FlyingElvis FE
hit rock bottom finishing dead last by a huge margin last year.
The 2018 year started on a disastrous note when L Bell decided to hold
out after FE franchised him and he never made it to the field, plus FE
got several injuries which at least got the team second pick overall so
FE is looking to bounce back. FE’s saved team is not particularly
impressive but the one draft pick that worked last year was rookie S
Barkley who is now the league’s top RB and possibly top franchise
player as well. Strength: top 3 RBs.
Barkley is obviously FE’s best player, but FE also used their first
round pick on L Bell and as RB3 Fournette could very well end up being
a top 10 RB in the PQBFL if he can bounce back and achieve his
potential. He might be trade bait later this year. Weakness: WRs. Cooper
Kupp leads this group and is the shakiest WR1 in the entire
PQBFL. Co-starter Mike Williams might be ok but he’s only the
third best receiver with the Chargers after K Allen and Hunter
Henry. Backups are journeymen without much upside such as Marvin
Jones Jr, Funchess, and Beasley. Best Pick: Demarcus
Lawrence. The first 3 DLs taken in the draft went out in the 5th,
6th, and 8th rounds. FE grabbed Lawrence as a bargain in the 10th
round. Worst Pick: TJ Hockenson.
Rookie TEs rarely light up the scoreboard especially relative to other
higher scoring positions, so no matter how good Hockenson will be, he’s
unlikely to be worth a 9th round pick.
OldNo7 OldNo7 had a tough year in 2018 only beating FE in the
standings, however interestingly Old was able to carry the best
offensive saved team of the entire PQBFL with the best saved RB (S
Michel), the best saved QB (Wentz), and the best saved TE
(Engram). With a decent draft OldNo7 is now projected third best
team in the league in terms of strength of starters + key backups
behind Dec and Beaud so 2019 is more promising for Old than last year.
Strength: RBs. OldNo7 might have as many of five starting
RBs on their team. It’s unclear if L McCoy or D Williams will
start in KC, but OldNo7 has them both so someone will emerge and
probably quality depth for Old. S Michel and K Johnson are second
year RBs who have high potential and OldNo7 only need to hope for one
of them to take it up a notch because McCaffrey is an every week
starter. Old’s top 4-5 RBs is easily the strongest group in the entire
PQBFL. Weakness: Defense. The
Bills and Saints have made progress recently but have not proven their
dominance yet. None of the individual defenders are scaring
anybody, DB Poyer and DL Buckner might be 8th or 9th best at their
position so in a 9-team league that is barely starter material, and Old
does not even have a top 10 LB. Best Pick: D Hopkins. Old
did not hesitate to ignore the RB position in the first round
especially after having franchised McCaffrey via a trade before the
draft. Hopkins competes with a bunch of often-injured WRs in
Houston and L Miller is now out for the year. QB Watson will
heavily rely on Hopkins all year long.
Worst Pick: Old used the first pick of the 3rd round (20th
overall) on a college player which has never been done before. J
Taylor (Wisconsin) is not going to lead college scorers in 2019 because
he’s a RB and it’s not even clear that he’s the most valuable college
player for 2020 value either. That was an awful price to pay.
Ballers The Ballers had a surprisingly competitive season as an
expansion team last year by finishing ahead of FE and Old in the
standings. As can be expected it’s difficult to have a great
saved team in those conditions so the Ballers are still at a
disadvantage going into 2019. Julio Jones is the franchise player
for Ball which is not ideal because normally a top QB or RB is the best
route for franchise, but Ball’s only logical choice for this year was
Ju Jones. Hopefully by next year they have a better franchise
player at another position than WR available. Strength: Team Defense.
Last year the Bears were the best defense in the PQBFL by far and they
are still ranked #1 going in 2019 so they are probably better than any
other saved player on the Ballers’ team. In addition the Titans
are one of the best backup defenses in the PQBFL when the Bears will
have a tough matchup. Weakness: RBs. Mixon is a
below average RB1, a notch below franchise player level, and after him
it’s a huge drop-off to Breida who is by far the worst RB2 of all PQBFL
teams. The three backups are secondary options on their NFL team
(C Thompson, N Hines, and J Samuel) and must wait for an injury before
getting more playing time. Best Pick: Miles Sanders.
A second-year team such as the Ballers must invest in a future
franchise player and Miles Sanders came at a reasonable cost because he
won’t be the starter right away in Philly. However it’s only a
matter of time because Jordan Howard won’t be around for a long time
and Sanders is playing in a high powered offense. Worst Pick: Tyler Boyd. A
second round pick was way too early for Boyd who ended up being the 7th
WR taken in the draft. Boyd will not be a top 10 WR with AJ Green
coming back to health in a few weeks and he adds concentration risk to
the Ballers who took Mixon in the first round.
