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We basically have nine months to answer this question above. For those of you who don't play fantasy baseball to bide your time between football seasons, I expect you to have this answer solved by September of 2012!!

Seriously, what is the winning formula in the NFFC? Is it picking a top QB in the first round like some have suggested because of the 6 points per passing touchdown? Is it landing a top QB in the 2nd and 3rd round to go with a solid first round pick? Is it drafting 3 WRs in the first 3 rounds like Tom Yates did in winning the 2009 Classic and Michael Treffiletti did in winning the 2011 Classic? Is it finding TE value later like many teams did this year with Jimmy Graham and Rob Gronkowski?

Or is it all of those things? There has to be some type of winning formula we can learn from in 2011, right?

Well, maybe not. I have already posted our three NFFC champions' drafts and every one is different. Only one team took a QB in the first two rounds (John Rundle's Online Championship team got Rodgers at pick 20). One got a top QB late (Dave Clum's Primetime Championship team got Drew Brees in the 4th round). And one had an okay QB (Tony Romo) who scored 0 points in Week 16 and he still won $100,000 (Michael Treffiletti in the Classic).

Some had a stud RB (Clum = Arian Foster; Rundle = LeSean McCoy). Some had stud WRs (Treffiletti took Fitzgerald, Jennings and Welker). All seemed to find bargains at TE later in the draft (Rob Gronkowski and Jimmy Graham).

Here's a look at the three championship rosters and if you can find some keys to success, let us know. We have nine months to figure out how these three owners did it and nine months to figure out how all of us can duplicate what they just did.

Michael Treffiletti's NFFC Classic Championship Team:
Round 1: Larry Fitzgerald
Round 2: Greg Jennings
Round 3: Wes Welker
Round 4: DeAngelo Williams
Round 5: Tony Romo
Round 6: Vernon Davis
Round 7: Brandon Jacobs
Round 8: Rob Gronkowski
Round 9: Sam Bradford
Round 10: Darren Sproles
Round 11: Earl Bennett
Round 12: Philadelphia D
Round 13: LaRod Stephens-Howling
Round 14: Mike Goodson
Round 15: Dexter McCluster
Round 16: Donnie Avery
Round 17: Julian Edelman
Round 18: Rob Bironas
Round 19: Early Doucet

Dave Clum's Primetime Championship Team:
Round 1: Arian Foster
Round 2: Darren McFadden
Round 3: Reggie Wayne
Round 4: Drew Brees
Round 5: Jeremy Maclin
Round 6: Julio Jones
Round 7: Marshawn Lynch
Round 8: Jordy Nelson
Round 9: Mike Williams
Round 10: Jacoby Ford
Round 11: Joe Flacco
Round 12: Darren Sproles
Round 13: Jermaine Gresham
Round 14: Javon Ringer
Round 15: Chicago D
Round 16: Jerome Simpson
Round 17: Ed Dickson
Round 18: Neil Rackers
Round 19: Steve Slaton
Round 20: Donald Jones

John Rundle's NFFC Online Championship 1st Place Team:
Round 1: LeSean McCoy
2. Aaron Rodgers
3. Wes Welker
4. Felix Jones
5. Percy Harvin
6. Reggie Bush
7. Julio Jones
8. Jimmy Graham
9. Jacoby Ford
10. Greg Little
11. Rob Gronkowski
12. Brandon Gibson
13. Ronnie Brown
14. Montario Hardesty
15. Philadelphia D
16. DeMarco Murray
17. Chad Henne
18. Jason Avant
19. Matt Bryant
20. Donnie Avery

Well finding 2 players round 8 onwards who massively out produce expectations certainly help...

in the 3 teams above you have

rnd 8 - gronk
rnd 10 - sproles

rnd 8 - nelson
rnd 12 - sproles

rnd 8 - graham
rnd 11 - gronkowski

Well, last year it was possible to pick the PERFECT NFFC TEAM. I don't know if we'll ever see that again, but in 2011 it was possible to pick the top player at every position. Here's how:

