The 2021 Season is off and heading for the first turn!
First off I would like to thank everyone for being a part of the inaugural Sports Leaf Legacy League. This league will adapt in the coming years to a much larger, tournament style multi-league format, with champions and losers rotating up to champions leagues and losers being replaced by new teams. For next year, all 12 of us have a guaranteed free entry into the Sports Leaf Legacy League next year, if you choose. The playoff format is the top 6 teams, weeks 15, 16, and 17. As many teams rest their starters for various reasons the last week of the season, we will do our Super Bowl the week before that. The non-playoff teams will be put into a consolation bracket. The prize money will increase as the Sports Leaf site grows, but for this year we will be paying out $150 to the league champion and second place gets $50.
The SportsLeaf draft occurred September 8th at 7pm MST, and featured an array of fantasy managers of different experience levels. Historically experience can mean little once the season gets going however, as an injury to one key player can make an "A" graded team a "C" team real quick, and likewise a "C" team only needs one breakout bench player to suddenly be an "A" team. So don't take these draft grades too seriously, and I think trying to predict win/loss records based on a draft is a little ridiculous. So here are the results based on our very own Sports Leaf fantasy rankings and overall draft strategy. If you check your email, you will find the NFL.com draft grade for your team, and you will probably find their grades wildly differ from mine, but that's because I disagree with them.
1. Loveland Longshots (Mark)
Draft Grade: A+
Strengths: WR, RB
Weaknesses: ...none
Loveland Longshots took an agressive approach to the draft, selecting from the 11th position. His wide receiver trio features 3 highly-projected WR1s, and his selection of Aaron Jones (best described as "Diet Alvin Kamara") late in the first could be the steal of the round. Loveland Longshots also boasts one of the strongest benches in the league, handcuffing RB Jones with backup AJ Dillon and also padding his roster with sleeper targets in Jamal Williams, Ronald Jones, and Dallas Goedert. QB Russell Wilson was an MVP candidate through the first half of last season, but fell off when it mattered most in fantasy. Should that happen again however, Loveland Longshots has assembled a roster that can most likely win even with average QB play.
2. RayJohn (Cody)
Draft Grade: A
Strengths: RB, WR, QB
Weaknesses: TE
I know, I know, I put myself second, but I make the rankings. So I had a slight competitive advantage when selecting players that I have highly graded. Remember, grades often have no impact on the outcome of an actual season: we are just basing it on projections, and projections can be...wildly wrong. Picking from the 12 spot I had the advantage of back-to-back picks each round, enabling me to get two very strong RBs, a trio of volume-heavy WRs, and my top-ranked QB with my first six picks. My main weakness is TE, where we are unsure but hopeful on Jonnu Smith's production level with a rookie QB in New England, and equally unsure about my backup, young Blake Jarwin in Dallas. Another weakness is my bench, where I have a lot of players that I am very high on but the league is not, so a few misses there and my depth is shot.
3. Knee Cap Biters (John)
Draft Grade: A
Strengths: WR, TE
Weaknesses: RB
Picking from the 8 spot, John went with two elite wide receivers with his first two picks and then took fantastic tight end George Kittle, solidifying that position for him. That did cause his RB situation to be a little suspect, as Jacobs and Henderson both have new competition in their backfields yet should still get a bulk of the workload, so more of a question mark than a negative. John has a strong bench as well, backing up his late round QB selection of Matthew Stafford (possible QB steal of the draft with how late he went) with Ryan Fitzpatrick, and also adding WR/RB depth by targeting a few young players who have the breakout potential to be weekly starters by mid-season in Javonte Williams, Levishka Shenault (go CU Buffs), and Terrace Marshall Jr.
4. Cody Burrows Buttholes (Chan)
Draft Grade: A
Strengths: RB, TE, Bench
Weaknesses: QB
Look, I'm not gay for Joe Burrow, I just think we could make a very nice life together, okay Chan? Anyways. With the third overall pick, Chan selected RB Dalvin Cook and followed that up by adding one of the best TEs in the game (Waller) and a top-10 projected wideout (Ridley). Questions abound about the true fantasy value of De'Andre Swift, DJ Moore, and Kenny Golladay, as they are playing on new offenses where we just don't know where the ball will go yet. Basically, this could be really solid or it could be a disastrous group, eaten alive by the competition at their position or just playing on a bad offense. The biggest roll of the dice was the QB selections, pairing the young rushing threat Jalen Hurts with Tua Tagovailoa, who by all accounts is struggling in camp. Hurts is a wildcard, he could be a top fantasy QB solely with his legs, but if he struggles the Eagles have implied they will bench him quickly and that could be an issue for fantasy owners.
5. Staff Infection (Adam)
Draft Grade: A
Strengths: RB
Weaknesses: WR
Adam selected from the 6 hole, and took the best pure rusher in the league here with Derrick Henry. While he did select good receivers, players such as Cooper Kupp and Brandon Aiyuk are those picks where we expect high volume, but they also have very talented competition at their positions on their teams, which means we could see roller-coaster weeks from them. Adam has a bench filled with solid-floor WRs like Russell Gage, Marvin Jones, and Curtis Samuel, but perhaps his steal of the draft was SF rookie RB Trey Sermon, who already is trending to dominate the 49ers backfield by mid-season and is the Sports Leaf rookie RB2 after Najee Harris. The QB situation is solid with Tom Brady, but Brady did have one if his best seasons ever in 2020 and still only finished as the QB8 on the year, so there is a limit to what you can squeeze out of a non-mobile QB regardless of how talented they are.
