Diary Of A Draftman – “Beat The Scholar” Best Ball #3
Diary Of A Draftman – “Beat The Scholar” Best Ball #3
The “Diary Of A Draftman” series provides a look into the mind of Purple Reign as he recaps mock drafts that he has participated in.
Mock drafts serve an important role in preparing for the College Fantasy Football season. Experienced fantasy players know that performing in multiple live drafts sharpens your skills and gives you a read on how the rest of the internet views specific players. You can test out different draft strategies for when to select different positions, observe when position runs start, and test how long you can wait for specific players.
I highly recommend you read the article below as it will give you insight on the different principles discussed below.
Today we open the Draftman Diary to the pages for the “Beat The Scholar” Best Ball #3 mock draft hosted by the Gridiron Scholar John Laub. Participating in these best ball leagues provides donations to St. Jude Children’s Hospital and are a great way for fantasy players to give back to an amazing charity.
With 60 second time limits the action moved very quickly as I drafted from the number 6 position. This league had a different setup compared to normal best ball leagues. This was a quarterback friendly league with six-point passing touchdowns and no points lost for interceptions. This was also a one quarterback starting league.
My roster breakdown going into the draft (this league uses one R/W/T flex starting spot):
QB – 4 (1 starter)
RB – 6 (2 starters)
WR – 9 (3 starters)
TE – 3 (1 starter)
Let’s recap my selections:
Rounds 1-2: RB DJ Giddens (K St) & WR Sean Atkins (SoFL)
Despite the league settings being very friendly to QB scoring I stuck with my draft strategy to avoid a first round QB and stick to grabbing the best RB I can get. RBs Ashton Jeanty and Ollie Gordon went off the board in the first two picks, followed by two WRs and one QB. That left me my choice of Omarion Hampton and Giddens. Both guys were Tier 2 players and also made my “scheduling saviors” list, but Giddens had a “savior” grade of a B+ while Hampton was only a C+. With a limited roster size I leaned into securing better scheduling match-ups and took Giddens. I continued to use my normal strategy of grabbing a top WR in the 2nd round and had two Tier 1 WRs on the board. Both had ADP’s in the mid 3rd round through the late 4th round and I decided to gamble and see if they might fall to me later. Instead I drafted Tier 2 WR Atkins. I chose him because the drafter two spots behind me had already drafted QB Byrum Brown and I wanted to block him from getting the fantasy stack with Atkins. Making a draft pick to block another fantasy player from getting an advantage can be a crucial defensive play to help your chances at winning a championship.
Rounds 3-4: WR Evan Stewart (Oreg) & QB Nico Iamaleava (Tenn)
I normally look to continue to stack a RB and WR in these rounds but the draft started to stray away from ADP very early. A RB run had started after my 2nd round selection. Kyle Monangai was the only Tier 3 RB left on my board but had an ADP in the 6th round, and I had 17 Tier 4 RBs still available. A value WR pick fell in my lap with Stewart who has an ADP at the start of the 2nd round. Even though I had far more WRs available on my draft board compared to RBs, I ignored scarcity and pulled the trigger on Stewart for the ADP value. This would be the first of several dominos to fall that would make me change my draft strategy on the fly. Eight more RBs went off the board before my 4th round selection. Monangai was still available for me and I should have just drafted him here. This would have stopped the dominos that were about the fall. QBs Iamaleava and Dart were the only high-end QBs I wanted as my QB 1 and I feared they wouldn’t make it back around to me. I normally don’t like to make a “splash” QB selection but this league format made me change my approach and I locked up Iamaleava.
Rounds 5-6: WR Noah Smith (SamHu) & RB Marcus Carroll (MIZ)
My hopes for selecting Monangai in the 5th round were dashed as I was sniped just two picks before mine. I was now looking at a shrinking group of eight Tier 4 RBs on my board. Only one of them had an ADP before the 8th round (Carroll), but RBs were going like crazy and ADP was becoming unreliable. Despite all this I went with a value play at WR. I am higher on Smith than most fantasy analyst and he had an ADP in the 4th round. This was now the second time I took a WR value pick over a scarcity RB pick. With the way RBs were flying off the board I should have stuck to scarcity here knowing that I still had 14 Tier 2 WRs on my board, but I felt good with a very solid top three WRs at this point in the draft. Luck was on my side and my decision didn’t burn me. Only two RBs went off the board by my next selection. I snatched up Carroll to be my RB2 faster than a fat kid grabs dessert at an all you can eat buffet.
