaries?

Not sure what good the league names will do you, but all the FanDuel Best Ball leagues are called “9/7, 8:20pm ET (Season Long)” if that helps.