04-17-2020, 04:40 PM
(This post was last modified: 04-17-2020, 05:10 PM by LordMacharius.)
1.5x Draft Media is not an opportunity I took enough advantage of before but I feel like it will be important to fill my coffers in this wonderful week-long extension that we were blessed with as Mack attempts to cope with the expensive cost of living that is associated with that Hawai’i lifestyle.
To get this started, I would like to mention a couple of things. Number 1, I’m pretty out of it with minimal sim league experience and a strong lack of prospect knowledge. Number 2, I’m pretty biased from my own experience, so I’ll probably be proven wrong in the first few games of the season but I’m getting paid for participation and not correctness so deal with it. Number 3, I’ve started writing this mock draft with about 4.5 hours to go until the draft so it’s going to be rushed, it’s going to be one sitting, and you’re going to like it.
This will only be mocking the first round of the draft. It definitely won’t be correct and it might be embarassing, but I’ll try my hardest to justify why I believe that the player should go where I say they should go. With that out of the way, let's get this party started.
Pick 1: The Austin Copperheads select Colt Mendoza — Cornerback, Dallas Birddogs
There's really no two ways about this one. Mendoza is the consensus #1 pick — there's hardly a box he doesn't check. He's a very active simmer with multiple great articles testing builds and attempting to see what works and what doesn't. Many GMs around the league have already used isteg's analysis to assist with the builds of their own players.
The Copperheads gave up their 1st, 3rd, 5th, and 8th for the Hahalua's first overall pick and their 7th rounder. It's an aggressive trade-up, but with the Copperheads looking to fill the void left by Victor Moreno in the expansion draft, the 200 TPE CB that's rapidly getting better will be a great addition to the war room, the locker room, and the playing field.
For the Birddogs, Mendoza racked up 53 tackles, 2 turnovers, and 7 passed defended over 14 games. While that's not an eye-popping stat line, Mendoza is a developing player that will likely become a stud in the league for years to come thanks to all the intangibles that he brings to the table.
Pick 2: The New Orleans Second Line select Magnus Rikiya — Defensive Tackle, Norfolk Seawolves
After trading for the second overall pick, like the Copperheads, many believe that the Second Line also had their eye trained on a specific prospect. Magnus Rikiya, user Tesla, is a well known and well liked member of the community and already has multiple league jobs. The second highest earning Defensive Tackle in the draft, Rikiya is exactly the kind of prospect that the Second Line like to select: an almost guaranteed earner on the defensive line for years to come.
This pick is going to be necessary to begin to bolster a front 7 that's gotten hammered by retirements and expansion following the end of their fantastic Ultimus season. Losing Slothface, Arianlacher, Ironside and Faux are all going to hurt, but the Rikiya pick will be useful in ensuring that they still can maintain some semblance of the strong defense that helped propel them into the middle of their championship window. Rikiya also follows the a norse theme, so Isa may be enticed into taking them.
Rikiya snagged 28 tackles, 1 TFL, 1 Sack, and a remarkable 3 forced fumbles with the Seawolves. They'll be a monster on the D-Line if they can maintain that production.
Pick 3: The Philadelphia Liberty select Phat Boi — Defensive Tackle, Kansas City Coyotes
The Liberty will be salivating if Phat Boi falls as I expect him to. He is the best player available as the highest earning player in the class and fills one of the Liberty's many needs on a defensive line populated by corpses and ghosts. Some people are saying that the Liberty will take Oles or De Ville or Hellzapoppin, but I personally think that BPA is the best path ahead for the Liberty — again, their best player on the front 4 is Ricardo Morris, an S15 create who hasn't updated since February. Honestly, the more I write about it, the more upset I would be if the Liberty did not select Phat Boi if he falls this far. The only concern is, maybe as a user, BadLck isn't as established in the NSFL as Oles is but honestly, this is a really solid prospect for a team that needs all the help it can get.
Boi recorded a solid 3 sacks besides 23 tackles and a tackle for loss — a solid performance for a DSFL lineman.
