FF 101: Drafting my team "The Fighting Irish"

My first post. Let me give a little background about my league, in case you are new to FF...

There are many formats. I play in a re-draft league, which means I pick a new team every year. Which I wish was not true because I had great players by the end of last year (Rodgers, Rice, Charles, Austin, etc.). But, it also meant that I could study up on draft strategy and create the Greatest Team in the History of FF. Yeah, right.

My league has 12 teams and we all pick 14 players. That's a lot of players. In my league, everyone needs at least: 1 quarterback (QB), 2 runningbacks (RB), 3 wide receivers (WR), 1 tight end (TE), 1 defense (DEF - yes, we draft an entire defense), and 1 kicker (K). We have to pick people to start in those 9 positions every week (i.e., you Start'Em). Then, you draft 5 more people who can serve as your back-ups and they may spend some time on the bench (i.e., you Sit'Em).

There are many drafting philosophies. Mine last year was to pick two people from my favorite team the Bills (which was not a good idea) and then let the computer pick the rest (which had mixed results because I ended up with many WAS players and their team imploded). I lost my first 6 games (OUCH!)

This year, I spent considerable time reading FF websites and participating in mock drafts. I was ready! I had a list of great players (i.e., Studs) and good players or those I thought could become great (i.e., Sleepers).

I did decide to pass on the top QBs (e.g., Rodgers, Brady), but picked up two mid-level QBs and planned to play them as a committee (which means you decide week to week which one to play, taking advantage of their match ups).

I drafted the following guys:

QBs: Flacco (BAL)/Stafford (DET)
RBs: Jones-Drew (JAX)/Ryan (GB)/Stewart (CAR)/Brown (IND)
WRs: Moss (NE)/Smith (NYG)/Crabtee (SF)/Britt (TEN)/Hester (CHI)
TE: Finley (GB)
DEF: Green Bay
K: Tynes (NYG)

I am posting this after Week 1. And so, if you know these players, know what happened to me.

I went down in flames.

So much for all the prep work...see next post...