re: **Live Draft** Live Slow Draft on TigerDroppings - comments welcome

Brenton Strange!

LMAO

I would have zero confidence that James is actually a handcuff.

Special thanks to BhamTigah for organizing this. Giving us something fun to do in July.



A few draft trends stood out. Running backs were heavily prioritized early, creating opportunities for value at wide receiver in the first several rounds. Later in the draft, quarterbacks and tight ends came off the board more frequently than expected for a one-QB, one-TE format, with several teams selecting backups at both positions. The room also leaned toward younger players and upside, particularly rookie running backs and receivers, while several established veterans remained available well into the later rounds.

Overall, it was a competitive draft with a variety of roster-building strategies. Some managers emphasized positional depth early, while others stayed focused on overall player value regardless of position. It'll be interesting to see which approach proves most successful over the course of the season.

I really struggled between taking Taylor and CMC but figured Lamb was the better choice given this format. I was hoping to get Brown or Hampton in the second round and that surprised me where they went. Drafting in the middle like that is tougher than early on this year. It seems.

Appreciate it Nole Man. It was fun and at least gave me some indication where players are valued. I guess that's especially helpful since I have several drafts involving most of the people in this draft.

There was a little confusion toward the end with listing picks in order on here. After Stupak picked Tre Tucker, Nole Man picked Brenton Strange at 14.06.

I took Keenan Allen with hopes he'll be signed somewhere. He's a PPR monster when playing and as a big-bodied possession receiver, I feel like father time is less impactful than with other playing styles. I would love to see my Commanders bring him in to give Jayden a nice security blanket with Ertz gone.



After my pick, we closed out the draft with:
14.8 LSUSW (TheWalrus) - Malik Washington
14.9 sainttigerpel - Jerry Jeudy
14.10 lsulunatik - Jordan James
14.11 AURX - Baker Mayfield
14.12 CEtiger - Greg Dulcich

Appreciate all of those who participated. The original plan was to do this in early August when there was more traffic on the board. Some folks got the draft bug, so we started early, and eventually the draft and much of the chatter moved to Sleeper. Hopefully, this can still be helpful once people start coming to the board. Feel free to comment as I'm sure folks from the draft will be popping back in occasionally to defend themselves. Just keep in mind that we did this from July 21st to July 25th, so we may not have had the same information you will be criticizing us with.

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Drafting in the middle like that is tougher than early on this year.

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Every 12-team mock I've done favored the 1 spot and this draft confirmed it. The draft fell into CETiger's lap the entire time. That is not a shot at CE. He did what he should have done and IMO he has by far the best team. He did a few things differently than I would have (a little early on Caleb Williams), but overall, he seemed to have 2 obvious (last in a tier) players at every turn.

I come out of most drafts thinking I have the best team (after all, I drafted them). I don't feel that way at all in this one. I don't think I made any bad picks, but just struggled at every pick.

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The original plan was to do this in early August when there was more traffic on the board. Some folks got the draft bug, so we started early,

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Really glad that we did it this way. Funny how it seems to have gone so much differently than we all planned for. Now we get to go into August already with that information.

I get what you're saying. I think the 1 spot was probably the easiest place to draft this year. You're usually picking at or near the top of every tier, and CE took advantage of that and has a great team. Landing Gibbs at 1.01 and then still getting A.J. Brown at 3.1 gave CE one of the strongest starts in the league. To me, A.J. Brown at 3.1 was the best pick. In a full-PPR, two-FLEX league, landing a player with first-round upside at the end of the second round is what really separated his roster. CE’s Patrick Mahomes at 12.12 (144th overall) was a value if you wanted to take a 2nd QB. His starting lineup is elite, but his depth is thinner than it appears—particularly if Gibbs, Brown, or Henry miss time.

That said, there were also several teams that came away with championship-caliber rosters as well.

I also don't think your draft looked like a struggle. Drafting from the middle is tougher because you're constantly reacting to runs and tier breaks instead of controlling them. Even so, you landed a lot of value with London, Kyren, Watson, Corum, Golden, and Goedert.

To me, the biggest story of this draft wasn't the 1.01—it was how the room pushed RBs early, quarterbacks a little earlier than expected, and let quality WR value fall into the middle rounds. That's why I think this league is a lot closer than it looks today.

I think that's a big part of it. The first couple of rounds were really RB-heavy, so by the time you started WR/WR with ARSB and London, it almost forced you to chase RBs for roster balance. The funny part is the room kept pushing RBs up, so quality WRs kept falling into the middle rounds. You were drafting more for positional need while some of us were able to keep taking the best value on the board. That's just how this room unfolded.

PS: Page 1 Update

Sleeper board (official)
2.12 Derrick Henry
3.01 A.J. Brown