How to Manage Your MFL10 Draft During the NFL Draft
We are approaching a very interesting time of the year to be drafting MFL10s, the NFL draft. There are a few ways to approach this big event when drafting, and this article will highlight the pros and cons of each strategy.
If you start a MFL10 draft in the days leading up to the NFL draft, you can sometimes control where you want your MFL10 draft to be during the NFL draft. A MFL10 that starts on April 26th, for example, may be right around round six or so when the NFL draft is taking place. If you want to keep a new MFL10 in the early rounds, you can stall your pick as much as possible, then that MFL10 may only be on the third or fourth round by the time the NFL draft takes place. So depending on what strategy below you want to implement, you can pace your draft to your liking.
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Drafting MFL10s During the NFL draft
If you have an MFL10 going on while the NFL draft takes place, there are a few ways you can approach this. You can draft at your normal drafting rate or you can sit on your pick for as long as possible. Sitting on your pick obviously only has a big advantage while the NFL draft (especially the first round) is actually taking place.
You won’t want to sit on your first or second round MFL10 pick as there won’t be any rookie that will go that high in MFL10s. Once in the third round or later of an MFL10, waiting out the first round of the NFL draft to find out players’ landing spots can have some benefit. If you are someone that wants to make their pick as fast as possible, just be very aware that there probably will be at least one person in your draft that will take a long time while the NFL draft is happening.
As the NFL draft is in progress and positional situations change, so to will your MFL10 situation change, depending on where you are in your MFL10 draft. If a running back lands in a great spot, his future ADP will be drastically different from where you draft him now. You may be in the ninth round of your draft in one league and the 12th in another; if you think that running back is a value at either spot and his ADP is sure to spike, don’t hesitate to grab him in both leagues, despite the three round difference. Expect rookies to go really quickly after they are drafted into the NFL, but that means other players may fall. If you don’t like any rookies around your pick, no matter where in the draft you are, don’t be afraid to grab the veteran value.
Drafting immediately after the NFL draft
This is my preferred strategy, because right after the NFL draft players’ teams are set but the rookies ADP’s haven’t fully settled in. While you won’t get the deals you get before, or even during the NFL draft, you also won’t get burned by a highly touted rookie getting stuck behind a stud on his new team.
The fun part of MFL10s immediately after the NFL draft is that it’s a giant game of chicken. A player who had an ADP of the 14th round pre-draft and landed in a favorable spot will obviously increase in value, but no one is sure how much. The best way to approach this within the positional group is to go down the list and figure out who you would rather have than the rookie. Figure out your sweet spot (that may be two or three rounds early) and grab that guy. If that rookie is in a great spot like you thought, their ADP may end up being even more expensive than you anticipated and you’ll be glad you reached (at the time) for that player.
Drafting After the Dust has Settled
This strategy is waiting for a few weeks after the NFL draft takes place, so rookie ADPs can settle while you do your research. You run the risk of not getting the value that you may get immediately after the NFL draft, but you will be more knowledgeable of the players and situations. The advantage of waiting is that rookies tend to bounce as they hit a point where they become too expensive and their ADP starts to drop again. You can use this method to mix and match your rookies across drafts by grabbing the ones whose ADPs are in decline.
Final Thoughts
As was explained earlier in this article, you could, and most likely will, have people in your draft that sit on their MFL10 pick at some point. I find this extremely frustrating as someone that doesn’t like to do this. While it is a perfectly sound strategy, and actually makes sense to get the most value for your team, it feels like a little too much gamesmanship for my liking. In the past I have benefited from this myself in getting a rookie very cheaply right after he was drafted, but was luckier timing than actually camping on the pick. Having knowledge of these three different times to draft around the NFL draft, and the pros and cons of each, you can decide when the best time for you to start your drafts is.
