#major hogan is Henry Blake

[thekenobee]

Sharpe + Incorrect quotes (Part 3)

@elodieunderglass- there you go ❤️

[fancoloredglasses]

M*A*S*H (An 11-year series about a 3-year war)

(Thanks to Lathan Luu)

[All images are owned by 20th Century Fox Disney. Please don’t sue or draft me]

It’s always weird when war is played for laughs. WWI had Blackadder Goes Forth, WWII had McHale’s Navy and Hogan’s Heroes, Vietman had Good Morning Vietnam, and Korea had M*A*S*H...twice.

(Thanks to Pixels)

M*A*S*H was originally a movie made in 1970 (starring Donald Sutherland and Elliot Gould) about a Mobile Army Surgical Hospital (MASH) unit designated the 4077th doing whatever they have to in order to stay sane during the Korean War. The film was rated R for good reason (some of the gags were NOT kid-friendly, such as the one where the doctors tore away a shower curtain, allowing the entire camp to see the head nurse bathing herself)

For whatever reason, CBS thought this was a great idea for a sitcom, and M*A*S*H debuted in 1974 (without shower gags, I’m sure) All of the characters were reprised (though all but one was recast), with one new role added. The series lasted 11 seasons, which displays the show’s popularity since the Korean War (which was the backdrop of the series) only lasted 3.

Though the series was technically a sitcom, it debuted during the Vietnam War, so there was a “War Is Bad” theme throughout the series (with one glaring exception)

Stationed less than 10 miles from the front lines, it is said several times in the series that the 4077 specializes in “meatball surgery” (pretty much patching up and stabilizing wounded enough that they can be either safely shipped off to an actual hospital or returned to the front lines) and has one of the best records of any MASH units in terms of survival among the dozens of casualties that are brought in daily, and it’s all due to the skilled surgical team (well...most of them are skilled anyway)

Commanding the 4077 is Lt. Colonel Henry Blake (played by McLean Stevenson in probably the only series he ever starred in that wasn’t cancelled during the first season), who mainly got his rank because he had administrative experience when he was drafted.

Henry barely manages to keep any semblance of control over the unit (which, when you consider most of his staff was also drafted and wants to be there even less than he does, says a lot about his administrative skills that he can keep most of them from openly revolting as they steamroll over him though sheer force of personality)

Henry’s second in command (and the only member of the unit that is so Army gung-ho that he actually wants to be there) is Major Frank Burns. Now, I’m not saying that Frank’s a bad surgeon, but there’s a joke that goes “What do you call someone who barely makes it out of med school?” “Dr. Burns”. I’m fairly certain the only reason he made Major involved lip balm and mouthwash.

Frank pretty much sums up the definition of ‘Murica: he’s racist, small-minded, and not that competent at his job. As such, he’s the butt of half the gags on the show.

The Chief Surgeon is NOT Frank (thank god!), but Captain Benjamin Franklin “Hawkeye” Pierce (played by Alan Alda), who is the best surgeon in the unit and the Chief Loony in this bin. If there is any sort of chicanery happening in the camp, you can bet that Hawkeye has some sort of hand in it (usually against Frank, whom he has the misfortune of bunking with) He is also a bit of a womanizer, having slept with most of the company nurses.

Hawkeye is also the most compassionate among the surgeons (certainly better than Frank, who has the bedside manner of a two-by-four to the head) and does what he can to wage his little protests against the war, including inducing stomach pains on a unit’s bloodthirsty CO to fake an appendicitis diagnosis in order to send him home before he gets any more of his men killed.

The Head Nurse is Major Margaret “Hot Lips” Houlihan (the nickname is a holdover from the film and is thankfully only referenced in the first season), a career military woman devoted to her duty (and unfortunately to Frank, who she has a not-so-secret relationship with. Just two problems: He’s married, and he obviously doesn’t plan on leaving said wife, despite making future plans with Margaret)

Margaret is a hard-nosed officer who respects discipline doesn’t take BS from anyone (though she’s also had to put up with a lot of Hawkeye’s shenanigans), especially male soldiers who can’t seem to hear her over the sound of her ovaries. She has been known to put men who disrespect her in their place, either dressing them down or punching them out, depending on the situation. Honestly, I would have a lot more respect for her if she didn’t let herself be the doormat of a weasel like Frank.

Hawkeye’s other bunkmate, as well as his co-conspirator, is Captain “Trapper” John McIntyre.

Sadly, the writers didn’t expand on his personality more than “Harpo to Hawkeye’s Groucho” 

Lieutenant (later Captain) Father Francis Mulkahy is the spiritual advisor for the 4077.

Given the nature of the unit he shepherds, he understands the need to “blow off steam” and is a bit lenient when it comes to a few of the Commandments, but he is steadfast in his faith and his mission, and can be a badass in his own way (he stared down a soldier who had him at gunpoint, disarmed the man, then embraced him as the soldier begged forgiveness)

Corporal Walter “Radar” O’Reilly (played by Gary Burghoff, the only member of the film’s cast that was also in the series) is the company clerk and assistant to Henry. He also seems to have a “sixth sense”, often knowing things (such as incoming wounded) before anyone could know.

Radar is at once naive/innocent and the shrewdest member of the unit. If he was less honest, he’d be running the 4077 within a week (he once tricked Henry into signing several blank pages so he could send through memos without his knowledge...in an effort to be more efficient, of course)

Corporal (later Sargent) Max Klinger (the only main character not from the film, played by Jamie Farr) is an orderly doing his damnedest to find any excuse to be shipped home and out of the Army.

ANY EXCUSE!

This lineup lasted for 5 seasons (remember what I said earlier about the length of the Korean War?) before casting changes started.

The first to be replaced was Henry Blake in the finale to Season 5. He received his discharge papers and was sent home (leaving Frank in charge) However, the writers weren’t content with that and, in a controversial move that pissed off a lot of viewers, gave Blake a sendoff that would be a metaphor for McLean Stevenson’s career after M*A*S*H...

(Thanks to jaslefty)

However, Frank’s power trip command would be short-lived, as a new CO would be quickly assigned shortly after Season 6 began.

Colonel Sherman Potter is career military and has been a field surgeon since WWII after serving in the cavalry (yes, the Army had Cavalry divisions as late as 1939. Not entirely sure why)

Potter brings a sense of discipline and gravitas Henry lacked (for starters, he’s not on a first-name basis with anyone in the unit) While he still tolerates Hawkeye’s (and Klinger’s) shenanigans, he’s just as likely to put a stop to them.

In the time between the end of Season 5 and the beginning of Season 6, Trapper was shipped home off-camera. Don’t worry though. He made it home safely...

...and wound up in a spin-off medical drama.

However, that left Hawkeye without a sidekick.

Enter Captain B.J. (his full name is never given) Hunnicutt. Unlike Trapper, B.J. didn’t blindly follow Hawkeye’s lead (in the faked appendicitis stunt earlier I mentioned earlier, B.J. tried to talk him out of it)

(Thanks to the martini kid)

B.J. is a very passionate surgeon (one Christmas, a fatally wounded soldier is brought in. B.J., knowing the man was going to die, refused to give up until after midnight so his family wouldn’t have bad memories associated with Christmas)

With the addition of Potter and B.J. (as well as Alan Alda’s growing influence about the direction of the show), the show began to morph from a sitcom to a dramedy, with the gags (while still a major part of the show) often taking a backseat to the horrors of war. Additionally, Margaret had moved on from a surrogate wife for Frank to an actual wife, marrying another career military man

...not that it kept her from doing her job.

With all of this, Larry Linville (who played Frank Burns) was getting frustrated as his character was becoming even more of a caricature. His departure (much like Trapper’s) was done off-camera. He pretty much disappeared with little fanfare. His official status at the end of the series was AWOL. I’d like to think that somewhere in South Korea, an ancient Frank Burns is moping in the tattered remains of his uniform and wondering where it all went wrong.

But without Frank to kick around, Hawkeye and B.J. needed a new target for their antics.

Fortunately, Potter managed to trick a visiting surgeon, Major Charles Winchester (played by David Ogden Stiers), into remaining with the unit. While he is the target of many of Hawkeye’s and B.J.’s antics (fairly easy since he got Frank’s old bed), he is able to dish it out as well (including collapsing their tent on his bunkmates as they slept)

Winchester obviously comes from Old Status and tries to bring a bit of culture to the chaos. He has a similar bedside manner as Frank (though much less abusive), but he cares about his patients (when he found out a soldier who lost the full use of a hand was a concert pianist, he found the soldier a number of pieces that could be played one-handed) and, though he hides it, is a compassionate soul (he had a case of chocolate shipped from his home in Massachusetts so he could anonymously give it to a Korean orphanage for Christmas)

This casting change was the final piece for the version of the cast most fondly remembered.

However, it was not the final change in the cast. Radar left the series at the beginning of Season 8. Unlike the other cast members, his spot was not replaced. Rather, Klinger was slotted in as the new company clerk.

There is a very good reason the series has often been touted as one of the greatest of all time. It tackles very weighty subjects in the middle of the antics, doesn’t shy away from how bleak the setting is, and (with the exception of Frank) the characters are allowed to grow, evolve, and most importantly, be human beings doing what they can to stay sane in the middle of hell.

If you would like to see the series, it’s available on Hulu.

I’ll review an episode if you want, but as will all comedies, my jokes are likely going to fall flat in comparison.

[twentiethcenturymoviesandtv]

Episode Spotlight: M*A*S*H, Season 1, Episode 17: Sometimes You Hear the Bullet

Frank Burns throws his back out and applies for a Purple Heart.  Meanwhile, Hawkeye Pierce meets, and later operates on, an old friend and struggles with the decision of whether or not to send an underaged soldier home.

More than halfway through season 1, M*A*S*H wasn’t exactly killing in the ratings.  The show wasn’t quite sure of itself yet, with tons of recurring characters that would end up dropped and other characters not yet added to the main cast.  Airing at eight o’clock on Sunday nights, M*A*S*H was, at this stage in the game, a relatively normal sitcom, albeit one with a bit sharper sense of humor.

That all changed with Sometimes You Hear the Bullet.

I’ll show you what I mean.

The episode starts humorously enough: Major Frank Burns throws his back out during a rendezvous with Major Houlihan.  He is placed into traction, where he applies for a Purple Heart for his ‘injury’.  Meanwhile, Hawkeye is visited by an old friend and kindred irreverent spirit: Corporal Tommy Gillis, a journalist who signed up for the front lines as he writes his book: You Never Hear the Bullet, a book meant to be written from a soldier’s point of view, instead of a reporter’s.

A helicopter full of wounded arrive at the unit, and Gillis returns to his post.

Among the wounded is a young man with a burst appendix, a Private Wendell Petersen, who is very anxious to get back to the front lines.  Hawkeye tells him that he has to rest for a few days before returning to his unit.  This doesn’t stop Wendell from attempting to steal an army jeep to try to get back, afraid that he was going to be sent home.

After talking with him, Hawkeye figures out the truth: Wendell Petersen is actually Walter Peterson, and he’s not even sixteen years old.

It turns out that Walter posed as his brother, Wendell, and entered the war to impress his girlfriend back home by returning with a medal.  He begs Hawkeye to keep his secret, and, after returning him to his bed, Hawkeye agrees.

Shortly, more wounded arrive, and among them is Tommy Gillis.  Hawkeye operates on him, but even his best is not enough, and he dies on the operating table after telling Hawkeye that he did hear the bullet.  Hawkeye tries to revive him, but Colonel Henry Blake orders him to move on to save another life.

Afterwards, Hawkeye breaks down crying.

“Henry, I know why I’m crying now. Tommy was my friend, and I watched him die, and I’m crying. I’ve watched guys die almost every day. Why didn’t I ever cry for them?”

“Because you’re a doctor.”

Hawkeye asks what that means, and Henry answers with one of the greatest lines in the show’s history.

“I don’t know. If I had the answer, I’d be at the Mayo Clinic. Does this place look like the Mayo Clinic? Look, all I know is what they taught me at command school. There are certain rules about a war. And rule number one is young men die. And rule number two is, doctors can’t change rule number one.”

Right then and there, Hawkeye decides to change rule number one in some small way, and calls the MPs on Private Wendell, really Walter, outing the fact that he’s underage.  Walter, outraged, tells Hawkeye that he’ll never forgive Hawkeye for the rest of his life.

Hawkeye replies: “Let’s hope it’s a long and healthy hate.”

In one final scene (one that’s usually cut from syndication), Henry Blake begins to present Frank with his Purple Heart, only to find it replaced with a purple earring, while outside, Hawkeye pins the Purple Heart on Walter to make up for turning him in, sending him home, but home a hero.

The end.

Sometimes You Hear the Bullet is considered one of M*A*S*H’s best episodes for a reason.  This is an early episode, one that is regarded as a tone and trend setter for the rest of the series in terms of both storyline balance (one or two serious plotlines, one humorous), and content itself, one of the first episodes to sit down and truly explore the characters within this tragic situation.  At this moment, M*A*S*H ceased being a comedy show and became a dramedy, with one of the most memorable moments and exchanges in the show’s long history.

While this episode may seem like a standard half-hour of television, at the time, especially for this show, it was something different.  It was no longer a slapstick grittier Hogan’s Heroesque irreverent comedy about soldiers, it was a show about a group of people stuck in the middle of a war, with death all around them.  And no matter how good Hawkeye, or any of the doctors, are at their jobs, they’ll never be able to save everyone.

It’s sobering, but it’s a truth that the show had, for the first time, truly explored, and it’s that initial exploration, that glimmer of what this show was going to become, that puts this episode under so much recognition: Sometimes You Hear the Bullet was the warning sign, the first moment that the writers got a handle on the show that would become a classic.

Of course, it has it’s problems.  

Not tonal ones, at least, not exactly.  Throughout its entire run, M*A*S*H often had two or three plots going, one serious, one humorous.  This is a smart strategy: balance out the dark with the light, giving each episode a more even feeling instead of being too much one or the other.  Although the show would get darker and more serious as time went on, the writers never abandoned this plan, allowing M*A*S*H to remain a consistent dramedy throughout the show’s run, keeping the audience laughing and crying at the same time.

In the case of Sometimes You Hear the Bullet, the ‘funny’ subplot is obvious: Frank Burns and his Purple Heart.  The other two storylines are the serious ones: Hawkeye’s friend, as well as the underaged soldier.  However, in most cases, as in this one, these plotlines inevitably intersect, and it’s here that this particular episode might cause a few problems.

I mentioned that the final scene in the episode is typically cut from syndication: the sequence where Frank’s purple heart is stolen and given to the underaged soldier, instead.  While this scene may not, at first, seem inherently out of place within the context of the rest of the episode, swinging from comedy to drama within a minute, there are those who believe that this scene unintentionally undermines the rest of the episode, or the main thrust established a few moments earlier.

And those people aren’t exactly wrong.

I certainly agree that the episode would have been stronger had it ended with the soldier’s final interaction with Hawkeye been proclaiming his hatred, only for Hawkeye to soberly respond that he hopes it’s a long and healthy hate.  Changing that to this new ending, where Hawkeye sends him home with a medal, seems almost out of character for Hawkeye, taking away some of the sincerity and severity of the message just a moment earlier.  The idea that this soldier could bring himself to forgive Hawkeye so soon, before realizing what exactly he’d been saved from, seems a little disingenuous after the weight previously given to this subplot.

In later episodes, it’s possible, even probable that this episode wouldn’t have ended tied in such a neat bow.  But that’s one of the things that’s so interesting about this episode.

Sometimes You Hear the Bullet isn’t the first episode of ‘true’ M*A*S*H as it would be remembered in the future, but it is the first episode where M*A*S*H comes into its own themes, looking hard at war, and the toll it takes not only on the soldiers, but on the surgeons, as well.  Before this, for the most part, ‘characters’, friends of the cast, did not die on the operating table.  Not when Hawkeye could save him.

But I’m going to quote Hawkeye from another season 1 M*A*S*H episode, Yankee Doodle Doctor, as I think that it sums up this the point of this episode pretty well:

“Three hours ago, this man was in a battle. Two hours ago, we operated on him. He’s got a 50-50 chance. We win some, we lose some. That’s what it’s all about. No promises. No guaranteed survival. No saints in surgical garb. Our willingness, our experience, our technique are not enough. Guns, and bombs, and anti-personnel mines have more power to take life than we have to preserve it. Not a very happy ending for a movie. But then, no war is a movie.”

That right there is the point of Sometimes You Hear the Bullet, to the point where the doomed Tommy Gillis even references the film tropes of a young, fresh-faced kid hearing the bullet that kills him.  This is the message that Hawkeye must grapple with: he cannot save everyone.

No matter how much he knows, how good he is, he can never save everyone.  No guaranteed survival.

It’s sobering, but it’s the truth.  And it’s what makes this episode so memorable.

M*A*S*H at this point was still mostly a comedy, a series full of jokes and the occasional serious moment, and it would continue to be so for another few years.  But it was this episode, episode seventeen of the first season, that signaled to audiences that this show could be more than that.  It could make you laugh, sure, but it could make you cry, and it wasn’t that surprising: this was war.

In short: by itself, is Sometimes You Hear the Bullet one of the greatest episodes of television, or even M*A*S*H, ever written?  Maybe.  Maybe not.  But what it is, without much doubt, is the first sign of maturity in a show that had a lot of growing up to do.

Whether the shift was instantaneous or not, the fact is, Sometimes You Hear the Bullet was a game changer in the show’s history, the first break in format that truly showed audiences what they could expect in the years ahead.

On top of that?  It’s just a good episode.

The plot balance is decent, without too much mood-whiplash that could so easily occur in a war dramedy.  The characters, decently familiar to audiences by now, all work off of each other just as well as ever, funny, interesting, and heartfelt in turn.  It’s an example of early M*A*S*H at it’s best, overshadowing many first season episodes with a level of depth previously mostly unexplored, delivering on every scene and remaining mostly genuine.  It’s an engaging episode, full of memorable moments that are thoughtful and earnest, making this episode a standout, a moment in television history, and an unmissable installment for avid watchers of M*A*SH, and television fans in general.

Don’t forget that the comment box is always open for anything from suggestions and discussion ideas to questions and conversations!  Thank you guys so much for reading, and I hope to see you guys in the next article.

[hottytoddynews]

HottyToddy.com would like to congratulate everyone who made the Honor Roll and Dean’s List this first nine weeks of the school year.

Della Davidson Elementary School Honor Roll – First Quarter 2017-2018

Principal’s List (All A’s) Abraham, Luke Elias Adams, Catherine Archer Adams, Indaniya A’myani Albadry, Malak Mohamed Alderson, Michael Rel Alford IV, John Warner Allen, Hardy Vinson Amidon, Annabelle Kristin Anderson, Chloe Ryan Baeshen, Norah Ruth Beard, Bradley William Belk, Rylee Erin Bell, Valerie Denise Blackburn, Collins Brantley Blackwood, Donald James Bodie, Eden Brooks Bouldin, William Maxwell Bowling, Poppy Katherine Bragg, John Lawson Brasell, Thomas Murry Burkes, Avery Jane Burlaka, Anna Campbell, James Bryan Carlisle, Dylan Cerny Carr, Sophie Anne Chambers, Chi Tianna Tameko Chavis, Ruby Maude Chen, Winnie Clark, Hudson Truett Colby, Andrew David Collums, Paisley Isabelle Cooper, Adam Michael Cormack, Madison Leigh Cowgill, Benjamin Garrett Curry, Nilydia Nicole Dale, Lake Reed Denevan, Brody Patrick Edlin, Lydia Catherine Embry, Mamie Caldwell Farese, Alexa Perry Feltenstein, Liza Kimbrell Ferguson, Jordyn Armani Fortyz, Xander Bryce Franks, Addison Elise Fruge’, Benjamin Guy Gandhi, Sanya Manish Gary, Walker Edmond Giles, Harris Fisher Gray, Sadie Alan Green, Mary Bea Greene, Isabel Faye Hale, Mary Elena Hall, Hayden Zackery Hamilton, Judson Silas Hill, Jordan Amir Hipp, Abigail Laura Houston, Zaria Mau’Ja Hyneman, Howard Povall James, Calvin Larry Jang, Jun Jones, Eleanor Claire Jones, Molly Caroline Jones, Sawyer Reed Kariuki, Claire Ng’endo Kava, Luseane Keskin, Adem Keskin, Sibel Elizabeth King, Eleanor Anne Knef, Ava Grace Knight, Evan Dewayne Koestler, Andrew Preston Kosko, Garrett Alexander Kovachev, Martin Evgeni Laporte, Kenton James Lauzon, Kimberly Madison Levy, Lillian Vera Lewis, Julia Slade Lowery, Ellie McCay Luber, Charlotte Allen Lynch, Breannah Danielle Lynn, Tate Alden Mason, Katherine Mims McGinness, Alexandria Eve McLellan, Elizabeth Rose Meyer, Logan Charles Milton, Henry Tucker Moore, Andrew Taygen Moore, Russell Paul Morales-Romero, Brittany Michelle Morgan, D’Nijha Danielle Morris, Wyatt Bryan Myers, Carter Lewis Nemesek, Jackson James Nichols, Kelling Elizabeth Nordstrom, Katherine Crenshaw Odom, Streater Bliss Oliver, Leecie Bella Overby, Hogan Ryan Oyler, Henry Chadwick Pan, Raymond Park, Jinseo Patel, Rishi Rakesh Payne, Peyton Rowe Pegues, Madison Renae Percy, Phinizy Davis Percy, William Strong Perry, Anna Reed Pettis, Jerkeria Amyai Phillips, Preston David Putt, Harrison Gage Rainey, Elijah Edward Rajesh, Saishri Reeder, Ella Grace Reynolds, Madison Nicole Rhodes, Mary Helen Roane, Kathryn Annette Robbins, Michael Anderson Roberson, Ann Lillian Robinson, James Barrett Robinson, Rachel Lynn Rogers, Chanijah Makaila Santiago, Krizhan Wynn Tubale Schuesselin, Nancy Elaine Shaw, Zoe Elizabeth Shelton, John Mack Sherman, Gracie Jackson Sherman, Olivia Cate Shinall, Trevor Dean Shipman, Samuel Aylon Sisk, Trinity Ja’Kiya Smith, Anna Prescott Smith, Collier Elizabeth Smith, JoAnna Maize Smith, Zander Kade Snider, Kylie Anne Stein, Michael Anthony Mack Steinriede, Eleanor Catherine Still, Michael Banks Sullivan, William Russell Tatum, Cohen Hux Thompson, William Wright Toms, Pearce Pegram Tosh, Amanda Claire Trout, Davis Walker Turner, James Talmadge Turner, Sullivan Catledge Urbanek, Evan Harper Van Every, Thaxton Delane Vaughan, Graham Thomas Vega, Isabella Leigh Vincent, Ari Levi Wadlington, Keirra Lynn Waldrop, Cameron Lee Waldrop, Elise Ann Waller, Andrew Hinton Warrington, John Patrick Weaver, Dorian Jacob White, John Wilson Wigginton, Aubrey Mae Wiley, Lorelei Kathryn Wilfawn, Claire Kamryn Wilkes, Alice Gardner Williams, Ellen Kate Wilson, Loughran Samantha Woo, Yewon Youngblood, Cameron Layne Zinn, Dequan Montez

Teacher’s List (All A’s & B’s) Adams, Olandria Lashea A’layshia Agnew, Andrew Laster Alhusban, Ghaith Ali Amaya Hernandez, Noeli Nicole Anthony, Joshua Cole Armstrong, Kylan Lashun Arya, Medha Avdiienko, Anatolii Balderama, Ingrid Yamilet Ball, Camden Jace Barnes, Lela Monae Barrett, Aniston Claire Bass, Eden Derartu Beard, Mary Virginia Beauchamp, Luly Anne Bell, Jacob Taylor Bennett, Callie Grace Blackwelder, Jaxon Xander Bogue, Ali Cheyanne Bolton, Parker Elizabeth Bondurant, Stanford James Booker-Wilkins, Mary Kay Booker, Zaniyah A’Leah Booth, Stephen Armand Brannon, Ca’Mari D’Aisha Brannon, Khalisia Anaya Brownlee, Addison Elizabeth Brownlee, Olivia Gracelyn Burrell, David Lee Carroll, Thomas David Cassidy, William Garner Castillo, Yostin Yarid Cayetano, Caitlin Cayetano, Caylee Denise Centellas, Javier Enrique Certion, Kasidy Allyse Chaney, Elliott Chavis, Bazil Major Cockrum, McKenna Renee Cook, Joe Garrett Cowgill, Isabella Katherine Crain, Kennedy Clark Crouch, Campbell Cathryn Crowe, Clara Darden Cunningham, Harper Ray Davis, Brooklyn Landry Davis, Lyric Alexander Davis, Sierra Niquel Denham, Emerson Grace Dennis, Elijah Daniel Ding, Joanna Donahoe, Barrett Hardy Douglas, Grace Adin Downing, Margaret Caroline Doyle, Sean Riley Elhawy, Abdallah Khaled Elhawy, Sohila Khalid Erwin, Parker Thomas Evans, Hunter Lee Feathers, Reagan Leigh Ferguson, Cade Baxter Fields, August Flowers, Marcus Jerome Foster, Nevan David Fountain, Thomas Whittingtion Freeman, Salayah Samere Frierson, Deslyn Reann Gaia, Wesley Stephens Gammill, Brayden Thomas Gilliom, Aryanna Kenise Ginn, Micah Joseph Gist, Grayson Taylor Gray, Parker Thompson Greer, Micah Alexxander Gregory, Kingston Wells Gregory, London Jules Griffin, Clayton Rusty Wayne Hankins, Deangelo Omari Harbin, Mariah Kionna Hardenburgh, Madelyn Brooke Harrington, Sophia Clair Harris, Lainey Elizabeth Harrison, Taylor Matthew Haymans, George Stouton Helveston, Susan Patton Hendrickson, Carson Alexander Herrington, Carter Matthew Hervey, Adaysia Holcomb, Benjamin Cade Hom, Nathanael Ioan Hopper, Jeremy Campbell Hosemann, Sarah Katherine Howell, LaKayla Lauren Maree Huchin, David Alexander Hunt, Kaden Deshawn Hunter, Riley Claire Jacobs, Da’Niya Rena James, William David Jernigan, Maier Dixon Johnson, Hannah Brooke Johnson, William Jay Jones, Makinzi Gabrielle Jones, William Wesley Kelley, Caroline Jewel Kelly, Jasmine Grace King, Emily Katherine Knighton, Cohen Hoyt Le, Ryan Gia Bao Lewellen, Grady Charles Lewis, Allyson Kate Lilly, Lucy Lujie Love, Caroline Grace Lovelady, William Niles Lowe, Nicholas Wallace Luke, Harrison Thomas Maiden, Simeon Rashad Marzouk, Farida Omar Masinelli, Andrew Charles Mathis, Isaiah Contrell Mayo, John Alexander Mayo, William Bradley McCullough, Brody Cole McEwen, Kennedy Brooke McJunkins, Addyson Auraiyana McKenzie, Layton Rose McThune, Deundrea Rowmel Montgomery, Ann Luckett Morgan, Emma Hardin Najjar, Noah Joseph Nautiyal, Riddhi Neely, Robert Myril Nguyen, Phuoc James Thien Nocentino, Gabrielle May Notestone, Nancy Carole Nuon, Ian Cole Oliver, Robert Eli Owens, Chequila Aeisha MyAngel Perez Alfaro, Itzari Perry, Jamari De’Juan Phillips, Antonio Deangelo Pritchard, Serenity Juliet Radwan, Renad Ramsey, Bradley Wayne Ray, Siobhan Julia Reed, Germaine Emmanuel Roane, Braxton Jewell Robinson, Andrea Nicole Robinson, Cory Brandon Robinson, Jada Sha’Mya Rodriguez-Padilla, Stephanie Ross, Elijah James Russell, John Alden Sanchez, Alexander Cash Sankar, Deekshita B Schock, Kennedy Jo Schornhorst, Lillian Hannah Schweigart, Tryston Scott Scoggins, Ethan Sheldon, George Lawson Shepard, Kaitlyn Elizabeth Shoaf, Jack Hamilton Shows, Anderson Grady Sims, A’niyah Jhana’e Sims, Ja’Niyah Zha’Rai Singletary, Jane Anne Sisk, Hannah A’lise Smith, Chase Manning Smith, Ly’Niyah Smith, Zyterrion Spight, Xavion Y’Urijah Staten, Haley Marie Stewart, Rebecca Ann Striplin, Alli Reese Sullivan, Anna Kate Summers, Brady Eli Terrell, Destiny L Tew, Dashiel Cohen Thompson, Mariah La’Vonne Torres, Miguel Angel Travis, Savannah Grace Trimble, Tristan Nathaniel Turner, Cortez Lamont Urbina, Alex David Urbina, Gustavo Ussery, Lauren Addison Walker, James Radford Wallace, Rakerion Rickyus Watts, Kayla Marie Watts, Madalynne E Webb, Colten Joseph Wells, Reid Thornton Westmoreland, Allie Jaymes Westmoreland, Luke Chadwick Wilkins, Jayden Rashaan Wilks, Alexis Makayla Williams, Cooper Marshall Williams, Olivia Louise Williams, Sarai’ Danielle Wilson, Jussyaih Keeyunnah Wilson, Zanija Alexis Nicole Windham, John Colvin Winkler, Lily Anne Woodard, Audarrius Dewayne Yourn, Kloey Lynn Zhang, Grant Ruiyuan

