wr-wr vs rb-rb vs rb-wr strategy by doing some mock drafts..

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so which strat you guys prefer for your 1st 2 picks: rb-rb, wr-wr, rb-wr??

i did quite alot of mock drafts today & tested these strats from different draft positions in the 1st round.. and the teams i will post are the ones i think i did drafted well based from the specific strategy im testing... btw, i did all these on a yahoo 10 team mocker...



team 1, picking 3rd overall, rb-wr strategy:

forte(rb), calvin johnson(wr), greg jennings(wr), ryan grant(rb), chad ochocinco(wr), anthony gonzalez(wr), jay cutler(qb), matt ryan(qb), chris cooley(te), knowshon moreno(rb), willie parker(rb), donald brown(rb), new york jets(def), sd chargers(def), jason elam(k)


team 2, picking 8th overall, rb-rb strategy:

Steven jackson(rb), steve slaton(rb), roddy white(wr), Terrell Owens(wr), Anthony gonzalez(wr), matt ryan(qb), jonathan stewart(rb), greg olsen(te), Donald brown(rb), donald driver(wr), matt cassel(qb), ted ginn(wr), sd(def), ari(def), nate kaeding(k)


team 3, picking 6th overall, wr-wr strategy:

larry Fitz(wr), steve smith(wr)(CAR), wayne(wr), pierre thomas(rb), ryan grant(rb), mcnabb(qb), knowshon(rb), derrick ward(rb), berrian(wr), cotchery(wr), Zach miller(te), SD(def), NYJ(def), trent edwards(qb), kaeding(k)


team 4, picking 7th overall, wr-wr strategy:

Andre Johnson(wr), steve smith(wr), portis(rb), pierre(rb), mcnabb(qb), ochocinco(wr), olsen(te), giants(def), kris brown(k), jamal lewis(rb), cassel(qb), driver(wr), hixon(wr), keller(te), GB(def)

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well here's my intake on my mock drafts... feel free to add if any of my gameplan were wrong...


team1:

Everyone seems to prefer a rb-rb opener instead of a rb-wr since they believe that rb’s are the best when it comes to fantasy production.. Well they are right that rb’s are d best scorers in fantasy football, but one thing they don’t realize is that there are a lot of late round rb’s that could become gems coz several nfl teams are starting to employ rbbc… for me the reason why I always prefer drafting wr-wr in rd2 & rd3 after drafting a rb in rd1, coz the drop off when it comes to fantasy production after tier 2 wr’s are a lot compare to after tier2 rb’s.. therefore finding solid mid to late round wr’s that will help a team each week will be abit scarce compared to finding solid mid to late rb’s.. plus d fact that standard yahoo settings wants you to start 3 wr’s, so it makes wr’s a premium compared to rb’s… so in this case I went rb-wr-wr for the 1st 3 picks..

for the 3rd overall, it was a toss up for me between turner or forte but I chose forte here coz I believe that he will have a better production over turner now that he has a better qb.. I think it is still going to be close, but I really like forte’s ceiling & I don’t like that atl might lower mike’s carry this year..
For rounds 2 & 3, I went with calvin Johnson & greg Jennings that whom I believed both will be in top5 fantasypts in wr by the end of the year. Calvin was quite productive a year ago with a mediocre qb passing the ball, & now that he has a young talented gun to throw to him the ball, why can’t he still be a beast this year too… and I got some bias going on with Jennings coz I just like their sched this season plus he got a qb that can get him the ball..

