Certainly not the first on this, and certainly won’t be the last, but here are my grades on the S9 NSFL Draft.
Before we begin:
Draft Presentation: A FUCKING PLUS. This was far and away the finest draft stream I have seen in any sim league. I think my favorite part, even though I disagreed with them, were the top 6 remaining players on the bottom. The draft cards were sweet as well, and I will be adding that to my sig. Finally, there was great draft discussion from a combination of NSFL GMs and experts. I absolutely loved it.
1.
Xavier Flash – Possession Wide Receiver. Like many folks, I had thought Bucky Barnes would be #1 overall regardless who had the pick. I’ll talk more about why later. Flash, however, was one of six wide receivers in the draft, though only two (he and Valentine) were really worth a pick. However, given the large number of wide receivers we’ve seen for S10, I think this was a bad choice. Flash was easily the best wide receiver, but he wasn’t the best receiver, and offensive skill positions aren’t as hard to find. If San Jose wasn’t high on Barnes for any reason, they should have shopped a lot harder.
Grade: 4/10
2.
Bucky Barnes – Run Support Safety. A week ago, I might have been a bit lower on this pick. Run Support has been a historically bad archetype. Any player would have been better playing a coverage linebacker. So knowing that he was eventually going to cost a team $4 million or just wouldn’t ever be an elite talent was concerning. However, the recently announced archetype changes makes safeties in general more effective, especially Run Support. The only other player I had viewed as comparable was Declan Harp, who wasn’t as big a need for Arizona.
Grade: 9/10
3.
Marquise Brown – Speed Running Back. This is easily the toughest pick for me to evaluate. Like Barnes, Brown was a teammate, and there was no teammate I spoke to more. This guy is passionate, hardworking, asks for advice. I fully believe the claim that he interviewed very well. However, we are talking about someone 8th overall in TPE, and playing a position shown to not scale very strongly from activity. As with Flash, I think they could have moved down and still had their guy.
Grade: 6/10
4. Kolby Deringer – Balanced Linebacker. Full disclosure, I didn’t have Deringer on my mock, because the people I copied didn’t have him. I didn’t build my own from scratch, just copied what was out there and rearranged them. That led to two major mistakes in my mock (which was pretty bad), both on this pick. The first was not having Deringer 1st round. The second was mocking Declan Harp here despite having been told after a scouting interview that Harp was not going to San Jose. But you keep moving folks around, and you forget why you had certain players where they were. Okay, now for the actual pick. Deringer joined toward the end of the recruiting wave, so the gap between his TPE and that of the other top prospects is pretty misleading. On a TPE per day basis, he is killing it. Linebacker is a vital position, and I am fairly impressed by the user. I don’t think he was the best player available, but I also don’t think they could have safely traded down, either.
Grade: 8/10
5.
Declan Harp – Possession Tight End. I love this pick. All through the DSFL draft the year before, I hated seeing the Marshals pass on this guy, even though they were already loaded at TE. As you can tell by his 2nd overall TPE, the man is legit. Also, I think possession TE is actually my favorite of the position. I can’t say I am amazed that he fell this far, since Barnes and even Deringer, due to positional scarcity, should have been picked before him, and San Jose, who had half the prior picks, was out of the question. However, I do think he is a great value.
Grade: 9/10
6.
Oskar Ludvig – Man to Man Cornerback. First off, thanks to DeathonReddit for bringing up the TPE scandal and providing proof that Ludvig had too much TPE. For those who weren’t aware, there was no cheating, just poor bookkeeping. However, that small amount of lost TPE means that Ludvig, who has become known as the Norwegian Demon, was actually only 13th in TPE instead of 12th. That’s not a huge difference, but at the time of this pick, Ludvig was only the 3rd-highest defender remaining, behind Thibault and Marchand. I think too much was made of his DSFL success, giving the player credit for just benefitting from an amazing pass rush.