Rounds 7-8: RB Trevor Etienne (UGA) & QB Cameron Ward (MiaFL)
While a QB and WR run were happening since my last pick, I was still sweating bullets over my RB room. Four more RBs would be drafted before it came back around to my pick. There were only two Tier 4 RBs available that I wanted as my RB3/Flex1 player with Etienne and Chip Trayanum. Etienne is Group A player and brings a higher fantasy point floor than Trayanum does so the decision came down to finding reliability in a shrinking group of RBs. Even though Trayanum had an ADP in 9th round, he was selected immediately after my Etienne pick. RBs continued to fly off the board with six more being selected after Trayanum. I did see three QBs I really liked as a strong QB2, and two of them were selected before me in the 8th round with Thomas Castellanos and KJ Jefferson. Jefferson was sniped the pick before me so once I went on the clock I started to overthink if I should stick to RB due to how many were drafted or go with a QB? Shedeur Sanders was still sitting there and in a six-point passing TD league he would make a great QB2 (I should have made that selection). While looking at other QBs I noticed the clock running low and selected Ward. Insert facepalm as this was my least favorite pick of the draft. Even if I wanted to avoid Sanders, I would have preferred Preston Stone or Chandler Morris over Ward. I can only blame myself for overthinking the situation, running low on time, and making a quick “panic” pick.
Rounds 9-10: RB Kaden Feagin (Ill) & WR Easton Messer (W Ky)
I was still kicking myself for the Ward selection when my heart started to drop. I wanted to find one more reliable RB before I started to target sleepers and I had two good ones queued up. TreVeyon Henderson has a 7th round ADP but was surprisingly still available. I watch him get drafted two picks after my Ward selection. Then I watch as one of “my guys” LJ Martin was taken four spots before my next pick. The cupboard was pretty bare and I decided to go with Feagin hoping he commands a workhorse load of carries. After the Feagin pick I was hoping I could get Holden Willis as my TE1 with my next pick but he was drafted immediately after Feagin. Damn. I felt it was best to wait longer to target a TE and focus on shoring up solid WR options. Six WRs went off the board before my pick came around with Dalvin Smith going the pick before me. I was targeting the Western Kentucky passing game here but I prefer Easton Messer. Since 2021 Western Kentucky’s WR1 has played in the slot. Last season Smith took 71.51% of his snaps from the outside position. In contrast Messer took 93.82% of his snaps from the slot position. I wanted the Western Kentucky WR1 and I was getting sniped all night long so I didn’t play any ADP games and grabbed Messer immediately.
Rounds 11-12: WR Chris Brazzell (Tenn) & QB John Mateer (WaSt)
I was still targeting solid WRs here and only three went off the board between my picks. It was time to target another coaching system in Josh Heupel’s passing game. Since 2018 Heupel’s WR1 has been an outside WR every year except once. Squirrel White plays in the slot and you know who the leading candidate for outside WR is? That’s right, Brazzell looks to be the next guy in line to be the top outside target and creates a great fantasy stack with QB Nico Iamaleava for my roster. After selecting Brazzell I had reached the halfway point of the draft. As I mention in the “my guys” article series, this is where I just start grabbing guys I like and I no longer tie myself down with ADP or which “player group” someone is in. A new QB run had started in the 11th round, and as my 12th round pick came up I was amazed at one name that was still available as Mateer was just staring me in the face. The QB position battle is still in the air and with a smaller roster I knew I couldn’t handcuff Mateer with Zevi Eckhaus. I decided to take the risk on Mateer anyways and secure quite possibly the best QB3 in the draft.