Since I almost have back2back picks on rd 4 & rd 5, I usually like to get a solid rb2 or solid wr3 on either rd 4 or 5.. If pierre thomas, kevin smith, or ryant grant are available, I don’t think twice on getting them.. If not, then I go settle with the best value pick for a wr.. Usually on rds 4 or 5, I target the qb’s on the top of my qb-list, Rodgers or mcnabb, if they are still available.. And if they are not available, then I grab at least 2 tier3 qb’s in rds6-10, with either cutler, ryan, scwaub, or cassel & play whoever has the best matchup..
On rd 4 I could have grabbed one of the stud te’s or tier2 qb’s like warner, but I passed on them coz I know there will be some solid qb & solid te in the later rounds.. I think grant is a nice steal in the 4th or 5th rd coz he could possibly blossom as a top10 or top15 rb by the end of year since GB is “committing” to run the ball more & GB got a nice sched too.. Plus grant played really well on the second half of the season after a slow start, so I expect him to continue on building that momentum of a strong finish..
I think getting a shot at grabbing ochocinco in mid rounds, especially at round 4 or beyond is a great value pick since he is motivated to rebound from a bad season & has a lot of “pride” to protect.. He can be a 1000rec yards 10 td wr if palmer stays healthy..

anthony gonzalez is one of my fav 2009 breakout players coz he will finally get the starting gig which means even more chances of getting the ball.. Plus he got peyton to throw the ball to him which is an added bonus.. Getting him in the 6th round or so is a great value pick even if you already got 3 solid starting wr’s coz he provides a solid insurance incase one of your early wr picks doesn’t pan out.. I usually see him getting snagged in mock drafts in the 5th round, so if you get him beyond that on a real draft, consider yourself lucky.. He is on my top priority draft list..

Another guy I consider on the verge of a breakout is jay cutler.. even though he doesn’t have elite wr‘s, I think he has enough receivers to help him get solid numbers plus he got an above average defense and a stud rb.. If anyone remembers it correctly, Brandon didn’t became an elite wr until jay came into town & eddie became a reliable wr2 in denver last season coz of jay too.. So if cutler can make unknown wr’s into solid ones, why cant cutler do the same to Chicago’s wr’s.. I usually see in mock drafts that managers tend to start reaching on those elite DEF by 6th round.. So once I see them do that, it offers me more opportunity to grab one of my fav breakout candidates..

matt ryan is another breakout candidate that is on my radar & getting him in late rounds in a real draft is a solid value pick.. I think by the end of the year, he will be a top10 qb.. One thing I’m worried about is what round should I draft him coz I usually see him gone by rounds 7-9 in mocks.. Since this is a mock draft, I got no problem drafting back2back qb with my picks.. But if this was a real draft, it will be a difficult decision for me to either draft in this position a possible breakout stud-qb or draft one of the sleeper rb’s available.. And in a real draft drafting back2back qb’s, especially in later rounds, means that a manager is not comfortable with their qb1 since he could be a bust.. But at the same time, if you get a chance to draft 2 stud tier3 qb’s with your back2back picks like cutler & ryan, then you got a solid backup & can use both qb’s by playing the one with the best matchup..

For round 10 to round 12, I went on to draft my fav sleeper rb’s in hopes that one of them could turn out into a slaton, forte, or chris Johnson.. I could have grabbed either felix jones or jamal lewis over willie parker, but I believe that parker will bounce back from a bad season just like ochocinco.. Plus I need at least someone that will very likely be the starting rb in week1.. I usually start drafting my sleeper rb’s at round 7 once I get my starting qb, starting 2 rb’s, & starting 3wr’s set.. The guys I always prefer to grab in later rounds that will very likely be starters in week 1 are derrick ward, knowshon, willie parker, & felix jones.. And the guys I like to grab that i think will have a chance to out produce their competition are ray rice & donald brown.. Of all the late round rb’s I mentioned, ward, knowshon, & brown are my top priorities…

For defenses, I learned from reading articles that they should always be grabbed in the late rounds since they are almost always unpredictable when it comes to fantasy production.. Reading from articles also taught me that one of the best defense combination throughout the season would be GB & ARI coz both teams has games playing against weak offensive teams..