Admirals
The Admirals were in first place after 11 weeks last year and made some
trades to shoot for the PQBFL title. However the wheels came off
the bus starting in week 12 as Adm shockingly finished in the cellar 4
of the last 6 weeks of the year, with the other two weeks being no
better than 6th place so Adm crashed from first to fifth in the
standings. It was not so much that the trades hurt Adm but more
that injuries started hitting Adm, most notably T Gurley, and in
addition several coaching mistakes were made down the stretch.
Gurley returns as franchise player but there are still question marks
about his knee, and Adm’s saved team is far from the best so Adm does
not have the same potential as last year. Strength: Rookies.
Haskins will be the starting QB in Washington sooner rather than later
and could easily end up being a top 5 rookie in 2019. In the mean
time Adm is fine with WR DK Metcalf being a starting WR with a capable
QB throwing the rock to him in Seattle. Weakness: QB depth. B
Mayfield is expected to have a good year but he’s not proven yet, so QB
depth would have been useful. Garoppolo and D Carr are the worst
backup QB duo in the PQBFL. Best Pick: M Ingram.
Because of questions surrounding Gurley, Adm needed a dependable
starting RB. Ingram came at a reasonable cost in the 6th round
and he does not have to share with another RB in Baltimore. Worst Pick: Dion Lewis.
Coach LaFleur favored Lewis when he was in Tennessee but he’s now gone
from the coaching staff so it will be all Derrick Henry.
SunshineBoys
Welcome SunshineBoys to the PQBFL! As for all expansion teams,
winning will be difficult in 2019 due to head winds due to not having a
saved team, so the focus often needs to be for the long-term. The
objective was mostly achieved by targeting youth, with Sun’s lineup
sprinkled here and there with some veterans who can also provide some
decent scoring in 2019. Sun did not have to worry as much as
other teams about having players perform at the rookie or college
position in 2019, but more about their value in 2020 when they graduate
to their next PQBFL position. This explains why drafting a rookie
TE such as N Fant made more sense for Sun than for other teams. Strength: WRs. It is
difficult for expansion teams to have any position where they dominate
the PQBFL, but Sun have achieved it at the WR position. The
combined projection of all 5 Sun WRs is higher than any other PQBFL
team. Not only is the starting duo ODB+JJSS the most explosive in
the PQBFL, but the next 3 Edelman, C Samuel, and M Gallup is also a
good mix of scoring in 2019 (Edelman) and value in the future with two
second year WRs. Weakness: Individual
defenders. Sun clearly favored offense during the draft and only
drafted 7 individual defenders (every other PQBFL team has 8 or more)
so there is little margin for injuries. Best Pick: Melvin Gordon.
A match made in heaven for an expansion team – Gordon dropped to the
end of the 3rd round simply because he’s holding out, but in 2020 he
should have good value possibly as a franchise player no matter where
he ends up, returning with the Chargers or somewhere else. Worst Pick: M Stafford.
Given that D Watson is Sun’s starting QB and will be an every week
starter, backup QBs on Sun’s roster are almost exclusively for 2020
value. Stafford does not have the same youth and upside as other
QBs drafted later.
BeaudoinBrothers
The BeaudoinBrothers came close to finishing in the bottom half of the
PQBFL standings in 2018 for the first time ever but closely escaped due
to Adm’s collapse. Beaud was hit hard by injuries last year and
therefore benefits from having the first pick this year, and in 2018
Beaud had more trouble winning despite injuries than in some previous
injury seasons where Beaud could weather the storm better than last
year. Beaud brings an ok saved team into 2019 but the problem is
mostly that it is very imbalanced, saving 4 WRs and 4 LBs which limited
the GM into selecting good value WRs and LBs available in the draft
because they team already had too many. Strength: Depth. The Bros
have the highest projection for key backups in the PQBFL. While
the team did not trade backup WRs and LBs during the draft to select
depth at other positions, at least they were successful in doing so by
trading away H Henry who was saved along OJ Howard and also trading
Guice after selecting K Murray. These two trades gave Beaud two
extra 5th round picks. Weakness: WRs. Will
Antonio Brown play all year or will the nut bag find an excuse to
refuse to play? He is a risky WR1. Thielen as WR2 is fine
but we should not ignore that he was outscored by Diggs in the second
half last year plus the new coach wants to be run heavy so he is not a
safe pick either. Backup WRs are all mediocre and saved from last
year with nobody standing out particularly with TY Hilton losing value
with Luck’s retirement. Best Pick: N Chubb. How
could this RB be available in the second round? Counting all
franchise RBs and those drafted in the first round, Chubb was the 10th
RB taken. Kareem Hunt will not overtake the more talented and
younger RB especially not after being away from football for one
year. Chubb was a great value pick. Worst Pick: Myles
Garrett. The Bros were hamstrung by having too many LBs on the
saved team. This does not justify drafting a DL who is not even
top 4 at his position when LB Bobby Wagner was still available in the
draft. What a bonehead pick - the Bros panicked and drafted a
defensive player way too early.