With a middle round pick, you could have gotten:

Top RB in 1st: Ray Rice 305.9 points or LeSean McCoy 305.4 points

Top QB in 2nd: Aaron Rodgers at 539.8 or even Drew Brees at 504.4

Top WR: Wes Welker in 3rd at 324.8 points
Steve Smith at WR2 (he finished 5th in WR scoring at 246.3)
Victor Cruz in FAAB for WR3 (he finished 4th in WR scoring at 259.1)

Top TE and Flex: Rob Gronkowski at 300.1 points
Jimmy Graham at 271.3 points

Top D: San Francisco with 183 points

Top K: David Akers at 186.4 points

RB2 could have been Marshawn Lynch, Reggie Buch or Darren Sproles, all at 220-200 points.

Now that's one helluva lineup and one that could have happened. Amazing, isn't it?

[ December 28, 2011, 10:40 AM: Message edited by: Greg Ambrosius ]

Good stuff Greg. Shows you can build a team any number of ways and with any number of players. Pick good players and hope they have good years. To me, the fantasy player of the year was Wes Welker. 2 of the 3 teams shown had him on their roster, you could get him in the 3rd round and he gave numbers worthy of the first overall pick. I would not be surprised to see Rodgers or Brees go # 1 overall next year, based on this year's great acoomplishments. We'll see what happens.....

Originally posted by Greg Ambrosius:
We basically have nine months to answer this question above. For those of you who don't play fantasy baseball to bide your time between football seasons, I expect you to have this answer solved by September of 2012!!

Seriously, what is the winning formula in the NFFC? Is it picking a top QB in the first round like some have suggested because of the 6 points per passing touchdown? Is it landing a top QB in the 2nd and 3rd round to go with a solid first round pick? Is it drafting 3 WRs in the first 3 rounds like Tom Yates did in winning the 2009 Classic and Michael Treffiletti did in winning the 2011 Classic? Is it finding TE value later like many teams did this year with Jimmy Graham and Rob Gronkowski?

Or is it all of those things? There has to be some type of winning formula we can learn from in 2011, right?

Well, maybe not. I have already posted our three NFFC champions' drafts and every one is different. Only one team took a QB in the first two rounds (John Rundle's Online Championship team got Rodgers at pick 20). One got a top QB late (Dave Clum's Primetime Championship team got Drew Brees in the 4th round). And one had an okay QB (Tony Romo) who scored 0 points in Week 16 and he still won $100,000 (Michael Treffiletti in the Classic).

Some had a stud RB (Clum = Arian Foster; Rundle = LeSean McCoy). Some had stud WRs (Treffiletti took Fitzgerald, Jennings and Welker). All seemed to find bargains at TE later in the draft (Rob Gronkowski and Jimmy Graham).

Here's a look at the three championship rosters and if you can find some keys to success, let us know. We have nine months to figure out how these three owners did it and nine months to figure out how all of us can duplicate what they just did.

Michael Treffiletti's NFFC Classic Championship Team:
Round 1: Larry Fitzgerald
Round 2: Greg Jennings
Round 3: Wes Welker
Round 4: DeAngelo Williams
Round 5: Tony Romo
Round 6: Vernon Davis
Round 7: Brandon Jacobs
Round 8: Rob Gronkowski
Round 9: Sam Bradford
Round 10: Darren Sproles
Round 11: Earl Bennett
Round 12: Philadelphia D
Round 13: LaRod Stephens-Howling
Round 14: Mike Goodson
Round 15: Dexter McCluster
Round 16: Donnie Avery
Round 17: Julian Edelman
Round 18: Rob Bironas
Round 19: Early Doucet

Dave Clum's Primetime Championship Team:
Round 1: Arian Foster
Round 2: Darren McFadden
Round 3: Reggie Wayne
Round 4: Drew Brees
Round 5: Jeremy Maclin
Round 6: Julio Jones
Round 7: Marshawn Lynch
Round 8: Jordy Nelson
Round 9: Mike Williams
Round 10: Jacoby Ford
Round 11: Joe Flacco
Round 12: Darren Sproles
Round 13: Jermaine Gresham
Round 14: Javon Ringer
Round 15: Chicago D
Round 16: Jerome Simpson
Round 17: Ed Dickson
Round 18: Neil Rackers
Round 19: Steve Slaton
Round 20: Donald Jones
Congrats to both of these teams who had Darren Sproles which was obviously a HUGE key to their success.

