GM Turnover & the Return of In-person Drafts
Welcome all to the 2022 BFFL Season. It is my pleasure to announce that the in-person draft will return this season after a two year hiatus in the COVID era. While COVID is still amongst us, I must reiterate that safety is number one so please exercise caution. If you are at risk or exhibiting symptoms, please take use of the remote drafting provisions we will have this year. In addition to our traditional in-person draft, we will have the option to draft remotely with a link provided to the real-time updating draft board as well as a Zoom meeting into the owner’s meeting. You will receive instructions from the League Manager how to send your official picks in during the draft and will be subject to the same time constraints as the in person drafters. At this time I would like to share the itinerary for draft day, held on Sunday August 28th, 2022.
| Time | Activity |
| 11:00-11:05 AM | Introduction and championship announcement |
| 11:05-11:15 AM | Elections |
| 11:15-12:15 PM | Voting on rules and open floor |
| 12:15-12:20 PM | Envelope selection |
| 12:20-12:55 PM | Break & Lunch (more time allowed if needed for lunch) |
| 1:00-5:00 PM | Draft |
Unfortunately we have lost one of our most tenured and honorable GMs, Ernesto of Ernie’s Rubber Duckies, we welcome the return of one of the cornerstone franchises; the Isla Sorna Raptors and the return of Nick Garrett. I am also happy to announce that one of our newest franchises, the Jedi Knights manned by Ravneet Singh, will welcome a new upcoming and hungry Co-GM Harkirat Hansra who will be at the draft and has expressed interest in joining the league full time in the future. We look forward to welcoming both newcomers to the league as well as seeing some old faces and some GMs who joined us in the COVID era such as Nicholas Henry and Ravneet Singh.
Rules Overview and Proposals
First I want to start with a reminder of future draft pick trading implemented two years ago, but the change is still fresh in our minds and we have not seen an example of it occurring yet. Let’s go straight to the language as passed.
Future Draft Pick Trading
- The deadline to include future draft pick trades in a trade is the end of Week 5.
- If a trade happens during the draft, the draft will be immediately paused for the trade to be reported to the other General Managers and discussed for a time of up to 5 minutes.
- At the end of discussion or the 5 minutes, a vote will be taken of all General Managers and a simple majority is needed to approve the trade.
- If the trade is approved, the trade will need to be submitted to the ALM and next year’s fee must be fully paid by both teams.
- At the end of discussion or the 5 minutes, a vote will be taken of all General Managers and a simple majority is needed to approve the trade.
- If a trade happens after the draft and up to the future draft pick trade deadline, the trade will be subject to an automatic Competition Committee review.
- If the trade is approved, the trade will need to be submitted to the ALM and next year’s fee must be fully paid by both teams.
- Only the next year’s future draft picks can be traded.
- If a Draft Pick is missing in a year due to a Future Draft Pick being traded and ownership of the team has changed (no General Manager from the team that executed the trade can still be a General Manager of that team), the new General Manager will receive an extra draft pick 1 round after the round that they were missing.
- This can only offset two missing draft picks
- A team can only trade two future draft picks each season
- Future draft picks in rounds 1-3 cannot be traded.
I also wanted to take a look at one of the biggest changes this year in the league: the free agent auction bid. This will revolutionize free agency and allow everyone to remain competitive for every free agent available. Now every GM will be assigned a budget of $200. Each week during the waiver period(s) instead of putting in claims for players, you will put in an auction budget. A silent auction will commence where the highest bid will win the player and deduct that money from their budget. Ties for players will be broken by waiver priority, but this is rare. It will be challenging to gauge the value of players so I suggest you all do your research or look at weekly articles with suggested FAAB amounts for free agents, but I imagine this process will be much smoother next year as we get adjusted to player values and assessing other GMs’ strategies over the course of a season. The 20 acquisition maximum does not really make sense for FAAB since the limiting factor is your budget, not the amount of acquisitions, so this will be revisited and discussed on draft day. Some of the key points of the proposal are as follows:
- $0 minimum bid
- $200 budget
- Bids go through Wednesday-Sunday, time as determined by ESPN
- FAAB funds can be traded
- Any ties will be resolved using waiver order
Recently a discussion was held on the official BFFL Slack about the objectivity of the Fantasy Awards, the lack of GM voting, and possibly shifting to a more statistical-based award system. This was an interesting and thought-provoking dialogue that really got me interested in how we could evolve this model away from individual biases and subjectivity to indisputable facts. Now this is not suggesting that subjectivity and GM voting is a bad idea or inherently wrong, and maybe there is room for a compromise of half stat based awards and traditional GM voting. I think two examples of statistical based awards that could be added are:
- Owner of the Year: Now awarded to the highest scoring team of the entire season (total points scored on the whole season).