Grade: 7/10
7. Alexandre Thibault – Center Fielder Safety. I actually really like this pick. This was the best defender remaining. There were 5 players still on the board ahead of him in TPE, but 2 were running backs, 2 were quarterbacks, and 1 wide receiver. There’s nothing amazing about this pick, but for Colorado’s needs, it was the right pick.
Grade: 8/10
8.
Ricky Adams – Power Running Back. After trading down from 6 to 8, I felt pretty confident that Orange County was going to be drafting me, and I was looking forward to it. There was a rumor that Molarpistols would be willing to switch positions if they drafted me, depriving other teams of a franchise QB. It needs to be stated that Lagerfield had slightly more TPE, and would likely be the better bell-cow, but Adams is a lone talent at fullback. If he is actually willing to play that position, this could be a low-key great pick.
Grade: 7/10
9. Elijah Lagerfield – Speed Running Back. At this point the only realistic options were Lagerfield and Valentine on offense, and Marchand on defense. With the Cats having already picked up a wide receiver with Flash and a linebacker with Deringer, Lagerfield was just the common sense pick at this point. I find it really surprising that that 3 running backs were selected in the top 9, yet I really can’t argue against the pick except maybe a mild preference for Jesse Marchand, who would go on to fall a little further than expected.
Grade: 7/10
10. Kevin Fitzpatrick – Game Manager Quarterback. As I mentioned earlier, I was expecting to go toward the bottom of the first round, but falling out of the first round due to character concerns has become something of a tradition for me. It’s kind of amazing how often it’s happened. In 4 characters across 3 leagues, I have never been drafted single digits. Obviously, this is a great pick for Arizona. Every GM who talked to me knew I liked Fitzpatrick and wanted to see a game manager succeed. That’s a big drive for me. Also, I am #1 in TPE for the draft class (just hit 300 today), so bias aside, this was a huge steal.
Grade: 10/10
11. Zapp Brannigan – Balanced Tight End. The Tightest of Ends. Everyone’s favorite in-character player finally gets picked up, and I actually like him here for basically the same reasons I liked Lagerfield just two picks ago. It will be interesting to see if SJS can figure out how to gameplan with an actual TE, as they are not used to that.
Grade: 7/10
12: Vinny Valentine – Speed Wide Receiver. Flash and Valentine may not have the same archetype, but they have one thing in common: TPE. Somehow, two players at the same position, with the same TPE, were separated by 11 picks. Unbelievable. Unicorn is a former Hawk and all around good guy, so I think this was a great pick, something slm does far too often.
Grade: 9/10
13. Jesse Marchand – Speed Rusher Linebacker. Somehow, despite all four defenders in the first round going above their TPE rank, sometimes significantly above, Marchand went exactly at his rank. Given the relative value of the position, I think that makes this a great value pick. By the way, this is the 5th Marshal drafted so far.
Grade: 8/10
14. Gus T.T. Showbiz – Pocket Passer Quarterback. Going to a team with solid wide receiver talent, I have no doubt that Showbiz will live up to his name. This is a solid QB, and I very much look forward to competing against him. Obviously this is a huge steal, but there was nothing other teams could do to prevent it.
Grade: 10/10
15. Barnaby Earl-Run Stopper Linebacker. Fuck, this team again? Talent is pretty scarce at this point, so I think they made the right pick, but in 5 picks, they managed to draft below value in TPE rank on all 5. I am aware that there are other considerations, but this underwhelming yet logical pick really sums up their draft night pretty well.
Grade: 6/10
16. LaMarcus Strike – Speed Running Back. Why not? Every other team seemed to grab one. Waiting on a crowded position is pretty much always the way to go, and grabbing an active back to replace Hall of Fame bound Mackworthy was the right pick.
Grade: 7/10
For what it’s worth, I think their pick of Corbett in the 3rd was San jose’s best pick of the night. With Blewitt still going strong, this wasn’t a big need, but I love this guy’s energy and think he’ll be a great player to rally around.
For shits and grins, let’s look at cumulative grades and average grades.
32/6.4
26/8.7
18/9
17/8.5
14/7
15/7.5
0/10
0/NA
There it is. Feel free to add any questions/comments below.