Rounds 13-14: TE Caden Prieskorn (Miss) & WR Damon Ward (NorTx)
It had been a while since a TE was drafted and I decided to get ahead of the next run and secure my TE1. Prieskorn was the tenth TE off the board and I felt very good in waiting this long and to get a great talent like him as my starting TE. This may have been the best “wait for value” pick I made all draft. I was now continuing to eye my list of shrinking Tier 2 WRs that were surprisingly still available. There were only two Group A/B players left in Ward and Jordan Hudson, and the other four options were all Group C sleepers. Ward had been toward the top of my queue since the 10th round and I wasn’t going to wait any longer. I now had two-thirds of my WR core drafted and I was free to start ignoring “player groups” when my next WR selection would be made.
Rounds 15-16: RB Le'Veon Moss (TxAM) & QB Ethan Vasko (CoCar)
At this point in the draft there was a pretty even mixture of positions being drafted. I planned on having six RBs and it had been five rounds since I selected one. For the remaining two roster spots I was going to take risks on players I think have upside. Moss doesn’t get enough love from the CFF world and I think he has a track to being the RB1 this year. I also love that offensive coordinator Collin Klein is a top 25 coach for fantasy rushing offenses. For my next selection I made both an insurance move and a defensive move. I didn’t need to go QB here but I had noticed a lull in QBs being drafted. Since I didn’t have the roster room to handcuff QB John Mateer I decided to grab the sleeper I felt the most confident in to be the last QB on my roster. Vasko is one of the few Group C players that have already secured their starting role. While it may be difficult for Vasko to beat my other QBs for scoring in a given week, I didn’t want anyone else who needed help at QB to get him. I would rather hoard him on my bench than let another fantasy player get someone who could be a regular weekly scorer for their roster.
Rounds 17-18: WR Jordan Hudson (SMU) & TE Benjamin Brahmer (IaSt)
After I made my last selection I had RB Floyd Chalk queued up and my fingers were crossed I would land him in the 17th round. He was drafted at the end of the 16th round so I shifted my focus back to my Tier 2 WRs were I still had five of them loaded in my queue. Hudson was the only non-sleeper in the group so I went with him for the higher reliability. Hudson would have made the “my guys” article if he was below Tier 3, as I’ve drafted him in most drafts I've been involved with this year. I really needed a dependable TE2 at this point and Brahmer provided a good complimentary schedule match with my TE1 Caden Prieskorn. I liked other players like Drake Dabney and Rivaldo Fairweather more overall, but they lacked the complimentary scheduling that Brahmer provides.
Rounds 19-20: WR Duce Robinson (USC) & RB Kalel Mullings (Mich)
At this point I was just shooting my shot on high upside players. Since WR was the only position with more than one roster left to fill I went to that position in the 19th round. I wrote about Ja'Kobi Lane in the WR “my guys” article but decided to target Robinson to diversify my fantasy holdings. I’ve taken Lane in several drafts and felt going with the other outside WR option for USC would be a good choice. When my 20th round pick came around I decided to abandon the roster breakdown I listed at the start of the article and get greedy at RB since I missed out early in the draft. I have a feeling that Donovan Edwards will not be the bell cow back at Michigan. I wanted a piece of Mullings in the event he overtakes the RB1 position midway through season. This meant I was going to have to sacrifice my TE3 spot. I was okay doing this since I was very complimentary for scheduling at that position. Plus a RB is more likely to win me a championship than a TE3.
Rounds 21-22: RB Hunter Smith (ULMon) & WR Taji Hudson (JMU)
I have a full-on “man crush” for Smith. I have taken him in EVERY SINGLE DRAFT I have been in so I had to grab one of “my guys” to be my last RB. I had two choices for my last WR. Hawai’i WR Alex Perry looks to fill into the outside WR2 position that has been vacated by the legal issues involved with Steven McBride. He is listed as a Tier 3 player in my draft guide and I believe he has a higher fantasy point floor than Hudson does. Hudson is a Tier 2 player I’ve been high on all summer but for some reason or another I have not drafted once yet. It was that reason that I decided to finally select him. Perry may end up as the better choice out of these two but I just wanted to get at least one share of Hudson.