- GM of the Year: Now awarded to the most efficient GM of the year, the player who made the best start/sit decisions on the year. This would require some calculation as you would have to look at which player maximized the best lineups and calculate the highest ratio of points scored in the starting lineup divided by total points scored in the starting lineup and bench. The highest ratio would give you the most “efficient GM” of the year. In this example I am differentiating the GM award as something that requires actual management and start/sit decisions.
2022 Rookie Previews
Every year a crop of new rookies invigorates both the league and fantasy football drafts with youth, upside and the excitement of the unknown. Recently in fantasy football, rookies at the skill positions have begun to make more of a seamless transition from college to the pros and begun making immediate impact as rookies in fantasy football. While this will never be close to a sure thing and there will always be more busts than hits, still you can look at the staggering number of rookie breakouts in recent years such as Jamar Chase, Justin Jefferson, AJ Brown, Kyler Murray and others and see the value in predicting the ceiling of rookies’ values in fantasy football. Here we will take a look at some of the prominent offensive skills position rookies, their draft capital, landing spot and general profile.
Drake London, 8th overall pick, Atlanta Falcons: The first receiver selected in the 2022 NFL draft lands in a great destination and currently has the highest ADP of all the rookie receivers. London projects as a big body combination of Mike Evans and Keenan Allen and will complement a solid trio of receivers between Kyle Pitts and Calvin Ridley (currently serving a suspension for 2022 but will rejoin the team in 2023 presumably). London left the first preseason game with a knee injury after a nice 24 yard catch and the team will proceed with caution resting him until the regular season.
Garrett Wilson, 10th overall pick, New York Jets: Wilson profiles as one of the best intermediate and deep route runners with ability to create separation and elite ball skills, although he is still raw releasing off the line and needs a little more polish. Second year teammate Elijah Moore will be a much more intriguing option in fantasy this year, but Wilson will draw interest in deeper leagues. This offense will look new with uncertainty around the QB1 Zach Wilson’s injury and the addition of rookies Breece Hall and Garrett Wilson.
Chris Olave, 11th overall pick, New Orleans Saints: The college teammate of Garrett Wilson, Chris Olave, fittingly goes one pick later to a New Orleans Saints team led by QB Jameis Winston and the return of Michael Thomas who has sat out the last two seasons with injuries. Olave provides a deep vertical threat with a great burst of acceleration which will jive with Winston’s strong arm and complement Michael Thomas’ lack of speed. Olave was originally one of my favorite rookie targets in fantasy drafts this season, but his floor can be pretty low with volatile QB play and the return of a target vacuum in Michael Thomas.
Jameson Williams, 12th overall pick, Detroit Lions: During the college football season last year, Williams remained at the top of the big board for receivers all season long until an unfortunate ACL injury which will cause him to miss a significant chunk of this season. Combine that with the landing destination of Detroit and a crowded receiver room and Williams is one of the least desirable rookie receivers but will be a good bench/IR stash for a team that could capitalize on his availability during fantasy playoff time.
Jahan Dotson, 16th overall pick, Washington Commanders: Another bad landing spot for a great talent, Jahan Dotson will be second banana to Terry McLaurin who is projected to have a career year with the best quarterback of his career Carson Wentz. How does Dotson fit into the equation? The Commanders traded up to select Dotson and will look to feature his versatility as a playmaker who excels with yards after the catch.
