BeaudoinBrothers The
BeaudoinBrothers were favorites last year but the 2017 season got
derailled by injuries. The flip side is that it allowed the Bros
to pick 1st this year and draft a competitive team. The Bros
bring an above average saved team into this year and if players injured
in 2017 can return to form, the Bros will be dangerous again.
Players returning from injury do not only include saved players, they
also include early draft picks. For example, WR Keenan Allen and
QB A Luck (drafted in the 2nd and 5th round) must be healthy if the
Bros want to have a shot at the league title. Best Pick: Kerryon
Johnson. This guy is the forgotten man among a strong rookie RB
draft class but the fact is that he outperformed lots of other RBs in
college except for S Barkley (FE) and Johnson is in a good position to
start for the Lions. The Bros needed a decent rookie behind Josh
Allen until Allen starts for the Bills. Worst Pick: Zach Ertz.
The Bros already had saved Jimmy Graham so they could afford to wait
before drafting a TE and should have addressed other positions.
There were only 4 picks until the Bros were going to draft again in the
4th round and the Bros gambled that not too many QBs would be taken
with these 4 picks and that they could delay drafting a QB in the 4th
round. The gamble back fired because 3 QBs were taken in those 4
picks leaving less desirable options available and the Bros had to pick
a WR in the 4th round instead. Strength: RBs. The
starting duo David Johnson + L Fournette's projection is slightly below
Bas's E Elliott+ K Hunt, however the Bros have far more depth,
making the group of top 5 RBs the best in the PQBFL. Beaud's RB5
Dion Lewis would be RB3 on a few teams, including Bas themselves who
have Peyton Barber as their primary backup. Weakness: LBs. The Bros
saved two mediocre LBs Lavonte David and Reuben Foster, and then waited
until the very last 2 rounds of the draft to pick 2 more Joe Schobert
and V Burfict. No wonder this group of LBs sucks.
GloriousBastards
The Bastards suffered in 2017 due to 1st round pick Elliott's
suspension and franchise player Luck missing the entire year to
injury. However one year later the Bastards are in much better
position. Elliott is a blue chip franchise player, and Luck was
healthy enough to be cut from Bas's team which helped the latter half
of the roster to have decent saved players. Also, picking Brady
in the 3rd round shows that Bas's expansion building mode is
over. Brady is a "win now" kind of pick. According to
preseason projections, Bas should be in the thick of the race. Best Pick: Davante Adams.
Given that Bas had a franchise RB and 1st round RB, it was imperative
to address the WR position in the 2nd round which is what Bas
did. It was right in time before a drop off in WR talent because
there is no other WR in the same tier that would have been available
for Bas in the 3rd round. Worst Pick: J Goff. Given
that Bas spent an early pick on Brady who is almost never hurt, Bas
should have invested in other positions rather than a backup QB in the
6th round. There are other young QBs almost as good as Goff who
were available more than 50 picks later. Strength: Starting RBs.
Elliott+Hunt is the top RB combo in the PQBFL based on
projections. In addition both are young and do not have a history
of injuries so Bas is set up to dominate the league at RB. Weakness: Backup rookies.
Mayfield is not a starter yet and T Taylor might hold on to the job
longer than what Bas thinks. Therefore Bas needed viable backups,
but J Washington is only WR3 on the Steelers while J Wilkins has to
fight off M Mack and N Hines in the Colts backfield.
Admirals
The Admirals started strong last year but faded late with a
disappointing 4th place. This year Adm put together a solid draft
which makes Adm the 3rd highest according to preseason projections for
starters, only a hair (0.1 pt) behind Dec in 2nd place. Adm has
their best shot at a league title this year, led by the top franchise
player in the entire league T Gurley. Best Pick: Kevin Byard.