Oxford Intermediate School Honor Roll – First Quarter 2017-2018

Principal’s List (All A’s) Adams, Lily Belden Alexander, Captain Provine Allen, Hylan Gates Arevalo, Luis Angel Bain, Samuel Stewart Baker, Harley Jayne Barr, Nelson Mandrill Berry, Caroline Lillian Bigham, Ann Hunter Boone, Pharis Louise Bourn, Mary Mills Bradley, Taylor Kate Brown, Ajzah Iyuana-Jakia Bruce, Elliot Olen Bundren, Sara Kate Byars, Mary Dale Campbell, Benjamin Marshall Cancer, Zaria Cannon, Ty’Derrius Quavieon Carleton, Carley Gray Carlisle, Connor Hugh Carroll-Gonzalez, Sophia Jeanette Cassidy, Jillian Everett Claassen, Juneau Cohen, Rachel Cohn, Sofia Grace Coleman, Sariyah Mae-Lynn Colley, Megan Elizabeth Collins, Deandre Quevon Cooper, Nathaniel Harry Covington, Blake Elliot Crenshaw, Jacob D Dabbs, Alice Kathryn Dale, Atticus Darwin Daniels, John Swayze Daugherty, Miller Michael Denham, Evelyne Lee Dennis, Jeffrey Brown Dolan, John Henry Dossett-Bridgers, Elsie James Dossett-Bridgers, Lee Tucker East, Ava Lee Edwards, Lucas David Eubanks, Nikki Mae Farese, Luke William Ferriss, Cayden Quin Floate, Wyatt Matthew Flowers, Alexander Harris Foster, Larcen Michelle Fountain, James Michael Frierson, Camaria Calyse Fruge’, Charles Mitchell Fuller, Andrevion Rayshad Gentry, Claire Renae Gililland, Hayden Claire Golden, Quevyn Javion Golmon, William Bradley Goolsby, Victoria Ann Goulet, Gilad Grafton, Carolyn Chase Grantham, Bradley Wynne Gray, Harper Elizabeth Gray, Madeline Elizabeth Greene, Samuel Thomas Greenlee Doty, Georgia Love Hamilton, Taylor Grace Harper, John Andrew Heard, Parker Madison Helsel, Maci Hemmins, Scarlet Virginia Henderson, Susanna Elise Heuer, Sam Robertson Hill, Jack Westbrook Hill, William Maxwell Hilliard, Xaikeese Deontae Hitchcock, Jonas Grey Hollinger, Christopher William Homan, Madeline Taylor Hooker, Anna Elise Houston, Walker Wyatt Hurdle, Ella Beth Ibrahim, Mennah Mohamed Ali Ivy, Jack Whitten Jones, Henry Tucker Jones, Kamari Danielle Jones, Kobe Isaiah Jones, Madison Elizabeth Jones, Zoey Denise Karahan, Elisa Fonseca Kevin, Bridgette Kirk, Benjamin Carter Koestler, Leland Matthew Langendoen, Isabelle Terezija Lawhead, Christine Elizabeth Laws, Edward Knox Le, Michelle T Lowery, Madeline Grace Luber, Miles Atchison Majumdar, Sneha Makamson, Benjamin Joseph Maloney, Brady Michael Mauney, Ellie Katherine Maxwell, Mae Covington Mayo, Ian James McClellan, Ella Catherine McCready, Carson Neal McLellan, Andrews Mitchell Meagher, Mary Lucile Beatrice Mina-Reyes, Gabriel Alexander Monroe, George Henry Moss, Lucy Claire Murthy, Prajwal Narasimha Nagle, Nicholas Ming-Rui Najjar, Adam Alexander Nichol, Thomas Osborn Noel, Mary Grace Notestone, William King Oyler, Cole Madeline Perry, Lucy Clare Randle, Ava Caroline Rayburn, Thomas Harrison Rayner, Lila Elizabeth Reeder, Emma Kathryn Ritchie, Alexandra Ingrid Roland, Elijah Sessions Salau, Fawaz Olaitan Samuels, Charles Kane Sanchez, Tomas Alessandro Schmelzer, Carson Joseph Schmelzer, Catherine Elizabeth Scott, Anne Bailey Scott, Cooper Aubrey Shaw, Annie Cade Sherman, Evelyne Graham Shipman, Mary Margaret Shorter, Addyson Grace Shows, Emily Crawford Smith, Julia Anne Smith, Sharpe Holiman Smith, Sutherland Ross Solinger, Jordan Maxwell Srinath, Navaneeth Stinnett, Brady Patrick Sudduth, Ashley Lorraine Taylor, Janiya B A Tomlinson, Vivian Anne Tschumper, Katherine Mae Tulchinsky, Jacob Tulchinsky, Payton Ann Urbanek, Kaitlyn Sanders Valliant, Wells Gregory Van Every, Everhett Hawkins Vasilyev, Vivian Scott Vega, Sarah Kendall Vijayasankar, Arjun Vo, Binh Quoc Wages, Mallory Jennings Waldrop, Fisher Wells Walker, Ava Taylor Walker, Samantha Daye Walls, Jason Kendrick Weaver, Alana Ann White, Charles S Wicker, Claire Catherine Wigginton, Georgia Gray Wilkes, Carter Broom Wilkinson, William Pratt Williamson, Alice Lindley Wilson, Ava Elizabeth Wilson, Caroline Rose Wilson, Jeremiah Windham, Byron Pearson Windham, Clayton Page Young, Grant Powell

Teacher’s List (All A’s & B’s) Abbott, Carolyn Rose Al-Ostaz, Mohannad Ahmed Allen, Walker Harrison Almutairi, Hanin Anderson, Jakeria Anderson, Seger Cappaert Anjanappa, Saurab S Aquino, Zaiden Allen Arnold, Bailey Reighn Atkinson, Landon Kyle Austin, Mariam Catherine Avery, Kanalu Olamana Baddour, Paul Marion Balkin, Gabriela Analise Banks, Cam’Ron Barry, Brooke Padgitt Barton, Katherine Louise Bass, James Tanner Bean, Z’nyla Amor Belenchia, Natalie Paige Benedict, Anna Lauren Bishop, Margaret Ann Blackwelder, Jagger Anthony Blair, Natalie Elizabeth Blount, Levi Daniel Bombelli, Nicholas Boyas, William Joaquin Brasell, Jane Saxon Brown, Madison Ann Buford, Julian Burleson, Dixie Katherine Burns, Hunter Kylen Busby, Jack Garland Busby, Mary Caroline Buschlen, Keaton Vaughn Buzareiba, Raghad Omran Caldwell, Jordan Austin Campbell, A’Yhuna Nakeyia Carmean, Evelyn Rose Carmean, Jane Reeves Carrington, Glenn Elizabeth Carter, Callie Grace Case, Olivia Linton Castillo-Tabora, Genesis Causey, Jacquelynne Jeanne Edith Certion, M’Layjah Jovian Cerveny, Andrew David Coleman, Nadia Bethanie Cope, John Grayson Cormack, Kennedy Reese Cottom, Leiaidra Mi’Joi Crocker, Timothy Ezekiel Dale, Madelyn Sophia Daniels, Annika Marie Davis, Madison Rihanna Doner, Emileigh Grace Dowling, Larkin Bernini Dudley, Jeremiah Lajordan Ealey, So’Nia Carrie Christine East, Michael Ann Eastland, Hiram C Espinoza, Jayda Sophia Estes, Wesley Brett Farmer, Marjorie Elizabeth Fassinger, Kaden Chase Felix, Matthew Ripken Finner, Christopher A J Flaschka, Max Russell Wolf Flaschka, Mollie Blair Ford, Christopher Ezekiel Fowler, Kathryn Presley Franklin, Thomas Gerald Freeman, Wyatte Holden Fuller, Kardesia Janae’ Gaia, John Wallace Gandhi, Syna Manish Gillis, Lindsey Elizabeth Glenn, Raven Tarrell Dee Green, Ladaejah Jeriah Grem, William Miles Gussow, Shaun David Hamilton, Emma Kathleen Haralson, Hannah Lynn Harrington, Chloe Marie Hazlewood, Margaret Elaine Henderson, Evelyn Lynn Herrera, Alexander Santiago Herron, Kentravion Temelle Hilliard, Akevia Leigh-Ann Hilliard, Ryan Glenn Hillmer, Cailey Nicole Hobson, Breuna Cheri Hodges, Makyah Zaire Horton, Auriana Hyche, Avery Lynn Ibrahim, Zeyad Mohamed Ali Jackson, Elise Ann Jernigan, Patricia Bell Joyce, Colby Richard Jubera, Robert Judson, Braylen Terrell Kamman, Barrett Denton Kelley, Madelyn Kent, Reid Andrew Kimbrell, Elizabeth Rivers Knef, Andrew H Knight, Colton Gray Kosko, Bailey Mullins Landry-Rahaim, Rose Latimer, Sarah Ross Le, Kevin Lewis, Avery Pierce Lewis, Elaina Renee Lewis, Jon Allen Lewis, Samuel Wallace Lovorn, Rowan Elliott Lowe, Jane Claire Martin, Colton Andrew Martins, Pedro Machado May, Olivia Helen Mayo, Cait Frances Mayoral, Braden John McCarty, Tamiyiah MoShay McCollins, Zuri Ayana McCullen, Laura Kathleen McCurdy, Sean Thomas McDaniel, Aden Gregory McElroy, Mattie Elizabeth McMillian, Javien Malachi Mercier, Georgia Rose Metcalf, Zoe Abigail Miller, Ana Mitchell, Ameir Mercedes Montgomery, Elizabeth Stewart Moreton, Anders Morgan, Houston Rivers Morgan, Michaela Lynn Mott, William Ross Munoz-Pascacio, Nathalie Nautiyal, Rishi Ndaruhutse, Boaz Tonto Nichols, William Ray Nordstrom, William Davis Norman, Robert Harrell O’Dowd, Brendan Charles Osborne, Annelise Taylor Parker, Elijah Parsons, Madelyn Yahel Pascacio, Joshten Raul Patton, Nyla Danielle Perkins, Anna Claire Pharr, Luke Benjamin Pruitt, Parker Jude Randle, Ethan Monroe Ray, Layton Ramsey Reed, Virginia Lynn Richards, Benjamin Graham Richards, Elijah Davis Rico, Anna Beatrix Rico, Patrick Finlay Robertson, Rivers Burton Robinson, Chance Robinson, Lillian Grayson Roy, Sam Morgan Samaniego, Alexa Itsallana Saxton, Andrew Martin Schardan, Julian Schock, Landon David Schwaegerl, Lena Charlotte Schweigart, Brenleigh Paige Scott, Nicholas Dane Scruggs, Sydney Kathryn Shoaf, Abby Elliston Sipes, Brooks Sipps, Annabelle Grace Smith, Emaleigh Sosa Rodriguez, Franklin Speed, John Thomas Strum, Madison Grace Swingle, Jack Manning Tallie, Kamayia Tallie, Keon’Taye Da’Shan Tatum, Carlisle Emery Taylor, Avaleigh Renee Taylor, Sovient Zantrell Thigpen, Alicia Renee Thomas, Amelia Walker Toles, Noah Elex Tompkins, Lillie Lizabeth Toney, Deriah Elizabeth Treloar, Davis Alexander Tyson, Tara Nicole Urbina, Natalia Elena Ussery, Reed Fowler Valliant, Rebeka Claire Vaughn, Brinnan Jaynes Vaughn, Makinly Grace Wadley, Amari Latrice Wadley, JaMarion Martavis Weathersbee, Mary Carolyn Elizabeth Webb, Elizabeth Riggan White, Kierstan Marcia Wicker, Bryce Chapin Wiley, Violet Nicole Wilkins, Stella Kathryn Wilkinson, Katherine Owen Wishon, Dylan Lee Wymer, Abraham Young, Kasiyah Kevionna Youngblood, Olivia Ashlyn Zachos, Lucian

Oxford Middle School Honor Roll – First Quarter 2017-2018

Principal’s List (All A’s) Abernathy, Sallie Virginia Addy, Aiden Lamar Alluri, Ajay Varma Amidon, Noah Jared Atchley, Andrew Crawford Austin, Katherine Grace Baggett, Kanesha Latrice Ball, Braden Matthew Barksdale, Brianna Denise Barrett, Lealand Gracie Barrios, Emory Caperton Beauchamp, Mattie Hanks Berry, William Wells Bianco, Catherine Louise Bigham, Brock Thurman Blair, Lydia Helen Bland, Hudson Lawrence Boudreaux, Claire Brewer, Joshua Alexander Brown, Jonathan Campbell, William Hayden Caradine, Miles Milton Emett Carter, Elijah Guy Carter, Joseph Andrew Case, Audrey Davis Cassisa, Carolina Grace Clark, Lacey Katherine Clinton, Nora Dean Cook, Madeline Ellsworth Cooper, Ciara Jo Crawley, Carsyn Swayzie Dabbs, Walker Pace Daniels, Dorothy Grace Davis, Farryn Kennedy Dennis, Julia McQueen Devera, Rowan Hayes Douglas, Faith Ann Dyminski, Thomas Randall Farmer, Sadie Grace Fruge’, Rosemary Katherine Giles, Lucian Witherspoon Goulding, Aidan S. Green, Henry Hasselman Greene, Amelia Lea Greer, Allison Reed Habeeb, Reagan Leigh Harper, Hannah Heard, Kaitlyn Paige Heuer, Everett Bowen Hill, John Bailey Hunt, Addison Marleigh Johnson, Josianna Elizabeth Kang, Mina Karthikeyan, Keerthin Kendricks, John Scott Knight, Ethan Tyler Latil, Jacob Walker Le, Johnson Le, Thu Anh Lewis, Louise Anne Ligon, Charles Thomas Little, Rosemary Elizabeth Love IV, John Clark Maryam, Numa Mathis, Kaylin Jennae Maxwell, James Donald McClure, Jeffrey Williams Miller, Saylie Parker Monteith, Savannah Isabel Bel Moore, Sarah Grace Murphy, Patrick Francis Newsom, William Luke Nordstrom, Benjamin Eli Ormon, Ava Kathryn Patel, Aidan Rakeah Perry, John West Purdom, Kara Elizabeth Ratliff, Charleston Edward Rayburn, Cecilia Reed, Vanessa Nicha Reysen, Ember Noelle Rhodes, Katelin Faith Roberson, Riley Elizabeth Robinson, Grant Wilson Rock, Cassidy Nicole Rubenstein, Zoe Elizabeth Sawyer, MacKenzie Lee Sawyer, Madison Nicole Schmelzer, Callie Grace Sharp, Chloe Anne Shelton, Emma Sanders Shipley, Savannah Harlow Shorter, Ashten Dean Smith, Stratton Holt Steinriede, Anne Walcott Stevens, Heath Michael Stewart, Olivia Ellen Sullivan, Aidan Thomas Sweeney, Connor Patrick Swingle, Molly Caroline Thompson, Ella McKinley Tosh, Ella Kathryn Trujillo, Aaron Michael Valdez, Xavier Edgar Wages, Caroline Grayson Walker, Anna Caroline Warrington, James Davis Weathersbee, Jeremiah Davis White, Avery Hannah Wicker, Sarah Grace Wigginton, Luke Lafayette Wilkinson, John Franklin Hassell Windham, William Thomas Woo, Nathan Kyoungseo Yant, Jane Isabella Zhang, Luke Xi

Teacher’s List (All A’s & B’s) Alexander, Zakeri Alan Alger, Anna Aloia, Jonah Grayson Anderson, James Wilder Arizaga, Genoveva Grace Armstrong, Aubrey Laine Austin, Brooks Crockett Baeshen, Andrew Hesham Bailey, Ramey Elliott Barnett, Evelyn Eliot Barton, Grace Anne Beebe, John Robert Belk, Aiden James Bell, Diamond Kierra Bergeron, Molly Merritt Best, Lauren Elizabeth Bial IV, Joseph John Bishop, Steven Matthew Blaylock, Evelyn Isabella Blount, Hope Davidson Bogan, Ticyana Anecia Renay Booker, Kirsten Ja’Derria Bowling, Adam Miller Brazell, Jessica Paige Brewer, Kaitlyn Emma Bruce, Norah Mary Jane Buchanan, Joseph Thomas Burkes, Anna Sophia Burkes, Delaney Grace Busby, Hattie Elizabeth Buschlen, Ethan Gareth Bush, Levi Matthew Byars, Charles Randolph Cabello, Michael Caldwell, Kalvia O’Nealvea Caldwell, Sparkle Ariel Campbell, Alysia Michelle Carothers, Sharenity Lynn Carwile, William Westmoreland Case, Mary McLauren Childers, Eva Ruth Contractor, Ria Zaksis Cooper, Noah Emmanuel Cope, Aiden Saliba Crane, John Spencer Crowe, Ellen Emerson Dabney, Thompson Daugherty, Amelie Parker Dennis, Ivy Suzanne Dennis, Jackson William Dorrell, Colin Semmes Downing, Stephen Matthew Dunaway, Drue Alexis Elliott, William M Ellis, William Vaiden Enfinger, Jena Brooke Fair, Virginia Ross Brown Fiveash, Jayda Grace Floate, Aidan Mark Freeman, Grace Kennedy Freeman, Samari Shani Fyke, Lola Carter Gaia, Madeleine Barnett Gililland, Joshua Alan Grantham, Robert Sharp Hanbury, Lauren Elizabeth Hardy, Julia Brent Harvey, Michael David Helsel, Mia Claire Hemmins, Jude Owen Henderson, Isabel Morrow Hewitt, Mary Alexandra Hickey, Morgan Hill, Anna Louise Ho, Jennifer Hodge, Claire Elise Hood, Catelin Grace Houston, Audria Aerial Huggins, Lylian Douglas Hunter, Sara Grace Hyneman, Henry Lewis Jacob, Katherine Elizabeth Jo, Samuel Hwanhee Johnson, Luke Daniel Jones, Averie Taylor Kincaid, David William Kirkwood, Ryan Tray’Shawn Langley, Avery Marie Lewis, William Goodloe Lipsey, JaMichael Takyland Logan, Vincent Chase Lowery, Charles Gavin Lynch, Robert Michael Madkins, Sariah Monyae May, Sarah Lynlee McGinness, Arkady Walker McInnis, Taylor McKey, Jude McMillan, Andersen Elizabeth Mercier, Audrey Elizabeth Metts, Linley Ann-Marie Mims, Allyson Rhea Mitchell, Makalah Renea Montgomery, Joel David Moore, Hayden Tyler Moore, Kallie McKade Morarie, Veronica Magdalena Morse, Allie Lynn Mott, Tacie Jane Mullen, Bryce Owen Murphey, Archer Smith Murphey, Webb Smith Norphlet, Elijah JaQuon O’Dowd, Davis Winton Owens, Laila Arquel Pasco-Pranger, Asa James Patterson, Michael Elias Perry, Ada Grace Pettis, Keanna Ne’veah Ponder, Michael Stratton Porcha, Quincy Allen Porter, Sania Loronz Portera, Owen Samuel Radigan, Luke Thomas Regan, Natalie Grace Renfroe, Land Harris Rhodes, William Lawton Riddell, Ellis Walker Robertson, Lane Brice Rogers, Currie Benton Rousseau, Helen Reed Rowland, Margaret Herron Rucker, Tyler JaJuan Russell, Drake Alan Saenz-Lopez, Darlyn Karina Sanchez-Garcia, Carlos Sanders, Blake Lee Savage, Michael Baylor Schneider, Emery Kathryn Schove, John Stanley Seicshnaydre, Elizabeth Lee Sharp, Aaron Shipman, Bella Scott Short, Ethan Andrew Shows, Cashe Newell Shows, Ross Alan Shull, Charles Wallace Singletary, Matthew Ray Skipworth, Tyler Wesley Smith, Alexis Grace Smith, Chaffin Elizabeth Smith, L’Asia Shekendrea Smith, Larrmyne Colton Spears Smith, Lewis Wynne Smith, Zaria Tyanna Solomon, Ross Whitlow Stallings, James Kyle Stewart, Christian Hope Turner, John Preston Vaughn, Jakira Sharda Vaughn, Leona Abigale Waddell, Olivia Ann Webb, Dixon Thomas Webb, Wesley Whitaker, Martha Sutton JiLu Wicker, Addie Elise Wicker, Luke McNabb Wicker, Tyler Kent Wilfawn, Keegan Douglas Wilkinson, Mary Katherine Suzette Winters, Taylor Woodfin, Aiden Scott Yerger, Harlan Yoste, John Geraghty

Oxford High School Honor Roll – First Quarter 2017-2018

Principal’s List (All A’s) Abernathy, Frances Hazie Addy, Alaina Kathleen Al-Ostaz, Nadeen Ahmed Al-Sherri, Zynub A. Atchley, Abigail Taylor Austin, Lillian Rose Baker, Ellyn Elizabeth Bartholomew, Gretchen Case Beard, Ashley Paige Bial, Lauren Frances Boudreaux, Christian Thomas Boutwell, Allie Kathryn Buchanan, Niamke Conner Bundren, Megan Leigh Burcham, Abagail Elizabeth Buskes, Anneke Lee Jing Qiu Callicutt, William Houston Chatman, Raven Nichelle Cheng, Calendula Yunong Cizdziel, Claire Theresa Cizdziel, Siena Catherine Cohen, Ross Gabriel Coon, Walker Thomas Crawley, John-Russell Cooper Cromwell, Clay Hollingsworth Crouch, Carter Fox Deese, David Henry Doerksen, Edmund Siwei Duperier, Alfred Wortham Elgohry, Marawan Moustafa Farese, Ellis Kilbourne Forgette, Anna Kathryn Freeze, Jordan McKenzie Fruge’, Don Luis Gershon, Eve Miranda Golmon, Graham Truett Goulet, Gabrielle E Goulet, Nicole Mayan Grafton, Addison Hibbs Green, Johnson McCallum Greene, Mary Emma Heiskell, Lucia Lamar Hemmins, Lilian Carroll Ho, Vivian Thuy Hu, Edward Yang Johnson, Walter Warren Jones, Emma Katherine Jones, Grace Anne Kendricks, Mary Charles Larson, Anna Mathis Li, Qing Yun Ligon, John Allen Livingston, Magnolia B Lizotte, George Britson Logan, Grace Nicole Luber, Kurre Thomas Luke, Cayden Angela Mallette, Pope Dolby Maxwell, Ellinor Minhinnette McEachern, Lorie Jordan McIntosh, Ann Caroline McKey, James Keith McKey, Mia Maureen McPhail, Joshua Robert Meagher, John Micheal Mercier, Marcus Karl Mercier, Mary Isabella Metcalf, Zkyra Monique Meyers, Gillian Elizabeth Mills, Addison Marie Mitchell, Lilian Camille Mobley, Alexander James Moen, Rebekah Hannah Mounce, Abigail Lauren Mullen, Sarah Neely Nagle, Alexandra M Nelson, Lauren Anada Renee Norman, Neal Garner Norris, Joseph Landon O’Keefe, Daniel Ryan O’Keefe, Joseph Thomas Overby, Haeden Ryan Pasco-Pranger, Sadie Charlotte Patel, Karina Rakesh Patel, Suhani Ashok Patterson, George Alexander Pearson, Claire Love Pham-Dao, Albert Phu Pham, Tu Nha Anna Pittman, Cady Grace Quinn, Sophia Adams Randall, Hannah Elizabeth Ratliff, Sarah Ann Renfroe, Anna Lauren Rester, Ann Claire Rester, Sydney Ruth Riley, Katherine Cook Robinson, Joseph Daniel Rock, Katelyn Virginia Rogers, Donald Forrest Roland, Virginia Olivia Roth, Hays Spicer Shelton, Samuel David Simpson, Philip Ryan Smith, Keon De’Morris Smith, Lily McCalla Soto, Lorelai Makenzie Spillers, Hannah Elizabeth Stevens, Emily Elise Strum, Carissa Ann Sullivan, Ann Morgan Swords, Julia Adeline Tann, Julia Elizabeth Tannehill, Jack Rhea Teng, Emmanuelle Rachel Thompson, Addison Mae Thompson, Halford Madeline Torrent, James Thomas Travis, Jaxon Owen Van Ness, Peter Fancher Waller, Mary Marshall Ward, Andreel Ti’Keshia Webb, Jaqaun Darnell White, Ava Camille Williams, Ellen Benson Wymore, Martha Olivia Leigh Yerger, Sarah Jane Young, Carter Thomas Zediker, Charlie Evan

Teacher’s List (All A’s & B’s) Abel, Elijah Taylor Abraham, Katherine Louise Adams, Margaret Pepper Adamson, Michael Joel Addy, Elias James Alexander, Breiana LaShaye Andrews, Daniel Logan Archer, Thomas Neal Arnold, Madeline Jean Baggett, Tamyra Alicia Baker, Wilson Benton Barrett, Anna Katherine Beard, Brittni Gail Berry, Eleanor Alexander Best, Aubrey Caroline Bianco, Andrew Joseph Bianco, Samuel Marquette Bishop, Aubrey Reed Bishop, Mary Katherine Blake, Christian Quin-Maronye Boone, Morgan Taylor Boudreaux, Keith Anthony Boughton, Aaliyah Bourn, Gracie Caroline Bradley, Brandon DaShun Bradley, Connor Blake Bradley, Zachary Mar’Tez Brewer, Timothy Hutson Brines, Lawson Henry Brown, Ryan Edward Bruce, Owen Wulff Buskes, Elsie Lee Hua Da Byars, Kathryn Culpepper Byars, Wilton Vance Calderwood, Kathryn Rose Caldwell, Deijanee Nicole Campbell, Saniah Nicole Caraway, Savannah Eve Carothers, Karen Elise Carrington, William Tucker Carwyle, Davis Monroe Case, Catherine Bryan Case, Lucy Catherine Chandler, Lauren Claire Chiniche, Lucy Dale Cipkowski, Leo O’Neil Clark, Abigail Lynn Coleman, Alijah Montana Collins, Alice Cofield Cook, Mary Ellen Coon, Russell Connor Cooper, Jessica Lynn Copley, Jessica Elizabeth Cousar, Reece Franklin Creekmore, Catherine Elizabeth Crosby, Madison Elizabeth Culpepper, Robert Fallon Dabney, Sally Kate Davidson, Adrian J’Quarie Davis, Arden Alicia Davis, Emily R. Davis, Hallie Jane-Lord Dawkins, Anna Gabrielle Dear, Jackson Kent Desler, Elizabeth Brooks Douglas, Jonathan Michael Dukes, Kylin Maurice Durham, James Taylor Dyer, Grace Thompson Easley, Colby J. Eastland, Mary Allyn Edge, Jesse Clifton Evans Elgohry, Kareem Moustafa Evans, Christina Camilla Evans, David Aitken Farese, Emma Reed Farmer, Nolan Scott Field, Catherine Newell Finn, Matthew Evan Flowers, Ty’Derriya J Fogerty, Daryl Charles Franks, Sarah Grace Freelon, Khyan Marquee Frierson, Demarius Ja’Shoun Fuller, Brooks Brown Fulton, Joshua Grey Gardner, Andrew Stephens Gililland, John Michael Gordon, Kyle Dekendric Gordon, Taylor D Gough, Mary Mobley Goulet, Yaniv Liberman Goza, Meredith Tatum Grafton, Daniel Cole Gul, Sharjeel Waseem Gunn, Elizabeth Abigail Hakim, Benjamin Stewart Hale, Benjamin Lewis Hall, Daniel Louis Hardy, Sarah Katherine Harrell, Logan Andrew Avant Harris, Keiona Aaliyah Hartnett, Eli Curtis Hartnett, Samuel Mark Harvey, John McCormick Hayward, Mary Clark Henderson, Andrew Hollensworth Hester, Andrew David Hester, Emily Amanda Hill, Caroline McLain Hillmer, Carter Neil Hitchcock, Grayson Chance Hitchcock, Kaden Presley Hitchcock, Landon Grant Holben, Ethan Clay Holley, Abigail Rose Hollingsworth, William Thomas Holmes, Klaria Ernese Hooker, Preston Alexander Horton, Khaniaya Raquakkia Taylor Hubbell, Hayden Elizabeth Huggins, Nicholas David Hughes, Patricia Kathleen Hultman, Emerson Moffatt Hunter, Lilly McKay Huynh, Kelly Hyche, Nathan Howard Ivy, Anthony Clay Jackson, Charles Julian Jekabsons, Mathew Elias Jenkins, Ruth Anne Johnson, Grace Elizabeth Jones, Khloe Tzion Joyce, Grace Ann Kamman, Caroline Wood Kennedy, Kaitlyn Elizabeth Kimbrell, Avery Ryan Kincaid, Caroline Grace Koestler, William Downing Lamar, Elizabeth Merrill Langendoen, Noah Patrick Lewis, Desiree Nicole Little, William Jacob Longnecker, Alex Jeffery Loper, Michael Blake Lopez, Frida Esparza Madlock, Antonio Dewane Bailey Madlock, Kyndal Camille Marsh, Jeffrey Coleman Marzouk, Heba Omar Marzouk, Mohamed Omar Mayes, Tamara Octavia Divin Mayo, Thomas Hayes McCormick, Parker Keen McCready, Campbell Elizabeth McCullen, Mary Alice McCullough, Tajah Brianna McDaniel, Emma Kate McKeown, Lucas James McKinney, Savannah Rene’e Merrell, Aubrey Kate Metcalf, Zharia Dominique Meyer, Olivia Nicole Mims, Addison Grace Mitchell, Julia Braden Mitchell, Lilli-Grace Camille Moore, Martha Mikaela Moore, Robert Cole Morales Romero, Luis Antonio Morgan, Joshua Carr Morrow, Dolnesha Ka’Jettie Morse, Emily Elizabeth Mott, Matthew Dean Mullins, Ann McCall Munoz, Aldrin Harvey Munoz, Esmeralda Alondra Murphey, Carole Addison Murphy, Anna Lea Murthy, Srujana N. Nalls, Makayla Antoinette Nash, Bo Thomas Neilson, Marjorie Ann Nelson, Olivia Claire Renee Newsom, Anna Grace Newsom, Caroline Virginia Nichopoulos, Alexis Athena Norris, Christian Graham Norris, Niles Spencer O’Neill, Griffin Elliot O’Reilly, Felicity Rose Oliver, Corey Vincent Overby, Ryleigh Grace Parker, Landon Wyatt Parker, Sara Grace Patton, Kathleen Sampson Pearson, Joshua Eli Perkins, John Seton Perrier, Justine Elodie Perry, Knox Nelson Peters, Ann Fava Pettis, Darius Jordan Pittman, Anne Elizabeth Ponder, Stetson Lane Powell, Charles Obie Prillerman, Egypt Ayanna Purdon, Elinor Claire Rankin, Randi Elizabeth Ravishankar, Anish Reynolds, Evangeline Marie Reysen, Summer Victoria Roach, Tejeland Renee Robbins, Lydia Bailey Ross, Taylor Brooke Roth, Andrew Evan Rousseau, Jacob Louis Rowland, Whitman Morse Roy, Jackson Medwick Russell, Abby Grace Rychlak, Olivia Claire Salau, Farid Schove, Mary Dewitt Scott, Tucker Rhodes Scruggs, Michael Andrew Shinall, Ally Virginia Shorter, Tristan Dean Sisk, Syrena Victoriah Smith, Andrew Hartley Smith, Evelyn Gates Smith, Graham Benjamin Smith, Tyler James Smith, Virginia Madeline Smith, William Alexander Sockwell, Ryan James Solinger, Eli Charles Southern, Derrius Ke’Shaun Spears, Sydney Nicole Sterling, Benjamin Dakota Stewart, John Franklin Stinnett, Parker Joseph Stone, Anthony Cade Sudduth, Margaret Ann Sudduth, Virginia Kathryn Surbeck, Collin Queiroz Tann, William Harrison Tannehill, Margaret McKenzie Tatum, Julien Rundell Thompson, Grace Jean Thompson, Julie Marie Tidwell, Vasilios Zachery Tingle, Brooklyn Noelle Toma, Emily Anne Torrent, Charles Joseph Torrent, David Allan Tosh, Dennis Stone Treloar, Avery Elise Trott, Joseph Howard Tyner, Susan Rebecca Upton, Morgan Mackenzie Urbina, Alenys Van Ness, Morgan Alexandra Vijayasankar, Akshaya Wadlington, Hiram Donavon Waller, Sara Katherine Wang, Qi Hang Warrington, Wesley Anne Watts, Ana Brooke Watts, Brandon Hugh Waxler, Elijah Latimer Webb, Hollin Sebastein Webster, Lindsey Marie Wheeler, Kayla Kaprice Wheeler, Sophia Pauline White, Brian Garrett White, Jammie Marcell White, KeMariaha Elise White, Lindsey Cameron Whitehead, Dalton Garvis Whitwell, Davis Carroll Wicker, Eli Scott Wilfawn, Quentin Carter Wilkins, William Thomas Williams, Tyler Jamal Wilson, Paschal Peolia Woodard, Niquisha Monquie Yerger, Frank Montague Young, Jalon Kershun

Courtesy of the Oxford School District

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Quarterback/Tight End Shuffle Up: Evan Engram breaks the rules

We’re back for another season of Shuffle Up. We did the running backs in Week 5, the wideouts last week, and now we tackle the quarterbacks (don’t flag us, NFL) and the tight ends.

