Reviewing two FFPC Main Event teams
A look at the boards from two recent Stealing Bananas drafts with Shawn Siegele
One of the things I’ve failed to do enough of this year is review my own drafts, in part because I haven’t had too many, other than some of the fun co-managed ones over on Ship Chasing. Those are typically with several people bringing ideas together, so not always my exact draft plan.
Yesterday, though, Shawn Siegele and I drafted one for Stealing Bananas, that was pretty close to something I’d build on my own. We also did one earlier last week, that I’ll go over second.
If you’re not familiar with the FFPC format, here’s what I wrote in the intro of one of these breakdowns last year:
It’s a TE Premium format, meaning TEs record 1.5 points for each reception, while every other player gets a standard 1 PPR. It’s also a two-Flex format, where you start one QB, two RBs, two WRs, one TE, and then two Flexes, plus a K and DST.
That creates a ton of optionality. Unsurprisingly, I’m often going in with the mindset of treating those Flexes like WR slots to get four WRs into my lineups, to the extent that I’m fine being pretty light even at RB2 and not expecting many circumstances where my RB3 or RB4 could contend to be Flex plays. But that doesn’t mean it never happens for me in these leagues! Part of the whole idea of building late RB depth is it is unequivocally the position where when you hit, it’s most meaningful, and you know the week to use the player because he’s widely projected for a significant touch increase (often because the starter is out).
But setting aside the RB element, the cool part of the FFPC is that while I like to think of the Flex as WR spots, the TE Premium element makes that position very viable there, too.
The optionality is a blast, and something to keep in mind, because with two Flex spots, you could start up to three TEs, which again get the TE Premium scoring. (They call this foreshadowing in the business.)
Before I jump into that, I want to share something fun. Shawn and I are going to be doing an FFPC Draft Marathon on Tuesday, where we will be jumping in a bunch of different drafts starting with their Fantasy Pros Championship at 11 am ET. We’re going to stream the whole thing on the Stealing Signals YouTube channel, so head over to the channel and subscribe if you haven’t yet.
If you find yourself with some free time between 11 am ET and about 7 pm ET Tuesday, come swing by. I just got the event up, so here’s a direct link to where we’ll stream.
Let’s jump into our FFPC Main Event from Saturday, drafted out of the 1.06 slot.
Rounds 1-3
In Round 1, the top five came off the board as expected, and we ran the clock down debated Justin Jefferson, Garrett Wilson, or our pick, Ja’Marr Chase. The two of us got Wilson on a team with Pat and Pete on Ship Chasing Thursday, so we were probably ultimately between Jefferson and Chase. I think both of us probably slightly preferred Jefferson, but we didn’t really force it and went with ADP, because it’s early in draft season and we’ll build a few more teams. As you see, Jefferson fell all the way to 1.09 here, and he’s the one that we’ll have a better shot to get in another draft.
In the second round, we weren’t balancing any exposures. Same as our Wilson draft on Ship Chasing, the Round 2 pick was Trey McBride. Again, it’s TE Premium, so you have to pay up to be in the Elite TE tier. Chris Olave was a solid consideration, but his Week 12 bye matched Chase’s. We’d already taken Cooper Kupp and Deebo Samuel in a draft together.
That last note played into our Round 3 decision. I’ll share the board from Shawn and my first Main Event together below, but Deebo was the Round 3 pick in that one, so we didn’t go back to that well here. Nico Collins was a strong consideration, and he landed on the roster of the team out of the 1.07 draft slot, who proved to be a Stealing Signals-esque drafter with a strong build.
We decided to go Kyren Williams. Intrigued by some recent trends where WRs we like have been falling into Round 9 and even Round 10 on FFPC, we’d discussed the possibility of an early RB detour, and Kyren at 3.06 is certainly a worthwhile gamble.
Rounds 4-7
Part of the reason we passed on Collins was tactical, because the Texans’ WR value is nice into Round 4 and Round 5. After just one WR through three rounds, we got back on the horse, selecting Rashee Rice in Round 4 after Tee Higgins went off just in front of us, and then watching as Tank Dell fell back to us in the fifth round, which got us into a really nice three-WR start despite the stop-offs for McBride and Kyren.
In Round 6, Brock Bowers was available, and Shawn kind of has this rule where he has to take Bowers in every draft. Just kidding, I loved this pick as well in this format; names like Cade Otton and Ben Sinnott went in Round 12 of this draft, so getting Bowers midway through Round 6 in a TE Premium league where TEs eventually become probable reach values is a nice price to secure exposure to a breakout rookie profile. As I noted, there are two Flex spots available, so if Bowers breaks out, it’s not difficult to get two TEs into the lineup. He also provides some cover for if McBride has any issues this year, obviously.
On the way back, Jayden Reed slid, after Jaxon Smith-Njigba and Rome Odunze got wiped out on the turn by another drafter whose roster looked like one I’d mostly rubber stamp. Through seven rounds, we had our Anchor RB and our Elite TE, but we also had four WRs and a TE that is a Flex candidate and more or less another WR when considered that way.