BC: Random early season thoughts

Part of what makes the game fun is that people have wildly different ideas about how they build and manage their teams.

We had a guy who liked to program his draft. He felt like quarterback was THE position, and so he set his first four picks as QBs.

What he didn’t anticipate is getting the first pick in the draft, and so when his pick came up: Cam Newton. This was before Cam was terrible.

Second round, still there, was another QB. And because of the snake, his immediate pick after that was another QB.

That didn’t work. But this is also the same guy who in fantasy baseball filled his pitching staff with almost exclusively relievers. In the process sacrificing wins and strikeouts.

But you know: everyone has a different idea of fun, and you should embrace that.

There are guys I just won’t take. I’ve been off Derrick Henry for years. He’s been going off for years, and he did again Sunday. But I have a team I like, and that’s enough.

I tend to lay off drafting QBs, because you can get a decent one ranked 8-9-10 or so and still compete. This year, however, I reached up to take one as the last pick of the 5th round. Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen (?) were the only ones off the board, so a lot of quality was still available. But I knew by the time the picks came back around I’d be well into the second or third tier, and there was a guy I really liked, so I grabbed him: Kyler Murray. Even so, I added Matt Stafford in the 12th round as insurance, kind of proving my point that you can find late treasures.

But I liked Murray. So far, so good.

Last week I was combing the waiver wire after the first round of pickups, which in our league can be bid upon; every team has $100 to spend. There were no urgent acquisitions so I waited to get a guy for $0. There was a rookie wideout I liked, Rondale Moore of the Cardinals.

Sometimes you gotta roll those bones. I benched JuJu Smith-Schuster and put Moore in, and he. Went. Off. He’s rostered in less than 20% of ESPN leagues.

Here’s the thing: You’re not always going to get a monster performance out of some rando. But sometimes you will. So the key is, if you bust out is one thing, but if you strike gold ... few things are more fun than (bogus or not) looking like a genius. This week, Moore will be maybe the hottest add in fantasy.

Be ahead of the curve, folks.