The prices you see are not suggested auction prices — those numbers are so room-contextual, it would be a fool’s errand to suggest any one size fits all. The dollar values below are merely used as a way to compare the players and give you a sense of where the tiers lay (in my opinion, anyway); where talent clusters and where it falls off.

Players at the same price are considered even. And honestly, a $1-2 difference isn’t a big deal. I’m not going to pretend some lofty level of certainty with these prices when I know what a snow-globe league the NFL is.

I’m not ranking injured players. You can put Andrew Luck and Greg Olsen anywhere you want.

Assume a modified PPR scoring system, a half-point per reception. I reserve the right to tweak this list in the first 24 hours of publishing. Bring your respectful disagreement to Twitter: @scott_pianowski.

Quarterbacks

$30 Tom Brady $27 Drew Brees $26 Deshaun Watson $25 Dak Prescott $24 Russell Wilson $24 Cam Newton $23 Carson Wentz $22 Matt Ryan $22 Kirk Cousins $19 Alex Smith $19 Jameis Winston

Prescott is one of those lovely fantasy players who offers us floor and upside every week. Consider his scoring placement in his five games: QB13, QB7, QB12, QB8, QB2. He’s capable of winning you a week on his own, and he’s never bottomed out. And with an Ezekiel Elliott suspension possibly in play at some point, Prescott’s role in the offense is likely to expand. He’s a handy and opportunistic runner, too . . . Everything has fallen Watson’s way during a charmed rookie year; the Texans defense is sunk by injuries, and DeAndre Hopkins is back in business. Watson is also buffering his bottom line with handy rushing, though at times he needs to use better judgment and get to the ground or the sideline quicker.

The Patriots have shifted the scope of the offense with Brandin Cooks around. Brady averaged just 156 air yards per game last season, per Player Profiler, but he’s first in the league this year, at 210.8 per week. The downside to this: Brady’s getting hit a lot more than usual. New England might want to scale things back a little bit, given their starting quarterback is 40 years old . . . The Seahawks generally need a month or two to figure out their offense. Although Wilson’s QB rating is over 91 for every month, he has 55 touchdown passes before Halloween for his career — and 80 afterwards. I scooped up some Wilson and Doug Baldwin shares while the Seahawks were on their Week 6 bye. I don’t see a difference-maker in the backfield; it’s going to be Wilson, as usual, driving this offense — making stuff up half the time — if they’re going to go anywhere.

$17 Andy Dalton $17 Matthew Stafford $17 Marcus Mariota $16 Philip Rivers $15 Carson Palmer $13 Ben Roethlisberger $13 Derek Carr $10 Jared Goff $10 Tyrod Taylor $8 Trevor Siemian $7 Jacoby Brissett $6 Brett Hundley

End-of-season fantasy rank is a stat covered with noise, but nonetheless it shocks me that Roethlisberger has been a Top 10 quarterback in just three of 14 seasons. It speaks to his injury-prone nature, of course, but also to his inconsistency. I’m stunned to see so many excuses made for Big Ben this year; this is someone I don’t trust against bad matchups, on the road, or to stay healthy. Name brands die awfully hard . . . Hundley gets a reasonable initial price for upside of the unknown, plus the Packers have excellent skill players around him . . . Carr has always been a good-not-great player; his MVP steam last year was comically off-base. If Amari Cooper can’t get back to Pro Bowl-level play, Carr all of a sudden has just one difference-making target on his offense.

$5 Eli Manning $5 Josh McCown $5 Case Keenum $4 Jay Cutler $2 Mitchell Trubisky $2 Blake Bortles $2 C.J. Beathard $1 Joe Flacco $1 Kevin Hogan $1 DeShone Kizer

I’d stare at the sun for 12 straight hours before I’d watch a full game of Baltimore Ravens offensive tape. The NFL should black out the remainder of Baltimore’s schedule.

Tight Ends

$32 Rob Gronkowski $27 Zach Ertz $26 Travis Kelce $22 Evan Engram $21 Cameron Brate $19 Hunter Henry $18 Delanie Walker

If you had blindly faded all rookie tight ends in the fantasy era, you’d be far ahead of the game. Oh, Hunter Henry had some moments last year, and Rob Gronkowski came out of the womb spiking, and Jeremy Shockey made an instant splash. But the highly-touted rookie TE is more likely to be a land mine, not a gold mine. Enter Engram, who has a shot to be the best rookie TE we’ve seen since this silly little game was invented.

Sure, it helps that the Giants lost every important wideout in Week 5. But Engram’s productive Week 6 at Denver (5-82-1), when he was the only downfield threat the Broncos had to be concerned about, was a validating performance. Engram is basically a big wide receiver — the Giants rarely trouble him with blocking assignments.

Back to Henry for a second — the Chargers have finally seen the light. Henry and Antonio Gates were roughly even in snaps through four weeks, but since then it’s been 113 snaps for Henry, 78 for Gates. Not coincidentally, the Bolts won both games, and Henry posted a solid 8-132-1 line. The torch is passed. Get onboard and enjoy the ride . . . Brate has actually left some points on the field, with a drop here and there, but he’s also scored touchdowns in four straight games and his bye is out of the way. You’ll appreciate that last fact more and more in the coming weeks, with six teams sitting in both Week 8 and Week 9.

$17 Jimmy Graham $17 Jordan Reed $16 Austin Seferian-Jenkins $13 Kyle Rudolph $11 Jason Witten $10 Jack Doyle $8 Tyler Kroft $8 George Kittle

I’m drinking the ASL Kool-Aid and redemption stories. He just turned 25. He was highly-touted as a second-round pick in his draft class. He was headed for a 2015 breakout, had he stayed healthy. And the 2017 Jets offense is plucky and useful, for as long as they can keep Josh McCown healthy . . . Doyle is littering the field with drops and missed opportunities, but the Colts rarely ask him to pass block, and maybe Andrew Luck will be a factor in the second half of the year . . . Kroft will be a handy bye-week fill-in, and I’m holding him in the Stopa League, where two starting quarterbacks are required. Tyler Eifert was known as a red-zone dominator, when healthy, and Kroft had a two-score game against Cleveland. The Bengals don’t have a dynamic second receiving option after A.J. Green, so there’s a major opportunity coming for Kroft. And it’s not like Kroft was a stiff at Rutgers; he was a third-round draft choice, and Player Profiler comps him to Kyle Rudolph.

$6 Austin Hooper $5 Jared Cook $5 Zach Miller $4 Benjamin Watson $4 Ed Dickson $4 Martellus Bennett $3 Tyler Higbee $3 Vernon Davis $3 Ryan Griffin $2 Jermaine Gresham $2 Darren Fells $2 Coby Fleener $2 Nick O’Leary $2 David Njoku $1 Jesse James $1 Julius Thomas $1 AJ Derby $1 O.J. Howard $1 Antonio Gates

[junker-town]

Undrafted free agent signings 2017: Every team’s pickups in one place

Is the next Tony Romo waiting in this year’s crop of undrafted players?

The 2017 NFL Draft may be over, but that doesn’t mean teams are done adding important contributors for the upcoming season. Scores of NCAA athletes will start the next chapters of their football careers by signing as undrafted free agents.

The class of 2017 could also produce some memorable contributors. College standouts like Jarron Jones and Hardy Nickerson Jr. should all draw plenty of interest this spring. Though they’ll face long odds to make an NFL roster, the path they’ll walk is far from uncharted territory.

There’s a laundry list of players who have emerged from the embers of the draft to make a major impact in the NFL. All-Pros like Wes Welker, Priest Holmes, Kurt Warner, Antonio Gates, John Randle, James Harrison, Jessie Tuggle, and Tony Romo all took the long way to the league. They turned out to be unexpected boons who didn’t cost a cent in draft currency.

We’ll have a complete list of undrafted free agent signings as they come in.

Arizona Cardinals

Carlton Agudosi, WR, Rutgers

Collin Bevins, DT, Northwest Missouri State

Lucas Crowley, C, UNC

Ironhead Gallon, LB, Georgia Southern

Gump Hayes, DB, Arizona State

Krishawn Hogan, WR, Marian

Drico Johnson, S, Central Florida

Tre'Von Johnson, OLB, Weber State

Trevor Knight, QB, Texas A&M

Ryan Lewis, CB, Pittsburgh

Jonathan McLaughlin, OT Virginia Tech

Cyril Noland-Lewis, S, Louisiana Tech

Ricky Seals-Jones, WR, Texas A&M

Sojourn Shelton, CB, Wisconsin

James Summers, RB, East Carolina

Pasoni Tasini, DL, Utah

Steven Wroblewski, TE, Southern Utah

Atlanta Falcons

Travis Averill, OL, Boise State

Marcelis Branch, DB, Robert Morris

Daniel Brunskill, OL, San Diego State

Deante Burton, WR, Kansas State

Reginald Davis III, WR, Texas Tech

Darius English, DL, South Carolina

Wil Freeman, OL, Southern Miss

Jermaine Grace, LB, Miami (Fla.)

Jarnor Jones, CB, Iowa State

JT Jones, DE, Miami (Ohio)

Cam Keizur, C, Portland State

Andreas Knappe, OT, Connecticut

Robert Leff, OT, Auburn

Josh Magee, WR, South Alabama

Quincy Mauger, S, Georgia

Chris Odom, DE, Arkansas State

Tyler Renew, FB, Citadel

Taylor Reynolds, CB, James Madison

Christian Tago, LB, San Jose State

Gary Thompson, DE, Marshall

Alek Torgersen, QB, Pennsylvania

Deron Washington, S, Pittsburg St.

Baltimore Ravens

Quincy Adeboyejo, WR, Ole Miss

Kenny Allen, P, Michigan

C.J. Board, WR, Tennessee Chattanooga

Bam Bradley, LB, Pitt

Omarius Bryant, DT, Western Kentucky

Carlos Davis, CB, Ole Miss

Daniel Henry, S, New Mexico

Brandon Kublanow, OL, Georgia

Taquan Mizzell, RB, Virginia

Ricky Ortiz, FB, Oklahoma State

Tim Patrick, WR, Utah

Donald Payne, LB, Stetson

Patrick Ricard, DE, Maine

Maurquice Shakir, OL, Middle Tennessee State

Zach Terrell, QB, Western Michigan

Tim White, WR, Arizona State

Buffalo Bills

Jason Croom, TE, Tennessee

Jordan Johnson, RB, Buffalo

Marquavius Lewis, DE, South Carolina

Greg Pyke, OT, Georgia

Austin Rehkow, P, Idaho

Brandon Reilly, WR, Nebraska

B.T. Sanders, DB, Nicholls State

Marcus Sayles, CB, West Georgia

Daikiel Shorts, WR, West Virginia

Keith Towbridge, TE, Louisville

Jeremy Tyler, S, West Virginia

Zach Voytek, OL, New Haven

Nigel Williams, DT, Virginia Tech

Carolina Panthers

Alex Bazzie, LB, Marshall

Ben Boulware, LB, Clemson

Bryan Cox, Jr., DE, Florida

Austin Duke, WR, Charlotte

Kyle Kragen, LB, California

Cole Luke, CB, Notre Dame

Gabriel Mass, DT, Lane College

Fred Ross, WR, Mississippi State

Chicago Bears

Joel Bouganon, RB, Northern Illinois

Rashaad Coward, DT, Old Dominion

Hendrick Ekpe, LB, Minnesota

Tanner Gentry, WR, Wyoming

Franko House, TE/basketball forward, Ball State

Isaiah Irving, LB, San Jose State

Dieugot Joseph, OT, Florida International

Mitchell Kirsch, OL, James Madison

Andy Phillips, K, Utah

Alex Scearce, LB, Coastal Carolina

Jhajuan Seales, WR, Oklahoma State

Freddie Stevenson, FB, Florida State

Kermit Whitfield, WR, Florida State

Cincinnati Bengals

Brandon Bell, LB, Penn State

Cethan Carter, TE, Nebraska

Demetrious Cox, S, Michigan State

Karel Hamilton, WR, Samford

Darrin Laufasa, FB, UTEP

Landon Lechler, OT, North Dakota State

Monty Madaris, WR, Michigan State

Hardy Nickerson Jr., LB, Illinois

Kent Perkins, OL, Texas

Dustin Stanton, OL, Oregon State

Josh Tupou, DT, Colorado

Jarveon Williams, RB, UTSA

Stanley “Boom” Williams, RB, Kentucky

Cleveland Browns

B.J. Bello, LB, Illinois State

Donte Carey, DB, Grand Valley State

Ladell Fleming, DE, Northern Illinois

J.D. Harmon, DB, Kentucky

Alvin Hill, CB, Maryland

Jamal Marcus, DE, Akron

Taylor McNamara, TE, USC

Najee Murray, DB, Kent State

Kai Nacua, S, BYU

Kenneth Olugbode, LB, Colorado

Karter Schult, DE, Northern Iowa

Channing Stribling, CB, Michigan

Dallas Cowboys

Austin Appleby, QB, Florida

Woody Baron, DT, Virginia Tech

Brian Brown, WR, Richmond

Michael Coe, C, North Dakota

Kennan Gilchrist, LB, Appalachian State

Blake Jarwin, TE, Oklahoma State

Joseph Jones, LB, Northwestern

Levon Myers, OT, Northern Illinois

Lewis Neal, DL, LSU

Cooper Rush, QB, Central Michigan

Nate Theaker, OT, Wayne State

Jahad Thomas, RB, Temple

Lucas Wacha, LB, Wyoming

Denver Broncos

Erik Austell, OL, Charleston Southern

Josh Banderas, LB, Nebraska

Jamal Carter, S, Miami

Ken Ekanem, DE, Virginia Tech

Jerrol Garcia-Williams, LB, Hawaii

Deon Hollins, OLB, UCLA

Cameron Hunt, OT, Oregon

Tyrique Jarrett, DT, Pittsburgh

Anthony Nash, WR, Duke

Marcus Rios, CB, UCLA

Kyle Sloter, QB, Northern Colorado

Shakir Soto, DE, Pittsburgh

Orion Stewart, DB, Baylor

Dymonte Thomas, S, Michigan

Detroit Lions

Brandon Barnes, TE, Alabama State

Alex Barrett, DE, San Diego State

Dontez Ford, WR, Pitt

Tion Green, RB, Cincinnati

Nick James, DT, Mississippi State

Leo Koloamatangi, OL, Hawaii

Des Lawrence, CB, UNC

Storm Norton, OT, Toledo

Michael Rector, WR, Stanford

Maurice Swain, DT, Auburn

Noel Thomas, WR, Connecticut

Josh Thornton, CB, Southern Utah

Robert Tonyan, TE, Indiana State

Jeremiah Valoaga, DE, UNLV

Green Bay Packers

Donatello Brown, CB, Valdosta State

Johnathan Calvin, LB, Mississippi State

Michael Clark, WR, Marshall

Montay Crockett, WR, Georgia State

Thomas Evans, OL, Richmond

Geoff Gray, OL, Manitoba

Cody Heiman, LB, Washburn

Taysom Hill, QB, BYU

Josh Letuligasenoa, LB, Cal Poly

Izaah Lunsford, DT, Bowling Green

Adam Pankey, OL, West Virginia

Aaron Peck, WR, Fresno State

Kalif Phillips, RB, Charlotte

Lenzy Pipkins, CB, Oklahoma State

Raysean Pringle, CB, Southern Utah

David Rivers III, CB, Youngstown State

William Stanback, RB, Virginia Union

David Talley, LB, Grand Valley State

Aaron Taylor, S, Ball State

Justin Vogel, P, Miami

Houston Texans

Eli Ankou, DT, UCLA

Evan Baylis, TE, Oregon

Dimitric Camiel, OT, Indiana

Dylan Cole, LB, Missouri State

Zach Conque, TE, Stephen F. Austin

T.J. Daniel, DE, Oregon

Matt Godin, LB, Michigan

Deante’ Gray, WR, TCU

Justin Hardee, WR, Illinois

Rickey Hatley, DT, Missouri

Shaq Hill, WR, Eastern Washington

Riley McCarron, WR, Iowa

Tevon Mutcherson, CB, Central Florida

Dayon Pratt, LB, East Carolina

Gimel President, DL, Illinois

Daniel Ross, DL, Northeast Mississippi

Jake Simonich, OL, Utah State

Malik Smith, CB, San Diego State

Dee Virgin, CB, West Alabama

Avery Williams, LB, Temple

Indianapolis Colts

Deyshawn Bond, OL, Cincinnati

Dalton Crossan, RB, New Hampshire

Darrell Daniels, TE, Washington

Trey Griffey, WR, Arizona

Thomas Hennessy, LS, Duke

Bug Howard, WR, North Carolina

Colin Jeter, TE, LSU

Jerome Lane, WR, Akron

Chris Lyles, DB, Mississippi College

Chris Muller, OL, Rutgers

JoJo Natson, WR, Akron

Reggie Porter, CB, Utah

Brandon Radcliff, RB, Louisville

Rigoberto Sanchez, K/P, Hawaii

Garrett Sickels, DE, Penn State

Jhaustin Thomas, DE, Iowa State

Jerry Ugokwe, OL, William & Mary

Phillip Walker, QB, Temple

Jacksonville Jaguars

Caleb Bluiett, TE, Texas

Keelan Cole, WR, Kentucky Wesleyan

Parker Collins, OL, Appalachian State

Tim Cook, RB, Oregon State

Jeremy Cutrer, CB, Middle Tennessee State

P.J. Davis, LB, Georgia Tech

Hunter Dimick, DE, Utah

Amba Etta-Tawo, WR, Syracuse

Avery Gennesy, OT, Texas A&M

Justin Horton, OLB, Jacksonville

Tueni Lupeamanu, DL, Idaho

I’Tavius Mathers, RB, Middle Tennessee State

Charlie Miller, S, Dartmouth

Carroll Phillips, DE/LB, Illinois

Ezra Robinson, CB, Tennessee State

Kenny Walker, WR, UCLA

Kansas City Chiefs

Corin Brooks, OL, UTPB

Devin Chappell, S, Oregon State

Gehrig Dieter, WR, Alabama

Anas Hasic, WR, West Florida

Wyatt Houston, TE, Utah State

Marcus Kemp, WR, Hawaii

Ashton Lampkin, DB, Oklahoma State

Damien Mama, OG, USC

Alonzo Moore, WR, Nebraska

J.R. Nelson, CB, Montana

Jordan Sterns, S, Oklahoma State

Tony Stevens, WR, Auburn

Los Angeles Chargers

Sean Culkin, TE, Missouri

Michael Davis, CB, BYU

Dillon DeBoer, C, Florida Atlantic

Austin Ekeler, RB, Western State

Nigel Harris, LB, South Florida

Eli Jenkins, QB, Jacksonville State

Younghoe Koo, K, Georgia Southern

Mike Moore, LB, Kansas State

James Onwualu, LB, Notre Dame

Andre Patton, WR, Rutgers

Artavis Scott, WR, Clemson

Brandon Stewart, CB, Kansas

Brad Watson, CB, Wake Forest

Mason Zandi, OT, South Carolina

Los Angeles Rams

Ishmael Adams, DB, UCLA

Jared Collins, DB, Arkansas

Kevin Davis, LB, Colorado State

Justin Davis, RB, USC

Jake Eldrenkramp, OL, Washington

Anthony McMeans, OL, New Mexico State

Johnny Mundt, TE, Oregon

Folarin Orimolade, OLB, Dartmouth

Aarion Penton, CB, Missouri

Casey Sayles, DE, Ohio

Dravious Wright, DB, NC State

Miami Dolphins

Chase Allen, LB, Southern Illinois

Matt Haack, P, Arizona State

Larry Hope, CB, Akron

Malcolm Lewis, WR, Miami

Cameron Malveaux, DE, Houston

Praise Martin-Oguike, DE, Temple

Torry McTyer, DB, UNLV

Drew Morgan, WR, Arkansas

Francis Owusu, WR, Stanford

Joby Saint Fleur, DE, Northwest Oklahoma State

De'Veon Smith, RB, Michigan

Eric Smith, OT, Virginia

Maurice Smith, DB, Georgia

Damore'ea Stringfellow, WR, Ole Miss

Minnesota Vikings

Tashawn Bower, DE, LSU

Dylan Bradley, DT, Southern Mississippi

Aviante Collins, OL, TCU

Nick Fett, T, Iowa State

Caleb Kidder, DE, Montana

Wes Lunt, QB, Illinois

Sam McCaskill, DE, Boise State

Terrell Newby, RB, Nebraska

Josiah Price, TE, Michigan State

Horace Richardson, CB, SMU

R.J. Shelton, WR, Michigan State

Shaan Washington, LB, Texas A&M

Eric Wilson, LB, Cincinnati

New England Patriots

Josh Augusta, DT, Missouri

Adam Butler, DT, Vanderbilt

Austin Carr, WR, Northwestern

Cole Croston, OL, Iowa

LeShun Daniels Jr., RB, Iowa

Brooks Ellis, LB, Arkansas

Cody Hollister, WR, Arkansas

Jacob Hollister, TE, Wyoming

Andrew Jelks, OT, Vanderbilt

David Jones, DB, Richmond

D.J. Killings, CB, Central Florida

Jason King, OL, Purdue

Harvey Langi, LB, BYU

Kenny Moore, CB, Valdosta State

Max Rich, OL, Harvard

Dwayne Thomas, DB, LSU

Jason Thompson, S, Utah

Damarius Travis, S, Minnesota

Corey Vereen, DE, Tennessee

New Orleans Saints

Collin Buchanan, OL, Miami (Ohio)

Chase Dominguez, LS, Utah

Travin Dural, WR, LSU

Ahmad Fulwood, WR, Florida

Andrew Lauderdale, OT, New Hampshire

Devaroe Lawrence, DT, Auburn

Cameron Lee, G, Illinois State

Arthur Maulet, CB, Memphis

John Robinson-Woodgett, FB, UMass

Sae Tautu, LB, BYU

Cameron Tom, C, Southern Miss

Clint Van Horn, OL, Marshall

New York Giants

Khalid Abdullah, RB, James Madison

DaShaun Amos, CB, East Carolina

Josh Banks, DT, Wake Forest

Jessamen Dunker, OL, Tennessee State

Jadar Johnson, S, Clemson

Keeon Johnson, WR, Virginia

Jarron Jones, DL, Notre Dame

Calvin Munson, LB, San Diego State

Trey Robinson, S, Furman

Travis Rudolph, WR, Florida State

Evan Schwan, DE, Penn State

Shane Smith, FB, San Jose State

Colin Thompson, TE, Temple

Jalen Williams, WR, UMass

New York Jets

Chris Bordelon, OL, Nicholls State

Benjamin Braden, OL, Michigan

Austin Calitro, LB, Villanova

Xavier Coleman, CB, Portland State

Brisly Estime, WR, Syracuse

Anthony Firkser, FB, Harvard

Patrick Gamble, DT, Georgia Tech

Connor Harris, LB, Lindenwood

Javarius Leamon, OT, South Carolina State

Gabe Marks, WR, Washington State

Oakland Raiders

Breon Borders, CB, Duke

Paul Boyette Jr., DT, Texas

Chauncey Briggs, OT, SMU

Fadol Brown, DE, Ole Miss

Pharaoh Brown, TE, Oregon

Chris Casher, DL, Faulkner University

Anthony Cioffi, S, Rutgers

Najee Harris, LB, Wagner College

Keon Hatcher, WR, Arkansas

Chris Humes, CB, Arkansas State

Rickey Jefferson, DB, LSU

Anthony Kukwa, LS, Erie State

LaTroy Lewis, DE, Tennessee

Nicholas Morrow, S, Greenville

Jordan Simmons, OL, USC

Ahmad Thomas, S, Oklahoma

Jordan Wade, DT, Oklahoma

Isaac Whitney, WR, USC

Xavier Woodson-Luster, LB, Arkansas State

Ishmael Zamora, WR, Baylor

Philadelphia Eagles

Billy Brown, TE, Shepherd

Corey Clement, RB, Wisconsin

Winston Craig, DL, Richmond

Randall Goforth, CB, UCLA

Cameron Johnston, P, Ohio State

Tyler Orlosky, C, West Virginia

Victor Salako, OT, Oklahoma State

Tre’ Sullivan, S, Shepherd

Charles Walker, DT, Oklahoma

Greg Ward, QB/WR, Houston

Jomal Wiltz, CB, Iowa State

Pittsburgh Steelers

Nelson Adams, DT, Mississippi State

Christian Brown, DT, West Virginia

Ethan Cooper, G, Indiana-Pennsylvania

Francis Kallon, DE, Georgia Tech

Keith Kelsey, LB, Louisville

Scott Orndoff, TE, Pittsburgh

Nick Schuessler, QB, Clemson

Rushel Shell, RB, West Virginia

Terrish Webb, DB, Pittsburgh

San Francisco 49ers

Victor Bolden, WR, Oregon State

Kendrick Bourne, WR, Eastern Washington

Matthew Breida, RB, Georgia Southern

Chanceller James, S, Boise State

JP Flynn, OL, Montana State

Zach Franklin, CB, Washburn

Jimmie Gilbert, LB, Colorado

Malik Golden, S, Penn State

Evan Goodman, OL, Arizona State

Cole Hikutini, TE, Louisville

Lorenzo Jerome, S, Saint Francis

BJ Johnson III, WR, Georgia Southern

Erik Magnuson, OT, Michigan

Tyler McCloskey, FB, Houston

Nick Mullens, QB, Southern Miss

Richard Levy, OL, UConn

Donavin Newsom, LB, Missouri

Noble Nwachukwu, DL, West Virginia

Bret Treadway, OL, Lamar

Darrell Williams, OT, Western Kentucky

Seattle Seahawks

Algernon Brown, FB/RB, BYU

Skyler Howard, QB, West Virginia

Jeremy Liggins, DT, Ole Miss

Otha Peters, LB, Louisiana Lafayette

Darreus Rogers, WR, USC

Jordan Roos, G, Purdue

Tyrone Swoopes, TE, Texas

Nick Usher, OLB, UTEP

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Anthony Auclair, TE, Laval

Deondre Barnett, DE, Southern Illinois

Richie Brown, LB, Mississippi State

Riley Bullough, LB, Michigan State

Maurice Fleming, CB, West Virginia

Cole Gardner, OT, Eastern Michigan

Alex Gray, S, Appalachian State

Korren Kirven, OT, Alabama

Sefo Liufau, QB, Colorado

Paul Magloire, S, Arizona

Jonathan Moxey, CB, Boise State

Evan Panfil, DE, Purdue

Thomas Sperbeck, WR, Boise State

Bobo Wilson, WR, Florida State

Tennessee Titans

Jeremy Boykins, CB, Central Florida

DeAngelo Brown, DT, Louisville

Bra’lon Cherry, WR, NC State

Tyler Ferguson, QB, Western Kentucky

John Green, CB, UConn

Roderick Henderson, NT, Alabama State

Denzel Johnson, LB, TCU

Akeem Judd, RB, Ole Miss

KeVonn Mabon, WR, Ball State

Steven Moore, OT, Cal

Giovanni Pascasio, WR, Louisville

Jonah Pirsig, OT, Minnesota

Washington

Brandon Banks, DL, Charlotte

Tyler Catalina, OT, Georgia

Levern Jacobs, WR, Maryland

Kyle Kalis, OL, Michigan

Zach Pascal, RB, Old Dominion

Ondre Pipkins, DT, Texas Tech

James Quick, WR, Louisville

Fish Smithson, S, Kansas

[bongaboi]