GloriousBastards
The GloriousBastards had a slow start in 2018 but came on strong down
the stretch, however it was too little too late and Bas finished
third. This was nonetheless the best season ever by this team so
if progress continues they could be in the race for the PQBFL title in
2019. Unfortunately Bas’s team carried from last year is not the
best, in part because of questions regarding whether E Elliott will
report to the team, or if he will doom Bas such as what L Bell did to
FE last year. Also Bas’s saved team was hurt by K Hunt dropping
off from football stardom. Bas was able to salvage some value out
of him via a pre-draft trade, but from 1st round (second overall in
2018) to 16th round pick obtained in that trade is quite a fall from
grace. Bas finished last in injury points last year so drafting
from the 8th slot makes the challenge for Bas more difficult this year. Strength: LBs. Whatever
team who was going to draft D Leonard is automatically strong on
defense given how much Leonard dominated last year, and he will anchor
Bas’s defense. Bas followed up with Roquan Smith who is young and
on the upside; the same can be said (although to a lesser extent) about
LB3 Jayon Brown. Weakness: Team Defense.
The GloriousBastards only drafted one team defense and will be unable
to play matchups. At least if they had a top defense such as the
Bears then an argument can be made about only having one, but are the
Broncos even top 9 in the NFL, making them starting material in the
PQBFL? That remains to be seen. Best Pick: S Diggs. Bas’s
saved WRs are so-so therefore Bas needed a WR2 to go along M
Thomas. Diggs was great value in the 6th round, a full 15 picks
after Thielen. Worst Pick: Marlon Mack.
With Luck’s retirement, is there anybody as optimistic as Bas to draft
an offensive player from the Colts in the 5th round? I get that
Bas needed a starting RB at this point of the draft but someone like
Ingram would have been better.
WaxOnWaxOff WaxOnWaxOff finished 2nd
last year and that would normally mean a solid saved team but on
offense it leaves a bit to be desired although the defensive saved team
is quite strong. Wax did not have a top quality franchise player
so they traded for Kamara before the draft which is great for the RB
position but it came at a non-negligible cost. Strength: TEs. Ertz is
always near the top of TE rankings and the price tag at the end of the
3rd round was more reasonable than Kelce in the first round or Kittle
in the 2nd round. Backup Hooper is borderline starter material;
no other PQBFL team has a backup TE with a higher projection than
Hooper. Weakness: Backup RBs.
After Kamara and Conner, Wax has a mix of young RBs who are unlikely to
become starters for their NFL team (Penny, Ronald Jones II), and older
RBs who are about to lose their starting job (Jo Howard, Ad
Peterson). Wax can barely afford a RB injury. Best Pick: P Rivers. Wax
did not draft one of the top QBs and had Roethlisberger as a starter,
so it was imperative to have a good QB2. Rivers has lots of
weapons on offense and with Melvin Gordon holding out, Rivers could
possibly become starter for Wax. The price to pay in the 8th
round was modest. Worst Pick: Sterling
Shephard. Ok that pick in the 15th round did not break the bank,
but early in the season, horrible Eli Manning is the QB so Shephard’s
outlook is dim, and after week 4 perhaps Manning will be on the bench
but by then Golden Tate comes back from suspension so Shephard will be
no better than the 3rd receiving option behind Tate and Engram, and
possibly even 4th being S Barkley too, on an offense that sucks overall.
Decepticons The Deceptions will try to repeat as PQBFL champions mostly via
an awesome defensive saved team and a couple of trades before the draft
for early draft picks in return for Kamara and McCaffrey who would have
been cut anyway. So Dec’s GM was active and has maximized the
chances of Dec to win again. The GM did not end there, in
addition the offensive saved team was trending to be subpar but Dec
acquired lottery ticket K Hunt on the cheap as a late addition to the
saved team. Strength: QBs. There are
many strengths of this team so it’s hard to pick just one, but for QBs
Dec has the top one by far franchise player Mahomes, and the backups
are an ideal mix of old and reliable (Brees) and young with potential
(Lamar Jackson). Weakness: Team Defense.
This is the same problem as Bas: Dec only drafted one team defense and
they are not even top 10. In fact the Eagles are probably worse
than the Broncos (Bas) based on most projections. Not to mention
that Bas and Dec cannot even trade with each other because both PHI and
DEN are on bye during the same week. Best Pick: Daniel Jones.
Dec’s team is built to win now, and the best way to maximize the
present at the expense of the future is to draft a rookie QB. D
Jones will start sooner rather than later and could easily become a top
5 rookie, plus Dec did not even have to mortgage the present to pick
him because he was available in the 13th round. Worst Pick: Devin Bush.
Perhaps Dec had dreams of D Leonard who dominated last year as a rookie
LB, but that does not happen often. Bush was expensive as a 4th
round pick and given that fellow rookie LB Devin White was taken in the
8th round, it’s clear that Bush was an overreach. In addition an
argument can be made that White might outscore Bush this year so
perhaps Dec did not even draft the correct rookie LB.
