Greg & Tom's FSTA Experts League Team

[The Franchise]

Henry, this is a live league so it will be played out with FAAB and all that during the year. Rick Wolf and Glenn Colton won the league last year.

Greg and I talked yesterday on our show that in hindsight it's possible we may have gone with Ball over MJD. I don't think Ball has MJD's upside, though, and as we said on the air you need to be aggressive to win this type of league. MJD is an aggressive play-to-win pick in my estimation.

Dez and Jones are coin flips for me. I have them and Demaryius Thomas ranked almost equally. Greg and I like Jones a little more so we went in that direction. But it easily could've been Dez there at that spot.

Funny, I think it can also be looked at as a play-to-lose pick. Coming off Lisfranc surgery, a messy offseason and with a new coaching staff that will be running a zone-blocking scheme which will be new for MJD . I would say there is more downside with him than upside.

[Tom Kessenich]

I disagree Nelson. He's in a contract year, he's one of the most talented RBs in the league and the Jags have very little on offense other than him really so he should get plenty of volume as both a runner and receiver. It all comes down to health and there's no denying the risk there. But at that point of the draft it was either make the aggressive play with a proven RB1 who would be our RB2 or go with a rookie like Ball who's very enticing but is still a rookie and has some competition (albeit not significant) for touches in Hillman. We definitely are aware of the risk but if MJD is healthy we now have a potential Top 5-10 RB who we grabbed in the fourth round. That's crazy value. We could've gone with someone like Ball and played it more safely and in retrospect maybe we should have. But we made the aggressive play to pursue the proven upside.

[The Franchise]

I can understand the value part of it. End of 3rd/early 4th is great. MJD keeps reminding me of DMC 2012

[Tom Kessenich]

I can understand the value part of it. End of 3rd/early 4th is great. MJD keeps reminding me of DMC 2012

That could happen. We definitely knew the risk but at that point in the draft there was no other RB with his proven upside. We were willing to roll the dice while acknowledging the risk involved.

[David U Kennedy]

I disagree Nelson. He's in a contract year, he's one of the most talented RBs in the league and the Jags have very little on offense other than him really so he should get plenty of volume as both a runner and receiver. It all comes down to health and there's no denying the risk there. But at that point of the draft it was either make the aggressive play with a proven RB1 who would be our RB2 or go with a rookie like Ball who's very enticing but is still a rookie and has some competition (albeit not significant) for touches in Hillman. We definitely are aware of the risk but if MJD is healthy we now have a potential Top 5-10 RB who we grabbed in the fourth round. That's crazy value. We could've gone with someone like Ball and played it more safely and in retrospect maybe we should have. But we made the aggressive play to pursue the proven upside.

I don't agree with the statement the Jags have very little offensive talent. Blackmon and Shorts appear to be emerging stars at wide receiver. I'm also hearing how Denard Robinson is going to be a slash type player for the offense. I do agree the QBs stink though. I would say the risk out weighs the reward this year for MJD but its a shot at something big.

[Tom Kessenich]

I like Shorts a lot. Blackmon has fine talent but is clearly a knucklehead. We'll see about Robinson. I think the Jags with a healthy MJD have one of the worst groups of skill position players in the league. Without him, it's wretched. That's why if MJD is healthy I would expect him to receive plenty of volume as usual. The Jags simply can't afford to waste snaps on lesser talents if they have a serious intention of trying to win football games.

[Greg Ambrosius]

Here is a link to the draft board

http://widereceiver.rtsports.com/footba ... all&CONF=0

As much as this is our team in this league, this really was the NFFC's team. Tom and I used the NFFC's ADP list on the day of this draft and really went off that list, while obviously making the choices when our turn was up. I think some owners wish they had our lists last Wednesday!!

Since this league didn't use 3RR, it made it tougher to go WR-WR to start out. Trust us, we thought about it and starting with Julio and Dez Bryant could have worked. I like Chris Liss's team that started AJ Green/Dez. We just thought it would be very tough to get two quality RBs after that. As it worked out, we could have gone with MJD/Montee Ball at the turn and been very happy. Live and learn.

We liked the Julio/Alfred Morris start, although some folks feel like we should have taken Dez Bryant over Julio. That's a viable criticism, but both WRs should be solid this year. Some folks also feel that MJD is too risky, but his ADP in the NFFC right now is 23 and we got him at 43. In three months, we'll all know how healthy he is, but when you draft in June you take some gambles and this seemed like a good one. But should we have taken Ball ahead of MJD? That's another fair criticism.

I'm glad we took a QB at the 5/6 turn and Ryan's ADP in the NFFC is 48 and we got him at pick 70. Tom loves the upside of Miles Austin. We could have taken Tony Gonzalez there, but TEs are deep. After that I think the NFFC ADPs again helped when players like Isiah Pead, Santonio Holmes, Dustin Keller and Dexter McCluster fell too low. We were happy with all of them. Our depth isn't bad for a league that drafts only 16 players.

It was a fun draft and I think some owners were less ready for football than others. We were ready thanks to our early NFFC drafts and the work we're doing now on the Beckett Fantasy Football magazine. I think we have a competitive team, but good health is the key. If MJD rebounds, we could be among the elites in late December.

[Henry Muto]

I take it your using RTS high stakes rules which only starts 2 WRs and 9 total starters (1 QB, 2 RB, 2 WR, 1 TE, 1 flex, 1 K, 1 DF) since there are only 16 rounds. I don't like 16 roster spots and only 9 starters which is why I don't play their high stakes leagues. I don't understand why they don't go 20 roster spots and 10 starters like everyone else. With only having to start 2 WR's it makes it more important to grab RB's in this format and all those deep WR's go to waste.
Though for 14 teams it helps everyone out only having to start 2.

[Tom Kessenich]

Starting lineup is the same as the NFFC:

QB
2 RBs
3 WRs
Flex
TE
D
K

Barring injury, our starting lineup for Week 1 will likely be:

QB-Ryan
RB-Morris
RB-MJD
WR-Jones
WR-VJax
WR-Austin
FL-Moore
TE-Daniels
K-Tucker
D-Seattle

[Henry Muto]

So only 16 roster spots and 10 starters ?