Four Fantasy Drafts Scatter Panthers Players
/In the C3FF league, each of four sub-leagues has an identical draft. It's the Humans that make everything go all crazy-silly! All one has to do is look at where we, a huge group of Carolina Homers, drafted them to see how emotion or just plain fun's sake affects the draft.
Below, I've listed each draft and the names, rounds, and overall choices of all Carolina Panthers that were drafted. The results were surprisingly varied:
MINTER
Newton 1 (2)
Kelvin Benjamin 3 (30)
J-Stew 4 (39)
Olsen 4 (30)
Funchess 8 (88)
D/ST 8 (90)
Gano 10 (113)
Ginn 10 (118)
Commish's thoughts: #2 overall for Cam? Maybe. But that puts you a round behind for all the other players, but Cam's high ceiling could make him worthy of the gamble. Greg Olsen went at least a round too early. Gano might've been able to be had 2 rounds later, but the Homerism makes things iffy.
MILLS
Newton 1 (6)
Olsen 2 (17)
Benjamin 3 (28)
J-Stew 3 (32)
Funchess 4 (43)
Gano 7 (73)
Ginn 12 (137)
Cameron Artis-Payne 12 (141)
Commish's thoughts: Olsen went WAY too high. Kelvin probably a bit high also. Funchess has good upside, but not 4th-round upside in their offense. Gano went WAY too soon. The "CA-P that stands for the anthem" could have been picked up on the waiver wire.
RUCKER
Newton 2 (23)
Olsen 3 (27)
Benjamin 3 (32)
Stewie 3 (36)
D/ST 6(71)
Funches 8 (88)
Gano 13 (146)
Commish's thoughts: Mel Mayock got a very nice value nabbing Cam at the end of the 2nd round. Olsen went too high AGAIN. Benji/Stewie are fine but not a value pick in the 3rd round. 6th is too high for D/ST to be drafted; that's where you draft flex starters and/or backfill positions you passed on earlier due to value. Funch in the 8th is a nice pick. Gano in 13th is fine.
MUHAMMED
Newton 1 (5)
Stewie 2 (23)
Funchess 3 (26)
Olsen 4 (37)
Benjamin 5 (49)
D/ST 7 (74)
Gano 11 (122)
Ginn 13 (154)
Commish's thoughts: Stewie went probably 1-2 rounds too high with his injury history, although he was healthy almost all of last season. Funchess in the 3rd before Kelvin is an absurdly poor value choice, but I believe Funchess could well have about equal fantasy value to Kelvin. Olsen in the 4th, again, is early. Kelvin in the 5th is about right, and the D/ST in round 7 is also a bit early.
OVERALL
I see Funchess was drafted well too early in a couple of drafts but the other got it right when he went in the 8th round. With Cam's rushing and passing combined, he should be the NFL's QB1 in fantasy land over the season unless AR-12 tosses 50 TD passes and like -8 interceptions. He might even get a rollout TD run once or twice, as he's quite more mobile than many think, but CaMVP taken early on makes sense if you are confident of coming back to flesh out your starters.
I also kept seeing Greg Olsen being drafted TOO EARLY folks. 5th round at the very earliest, 6th he starts to become a slight value. Even though Olsen's a top-three fantasy TE, mainly due to receptions alone, there shouldn't be a huge gap in FP between Olsen and the TE4 or TE5.
The defense/special teams units just don't carry a ton of scoring power unless they pitch a shutout and/or hold their opponent to under 100 yards of total offense. That's the reward for a dominant game, but the thing is, those almost never happen. What's more realistic is getting points off of pick-sixes or other TD returns that DO occur. The problem is that they are random and can't be counted upon. Carolina did have the top turnover margin in the NFL last year with an absurd +31 or some-odd, so at least the squad is opportunistic.
WHAT TO TAKE AWAY FROM THIS
While I figured some "Homerism" would factor in, which clearly it did, the fact that Funchess went so high in a couple of the drafts tells me that my own thoughts of Funchess "making the leap" this year aren't limited to myself. Others saw it and someone drafting in a couple of drafts wanted to make sure they got him because of it.
Again, the problem is not drafting for value. I harp on that point in every draft. If you don't get good value, you won't be winning the league and likely will be out of things before we hit mid-seasons.
The other thing is I'm not so sure people fully understand the scoring system. People see the rules and go Aha! PPR.
Well...yes & no.
It's a half-PPR league where RBs also get points for carries. 5 carries = 1 point where 2 receptions does the same thing. So, 10 receptions nets 5 FP alone (not considering yardage) while 25 carries also nets 5 FP alone.
That affected my draft strategy, as I took 3 RBs in my 1st 4 choices. In taking Lamar Miller, Latavius Murray and Matt Forte, I (hopefully) took three of the more busy RBs in the league. Forte is especially well-rounded, gets receptions, and is with a new team that really wanted him. Same with Lamar Miller, who has finished in the top-ten in FP the last 2 years running despite only getting about 13 carries a game (!!) He should about double that in Houston's ground game as they want to win with their awesome D-line & ground game with Osweiller throwing to DeAndre Hopkins and to a lesser extent this year, to rookie WR Will Fuller.
At least my "mock drafts" I participated in before the real one helped me understand who was going where. The Homerism skewed it, as I figured it would, but the draft experience was about how I expected it to go. Sure, there were a few surprises...but aren't there always?
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