The Bandits, my fantasy team, had its 12-team 2023 draft on August 26th. Here I will post how it all went down, Not that anyone would be interested, but also so that I can reference this draft in the future.
My team partner, Eric, was all part of this process, so if you disagree with any or all of our selections, please place the blame on him. :-)
We were in the 6th draft slot this year, so we expected the top-tier running backs to be off the board by that time, and probably Pat Mahomes and Justin Jefferson.
It turns out we were correct.
With our first pick at #6-overall we selected RB Derek Henry from the Titans.
We felt that passing on a bell-cow RB here for a different position would put us in a tough spot in the later rounds looking for quality depth at the position.
CBS Sports has an average draft position (ADP) of 10.13 for Henry, so it we're looking for a RB with the first pick at #6 we're not too far off his ADP.
Atlanta's rookie RB Bijon Robinson was also on the board at that time, but we just felt it was a little too risky to pass on a proven workhorse RB in Henry for an unproven rookie RB even though Robinson is expected to get a ton of carries and be a big part of the Falcons' passing attack.
We'll obviously have to keep an eye on that decision and see how the two players compare throughout the season.
At the #19 overall pick (round-2) we drafted the Raiders WR DeVonte Adams.
Having drafted a solid RB prospect with our first pick, we felt it was best to get in the WR market here. The depth at the RB position was depleted a bit by this time and the value here was at the WR position.
With an ADP of 21.6 we were right in the area for Adams.
At #30 overall (round-3) we selected RB Travis Etienne.
Back to the well for a RB. Etienne will be used quite a bit in Jacksonville's passing game and is a threat to break long runs at any time. We felt the value and the upside of the 2nd-year pro was too good to pass on here.
Etienne has an ADP of 31.64. Again, he's right here for us at his ADP and it rounds-out our staring RB room.
At this point we're planning on waiting for a QB in rounds-5 or 6, and hoping for QB Trevor Lawrence to be available at that point.
The WR position still has decent depth to it so we feel comfortable taking our second RB here.
At #43 overall (round-4) we selected QB Trevor Lawrence.
With our fourth pick we had to make a tough decision. There were already a handful of QB's drafted and Trevor Lawrence was the best remaining one.
We were hoping to wait one more round for our QB and use this slot for our second WR or a decent TE, but we were afraid that if we didn't take Lawrence here he wouldn't last through another 11 picks, and if we didn't get him we would be left with a QB with a drastically lower point expectation and certainly one without the upside that Lawrence offers.
Lawrence's 51.31 ADP shows how we reached a bit for him, but we felt that we couldn't risk not landing him in the 5th-round and decided the value we could have got here by drafting a different position wasn't worth the risk of losing the value of Trevor Lawrence and the drop in production we would get from a different remaining QB.
That selection makes back-to-back Clemson Tigers for he Bandits.
At #54 overall (round-5) we selected WR DK Metcalf.
We still needed another starting WR, and Metcalf has proven he's worth a WR2 on fantasy rosters.
He has an ADP of 50.31, so this is right where he's expected to be drafted. After reaching a bit for Lawrence in the previous round, we're happy to have had a shot to select Metcalf here and complete our starting WR group.
With the 67th overall pick (round-6) we selected TE Kyle Pitts.
There are only a few top-tier Tight Ends every year and we waited to take one when the best ones were off he board so that we could get our RB's and WR's first.
Kyle Pitts is a 2nd-year TE for the Falcons who has plenty of upside due to his freakish athleticism. Hopefully he'll prove worthy of he 5th-round selection, but we didn't want to wait any longer and risk ending-up with a real bottom of the barrel player at TE.
At #78 (round-7) we drafted our first defensive player - DE Max Crosby.
Defensive players were starting to get drafted at this point, and there aren't a lot of DE's you can just plug-in and play every week without considering their match-ups and considering going with a different one.
Max Crosby is a guy we'll probably have on our roster until the end, barring a severe injury along the way.
