Perfect Draft Series: Drafting 11th in a 14 Team League
My third article in the Perfect Draft series will focus on a 14-team league. I’ve always been a fan of larger leagues. I like when the talent is spread out and the onus is on the owner to get quality backups and take chances that will have to pay off in order for your team to be successful.
So in this installment, I pick 11th in a 14-team league. I’m drafting with PC Drafter (free with a 4for4.com subscription) and using the Performance 2 setting, which is a fairly standard PPR setup. My starting lineup will consist of a QB, 2 RB, 2WR, flex RB or WR, a TE and defense and kicker. This draft will go 15 rounds.
Let’s get right into it…
Round 1, Pick 11
If you think in terms of a typical 10-team league with your first pick, drafting from the 11th spot in a 14 team league you are pretty much starting your draft with a second rounder. That’s why you absolute have to take advantage of your first two picks to get a leg up on the studs that went off the board before you. So at pick 11, most of the typical names we’re used to are off the board. Calvin Johnson is the lone WR gone, and the big-three QBs of Aaron Rodgers, Tom Brady and Drew Brees are also gone. With my pick, the top name to me is Matt Forte at RB. Darren Sproles is there too and of course any other WR I might be interested in. The choice here is pretty obvious to me, though.
My Pick – Matt Forte, RB
Round 2, Pick 4
This is what I believe could be the key pick of the draft for me because my next pick is a long way off. Sproles has slipped and is still here and would complete my starting RBs pretty nicely in a PPR league. That’s who PC Draft suggests I take. But Matt Stafford is also there, someone I consider just outside the top tier of QBs. WR Larry Fitzgerald was taken since my last pick, but he and Calvin are the only two WRs off the board. TE Jimmy Graham has been selected, but I also have a chance here at Rob Gronkowski, who is still available. Jamaal Charles, Adrian Peterson and Marshawn Lynch are my other running back options. For me the pick is Stafford. I’ve gone the early TE route in my Picking 5th in a 10-Team league article, and really haven’t gone with an early QB yet so I’m curious to see how it all works out.
My Pick – Matt Stafford, QB
Round 3, Pick 11
I first thought I’d take a WR with this pick. Jordy Nelson, Dez Bryant, Percy Harvin and Steve L. Smith are some of the bigger names who would really give my roster some balance. But after looking at the projections, I thought it made a lot more sense to grab RB Reggie Bush here. The next back, Isaac Redman, was projected to get about 50 points less than Bush, which makes sense in a PPR league. Waiting on a RB seems like it could hurt me in the end, and I just have to take the chance a WR will slip a few more spots until I pick again.
My Pick – Reggie Bush, RB
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