Dynasty Strategy WR building vs RBs

[Concept Coop]

Take value in whatever form it presents itself.

[lukkynumber13]

Take value in whatever form it presents itself.

x1000

[Hahaclintondix]

Agree, I’ve had major issues moving even stud WRs for even close to fair value where you can name your price for rbs and you’ll always find someone to pay it.

I’ve found that this seems to be the norm in my league. I can’t get a top 10 RB for any of Green, Hilton, Davis, or Allen straight up. At best I’m getting middling RB2s with a late 2018 1st or 2019 1st attached to them, yet Kamara could fetch Evans without question. Gurley, Zeke, Bell, Fournette, DJ are essentially untouchable no matter what you offer. Even guys like Freeman, Howard, Hunt, Gordon, CMC are almost impossible to trade for unless I sell Michael Thomas.

Is this standard though, or is this just a small shift in the RBs favor for the next year or two? Is stockpiling WRs even worth it right now if RBs are winning leagues and commanding more on the trade market?

[Mike from Canada]

Great thread. Myself I've built with WR's (Cooks, Cooper, Allen) by trading RB's as they peak in value (C. Michael, J. Langford). It's hard to predict the future of most RB's because they are so expendable and get injured more often. Look at Ware for instance. Having said that, if the value is there by all means draft or trade for a RB when you can.

[Londondynasty]

I'm new to dynasty. Took over an orphan last year and went from 15th to 2nd. This year did my first two start-ups and won them both (incredibly luckily). So I'm no expert but here's my take on it.

In the first which was standard, I wanted to try to get one stud at each position, so went Evans, Gurley, Kelce with my first 3 picks. My WR2 was Watkins (Still got hope). My rb2 was Ingram in the 7th. Although I prioritised wr over rb it was the rb that won me the championship this year. As for a long term strategy I think I'll draft rbs in the 1st and 2nd of each draft and look to trade for wrs where necessary. I think it's generally harder to draft wrs, as they take longer to develop. So slightly easier to pick up in trades, but when you have the base from the start up i think its less important. I later traded Henry for Hilton, which I'm still not sure about but I needed a wr for the playoffs and it was the deal I had.


For my ppr league, I went zero rb effectively and didn't draft a rb until the 8th where I picked up Ingram as my first, then Henry, cja and Powell. I won the league, but with my wrs this time, in particular Hopkins, Adams, funchess and diggs who I'm very happy to build around for the next few years. I later traded for Freeman so don't have many picks this year but feel like I'm in a strong position there.

So in summary, it depends on the scoring, but in ppr certainly I still like building around wrs. Standard, more of a balance but easier to draft rookie rbs that will impact than wrs

[Lotto4Life]

Timing of the position cycle plays a big role. RBs generally become top performers at their position quicker than WRs, but generally don't last as long.

If you're rebuilding at a time when WRs are better than RBs (generally speaking), then you can load up on them and wait for them to develop. By the time they've developed, RBs have a good shot to be at the peak of their cycle, and you can plug in some immediate impact guys (not necessarily RB1, but solid RB2s that are good enough to win). You can build a winner almost exclusively through the draft.

If you're rebuilding at a time when RBs are better than WRs, it can be trickier. You take an RB that has immediate value, but by the time you can fill in with WRs and they develop, your RBs may be on the back side of their career. Tougher to build through the draft, so trading will become much more important.

[Lotto4Life]

Forgot to add - just draft the player you think will give you the most points.

[Tvols]

Great thread. Myself I've built with WR's (Cooks, Cooper, Allen) by trading RB's as they peak in value (C. Michael, J. Langford). It's hard to predict the future of most RB's because they are so expendable and get injured more often. Look at Ware for instance. Having said that, if the value is there by all means draft or trade for a RB when you can.

So Beckham, a rob, white, Garcon, Brown, Meredith, etc haven’t been injured ? Imho it’s easier now to predict rb success as they are the better player coming out of the drafts recently.....dez, Evans Baldwin etc all have been unpredictable this year .. not singling you out just think a lot of owners have this belief and it’s not exactly accurate ... this is a great debate and the rbs guys and the WRs guys won’t be talked off there ledges to fall to the other side .. as always I look to draft the bpa. No matter position points not positions when championships ..

[stoneghost28]

Was listening to a RotoViz podcast the other day and one key thing brought up was that 3 and 4 WR sets are used at a higher rate now than ever before and it’s begun to dampen the ceilings of all WR’s because targets ar systematically spread so thin across depth charts. That combined w/the ‘15, and ‘17 RB classes+ Zeke after a half decade of non-entities @RB in draft classes has ended what was a barren wasteland at the position in terms of prospects born between 1988-1993 or 1994. After ‘18 the ‘19 class looks terrible again while outstanding at WR. Personally I’ve built around WR’s while trading to acquire rookie firsts from teams I think our weak which has allowed me to yave the 1.01 in all my non-lottery rookie drafts for 2018and top 4 picks in all my leagues save one in ‘17 (lottery draft). I expect to have solv d RB issues through these back to back classes.