Pick 4: The Arizona Outlaws select Tyler Oles Jr. — Cornerback, Portland Pythons
After losing the star veteran cornerback Lucas Knight in the expansion draft, going with the tried and tested cornerback prospect in Oles seems like by far the right choice. Oles is an incredibly active user who's responsible for building one of the highest TPE earners in NSFL history, and will probably be another one of the prospects who's given access to the war room and used to help out a little (or a lot). They could really go anywhere else, and my favorite alternate to Oles might be Hellzapoppin, but honestly they need all the help they can get and best user available is a valid drafting method.
For the Pythons, Oles recorded a really awesome 13 passes defended with 47 tackles over 14 games. After he develops, he'll be a shutdown corner that forces QBs to look to the opposite side of the field, and that's really awesome for the Outlaws.
Pick 5: The San Jose Sabercats select Matt "Son of Havoc" Cross. — Safety, Norfolk Seawolves
This got me thinking about TPE vs users. The Sabercats need secondary help, and with them grabbing HeHateMe PickSix last year I think that they go safety to work to replace the ghosts and corpses hanging out over top there. However, which safety is a very legitimate question. Cross vs Hellzapoppin is, in my opinion, representative of a sim league question that I've wondered. Hellzapoppin has more league activity but less TPE earned. They both project to be mid-high earners, potentially bordering on high-max earners, and hopefully will be studs in the secondary (especially because I think Honolulu will snag whichever one of the two the Sabercats don't), but I really can't tell you why I'd prefer the extra TPE for an earlier pick
For the SeaWolves, Cross recorded 77 tackles, 3 picks, 3 passes defended, and a sack.
Pick 6: The Philadelphia Liberty select Stanisław Koniecpolski. — Linebacker, Dallas Birddogs
Pick 6! My favorite football draft pick. Unfortunately, it can't be a member of the secondary, but it is a very talented member of the defense and another really solid pickup for the Liberty. Koniecpolski is the third highest earner in his class and he's also been, according to all accounts, a fantastic user in all of the sim leagues he's in — and he's been a great contributor to the NSFL operation as one of the most veteran members. The Liberty will need to take a linebacker here because right now, S20 LB Wayne Stephens is kind of holding the fort down by himself. Pairing Koniecpolski with Stephens would be a good way to strengthen the front 7, and picking up an elite linebacker prospect is NEVER a bad idea.
Koniecpolski put up ELITE stats in the DSFL, with 140 tackles, 2 tackles for loss, and 2 turnovers. If he can replicate that performance in the NSFL four to five seasons down the line, he'll be dangerous.
Pick 7: The Honolulu Hahalua select Johnny Hellzapoppin — Safety, Myrtle Beach Bucanneers
I talked about Hellzapoppin's user earlier so I'm not going to repeat myself on that front. However, Honolulu looks to fill one of the most important positions on the field with a fantastic user and a really solid pick-up in Hellzapoppin, replacing Bakshi alongside Wozniak over top. There's also the potential for the Hahalua to take a QB, but that's not needed just yet and one of this year's best quarterback, Slothlesberger, is pretty much guaranteed to play only for the Second Line. Maybe Colby? Hahalua might also take RB White Goodman here but, and perhaps this is my Chicago Bears bias showing, a good defense takes you out of a rebuild better than a good offense.
Hellzapoppin recorded 63 tackles, 5 sacks, 2 picks and 2 passes defended for the Bucs this season.
Pick 8: The Colorado Yeti select Thubba Bumper — Cornerback, Norfolk Seawolves
I know people think that this won't happen but I mean it's gotta, right? Bauer and Woelkers are good friends, there's no guarantee that he makes it to the next Yeti pick, Bauer is a very established user in sim leagues, and the Yeti really really need a cornerback, so why not make it someone that you know wants to play for you? I really think that people are overanalyzing the Yeti's position here, but maybe I'll be the one with egg on my face after this draft is aired.
Thubba obtained a solid 33 tackles and 11 passes defended with the Seawolves this year, looking to be another lockdown corner if he develops at the rate that he is expected to.
Pick 9: The Baltimore Hawks select Troen Egghands — Defensive End, Myrtle Beach Buccaneers
Although they would like to strengthen multiple points of their defense, defensive line and the front seven feels like the most pressing need after losing Baldari and Bakshi in the expansion draft. Egghands is the eighth best earner in his class and the best defensive lineman not named Phat Boi. A premier defensive player this draft, the Hawks are very very lucky to catch Egghands all the way down here at nine, especially as he is also a very active user and so sacrifice of the user for performance is not something that they need to worry about.
