Thanks Amerk, for this thread, and for your admin work in general. One of th efun parts of a draft is that we get so much more out of one league than the normal "do it yourself" team building, PLUS we might learn lots of stuff from others. I'm sure I will!
My theories on DEF:
1 We all want "value" picks; those that are worth more than they cost. Given Ds are around 30M, it makes sense that owners could find a few that are maybe 500K bargians. You really can't expect to save 500K on a QB or RB or WR. Plus, Ds are complicated, with 6 factors going into their price.
2 Most feel D is generally undervalued/overpriced, but of course with a 75M cap you really have too much left over (redudantly great offense) if you only put <25M toward D.
3 I analyzed the WIS DEF prices by a simple regression analysis. It showed that the "cost" of the 6 factors was something like (per rating point) Run 97 Pass 95 Sack 20 Int 41, Drive 74, RZ 126.
3 Almost all agree that RED ZONE is a commodity WIS overprices, so I can see why taking the Chargers D with high pass and run and low red zone is a great move.
4 I assess that in this league, INT are overpriced, since most QBs with this cap won't throw many; I'm not sure a "90" INT D will gain all that many.
5 I'm guessing DRIVE is undervalued; first, most owners are agressive with 4th down tries, and stopping them would be a big deal. Second, how else to stop these great Offenses, without a tough 3rd down D?
So I am hoping a combo of the 2008 Steelers 94 Pass and 100 Drive ratings will yield much success when facing 3rd-and-medium or 3rd-and-long. Their Red Zone is lower than any of the few more expensive Defs than this one, and the Run+Pass (with a tweak of Sack) rating is higher than any except the Big Bears D.
I figure spending 37M on D still leaves 30-33 ish for OFF and 5-8 for P/K/special teams.
Lastly, I had little intent to draft a TE in rd2, but the rest of the QB look a lot alike, the RB look alike and expensive, and in the end there were Very few TE with high Rec rating and decent stamina, and Jackie can even run the ball well about once / game. Now I can wait for my WR until late. Well, that's the Plan as of Monday morning. We'll see how it looks by the weekend!