Before we begin:
Draft Presentation: A FUCKING PLUS. This was far and away the finest draft stream I have seen in any sim league. I think my favorite part, even though I disagreed with them, were the top 6 remaining players on the bottom. The draft cards were sweet as well, and I will be adding that to my sig. Finally, there was great draft discussion from a combination of NSFL GMs and experts. I absolutely loved it.
1.
Xavier Flash – Possession Wide Receiver. Like many folks, I had thought Bucky Barnes would be #1 overall regardless who had the pick. I’ll talk more about why later. Flash, however, was one of six wide receivers in the draft, though only two (he and Valentine) were really worth a pick. However, given the large number of wide receivers we’ve seen for S10, I think this was a bad choice. Flash was easily the best wide receiver, but he wasn’t the best receiver, and offensive skill positions aren’t as hard to find. If San Jose wasn’t high on Barnes for any reason, they should have shopped a lot harder. Grade: 4/10
2.
Bucky Barnes – Run Support Safety. A week ago, I might have been a bit lower on this pick. Run Support has been a historically bad archetype. Any player would have been better playing a coverage linebacker. So knowing that he was eventually going to cost a team $4 million or just wouldn’t ever be an elite talent was concerning. However, the recently announced archetype changes makes safeties in general more effective, especially Run Support. The only other player I had viewed as comparable was Declan Harp, who wasn’t as big a need for Arizona.Grade: 9/10
3.
Marquise Brown – Speed Running Back. This is easily the toughest pick for me to evaluate. Like Barnes, Brown was a teammate, and there was no teammate I spoke to more. This guy is passionate, hardworking, asks for advice. I fully believe the claim that he interviewed very well. However, we are talking about someone 8th overall in TPE, and playing a position shown to not scale very strongly from activity. As with Flash, I think they could have moved down and still had their guy. Grade: 6/10
4.
Kolby Deringer – Balanced Linebacker. Full disclosure, I didn’t have Deringer on my mock, because the people I copied didn’t have him. I didn’t build my own from scratch, just copied what was out there and rearranged them. That led to two major mistakes in my mock (which was pretty bad), both on this pick. The first was not having Deringer 1st round. The second was mocking Declan Harp here despite having been told after a scouting interview that Harp was not going to San Jose. But you keep moving folks around, and you forget why you had certain players where they were. Okay, now for the actual pick. Deringer joined toward the end of the recruiting wave, so the gap between his TPE and that of the other top prospects is pretty misleading. On a TPE per day basis, he is killing it. Linebacker is a vital position, and I am fairly impressed by the user. I don’t think he was the best player available, but I also don’t think they could have safely traded down, either. Grade: 8/10
5.
Declan Harp – Possession Tight End. I love this pick. All through the DSFL draft the year before, I hated seeing the Marshals pass on this guy, even though they were already loaded at TE. As you can tell by his 2nd overall TPE, the man is legit. Also, I think possession TE is actually my favorite of the position. I can’t say I am amazed that he fell this far, since Barnes and even Deringer, due to positional scarcity, should have been picked before him, and San Jose, who had half the prior picks, was out of the question. However, I do think he is a great value.Grade: 9/10
6.
Oskar Ludvig – Man to Man Cornerback. First off, thanks to DeathonReddit for bringing up the TPE scandal and providing proof that Ludvig had too much TPE. For those who weren’t aware, there was no cheating, just poor bookkeeping. However, that small amount of lost TPE means that Ludvig, who has become known as the Norwegian Demon, was actually only 13th in TPE instead of 12th. That’s not a huge difference, but at the time of this pick, Ludvig was only the 3rd-highest defender remaining, behind Thibault and Marchand. I think too much was made of his DSFL success, giving the player credit for just benefitting from an amazing pass rush. Grade: 7/10
7.