With the Bucs, he racked up a monstrous 18 tackles for loss on 36 tackles, with 6 sacks and a safety.
Pick 10: The Orange County Otters select Jeffery Phillips — Tight End, Dallas Birddogs
Losing Blaze hurts for a team that relies a lot on its incredible quarterback. Giving him a replacement in Phillips seems obvious, but the Otters may also take running back White Goodman in order to create a backfield as dangerous as the one in New Orleans. Still, they lost Banks and Phillips so getting Armstrong a weapon is, in my opinion, the right choice — especially one as good in the redzone as Phillips.
Phillip's caught a lot of footballs: 424 yards across 37 targets and 6 touchdowns.
Pick 11: The Yellowknife Wraiths select James Cho — Defensive End, Dallas Birddogs
There are so many possible picks here that analyzing this is useless. Cho, Ryeu, Clemente and other d-linemen prospects might all be taken here to support a Wraiths defensive line that took a knife to the stomach during the expansion draft. I'm not even going to put Cho's stats because, even though Cho is probably a most wonderful guy, he's really a placeholder for any number of d linemen that might get taken here.
Pick 12: The New Orleans Second Line select William Lim — Wide Receiver, Dallas Birddogs
Correct me if I'm wrong but I don't think the Second Line have a single WR that isn't retired. They need a weapon and, even though they are a rushing focus team getting 1 active wide receiver feels like a necessity. But also maybe not. Maybe I'm dumb and they'll pick another running back and exclusively play pistol wildcat.
Lim's statline: 46 targets, 595 yards, and 1 touchdown.
EDIT: I'm dumb. Sloth is probably going to go to NOLA. Forgot about him there.
Criticisms: Here are some criticisms of my own mock before I read these in the comments. Why do I hate offensive players? I don't know. Maybe because as a Bears fan, drafting offensive players hurts me. Maybe because defense is just better. Maybe because I'm stupid. Why are so many of the top earners falling to the second round? I really don't know how that happened but I think with expansion the defensive line of most teams became pitiful. With a lot of rushing entering the meta, I'm thinking defensive players go earlier because as we all know, defense wins championships.
To get this started, I would like to mention a couple of things. Number 1, I’m pretty out of it with minimal sim league experience and a strong lack of prospect knowledge. Number 2, I’m pretty biased from my own experience, so I’ll probably be proven wrong in the first few games of the season but I’m getting paid for participation and not correctness so deal with it. Number 3, I’ve started writing this mock draft with about 4.5 hours to go until the draft so it’s going to be rushed, it’s going to be one sitting, and you’re going to like it.
This will only be mocking the first round of the draft. It definitely won’t be correct and it might be embarassing, but I’ll try my hardest to justify why I believe that the player should go where I say they should go. With that out of the way, let's get this party started.
Pick 1: The Austin Copperheads select Colt Mendoza — Cornerback, Dallas Birddogs
There's really no two ways about this one. Mendoza is the consensus #1 pick — there's hardly a box he doesn't check. He's a very active simmer with multiple great articles testing builds and attempting to see what works and what doesn't. Many GMs around the league have already used isteg's analysis to assist with the builds of their own players.
The Copperheads gave up their 1st, 3rd, 5th, and 8th for the Hahalua's first overall pick and their 7th rounder. It's an aggressive trade-up, but with the Copperheads looking to fill the void left by Victor Moreno in the expansion draft, the 200 TPE CB that's rapidly getting better will be a great addition to the war room, the locker room, and the playing field.
For the Birddogs, Mendoza racked up 53 tackles, 2 turnovers, and 7 passed defended over 14 games. While that's not an eye-popping stat line, Mendoza is a developing player that will likely become a stud in the league for years to come thanks to all the intangibles that he brings to the table.
Pick 2: The New Orleans Second Line select Magnus Rikiya — Defensive Tackle, Norfolk Seawolves
After trading for the second overall pick, like the Copperheads, many believe that the Second Line also had their eye trained on a specific prospect. Magnus Rikiya, user Tesla, is a well known and well liked member of the community and already has multiple league jobs. The second highest earning Defensive Tackle in the draft, Rikiya is exactly the kind of prospect that the Second Line like to select: an almost guaranteed earner on the defensive line for years to come.