At #91 (round-8) we selected another defensive player - LB Nick Bolton.
Again, the defensive players were really starting to come off the board. We figured we;d jump into the market while the getting was still pretty good.
Bolton was in the top-5 on most LB'er cheat sheets and he should be a good one in KC's defense once again.
With 102nd pick (round-9) we chose WR Jerry Jeudy.
Jeudy is projected to miss the first two or three games of the season for the Broncos after suffering a pretty bad hamstring injury in training camp, but we won't need his services until then since we already drafted two WR's.
We expect some good value for him here in the 8th-round, as he is the Broncos Go-To receiver and put-up some good numbers last season.
At #115 (round-10) we took another Wide Receiver - WR George Pickens.
We went into this draft hoping we would have a shot at Pickens at a spot we felt carried some good value for him. We felt that round-9 offered that opportunity.
Pickens enters his 2nd-year in Pittsburgh after a stellar year-1 for a rookie. Hopefully he progresses even more and makes his draft spot more than just worth it.
At #117 (round-11) we turned back to defense - LB DeAndre Campbell.
We need four defensive players, so getting our #2 LB'er here seemed to be the best option at this time. Campbell should be a solid tackle guy for the Packers and we'll hope he can play well enough to stay on our roster throughout the season.
With the 130th pick (round-12) we took our last defensive player - DB Jaquon Brisker.
It just seemed like we were better off rounding-out our defensive roster here instead of selecting a back-up player for depth at a different position.
The talent pool is getting thinned-out everywhere and a DB here seemed to offer the best value.
With the 141st pick (round-13) we chose a back-up player - QB Geno Smith.
We had targeted Smith for our back-up QB entering the draft and felt like now was the time. There was still a team without a QB and we didn't want to risk losing him.
He was the 6th-highest scoring fantasy QB in our league last year and has even better weapons this year. If we don't end-up using him except for Trevor Lawrence's bye week we at least have some potential trade bait if he plays well enough.
At #154 (round-14) we selected RB Rashaad Penny.
We only had two RB's at this point and needed to build some depth at the position.
Penny is part of a crowded backfield in Philly, but he does have the potential to be considered the lead back. The Eagles singed him as a free agent and will want to prove the investment worthy. He will definitely get the opportunity to do so.
With the #167 pick (round-15) we selected WR Jordan Attison.
The Vikings selected Atison with the 23rd pick in April's draft, so you know he has potential. He play as the #2 or #3 WR in the Vikings offense to sart, but should definitely end-up at #2 opposite Justin Jefferson, and whoever plays opposite Jefferson is going to have opportunities in single coverage. Attison should bring very good value to this pick in round-14.
At #178 (round-16) we chose RB Tank Bigsby.
We needed a fourth RB on our roster and had targeted Bigbsy from the start.
Bigsby is expected to take some of the workload off of Travis Etienne in Jacksonville, and if nothing else he gives us some security at the RB position if Etienne were to go down with an injury for an extended period of time.
At least we would have the Jaguars staring RB if something did happen to Etienne. In fantasy football terms this is called a "Handcuff".
With 191st pick (round-17) of the draft we went with a need - K Greg Zuerlein.
This was our last pick and we needed a Kicker. We always draft a Kicker last and Zuerlein seemed like the best remaining option.
Hopefully Aaron Rogers can get him in field goal range instead of extra points, but one never knows how the Kickers will do from one year to the next.
Here's a recap of our roster:
QB
Travor Lawrence
Geno Smith
RB
Derek Henry
Travis Etienne
Rashaad Penny
Tank Bigsby
WR
DaVante Adams
D.K. Metcalf
Jerry Jeudy
George Pickens
Jordan Addison
TE
Kyle Pitts
Defense
Max Crosby
De'Vondre Campbell
Nick Bolton
Jaquan Brisker
K
Greg Zuerlein
You can scroll down and give us a grade if you'd like, or just to tell us which picks were questionable, or just to tell us how you think our season will go in this 12-team league.