RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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There’s an expanding market of fantasy football content makers these days. The pool has never been larger, or smarter. And with a group this large, it makes for a number of different styles. It’s a golden age for the industry.
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I generally opt for the understated style. I don’t promise anyone that consuming my content will make them dominate their league or crush their draft. I humbly offer that I think I can help players improve at their craft, and I’m also accepting that my style isn’t for everyone. If my stuff isn’t landing for you, it’s not a big deal. I have a slew of talented teammates over at Yahoo — you should find someone here that you line up with.
Perhaps this soft-pedal opening was encouraged by the recent Salary Cap Draft at the Fantasy Football Expo . I am in the Jim Brown division this year, and on July 25 I participated in two drafts (one snake, one salary cap) against 13 other skillful industry members. The drafts were fun but competitive, one of the highlights of the year. And although I pride myself on being an experienced and skilled salary cap player, I did not love my results in that draft.
(Coincidentally, I liked my snake draft team a fair amount, but that’s a discussion for another day.)
Part of my ambivalence over the salary cap result speaks to the format and challenge at hand. You should love your roster in a 10-team league and like your roster in a 12-team league. When 14 teams go into battle, it’s simply not possible to have check marks everywhere. All of the teams have a weakness or two to address. And when your 13 rivals are all sharp players and content creators, the winning margins are slim. Respect thy opponent.
Here are the specs from my league, the Brown Division ( result here ):
14 managers
$200 budget, in dollar increments
16 spots, 10 starters weekly
1 QB 2 RB 3 WR 1 TE 3 Flex (RB, WR or TE); No Kickers or DST; required 6 Bench Spots
Below is the roster I wound up with. It’s fine with respect to value, but it was unbalanced the day I assembled it, and it’s only gotten worse from there:
Quarterbacks
QB $1 Jared Goff
QB $1 Jordan Love
This is my kind of jam, a “no stars, just talent” approach in a very deep quarterback market. Goff has always been grossly underrated and he’s perfectly slotted with surrounding schedule and a fun, indoor-heavy schedule. But I do regret not pushing back more on some of the upside QBs who are a tier or two higher — I won’t be chasing the vanity QBs, but colleague Matt Harmon landed Trevor Lawrence for a late-game pittance ($5) and I should have fought back more on that.
The fix: I’ve become so value-driven with salary cap drafts in recent years, I’ve often stopped targeting players or stayed aggressive with the occasional justified overpay. As I go deeper into this draft season, I want to remind myself that it’s not just about taking what a room gives you — sometimes it’s about talking what you want (or need), too.
Running Backs
RB $38 Chase Brown
RB $16 Tony Pollard
RB $10 Rico Dowdle
RB $10 Aaron Jones
RB $8 Chuba Hubbard
RB $8 Jordan Mason
RB $7 Blake Corum
This is obviously the strength of my roster. The format mandates two starting backs and will take up to five depending on flex considerations. Brown is a perfect second-round pick (or value) who could easily return first-round stats. The rest of this roster is filled with boring veteran values and a couple of upside throws (Mason, Corum). I would posit that Corum’s usage in the second half of 2025 makes him flex worthy immediately in 2026.
The fix: Although this isn’t the sexiest RB room in the world, I like what I landed. But it came at the expense of the WR build, and I should have considered a more traditional RB/WR split. One reason I wound up so heavy on backs is because that’s where the value was in the second half of the draft. But this also reflects how I needed to be more aggressive with some of the WRs in the 15-30 range.
Tight Ends
TE $15 Sam LaPorta
TE $6 Jake Ferguson
Both of these guys went over projected cost because of late-game inflation — that’s a nice way of saying some managers (like me) weren’t properly aggressive early and had to overpay for some stuff late. Nonetheless, I like this room, investing in solid tight ends tied to plus offenses. LaPorta seems healthy now and has risen to TE5 on my board; I didn’t get a nice salary on him, but you likely will.
The fix: No regrets here, although Colston Loveland didn’t make it to $20 and maybe I should have elbowed more on him. Tyler Warren, who I thought might be undersalaried, was pushed up to $22, no bargain.
Wide Receivers
WR $43 CeeDee Lamb
WR $13 Courtland Sutton
WR $13 Ricky Pearsall*
WR $5 Jalen Nailor
WR $4 Adonai Mitchell
Even if I tell myself a best-case story for all of these guys, this room is thin. And the Pearsall news went south shortly after my draft of him (remember, this was a July draft); I’ve already had to cut him. Even in a 14-team league, this room is a major problem — and we know impact WRs are almost impossible to find on the wire.
The fix: At some point in the second half of the salary cap draft I needed to identify players I wanted or needed at WR, with the aim that I would land some of them, even if overpayment was required. I did plenty of identifying, but I didn’t pay accordingly.
Again, my friend Harmon was a thorn on my side. We both had a WR need when tier-ender Mike Evans came up, and I ultimately walked away when the salary got to $32. Harmon literally received a two-dollar discount on Evans because the salary was incorrectly recorded as $30 — perhaps that led to me missing Lawrence later. But at that juncture of the draft, I needed to identity how important Evans was to my roster, and not been stung by the excess needed to land him.
This also reflects another leak in my salary-cap strategy — I am often reluctant to nominate players I like or I want/nee...
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