The Sanderson Gazette - 2021-08-23 - XIV

Welcome to Blingaleague XIV

Apparently, fourteen is a very special number. There are fourteen of us starting the fourteenth official year of the Blingaleague. And, for the first time ever...

Important Changes

...we'll be playing fourteen regular season games!

Blame the NFL

The NFL added a seventeenth regular season game this year, which resulted in two fantasy-relevant changes: an eighteenth regular season week and byes scheduled for week fourteen.

The former presented an opportunity: more weeks to play fantasy football! The reason we started with thirteen regular season weeks back in 2008 was to allow for three playoff weeks and one leftover week (to allow for real-life playoff teams resting starters). There was a sentiment among some owners that we should take advantage of this opportunity and add a game to our schedule.

The latter change presented a problem: our quarterfinals take place in week fourteen! While there are some reasons while players having their bye during the playoffs isn't the worst thing (mainly, they are guaranteed to give you thirteen regular season games if healthy), on balance it is still a negative. A good amount of Blingaleague franchises felt this was not a problem they wanted to leave alone.

Moving Forward

Beginning this year, we will add a fourteenth regular season week, pushing the playoffs to weeks fifteen through seventeen. This means that our perfectly balanced schedule needs to change.

One suggestion was to have everyone play two games vs. their rival, but there were some good arguments against that. Instead, what we'll be doing is having week one be a "strength of schedule" week: teams that finished adjacent to each other in last year's post-playoffs standings will play each other a additional time, in week one. This means that the Blingabowl champion (Kevin) will play the runner-up (Matt), third place (Babel) will play fourth place (Pulley), all the way down to thirteenth (Ed) playing fourteenth (Dave).

The new schedule is already input into Yahoo, and can also be found in the league's shared Google Drive.

Keepers

Getting back to usual business, let's take a look at everyone's keepers heading into the 2021 draft.

All keepers can be found on the 2021 draft board and the 2021 season page on the Blingaleague website. ADP data is taken from Fantasy Football Calculator.

Kevin

  • Davante Adams, 1.14 (ADP 1.08)
  • Josh Allen, 7.14 (ADP 3.08)

Kevin opted for high-end value out of the numerous valid options on his roster. Both Adams and Allen are being drafted among the top two at their position, so right off the bat, Kev has two locked-in star players.

Matt

  • Dalvin Cook, 1.13 (ADP 1.03)
  • Lamar Jackson, 4.02 (ADP 4.07)

Cook gives Matt a top-two RB at the cost of a much lesser player. Jackson is an interesting choice, as his raw ADP is after where Matt kept him, but when you account for other players being kept, it's extremely unlikely he'd be around at Matt's fourth round pick.

Babel

  • Keenan Allen, 4.03 (ADP 3.02)
  • D'Andre Swift, 6.03 (ADP 3.03)

Babel let Travis Kelce (1.12, ADP 1.09) and Miles Gaskin (9.12, ADP 3.09) go in favor of Allen and Swift, and it's hard to criticize him. He's getting good value at some key positions, and still has his first three picks to work with.

Pulley

  • Aaron Rodgers, 6.04 (ADP 5.08)
  • Antonio Brown, 10.04 (ADP 7.07)

Brown might not be as good as he used to, but getting him for a tenth is a steal for Pulley. And Rodgers looks motivated to have another MVP-level year.

Derrek

  • Jonathan Taylor, 3.10 (ADP 1.12)
  • Justin Jefferson, 9.10 (ADP 2.10)

Another year, another set of great keepers for Derrek. The two-time Sanderson Cup holder starts 2021 with a top-ten RB, a top-ten WR, and each of his first two picks.

Rob

  • Ezekiel Elliott, 1.09 (ADP 1.05)
  • Antonio Gibson, 5.09 (ADP 2.01)

Rob's all set at RB, with two RB1's at a very reasonable cost. Elliott's a good, if not great, value, but the real gem is Gibson, whom Rob was able to keep at more than three rounds after his ADP.

Richie

  • Calvin Ridley, 3.08 (ADP 2.05)
  • DK Metcalf, 6.07 (ADP 2.05)

What Rob is to RBs, Richie is to WRs. Ridley and Metcalf are both among the first half dozen picks at their position, and Richie only had to give up one of his first five picks to retain them.

Scott

  • Tee Higgins, 8.08 (ADP 6.03)
  • Darnell Mooney, 9.07 (ADP 9.14)

Like his rival (and week one opponent), Scott kept two young WRs. Neither Higgins nor Mooney has anywhere near the expectations of Richie's WRs, but Scott didn't have to spend much on them.

Schertz

  • Derrick Henry, 1.04 (ADP 1.04)
  • Stefon Diggs, 4.11 (ADP 2.01)

Going strictly by ADP, Henry doesn't look like much value; but it's very unlikely Schertz would be able to draft him at the fourth spot if he hadn't made this choice. Diggs, on the other hand, is a great value, which means this combination sets up our 2019 champ for a nice rebound year.

Rabbit

  • J.K. Dobbins, 5.01 (ADP 2.07)
  • Kyler Murray, 7.01 (ADP 3.12)

Rabbit has very typical keepers: a pair of players that cost mid-round picks with second or third round ADPs. Murray has overall QB1 potential, and Dobbins should be the main back on a top offense.

Mike R.

  • James Robinson, 8.10 (ADP 4.03)
  • Brandon Aiyuk, 9.05 (ADP 5.08)

Mike went all-in to trade for both of these guys last year, and they retained good value heading into 2021. Neither looks like they will carry a team on their own, but Mike still has his first seven picks to complement them.

Pat

  • Darrell Henderson, Jr., 8.09 (ADP 3.08)
  • Justin Herbert, 9.06 (ADP 5.03)

Henderson is slated to be the primary RB for the Rams, so his value is obvious. For his second keeper, Pat went with a low-cost option (Herbert) over a high-ADP one (David Montgomery, 4.09, ADP 2.13).

Ed

  • Mike Davis, 9.03 (ADP 3.13)
  • A.J. Brown, 10.12 (ADP 2.10)

Brown might provide the single most keeper value this year, so he's clearly the centerpiece of Ed's pre-draft roster. But Davis provides solid value himself; he might be a tier or two below the top RBs, but is still expected to get plenty of volume in Atlanta.

Dave

  • CeeDee Lamb, 6.13 (ADP 3.04)
  • Chase Claypool, 9.02 (ADP 6.01)

Dave definitely gets the award for Most Improved Keepers from 2020. He's getting three rounds of ADP value for each of his second-year WR keepers.

The Draft

Time and Place

Don't forget, the draft is coming Saturday, August 28, at 4PM at Babel's house (595 Chateaux Bourne, Barrington, IL). As an added bonus, I have a Blingaleague trivia quiz prepared for fun.

Order

  1. Rabbit
  2. Dave
  3. Ed
  4. Schertz
  5. Mike R.
  6. Pat
  7. Scott
  8. Richie
  9. Rob
  10. Derrek
  11. Pulley
  12. Babel
  13. Matt
  14. Kevin

Closing Thoughts

Thank you everyone for sharing your thoughts on our schedule dilemma. I apologize for waiting to address this for so long, and I appreciate that everyone who raised it to me did so in a very professional way.

Can't wait to see you all soon!