59th Annual Grammy Awards Winners Part 1

General

Record of the Year

"Hello" – Adele

"Formation" – Beyoncé

"7 Years" – Lukas Graham

"Work" – Rihanna featuring Drake

"Stressed Out" – Twenty One Pilots

Greg Kurstin, producer; Julian Burg, Tom Elmhirst, Emile Haynie, Greg Kurstin, Liam Nolan, Alex Pasco & Joe Visciano, engineers/mixers; Tom Coyne & Randy Merrill, mastering engineers

Beyoncé Knowles, Mike Will Made-It & Pluss, producers; Jaycen Joshua & Stuart White, engineers/mixers; Dave Kutch, mastering engineer

Future Animals & Pilo, producers; Delbert Bowers, Sebastian Fogh, Stefan Forrest & David LaBrel, engineers/mixers; Tom Coyne, mastering engineer

Boi-1da, producer; Noel "Gadget" Campbell, Kuk Harrell, Manny Marroquin, Noah "40" Shebib & Marcos Tovar, engineers/mixers; Chris Gehringer, mastering engineer

Mike Elizondo & Tyler Joseph, producers; Neal Avron & Adam Hawkins, engineers/mixers; Chris Gehringer, mastering engineer

Album of the Year

25 – Adele[Note 1]

Lemonade – Beyoncé

Purpose – Justin Bieber

Views – Drake

A Sailor's Guide to Earth – Sturgill Simpson

Danger Mouse, Samuel Dixon, Paul Epworth, Greg Kurstin, Max Martin, Ariel Rechtshaid, Shellback, The Smeezingtons & Ryan Tedder, producers; Julian Burg, Austen Jux Chandler, Cameron Craig, Samuel Dixon, Tom Elmhirst, Declan Gaffney, Serban Ghenea, John Hanes, Emile Haynie, Jan Holzner, Michael Ilbert, Chris Kasych, Greg Kurstin, Charles Moniz, Liam Nolan, Alex Pasco, Mike Piersante, Ariel Rechtshaid, Rich Rich, Dave Schiffman, Joe Visciano & Matt Wiggins, engineers/mixers; Tom Coyne & Randy Merrill, mastering engineers

James Blake, Kendrick Lamar, The Weeknd & Jack White, featured artists; Vincent Berry II, Ben Billions, James Blake, BOOTS, Jonny Coffer, Dannyboystyles, Michael Dean, Alex Delicata, Diplo, Derek Dixie, Kevin Garrett, Diana Gordon, HazeBanga, Hit-Boy, Just Blaze, King Henry, Beyoncé Knowles, Ezra Koenig, Jeremy McDonald, MeLo-X, Mike Will Made-It, Pluss, Jack White & Malik Yusef, producers; Mike Dean, Jaycen Joshua, Greg Koller, Tony Maserati, Lester Mendoza, Vance Powell, Joshua V. Smith & Stuart White, engineers/mixers; Dave Kutch, mastering engineer

Big Sean, Diplo, Halsey, Travis Scott & Skrillex, featured artists; The Audibles, Axident, Justin Bieber, Big Taste, Benny Blanco, Blood, Jason "Poo Bear" Boyd, Scott "Scooter" Braun, Mike Dean, Diplo, Gladius, Josh Gudwin, Nico Hartikainen, Mark "The Mogul" Jackson, Steve James, Ian Kirkpatrick, Maejor, MdL, Skrillex, Jeremy Snyder & @ S O U N D Z, producers; Simon Cohen, Diplo, Mark "Exit" Goodchild, Josh Gudwin, Jaycen Joshua, Manny Marroquin, Chris "Tek" O'Ryan, Johannes Raassina, Gregg Rominiecki, Chris Sclafani, Skrillex, Dylan William & Andrew Wuepper, engineers/mixers; Tom Coyne & Randy Merrill, mastering engineers

dvsn, Future, Kyla, PARTYNEXTDOOR, Rihanna & Wizkid, featured artists; Brian Alexander-Morgan, Axlfoliethc, Beat Bully, Boi-1Da, Cardo, Dwayne "Supa Dups" Chin-Quee, Daxz, DJ Dahi, Frank Dukes, Maneesh, Murda Beatz, Nineteen85, Ricci Riera, Allen Ritter, Noah "40" Shebib, Southside, Sevn Thomas, Jordan Ullman, Kanye West, Wizkid & Young Exclusive, producers; Noel Cadastre, Noel "Gadget" Campbell, Seth Firkins, David "Prep" Bijan Huges & Noah "40" Shebib, engineers/mixers; Chris Athens, mastering engineer

Sturgill Simpson, producer; Geoff Allan, David Ferguson & Sean Sullivan, engineers/mixers; Gavin Lurssen, mastering engineer

Song of the Year

"Hello"

"Formation"

"I Took a Pill in Ibiza"

"Love Yourself"

"7 Years"

Adele Adkins & Greg Kurstin, songwriters (Adele)

Khalif Brown, Asheton Hogan, Beyoncé Knowles & Michael L. Williams II, songwriters (Beyoncé)

Mike Posner, songwriter (Mike Posner)

Justin Bieber, Benjamin Levin & Ed Sheeran, songwriters (Justin Bieber)

Lukas Forchhammer, Stefan Forrest, Morten Pilegaard & Morten Ristorp, songwriters (Lukas Graham)

Best New Artist

Chance the Rapper

Kelsea Ballerini

The Chainsmokers

Maren Morris

Anderson Paak

Pop

Best Pop Solo Performance

"Hello" – Adele

"Hold Up" – Beyoncé

"Love Yourself" – Justin Bieber

"Piece by Piece" (Idol Version) – Kelly Clarkson

"Dangerous Woman" – Ariana Grande

Best Pop Duo/Group Performance

"Stressed Out" – Twenty One Pilots

"Closer" – The Chainsmokers featuring Halsey

"7 Years" – Lukas Graham

"Work" – Rihanna featuring Drake

"Cheap Thrills" – Sia featuring Sean Paul

Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album

Summertime: Willie Nelson Sings Gershwin – Willie Nelson

Cinema – Andrea Bocelli

Fallen Angels – Bob Dylan

Stages Live – Josh Groban

Encore: Movie Partners Sing Broadway – Barbra Streisand

Best Pop Vocal Album

25 – Adele

Purpose – Justin Bieber

Dangerous Woman – Ariana Grande

Confident – Demi Lovato

This Is Acting – Sia

Dance/Electronic

Best Dance Recording

"Don't Let Me Down" – The Chainsmokers featuring Daya

"Tearing Me Up" – Bob Moses

"Never Be Like You" – Flume featuring Kai

"'Rinse & Repeat" – Riton featuring Kah-Lo

"Drinkee" – Sofi Tukker

The Chainsmokers, producers; Jordan Young, mixer

Bob Moses, producers; Mark "Spike" Stent, mixer

Harley Streten, producer; Eric J Dubowsky, mixer

Riton, producer; Wez Clarke, mixer

Sofi Tukker, producers; Bryan Wilson, mixer

Best Dance/Electronic Album

Skin – Flume

Electronica 1: The Time Machine – Jean-Michel Jarre

Epoch – Tycho

Barbara Barbara, We Face a Shining Future – Underworld

Louie Vega Starring...XXVIII – Little Louie Vega

Contemporary Instrumental

Best Contemporary Instrumental Album

Culcha Vulcha – Snarky Puppy

Human Nature – Herb Alpert

When You Wish Upon a Star – Bill Frisell

Way Back Home: Live from Rochester, NY – Steve Gadd Band

Unspoken – Chuck Loeb

Rock

Best Rock Performance

"Blackstar" – David Bowie

"Joe" (Live from Austin City Limits) – Alabama Shakes

"Don't Hurt Yourself" – Beyoncé featuring Jack White

"The Sound of Silence" (Live on Conan) – Disturbed

"Heathens" – Twenty One Pilots

Best Metal Performance

"Dystopia" – Megadeth

"Shock Me" – Baroness

"Silvera" – Gojira

"Rotting in Vain" – Korn

"The Price Is Wrong" – Periphery

Best Rock Song

"Blackstar"

"Burn the Witch"

"Hardwired"

"Heathens"

"My Name Is Human"

David Bowie, songwriter (David Bowie)

Radiohead, songwriters (Radiohead)

James Hetfield & Lars Ulrich, songwriters (Metallica)

Tyler Joseph, songwriter (Twenty One Pilots)

Rich Meyer, Ryan Meyer & Johnny Stevens, songwriters (Highly Suspect)

Best Rock Album

Tell Me I'm Pretty – Cage the Elephant

California – Blink-182

Magma – Gojira

Death of a Bachelor – Panic! at the Disco

Weezer – Weezer

Alternative

Best Alternative Music Album

Blackstar – David Bowie

22, A Million – Bon Iver

The Hope Six Demolition Project – PJ Harvey

Post Pop Depression – Iggy Pop

A Moon Shaped Pool – Radiohead

R&B

Best R&B Performance

"Cranes in the Sky" – Solange

"Turnin' Me Up" – BJ the Chicago Kid

"Permission" – Ro James

"I Do" – Musiq Soulchild

"Needed Me" – Rihanna

Best Traditional R&B Performance

"Angel" – Lalah Hathaway

"The Three of Me" – William Bell

"Woman's World" – BJ the Chicago Kid

"Sleeping with the One I Love" – Fantasia

"Can't Wait" – Jill Scott

Best R&B Song

"Lake by the Ocean"

"Come and See Me"

"Exchange"

"Kiss It Better"

"Luv"

Hod David & Musze, songwriters (Maxwell)

J. Brathwaite, Aubrey Graham & Noah Shebib, songwriters (PARTYNEXTDOOR featuring Drake)

Michael Hernandez & Bryson Tiller, songwriters (Bryson Tiller)

Jeff Bhasker, Robyn Fenty, John-Nathan Glass & Teddy Sinclair, songwriters (Rihanna)

Magnus August Høiberg, Benjamin Levin & Daystar Peterson, songwriters (Tory Lanez)

Best Urban Contemporary Album

Lemonade – Beyoncé

Ology – Gallant

We Are King – KING

Malibu – Anderson .Paak

Anti – Rihanna

Best R&B Album

Lalah Hathaway Live – Lalah Hathaway

In My Mind – BJ the Chicago Kid

Velvet Portraits – Terrace Martin

Healing Season – Mint Condition

Smoove Jones – Mýa

Rap

Best Rap Performance

"No Problem" – Chance the Rapper featuring Lil Wayne & 2 Chainz

"Panda" – Desiigner

"Pop Style" – Drake featuring The Throne

"All the Way Up" – Fat Joe & Remy Ma featuring French Montana & Infared

"THat Part" – ScHoolboy Q featuring Kanye West

Best Rap/Sung Performance

"Hotline Bling" – Drake

"Freedom" – Beyoncé featuring Kendrick Lamar

"Broccoli" – D.R.A.M. featuring Lil Yachty

"Ultralight Beam" – Kanye West featuring Chance the Rapper, Kelly Price, Kirk Franklin & The-Dream

"Famous" – Kanye West featuring Rihanna

Best Rap Song

"Hotline Bling"

"All the Way Up"

"Famous"

"No Problem"

"Ultralight Beam"

Aubrey Graham & Paul Jefferies, songwriters (Drake)

Joseph Cartagena, Edward Davadi, Shandel Green, Karim Kharbouch, Andre Christopher Lyon, Reminisce Mackie & Marcello Valenzano, songwriters (Fat Joe & Remy Ma featuring French Montana & Infared)

Chancellor Bennett, Ross Birchard, Ernest Brown, Andrew Dawson, Kasseem Dean, Mike Dean, Noah Goldstein, Kejuan Muchita, Patrick Reynolds, Kanye West, Cydel Young & Malik Yusef, songwriters (Kanye West featuring Rihanna)

Chancellor Bennett, Dwayne Carter, Rachel Cato, Peter Cottontale, Tauheed Epps, Jonathan Hoard, Cam O'bi, Ivan Rosenberg, Conor Szymanski, Lakeithsha Williams & Jaime Woods, songwriters (Chance the Rapper featuring Lil Wayne and 2 Chainz)

Chancellor Bennett, Kasseem Dean, Mike Dean, Kirk Franklin, Noah Goldstein, Samuel Griesemer, Terius Nash, Jerome Potter, Kelly Price, Nico "Donnie Trumpet" Segal, Derek Watkins, Kanye West, Cydel Young & Malik Yusef, songwriters (Kanye West featuring Chance The Rapper, Kelly Price, Kirk Franklin & The-Dream)

Best Rap Album

Coloring Book – Chance the Rapper

and the Anonymous Nobody... – De La Soul

Major Key – DJ Khaled

Views – Drake

Blank Face LP – ScHoolboy Q

The Life of Pablo – Kanye West

[17]

[twentiethcenturymoviesandtv]

M*A*S*H: The Story

Every television show, no matter the genre, is built upon one thing: it’s foundational setup.  

When you boil it right down, the setup for a television show is the base upon which each episode grows.  The setup is what an audience is sold on, and what an audience returns to every week.  These core elements of a show, rather than individual episodes, can often make or break it, depending on its ability to allow new stories to be built onto the initial concept of the entire series.  

In a lot of cases, the setup for a show can be very tricky, because a show is often only as good as its setup.  A show’s success rides primarily on the premise, the central idea pushing each episode forward.

Unfortunately, not all shows are created equal, and sometimes, the premises behind some shows are infinitely superior to the premises behind others.  

So, how did M*A*S*H fare?

The foundational base-line for the series M*A*S*H is a simple one.  It’s a mobile army hospital stationed near the front lines in Uijeongbu, South Korea, staffed with doctors who range from incredibly talented (Hawkeye Pierce) to barely competent (Frank Burns).  That’s the location.

It’s wartime.  These people are doctors, and they are forced to save the lives of (when they can) soldiers, some of whom are barely old enough to vote.  Sooner or later, it starts getting to you, and that is the basic premise upon which the show is built.

M*A*S*H is less about the war and more about what people do when they’re confronted with something this horrible.  Every episode has tension built into it by default because of simply where and when these characters are.  Rather than the safety of the Enterprise at the start of each Star Trek or a family’s house in a sitcom, each episode of M*A*S*H opens on an already awful situation that is about to be complicated by the events of the episode.

In a way, that seems like it’d be a hard show to sell.  Every episode, your audience has to be prepared for characters to already be miserable.

M*A*S*H’s setup enabled audiences to instantly connect to a series of characters in a very simple way: these are not family members, and some of them certainly aren’t friends, but they are all in this together.  They can’t leave, but plenty want to.  They’re stuck, scared, frustrated, and angry at the country that dropped them into this war, and unlike contemporary show Hogan’s Heroes, war takes its toll on these characters.  They begin every episode already under strife, and thanks to an understandable situation, audiences immediately grasped the rawness of each character as a result.

M*A*S*H’s ‘home base’ allowed the show to start every episode with high stakes and already allow audiences to feel sympathy for certain characters, establishing traits that could work as humor, sure, but also as part of their personality, most of which is grasped fairly quickly: Hawkeye makes jokes to cover up the trauma he’s clearly dealing with.  Klinger wears dresses in order to get out of the army, because he’s scared of dying young.  We understand these things, pretty instantly, and there’s never a moment of disbelief in the characters’ abilities because this is the army, they’ve been trained to do these things.  If anything, there are moments where we wonder how people weren’t trained to do things, such as Henry Blake’s complete incompetence in regards to paperwork.  (Some liberties have to be taken with even the most realistic comedy.)

And the trick to all of this?  There’s no purpose for these characters.  There’s no mission.  There are orders, sure, but overall, the goal of everyone in the camp, (with the potential exception of Frank Burns) is to go home in one piece.

That’s pretty grim for a comedy, but it works, very well.

The interesting thing is, the creators of the show already knew this setup would work.  They’d seen it work twice before: in the novel and then in the film.  They knew that there was potential here, but the question was, how to use it.  Even if M*A*S*H’s premise was solid, there were still the stories to be built on top of it.

See, although M*A*S*H had already worked well as a film, there is a massive difference between writing a story for a movie, and writing several smaller stories for a television show, especially one that ends up lasting eleven years.  In film, there is typically one major conflict that starts and ends with the film’s runtime.  In television however, it’s a whole different ball game, and in M*A*S*H’s case, it was doubly tricky.

M*A*S*H as a film was notoriously risque, with plenty of jokes and scenes that traveled over a line that TV just couldn’t cross at the time.  The humor of the film was dark and gritty at times, and occasionally racy, in a way that couldn’t be shown on television.  The writers had to do something else.

So, they did.

M*A*S*H became a tamed, toned-down version of its former iterations.  A few jokes and lines certainly implied more of the content that the film was known for, but for the most part, the characters, relationships, and situations had to be switched up in a way to carry audience sympathy for a decade.  So, how was that done?

The original setup remained the same: The doctors and nurses at the M*A*S*H unit perform meatball surgery, saving lives while trying to preserve their own sanity, fighting off fatigue and stress (and sometimes boredom).  But while the bare-bones elements of the films remained intact, others didn’t.

The first season of M*A*S*H as a show was a pretty distinct departure, tone wise.  It was a wacky sitcom, with episodes based entirely around comedic situations.  They were madcap, full of antics and laughs, but sooner or later, things had to change.  Pretty rapidly, the show matured.  The characters grew, and ceased fitting the mold of a traditional comedy show.

Starting with the season one episode “Sometimes You Hear the Bullet”, the show changed its tune, focusing more on running comedic subplots alongside genuinely serious main storylines, leading to episodes that were both intelligent and funny.  This combination of genres led to a variety of episodes, and allowed the show to leap from moments of sobriety to moments of comedy, sometimes within a single episode.  As the show got older and ‘wiser’, this shift in genres enabled huge changes in the show to take place, without completely upending the stability of the rest of the cast.  In the end, M*A*S*H became pretty well-known for not sticking to a status-quo, and being a show that was constantly changing and evolving as time went on.

The thing with M*A*S*H was, there was no real ‘formula’ for an episode.

Unlike plenty of other sitcoms on at the time, there was no list of events that you could expect in each M*A*S*H episode.  It was always a surprise.

Some episodes, like “Yankee Doodle Doctor” are well-known and liked for being mostly comedic, with only Hawkeye’s ending monologue diving the show into a moment of sincerity.  Other episodes, such as “Hawkeye” (a twenty-five minute monologue as the titular doctor tries to keep himself conscious after a concussion), “Point of View”, (an episode told entirely from the camera POV of a wounded soldier), and “Life Time”, (an early use of ‘real time’ on television) not to mention examples like “The Interview” (a real life war correspondent interview the 4077th personnel) pushed the boundaries of what was being technically accomplished in writing and filming television at the time, changing what was ‘done’ on the small screen in terms of technology and the scripts themselves.

Other changes were more long-lasting.  Some episodes were typical sitcom plots, like “Adam’s Ribs”, with Hawkeye’s tantrum induced by the same meals of liver and fish driving him to order ribs from the states.  Others, like “Abyssinia, Henry” were gut-punches, shocker episodes that killed off a vital member of the cast on his way home from the war.  Some episodes, like two-parters “Welcome to Korea” and “Fade Out, Fade In” introduced new major cast members and set up dynamics that would stick with the show as long as it continued to air.  Other episodes like “Good-Bye, Radar” and even the finale, “Goodbye, Farewell, and Amen” were deliberately used as appropriately sobering goodbyes to characters who had been with the show since the beginning.

In other words, no two episodes of the show were alike.  Some were mostly comedy, some were mostly drama, but all of them dealt with the same issues in different ways.

Were there bad episodes?  Of course.  Every show has them.

“Hawkeye”, despite its unique style, wasn’t a favorite, and neither was the universally unpopular “Hanky Panky”, portraying faithful-husband B.J. committing adultery and immediately regretting it.  As I’ve said before, no show is immune to bad episodes.  Thankfully, M*A*S*H’s reputation as being quality television far outweighs it’s lesser showings, and with eleven years of show to work with, that’s definitely a good thing.  

After eleven seasons of television, M*A*S*H’s reputation remained one of a smart, edgy show with a heart.  The show managed to tell over two hundred stories over the course of a decade, an example of television storytelling that has meant enough to an audience for them to stay with these characters for the entire time, to the point where the finale of the show was a national event.  For a show that inspired multiple spin-offs and homages, it makes sense that the show was as well-loved as it was, and indeed, continues to be.

Why?

Well, honestly because despite the hype, as it turns out, M*A*S*H really was that good.

M*A*S*H ran on sharp empathy, a biting, cynical look at idealism.  It was a show dedicated to the horrors of war directly contrasted against real people, about the men and women trapped in one place, dealing with the big war problems and the little personal problems, isolated away from their homes.  There wasn’t much in new concepts, in new adventures, but there were always new things to explore thanks to characters that the audience had come to know and love.  M*A*S*H survived as long as it did thanks to episodes that explored the drama and humor to be found in a situation that really wasn’t funny at all.

And it worked.   Thanks to years of empathy for these characters, the drama was gripping and compelling, and despite the ongoing number of episodes in the same old 4077th, the jokes were always different, and so were the tears, allowing the audience to see familiar characters and situations in familiar ways, allowing them to experience the stories and events that were happening to people that they cared about.

M*A*S*H had the secret ingredient to television: consistency mixed with creativity.

Despite over two hundred and fifty episodes, M*A*S*H always had another joke to tell, or a new story to show its audience.  For every episode where Radar tried to show that he’d ‘grown up’, there was always a new way to look at it.  Every time Klinger tried a new scheme to get out of the army, there was a new twist to it.  The character beats that became familiar to an audience became the basics for new stories to be told.  The show laid ground-work for new episodes as it went, constantly building to a huge archive of stories about people that the audience had watched for years.  

In the end, that’s why M*A*S*H is still well-loved.

Even when it didn’t succeed, M*A*S*H tried to be compelling and thought-provoking, using its characters to create engaging episodes, and break ground on television.  Each episode was different from the last, yet the overarching themes and ideas that were intrinsic to the early years of the show remained the same, even through the final episode.  These stories and characters still have something relevant to say, sixty years after the war they were about was over, and forty years after the show itself, stories that are just as thought-provoking and compelling as they were when the show first came to air.

Thank you guys so much for reading!  Stay tuned for the next article, where we’ll be discussing the genre and themes of M*A*S*H.   I hope to see you in the next article.

[yahoo-roto-arcade-blog]

Stopa Auction League: Navigating 14 teams, Superflex format

Tom Brady takes on extra value in a two-quarterback league (AP)

The Stopa Law Firm is a different kind of fantasy football expert league.

It’s a big-money league (thanks to Mark Stopa, benefactor) and it’s a league about jumbo starting spots (super flex — which strongly encourages two starting quarterbacks — two tight ends, another flex spot) and limited bench space. A modified PPR scoring format is used.

And oh yeah, it’s an auction. And it’s a party that goes down in Las Vegas in mid-July. We can’t post all the photos here, someone would get divorced or arrested.

The challenge is steeper this year, with noted experts Scott Jenstad and Vlad Sedler jumping in, bringing us to 14 teams. We also welcomed back Michael Salfino after a one-year absence.

I asked the league members to comment about their strategy, the auction, or anything they wanted. Here’s what they had to say. Your full auction results are viewable here.

(Keep in mind teams were not required to fill out their starting roster on draft day; several teams passed on defense and kicker).