This pick is going to be necessary to begin to bolster a front 7 that's gotten hammered by retirements and expansion following the end of their fantastic Ultimus season. Losing Slothface, Arianlacher, Ironside and Faux are all going to hurt, but the Rikiya pick will be useful in ensuring that they still can maintain some semblance of the strong defense that helped propel them into the middle of their championship window. Rikiya also follows the a norse theme, so Isa may be enticed into taking them.
Rikiya snagged 28 tackles, 1 TFL, 1 Sack, and a remarkable 3 forced fumbles with the Seawolves. They'll be a monster on the D-Line if they can maintain that production.
Pick 3: The Philadelphia Liberty select Phat Boi — Defensive Tackle, Kansas City Coyotes
The Liberty will be salivating if Phat Boi falls as I expect him to. He is the best player available as the highest earning player in the class and fills one of the Liberty's many needs on a defensive line populated by corpses and ghosts. Some people are saying that the Liberty will take Oles or De Ville or Hellzapoppin, but I personally think that BPA is the best path ahead for the Liberty — again, their best player on the front 4 is Ricardo Morris, an S15 create who hasn't updated since February. Honestly, the more I write about it, the more upset I would be if the Liberty did not select Phat Boi if he falls this far. The only concern is, maybe as a user, BadLck isn't as established in the NSFL as Oles is but honestly, this is a really solid prospect for a team that needs all the help it can get.
Boi recorded a solid 3 sacks besides 23 tackles and a tackle for loss — a solid performance for a DSFL lineman.
Pick 4: The Arizona Outlaws select Tyler Oles Jr. — Cornerback, Portland Pythons
After losing the star veteran cornerback Lucas Knight in the expansion draft, going with the tried and tested cornerback prospect in Oles seems like by far the right choice. Oles is an incredibly active user who's responsible for building one of the highest TPE earners in NSFL history, and will probably be another one of the prospects who's given access to the war room and used to help out a little (or a lot). They could really go anywhere else, and my favorite alternate to Oles might be Hellzapoppin, but honestly they need all the help they can get and best user available is a valid drafting method.
For the Pythons, Oles recorded a really awesome 13 passes defended with 47 tackles over 14 games. After he develops, he'll be a shutdown corner that forces QBs to look to the opposite side of the field, and that's really awesome for the Outlaws.
Pick 5: The San Jose Sabercats select Matt "Son of Havoc" Cross. — Safety, Norfolk Seawolves
This got me thinking about TPE vs users. The Sabercats need secondary help, and with them grabbing HeHateMe PickSix last year I think that they go safety to work to replace the ghosts and corpses hanging out over top there. However, which safety is a very legitimate question. Cross vs Hellzapoppin is, in my opinion, representative of a sim league question that I've wondered. Hellzapoppin has more league activity but less TPE earned. They both project to be mid-high earners, potentially bordering on high-max earners, and hopefully will be studs in the secondary (especially because I think Honolulu will snag whichever one of the two the Sabercats don't), but I really can't tell you why I'd prefer the extra TPE for an earlier pick
For the SeaWolves, Cross recorded 77 tackles, 3 picks, 3 passes defended, and a sack.
Pick 6: The Philadelphia Liberty select Stanisław Koniecpolski. — Linebacker, Dallas Birddogs
Pick 6! My favorite football draft pick. Unfortunately, it can't be a member of the secondary, but it is a very talented member of the defense and another really solid pickup for the Liberty. Koniecpolski is the third highest earner in his class and he's also been, according to all accounts, a fantastic user in all of the sim leagues he's in — and he's been a great contributor to the NSFL operation as one of the most veteran members. The Liberty will need to take a linebacker here because right now, S20 LB Wayne Stephens is kind of holding the fort down by himself. Pairing Koniecpolski with Stephens would be a good way to strengthen the front 7, and picking up an elite linebacker prospect is NEVER a bad idea.
Koniecpolski put up ELITE stats in the DSFL, with 140 tackles, 2 tackles for loss, and 2 turnovers. If he can replicate that performance in the NSFL four to five seasons down the line, he'll be dangerous.