Alexandre Thibault – Center Fielder Safety. I actually really like this pick. This was the best defender remaining. There were 5 players still on the board ahead of him in TPE, but 2 were running backs, 2 were quarterbacks, and 1 wide receiver. There’s nothing amazing about this pick, but for Colorado’s needs, it was the right pick.Grade: 8/10
8.
Ricky Adams – Power Running Back. After trading down from 6 to 8, I felt pretty confident that Orange County was going to be drafting me, and I was looking forward to it. There was a rumor that Molarpistols would be willing to switch positions if they drafted me, depriving other teams of a franchise QB. It needs to be stated that Lagerfield had slightly more TPE, and would likely be the better bell-cow, but Adams is a lone talent at fullback. If he is actually willing to play that position, this could be a low-key great pick.Grade: 7/10
9.
Elijah Lagerfield – Speed Running Back. At this point the only realistic options were Lagerfield and Valentine on offense, and Marchand on defense. With the Cats having already picked up a wide receiver with Flash and a linebacker with Deringer, Lagerfield was just the common sense pick at this point. I find it really surprising that that 3 running backs were selected in the top 9, yet I really can’t argue against the pick except maybe a mild preference for Jesse Marchand, who would go on to fall a little further than expected. Grade: 7/10
10.
Kevin Fitzpatrick – Game Manager Quarterback. As I mentioned earlier, I was expecting to go toward the bottom of the first round, but falling out of the first round due to character concerns has become something of a tradition for me. It’s kind of amazing how often it’s happened. In 4 characters across 3 leagues, I have never been drafted single digits. Obviously, this is a great pick for Arizona. Every GM who talked to me knew I liked Fitzpatrick and wanted to see a game manager succeed. That’s a big drive for me. Also, I am #1 in TPE for the draft class (just hit 300 today), so bias aside, this was a huge steal.Grade: 10/10
11.
Zapp Brannigan – Balanced Tight End. The Tightest of Ends. Everyone’s favorite in-character player finally gets picked up, and I actually like him here for basically the same reasons I liked Lagerfield just two picks ago. It will be interesting to see if SJS can figure out how to gameplan with an actual TE, as they are not used to that.Grade: 7/10
12:
Vinny Valentine – Speed Wide Receiver. Flash and Valentine may not have the same archetype, but they have one thing in common: TPE. Somehow, two players at the same position, with the same TPE, were separated by 11 picks. Unbelievable. Unicorn is a former Hawk and all around good guy, so I think this was a great pick, something slm does far too often.Grade: 9/10
13.
Jesse Marchand – Speed Rusher Linebacker. Somehow, despite all four defenders in the first round going above their TPE rank, sometimes significantly above, Marchand went exactly at his rank. Given the relative value of the position, I think that makes this a great value pick. By the way, this is the 5th Marshal drafted so far. Grade: 8/10
14.
Gus T.T. Showbiz – Pocket Passer Quarterback. Going to a team with solid wide receiver talent, I have no doubt that Showbiz will live up to his name. This is a solid QB, and I very much look forward to competing against him. Obviously this is a huge steal, but there was nothing other teams could do to prevent it.Grade: 10/10
15.
Barnaby Earl-Run Stopper Linebacker. Fuck, this team again? Talent is pretty scarce at this point, so I think they made the right pick, but in 5 picks, they managed to draft below value in TPE rank on all 5. I am aware that there are other considerations, but this underwhelming yet logical pick really sums up their draft night pretty well.Grade: 6/10
16.
LaMarcus Strike – Speed Running Back. Why not? Every other team seemed to grab one. Waiting on a crowded position is pretty much always the way to go, and grabbing an active back to replace Hall of Fame bound Mackworthy was the right pick. Grade: 7/10
For what it’s worth, I think their pick of Corbett in the 3rd was San jose’s best pick of the night. With Blewitt still going strong, this wasn’t a big need, but I love this guy’s energy and think he’ll be a great player to rally around.
For shits and grins, let’s look at cumulative grades and average grades.
32/6.4 26/8.7 18/9 17/8.5 14/7 15/7.5 0/10 0/NAThere it is. Feel free to add any questions/comments below.
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