League History: 2016: Jeff Erickson over Brad Evans 2015: Andy Behrens over Chris Liss 2014: Andy Behrens over Mike Salfino 2013: Dalton Del Don over Scott Pianowski 2012: Scott Pianowski over Dalton Del Don

The 2017 review, in the owner’s own words. (Summary: TL; DR)

Pos Erickson $ Salfino $ Schoenke $ Stopa $ Evans  $ QB Dak Prescott 21 Drew Brees 37 Matt Ryan 30 Tom Brady 40 Mike Glennon 4 RB C. McCaffrey 25 Le’Veon Bell 54 Ezekiel Elliott 48 Mark Ingram 20 Melvin Gordon 39 RB Doug Martin 9 Marlon Mack 3 L. Blount 10 Tevin Coleman 16 LeSean McCoy 36 WR Terrelle Pryor 29 M. Crabtree 13 Jordy Nelson 40 Amari Cooper 32 DeAndre Hopkins 25 WR Doug Baldwin 37 Chris Conley 1 TY Hilton 40 Sammy Watkins 22 Tyreek Hill 22 WR Jarvis Landry 17 Randall Cobb 8 Donte Moncrief 11 J. Crowder 10 Alshon Jeffery 25 TE Zach Ertz 8 Travis Kelce 33 Tyler Higbee 1 Xavier Grimble 1 Jared Cook 2 TE Zach Miller 1 Dwayne Allen 2 Ben Watson 1 Jesse James 1 Antonio Gates 1 K Dan Bailey 1 Mason Crosby 1 D Buffalo 1 Seattle 1 FL Spencer Ware 13 Kenny Britt 3 Alex Smith 5 M. Mitchell 1 Samaje Perine 16 FL Ryan Tannehill 18 Kirk Cousins 30 Frank Gore 7 Aaron Rodgers 48 Sam Bradford 8 B Theo Riddick 7 Ri. Matthews 3 Jamaal Williams 1 Thomas Rawls 3 Bilal Powell 12 B Derrick Henry 5 Adam Thielen 5 Jared Goff 1 Jalen Richard 1 Deshaun Watson 5 B Terrance West 3 Matt Forte 2 Alvin Kamara 1 Latavius Murray 1 Cooper Kupp 1 B Kenneth Dixon 2 Coby Fleener 2 W. Smallwood 1 Dion Lewis 1 Cole Beasley 1 B Taylor Gabriel 1 Tyler Lockett 2 Mike Williams 1 Devin Funchess 1 Zay Jones 1 B Trevor Siemian 3 C Thompson 1 Jeremy Langford 1 Chris Hogan 1 B James White 1 Wayne Gallman 1

  Pos  Del Don  $  Liss $ Funston $ Loza  $ Payne $ QB Marcus Mariota 30 Andy Dalton 21 Blake Bortles 16 Philip Rivers 26 Jameis Winston 30 RB Joe Williams 3 Carlos Hyde 27 Marshawn Lynch 25 L. Fournette 30 Mike Gillislee 21 RB J. Rodgers 1 Charles Sims 2 Joe Mixon 20 Jay Ajayi 39 Ty Montgomery 30 WR Odell Beckham 44 Dez Bryant 36 Michael Thomas 38 John Brown 14 Allen Robinson 24 WR Mike Evans 42 Devante Parker 10 Kelvin Benjamin 10 Martavis Bryant 20 Keenan Allen 13 WR Brandin Cooks 37 Kevin White 3 Quincy Enunwa 3 Jeremy Maclin 5 Stefon Diggs 6 TE David Njoku 1 Rob Gronkowski 34 Julius Thomas 4 Jordan Reed 24 Delanie Walker 16 TE Seferian-Jenkins 1 Jimmy Graham 20 Austin Hooper 3 AJ Derby 1 Greg Olsen 19 K B. McManus 1 Justin Tucker 2 Corey Davis TR C. Cantanazaro 1 D New England 1 New York Giants 1 Arizona 1 LA Rams 1 FL Allen Hurns 1 CJ Prosise 3 Jordan Howard 35 Adrian Peterson 16 Caron Wentz 16 FL Cam Newton 32 Andrew Luck 35 Eli Manning 20 Josh McCown 1 Dalvin Cook 18 B Marqise Lee 2 OJ Howard 2 Jeremy Hill 3 Eddie Lacy 13 Rex Burkhead 1 B S. Shepard 1 D’onta Foreman 1 Brandon Marshall 4 James Connor 2 Devontae Booker 1 B Eli Rogers 1 Robert Turbin 1 Jason Witten TR Jo. Williams 3 Evan Engram 1 B P. Richardson 1 Curtis Samuel 1 Tyrell Williams 7 Robby Anderson 1 Jordan Matthews 1 B JJ Nelson 1 Cody Kessler 1 Jonathan Stewart 6 B. Perriman 3 Will Fuller 1 B Corey Davis TR Gio Bernard 1 B J. Kearse 1

  Pos Pianowski  $ Behrens $ Jenstad/Sedler $ VanRiper  $ QB M. Stafford 19 Russell Wilson 33 Derek Carr 25 Joe Flacco 15 RB Todd Gurley 29 DeMarco Murray 36 David Johnson 52 Lamar Miller 25 RB D. Freeman 37 Isaiah Crowell 26 CJ Anderson 18 Paul Perkins 17 WR Antonio Brown 51 Davante Adams 25 D.Thomas 24 AJ Green 40 WR Golden Tate 17 Pierre Garcon 6 Willie Snead 15 Julio Jones 45 WR C. Meredith 10 Julian Edelman 9 DeSean Jackson 13 E. Sanders 14 TE Cameron Brate 3 Jack Doyle 13 Kyle Rudolph 11 Tyler Eifert 9 TE CJ Fiedorowicz 3 Hunter Henry 9 Charles Clay 1 Marty Bennett 9 K S.Gostkowski 2 Adam Vinatieri 1 Matt Bryant 1 D Houston 1 Minnesota 1 Denver 2 Kansas City 1 FL Brian Hoyer 6 Duke Johnson 3 Ameer Abdullah 11 Carson Palmer 15 FL Larry Fitzgerald 7 Roethlisberger 26 Tyrod Taylor 20 Jamaal Charles 3 B D. Woodhead 8 Kareem Hunt 3 Corey Coleman 2 Rob Kelley 2 B Open Spot TR Eric Decker 6 Mike Wallace 2 Vance McDonald 1 B Eric Ebron TR DeShone Kizer 1 Josh Doctson 1 Darren McFadden 1 B Marvin Jones 1 Darren Sproles 1 De. Washington 1 Tavon Austin 1 B Robert Woods 1 Paxton Lynch 1 Ted Ginn 1 Aaron Jones 1 Shane Vereen 1

Peter Schoenke

Most “experts” don’t want to admit when the screwed up an auction, but I did on this one. Not so much on the players. I got some decent values (Blount $10, Moncrief $11) and don’t hate my team. However, I wanted to spend at WR and QB, but early in the draft I priced enforced on Zeke Elliott and got “stuck” on him at $48. That’s likely $5 less than he’d typically go for but people were sitting on their hands early in the auction. However, it sent me down a path that I don’t think fared as well for me, similar to how when you take a RB in the first round of an auction.

I’m a WR-first guy. I stubbornly decided to still pay for WR and likely overpaid for T.Y. Hilton and Jordy Nelson, but I decided I wanted some high-floor players since we’re drafting so early and about half your roster is going to be picked up in free agency with this league’s thin benches. Those choices had me chasing for QBs and I never was able to pull the trigger on the $15 – $20 QB I desperately needed. As a result, that left me with Alex Smith as my superflex and Jared Goff as my backup QB. There’s a hint of floor and upside in that duo, but not exactly what I had in mind in a 14-team league.

Mark Stopa

In a deep format like this, everyone will have weak spots.. Given how RBs, WRs, and TEs emerge from nowhere each year, I’d rather be weaker at those positions than QB, and I auctioned accordingly.. There’s simply no chance any QB outside the top 20 is going to be someone you want to use each week, and many owners doing so are wasting a valuable bench spot on a third crummy QB to make up for the crummy one in their superflex.

As for the rest … Rawls and Richard are great ways to fade Lacy and Lynch, two guys I won’t be owning in 2017 seasonal.. I like my cheap Pats guys (Lewis, Hogan, Mitchell) because if injuries strike (Cooks, Edelman), they’ll be gold.. Remember, the earlier in 2017 your draft/auction occurs, the more upside on bench matters, as preseason injuries will happen.. Bills D gets the Jets at home Week 1; picking on NYJ will be an ideal way to stream defenses this year.

Kevin Payne

I got a starting lineup with the majority of my money and then went $1 for every bench spot. Didn’t draft a kicker or defense. Drank a lot of vodka. I’d recommend this for all.

Kirk Cousins, face of the Salfino franchise (AP)

Michael Salfino

The story of the draft was that QBs went for too little in this format and WRs went for too much. So I’m thrilled to land Drew Brees ($37) and Brees Jr., Kirk Cousins. The endgame worked for me because I got some really good WR values by my rankings: Britt, Matthews, Thielen, Cobb for a combined 9% of my budget. Britt for $3 thrilled me even though I want to avoid paying for players on teams that are likely to have major QB problems. The thing is, I think Cody Kessler is pretty good — if only I believed the Browns did, too.

I wish I said $53 for David Johnson instead of later having to say $54 for Le’Veon Bell. I have to worry a little about a holdout and Bell is a greater injury risk given their respective histories. My other regret is not saying $4 for Kareem Hunt, who has a David Johnson 2015 vibe.

Scott Jenstad

We came in with a plan for 2 of the top 22 QB (that is where we set our cut off) but not one of the top 3-4, one stud RB and then to play with the depth at WR and attack the mid-range WR after people had spent money on the top WR. I regret $29 total on CJ Anderson and Ameer Abdullah, although I do like Abdullah, but I think we could have bargain shopped for our 3rd RB slot and used that money to upgrade a bit at WR and TE. However, I absolutely love our late bargain WR and I think Coleman, Wallace, Doctson and Ginn for $6 made our depth and is an absurd group for the prices. I worry about 2nd TE in a 2 TE league as we ended up having to go bottom of the barrel there so that is a spot we will need to work on pretty quickly. I regret letting Jeff land Prescott for only $21, I would love to swap out $20 Tyrod Taylor for $21 Dak.

Andy Behrens

We bumped the league size up to 14 teams this year, which is pretty much the outer limit for a two-TE superflex format. The depth of this league led me to balance my spending across positions. I didn’t want to leave the auction with an unfinished team, knowing I had work to do on the wire. Going in, I’d intended to wait on receivers, the position offering the greatest depth; that approach resulted in decent deals on Garcon, Edelman and Decker.

If you guys want to see a roadmap to despair, check out Liss’ team. A disgrace to the fantasy industry.

Derek Van Riper

My plan going into the auction was to have one elite QB (Rodgers, Brady, Brees) and one elite RB (Bell, Johnson, or Elliott). It fell though, however, as the pricing at the top exceeded my expectations, and at 14 teams, I was slightly less adamant about sticking to a stars-and-scrubs approach. The value at the top of the pool came with the elite receivers, leading me to build around Julio Jones and A.J. Green instead. The most unexpected trend from the auction that makes my team vulnerable is the high cost of the mid-range and low-end quarterbacks thanks to two additional teams in the league, and our use of the Superflex. My hope, however, is that the likes of Carson Palmer and Joe Flacco can be within a couple points per game of the options who were priced up $10-15 higher, and that my strength at WR, TE, and lack of a hole (initially) at running back gives me good balance from week-to-week. 

Brad Evans

When tequila happens, you land Mike Glennon, Sam Bradford and Deshaun Watson as your only QBs. Intended at the onset, I purposely ignored the QB and TE positions and instead focused on acquiring high floor RBs/WRs. Though loaded in the latter areas (RBs: McCoy/Gordon/Powell/Perine; WRs: Alshon/Hopkins/Tyreek), it came at a tremendous cost elsewhere. Inevitably, I’ll spin a RB off at some point for a passing upgrade, but my roster-construction experiment could blow up the lab.

Brandon Funston

Overall, I’m happy with the roster I was able to pull together – no glaring positional weaknesses. Miracle of all miracles, I was able to be a patient shopper and not blow my budget in the early-round inflationary period. But maybe I was a tad too patient, as I had $6 to play with at the end when everyone else was pretty much in $1-draft mode. I ended up using that $6 on Jonathan Stewart, but if I think back on how it could have played out better, it would have probably been to pay $8-9 for a tight end like Hunter Henry or Zach Ertz instead of $4 for Julius Thomas and gone with a $1 DeAndre Washington (I have Marshawn Lynch, so it would have made some sense) in the end at RB instead of J-Stew.

(Note: Funston traded Eric Ebron to Pianowski for Corey Davis and Jason Witten, shortly after the draft ended.)

Jeremy Maclin was a July bargain (AP)

Liz Loza

Thank goodness for Grey Goose and Jeremy Maclin. After spending the bulk of my coin on RBs, I needed to snag an undervalued wideout. With over 300 targets up for grabs in Charm City, Maclin is a steal late in drafts… and I got him for just $5!

Dalton Del Don

I entered with a “stars and scrubs” strategy, planning on spending big on quarterbacks and wide receivers. Whether that strategy works (or if I got the right players) remains to be seen, but I certainly executed it. I regret not securing more $1 running back fliers, as I need to get lucky there (my starters are ugly). But this auction took place in mid-July, and RB is by far the most volatile position. I’ll have to be extra aggressive with FAAB at the position.

Chris Liss

Here’s my writeup from Rotowire.

My thoughts are you need to have a decent QB at the QB flex spot. And one who won’t lose his job unless he gets hurt. If I were to do it over again, I’d probably have bought a third instead of Carlos Hyde and punted RB altogether. I’m fairly sure I could trade a $27 QB for a $30-plus back.

I didn’t intend to go big on TE, but you and I were advancing the bid on Gronkowski, who’s worth $40 in this format, and he stopped at $34. I was actually happy to get him even though I probably won’t have him anywhere else.

I went big on Graham because I had some money left, though he was the best player available (again in the two-TE format) and would rather struggle in the end game than leave $ on the table. It cost me a couple Stefon Diggs types, who I could use, but I’m probably better off with Graham.

Scott Pianowski

I agree with most of Peter Schoenke’s comments, up top. I like to go into auctions with a highly agnostic strategy, but this was a league screaming for more urgency at quarterback. Most fantasy players can take that position casually, given the league-wide depth, but that is not the case in a 14-team league where everyone is highly incentivized to play two QBs a week. I should have either gotten three solid starters, or two high-level guys who could land in the Top 10 with a reasonable runout. If we did this auction again tomorrow, I’m sure a bunch of teams would approach the QB position differently.

It’s never a bad idea to make an early overpayment in an auction if it’s something you really want or really need. I should have parked one major QB early, then seen how the market unfolded. Instead, I stuck to my agnostic leanings and probably paid for it.

I do like the rest of my team, but I’m thin at the one position you can’t be thin at. The trade market probably won’t be much; Brad Evans can tell you that. And it’s hard to imagine a lot of QB talent coming into the league, guys we haven’t already drafted.

(Note: After the draft, Pianowski traded Corey Davis and Jason to Witten for Eric Ebron and an open spot, to be filled later).

[yahoo-roto-arcade-blog]

Stopa Auction League: Navigating 14 teams, Superflex format

Tom Brady takes on extra value in a two-quarterback league (AP)

The Stopa Law Firm is a different kind of fantasy football expert league.

It’s a big-money league (thanks to Mark Stopa, benefactor) and it’s a league about jumbo starting spots (super flex — which strongly encourages two starting quarterbacks — two tight ends, another flex spot) and limited bench space. A modified PPR scoring format is used.

And oh yeah, it’s an auction. And it’s a party that goes down in Las Vegas in mid-July. We can’t post all the photos here, someone would get divorced or arrested.

The challenge is steeper this year, with noted experts Scott Jenstad and Vlad Sedler jumping in, bringing us to 14 teams. We also welcomed back Michael Salfino after a one-year absence.

I asked the league members to comment about their strategy, the auction, or anything they wanted. Here’s what they had to say. Your full auction results are viewable here.

(Keep in mind teams were not required to fill out their starting roster on draft day; several teams passed on defense and kicker).

League History: 2016: Jeff Erickson over Brad Evans 2015: Andy Behrens over Chris Liss 2014: Andy Behrens over Mike Salfino 2013: Dalton Del Don over Scott Pianowski 2012: Scott Pianowski over Dalton Del Don

The 2017 review, in the owner’s own words. (Summary: TL; DR)

Pos Erickson $ Salfino $ Schoenke $ Stopa $ Evans  $ QB Dak Prescott 21 Drew Brees 37 Matt Ryan 30 Tom Brady 40 Mike Glennon 4 RB C. McCaffrey 25 Le’Veon Bell 54 Ezekiel Elliott 48 Mark Ingram 20 Melvin Gordon 39 RB Doug Martin 9 Marlon Mack 3 L. Blount 10 Tevin Coleman 16 LeSean McCoy 36 WR Terrelle Pryor 29 M. Crabtree 13 Jordy Nelson 40 Amari Cooper 32 DeAndre Hopkins 25 WR Doug Baldwin 37 Chris Conley 1 TY Hilton 40 Sammy Watkins 22 Tyreek Hill 22 WR Jarvis Landry 17 Randall Cobb 8 Donte Moncrief 11 J. Crowder 10 Alshon Jeffery 25 TE Zach Ertz 8 Travis Kelce 33 Tyler Higbee 1 Xavier Grimble 1 Jared Cook 2 TE Zach Miller 1 Dwayne Allen 2 Ben Watson 1 Jesse James 1 Antonio Gates 1 K Dan Bailey 1 Mason Crosby 1 D Buffalo 1 Seattle 1 FL Spencer Ware 13 Kenny Britt 3 Alex Smith 5 M. Mitchell 1 Samaje Perine 16 FL Ryan Tannehill 18 Kirk Cousins 30 Frank Gore 7 Aaron Rodgers 48 Sam Bradford 8 B Theo Riddick 7 Ri. Matthews 3 Jamaal Williams 1 Thomas Rawls 3 Bilal Powell 12 B Derrick Henry 5 Adam Thielen 5 Jared Goff 1 Jalen Richard 1 Deshaun Watson 5 B Terrance West 3 Matt Forte 2 Alvin Kamara 1 Latavius Murray 1 Cooper Kupp 1 B Kenneth Dixon 2 Coby Fleener 2 W. Smallwood 1 Dion Lewis 1 Cole Beasley 1 B Taylor Gabriel 1 Tyler Lockett 2 Mike Williams 1 Devin Funchess 1 Zay Jones 1 B Trevor Siemian 3 C Thompson 1 Jeremy Langford 1 Chris Hogan 1 B James White 1 Wayne Gallman 1

  Pos  Del Don  $  Liss $ Funston $ Loza  $ Payne $ QB Marcus Mariota 30 Andy Dalton 21 Blake Bortles 16 Philip Rivers 26 Jameis Winston 30 RB Joe Williams 3 Carlos Hyde 27 Marshawn Lynch 25 L. Fournette 30 Mike Gillislee 21 RB J. Rodgers 1 Charles Sims 2 Joe Mixon 20 Jay Ajayi 39 Ty Montgomery 30 WR Odell Beckham 44 Dez Bryant 36 Michael Thomas 38 John Brown 14 Allen Robinson 24 WR Mike Evans 42 Devante Parker 10 Kelvin Benjamin 10 Martavis Bryant 20 Keenan Allen 13 WR Brandin Cooks 37 Kevin White 3 Quincy Enunwa 3 Jeremy Maclin 5 Stefon Diggs 6 TE David Njoku 1 Rob Gronkowski 34 Julius Thomas 4 Jordan Reed 24 Delanie Walker 16 TE Seferian-Jenkins 1 Jimmy Graham 20 Austin Hooper 3 AJ Derby 1 Greg Olsen 19 K B. McManus 1 Justin Tucker 2 Corey Davis TR C. Cantanazaro 1 D New England 1 New York Giants 1 Arizona 1 LA Rams 1 FL Allen Hurns 1 CJ Prosise 3 Jordan Howard 35 Adrian Peterson 16 Caron Wentz 16 FL Cam Newton 32 Andrew Luck 35 Eli Manning 20 Josh McCown 1 Dalvin Cook 18 B Marqise Lee 2 OJ Howard 2 Jeremy Hill 3 Eddie Lacy 13 Rex Burkhead 1 B S. Shepard 1 D’onta Foreman 1 Brandon Marshall 4 James Connor 2 Devontae Booker 1 B Eli Rogers 1 Robert Turbin 1 Jason Witten TR Jo. Williams 3 Evan Engram 1 B P. Richardson 1 Curtis Samuel 1 Tyrell Williams 7 Robby Anderson 1 Jordan Matthews 1 B JJ Nelson 1 Cody Kessler 1 Jonathan Stewart 6 B. Perriman 3 Will Fuller 1 B Corey Davis TR Gio Bernard 1 B J. Kearse 1

  Pos Pianowski  $ Behrens $ Jenstad/Sedler $ VanRiper  $ QB M. Stafford 19 Russell Wilson 33 Derek Carr 25 Joe Flacco 15 RB Todd Gurley 29 DeMarco Murray 36 David Johnson 52 Lamar Miller 25 RB D. Freeman 37 Isaiah Crowell 26 CJ Anderson 18 Paul Perkins 17 WR Antonio Brown 51 Davante Adams 25 D.Thomas 24 AJ Green 40 WR Golden Tate 17 Pierre Garcon 6 Willie Snead 15 Julio Jones 45 WR C. Meredith 10 Julian Edelman 9 DeSean Jackson 13 E. Sanders 14 TE Cameron Brate 3 Jack Doyle 13 Kyle Rudolph 11 Tyler Eifert 9 TE CJ Fiedorowicz 3 Hunter Henry 9 Charles Clay 1 Marty Bennett 9 K S.Gostkowski 2 Adam Vinatieri 1 Matt Bryant 1 D Houston 1 Minnesota 1 Denver 2 Kansas City 1 FL Brian Hoyer 6 Duke Johnson 3 Ameer Abdullah 11 Carson Palmer 15 FL Larry Fitzgerald 7 Roethlisberger 26 Tyrod Taylor 20 Jamaal Charles 3 B D. Woodhead 8 Kareem Hunt 3 Corey Coleman 2 Rob Kelley 2 B Open Spot TR Eric Decker 6 Mike Wallace 2 Vance McDonald 1 B Eric Ebron TR DeShone Kizer 1 Josh Doctson 1 Darren McFadden 1 B Marvin Jones 1 Darren Sproles 1 De. Washington 1 Tavon Austin 1 B Robert Woods 1 Paxton Lynch 1 Ted Ginn 1 Aaron Jones 1 Shane Vereen 1

Peter Schoenke

Most “experts” don’t want to admit when the screwed up an auction, but I did on this one. Not so much on the players. I got some decent values (Blount $10, Moncrief $11) and don’t hate my team. However, I wanted to spend at WR and QB, but early in the draft I priced enforced on Zeke Elliott and got “stuck” on him at $48. That’s likely $5 less than he’d typically go for but people were sitting on their hands early in the auction. However, it sent me down a path that I don’t think fared as well for me, similar to how when you take a RB in the first round of an auction.

I’m a WR-first guy. I stubbornly decided to still pay for WR and likely overpaid for T.Y. Hilton and Jordy Nelson, but I decided I wanted some high-floor players since we’re drafting so early and about half your roster is going to be picked up in free agency with this league’s thin benches. Those choices had me chasing for QBs and I never was able to pull the trigger on the $15 – $20 QB I desperately needed. As a result, that left me with Alex Smith as my superflex and Jared Goff as my backup QB. There’s a hint of floor and upside in that duo, but not exactly what I had in mind in a 14-team league.

Mark Stopa

In a deep format like this, everyone will have weak spots.. Given how RBs, WRs, and TEs emerge from nowhere each year, I’d rather be weaker at those positions than QB, and I auctioned accordingly.. There’s simply no chance any QB outside the top 20 is going to be someone you want to use each week, and many owners doing so are wasting a valuable bench spot on a third crummy QB to make up for the crummy one in their superflex.

As for the rest … Rawls and Richard are great ways to fade Lacy and Lynch, two guys I won’t be owning in 2017 seasonal.. I like my cheap Pats guys (Lewis, Hogan, Mitchell) because if injuries strike (Cooks, Edelman), they’ll be gold.. Remember, the earlier in 2017 your draft/auction occurs, the more upside on bench matters, as preseason injuries will happen.. Bills D gets the Jets at home Week 1; picking on NYJ will be an ideal way to stream defenses this year.

Kevin Payne

I got a starting lineup with the majority of my money and then went $1 for every bench spot. Didn’t draft a kicker or defense. Drank a lot of vodka. I’d recommend this for all.

Michael Salfino

The story of the draft was that QBs went for too little in this format and WRs went for too much. So I’m thrilled to land Drew Brees ($37) and Brees Jr., Kirk Cousins. The endgame worked for me because I got some really good WR values by my rankings: Britt, Matthews, Thielen, Cobb for a combined 9% of my budget. Britt for $3 thrilled me even though I want to avoid paying for players on teams that are likely to have major QB problems. The thing is, I think Cody Kessler is pretty good — if only I believed the Browns did, too.

I wish I said $53 for David Johnson instead of later having to say $54 for Le’Veon Bell. I have to worry a little about a holdout and Bell is a greater injury risk given their respective histories. My other regret is not saying $4 for Kareem Hunt, who has a David Johnson 2015 vibe.

Scott Jenstad

We came in with a plan for 2 of the top 22 QB (that is where we set our cut off) but not one of the top 3-4, one stud RB and then to play with the depth at WR and attack the mid-range WR after people had spent money on the top WR. I regret $29 total on CJ Anderson and Ameer Abdullah, although I do like Abdullah, but I think we could have bargain shopped for our 3rd RB slot and used that money to upgrade a bit at WR and TE. However, I absolutely love our late bargain WR and I think Coleman, Wallace, Doctson and Ginn for $6 made our depth and is an absurd group for the prices. I worry about 2nd TE in a 2 TE league as we ended up having to go bottom of the barrel there so that is a spot we will need to work on pretty quickly. I regret letting Jeff land Prescott for only $21, I would love to swap out $20 Tyrod Taylor for $21 Dak.

Andy Behrens

We bumped the league size up to 14 teams this year, which is pretty much the outer limit for a two-TE superflex format. The depth of this league led me to balance my spending across positions. I didn’t want to leave the auction with an unfinished team, knowing I had work to do on the wire. Going in, I’d intended to wait on receivers, the position offering the greatest depth; that approach resulted in decent deals on Garcon, Edelman and Decker.

If you guys want to see a roadmap to despair, check out Liss’ team. A disgrace to the fantasy industry.

Derek Van Riper

My plan going into the auction was to have one elite QB (Rodgers, Brady, Brees) and one elite RB (Bell, Johnson, or Elliott). It fell though, however, as the pricing at the top exceeded my expectations, and at 14 teams, I was slightly less adamant about sticking to a stars-and-scrubs approach. The value at the top of the pool came with the elite receivers, leading me to build around Julio Jones and A.J. Green instead. The most unexpected trend from the auction that makes my team vulnerable is the high cost of the mid-range and low-end quarterbacks thanks to two additional teams in the league, and our use of the Superflex. My hope, however, is that the likes of Carson Palmer and Joe Flacco can be within a couple points per game of the options who were priced up $10-15 higher, and that my strength at WR, TE, and lack of a hole (initially) at running back gives me good balance from week-to-week. 

Brad Evans

When tequila happens, you land Mike Glennon, Sam Bradford and Deshaun Watson as your only QBs. Intended at the onset, I purposely ignored the QB and TE positions and instead focused on acquiring high floor RBs/WRs. Though loaded in the latter areas (RBs: McCoy/Gordon/Powell/Perine; WRs: Alshon/Hopkins/Tyreek), it came at a tremendous cost elsewhere. Inevitably, I’ll spin a RB off at some point for a passing upgrade, but my roster-construction experiment could blow up the lab.

Brandon Funston

Overall, I’m happy with the roster I was able to pull together – no glaring positional weaknesses. Miracle of all miracles, I was able to be a patient shopper and not blow my budget in the early-round inflationary period. But maybe I was a tad too patient, as I had $6 to play with at the end when everyone else was pretty much in $1-draft mode. I ended up using that $6 on Jonathan Stewart, but if I think back on how it could have played out better, it would have probably been to pay $8-9 for a tight end like Hunter Henry or Zach Ertz instead of $4 for Julius Thomas and gone with a $1 DeAndre Washington (I have Marshawn Lynch, so it would have made some sense) in the end at RB instead of J-Stew.

(Note: Funston traded Eric Ebron to Pianowski for Corey Davis and Jason Witten, shortly after the draft ended.)

Liz Loza

Thank goodness for Grey Goose and Jeremy Maclin. After spending the bulk of my coin on RBs, I needed to snag an undervalued wideout. With over 300 targets up for grabs in Charm City, Maclin is a steal late in drafts… and I got him for just $5!

Dalton Del Don

I entered with a “stars and scrubs” strategy, planning on spending big on quarterbacks and wide receivers. Whether that strategy works (or if I got the right players) remains to be seen, but I certainly executed it. I regret not securing more $1 running back fliers, as I need to get lucky there (my starters are ugly). But this auction took place in mid-July, and RB is by far the most volatile position. I’ll have to be extra aggressive with FAAB at the position.

Chris Liss

Here’s my writeup from Rotowire.

My thoughts are you need to have a decent QB at the QBFLEX spot. And one who won’t lose his job unless he gets hurt. If I were to do it over again, I’d probably have bought a third instead of Carlos Hyde and punted RB altogether. I’m fairly sure I could trade a $27 QB for a $30-plus back.

I didn’t intend to go big on TE, but you and I were advancing the bid on Gronkowski, who’s worth $40 in this format, and he stopped at $34. I was actually happy to get him even though I probably won’t have him anywhere else.

I went big on Graham because I had some money left, though he was the best player available (again in the two-TE format) and would rather struggle in the end game than leave $ on the table. It cost me a couple Stefon Diggs types, who I could use, but I’m probably better off with Graham.

Scott Pianowski

I agree with most of Peter Schoenke’s comments, up top. I like to go into auctions with a highly agnostic strategy, but this was a league screaming for more urgency at quarterback. Most fantasy players can take that position casually, given the league-wide depth, but that is not the case in a 14-team league where everyone is highly incentivized to play two QBs a week. I should have either gotten three solid starters, or two high-level guys who could land in the Top 10 with a reasonable runout. If we did this auction again tomorrow, I’m sure a bunch of teams would approach the QB position differently.

It’s never a bad idea to make an early overpayment in an auction if it’s something you really want or really need. I should have parked one major QB early, then seen how the market unfolded. Instead, I stuck to my agnostic leanings and probably paid for it.

I do like the rest of my team, but I’m thin at the one position you can’t be thin at. The trade market probably won’t be much; Brad Evans can tell you that. And it’s hard to imagine a lot of QB talent coming into the league, guys we haven’t already drafted.

(Note: After the draft, Pianowski traded Corey Davis and Jason to Witten for Eric Ebron and an open spot, to be filled later).

[yahoo-roto-arcade-blog]

Stopa Auction League: Navigating 14 teams, Superflex format

Tom Brady takes on extra value in a two-quarterback league (AP)

The Stopa Law Firm is a different kind of fantasy football expert league.

It’s a big-money league (thanks to Mark Stopa, benefactor) and it’s a league about jumbo starting spots (super flex — which strongly encourages two starting quarterbacks — two tight ends, another flex spot) and limited bench space. A modified PPR scoring format is used.

And oh yeah, it’s an auction. And it’s a party that goes down in Las Vegas in mid-July. We can’t post all the photos here, someone would get divorced or arrested.

The challenge is steeper this year, with noted experts Scott Jenstad and Vlad Sedler jumping in, bringing us to 14 teams. We also welcomed back Michael Salfino after a one-year absence.

I asked the league members to comment about their strategy, the auction, or anything they wanted. Here’s what they had to say. Your full auction results are viewable here.

(Keep in mind teams were not required to fill out their starting roster on draft day; several teams passed on defense and kicker).