Pick 7: The Honolulu Hahalua select Johnny Hellzapoppin — Safety, Myrtle Beach Bucanneers
I talked about Hellzapoppin's user earlier so I'm not going to repeat myself on that front. However, Honolulu looks to fill one of the most important positions on the field with a fantastic user and a really solid pick-up in Hellzapoppin, replacing Bakshi alongside Wozniak over top. There's also the potential for the Hahalua to take a QB, but that's not needed just yet and one of this year's best quarterback, Slothlesberger, is pretty much guaranteed to play only for the Second Line. Maybe Colby? Hahalua might also take RB White Goodman here but, and perhaps this is my Chicago Bears bias showing, a good defense takes you out of a rebuild better than a good offense.
Hellzapoppin recorded 63 tackles, 5 sacks, 2 picks and 2 passes defended for the Bucs this season.
Pick 8: The Colorado Yeti select Thubba Bumper — Cornerback, Norfolk Seawolves
I know people think that this won't happen but I mean it's gotta, right? Bauer and Woelkers are good friends, there's no guarantee that he makes it to the next Yeti pick, Bauer is a very established user in sim leagues, and the Yeti really really need a cornerback, so why not make it someone that you know wants to play for you? I really think that people are overanalyzing the Yeti's position here, but maybe I'll be the one with egg on my face after this draft is aired.
Thubba obtained a solid 33 tackles and 11 passes defended with the Seawolves this year, looking to be another lockdown corner if he develops at the rate that he is expected to.
Pick 9: The Baltimore Hawks select Troen Egghands — Defensive End, Myrtle Beach Buccaneers
Although they would like to strengthen multiple points of their defense, defensive line and the front seven feels like the most pressing need after losing Baldari and Bakshi in the expansion draft. Egghands is the eighth best earner in his class and the best defensive lineman not named Phat Boi. A premier defensive player this draft, the Hawks are very very lucky to catch Egghands all the way down here at nine, especially as he is also a very active user and so sacrifice of the user for performance is not something that they need to worry about.
With the Bucs, he racked up a monstrous 18 tackles for loss on 36 tackles, with 6 sacks and a safety.
Pick 10: The Orange County Otters select Jeffery Phillips — Tight End, Dallas Birddogs
Losing Blaze hurts for a team that relies a lot on its incredible quarterback. Giving him a replacement in Phillips seems obvious, but the Otters may also take running back White Goodman in order to create a backfield as dangerous as the one in New Orleans. Still, they lost Banks and Phillips so getting Armstrong a weapon is, in my opinion, the right choice — especially one as good in the redzone as Phillips.
Phillip's caught a lot of footballs: 424 yards across 37 targets and 6 touchdowns.
Pick 11: The Yellowknife Wraiths select James Cho — Defensive End, Dallas Birddogs
There are so many possible picks here that analyzing this is useless. Cho, Ryeu, Clemente and other d-linemen prospects might all be taken here to support a Wraiths defensive line that took a knife to the stomach during the expansion draft. I'm not even going to put Cho's stats because, even though Cho is probably a most wonderful guy, he's really a placeholder for any number of d linemen that might get taken here.
Pick 12: The New Orleans Second Line select William Lim — Wide Receiver, Dallas Birddogs
Correct me if I'm wrong but I don't think the Second Line have a single WR that isn't retired. They need a weapon and, even though they are a rushing focus team getting 1 active wide receiver feels like a necessity. But also maybe not. Maybe I'm dumb and they'll pick another running back and exclusively play pistol wildcat.
Lim's statline: 46 targets, 595 yards, and 1 touchdown.
EDIT: I'm dumb. Sloth is probably going to go to NOLA. Forgot about him there.
Criticisms: Here are some criticisms of my own mock before I read these in the comments. Why do I hate offensive players? I don't know. Maybe because as a Bears fan, drafting offensive players hurts me. Maybe because defense is just better. Maybe because I'm stupid. Why are so many of the top earners falling to the second round? I really don't know how that happened but I think with expansion the defensive line of most teams became pitiful. With a lot of rushing entering the meta, I'm thinking defensive players go earlier because as we all know, defense wins championships.
![[Image: vTEB08x.png]](https://i.imgur.com/vTEB08x.png)
![[Image: B6w44QQ.png]](https://i.imgur.com/B6w44QQ.png)
