The Drafting Poll

[DMD]

This is an interesting question.

 

Consider everyone has a cheatsheet at a draft with an ordered ranking of players. At what point do you deviate from your cheatsheet to take a player that is not the highest ranked available player in that position? When do you find yourself skipping over higher ranked names and drafting a (assumedly) slightly lower ranked player?

 

Just wondered. There are a lot of considerations with drafting a player beyond where they are merely ranked and in many cases, players in a tier may seem rather equivalent to you but one lower one may stand out more. It would seem plausible that the more experienced you are, the more likely you might deviate and the more inexperienced you are, the more you would stick with the strictly ordered rankings.

 

What d'ya do usually?

[Goopster24]

I voted for 4th-5th round and I was gonna say that could stretch to the 3rd round. I didn't even see the last option that "I can deviate anytime I want." I was gonna say that is pretty true; that even with cheatsheats, when I get in certain situations, I tend to look at every player and start going down the list a little bit just to see what is available and how it could help my team.

[keggerz]

When in doubt DRAFT WRs

 

in all seriousness I use a modified VBD so many times I am probably passing on guys that are ranked higher on my cheats....just look to Mock 2...I did it in ROUND ONE ...I definately had some RBs ranked higher then Steve Smith but he was the pick

Edited June 23, 2006 by keggerz

[Savage Beatings]

Rankings are a great guideline for me, but even in round 1, I will deviate if I have a strong gut feeling (whether positive or negative) on a certain player (in direct contrast to how they are ranked). I've had enourmous success following my instincts on one or a couple of players each year.

[Return Of S&B]

Rankings are only guidelines to me as well. A lot depends on my competition and who they take (or dont take). If I'm drafting at the bottom of the first and 9-10 RBs go and an RB I had rated as the next best available player is next, I may opt to draft the highest rated WR and on the swing draft the best RB available then.

 

I always go in with a list and a strategy but normally deviate a bit from it at one point or another during the draft because drafts are never completely predictable.

[rattsass]

Rankings are a great guideline for me, but even in round 1, I will deviate if I have a strong gut feeling (whether positive or negative) on a certain player (in direct contrast to how they are ranked). I've had enourmous success following my instincts on one or a couple of players each year.

 

 

I agree with this, its all about instincts. I have no set point at which I deviate from a ranking. But when the moment comes, you have to know it. I targeted Steve Smith in all my drafts last season. My instincts told me I would get him much cheaper than his actual "value position." But I found myself gambling that he would make it around to me just one more time a few too many times, and I only ended up drafting him on one team. This would be an example of good instincts, yet bad judgement by assuming I would be able to get him where the consensus seemed likely to take him.

 

It all comes down to how strong a feeling you have with a player, and at what point you can safely grab him into your clutches. And that can come at any time in the draft. People get too hung up on following their cheatsheets religiously. I always have a few sleepers that I try to make it a point to get, even if the price seems a little high.

[Hat Trick]

I can change plans at any time during the draft. Just cause I have a person ranked where I do I may not really like said player or have a greater need in another area. In the first couple rounds I may not get the player or playerrs I want and that can change my mindset real quick as well. I may have Edge ranked at 6 and he's there when i pick at 6, but I decide he's a player I'd like to avoid so I go with a different player. you get the jist of it.

[Caveman_Nick]

Rankings change during a draft based on what you have on your team and what other players have on their team.

 

The first 2 rounds are locks. I try very hard not to rank a player in a spot when I would look further down in the rankings to see who was available.

 

In the third round, well, who I take depends on who I took in the first 2, as wella s the scoring and line-up rules. If I have 2 RBs, can only start 2, but see that a player I had ranked many spots higher is still available, I might grab him. That also depends on your draft spot. Having 12,13,36,37 is enormously different in terms of how you look at your rankings than having the 7,18,31, 42 picks.

 

I try never to miss a draft, because it's a very live thing. You have to be able to adjust to what the other people are doing at any time.

[Caveman_Nick]

Rankings are a great guideline for me, but even in round 1, I will deviate if I have a strong gut feeling (whether positive or negative) on a certain player (in direct contrast to how they are ranked). I've had enourmous success following my instincts on one or a couple of players each year.

 

 

 

Why would you have a player ranked at say #4 if you were going to take the person you had ranked number 6? Shouldn't that player be ranked 4 in that case?

 

I can see this for people that use canned rankings, but I am assuming that most vets only use published rankings as a player list and have taken those rankings and applied their own ideas to them...

[Savage Beatings]

Why would you have a player ranked at say #4 if you were going to take the person you had ranked number 6? Shouldn't that player be ranked 4 in that case?

 

I can see this for people that use canned rankings, but I am assuming that most vets only use published rankings as a player list and have taken those rankings and applied their own ideas to them...

 

 

 

I basically just print out the Huddle's rankings, and then make adjustments in my head as to how I would rank the players personally. I assumed that this "adjustment" was basically what DMD was talking about here... maybe not though.

 

Let's say that I think Lamont Jordan should be ranked #4 this year... I'm not going to print my own spreadhseet with him at the #4 spot... I just know in my head that that's where I like him (or maybe I'll place a little tick mark or asterik by that player's name on my list). If someone is hawking on my list, I want them to see how somebody else ranks the players, not how I rank them.

[MikesVikes]

I'm not structured enough to keep a list and not deviate from it. I keep my options open right up to the moment I blurt out the name of a player.

 

For an on-line draft, I normally pre-select my next selection so I don't change there as much.

Edited June 23, 2006 by MikesVikes

[cmutts]

If you look at the draft this year, basicly everyone agrees that in some order LJ/SA/LT2 will be picked top 3. I think the deviation begins with the 4th pick.

[YoungBob]

I agree with much of what has been said already. I have my cheat sheet in front of me but, with almost every draft that goes by, find myself taking a lower ranked player. Many times it will have to do with the bye weeks of previously drafted players or not wanting to load up on too many players from the same team. I do remember one season, however, when I took a lower ranked WR to tweak our league's defending champion who had the QB from that team. The drop was only a slot or two, but this guy was my rival and I knew it would kill him to have his QB throwing TD's to my receiver.