[brooklynkid]

Ok this is my first year playing dynasty and i joined 7 leagues 4 Startups 2 Disperal Drafts 1 Orphan. I would say in five of those leagues my strength were the WR's I made the playoffs in 6 out 7 seven leagues. I had realistic shot of winning with about four of those teams. Anyways I attack my start up and dispersal drafts trying to build around WR's, I had great success but i was missing that explosion factor the WR's were steady but i had share of a couple inconsistent guys. I had one fourth place finish 2 third place finishes and One First place. I feel like WR is a good foundation for you team, but you need at-least RB that can explode RB's are the game changers and the best way to acquired them is through the draft. In every league I'm in I looking to go RB Galore in the rookie dradt, that's what takes your team to the next level. WR's win you games and get you to the playoffs but elite RB's give you that extra it factor.

[Hahaclintondix]

So let’s say you have are deep at WR and short on RBs that can win you weeks on their own. Like if you have younger guys that haven’t broken out yet or a few WR3 types to supplement your studs. Do you sacrifice the long term value of the WRs to win now, even if it means giving up a little value along the way?

I’ll use my team as an example even though this is more of a general statement. I’m not looking for specific “team advice” as I know about the other forum.

Start 3WR, 2RB and a flex
RBs: Cook, Mixon, Crow, Riddick, Powell
WRs: Thomas, Keenan, Hilton, Green, Davis, Lee, Coleman

Should a team built around WRs like that sell out for another stud RB if it means sacrificing overall value? Do you sell depth to create a better overall starting lineup, or is depth the answer to sustaining long term success?

[cazzie33]

Great thread. Myself I've built with WR's (Cooks, Cooper, Allen) by trading RB's as they peak in value (C. Michael, J. Langford). It's hard to predict the future of most RB's because they are so expendable and get injured more often. Look at Ware for instance. Having said that, if the value is there by all means draft or trade for a RB when you can.

So Beckham, a rob, white, Garcon, Brown, Meredith, etc haven’t been injured ? Imho it’s easier now to predict rb success as they are the better player coming out of the drafts recently.....dez, Evans Baldwin etc all have been unpredictable this year .. not singling you out just think a lot of owners have this belief and it’s not exactly accurate ... this is a great debate and the rbs guys and the WRs guys won’t be talked off there ledges to fall to the other side .. as always I look to draft the bpa. No matter position points not positions when championships ..

Building a dynasty is a different thing than just saying "take the guy that gets the most points". That's like saying the goal to winning a game is to have more points than the opponent. There are different ways of achieving this. Build up your defense to dominate and run an offense that doesn't screw it up by making turnovers. Or go hog wild on offense to outscore the opponent. Most successful championship teams have a blend even if one side of the ball is predominantly the driving force.

Draft picks are assets to be used in the process of building a dynasty if you are good @ forecasting the future draft crops AND the strength of the team you are trading with. We traded B. Cooks going to NE based on the fact that the team getting him wasn't going to be a playoffs team even though they had the year before. Getting two top 5 picks we figured was more beneficial than having one top 15 WR. We didn't think Cooks would do anymore in NE than he did in NO , maybe less and since he wasn't enough of a difference maker to elevate us into the playoffs we would go with volume.

Most would argue (and did) that Cooks was the proverbial BPA in the deal as we were getting the 2017 1.05 & an unknown 2018 1st from a playoffs team in 2016. We projected out a year or two that Brady would be on the downside if not gone. Sure Cooks might be a monster in '17 but we weren't realistically going to be a contender with Cooks & A. Rob alone plus our 1.02 as the team was 1-12 bad in '16. So taking the guy who scores the most points isn't always the best route when building a dynasty. Filling out the whole roster, adding depth & acquiring picks all come into play.

We were told Cooks would've been the 1.01 pick in the ppr lg draft (C. Davis was) and they may have been right. But we had a deal for the 1.05 to get the 1.09 and Tyreek Hill (pre Maclin getting released). We believed Hill was going to be more involved as Andy the Walrus said he would. We knew it meant giving up Dalvin or CMC likely but we planned on Mixon @ 1.02 and Kamara 1.09 in PPR as AP was no threat to stealing the receiver RB role in NO. Pretty much everyone said Cooks was far & away the most valuable player in a PPR lg out of all of the players involved. And in the future he may be, but building a dynasty takes more than one guy.

Oh and by the way our call on the other team not being a lock for the playoffs turned out to be true. We got the 2018 1.02 also in the deal.We could probably trade that and get Cooks back.

So neither WR's or RB's are always the better way. Accumulate as many assets of value wherever you can until you are the guy that only needs to add that last piece or two. I'd rather have 5 top RB's from the 2017-18 drafts than think that WR is more longevity and reach for a Zay Jones or James Washington based on college production.

C. Davis, M.Williams, C. Sutton and maybe C. Kirk or C. Ridley if the latter two land in the perfect spot are the only WR's I would be taking in the top ten of either '17 or '18. Easily 5-6 RB's from both drafts I'd choose before any other WR. Got K. Golladay and M. Hollins late 3rd & 4th who we think has as much potential as any outside of the top two or three WR's the last couple of draft classes. Might even see a QB late first/early 2nd this class