Bleeding Blue Fantasy League Post Draft Blog

Justin Penik (@JPenik74)

What's up fellas! The first annual Bleeding Blue Fantasy Draft is complete! Thanks for bearing with your commissioner who wanted to try some different things outside of just doing a normal league. I think we are really going to enjoy adding the Superflex. The whole point is to value the most important position in all of sports and that is exactly what we did. There was still a lot of decent value on the board even when the rounds were approaching the "teens" (is that the right way to write that?) A few of us are surprised though that QB's weren't flying off the board quicker. However, it does make sense since RB's are so so thin this year and there are definitely can't miss WR you can take later in the first round into the second/third that you can feel great about. All this to say, for a first time Superflex league, I thought we managed it perfectly. Kuddos to you! Yes, you!

So let's actually talk about your teams and players shall we? According to ESPN and whatever funny little algorithm they have, here are the draft day power rankings:

I tend to side with data, especially when it has your commissioner as the #1 team in the league after draft day. I know a few of you were wondering about the "trends," I'm thinking that is simply who is trending up/down on a weekly basis. I am 100% sure the "projections" of who is trending up/down will change by week one. So keep an eye on that!

What I also enjoyed about these power rankings is that you can see it was not solely based off of draft order. For example, look at Bocra's team who is sitting in second, he drafted 10th. Mark's team who was auto drafted is ranked third! The great thing about the Superflex in a PPR is that it may not bury you if you don't have two starting QB's (which is exactly why this is not a 2 QB league).

So let's get to some steals of the draft and some fun facts: I first wanna toot my own horn here. Matt Ryan was the second QB taken in the draft. That may have come as a surprise but if you listened to the Bleeding Blue fantasy football episode, the co-host of the Fade the Public Podcast, Nicky Snacks (@Snacks_BDGE on Twitter), he turned my attention to the fact that Matt Ryan for the first ten weeks of the season, he is playing all dome games. In fact, there are only three games the Falcons are playing outside. Two of those games are in warm weather areas (San Fran and Tampa Bay). Ryan is set up to have an MVP like season again and playing indoors for 13 games certainly will help.

Here is another fun fact: Did you know Ju-Ju Smith Schuster was tackled inside the two yard line SIX FIVE last year? YES! FIVE! That is an extra five touchdowns for Conner that were all basically scored on luck. James Conner was a big time stay away guy for me and it looks like Mark got him with the auto pick so kudos to you all again! There is no doubt that Mike McKittrick has got the best WR pairing in our league, Devante Adams and JuJu. Those RB's certainly have some question marks with Fournette and Derrick Henry and if I know Michael like I do, he's gonna be sliding in your DM's asking you for a trade early on. Same thing with Bleeding Blue co-host and contributor Michael Bocra. They're smooth talkers, don't let them fool ya (love ya fellas).

Biggest steals of the draft:

Jimmy snagged Christian Kirk the pick before I was going to take him and to be honest, besides Kyler Murray as my second/third option at QB, he is the only guy I am comfortable with in that Arizona offense. If there is one thing Kliff Kingsbury has always produced as a coach, it's offense. And even with a putrid and slow as shit offense last year, Kirk still found a way to produce and be productive. Let me emphasize again, that offense in Arizona, even when they were losing and needed to move quickly, was SLOW AS SHIT! Even if the Cardinals aren't good, Christian Kirk will be a guy you can eventually rely on as a FLEX play.

Larry Rooney absolutely stole some great production at the RB position w/ Peyton Barber in Round 10 and the bigger steal, Matt Breida in Round 13. Jerrick Mckinnon's knee is shot, and the Niners reunited Tevin Coleman with Kyle Shannahan. Despite this, according to the BDGE Fantasy Football Draft Guide, "Breida is the most talented back on this roster and the most versatile. Last year, Breida ranked 7th among NFL running backs in yards per touch, had the 4th highest breakaway run rate (8.5% - the percentage of runs that went for 15+ yards), he had 0 drops while simultaneously having PFF's single highest receiving grade among running backs. He was a cheat code on first and second downs through the air. Shanahan, one of the top, young offensive-minded coaches in the NFL understands that getting the ball to your running backs in space on early downs is also a cheat code." Finding players who are efficient in fantasy is so much more valuable than those guys who rely on the volume of touches they got (cough cough Zeke sucks).

I hate do this, I really do, but Dak Prescott will continue to be a top 10 fantasy QB this year and in Round 9 in a Superflex league, Brett Wiley got a steal. I am not a fan of Prescott as a QB, I think he has greatly benefited from those around him instead of making everyone else better around him however in fantasy, especially in 2019, he is more than a solid play. The quote below basically identifies how the Cowboys are beginning to understand that the QB position is much more valuable than a RB in a passing league (bye bye Zeke, NEVER PAY A RB). According to the BDGE Draft Guide:

"First off, the Dallas offense threw the ball on nearly 57% of their plays in 2018. Nearly a 5% jump up from the year prior, passing the ball 52% of the time, 3rd lowest rate in the NFL. In 2016, a year prior, Jerry's team ranked dead last, passing on just 51.3% of their offensive plays. Through the first seven games of the 2018 season, before Cooper was on the field in silver, white and navy blue, Dak averaged 29 pass attempts per game, eclipsing 30 attempts in a game just twice. From that point forward, Weeks 9-17, Dak's passing tendencies shot up, from 29 up to 35.6 passes/game, an increase of more than 6 pass attempts per game, including a game with a career-high 4 passing TDs AND a SEPARATE game with a career-high 455 passing yards. Prior to Cooper coming over, the soon-to-be 26 year old QB had never thrown for more than 332 yards in a single game (45 career games including playoffs). Along with that 455-yard game, he posted what would've been a career-high total 387 passing yards just three weeks later. The only QBs that were better than Dak last year in fantasy once Cooper arrived in Dallas were Patrick Mahomes, Big Ben and Matt Ryan."

So how do you feel one day after the draft? How are you feeling about Superflex? For whatever reason if you are reading this and are not a member of the BB Fantasy League, I thank you! Our league is public so you can keep track of our league as it unfolds. I will try to continue to post content as the year rolls on for us and if anyone else may want to follow. Let me know what you think, go and give Bleeding Blue a five star rating on the Apple Podcast app, please write a nice review and without further ado, Let's Bleed.... BLUE!