And with their 20th round pick, The Keith-glorious Basterd's select....Michael Griffin.
So as promised, I wanted to lay out a few more thoughts on the issue of drafting Individual Defensive Players (IDPs). I do want to make clear however that regardless of whatever strong feelings I may be showing, if there is a decision made to forward with that change, I'll shut up about it for the rest of the season.
First, I'll go with the more radical thought I had. What if, instead of drafting IDPs into our well functioning league, we created a separate league and draft, where each team would select a roster of 4 defensive players (and you start 3 each week). Instead of using the fair (but boring) process of determining draft position by standings at the end of the season, draft position is instead determined by success in the defense only league (D-league). To keep the league from getting too crazy, limit the number of waiver pickups per season to 1 or 2. This would let people draft defensive players, it would add a fun element to draft order, without shaking up the league too much.
The longer I thought about this option, the less I like it. Some of the feedback I got was that it might be tough to get people to care about the D-league, and I agree. In truth, that's part of what I like about it; I ultimately see drafting defensive players as a sideshow, and this would relegate them somewhat to that position. However, if people are not going to really care, I agree that it doesn't make sense to do it.
I like to think I put more effort in to preparing for the league than average; I take a small amount of pride in my success. However, I find it incredibly tough to get up and really care about drafting defensive players. To be honest, there's no real way for me to rank or compare drafting a Daryl Smith (LB) to a Torrey Smith (WR), let alone D'Qwell Jackson (LB #18) to a Nigel Bradham (LB #19). It becomes a crapshoot, with the majority of the league drafting players they've never heard of before, and try as I might I can't get up for that. Perhaps you know most of the defensive players, watched them in college and whatnot, and maybe your thoughts on drafting them don't line up with mine and that's certainly legitimate. I suppose I'm just speaking up as what I feel to be representative of the non-hardcore who would just go along to get along. (Although I have to say, if any of you know which team and position Michael Griffin plays for without having to look it up, you have my respect. For all of you who don't, you better start learning since he could turn into a mid round draft pick).
There certainly could be issues with a D-League, I probably won't push it hard unless there is a really strong positive feedback. However, I strongly think that if the decision is for us to experiment with IDPs this year that rather than jumping directly into drafting between 40-70 defensive players, we start off easy and maybe have each team start one guy. It might be fun for everyone to draft themselves a JJ Watt, Bobby Wagner, or a Jason Pierre-Paul (errr, maybe not. Too soon for a fireworks joke), and only having to really learn the top 20 guys is not so crazy as looking 24 guys deep at each defensive position. If it turns out really fun, maybe we expand it. If it's lame, we don't harm the integrity of the season.
Anyways, those are my thoughts. Hopefully we can end up with a clear manager consensus of what we should do going forward, but most of all, that we have another great TFLOEG season.
First, I'll go with the more radical thought I had. What if, instead of drafting IDPs into our well functioning league, we created a separate league and draft, where each team would select a roster of 4 defensive players (and you start 3 each week). Instead of using the fair (but boring) process of determining draft position by standings at the end of the season, draft position is instead determined by success in the defense only league (D-league). To keep the league from getting too crazy, limit the number of waiver pickups per season to 1 or 2. This would let people draft defensive players, it would add a fun element to draft order, without shaking up the league too much.
The longer I thought about this option, the less I like it. Some of the feedback I got was that it might be tough to get people to care about the D-league, and I agree. In truth, that's part of what I like about it; I ultimately see drafting defensive players as a sideshow, and this would relegate them somewhat to that position. However, if people are not going to really care, I agree that it doesn't make sense to do it.
I like to think I put more effort in to preparing for the league than average; I take a small amount of pride in my success. However, I find it incredibly tough to get up and really care about drafting defensive players. To be honest, there's no real way for me to rank or compare drafting a Daryl Smith (LB) to a Torrey Smith (WR), let alone D'Qwell Jackson (LB #18) to a Nigel Bradham (LB #19). It becomes a crapshoot, with the majority of the league drafting players they've never heard of before, and try as I might I can't get up for that. Perhaps you know most of the defensive players, watched them in college and whatnot, and maybe your thoughts on drafting them don't line up with mine and that's certainly legitimate. I suppose I'm just speaking up as what I feel to be representative of the non-hardcore who would just go along to get along. (Although I have to say, if any of you know which team and position Michael Griffin plays for without having to look it up, you have my respect. For all of you who don't, you better start learning since he could turn into a mid round draft pick).
There certainly could be issues with a D-League, I probably won't push it hard unless there is a really strong positive feedback. However, I strongly think that if the decision is for us to experiment with IDPs this year that rather than jumping directly into drafting between 40-70 defensive players, we start off easy and maybe have each team start one guy. It might be fun for everyone to draft themselves a JJ Watt, Bobby Wagner, or a Jason Pierre-Paul (errr, maybe not. Too soon for a fireworks joke), and only having to really learn the top 20 guys is not so crazy as looking 24 guys deep at each defensive position. If it turns out really fun, maybe we expand it. If it's lame, we don't harm the integrity of the season.
Anyways, those are my thoughts. Hopefully we can end up with a clear manager consensus of what we should do going forward, but most of all, that we have another great TFLOEG season.
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