To get the most value from a rb-wr-wr combo, the draft position I have found the best is drafting from the top3/top4 spots since you will get a shot at one of the stud rb’s.. and since the 2nd rd & 3rd picks are going to be close to each other(depending on d number of teams in ur league), you will still get a shot at 2 elite tier1 wr’s for your team.. and getting at least 2 elite wr’s very early is important(to some maybe) coz they really get snagged off the board pretty quickly on early rounds, unless you can live with mid round wr‘s that may be a solid sleeper(calvin & desean) or just mediocre quality wr‘s.. drafting in late 1st round is not that bad too since you can still get an elite rb plus in the second round you will get a shot at either moss, calvin, or andre.. the only thing I don’t like about getting late 1st round picks is that once you get to 3rd round, your down to tier3 wr’s like houshmanzadeh/marshall/owens that are still stud players but offers some risks due to maybe not performing to their level or getting hurt..

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team2:

This is another theory im testing for which opener works best.. This time around im doing a rb-rb-wr opener and see if it is better than a rb-wr-wr..

In drafting back2back rb’s, always target workhorse rb’s that will be involved a lot on offense & that they have less competition for PT at rb.. So if you either get guys like slaton, portis, or Jacobs in the 2nd round, treat yourself to a drink and also hope that they don’t go down sometimes in the season..
For rounds 3 to round 5, you might wana target the best wr’s available coz the wr’s in the later rounds will be abit inconsistent in giving you fantasy pts that will likely handicap you against strong balanced teams.. If you have picked somewhere in late 1st round, it is very likely you will get at least 1 elite tier2 wr like white, jennings, or wayne…
Once I get my 2 starting rb’s & 2 starting wr’s, that’s where I target a qb for my team in rd 6.. Consider yourself lucky if mcnabb falls this far.. If not then you might wana reach early for tier3 qb’s like cutler, schaub, or matt ryan..
And in rounds 7 to round ten, that’s where I target my breakout rb candidates and grab at least 2 of them to protect my starting rb’s..

To get the most value out of a rb-rb opener, I always prefer drafting in the late 1st round so I can at least get a shot at 2 stud rb’s that don’t anyone to look behind their shoulder for competition… and on rd’s 3 and 4, you will still get a shot on 2 stud wr’s, & I bet one of them will be a top10 wr caliber.. You can also use that early pick on rd 4 to grab one of the remaining elite qb’s like rivers, warner, or Rodgers.. Drafting early in the 1st round is not that bad too coz you will still get a shot at an elite rb in the 2nd round, but the only difference between the 2 is that the rb2 you will be getting is likely losing some carries from another young rb; with guys like barber, chris Johnson, westbrook…

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team 3:

This wr-wr theory is probably the most riskiest of all opener strats coz fantasy rb’s produce more pts compared to fantasy rb’s.. this means that you have to draft really well to become a strong contender or you might end up playing catchup.. But with so many possible breakout rb’s in later rounds compared to rb’s, drafting stud wr’s early is not a bad idea…

In drafting back2back wr, I always pray that I land at least 2 of the top5 wr, especially fitz.. In this mock draft, I chose 6th overall so I can grab fitz before anyone does and test my theory on what talent I will get from the wr-wr opener.. I usually see fitz gone in mock drafts by 7th pick so if your doing a wr-wr, hope that your placed in top7... If you get lucky in getting him 7th pick or beyond, then treat yourself a candy for being so lucky.. And if fitz is gone by your turn & your still planning to do a wr-wr opener, andre johnson is not bad for a 1st pick.. In doing wr-wr openers, the usual combo I like is fitz/andre, fitz/moss, fitz/calvin, andre/calvin, or andre/moss..

