FAABulous Football Week 1: Football is Back Baby!
Stephanie Miller's FAABulous Football
Welcome to Week 1
I am ecstatic to be back for my third year of writing my FAABulous Football waiver column and second year of offering it here on Legendary Upside.
This offseason (if you can even call it that) has flown by, or rather blended together, with the emergence and popularity of best ball. But now that best ball is mostly done, and most of your redraft teams have been drafted, it's time to grind those waivers!
I do get it, most of you probably don’t enjoy this part as much as I do, but those of you who stay steadfast in the pursuit of improving your team every week and searching for those hidden gems may reap the benefits and see massive rewards.
Every year, leagues are won by those who didn’t necessarily hit on all the draft darlings, but were able to gain that edge by outsmarting and out working their opponents. I am here to help you find those edges and discuss all the strategic nuances that I can think of, because sometimes there is a paper-thin margin between winning and advancing to the playoffs or sprint.
Now, for any of you that might be new around here, let me tell you a little bit about FAABulous Football, as it is not just your typical waiver column.
First, there is an emphasis on FFPC high stakes leagues, where I will offer specific waiver strategy and bidding advice specific to these high stakes leagues. Other high stakes leagues and some of you who play in deeper leagues, such as dynasty will also likely find value in this section.
I also give a recap of actual waiver bids I made the week prior in these high stakes leagues and what winning bids were for specific players.
Finally, I discuss and give updates on all the Ship Chasing teams throughout the season, which is a fun activity given many of you watched the minisodes and streams where these teams were drafted live.
There will also be part of my waiver column that does offer something for those of you who play in more typical home leagues. Each week I will look at players owned less than 60% in ESPN leagues and rank out in order my favorite waiver pickups broken down by position, starting next week.
All stats and data for FAABulous Football are pulled from Fantasy Life, PFF, NFL Next Gen Stats, ETR, and Stealing Signals.
Let's Sneak a Peek at FFPC Main Event
The Main Event is FFPC’s flagship high stakes tournament with a 2.2k buy in and million dollar top prize, there is a maximum of 4,260 entries, consisting of both online and live drafters. This contest is the definition of top heavy so we will be swinging for the fences throughout this contest. As a reminder FFPC is full PPR scoring and is TEP (people forget).
The season is broken down into three parts, regular season weeks 1-12, league playoffs weeks 13-14, and championship round aka the sprint weeks 15-17. The top two seeds from each draft, best record and most points, automatically advance to the sprint. The third and fourth seeded teams can win a spot if they win the league championship. Once teams are in the sprint it is cumulative scoring to decide the winner.
One other unique aspect of these high stakes drafts is there are teams that draft after the Thursday and Friday games, so they implement the ability to “sneak a peek” in an effort to be fair to teams that drafted before these games. Participants can move players from the Thursday and Friday games in and out of their starting lineup after the game and they know the score. These players can also be dropped and players can be picked up on the waiver wire before games on Sunday. Smart drafters will take advantage of this ability and strategize to maximize the edge this offers in player selection, including defense and kicker.
The Ship Chasing Teams
This year the Ship Chasing crew looks a little different than years past. There will also be no live drafts in Las Vegas. Instead, Ship Chasers chose to have a Miami Ship Chasing meetup/drafting weekend where we held our own private drafts and literally chased ships on a yacht.
Ben Gretch stepped back this year to spend more time with his family, but still managed to draft a couple teams with the boys.
Davis Mattek joined the Ship Chasing crew and brought along all the slappy followers.
Jakob Sanderson joined ADP Chasing and was also a staple in the draft room this year.
Mike Schopp was welcomed as the new ADP Chasing host, gracing us with his professional radio announcer voice, and participated in one of the live stream drafts, proving he could slap it up with the best of them.
The in-season ADP Chasing show remains unchanged with both hosts Slapreligious, I mean Sackreligious and Drico returning, they drafted their annual main event team as a slow draft this year.
Now its time to look a little closer at all the teams…
Destroyer
Destroyer is the minisodes team that kicked off the high stakes season over at Ship Chasing this year. This was the first time we all got to experience how Pete Overzet and Pat Kerrane worked with new Ship Chasing additions Davis Mattek and Jakob Sanderson. Those of you who watched this minisode series also are unlikely to forget the now infamous Alvin Kamara auto draft selection. This team was drafted all the way back in June, so it is interesting to see how the squad has aged with all the new information, and I am excited to see if any hidden gems are available on the waiver wire here.
Broken Social Scene
Broken Social Scene was a slow draft Main Event team with Sackreligious and Drico started near the end of July. Another draft out of the three spot and another Brock Bowers team. This team followed up with two strong running back picks, pushing out wide receiver a bit more than we typically see here at Ship Chasing. This team might need a little TLC to start, as we navigate some early season question marks.
Neko Case
Neko Case is another Main Event slow draft, and is the one I drafted with the boys. Yes, we got a lot invested in Brock Bowers as you can see. We had many colorful debates in this one, as I might have tried to keep the slappiness somewhat in check. Overall, I think the team balances the right amount of upside with guys who can help with early season production.
Arcade Fire
Finally we get to one of the fast Main Event stream drafts, this is the one done with the ADP Chasing crew which included Jakob Sanderson and Mike Schopp. This is the third time the boys drafted from the three spot, but finally they switch things up and get Jahmyr Gibbs instead of Brock Bowers. This is also the first elite QB team, where they changed their the build to get some exposure to different players (and many of the slappy dandies) and pushed TE out a bit further.
Wolf Parade
This Main Event fast draft was a live streamed with Ron Stewart, finally another pick other than the three hole and Brock Bowers. I love the Ceedee Lamb start, especially after the Cowboys traded their best defensive player and should be forced to throw a lot this season. They followed up with a stud RB and managed to get Kittle in third (who I think we can still classify as elite). The boys decided to snag several of the late round risers who are upside dart throws, let's see if any can pay off.
April
This was the final Main Event stream draft of the season with the infamous CrakRok. This stream did not disappoint as the boys got to explore the back half of the board finally and land a Mahomes double stack (which also is a free look). They cranked purple in the mid to later rounds ending with 4 TEs to build out a solid room, despite getting slappy TE king Harold the duck Fannin sniped from them.
Islands
This Main Event was headlined by the one and only Shawn Siegele, featuring yet another draft from the front half of the board. In typical Shawn fashion this was a get your guys draft, where Shawn landed on some of his favorite plays, which included; Devon Achane, JSN, Jerry Jeudy, Bhayshul Tuten, Keaton Mitchell, and Harold Fannin.
Hot Hot Hot
Welcome back Gretch to draft this Main Event live on stream, where surprise surprise the boys snag another Brock Bowers share. In other news, they get their first Jonathan Taylor share before loading up on some of the WR favorites with a sprinkle of rookie running backs. At this point you should see several players which the crew is heavily invested in this season.
SC
This is the 5K Big Payback team that was drafted live with Leone and Gretch. A couple notes, this is a self contained league with no sprint, there is also no free looks available. Nothing gets the blood pumping more than starting CMC and old man Puka in a $5k draft. After that it was a lot of rookies, because drafting a team like its a $10 dynasty team is a compliment around these slappy parts.
Week 1 Waiver Priorities for FFPC
Below are all the players I like for Week 1 for FFPC leagues. I break down all players into tiers with FAAB suggestions and player analysis.