League History: 2016: Jeff Erickson over Brad Evans 2015: Andy Behrens over Chris Liss 2014: Andy Behrens over Mike Salfino 2013: Dalton Del Don over Scott Pianowski 2012: Scott Pianowski over Dalton Del Don

The 2017 review, in the owner’s own words. (Summary: TL; DR)

Pos Erickson $ Salfino $ Schoenke $ Stopa $ Evans  $ QB Dak Prescott 21 Drew Brees 37 Matt Ryan 30 Tom Brady 40 Mike Glennon 4 RB C. McCaffrey 25 Le’Veon Bell 54 Ezekiel Elliott 48 Mark Ingram 20 Melvin Gordon 39 RB Doug Martin 9 Marlon Mack 3 L. Blount 10 Tevin Coleman 16 LeSean McCoy 36 WR Terrelle Pryor 29 M. Crabtree 13 Jordy Nelson 40 Amari Cooper 32 DeAndre Hopkins 25 WR Doug Baldwin 37 Chris Conley 1 TY Hilton 40 Sammy Watkins 22 Tyreek Hill 22 WR Jarvis Landry 17 Randall Cobb 8 Donte Moncrief 11 J. Crowder 10 Alshon Jeffery 25 TE Zach Ertz 8 Travis Kelce 33 Tyler Higbee 1 Xavier Grimble 1 Jared Cook 2 TE Zach Miller 1 Dwayne Allen 2 Ben Watson 1 Jesse James 1 Antonio Gates 1 K Dan Bailey 1 Mason Crosby 1 D Buffalo 1 Seattle 1 FL Spencer Ware 13 Kenny Britt 3 Alex Smith 5 M. Mitchell 1 Samaje Perine 16 FL Ryan Tannehill 18 Kirk Cousins 30 Frank Gore 7 Aaron Rodgers 48 Sam Bradford 8 B Theo Riddick 7 Ri. Matthews 3 Jamaal Williams 1 Thomas Rawls 3 Bilal Powell 12 B Derrick Henry 5 Adam Thielen 5 Jared Goff 1 Jalen Richard 1 Deshaun Watson 5 B Terrance West 3 Matt Forte 2 Alvin Kamara 1 Latavius Murray 1 Cooper Kupp 1 B Kenneth Dixon 2 Coby Fleener 2 W. Smallwood 1 Dion Lewis 1 Cole Beasley 1 B Taylor Gabriel 1 Tyler Lockett 2 Mike Williams 1 Devin Funchess 1 Zay Jones 1 B Trevor Siemian 3 C Thompson 1 Jeremy Langford 1 Chris Hogan 1 B James White 1 Wayne Gallman 1

  Pos  Del Don  $  Liss $ Funston $ Loza  $ Payne $ QB Marcus Mariota 30 Andy Dalton 21 Blake Bortles 16 Philip Rivers 26 Jameis Winston 30 RB Joe Williams 3 Carlos Hyde 27 Marshawn Lynch 25 L. Fournette 30 Mike Gillislee 21 RB J. Rodgers 1 Charles Sims 2 Joe Mixon 20 Jay Ajayi 39 Ty Montgomery 30 WR Odell Beckham 44 Dez Bryant 36 Michael Thomas 38 John Brown 14 Allen Robinson 24 WR Mike Evans 42 Devante Parker 10 Kelvin Benjamin 10 Martavis Bryant 20 Keenan Allen 13 WR Brandin Cooks 37 Kevin White 3 Quincy Enunwa 3 Jeremy Maclin 5 Stefon Diggs 6 TE David Njoku 1 Rob Gronkowski 34 Julius Thomas 4 Jordan Reed 24 Delanie Walker 16 TE Seferian-Jenkins 1 Jimmy Graham 20 Austin Hooper 3 AJ Derby 1 Greg Olsen 19 K B. McManus 1 Justin Tucker 2 Corey Davis TR C. Cantanazaro 1 D New England 1 New York Giants 1 Arizona 1 LA Rams 1 FL Allen Hurns 1 CJ Prosise 3 Jordan Howard 35 Adrian Peterson 16 Caron Wentz 16 FL Cam Newton 32 Andrew Luck 35 Eli Manning 20 Josh McCown 1 Dalvin Cook 18 B Marqise Lee 2 OJ Howard 2 Jeremy Hill 3 Eddie Lacy 13 Rex Burkhead 1 B S. Shepard 1 D’onta Foreman 1 Brandon Marshall 4 James Connor 2 Devontae Booker 1 B Eli Rogers 1 Robert Turbin 1 Jason Witten TR Jo. Williams 3 Evan Engram 1 B P. Richardson 1 Curtis Samuel 1 Tyrell Williams 7 Robby Anderson 1 Jordan Matthews 1 B JJ Nelson 1 Cody Kessler 1 Jonathan Stewart 6 B. Perriman 3 Will Fuller 1 B Corey Davis TR Gio Bernard 1 B J. Kearse 1

  Pos Pianowski  $ Behrens $ Jenstad/Sedler $ VanRiper  $ QB M. Stafford 19 Russell Wilson 33 Derek Carr 25 Joe Flacco 15 RB Todd Gurley 29 DeMarco Murray 36 David Johnson 52 Lamar Miller 25 RB D. Freeman 37 Isaiah Crowell 26 CJ Anderson 18 Paul Perkins 17 WR Antonio Brown 51 Davante Adams 25 D.Thomas 24 AJ Green 40 WR Golden Tate 17 Pierre Garcon 6 Willie Snead 15 Julio Jones 45 WR C. Meredith 10 Julian Edelman 9 DeSean Jackson 13 E. Sanders 14 TE Cameron Brate 3 Jack Doyle 13 Kyle Rudolph 11 Tyler Eifert 9 TE CJ Fiedorowicz 3 Hunter Henry 9 Charles Clay 1 Marty Bennett 9 K S.Gostkowski 2 Adam Vinatieri 1 Matt Bryant 1 D Houston 1 Minnesota 1 Denver 2 Kansas City 1 FL Brian Hoyer 6 Duke Johnson 3 Ameer Abdullah 11 Carson Palmer 15 FL Larry Fitzgerald 7 Roethlisberger 26 Tyrod Taylor 20 Jamaal Charles 3 B D. Woodhead 8 Kareem Hunt 3 Corey Coleman 2 Rob Kelley 2 B Open Spot TR Eric Decker 6 Mike Wallace 2 Vance McDonald 1 B Eric Ebron TR DeShone Kizer 1 Josh Doctson 1 Darren McFadden 1 B Marvin Jones 1 Darren Sproles 1 De. Washington 1 Tavon Austin 1 B Robert Woods 1 Paxton Lynch 1 Ted Ginn 1 Aaron Jones 1 Shane Vereen 1

Peter Schoenke

Most “experts” don’t want to admit when the screwed up an auction, but I did on this one. Not so much on the players. I got some decent values (Blount $10, Moncrief $11) and don’t hate my team. However, I wanted to spend at WR and QB, but early in the draft I priced enforced on Zeke Elliott and got “stuck” on him at $48. That’s likely $5 less than he’d typically go for but people were sitting on their hands early in the auction. However, it sent me down a path that I don’t think fared as well for me, similar to how when you take a RB in the first round of an auction.

I’m a WR-first guy. I stubbornly decided to still pay for WR and likely overpaid for T.Y. Hilton and Jordy Nelson, but I decided I wanted some high-floor players since we’re drafting so early and about half your roster is going to be picked up in free agency with this league’s thin benches. Those choices had me chasing for QBs and I never was able to pull the trigger on the $15 – $20 QB I desperately needed. As a result, that left me with Alex Smith as my superflex and Jared Goff as my backup QB. There’s a hint of floor and upside in that duo, but not exactly what I had in mind in a 14-team league.

Mark Stopa

In a deep format like this, everyone will have weak spots.. Given how RBs, WRs, and TEs emerge from nowhere each year, I’d rather be weaker at those positions than QB, and I auctioned accordingly.. There’s simply no chance any QB outside the top 20 is going to be someone you want to use each week, and many owners doing so are wasting a valuable bench spot on a third crummy QB to make up for the crummy one in their superflex.

As for the rest … Rawls and Richard are great ways to fade Lacy and Lynch, two guys I won’t be owning in 2017 seasonal.. I like my cheap Pats guys (Lewis, Hogan, Mitchell) because if injuries strike (Cooks, Edelman), they’ll be gold.. Remember, the earlier in 2017 your draft/auction occurs, the more upside on bench matters, as preseason injuries will happen.. Bills D gets the Jets at home Week 1; picking on NYJ will be an ideal way to stream defenses this year.

Kevin Payne

I got a starting lineup with the majority of my money and then went $1 for every bench spot. Didn’t draft a kicker or defense. Drank a lot of vodka. I’d recommend this for all.

Kirk Cousins, face of the Salfino franchise (AP)

Michael Salfino

The story of the draft was that QBs went for too little in this format and WRs went for too much. So I’m thrilled to land Drew Brees ($37) and Brees Jr., Kirk Cousins. The endgame worked for me because I got some really good WR values by my rankings: Britt, Matthews, Thielen, Cobb for a combined 9% of my budget. Britt for $3 thrilled me even though I want to avoid paying for players on teams that are likely to have major QB problems. The thing is, I think Cody Kessler is pretty good — if only I believed the Browns did, too.

I wish I said $53 for David Johnson instead of later having to say $54 for Le’Veon Bell. I have to worry a little about a holdout and Bell is a greater injury risk given their respective histories. My other regret is not saying $4 for Kareem Hunt, who has a David Johnson 2015 vibe.

Scott Jenstad

We came in with a plan for 2 of the top 22 QB (that is where we set our cut off) but not one of the top 3-4, one stud RB and then to play with the depth at WR and attack the mid-range WR after people had spent money on the top WR. I regret $29 total on CJ Anderson and Ameer Abdullah, although I do like Abdullah, but I think we could have bargain shopped for our 3rd RB slot and used that money to upgrade a bit at WR and TE. However, I absolutely love our late bargain WR and I think Coleman, Wallace, Doctson and Ginn for $6 made our depth and is an absurd group for the prices. I worry about 2nd TE in a 2 TE league as we ended up having to go bottom of the barrel there so that is a spot we will need to work on pretty quickly. I regret letting Jeff land Prescott for only $21, I would love to swap out $20 Tyrod Taylor for $21 Dak.

Andy Behrens

We bumped the league size up to 14 teams this year, which is pretty much the outer limit for a two-TE superflex format. The depth of this league led me to balance my spending across positions. I didn’t want to leave the auction with an unfinished team, knowing I had work to do on the wire. Going in, I’d intended to wait on receivers, the position offering the greatest depth; that approach resulted in decent deals on Garcon, Edelman and Decker.

If you guys want to see a roadmap to despair, check out Liss’ team. A disgrace to the fantasy industry.

Derek Van Riper

My plan going into the auction was to have one elite QB (Rodgers, Brady, Brees) and one elite RB (Bell, Johnson, or Elliott). It fell though, however, as the pricing at the top exceeded my expectations, and at 14 teams, I was slightly less adamant about sticking to a stars-and-scrubs approach. The value at the top of the pool came with the elite receivers, leading me to build around Julio Jones and A.J. Green instead. The most unexpected trend from the auction that makes my team vulnerable is the high cost of the mid-range and low-end quarterbacks thanks to two additional teams in the league, and our use of the Superflex. My hope, however, is that the likes of Carson Palmer and Joe Flacco can be within a couple points per game of the options who were priced up $10-15 higher, and that my strength at WR, TE, and lack of a hole (initially) at running back gives me good balance from week-to-week. 

Brad Evans

When tequila happens, you land Mike Glennon, Sam Bradford and Deshaun Watson as your only QBs. Intended at the onset, I purposely ignored the QB and TE positions and instead focused on acquiring high floor RBs/WRs. Though loaded in the latter areas (RBs: McCoy/Gordon/Powell/Perine; WRs: Alshon/Hopkins/Tyreek), it came at a tremendous cost elsewhere. Inevitably, I’ll spin a RB off at some point for a passing upgrade, but my roster-construction experiment could blow up the lab.

Brandon Funston

Overall, I’m happy with the roster I was able to pull together – no glaring positional weaknesses. Miracle of all miracles, I was able to be a patient shopper and not blow my budget in the early-round inflationary period. But maybe I was a tad too patient, as I had $6 to play with at the end when everyone else was pretty much in $1-draft mode. I ended up using that $6 on Jonathan Stewart, but if I think back on how it could have played out better, it would have probably been to pay $8-9 for a tight end like Hunter Henry or Zach Ertz instead of $4 for Julius Thomas and gone with a $1 DeAndre Washington (I have Marshawn Lynch, so it would have made some sense) in the end at RB instead of J-Stew.

(Note: Funston traded Eric Ebron to Pianowski for Corey Davis and Jason Witten, shortly after the draft ended.)

Jeremy Maclin was a July bargain (AP)

Liz Loza

Thank goodness for Grey Goose and Jeremy Maclin. After spending the bulk of my coin on RBs, I needed to snag an undervalued wideout. With over 300 targets up for grabs in Charm City, Maclin is a steal late in drafts… and I got him for just $5!

Dalton Del Don

I entered with a “stars and scrubs” strategy, planning on spending big on quarterbacks and wide receivers. Whether that strategy works (or if I got the right players) remains to be seen, but I certainly executed it. I regret not securing more $1 running back fliers, as I need to get lucky there (my starters are ugly). But this auction took place in mid-July, and RB is by far the most volatile position. I’ll have to be extra aggressive with FAAB at the position.

Chris Liss

Here’s my writeup from Rotowire.

My thoughts are you need to have a decent QB at the QB flex spot. And one who won’t lose his job unless he gets hurt. If I were to do it over again, I’d probably have bought a third instead of Carlos Hyde and punted RB altogether. I’m fairly sure I could trade a $27 QB for a $30-plus back.

I didn’t intend to go big on TE, but you and I were advancing the bid on Gronkowski, who’s worth $40 in this format, and he stopped at $34. I was actually happy to get him even though I probably won’t have him anywhere else.

I went big on Graham because I had some money left, though he was the best player available (again in the two-TE format) and would rather struggle in the end game than leave $ on the table. It cost me a couple Stefon Diggs types, who I could use, but I’m probably better off with Graham.

Scott Pianowski

I agree with most of Peter Schoenke’s comments, up top. I like to go into auctions with a highly agnostic strategy, but this was a league screaming for more urgency at quarterback. Most fantasy players can take that position casually, given the league-wide depth, but that is not the case in a 14-team league where everyone is highly incentivized to play two QBs a week. I should have either gotten three solid starters, or two high-level guys who could land in the Top 10 with a reasonable runout. If we did this auction again tomorrow, I’m sure a bunch of teams would approach the QB position differently.

It’s never a bad idea to make an early overpayment in an auction if it’s something you really want or really need. I should have parked one major QB early, then seen how the market unfolded. Instead, I stuck to my agnostic leanings and probably paid for it.

I do like the rest of my team, but I’m thin at the one position you can’t be thin at. The trade market probably won’t be much; Brad Evans can tell you that. And it’s hard to imagine a lot of QB talent coming into the league, guys we haven’t already drafted.

(Note: After the draft, Pianowski traded Corey Davis and Jason to Witten for Eric Ebron and an open spot, to be filled later).

[yahoo-roto-arcade-blog]

Stopa Auction League: Navigating 14 teams, Superflex format

Tom Brady takes on extra value in a two-quarterback league (AP)

The Stopa Law Firm is a different kind of fantasy football expert league.

It’s a big-money league (thanks to Mark Stopa, benefactor) and it’s a league about jumbo starting spots (super flex — which strongly encourages two starting quarterbacks — two tight ends, another flex spot) and limited bench space. A modified PPR scoring format is used.

And oh yeah, it’s an auction. And it’s a party that goes down in Las Vegas in mid-July. We can’t post all the photos here, someone would get divorced or arrested.

[Now’s the time to sign up for Fantasy Football! Join for free]

The challenge is steeper this year, with noted experts Scott Jenstad and Vlad Sedler jumping in, bringing us to 14 teams. We also welcomed back Michael Salfino after a one-year absence.

(Keep in mind teams were not required to fill out their starting roster on draft day; several teams passed on defense and kicker).

League History: 2016: Jeff Erickson over E. Brad Evans 2015: Andy Behrens over Chris Liss 2014: Andy Behrens over Mike Salfino 2013: Dalton Del Don over Scott Pianowski 2012: Scott Pianowski over Dalton Del Don

I asked the league members to comment about their strategy, the auction, or anything they wanted. Here’s what they had to say. Your full auction results are viewable here.

(Summary: TL; DR)

Peter Schoenke

QB: Matt Ryan 30, Alex Smith 5, Jared Goff 1

RB: Ezekiel Elliott 48, LeGarrette Blount 10, Frank Gore 7, Jamaal Wiliams 1, Alvin Kamara 1, Wendell Smallwood 1, Wayne Gallman 1, Jeremy Langford 1

WR: Jordy Nelson 40, T.Y. Hilton 40, Donte Moncrief 11, Mike Williams 1

TE: Tyler Higbee 1, Ben Watson 1

Most “experts” don’t want to admit when the screwed up an auction, but I did on this one. Not so much on the players. I got some decent values (Blount $10, Moncrief $11) and don’t hate my team. However, I wanted to spend at WR and QB, but early in the draft I priced enforced on Zeke Elliott and got “stuck” on him at $48. That’s likely $5 less than he’d typically go for but people were sitting on their hands early in the auction. However, it sent me down a path that I don’t think fared as well for me, similar to how when you take a RB in the first round of an auction.

I’m a WR-first guy. I stubbornly decided to still pay for WR and likely overpaid for T.Y. Hilton and Jordy Nelson, but I decided I wanted some high-floor players since we’re drafting so early and about half your roster is going to be picked up in free agency with this league’s thin benches. Those choices had me chasing for QBs and I never was able to pull the trigger on the $15 – $20 QB I desperately needed. As a result, that left me with Alex Smith as my superflex and Jared Goff as my backup QB. There’s a hint of floor and upside in that duo, but not exactly what I had in mind in a 14-team league.

Mark Stopa

QB: Aaron Rodgers 48, Tom Brady 40

RB: Mark Ingram 20, Tevin Coleman 16, Thomas Rawls 3, Jalen Richard 1, Latavius Murray 1, Dion Lewis 1

WR: Amari Cooper 32, Sammy Watkins 22, Jamison Crowder 10, Malcom Mitchell 1, Devin Funchess 1, Chris Hogan 1

TE: Xavier Grimble 1, Jesse James 1

DST: Buffalo 1

In a deep format like this, everyone will have weak spots. Given how RBs, WRs, and TEs emerge from nowhere each year, I’d rather be weaker at those positions than QB, and I auctioned accordingly. There’s simply no chance any QB outside the top 20 is going to be someone you want to use each week, and many owners doing so are wasting a valuable bench spot on a third crummy QB to make up for the crummy one in their superflex.

As for the rest, Rawls and Richard are great ways to fade Lacy and Lynch, two guys I won’t be owning in 2017 seasonal. I like my cheap Pats guys (Lewis, Hogan, Mitchell) because if injuries strike (Cooks, Edelman), they’ll be gold. Remember, the earlier in 2017 your draft/auction occurs, the more upside on bench matters, as preseason injuries will happen. Bills D gets the Jets at home Week 1; picking on NYJ will be an ideal way to stream defenses this year.

Kevin Payne

QB: Jameis Winston 30, Carson Wentz 16

RB: Ty Montgomery 30, Mike Gillislee 21, Dalvin Cook 18, Gig Bernard 1, Rex Burkhead 1, Devontae Booker 1

WR: Allen Robinson 24, Keenan Allen 13, Stefon Diggs 6, Jermaine Kearse 1, Jordan Matthews 1, Will Fuller 1

TE: Greg Olsen 19, Delanie Walker 16, Evan Engram 1

I got a starting lineup with the majority of my money and then went $1 for every bench spot. Didn’t draft a kicker or defense. Drank a lot of vodka. I’d recommend this for all.

Kirk Cousins, face of the Salfino franchise (AP)

Michael Salfino

QB: Drew Brees 37, Kirk Cousins 30

RB: Le’Veon Bell 54, Marlon Mack 3, Matt Forte 2, James White 1, Chris Thompson 1

WR: Michael Crabtree 13, Adam Thielen 5, Randall Cobb 8, Kenny Britt 3, Rishard Matthews 3, Tyler Lockett 2, Chris Conley 1

TE: Travis Kelce 33, Coby Fleener 2, Dwayne Allen 2

The story of the draft was that QBs went for too little in this format and WRs went for too much. So I’m thrilled to land Drew Brees ($37) and Brees Jr., Kirk Cousins. The endgame worked for me because I got some really good WR values by my rankings: Britt, Matthews, Thielen, Cobb for a combined 9% of my budget. Britt for $3 thrilled me even though I want to avoid paying for players on teams that are likely to have major QB problems. The thing is, I think Cody Kessler is pretty good — if only I believed the Browns did, too.

I wish I said $53 for David Johnson instead of later having to say $54 for Le’Veon Bell. I have to worry a little about a holdout and Bell is a greater injury risk given their respective histories. My other regret is not saying $4 for Kareem Hunt, who has a David Johnson 2015 vibe.

Scott Jenstad/Vlad Sedler

QB: Derek Carr 25, Tyrod Taylor 20

RB: David Johnson 52, C.J. Anderson 18, Ameer Abdullah 11, DeAndre Washington 1, Shane Vereen 1

WR: Demaryius Thomas 24, Willie Snead 15, DeSean Jackson 11, Corey Coleman 2, Mike Wallace 2, Josh Doctson 1, Ted Ginn 1

TE: Kyle Rudolph 11, Charles Clay 1

DST: Denver 1

(Jenstad replies) — We came in with a plan for 2 of the top 22 QB (that is where we set our cut off) but not one of the top 3-4, one stud RB and then to play with the depth at WR and attack the mid-range WR after people had spent money on the top WR. I regret $29 total on CJ Anderson and Ameer Abdullah, although I do like Abdullah, but I think we could have bargain shopped for our 3rd RB slot and used that money to upgrade a bit at WR and TE. However, I absolutely love our late bargain WR and I think Coleman, Wallace, Doctson and Ginn for $6 made our depth and is an absurd group for the prices. I worry about 2nd TE in a 2 TE league as we ended up having to go bottom of the barrel there so that is a spot we will need to work on pretty quickly. I regret letting Jeff land Prescott for only $21, I would love to swap out $20 Tyrod Taylor for $21 Dak.

Andy Behrens

QB: Russell Wilson 33, Ben Roethlisberger 26, DeShone Kizer 1, Paxton Lynch 1

RB: Demarco Murray 36, Isaiah Crowell 26, Duke Johnson 3, Kareem Hunt 3, Darren Sproles 1

WR: Davante Adams 25, Julian Edelman 9, Pierre Garcon 6, Eric Decker 6

TE: Jack Doyle 13, Hunter Henry 9

PK: Adam Vinatieri 1

DST: Minnesota 1

We bumped the league size up to 14 teams this year, which is pretty much the outer limit for a two-TE superflex format. The depth of this league led me to balance my spending across positions. I didn’t want to leave the auction with an unfinished team, knowing I had work to do on the wire. Going in, I’d intended to wait on receivers, the position offering the greatest depth; that approach resulted in decent deals on Garcon, Edelman and Decker.

If you guys want to see a roadmap to despair, check out Liss’ team. A disgrace to the fantasy industry.

Derek Van Riper

QB: Joe Flacco 15, Carson Palmer 15

RB: Lamar Miller 25, Paul Perkins 17, Jamaal Charles 3, Rob Kelly 2, Darren McFadden 1, Aaron Jones 1

WR: Julio Jones 45, A.J. Green 40, Emmanuel Sanders 14, Tavon Austin 1

TE: Tyler Eifert 9, Martellus Bennett 9, Vance McDonald 1

PK: Matt Bryant 1

DST: Kansas City 1

My plan going into the auction was to have one elite QB (Rodgers, Brady, Brees) and one elite RB (Bell, Johnson, or Elliott). It fell though, however, as the pricing at the top exceeded my expectations, and at 14 teams, I was slightly less adamant about sticking to a stars-and-scrubs approach. The value at the top of the pool came with the elite receivers, leading me to build around Julio Jones and A.J. Green instead. The most unexpected trend from the auction that makes my team vulnerable is the high cost of the mid-range and low-end quarterbacks thanks to two additional teams in the league, and our use of the Superflex. My hope, however, is that the likes of Carson Palmer and Joe Flacco can be within a couple points per game of the options who were priced up $10-15 higher, and that my strength at WR, TE, and lack of a hole (initially) at running back gives me good balance from week-to-week. 

Bradley Evans

QB: Sam Bradford 8, DeShaun Watson 5, Mike Glennon 4

RB: Melvin Gordon 39, LeSean McCoy 36, Samaje Perine 16, Bilal Powell 12

WR: DeAndre Hopkins 25, Alshon Jeffery 25, Tyreek Hill 22, Cooper Kupp 1, Cole Beasley 1, Zay Jones 1

TE: Jared Cook 2, Antonio Gates 1

PK: Mason Crosby 1

DST: Seattle 1

When tequila happens, you land Mike Glennon, Sam Bradford and Deshaun Watson as your only QBs. Intended at the onset, I purposely ignored the QB and TE positions and instead focused on acquiring high floor RBs/WRs. Though loaded in the latter areas (RBs: McCoy/Gordon/Powell/Perine; WRs: Alshon/Hopkins/Tyreek), it came at a tremendous cost elsewhere. Inevitably, I’ll spin a RB off at some point for a passing upgrade, but my roster-construction experiment could blow up the lab.

Brandon Funston

QB: Eli Manning 20, Blake Bortles 16

RB: Jordan Howard 35, Marshawn Lynch 25, Joe Mixon 20, Jeremy Hill 3, Jonathan Stewart 6

WR: Michael Thomas 38, Kelvin Benjamin 10, Tyrell Williams 7, Corey Davis 5, Brandon Marshall 4, Quincy Enunwa 3

TE: Julius Thomas 4, Austin Hooper 3, Jason Witten 2

DST: Arizona 1

Overall, I’m happy with the roster I was able to pull together – no glaring positional weaknesses. Miracle of all miracles, I was able to be a patient shopper and not blow my budget in the early-round inflationary period. But maybe I was a tad too patient, as I had $6 to play with at the end when everyone else was pretty much in $1-draft mode. I ended up using that $6 on Jonathan Stewart, but if I think back on how it could have played out better, it would have probably been to pay $8-9 for a tight end like Hunter Henry or Zach Ertz instead of $4 for Julius Thomas and gone with a $1 DeAndre Washington (I have Marshawn Lynch, so it would have made some sense) in the end at RB instead of J-Stew.

(Note: Funston traded Eric Ebron to Pianowski for Corey Davis and Jason Witten, shortly after the draft ended.)

Jeremy Maclin was a July bargain (AP)

Liz Loza

QB: Philip Rivers 26, Josh McCown 1

RB: Jay Ajayi 39, Leonard Fournette 30, Adrian Peterson 16, Eddie Lacy 13, Jonathan Williams 3, James Connor 2

WR: Martavis Bryant 20, John Brown 14, Jeremy Maclin 5, Beshard Perriman 3, Robby Anderson 1

TE: Jordan Reed 24, A. J. Derby 1

PK: Chandler Catanzarro 1

DST: Los Angeles Rams 1

Thank goodness for Grey Goose and Jeremy Maclin. After spending the bulk of my coin on RBs, I needed to snag an undervalued wideout. With over 300 targets up for grabs in Charm City, Maclin is a steal late in drafts… and I got him for just $5!

Dalton Del Don

QB: Cam Newton 32, Marcus Mariota 30

RB: Joe Williams 3, Jacquizz Rodgers 1

WR: Odell Beckham 44, Mike Evans 42, Brandin Cooks 37, Marqise Lee 2, Sterling Shepard 1, Eli Rogers 1, Paul Richardson 1, J.J. Nelson 1, Allen Hurns 1

TE: David Njoku 1, Austin Sefferian-Jenkins 1

PK: Brandon McManus 1

DST: New England 1

I entered with a “stars and scrubs” strategy, planning on spending big on quarterbacks and wide receivers. Whether that strategy works (or if I got the right players) remains to be seen, but I certainly executed it. I regret not securing more $1 running back fliers, as I need to get lucky there (my starters are ugly). But this auction took place in mid-July, and RB is by far the most volatile position. I’ll have to be extra aggressive with FAAB at the position.

Chris Liss

QB: Andrew Luck 35, Andy Dalton 21, Cody Kessler 1

RB: Carlos Hyde 27, C.J. Prosise 3, Charles Sims 2, D’Onta Foreman 1, Robert Turbin 1

WR: Dez Bryant 36, DeVante Parker 10, Kevin White 3, Curtis Samuel 1

TE: Rob Gronkowski 34, Jimmy Graham 20, O.J. Howard 2

PK: Justin Tucker 2

DST: New York Giants 1

Here’s my writeup from Rotowire.

My thoughts are you need to have a decent QB at the QB flex spot. And one who won’t lose his job unless he gets hurt. If I were to do it over again, I’d probably have bought a third instead of Carlos Hyde and punted RB altogether. I’m fairly sure I could trade a $27 QB for a $30-plus back.

I didn’t intend to go big on TE, but Pianow and I were advancing the bid on Gronkowski, who’s worth $40 in this format, and he stopped at $34. I was actually happy to get him even though I probably won’t have him anywhere else.

I went big on Graham because I had some money left, though he was the best player available (again in the two-TE format) and would rather struggle in the end game than leave $ on the table. It cost me a couple Stefon Diggs types, who I could use, but I’m probably better off with Graham.

