Many of you drafted this past weekend, and many more will be drafting in the coming weeks. If you've just been through the gauntlet of drafting under extreme pressure (because this page isn't for the nonchalant), you might have encountered a moment of doubt -- when it was your turn, and you weren't sure who to take, and the clock was ticking, and the stress crept in, and you realized making the *perfect* decision had to take a backseat to simply making a decision.
If you encountered that moment, let's hear about it. Which round? Who'd you take, and who do you *wish* you'd taken if you'd only had more time?
As cool/calm as I try to be, that moment often hits me in a middle round. Last summer it was Treylon Burks in (I think) the ninth round. The year before, it was Nyheim Hines and Michael Gallup in rounds 8 and 9. The year before that, Marquez Callaway in round 8. The year before that, Kerryon Johnson in round 7.
There's an obvious pattern here. My first few rounds are generally pretty tight, as I imagine they are for most of you. Snagging elite / near-elite talent isn't difficult with so many great players available. Things get much harder when teams' #1 RBs and #1 WRs are off the board, often beginning in roughly the seventh round. Do we go with a split-backfield RB like Chase Brown? Should we lean into a team's #2 WR like Jordan Addison? Are we more confident about 32-year-old DeAndre Hopkins (overall-98 ADP) or potential Year 2 breakout Jaxon Smith-Njigba (overall-100 ADP)?
Or is this the moment to claim a top 6-8 QB or top 5-7 TE? Is there enough of a competitive advantage going QB or TE, or are we getting comparable value if we keep loading up on RBs and WRs and wait a few more rounds on QB/TE?
Indecision over which must-start player to draft can be annoying. Indecision over which potential streamer to draft can be agonizing. For me, that's the difference. If my near-elite bellcow RB gets knocked out for the season in September, at least I made a sensible pick at the time. But if my supposed fringe starter turns out to be waiver fodder, I'm left wondering what might have been. Because there were probably dozens of very good options at the time, and I "took a chance" on the wrong one.
That action -- taking a chance -- usually begins for me in the middle rounds. Fortunately, it often ends there, as longtime readers know by the time I hit double-digit rounds, it's all about RB handcuffs, which is still "taking a chance," but not in the same way. I want my seventh, eighth, ninth rounders to be fantasy relevant. I *need* them to contribute. RB handcuffs are merely lottery tickets. I only need one to hit big for the entire investment strategy to pay for itself.
So which round scares you the most, and if you recently drafted, who'd you end up with . . . and who do you wish you'd ended up with?
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