Adm saved Clinton-Dix who is an ok starter, but not elite. Byard was
arguably the 2nd best DB in the draft behind L Collins, given that R
Jones (Beaud) and K Neal (Dec) were saved. After everybody
focused on drafting LBs, Byard was still available at pick #96 for Adm
which was amazing value. Adm is getting a borderline tier-1 DB
for a bargain-bin price. Worst Pick: E Ebron. Adm
already had G Olsen as a saved player to be the starting TE. Adm
fumbled by picking a TE who might not even be the top TE on his NFL
team (Jack Doyle is the top TE in Indy) and after Adm took Ebron in the
10th round, not a single TE was drafted again in the 68 subsequent
picks of the draft. Strength: Team
defense. FE has the Jaguars defense which is ranked higher than
the Vikings, but the Admirals have the best duo after drafting the
Steelers, which makes MIN+PIT > JAX+NE for FE. Weakness: Rookies. All
teams in the PQBFL have a top player at a position in his NFL team, or
a player close to being the top player, for example backup rookie QBs
waiting in the wings. However Adm drafted N Hines who might end
up 3rd RB with the Colts, C Kirk who is a slot WR waiting for L Fitz's
retirement to take over in that specific role, and D Pettis who is no
better than WR3 for the 49ers behind Goodwin and Garcon.
FlyingElvis According to pre-season
projections, FE is right in the middle of the pack assuming that
franchise player L Bell shows up as expected and is not slowed down by
missing camp. FE’s saved team was unfortunately hit even before
the season started when Guice was lost for the season due to injury,
but FE should be competitive nonetheless Best Pick: Gronk. As RBs
and WRs were flying off the board in the 1st and 2nd rounds, FE did not
panic despite taking a rookie in the first round. Gronk is the
clear TE1 because there are a bit more question marks around Kelce
(change in QB) and Ertz (drafted rookie TE in the 1st round). Worst Pick: Duke Johnson.
It is understood that FE probably wanted to carry 5 RBs on the roster
rather than only 4, but given how strong the top 3 are (L Bell, D
Freeman, K Drake), it would have been possible to wait until very late
in the draft to pick the last RB. FE used a pick before the half
of the draft on a RB who might have been available in the last round of
the draft and who’s RB3 on a shitty team, behind C Hyde and rookie
Chubb. Strength: Rookies. Not
only FE drafted the first rookie S Barkley in the first round, but
backup rookie RB Royce Freeman is already the starter in Denver and
might be better than the top rookie on half of PQBFL teams. Weakness: WRs. None of
FE’s 5 WRs are top 20 in the PQBFL so it’s not entirely clear who the
starters will be. As of now it’s probably Marvin Jones and
Crabtree, but that is by far the weakest starting WRs in the
PQBFL.
OldNo7 OldNo7's offensive saved team was promising for the 2018 season
with starting-caliber players such as L McCoy, A Cooper, D Baldwin, and
E Engram. Old was so stacked that they even let Mayfield go and
then he was drafted by Bas in the 4th round. However Old’s
defensive saved team is as bad as the offensive team is good. It
is possible that none of the five saved defenders would be drafted if
they had not been saved (P Brown, D Lee, O Vernon, Ju Houston, and T
Mathieu). Best Pick: Christian
Kirksey. Old needed a quality LB after saving so many mediocre
ones and Old took the last top 10 LB available by drafting Kirksey in
the 8th round. Worst Pick: Sony Michel.
The Pats’ backfield is always hard to predict. How many times do
we have three RBs on the same NFL team drafted? James White was
saved by Adm and Burkhead was drafted by Dec. Not to mention that
Jeremy Hill had a good preseason. So Old paying a 6th round pick
for a rookie RB who is already injured, in a crowded backfield, is very
questionable. Strength: Backup
WRs. In addition to the saved WRs mentioned above, Old paid a
reasonable price for Thielen and D Thomas (4th and 5th round picks)
which means Old does not have a star WR but has a good group of 4 WRs
to choose from and hope someone emerges. Old’s backup WRs are
better than any other team except perhaps Wax but L Fitz is so old that
he is less valuable for the future than Old’s backups. Weakness: Backup
QBs. Wentz won’t even start week #1 so backup QBs are more
important for Old than other teams. Unfortunately M Ryan and
Trubisky are weaker than all other teams.