Just for curiousity's sake, when were each of these teams drafted......before or after the Thursday night game between New Orleans and Green Bay?

Both Mike and Dave drafted those teams before the first game. Mike drafted his Classic team in New York while Dave drafted his Primetime team in Chicago.

Originally posted by mattjb:
Well finding 2 players round 8 onwards who massively out produce expectations certainly help...

in the 3 teams above you have

rnd 8 - gronk
rnd 10 - sproles

rnd 8 - nelson
rnd 12 - sproles

rnd 8 - graham
rnd 11 - gronkowski This combined with reasonable production and health from your top 5ish picks is the recipe for NFFC glory.

The beauty of the NFFC (which I believe Greg was trying to highlight in a subtle way) is that there is no obvious way to build a winning team. As proven by 3 championship teams that went 3 different directions with their top 3 pics with wr-wr-wr, rb-rb-wr, rb-qb-wr.

Thank you KDS and 3RR....

[ December 28, 2011, 03:00 PM: Message edited by: renman ]

Originally posted by renman:
quote:Originally posted by mattjb:
Well finding 2 players round 8 onwards who massively out produce expectations certainly help...

in the 3 teams above you have

rnd 8 - gronk
rnd 10 - sproles

rnd 8 - nelson
rnd 12 - sproles

rnd 8 - graham
rnd 11 - gronkowski This combined with reasonable production and health from your top 5ish picks is the recipe for NFFC glory.

The beauty of the NFFC (which I believe Greg was trying to highlight in a subtle way) is that there is no obvious way to build a winning team. As proven by 3 championship teams that went 3 different directions with their top 3 pics with wr-wr-wr, rb-rb-wr, rb-qb-wr.

Thank you KDS and 3RR.... [/QUOTE]That's really the take home message here.

Originally posted by Tom Kessenich:
Both Mike and Dave drafted those teams before the first game. Mike drafted his Classic team in New York while Dave drafted his Primetime team in Chicago. It's interesting to note that some folks felt those owners who drafted on the second weekend would have the advantage because they saw the results of the Thursday Night Game, when in fact there were advantages for all owners. Those owners who drafted on the first weekend got Sproles cheaper and probably Brees cheaper. They even got production out of Marques Colston, even though he slid on the second weekend because of his injury on Monday Night. Jordy Nelson also saw his stock rise that second weekend after catching six balls and scoring one TD on Thursday Night. First weekend drafters likely got him on the cheap.

This was a year where we really pushed the second weekend events hard late in the off-season because of what we saw coming from the WCOFF. Next year we'll have the majority of our live events scheduled for that second weekend. But the data shows that not everyone can make every event for that weekend, so scheduling drafts and auctions for that first weekend still makes sense and we'll do it. Now we all can see that there really aren't any advantages either weekend. It still comes down to evaluating talent with the data and information you have in front of you at the time of your draft. After that, we just let them play and take the results they earn for us.

I think one thing to learn is you do not need the perfect draft to win.I was thrilled to get Mcfadden where I did in the 2nd round.He has been day to day since october.I really hated it when Welker went the pick before me in the 3rd.But,with the strong close Lynch had I had the depth at Rb,and WR to overcome.I still remember right after the draft I called Bill Strickler and read my draft off to him and he said"Dave,they can give you the check now".I am sure he was being nice.But,great call Bill.

[ December 28, 2011, 05:47 PM: Message edited by: DiamondKing ]