Scott Pianowski

QB: Matthew Stafford 19, Brian Hoyer 6

RB: Devonta Freeman 37, Todd Gurley 29, Danny Woodhead 8

WR: Antonio Brown 51, Golden Tate 17, Cameron Meredith 10, Larry Fitzgerald 7, Marvin Jones 1, Robert Woods 1

TE: Eric Ebron 5, Cameron Brate 3, C.J. Fiedorowicz 3

PK: Stephen Gostkowski 2

DTS: Houston 1

I agree with most of Peter Schoenke’s comments, up top. I like to go into auctions with a highly agnostic strategy, but this was a league screaming for more urgency at quarterback. Most fantasy players can take that position casually, given the league-wide depth, but that is not the case in a 14-team league where everyone is highly incentivized to play two QBs a week. I should have grabbed three solid starters or two high-level guys who could land in the Top 10 with a reasonable runout. If we did this auction again tomorrow, I’m sure a bunch of teams would approach the QB position differently.

It’s never a bad idea to make an early overpayment in an auction if it’s something you really want or really need. I should have parked one major QB early, then seen how the market unfolded. Instead, I stuck to my agnostic leanings and probably paid for it.

I do like the rest of my team, but I’m thin at the one position you can’t be thin at. The trade market probably won’t be much; Brad Evans can tell you that. And it’s hard to imagine a lot of QB talent coming into the league, guys we haven’t already drafted.

(Note: After the draft, Pianowski traded Corey Davis and Jason Witten to Brandon for Eric Ebron and an open spot, to be filled later).

Jeff Erickson

QB: Dak Prescott 21, Ryan Tannehill 18, Trevor Siemian 3

RB: Christian McCaffrey 25, Spencer Ware 13, Doug Martin 9, Theo Riddick 7, Derrick Henry 5, Terrance West 3, Kenneth Dixon 2

WR: Doug Baldwin 37, Terrelle Pryor 29, Jarvis Landry 17, Taylor Gabriel 1

TE: Zach Ertz 8, Zach Miller 1

PK: Dan Bailey 1

[yahoo-roto-arcade-blog]

Stopa Auction League: Navigating 14 teams, Superflex format

Tom Brady takes on extra value in a two-quarterback league (AP)

The Stopa Law Firm is a different kind of fantasy football expert league.

It’s a big-money league (thanks to Mark Stopa, benefactor) and it’s a league about jumbo starting spots (super flex — which strongly encourages two starting quarterbacks — two tight ends, another flex spot) and limited bench space. A modified PPR scoring format is used.

And oh yeah, it’s an auction. And it’s a party that goes down in Las Vegas in mid-July. We can’t post all the photos here, someone would get divorced or arrested.

The challenge is steeper this year, with noted experts Scott Jenstad and Vlad Sedler jumping in, bringing us to 14 teams. We also welcomed back Michael Salfino after a one-year absence.

I asked the league members to comment about their strategy, the auction, or anything they wanted. Here’s what they had to say. Your full auction results are viewable here.

(Keep in mind teams were not required to fill out their starting roster on draft day; several teams passed on defense and kicker).

League History: 2016: Jeff Erickson over Brad Evans 2015: Andy Behrens over Chris Liss 2014: Andy Behrens over Mike Salfino 2013: Dalton Del Don over Scott Pianowski 2012: Scott Pianowski over Dalton Del Don

The 2017 review, in the owner’s own words. (Summary: TL; DR)

Pos Erickson $ Salfino $ Schoenke $ Stopa $ Evans  $ QB Dak Prescott 21 Drew Brees 37 Matt Ryan 30 Tom Brady 40 Mike Glennon 4 RB C. McCaffrey 25 Le’Veon Bell 54 Ezekiel Elliott 48 Mark Ingram 20 Melvin Gordon 39 RB Doug Martin 9 Marlon Mack 3 L. Blount 10 Tevin Coleman 16 LeSean McCoy 36 WR Terrelle Pryor 29 M. Crabtree 13 Jordy Nelson 40 Amari Cooper 32 DeAndre Hopkins 25 WR Doug Baldwin 37 Chris Conley 1 TY Hilton 40 Sammy Watkins 22 Tyreek Hill 22 WR Jarvis Landry 17 Randall Cobb 8 Donte Moncrief 11 J. Crowder 10 Alshon Jeffery 25 TE Zach Ertz 8 Travis Kelce 33 Tyler Higbee 1 Xavier Grimble 1 Jared Cook 2 TE Zach Miller 1 Dwayne Allen 2 Ben Watson 1 Jesse James 1 Antonio Gates 1 K Dan Bailey 1 Mason Crosby 1 D Buffalo 1 Seattle 1 FL Spencer Ware 13 Kenny Britt 3 Alex Smith 5 M. Mitchell 1 Samaje Perine 16 FL Ryan Tannehill 18 Kirk Cousins 30 Frank Gore 7 Aaron Rodgers 48 Sam Bradford 8 B Theo Riddick 7 Ri. Matthews 3 Jamaal Williams 1 Thomas Rawls 3 Bilal Powell 12 B Derrick Henry 5 Adam Thielen 5 Jared Goff 1 Jalen Richard 1 Deshaun Watson 5 B Terrance West 3 Matt Forte 2 Alvin Kamara 1 Latavius Murray 1 Cooper Kupp 1 B Kenneth Dixon 2 Coby Fleener 2 W. Smallwood 1 Dion Lewis 1 Cole Beasley 1 B Taylor Gabriel 1 Tyler Lockett 2 Mike Williams 1 Devin Funchess 1 Zay Jones 1 B Trevor Siemian 3 C Thompson 1 Jeremy Langford 1 Chris Hogan 1 B James White 1 Wayne Gallman 1

  Pos  Del Don  $  Liss $ Funston $ Loza  $ Payne $ QB Marcus Mariota 30 Andy Dalton 21 Blake Bortles 16 Philip Rivers 26 Jameis Winston 30 RB Joe Williams 3 Carlos Hyde 27 Marshawn Lynch 25 L. Fournette 30 Mike Gillislee 21 RB J. Rodgers 1 Charles Sims 2 Joe Mixon 20 Jay Ajayi 39 Ty Montgomery 30 WR Odell Beckham 44 Dez Bryant 36 Michael Thomas 38 John Brown 14 Allen Robinson 24 WR Mike Evans 42 Devante Parker 10 Kelvin Benjamin 10 Martavis Bryant 20 Keenan Allen 13 WR Brandin Cooks 37 Kevin White 3 Quincy Enunwa 3 Jeremy Maclin 5 Stefon Diggs 6 TE David Njoku 1 Rob Gronkowski 34 Julius Thomas 4 Jordan Reed 24 Delanie Walker 16 TE Seferian-Jenkins 1 Jimmy Graham 20 Austin Hooper 3 AJ Derby 1 Greg Olsen 19 K B. McManus 1 Justin Tucker 2 Corey Davis TR C. Cantanazaro 1 D New England 1 New York Giants 1 Arizona 1 LA Rams 1 FL Allen Hurns 1 CJ Prosise 3 Jordan Howard 35 Adrian Peterson 16 Caron Wentz 16 FL Cam Newton 32 Andrew Luck 35 Eli Manning 20 Josh McCown 1 Dalvin Cook 18 B Marqise Lee 2 OJ Howard 2 Jeremy Hill 3 Eddie Lacy 13 Rex Burkhead 1 B S. Shepard 1 D’onta Foreman 1 Brandon Marshall 4 James Connor 2 Devontae Booker 1 B Eli Rogers 1 Robert Turbin 1 Jason Witten TR Jo. Williams 3 Evan Engram 1 B P. Richardson 1 Curtis Samuel 1 Tyrell Williams 7 Robby Anderson 1 Jordan Matthews 1 B JJ Nelson 1 Cody Kessler 1 Jonathan Stewart 6 B. Perriman 3 Will Fuller 1 B Corey Davis TR Gio Bernard 1 B J. Kearse 1

  Pos Pianowski  $ Behrens $ Jenstad/Sedler $ VanRiper  $ QB M. Stafford 19 Russell Wilson 33 Derek Carr 25 Joe Flacco 15 RB Todd Gurley 29 DeMarco Murray 36 David Johnson 52 Lamar Miller 25 RB D. Freeman 37 Isaiah Crowell 26 CJ Anderson 18 Paul Perkins 17 WR Antonio Brown 51 Davante Adams 25 D.Thomas 24 AJ Green 40 WR Golden Tate 17 Pierre Garcon 6 Willie Snead 15 Julio Jones 45 WR C. Meredith 10 Julian Edelman 9 DeSean Jackson 13 E. Sanders 14 TE Cameron Brate 3 Jack Doyle 13 Kyle Rudolph 11 Tyler Eifert 9 TE CJ Fiedorowicz 3 Hunter Henry 9 Charles Clay 1 Marty Bennett 9 K S.Gostkowski 2 Adam Vinatieri 1 Matt Bryant 1 D Houston 1 Minnesota 1 Denver 2 Kansas City 1 FL Brian Hoyer 6 Duke Johnson 3 Ameer Abdullah 11 Carson Palmer 15 FL Larry Fitzgerald 7 Roethlisberger 26 Tyrod Taylor 20 Jamaal Charles 3 B D. Woodhead 8 Kareem Hunt 3 Corey Coleman 2 Rob Kelley 2 B Open Spot TR Eric Decker 6 Mike Wallace 2 Vance McDonald 1 B Eric Ebron TR DeShone Kizer 1 Josh Doctson 1 Darren McFadden 1 B Marvin Jones 1 Darren Sproles 1 De. Washington 1 Tavon Austin 1 B Robert Woods 1 Paxton Lynch 1 Ted Ginn 1 Aaron Jones 1 Shane Vereen 1

Peter Schoenke

Most “experts” don’t want to admit when the screwed up an auction, but I did on this one. Not so much on the players. I got some decent values (Blount $10, Moncrief $11) and don’t hate my team. However, I wanted to spend at WR and QB, but early in the draft I priced enforced on Zeke Elliott and got “stuck” on him at $48. That’s likely $5 less than he’d typically go for but people were sitting on their hands early in the auction. However, it sent me down a path that I don’t think fared as well for me, similar to how when you take a RB in the first round of an auction.

I’m a WR-first guy. I stubbornly decided to still pay for WR and likely overpaid for T.Y. Hilton and Jordy Nelson, but I decided I wanted some high-floor players since we’re drafting so early and about half your roster is going to be picked up in free agency with this league’s thin benches. Those choices had me chasing for QBs and I never was able to pull the trigger on the $15 – $20 QB I desperately needed. As a result, that left me with Alex Smith as my superflex and Jared Goff as my backup QB. There’s a hint of floor and upside in that duo, but not exactly what I had in mind in a 14-team league.

Mark Stopa

In a deep format like this, everyone will have weak spots.. Given how RBs, WRs, and TEs emerge from nowhere each year, I’d rather be weaker at those positions than QB, and I auctioned accordingly.. There’s simply no chance any QB outside the top 20 is going to be someone you want to use each week, and many owners doing so are wasting a valuable bench spot on a third crummy QB to make up for the crummy one in their superflex.

As for the rest … Rawls and Richard are great ways to fade Lacy and Lynch, two guys I won’t be owning in 2017 seasonal.. I like my cheap Pats guys (Lewis, Hogan, Mitchell) because if injuries strike (Cooks, Edelman), they’ll be gold.. Remember, the earlier in 2017 your draft/auction occurs, the more upside on bench matters, as preseason injuries will happen.. Bills D gets the Jets at home Week 1; picking on NYJ will be an ideal way to stream defenses this year.

Kevin Payne

I got a starting lineup with the majority of my money and then went $1 for every bench spot. Didn’t draft a kicker or defense. Drank a lot of vodka. I’d recommend this for all.

Michael Salfino

The story of the draft was that QBs went for too little in this format and WRs went for too much. So I’m thrilled to land Drew Brees ($37) and Brees Jr., Kirk Cousins. The endgame worked for me because I got some really good WR values by my rankings: Britt, Matthews, Thielen, Cobb for a combined 9% of my budget. Britt for $3 thrilled me even though I want to avoid paying for players on teams that are likely to have major QB problems. The thing is, I think Cody Kessler is pretty good — if only I believed the Browns did, too.

I wish I said $53 for David Johnson instead of later having to say $54 for Le’Veon Bell. I have to worry a little about a holdout and Bell is a greater injury risk given their respective histories. My other regret is not saying $4 for Kareem Hunt, who has a David Johnson 2015 vibe.

Scott Jenstad

We came in with a plan for 2 of the top 22 QB (that is where we set our cut off) but not one of the top 3-4, one stud RB and then to play with the depth at WR and attack the mid-range WR after people had spent money on the top WR. I regret $29 total on CJ Anderson and Ameer Abdullah, although I do like Abdullah, but I think we could have bargain shopped for our 3rd RB slot and used that money to upgrade a bit at WR and TE. However, I absolutely love our late bargain WR and I think Coleman, Wallace, Doctson and Ginn for $6 made our depth and is an absurd group for the prices. I worry about 2nd TE in a 2 TE league as we ended up having to go bottom of the barrel there so that is a spot we will need to work on pretty quickly. I regret letting Jeff land Prescott for only $21, I would love to swap out $20 Tyrod Taylor for $21 Dak.

Andy Behrens

We bumped the league size up to 14 teams this year, which is pretty much the outer limit for a two-TE superflex format. The depth of this league led me to balance my spending across positions. I didn’t want to leave the auction with an unfinished team, knowing I had work to do on the wire. Going in, I’d intended to wait on receivers, the position offering the greatest depth; that approach resulted in decent deals on Garcon, Edelman and Decker.

If you guys want to see a roadmap to despair, check out Liss’ team. A disgrace to the fantasy industry.

Derek Van Riper

My plan going into the auction was to have one elite QB (Rodgers, Brady, Brees) and one elite RB (Bell, Johnson, or Elliott). It fell though, however, as the pricing at the top exceeded my expectations, and at 14 teams, I was slightly less adamant about sticking to a stars-and-scrubs approach. The value at the top of the pool came with the elite receivers, leading me to build around Julio Jones and A.J. Green instead. The most unexpected trend from the auction that makes my team vulnerable is the high cost of the mid-range and low-end quarterbacks thanks to two additional teams in the league, and our use of the Superflex. My hope, however, is that the likes of Carson Palmer and Joe Flacco can be within a couple points per game of the options who were priced up $10-15 higher, and that my strength at WR, TE, and lack of a hole (initially) at running back gives me good balance from week-to-week. 

Brad Evans

When tequila happens, you land Mike Glennon, Sam Bradford and Deshaun Watson as your only QBs. Intended at the onset, I purposely ignored the QB and TE positions and instead focused on acquiring high floor RBs/WRs. Though loaded in the latter areas (RBs: McCoy/Gordon/Powell/Perine; WRs: Alshon/Hopkins/Tyreek), it came at a tremendous cost elsewhere. Inevitably, I’ll spin a RB off at some point for a passing upgrade, but my roster-construction experiment could blow up the lab.

Brandon Funston

Overall, I’m happy with the roster I was able to pull together – no glaring positional weaknesses. Miracle of all miracles, I was able to be a patient shopper and not blow my budget in the early-round inflationary period. But maybe I was a tad too patient, as I had $6 to play with at the end when everyone else was pretty much in $1-draft mode. I ended up using that $6 on Jonathan Stewart, but if I think back on how it could have played out better, it would have probably been to pay $8-9 for a tight end like Hunter Henry or Zach Ertz instead of $4 for Julius Thomas and gone with a $1 DeAndre Washington (I have Marshawn Lynch, so it would have made some sense) in the end at RB instead of J-Stew.

(Note: Funston traded Eric Ebron to Pianowski for Corey Davis and Jason Witten, shortly after the draft ended.)

Liz Loza

Thank goodness for Grey Goose and Jeremy Maclin. After spending the bulk of my coin on RBs, I needed to snag an undervalued wideout. With over 300 targets up for grabs in Charm City, Maclin is a steal late in drafts… and I got him for just $5!

Dalton Del Don

I entered with a “stars and scrubs” strategy, planning on spending big on quarterbacks and wide receivers. Whether that strategy works (or if I got the right players) remains to be seen, but I certainly executed it. I regret not securing more $1 running back fliers, as I need to get lucky there (my starters are ugly). But this auction took place in mid-July, and RB is by far the most volatile position. I’ll have to be extra aggressive with FAAB at the position.

Chris Liss

Here’s my writeup from Rotowire.

My thoughts are you need to have a decent QB at the QBFLEX spot. And one who won’t lose his job unless he gets hurt. If I were to do it over again, I’d probably have bought a third instead of Carlos Hyde and punted RB altogether. I’m fairly sure I could trade a $27 QB for a $30-plus back.

I didn’t intend to go big on TE, but you and I were advancing the bid on Gronkowski, who’s worth $40 in this format, and he stopped at $34. I was actually happy to get him even though I probably won’t have him anywhere else.

I went big on Graham because I had some money left, though he was the best player available (again in the two-TE format) and would rather struggle in the end game than leave $ on the table. It cost me a couple Stefon Diggs types, who I could use, but I’m probably better off with Graham.

Scott Pianowski

I agree with most of Peter Schoenke’s comments, up top. I like to go into auctions with a highly agnostic strategy, but this was a league screaming for more urgency at quarterback. Most fantasy players can take that position casually, given the league-wide depth, but that is not the case in a 14-team league where everyone is highly incentivized to play two QBs a week. I should have either gotten three solid starters, or two high-level guys who could land in the Top 10 with a reasonable runout. If we did this auction again tomorrow, I’m sure a bunch of teams would approach the QB position differently.

It’s never a bad idea to make an early overpayment in an auction if it’s something you really want or really need. I should have parked one major QB early, then seen how the market unfolded. Instead, I stuck to my agnostic leanings and probably paid for it.

I do like the rest of my team, but I’m thin at the one position you can’t be thin at. The trade market probably won’t be much; Brad Evans can tell you that. And it’s hard to imagine a lot of QB talent coming into the league, guys we haven’t already drafted.

(Note: After the draft, Pianowski traded Corey Davis and Jason to Witten for Eric Ebron and an open spot, to be filled later).

[yahoo-roto-arcade-blog]

Stopa Auction League: Navigating 14 teams, Superflex format

Tom Brady takes on extra value in a two-quarterback league (AP)

The Stopa Law Firm is a different kind of fantasy football expert league.

It’s a big-money league (thanks to Mark Stopa, benefactor) and it’s a league about jumbo starting spots (super flex — which strongly encourages two starting quarterbacks — two tight ends, another flex spot) and limited bench space. A modified PPR scoring format is used.

And oh yeah, it’s an auction. And it’s a party that goes down in Las Vegas in mid-July. We can’t post all the photos here, someone would get divorced or arrested.

The challenge is steeper this year, with noted experts Scott Jenstad and Vlad Sedler jumping in, bringing us to 14 teams. We also welcomed back Michael Salfino after a one-year absence.

I asked the league members to comment about their strategy, the auction, or anything they wanted. Here’s what they had to say. Your full auction results are viewable here.

(Keep in mind teams were not required to fill out their starting roster on draft day; several teams passed on defense and kicker).

League History: 2016: Jeff Erickson over Brad Evans 2015: Andy Behrens over Chris Liss 2014: Andy Behrens over Mike Salfino 2013: Dalton Del Don over Scott Pianowski 2012: Scott Pianowski over Dalton Del Don

The 2017 review, in the owner’s own words. (Summary: TL; DR)

Pos Erickson $ Salfino $ Schoenke $ Stopa $ Evans  $ QB Dak Prescott 21 Drew Brees 37 Matt Ryan 30 Tom Brady 40 Mike Glennon 4 RB C. McCaffrey 25 Le’Veon Bell 54 Ezekiel Elliott 48 Mark Ingram 20 Melvin Gordon 39 RB Doug Martin 9 Marlon Mack 3 L. Blount 10 Tevin Coleman 16 LeSean McCoy 36 WR Terrelle Pryor 29 M. Crabtree 13 Jordy Nelson 40 Amari Cooper 32 DeAndre Hopkins 25 WR Doug Baldwin 37 Chris Conley 1 TY Hilton 40 Sammy Watkins 22 Tyreek Hill 22 WR Jarvis Landry 17 Randall Cobb 8 Donte Moncrief 11 J. Crowder 10 Alshon Jeffery 25 TE Zach Ertz 8 Travis Kelce 33 Tyler Higbee 1 Xavier Grimble 1 Jared Cook 2 TE Zach Miller 1 Dwayne Allen 2 Ben Watson 1 Jesse James 1 Antonio Gates 1 K Dan Bailey 1 Mason Crosby 1 D Buffalo 1 Seattle 1 FL Spencer Ware 13 Kenny Britt 3 Alex Smith 5 M. Mitchell 1 Samaje Perine 16 FL Ryan Tannehill 18 Kirk Cousins 30 Frank Gore 7 Aaron Rodgers 48 Sam Bradford 8 B Theo Riddick 7 Ri. Matthews 3 Jamaal Williams 1 Thomas Rawls 3 Bilal Powell 12 B Derrick Henry 5 Adam Thielen 5 Jared Goff 1 Jalen Richard 1 Deshaun Watson 5 B Terrance West 3 Matt Forte 2 Alvin Kamara 1 Latavius Murray 1 Cooper Kupp 1 B Kenneth Dixon 2 Coby Fleener 2 W. Smallwood 1 Dion Lewis 1 Cole Beasley 1 B Taylor Gabriel 1 Tyler Lockett 2 Mike Williams 1 Devin Funchess 1 Zay Jones 1 B Trevor Siemian 3 C Thompson 1 Jeremy Langford 1 Chris Hogan 1 B James White 1 Wayne Gallman 1

  Pos  Del Don  $  Liss $ Funston $ Loza  $ Payne $ QB Marcus Mariota 30 Andy Dalton 21 Blake Bortles 16 Philip Rivers 26 Jameis Winston 30 RB Joe Williams 3 Carlos Hyde 27 Marshawn Lynch 25 L. Fournette 30 Mike Gillislee 21 RB J. Rodgers 1 Charles Sims 2 Joe Mixon 20 Jay Ajayi 39 Ty Montgomery 30 WR Odell Beckham 44 Dez Bryant 36 Michael Thomas 38 John Brown 14 Allen Robinson 24 WR Mike Evans 42 Devante Parker 10 Kelvin Benjamin 10 Martavis Bryant 20 Keenan Allen 13 WR Brandin Cooks 37 Kevin White 3 Quincy Enunwa 3 Jeremy Maclin 5 Stefon Diggs 6 TE David Njoku 1 Rob Gronkowski 34 Julius Thomas 4 Jordan Reed 24 Delanie Walker 16 TE Seferian-Jenkins 1 Jimmy Graham 20 Austin Hooper 3 AJ Derby 1 Greg Olsen 19 K B. McManus 1 Justin Tucker 2 Corey Davis TR C. Cantanazaro 1 D New England 1 New York Giants 1 Arizona 1 LA Rams 1 FL Allen Hurns 1 CJ Prosise 3 Jordan Howard 35 Adrian Peterson 16 Caron Wentz 16 FL Cam Newton 32 Andrew Luck 35 Eli Manning 20 Josh McCown 1 Dalvin Cook 18 B Marqise Lee 2 OJ Howard 2 Jeremy Hill 3 Eddie Lacy 13 Rex Burkhead 1 B S. Shepard 1 D’onta Foreman 1 Brandon Marshall 4 James Connor 2 Devontae Booker 1 B Eli Rogers 1 Robert Turbin 1 Jason Witten TR Jo. Williams 3 Evan Engram 1 B P. Richardson 1 Curtis Samuel 1 Tyrell Williams 7 Robby Anderson 1 Jordan Matthews 1 B JJ Nelson 1 Cody Kessler 1 Jonathan Stewart 6 B. Perriman 3 Will Fuller 1 B Corey Davis TR Gio Bernard 1 B J. Kearse 1

  Pos Pianowski  $ Behrens $ Jenstad/Sedler $ VanRiper  $ QB M. Stafford 19 Russell Wilson 33 Derek Carr 25 Joe Flacco 15 RB Todd Gurley 29 DeMarco Murray 36 David Johnson 52 Lamar Miller 25 RB D. Freeman 37 Isaiah Crowell 26 CJ Anderson 18 Paul Perkins 17 WR Antonio Brown 51 Davante Adams 25 D.Thomas 24 AJ Green 40 WR Golden Tate 17 Pierre Garcon 6 Willie Snead 15 Julio Jones 45 WR C. Meredith 10 Julian Edelman 9 DeSean Jackson 13 E. Sanders 14 TE Cameron Brate 3 Jack Doyle 13 Kyle Rudolph 11 Tyler Eifert 9 TE CJ Fiedorowicz 3 Hunter Henry 9 Charles Clay 1 Marty Bennett 9 K S.Gostkowski 2 Adam Vinatieri 1 Matt Bryant 1 D Houston 1 Minnesota 1 Denver 2 Kansas City 1 FL Brian Hoyer 6 Duke Johnson 3 Ameer Abdullah 11 Carson Palmer 15 FL Larry Fitzgerald 7 Roethlisberger 26 Tyrod Taylor 20 Jamaal Charles 3 B D. Woodhead 8 Kareem Hunt 3 Corey Coleman 2 Rob Kelley 2 B Open Spot TR Eric Decker 6 Mike Wallace 2 Vance McDonald 1 B Eric Ebron TR DeShone Kizer 1 Josh Doctson 1 Darren McFadden 1 B Marvin Jones 1 Darren Sproles 1 De. Washington 1 Tavon Austin 1 B Robert Woods 1 Paxton Lynch 1 Ted Ginn 1 Aaron Jones 1 Shane Vereen 1

Peter Schoenke

Most “experts” don’t want to admit when the screwed up an auction, but I did on this one. Not so much on the players. I got some decent values (Blount $10, Moncrief $11) and don’t hate my team. However, I wanted to spend at WR and QB, but early in the draft I priced enforced on Zeke Elliott and got “stuck” on him at $48. That’s likely $5 less than he’d typically go for but people were sitting on their hands early in the auction. However, it sent me down a path that I don’t think fared as well for me, similar to how when you take a RB in the first round of an auction.

I’m a WR-first guy. I stubbornly decided to still pay for WR and likely overpaid for T.Y. Hilton and Jordy Nelson, but I decided I wanted some high-floor players since we’re drafting so early and about half your roster is going to be picked up in free agency with this league’s thin benches. Those choices had me chasing for QBs and I never was able to pull the trigger on the $15 – $20 QB I desperately needed. As a result, that left me with Alex Smith as my superflex and Jared Goff as my backup QB. There’s a hint of floor and upside in that duo, but not exactly what I had in mind in a 14-team league.

Mark Stopa

In a deep format like this, everyone will have weak spots.. Given how RBs, WRs, and TEs emerge from nowhere each year, I’d rather be weaker at those positions than QB, and I auctioned accordingly.. There’s simply no chance any QB outside the top 20 is going to be someone you want to use each week, and many owners doing so are wasting a valuable bench spot on a third crummy QB to make up for the crummy one in their superflex.

As for the rest … Rawls and Richard are great ways to fade Lacy and Lynch, two guys I won’t be owning in 2017 seasonal.. I like my cheap Pats guys (Lewis, Hogan, Mitchell) because if injuries strike (Cooks, Edelman), they’ll be gold.. Remember, the earlier in 2017 your draft/auction occurs, the more upside on bench matters, as preseason injuries will happen.. Bills D gets the Jets at home Week 1; picking on NYJ will be an ideal way to stream defenses this year.

Kevin Payne

I got a starting lineup with the majority of my money and then went $1 for every bench spot. Didn’t draft a kicker or defense. Drank a lot of vodka. I’d recommend this for all.

Kirk Cousins, face of the Salfino franchise (AP)

Michael Salfino

The story of the draft was that QBs went for too little in this format and WRs went for too much. So I’m thrilled to land Drew Brees ($37) and Brees Jr., Kirk Cousins. The endgame worked for me because I got some really good WR values by my rankings: Britt, Matthews, Thielen, Cobb for a combined 9% of my budget. Britt for $3 thrilled me even though I want to avoid paying for players on teams that are likely to have major QB problems. The thing is, I think Cody Kessler is pretty good — if only I believed the Browns did, too.

I wish I said $53 for David Johnson instead of later having to say $54 for Le’Veon Bell. I have to worry a little about a holdout and Bell is a greater injury risk given their respective histories. My other regret is not saying $4 for Kareem Hunt, who has a David Johnson 2015 vibe.

Scott Jenstad

We came in with a plan for 2 of the top 22 QB (that is where we set our cut off) but not one of the top 3-4, one stud RB and then to play with the depth at WR and attack the mid-range WR after people had spent money on the top WR. I regret $29 total on CJ Anderson and Ameer Abdullah, although I do like Abdullah, but I think we could have bargain shopped for our 3rd RB slot and used that money to upgrade a bit at WR and TE. However, I absolutely love our late bargain WR and I think Coleman, Wallace, Doctson and Ginn for $6 made our depth and is an absurd group for the prices. I worry about 2nd TE in a 2 TE league as we ended up having to go bottom of the barrel there so that is a spot we will need to work on pretty quickly. I regret letting Jeff land Prescott for only $21, I would love to swap out $20 Tyrod Taylor for $21 Dak.