Treylon Burks, 18th overall pick, Tennessee Titans: Treylon Burks was drafted shortly after AJ Brown was traded away, vacating 105 targets for a number one receiver in Tennessee. His prime competition being a 30 year old Robert Woods coming off an ACL injury makes Burks another desirable draft day rookie target in the same vein as Drake London. It is notable that Treylon Burks’ stock has taken a big hit due to training camp reports and the first preseason game where he did not have a role with the starters and played into the fourth quarter with reserve players. Given the big discrepancy with his draft capital and pre-season hype, this feels a little bit like the Jamar Chase negative buzz last pre-season.
Kenny Pickett, 20th overall pick, Pittsburgh Steelers: Pickett turned heads in his preseason debut with a perfect game winning drive to cap off a great night for the 20th overall pick and first QB off the board. His value is directly tied into the pre-season battle with Mitch Trubisky and Mason Rudolph for the starting QB job in Pittsburgh and even then he will most likely be drafted as a backup QB in fantasy football with the deep pool of QBs drafted ahead of him. Pickett as a prospect offers everything you would want in a prototypical quarterback but as we’ve learned over the years, the quarterback position is much deeper than physical skill set and relies heavily on intangibles such as leadership and drawing penalty flags. As I’m writing this on Wednesday morning on August 17th 2022, it is noted that training camp reports indicate he is practicing with the starters.
Breece Hall, 36th overall pick, New York Jets: One of the most prolific running back prospects in recent history has an interesting landing spot in the New York Jets. Fantasy football prospectors will continue to monitor snap count breakdowns with Michael Carter and Breece Hall. Hall’s physicality and three-down back history project well into handling an NFL workload but Carter’s presence will be difficult to assess the backfield early in the season. Hall has a high ADP where he will look to be an RB2 in fantasy but might take on risk early on, but as the season progresses I can see him emerge as a workhorse back.
George Pickens, 52nd overall pick, Pittsburgh Steelers: The winner of the pre-season hype award is George Pickens who has made electrifying catches, burned defensive backs and looked like the best receiver in the draft class will be one of the biggest draft risers as we move closer to the draft date. At 6’-3” with fantastic hands and great ability to create separation with speed and agility, Pickens will be one of the most anticipated and hyped rookie receivers this season.
Other notable mentions:
- Skyy Moore lands in a top 5 offense (Kansas City) with the best quarterback in the league with a receiver room that just lost Tyreek Hill in the offseason and saw Mecole Hardman carted off practice on 8/17.
- Wan’Dale Robinson is competing against a struggling Kenny Golladay, injury prone Sterling Shepherd and Kadarius Toney and lands with a prolific play caller in Brian Daboll who actually drafted him; Robinson could be a late round gem.
- James Cook lands in the best offense in the league in Buffalo with a stacked receiving room and questionable running back corp that saw Zack Moss healthy scratched early in 2021. The Bills tried to trade for JD McKissic, but as the trade fell through, they found his replacement in Cook. His third down pass catching skillset provides great bench running back value with a solid floor. Not that it matters, but this is Dalvin Cook’s little brother.
- Jalen Tolbert was a third round receiver drafted by the Dallas Cowboys, a team that just lost Amari Cooper in the offseason and will not have Michael Gallup available for the start of the season. By all camp reports, Tolbert looks like the WR2 behind Ceedee Lamb and may be third in line for targets behind Lamb and Dalton Schultz. Dallas was #1 in the league last year in yards gained, so all those fantasy points have to go somewhere.
- Dameon Pierce averaged an impressive 9.8 yards per carry in his Week 1 preseason debut. The Houston Texans running back situation is not a pretty sight and it would be surprising if Pierce does not seize this backfield sooner rather than later.
Thank you all for reading and supporting my content. We will continue weekly updates at this time. As my schedule gets busier and it gets more difficult to find time to write, I will do my best to get the power rankings up at the bare minimum each week. Please let me know if you have any questions or comments or requests for future content.
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