Once you get to round 3, your next top priority is to see if you can find a solid rb1 for your team.. I usually target pierre Thomas or ryan grant if they are still available.. I don’t like drafting ronnie brown if he is available coz im not sold at all that he will be a consistent everydown rb.. Since there are a lot of solid rb’s in later rounds, you can also just target the best available stud wr so that it will put a scare on every owner out there that they will be facing someone that likely has 3 top10 wr’s on the regular season.. For this mock draft, reggie wayne fell to me coz everyone else was hording those “elite” rb’s and “elite” qb’s on rounds 2 & 3.. On this mock draft too, I just ignored the overlapping bye weeks of smith & fitz since im just testing how a wr-first theory will look like.. If this was my real time, I can live with losing my matchup on week 4 coz of 2 wr fillers & losing week5 coz of grant‘s & mcnabb‘s bye week.. And when it comes to wr depth, you can find fillers in late rounds to compensate the bye weeks for your starting wr’s..

For the next two rd’s see if you can get a shot on drafting both pierre & grant for your team.. These 2 guys arent bad at all as your starting rb’s since both guys will be a starting rb for their respective teams and they will likely get most of the carries.. And the bonus to it is that both rb’s play for a talented offensive teams, which means they will get a lot of opportunities to score pts..
When it comes to qb, if Rodgers is available on round 4, i just go get him.. And mcnabb on the other hand will be a great value on round 5 if he drops down too.. If both Rodgers & mcnabb are gone, then I use the same strat as before in acquiring either cutler, schaub, ryan, or cassel..

When it comes to strengthening the depth of rb's, it is important for me to decide on where to start reaching for guys that weren’t where they should be drafted.. I usually do this on round 5 if I don’t get a shot at either mcnabb or rodgers.. The top rb targets should be derrick ward, followed by LJ, knowshon moreno, donald brown, willie parker, felix jones, ray rice, & fred jackson.. If addai falls in later rounds, then i don’t hesitate to grab him since I think he will bounce back from last year’s bad season..
Same strat I have applied from the other 2 start on drafting DEF & kickers.. Once I get my target players or if none of my target players are available, that’s when I reach for DEF first, then kickers..


to get the most value out of a wr-wr combo, i always prefer drafting in the late 1st round to get a shot at 2 elite wr's.. and it would be even better if you get fitz that late... then by rounds 3 & 4, you can then grab 2 starting quality rb's or use one of it to land a tier2 qb's.. picking in the middle of the 1st round is not that bad too since you will definitely get a shot at fitzgerald.. the only bad thing though is you wont likely get a shot at either moss or andre johnson... drafting in the top3 picks is even better since you will are likely getting a clear path on getting fitz.. and it also gets better since you will have close picks in rounds 2 & 3 that will allow you to grab another 2 top10 wr's to your team.. only downside with drafting a wr in top 3 is that it may feel an overreach considering you got AP, forte, mojo, & turner available...



team 4:

This is the same wr-wr strat I have tested, but the only difference between the other one & this one is that I didn’t got a shot at fitz, proving my theory that he is valued really high by a lot of owners even in a non-ppr league..

Drafting andre Johnson is not that bad at all too since he will give you top10-like fantasy production.. The only risk of getting him is the durability of his health & schaub’s health.. if he goes down, then he will very likely drag along your team to the grave.. On round 2, I didn’t got a shot at calvin, & moss so I just settled with I think the 5th best wr.. It was a toss up for me between smith & Jennings, but for now I settled with smith in hopes that I will still land Jennings on round 3.. I got lucky that portis fell to me in round 3 coz everyone else grabbed the “elite” wr’s & “elite” qb’s available.. I guess the smith pick I did had an effect on other managers coz I saw jennings, white, wayne, & boldin getting drafted consecutively after I selected smith.. Im not sure if it happens very often on real drafts, but I guess 1 manager getting the best wr’s earlier on could make other managers panic on grabbing the best elite wr’s left, which leaves the next few rounds with some top tier rb & top tier qb available by late 3rd round..
And just like my other wr-wr mock draft, my strat here is the same on grabbing qb’s, rb’s, wr’s, def’s, & kickers.. For this mock draft, I didn’t got my target rb’s coz they got stolen from me earlier than I have expected..