Play SuperFlex in The Draft from Head2Head Today!
For several years I have admistered a private fantasy football league called Kathy League Gifford. It's strictly for fun and bragging rights. I was asked to join the league and as is usually the case, ended up running it sooner than later.
A few years ago we voted to convert from head to head with playoffs to a 17-week all-play format. For those unfamiliar, in all-play each team plays every other team head-to-head that week with each individual game's result contributing to the standings. As such, if you have the high score, your record that week was 11-0. It's an interesting twist that gives fantasy football a little bit of a rotisserie league feel without completely taking out the smack talk and mano-a-mano battles you might have with other league members.
The other quirk is the league uses three IDP (any defensive position) and a two-quarterback lineup. I wasn't a participant at the league's inception so I don't know their motivation but I didn't mind it since I enjoy trying new formats, epecially if it alters player valuation and draft strategy.
It didn't take me long to realize quarterbacks are at a premium and if you don't get at least one early, you'll be behind the eight-ball all season. Not saying this was a bad thing. Just saying you really need to adjust for the high demand of decent quarterbacks with jobs.
Now is where it gets a little difficult to explain. While I am a big fan of having to set my Gifford draft list differently than more standard leagues, things got to a point where valuation wasn't driving picks, it was more desperation. I get this gets rolled into draft strategy, but in this case it's a little different since it's a matter of penetration. I'll pause for everyone to say "he said penetration" in their best Beavis and Butthead voice.
Play SuperFlex in The Draft from Head2Head Today!
Here's what I mean. With bye weeks, you need three quarterbacks on your roster and in a 12-team league, that means to begin the season, at least four teams only have two signal callers. It could be more if a team rosters four quarterbacks.
I know, it's my job to read the draft properly so I am not one of the deficient owners. But I just don't think the draft should be in essence a game of musical chairs - which is what happens. Obviously there are injuries and performance related changes at the position so if you're short a quarterback you can pick one up in season. Still, this makes FAAB and waivers more chasing the suddently available quarterback(s).
If you play in two-quarterback leagues you're probably saying this guy's nuts, it's all part of the strategy. OK, maybe it is, I just don't think the fact there aren't enough players to go around should feed into the strategy. It should be how we each project the player and rank him at his position and between positions - with ample players for everyone to fill a legal roster every week.
Fortunately, there's a very simple fix and it irks me it took me (and the rest of Gifford) so long to figure it out. Instead of forcing the second quarterback spot to be a quarterback, why not make it a super-flex spot that can be filled with a running back, wide receiver or tight end? This way, it's not the usual game of chicken that turns into musical chairs but rather how everyone ranks the back-end quarterbacks among the running backs and wide receivers. The Gifford draft is via e-mail draft and we're at the point where either reserves or defensive players are drafted and at least from my point of view, the draft felt more comfortable. Quarterbacks still went fast and furious but you didn't feel compelled to take Brian Hoyer while leaving a good receiver on the board.
Apparently, I'm not the only fan of the super-flex. None other than the First Lady of Fantasy, Stacie Stern, is also a fan. I must say, I'm in good company. Stacie has taken super-flex up a notch and allows ANY position - including defense and kicker - to fill the spot in her Head2Head.com leagues. I'm really enjoying playing in her baseball leagues so I decided to take the plunge in football too.
I did a draft the other night, picking from the four-hole. Andrew Luck, Aaron Rodgers and Adrian Peterson predictably were taken. If this were a strict two-quarterback league I may have been forced to take my first one at 1.04, but because it's superflex, I jumped all over Le'Veon Bell, confident I could find one, if not two signal callers later. Sure enough, I snagged one of my favorite later quarterbacks in Ryan Tannehill and also selected Colin Kaepernick as my super-flex. I'm not at all comfortable with Kaepernick as my quarterback but felt putting him at flex was a great way to embrace his volatility. We'll see what happens.
Not only do I strongly urge talking to your league about incorporating the super-flex spot, I can't recommend Head2Head,com highly enough. It's big fun - and really challenging.