Winning the 2007 AFFL Fantasy Football Silver Contest
Editor’s note: Dennis Gahry won the National competitionthis year at http://www.affl.com/ and thisis how he did it.
I have been playing fantasy baseball and football for about 20years, winning several league titles, but never a national title. My prep forthis contest was similar to my previous years, i.e. reading several fantasymagazines, ranking players (by tiers) and developing a draft plan. My “tiered” going-indraft plan for the 12-team league was: Picks 1-6: RB, RB, WR, RB, WR, WR; Picks7-8: QB, TE: Picks 9-18: Back-ups: Picks: 19-20: Defense, K.
I had the 2nd pick in the traditional style snakedraft. My actual 1st 9 picks were:
1-RB-Steven Jackson
2-WR Reggie Wayne
3-RB-Brandon Jacobs
4-RB Adrian Peterson (Min)
5-WR-Randy Moss
6-WR-Brayton Edwards
7-QB-Tony Romo
8-RB-Leon Washington
9-TE-Jason Whitten
I picked the Oakland Defense at #15 and K-Jason Elam at #18.I replaced the Oakland defense with Indianapolis in week 2 and replaced Elam inweek 7 with K-Jeff Reed. Besides the Colts and Reed, my other major Free Agentpool pick-up was RB-Earnest Graham in week 4. Overall I only used $649 of the$2000 Free Agent allowance.
During the 2 ½ hour computer draft I had a friend (Bob Radl,a Sandlot Shrink staff writer) help me keep track of players drafted, playersavailable, etc., which was a big help.
Surprising I won without Tomlinson and mediocre performancesfrom my #1 (Jackson) and # 3 (Jacobs) picks, but with great seasons from my top3 WR’s and TE.
The weak point in my team, which doesn’t show on the surfacewas at back-up QB. During the last several weeks, Romo played despite a thumbinjury. My only non-injured back-up QB during that period was Trent Edwards.
Some general questions/opinions/comments:
1-Are top WR’s closing the value gap with the top RB’s?
2-Is winning 80% skill/preparation and 20% luck?
3-Should a top Defense be drafted around the 10thround (before your taxi squad)?
4-The Free Agent pool is important, especially to replaceinjured RB’s.
5-When in doubt, play your studs.
6-Week 16 is very unpredictable, especially for players onteams that have clinched a play-off spot.
7-Pick-up a decent back-up QB before the play-offs start….
8-Have fun, it’s a game.
Dennis Gahry
Sarasota, FL