6. Kurty's Lil' Beauties (Kurtis)
Draft Grade: B+
Strengths: RB, QB
Weaknesses: Bench
Picking first overall, Kurtis selected the best fantasy option of 2021 in Christian McCaffrey. Basically a RB1 and a WR1 rolled into one player, if healthy McCaffrey gives this team an instant advantage. He also has a solid receiving core, but productivity questions do arise with the likes of Deebo Samuel and Brandin Cooks. Lamar Jackson profiles to bounce back and have an amazing fantasy season, and TJ Hockenson could compete as a top TE with the new Detroit coaching staff and lack of other options. The only real issues with this roster are based on the previously-mentioned volume concerns: if the starters don't perform at their ceiling projections, which many may not, there isn't a lot of depth on the bench to protect against that.
7. G-Town's Finest (Brandon)
Draft Grade: B+
Strengths: WR
Weaknesses: RB
Brandon scored by grabbing Alvin Kamara with the 5th overall pick, but his RBs after that (Sanders, Gordon) fall into the "committee" category where we aren't sure of their true volume yet. That means we could see huge weeks and disappointing weeks regularly, but Kamara profiles to mitigate that. He did select 3 very highly rated WRs as well, and by taking second-year Chargers QB Justin Herbert he has a solid-floor guy at the position. G-Town also features one of the deeper benches in the league, with flyers taken on WRs Jamar Chase and Marquise "Hollywood" Brown, and RBs Sony Michel and Devin Singletary, who situationally could be extremely valuable down the stretch of the season. Backing up Herbert with QB Baker Mayfield also provides some insurance in case the young QB suffers any second-year setbacks.
8. Khronick (Dylan)
Draft Grade: B
Strengths: QB
Weaknesses: RB
Selecting 4th overall, Dylan made a fairly ballsy move by grabbing QB Josh Allen. Generally speaking, your draft grade will always suffer when you take a QB really early, because you can get a QB of similar weekly value rounds later, whereas the talent level of RBs and WRs tends to take a much more significant drop in those same rounds. Regardless, Khronick garnered themselves one of the best QBs in the league right off the bat, and also got one of the highest ranked Sports Leaf wideouts in AJ Brown. Much of the success of the 2021 season for Dylan hinges on how some highly-regarded young players fare this season; if he can get ceiling production from Jerry Juedy, Kyle Pitts, and Devonte Smith, Khronick will be a force behind Josh Allen.
9. savages (Pody)
Draft Grade: B
Strengths: TE
Weaknesses: QB
Picking from the 7th spot, savages went with one of the most consistent fantasy scorers in TE Travis Kelce, and followed that up with a strong RB duo of Saquan Barkley and David Montgomery. One reason savages' draft grade suffered slightly is the unknown of Barkley's health early in the season, meaning he could see some setbacks at the position through the first few weeks-we just don't know. Savages has a solid-floor WR group headlined by Allen Robinson and stashing injured Saints star Michael Thomas, but the biggest question mark is the QB situation. The Sports Leaf rankings like Joe Burrow, but until we see the health of that knee it's hard to be super confident. Pody did back up Burrow with Trevor Lawrence and Justin Fields, so if one of the three works out, savages should be okay there as all 3 are fairly mobile guys.
10. Beaver Licker (Brian)
Draft Grade: B
Strengths: RB
Weaknesses: WR
I'm assuming this guy really likes buck-toothed rodents. Either way, this team was (completely? mostly?) autodrafted from the 10th spot. It was a pretty decent autodraft, taking two dual-threat RBs (Zeke Elliot and Jonathan Taylor) right off the bat, and then making a surprising pick of Aaron Rodgers in the third. Rodgers is a great QB, but much like Brady, without rushing there is a ceiling to what you can get out of him. The autodraft did not value WRs apparently, but still rostered some solid floor guys like Robby Anderson and OBJ to compliment Chris Godwin (Sports Leaf WR12). The bench is filled with a lot of promising prospects that could easily turn this B grade into an A team if a few of them (like Jets RB Michael Carter and SF QB Trey Lance) blow up the league in 2021.
11. Bye Felicia (April)
Draft Grade: C
Strengths: QB
Weaknesses: WR
Picking second overall, April did a unique thing in taking QB Patrick Mahomes. As with the Allen pick by Khronick, draft grades will suffer when taking QBs so early as you can get similar value later. However, the Bye Felicias have arguably the best QB in the league, and that's never a bad thing. The repercussions of taking a QB so high are evident in the quality of starting WRs, as they are not necessarily poor players but they just don't profile to be league leaders any given week without injury to one of their teammates. Again, this is just my projections, and there is a very real possibility that Mike Evans, Juju Smith-Schuster, and Tyler Lockett all end up being very productive wideouts. April also drafted a bench that may be able to fill some holes if any starters don't work out, so this a team that we will have to see in action before knowing the true potential.
12. Vader's Shade (Eric)
Draft Grade: C
Strengths: QB
Weaknesses: WR, TE
Vader's Shade had the 9th pick overall, and went with receiving back Austin Ekeler who profiles to have an amazing year, especially in this full PPR scoring format. Again, taking star QB Kyler Murray in the second round meant he would sacrifice positional talent, but he did secure one of the best dual-threat QBs in the league. Julio Jones and Diontae Johnson are solid WRs but their ceilings are questionable, meaning they won't lose you games but they might not win you any either. The TE situation is a coin flip, as Ebron is very talented but the Steelers drafted Pat Freiermuth very highly and already have shown they intend to use him...a lot. Vader's Shade also took some fliers on some risky bench prospects like DeSean Jackson, Randall Cobb, and Deonte Harris, who could pay dividends but the odds of that are fairly low. But, nothing is impossible. Use this as bulletin-board inspiration to prove the stupid Sports Leaf rankings wrong, Vader!
***Don't forget to set your lineups, the season starts tonight with the Tampa Bay Bucs and Dallas Cowboys! Leeettttts Gooooooo!!!!!!***
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