I subscribed to a new fantasy website that has a lot of cool automated tools for draft and league management. It even had an almost live version of the draft, which I used to guide my picks while seeing almost-real time the other teams' picks. However, it only gave a letter grade to my team, and not the other teams. That letter grade was a bit suspect since it gave me a D+ and yet on another part of the site, it ranked my team #3 in the power rankings after the draft. What it did do well is identify reaches and steals based on average draft positions gathered in the fantasy universe (ie, ESPN, CBS, Yahoo, etc.). So here is a more structured way to grade this year's draft:
Value Pick (1 round later than the average draft round): +1 point
Steal Pick (2 or more rounds later than the average draft round): +2 points
Slight Reach (1 round earlier than the average draft round): -1 point
Reach (2 or more rounds earlier than the average draft round): -2 points, or -3 points if you picked a reach in the first five rounds that was also a Kicker or DST.
For example, I picked Roland Jones in Round 6, the site said the average round where Jones should have been picked was Round 7. Hence, it's classified as a slight reach.
Here are the grades, based on draft order. I also provided the site's overall power rankings at the end
Kevin
Value Picks: Dionte Johnson, Round 8
Steals: None
Slight Reaches: Darren Waller (Round 3), Chase Edmonds (Round 10), Desean Jackson (Round 11)
Reaches: Boston Scott (Round 9)
Total Score: 1+0-3-2 = -4
Comment: Kevin's homerism led to a couple of reaches
Donny
Value Picks: Todd Gurley (round 3)
Steals: Allen Robinson (Round 4), David Montgomery (Round 7), Matt Stafford (Round 11)
Slight Reaches: NONE
Reaches: NONE
Total Score: 1+6-0-0 = +7
Comment: Antonio Gibson originally would have been a strong reach, but AP got cut today
Victor
Value Picks: AJ Brown (round 2)
Steals: DJ Chark (Round 5), Alex Mattison (Round 13)
Slight Reaches: Ronald Jones (Round 6), Latavius Murray (Round 7), Henry Ruggs (Round 9)
Reaches: Rams (Round 8), Eagles (Round 10), Korean Kicker (Round 11)
Total Score: 1+4-3-6 = -4
Comment: If you feel like I deserve a -1 penalty for picking 2 DSTs with the same bye week, I won't argue
PJ
Value Picks: Marquise Brown (Round 6), Jordan Howard (Round 7)
Steals: Jared Goff (Round 13)
Slight Reaches: NONE
Reaches: Drew Brees (Round 3), Justin Tucker (Round 10), Jack Doyle (Round 11)
Total Score: 2+2-0-6 = -2
Comments: Wow, PJ's homer pick of Jordan Howard is actually a value pick!
Matt
Value Picks: Robert Woods (Round 4), Ryquell Armstead (Round 11)
Steals: NONE
Slight Reaches: Sammy Watkins (Round 12)
Reaches: Will Lutz (Round 5), -1 penalty, Cam Newton (Round 6), Tony Pollard (Round 7), Ravens (Round 8), OJ Howard (Round 9), Hunter Renfrow (Round 10)
Total Score: 2+0-1-13 = -12
Comments: By far the worst grade in the league
Byron
Value Picks: NONE
Steals: Matt Breida (Round 9), Evan Engram (Round 10), John Brown (Round 11), Jamison Crowder (Round 12)
Slight Reaches: Tarik Cohen (Round 8)
Reaches: Steelers (Round 2) -1 penalty, Jared Cook (round 5)
Total Score: 0+8-1-5 = +2
Comments: If Byron didn't auto-draft, I'd expect him to contend with Matt for worst grade
Vu
Value Picks: NONE
Steals: Tyler Boyd (Round 7), Julian Edelman (Round 8), Christian Kirk (Round 10), Austin Hooper (Round 13)
Slight Reaches: Aaron Rodgers (Round 5)
Reaches: Greg Zuerlein (Round 9)
Total Score: 0+8-1-2 = +5
Comment: Pretty good mid-late picks, Hooper pick a real steal.
Tuna
Value Picks: Jarvis Landry (Round 6), Sterling Shepard (Round 10), Baker Mayfield (Round 11)
Steals: NONE
Slight Reaches: Zach Ertz (Round 2), JK Dobbins (Round 4), Jerry Jeudy (Round 9)
Reaches: Bills (Round 8)
Total Score: 3+0-3-2 = -2
Comment: Very conservative draft, so not much variance to ADP
Hai
Value Picks: NONE
Steals: Leveon Bell (Round 5), Mike Williams (Round 12)
Slight Reaches: Russell Wilson (Round 2)
Reaches: Gronk (Round 4), Kirk "If I die, I die" Cousins (Round 9), Vikings (Round 10)
Total Score: 0+4-1-6 = -3
Comment: Some of the reaches were due to panicking over stolen Cowboys
Justin
Value Picks: Devin Singletary (Round 5), Michael Gallup (Round 6), James White (Round 9)
Steals: Marvin Jones (Round 7), Daniel Jones (Round 11), Deebo Samuel (Round 12), Mike Gesicki (Round 13)
Slight Reaches: Dak Prescott (Round 1)
Reaches: 49ers (Round 3) -1 penalty, Hunter Henry (Round 4), Harrison Butker (Round 10)
Total Score: 3+8-1-7 = +3
Comment: Opposite of Tuna, picks were all over the place versus ADP.
Overall Scores by Rank
Donny: +7 A
Vu: +5 A-
Justin: +3 B+
Byron: +2 B+
PJ: -2 B-
Tuna: -2 B-
Hai: -3 C+
Kevin: -4 C
Victor: -4 C
Matt: -12 D
Now here are my site's overall power ranking score when including the keepers, seems like it's graded on a curve. I don't know how it came up with the grade, but the #1 and #2 teams and the bottom 3 teams pass the eye test.
1. Justin 100
2. Donny 91
3. Victor 88
4. Vu 83
5. Kevin 81
6. Tuna 79
7. Hai 78
8. Byron 67
9. PJ 62
9. Matt 62
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