Decepticons According to preseason projections, Dec will be one of the top
teams this season, however it should be noted that Dec stacked up some
positions so much with extra picks (7 RBs, 5 rookies, 3 college) that
it leaves the team exposed to injuries at other positions such as
4 WRs and a razor thin 7 individual defensive players across 3
positions. Best Pick: Drew Brees.
Dec needed a starting QB because Rivers is only a borderline starter,
and Brees in the 5th round was a steal considering that much less
valuable QBs were drafted soon after (Goff 6th round, Cousins 6th
round, Garoppolo 7th round). Worst Pick: Josh Rosen.
If Rosen becomes starter soon and Dec can trade him for valuable goods
then I will eat my words, but based on information available at the
draft, Rosen did not seem like the most obvious fit for Dec’s
roster. Dec already had a top-2 rookie with Darnold and saved
Lamar Jackson, so why add another bench-warming rookie QB on a team
with a veteran QB? Too much risk for little upside given that
Darnold is already the starter so Dec is all set. Strength: Individual
defenders. Dec might not have a lot of defensive players as noted
above, but they are the best group of the PQBFL. Wagner, Deion
Jones, and K Neal were saved which definitely helped, and Dec added JJ
Watt at DL to ensure a top defender at each position. Weakness: Backup WRs. AJ
Green and Diggs are an average starting duo, and Dec better hope not to
need backups R Woods and D Parker because they are the worst WR3-4 in
the PQBFL.
WaxOnWaxOff The
reigning champions are expected to have serious competition and major
hurdles to repeat because according to preseason projections Wax is not
ahead of the pack particulalry not for starters. Wax had a decent
saved team especially with the gift received by having Mike Evans and
CJ Mosley not cut, however with Wax drafting 7th the team was unable to
load up on quality players early in the draft unlike other teams
drafting in front of Wax, such as Bas, FE and Adm who all leapfrogged
Wax in strength of starters. Best Pick: C Carson.
Rookie Penny is not able to block the pass rush and until that happens
he won’t start. Carson is the starter and was a bargain in the
10th round. Worst Pick: R Penny. If
Wax was high on Carson, then why draft Penny? Too expensive in
the 4th round for some guy who is not the starter yet. Strength: Bench depth.
Wax might not have the highest strength of starters, but they have the
best and deepest bench of all teams. For example, old man Larry
Fitz has limited long-term value but for 2018 he is one of the best
backup WRs in the PQBFL. Similar thing with defense: Kuechly and
Mosley are an amazing LB duo, and Wax even has Ogleetree as LB3 who
would be a starter on many teams. Weakness: RBs. While Wax
salvaged decent starting RBs (J Howard and J Mixon) after going WR-QB
with franchise and 1st round pick, but backups are shaky or clear
backups (Crowell, C Carson, C Clement).
Ballers
As for any expansion team it’s not easy for the Ballers to build a
strong team for the initial season but the GM did a good job at putting
together a decent team given that preseason projections put the team
not very far behind the pack. The team generally drafted younger
players with potential with the aim of having a decent saved team in
2019 rather than drafting old veterans for 2018 only. This was
the right strategy. Best Pick: Njoku. After
all the top TEs were gone, Ball took Njoku in the 7th round. He
is still young and might not produce at a high level in 2018, but his
long-term potential is high and should hold good value as a saved
player in 2019. Already as a rookie last year in a team in
shambles, Njoku was able to turn heads. Worst Pick: Russell
Wilson. Drafting a QB in the 2nd and 3rd round was overkill given
the multiple needs to fill holes, and Watson was better value in the
3rd round so Ball would have been better off drafting a RB in the 2nd
round rather than R Wilson. Strength: Starting WRs.
Obviously given that Ball drafted a WR in the first round and with the
compensatory pick at the end of the first round, the team was bound to
be stronger there, but it is still necessary to draft the right players
in that spot. Ball did not drop the “ball” and picked the best
two WRs available, ODB and Ju Jones. Weakness: RBs. With the
early frenzy to draft RBs, Ball decided to wait and draft solid WRs and
QBs instead. The result is that C Thompson is a very weak RB2,
however the saving grace might be RB5 Breida could become the starting
49ers RB if he comes back to health sooner rather than later given that
McKinnon is out for the year.