Andy Behrens

We bumped the league size up to 14 teams this year, which is pretty much the outer limit for a two-TE superflex format. The depth of this league led me to balance my spending across positions. I didn’t want to leave the auction with an unfinished team, knowing I had work to do on the wire. Going in, I’d intended to wait on receivers, the position offering the greatest depth; that approach resulted in decent deals on Garcon, Edelman and Decker.

If you guys want to see a roadmap to despair, check out Liss’ team. A disgrace to the fantasy industry.

Derek Van Riper

My plan going into the auction was to have one elite QB (Rodgers, Brady, Brees) and one elite RB (Bell, Johnson, or Elliott). It fell though, however, as the pricing at the top exceeded my expectations, and at 14 teams, I was slightly less adamant about sticking to a stars-and-scrubs approach. The value at the top of the pool came with the elite receivers, leading me to build around Julio Jones and A.J. Green instead. The most unexpected trend from the auction that makes my team vulnerable is the high cost of the mid-range and low-end quarterbacks thanks to two additional teams in the league, and our use of the Superflex. My hope, however, is that the likes of Carson Palmer and Joe Flacco can be within a couple points per game of the options who were priced up $10-15 higher, and that my strength at WR, TE, and lack of a hole (initially) at running back gives me good balance from week-to-week. 

Brad Evans

When tequila happens, you land Mike Glennon, Sam Bradford and Deshaun Watson as your only QBs. Intended at the onset, I purposely ignored the QB and TE positions and instead focused on acquiring high floor RBs/WRs. Though loaded in the latter areas (RBs: McCoy/Gordon/Powell/Perine; WRs: Alshon/Hopkins/Tyreek), it came at a tremendous cost elsewhere. Inevitably, I’ll spin a RB off at some point for a passing upgrade, but my roster-construction experiment could blow up the lab.

Brandon Funston

Overall, I’m happy with the roster I was able to pull together – no glaring positional weaknesses. Miracle of all miracles, I was able to be a patient shopper and not blow my budget in the early-round inflationary period. But maybe I was a tad too patient, as I had $6 to play with at the end when everyone else was pretty much in $1-draft mode. I ended up using that $6 on Jonathan Stewart, but if I think back on how it could have played out better, it would have probably been to pay $8-9 for a tight end like Hunter Henry or Zach Ertz instead of $4 for Julius Thomas and gone with a $1 DeAndre Washington (I have Marshawn Lynch, so it would have made some sense) in the end at RB instead of J-Stew.

(Note: Funston traded Eric Ebron to Pianowski for Corey Davis and Jason Witten, shortly after the draft ended.)

Liz Loza

Thank goodness for Grey Goose and Jeremy Maclin. After spending the bulk of my coin on RBs, I needed to snag an undervalued wideout. With over 300 targets up for grabs in Charm City, Maclin is a steal late in drafts… and I got him for just $5!

Dalton Del Don

I entered with a “stars and scrubs” strategy, planning on spending big on quarterbacks and wide receivers. Whether that strategy works (or if I got the right players) remains to be seen, but I certainly executed it. I regret not securing more $1 running back fliers, as I need to get lucky there (my starters are ugly). But this auction took place in mid-July, and RB is by far the most volatile position. I’ll have to be extra aggressive with FAAB at the position.

Chris Liss

Here’s my writeup from Rotowire.

My thoughts are you need to have a decent QB at the QBFLEX spot. And one who won’t lose his job unless he gets hurt. If I were to do it over again, I’d probably have bought a third instead of Carlos Hyde and punted RB altogether. I’m fairly sure I could trade a $27 QB for a $30-plus back.

I didn’t intend to go big on TE, but you and I were advancing the bid on Gronkowski, who’s worth $40 in this format, and he stopped at $34. I was actually happy to get him even though I probably won’t have him anywhere else.

I went big on Graham because I had some money left, though he was the best player available (again in the two-TE format) and would rather struggle in the end game than leave $ on the table. It cost me a couple Stefon Diggs types, who I could use, but I’m probably better off with Graham.

Scott Pianowski

I agree with most of Peter Schoenke’s comments, up top. I like to go into auctions with a highly agnostic strategy, but this was a league screaming for more urgency at quarterback. Most fantasy players can take that position casually, given the league-wide depth, but that is not the case in a 14-team league where everyone is highly incentivized to play two QBs a week. I should have either gotten three solid starters, or two high-level guys who could land in the Top 10 with a reasonable runout. If we did this auction again tomorrow, I’m sure a bunch of teams would approach the QB position differently.

It’s never a bad idea to make an early overpayment in an auction if it’s something you really want or really need. I should have parked one major QB early, then seen how the market unfolded. Instead, I stuck to my agnostic leanings and probably paid for it.

I do like the rest of my team, but I’m thin at the one position you can’t be thin at. The trade market probably won’t be much; Brad Evans can tell you that. And it’s hard to imagine a lot of QB talent coming into the league, guys we haven’t already drafted.

(Note: After the draft, Pianowski traded Corey Davis and Jason to Witten for Eric Ebron and an open spot, to be filled later).

[yahoo-roto-arcade-blog]

Stopa Auction League: Navigating 14 teams, Superflex format

Tom Brady takes on extra value in a two-quarterback league (AP)

The Stopa Law Firm is a different kind of fantasy football expert league.

It’s a big-money league (thanks to Mark Stopa, benefactor) and it’s a league about jumbo starting spots (super flex — which strongly encourages two starting quarterbacks — two tight ends, another flex spot) and limited bench space. A modified PPR scoring format is used.

And oh yeah, it’s an auction. And it’s a party that goes down in Las Vegas in mid-July. We can’t post all the photos here, someone would get divorced or arrested.

The challenge is steeper this year, with noted experts Scott Jenstad and Vlad Sedler jumping in, bringing us to 14 teams. We also welcomed back Michael Salfino after a one-year absence.

I asked the league members to comment about their strategy, the auction, or anything they wanted. Here’s what they had to say. Your full auction results are viewable here.

(Keep in mind teams were not required to fill out their starting roster on draft day; several teams passed on defense and kicker).

League History: 2016: Jeff Erickson over Brad Evans 2015: Andy Behrens over Chris Liss 2014: Andy Behrens over Mike Salfino 2013: Dalton Del Don over Scott Pianowski 2012: Scott Pianowski over Dalton Del Don

The 2017 review, in the owner’s own words. (Summary: TL; DR)

Pos Erickson $ Salfino $ Schoenke $ Stopa $ Evans  $ QB Dak Prescott 21 Drew Brees 37 Matt Ryan 30 Tom Brady 40 Mike Glennon 4 RB C. McCaffrey 25 Le’Veon Bell 54 Ezekiel Elliott 48 Mark Ingram 20 Melvin Gordon 39 RB Doug Martin 9 Marlon Mack 3 L. Blount 10 Tevin Coleman 16 LeSean McCoy 36 WR Terrelle Pryor 29 M. Crabtree 13 Jordy Nelson 40 Amari Cooper 32 DeAndre Hopkins 25 WR Doug Baldwin 37 Chris Conley 1 TY Hilton 40 Sammy Watkins 22 Tyreek Hill 22 WR Jarvis Landry 17 Randall Cobb 8 Donte Moncrief 11 J. Crowder 10 Alshon Jeffery 25 TE Zach Ertz 8 Travis Kelce 33 Tyler Higbee 1 Xavier Grimble 1 Jared Cook 2 TE Zach Miller 1 Dwayne Allen 2 Ben Watson 1 Jesse James 1 Antonio Gates 1 K Dan Bailey 1 Mason Crosby 1 D Buffalo 1 Seattle 1 FL Spencer Ware 13 Kenny Britt 3 Alex Smith 5 M. Mitchell 1 Samaje Perine 16 FL Ryan Tannehill 18 Kirk Cousins 30 Frank Gore 7 Aaron Rodgers 48 Sam Bradford 8 B Theo Riddick 7 Ri. Matthews 3 Jamaal Williams 1 Thomas Rawls 3 Bilal Powell 12 B Derrick Henry 5 Adam Thielen 5 Jared Goff 1 Jalen Richard 1 Deshaun Watson 5 B Terrance West 3 Matt Forte 2 Alvin Kamara 1 Latavius Murray 1 Cooper Kupp 1 B Kenneth Dixon 2 Coby Fleener 2 W. Smallwood 1 Dion Lewis 1 Cole Beasley 1 B Taylor Gabriel 1 Tyler Lockett 2 Mike Williams 1 Devin Funchess 1 Zay Jones 1 B Trevor Siemian 3 C Thompson 1 Jeremy Langford 1 Chris Hogan 1 B James White 1 Wayne Gallman 1

  Pos  Del Don  $  Liss $ Funston $ Loza  $ Payne $ QB Marcus Mariota 30 Andy Dalton 21 Blake Bortles 16 Philip Rivers 26 Jameis Winston 30 RB Joe Williams 3 Carlos Hyde 27 Marshawn Lynch 25 L. Fournette 30 Mike Gillislee 21 RB J. Rodgers 1 Charles Sims 2 Joe Mixon 20 Jay Ajayi 39 Ty Montgomery 30 WR Odell Beckham 44 Dez Bryant 36 Michael Thomas 38 John Brown 14 Allen Robinson 24 WR Mike Evans 42 Devante Parker 10 Kelvin Benjamin 10 Martavis Bryant 20 Keenan Allen 13 WR Brandin Cooks 37 Kevin White 3 Quincy Enunwa 3 Jeremy Maclin 5 Stefon Diggs 6 TE David Njoku 1 Rob Gronkowski 34 Julius Thomas 4 Jordan Reed 24 Delanie Walker 16 TE Seferian-Jenkins 1 Jimmy Graham 20 Austin Hooper 3 AJ Derby 1 Greg Olsen 19 K B. McManus 1 Justin Tucker 2 Corey Davis TR C. Cantanazaro 1 D New England 1 New York Giants 1 Arizona 1 LA Rams 1 FL Allen Hurns 1 CJ Prosise 3 Jordan Howard 35 Adrian Peterson 16 Caron Wentz 16 FL Cam Newton 32 Andrew Luck 35 Eli Manning 20 Josh McCown 1 Dalvin Cook 18 B Marqise Lee 2 OJ Howard 2 Jeremy Hill 3 Eddie Lacy 13 Rex Burkhead 1 B S. Shepard 1 D’onta Foreman 1 Brandon Marshall 4 James Connor 2 Devontae Booker 1 B Eli Rogers 1 Robert Turbin 1 Jason Witten TR Jo. Williams 3 Evan Engram 1 B P. Richardson 1 Curtis Samuel 1 Tyrell Williams 7 Robby Anderson 1 Jordan Matthews 1 B JJ Nelson 1 Cody Kessler 1 Jonathan Stewart 6 B. Perriman 3 Will Fuller 1 B Corey Davis TR Gio Bernard 1 B J. Kearse 1

  Pos Pianowski  $ Behrens $ Jenstad/Sedler $ VanRiper  $ QB M. Stafford 19 Russell Wilson 33 Derek Carr 25 Joe Flacco 15 RB Todd Gurley 29 DeMarco Murray 36 David Johnson 52 Lamar Miller 25 RB D. Freeman 37 Isaiah Crowell 26 CJ Anderson 18 Paul Perkins 17 WR Antonio Brown 51 Davante Adams 25 D.Thomas 24 AJ Green 40 WR Golden Tate 17 Pierre Garcon 6 Willie Snead 15 Julio Jones 45 WR C. Meredith 10 Julian Edelman 9 DeSean Jackson 13 E. Sanders 14 TE Cameron Brate 3 Jack Doyle 13 Kyle Rudolph 11 Tyler Eifert 9 TE CJ Fiedorowicz 3 Hunter Henry 9 Charles Clay 1 Marty Bennett 9 K S.Gostkowski 2 Adam Vinatieri 1 Matt Bryant 1 D Houston 1 Minnesota 1 Denver 2 Kansas City 1 FL Brian Hoyer 6 Duke Johnson 3 Ameer Abdullah 11 Carson Palmer 15 FL Larry Fitzgerald 7 Roethlisberger 26 Tyrod Taylor 20 Jamaal Charles 3 B D. Woodhead 8 Kareem Hunt 3 Corey Coleman 2 Rob Kelley 2 B Open Spot TR Eric Decker 6 Mike Wallace 2 Vance McDonald 1 B Eric Ebron TR DeShone Kizer 1 Josh Doctson 1 Darren McFadden 1 B Marvin Jones 1 Darren Sproles 1 De. Washington 1 Tavon Austin 1 B Robert Woods 1 Paxton Lynch 1 Ted Ginn 1 Aaron Jones 1 Shane Vereen 1

Peter Schoenke

Most “experts” don’t want to admit when the screwed up an auction, but I did on this one. Not so much on the players. I got some decent values (Blount $10, Moncrief $11) and don’t hate my team. However, I wanted to spend at WR and QB, but early in the draft I priced enforced on Zeke Elliott and got “stuck” on him at $48. That’s likely $5 less than he’d typically go for but people were sitting on their hands early in the auction. However, it sent me down a path that I don’t think fared as well for me, similar to how when you take a RB in the first round of an auction.

I’m a WR-first guy. I stubbornly decided to still pay for WR and likely overpaid for T.Y. Hilton and Jordy Nelson, but I decided I wanted some high-floor players since we’re drafting so early and about half your roster is going to be picked up in free agency with this league’s thin benches. Those choices had me chasing for QBs and I never was able to pull the trigger on the $15 – $20 QB I desperately needed. As a result, that left me with Alex Smith as my superflex and Jared Goff as my backup QB. There’s a hint of floor and upside in that duo, but not exactly what I had in mind in a 14-team league.

Mark Stopa

In a deep format like this, everyone will have weak spots.. Given how RBs, WRs, and TEs emerge from nowhere each year, I’d rather be weaker at those positions than QB, and I auctioned accordingly.. There’s simply no chance any QB outside the top 20 is going to be someone you want to use each week, and many owners doing so are wasting a valuable bench spot on a third crummy QB to make up for the crummy one in their superflex.

As for the rest … Rawls and Richard are great ways to fade Lacy and Lynch, two guys I won’t be owning in 2017 seasonal.. I like my cheap Pats guys (Lewis, Hogan, Mitchell) because if injuries strike (Cooks, Edelman), they’ll be gold.. Remember, the earlier in 2017 your draft/auction occurs, the more upside on bench matters, as preseason injuries will happen.. Bills D gets the Jets at home Week 1; picking on NYJ will be an ideal way to stream defenses this year.

Kevin Payne

I got a starting lineup with the majority of my money and then went $1 for every bench spot. Didn’t draft a kicker or defense. Drank a lot of vodka. I’d recommend this for all.

Kirk Cousins, face of the Salfino franchise (AP)

Michael Salfino

The story of the draft was that QBs went for too little in this format and WRs went for too much. So I’m thrilled to land Drew Brees ($37) and Brees Jr., Kirk Cousins. The endgame worked for me because I got some really good WR values by my rankings: Britt, Matthews, Thielen, Cobb for a combined 9% of my budget. Britt for $3 thrilled me even though I want to avoid paying for players on teams that are likely to have major QB problems. The thing is, I think Cody Kessler is pretty good — if only I believed the Browns did, too.

I wish I said $53 for David Johnson instead of later having to say $54 for Le’Veon Bell. I have to worry a little about a holdout and Bell is a greater injury risk given their respective histories. My other regret is not saying $4 for Kareem Hunt, who has a David Johnson 2015 vibe.

Scott Jenstad

We came in with a plan for 2 of the top 22 QB (that is where we set our cut off) but not one of the top 3-4, one stud RB and then to play with the depth at WR and attack the mid-range WR after people had spent money on the top WR. I regret $29 total on CJ Anderson and Ameer Abdullah, although I do like Abdullah, but I think we could have bargain shopped for our 3rd RB slot and used that money to upgrade a bit at WR and TE. However, I absolutely love our late bargain WR and I think Coleman, Wallace, Doctson and Ginn for $6 made our depth and is an absurd group for the prices. I worry about 2nd TE in a 2 TE league as we ended up having to go bottom of the barrel there so that is a spot we will need to work on pretty quickly. I regret letting Jeff land Prescott for only $21, I would love to swap out $20 Tyrod Taylor for $21 Dak.

Andy Behrens

We bumped the league size up to 14 teams this year, which is pretty much the outer limit for a two-TE superflex format. The depth of this league led me to balance my spending across positions. I didn’t want to leave the auction with an unfinished team, knowing I had work to do on the wire. Going in, I’d intended to wait on receivers, the position offering the greatest depth; that approach resulted in decent deals on Garcon, Edelman and Decker.

If you guys want to see a roadmap to despair, check out Liss’ team. A disgrace to the fantasy industry.

Derek Van Riper

My plan going into the auction was to have one elite QB (Rodgers, Brady, Brees) and one elite RB (Bell, Johnson, or Elliott). It fell though, however, as the pricing at the top exceeded my expectations, and at 14 teams, I was slightly less adamant about sticking to a stars-and-scrubs approach. The value at the top of the pool came with the elite receivers, leading me to build around Julio Jones and A.J. Green instead. The most unexpected trend from the auction that makes my team vulnerable is the high cost of the mid-range and low-end quarterbacks thanks to two additional teams in the league, and our use of the Superflex. My hope, however, is that the likes of Carson Palmer and Joe Flacco can be within a couple points per game of the options who were priced up $10-15 higher, and that my strength at WR, TE, and lack of a hole (initially) at running back gives me good balance from week-to-week. 

Brad Evans

When tequila happens, you land Mike Glennon, Sam Bradford and Deshaun Watson as your only QBs. Intended at the onset, I purposely ignored the QB and TE positions and instead focused on acquiring high floor RBs/WRs. Though loaded in the latter areas (RBs: McCoy/Gordon/Powell/Perine; WRs: Alshon/Hopkins/Tyreek), it came at a tremendous cost elsewhere. Inevitably, I’ll spin a RB off at some point for a passing upgrade, but my roster-construction experiment could blow up the lab.

Brandon Funston

Overall, I’m happy with the roster I was able to pull together – no glaring positional weaknesses. Miracle of all miracles, I was able to be a patient shopper and not blow my budget in the early-round inflationary period. But maybe I was a tad too patient, as I had $6 to play with at the end when everyone else was pretty much in $1-draft mode. I ended up using that $6 on Jonathan Stewart, but if I think back on how it could have played out better, it would have probably been to pay $8-9 for a tight end like Hunter Henry or Zach Ertz instead of $4 for Julius Thomas and gone with a $1 DeAndre Washington (I have Marshawn Lynch, so it would have made some sense) in the end at RB instead of J-Stew.

(Note: Funston traded Eric Ebron to Pianowski for Corey Davis and Jason Witten, shortly after the draft ended.)

Jeremy Maclin was a July bargain (AP)

Liz Loza

Thank goodness for Grey Goose and Jeremy Maclin. After spending the bulk of my coin on RBs, I needed to snag an undervalued wideout. With over 300 targets up for grabs in Charm City, Maclin is a steal late in drafts… and I got him for just $5!

Dalton Del Don

I entered with a “stars and scrubs” strategy, planning on spending big on quarterbacks and wide receivers. Whether that strategy works (or if I got the right players) remains to be seen, but I certainly executed it. I regret not securing more $1 running back fliers, as I need to get lucky there (my starters are ugly). But this auction took place in mid-July, and RB is by far the most volatile position. I’ll have to be extra aggressive with FAAB at the position.

Chris Liss

Here’s my writeup from Rotowire.

My thoughts are you need to have a decent QB at the QB flex spot. And one who won’t lose his job unless he gets hurt. If I were to do it over again, I’d probably have bought a third instead of Carlos Hyde and punted RB altogether. I’m fairly sure I could trade a $27 QB for a $30-plus back.

I didn’t intend to go big on TE, but you and I were advancing the bid on Gronkowski, who’s worth $40 in this format, and he stopped at $34. I was actually happy to get him even though I probably won’t have him anywhere else.

I went big on Graham because I had some money left, though he was the best player available (again in the two-TE format) and would rather struggle in the end game than leave $ on the table. It cost me a couple Stefon Diggs types, who I could use, but I’m probably better off with Graham.

Scott Pianowski

I agree with most of Peter Schoenke’s comments, up top. I like to go into auctions with a highly agnostic strategy, but this was a league screaming for more urgency at quarterback. Most fantasy players can take that position casually, given the league-wide depth, but that is not the case in a 14-team league where everyone is highly incentivized to play two QBs a week. I should have either gotten three solid starters, or two high-level guys who could land in the Top 10 with a reasonable runout. If we did this auction again tomorrow, I’m sure a bunch of teams would approach the QB position differently.

It’s never a bad idea to make an early overpayment in an auction if it’s something you really want or really need. I should have parked one major QB early, then seen how the market unfolded. Instead, I stuck to my agnostic leanings and probably paid for it.

I do like the rest of my team, but I’m thin at the one position you can’t be thin at. The trade market probably won’t be much; Brad Evans can tell you that. And it’s hard to imagine a lot of QB talent coming into the league, guys we haven’t already drafted.

(Note: After the draft, Pianowski traded Corey Davis and Jason to Witten for Eric Ebron and an open spot, to be filled later).

[yahoo-roto-arcade-blog]

Stopa Auction League: Navigating 14 teams, Superflex format

Tom Brady takes on extra value in a two-quarterback league (AP)

The Stopa Law Firm is a different kind of fantasy football expert league.

It’s a big-money league (thanks to Mark Stopa, benefactor) and it’s a league about jumbo starting spots (super flex — which strongly encourages two starting quarterbacks — two tight ends, another flex spot) and limited bench space. A modified PPR scoring format is used.

And oh yeah, it’s an auction. And it’s a party that goes down in Las Vegas in mid-July. We can’t post all the photos here, someone would get divorced or arrested.

The challenge is steeper this year, with noted experts Scott Jenstad and Vlad Sedler jumping in, bringing us to 14 teams. We also welcomed back Michael Salfino after a one-year absence.

I asked the league members to comment about their strategy, the auction, or anything they wanted. Here’s what they had to say. Your full auction results are viewable here.

(Keep in mind teams were not required to fill out their starting roster on draft day; several teams passed on defense and kicker).

League History: 2016: Jeff Erickson over Brad Evans 2015: Andy Behrens over Chris Liss 2014: Andy Behrens over Mike Salfino 2013: Dalton Del Don over Scott Pianowski 2012: Scott Pianowski over Dalton Del Don

The 2017 review, in the owner’s own words. (Summary: TL; DR)

Pos Erickson $ Salfino $ Schoenke $ Stopa $ Evans  $ QB Dak Prescott 21 Drew Brees 37 Matt Ryan 30 Tom Brady 40 Mike Glennon 4 RB C. McCaffrey 25 Le’Veon Bell 54 Ezekiel Elliott 48 Mark Ingram 20 Melvin Gordon 39 RB Doug Martin 9 Marlon Mack 3 L. Blount 10 Tevin Coleman 16 LeSean McCoy 36 WR Terrelle Pryor 29 M. Crabtree 13 Jordy Nelson 40 Amari Cooper 32 DeAndre Hopkins 25 WR Doug Baldwin 37 Chris Conley 1 TY Hilton 40 Sammy Watkins 22 Tyreek Hill 22 WR Jarvis Landry 17 Randall Cobb 8 Donte Moncrief 11 J. Crowder 10 Alshon Jeffery 25 TE Zach Ertz 8 Travis Kelce 33 Tyler Higbee 1 Xavier Grimble 1 Jared Cook 2 TE Zach Miller 1 Dwayne Allen 2 Ben Watson 1 Jesse James 1 Antonio Gates 1 K Dan Bailey 1 Mason Crosby 1 D Buffalo 1 Seattle 1 FL Spencer Ware 13 Kenny Britt 3 Alex Smith 5 M. Mitchell 1 Samaje Perine 16 FL Ryan Tannehill 18 Kirk Cousins 30 Frank Gore 7 Aaron Rodgers 48 Sam Bradford 8 B Theo Riddick 7 Ri. Matthews 3 Jamaal Williams 1 Thomas Rawls 3 Bilal Powell 12 B Derrick Henry 5 Adam Thielen 5 Jared Goff 1 Jalen Richard 1 Deshaun Watson 5 B Terrance West 3 Matt Forte 2 Alvin Kamara 1 Latavius Murray 1 Cooper Kupp 1 B Kenneth Dixon 2 Coby Fleener 2 W. Smallwood 1 Dion Lewis 1 Cole Beasley 1 B Taylor Gabriel 1 Tyler Lockett 2 Mike Williams 1 Devin Funchess 1 Zay Jones 1 B Trevor Siemian 3 C Thompson 1 Jeremy Langford 1 Chris Hogan 1 B James White 1 Wayne Gallman 1

  Pos  Del Don  $  Liss $ Funston $ Loza  $ Payne $ QB Marcus Mariota 30 Andy Dalton 21 Blake Bortles 16 Philip Rivers 26 Jameis Winston 30 RB Joe Williams 3 Carlos Hyde 27 Marshawn Lynch 25 L. Fournette 30 Mike Gillislee 21 RB J. Rodgers 1 Charles Sims 2 Joe Mixon 20 Jay Ajayi 39 Ty Montgomery 30 WR Odell Beckham 44 Dez Bryant 36 Michael Thomas 38 John Brown 14 Allen Robinson 24 WR Mike Evans 42 Devante Parker 10 Kelvin Benjamin 10 Martavis Bryant 20 Keenan Allen 13 WR Brandin Cooks 37 Kevin White 3 Quincy Enunwa 3 Jeremy Maclin 5 Stefon Diggs 6 TE David Njoku 1 Rob Gronkowski 34 Julius Thomas 4 Jordan Reed 24 Delanie Walker 16 TE Seferian-Jenkins 1 Jimmy Graham 20 Austin Hooper 3 AJ Derby 1 Greg Olsen 19 K B. McManus 1 Justin Tucker 2 Corey Davis TR C. Cantanazaro 1 D New England 1 New York Giants 1 Arizona 1 LA Rams 1 FL Allen Hurns 1 CJ Prosise 3 Jordan Howard 35 Adrian Peterson 16 Caron Wentz 16 FL Cam Newton 32 Andrew Luck 35 Eli Manning 20 Josh McCown 1 Dalvin Cook 18 B Marqise Lee 2 OJ Howard 2 Jeremy Hill 3 Eddie Lacy 13 Rex Burkhead 1 B S. Shepard 1 D’onta Foreman 1 Brandon Marshall 4 James Connor 2 Devontae Booker 1 B Eli Rogers 1 Robert Turbin 1 Jason Witten TR Jo. Williams 3 Evan Engram 1 B P. Richardson 1 Curtis Samuel 1 Tyrell Williams 7 Robby Anderson 1 Jordan Matthews 1 B JJ Nelson 1 Cody Kessler 1 Jonathan Stewart 6 B. Perriman 3 Will Fuller 1 B Corey Davis TR Gio Bernard 1 B J. Kearse 1

  Pos Pianowski  $ Behrens $ Jenstad/Sedler $ VanRiper  $ QB M. Stafford 19 Russell Wilson 33 Derek Carr 25 Joe Flacco 15 RB Todd Gurley 29 DeMarco Murray 36 David Johnson 52 Lamar Miller 25 RB D. Freeman 37 Isaiah Crowell 26 CJ Anderson 18 Paul Perkins 17 WR Antonio Brown 51 Davante Adams 25 D.Thomas 24 AJ Green 40 WR Golden Tate 17 Pierre Garcon 6 Willie Snead 15 Julio Jones 45 WR C. Meredith 10 Julian Edelman 9 DeSean Jackson 13 E. Sanders 14 TE Cameron Brate 3 Jack Doyle 13 Kyle Rudolph 11 Tyler Eifert 9 TE CJ Fiedorowicz 3 Hunter Henry 9 Charles Clay 1 Marty Bennett 9 K S.Gostkowski 2 Adam Vinatieri 1 Matt Bryant 1 D Houston 1 Minnesota 1 Denver 2 Kansas City 1 FL Brian Hoyer 6 Duke Johnson 3 Ameer Abdullah 11 Carson Palmer 15 FL Larry Fitzgerald 7 Roethlisberger 26 Tyrod Taylor 20 Jamaal Charles 3 B D. Woodhead 8 Kareem Hunt 3 Corey Coleman 2 Rob Kelley 2 B Open Spot TR Eric Decker 6 Mike Wallace 2 Vance McDonald 1 B Eric Ebron TR DeShone Kizer 1 Josh Doctson 1 Darren McFadden 1 B Marvin Jones 1 Darren Sproles 1 De. Washington 1 Tavon Austin 1 B Robert Woods 1 Paxton Lynch 1 Ted Ginn 1 Aaron Jones 1 Shane Vereen 1

Peter Schoenke

Most “experts” don’t want to admit when the screwed up an auction, but I did on this one. Not so much on the players. I got some decent values (Blount $10, Moncrief $11) and don’t hate my team. However, I wanted to spend at WR and QB, but early in the draft I priced enforced on Zeke Elliott and got “stuck” on him at $48. That’s likely $5 less than he’d typically go for but people were sitting on their hands early in the auction. However, it sent me down a path that I don’t think fared as well for me, similar to how when you take a RB in the first round of an auction.

I’m a WR-first guy. I stubbornly decided to still pay for WR and likely overpaid for T.Y. Hilton and Jordy Nelson, but I decided I wanted some high-floor players since we’re drafting so early and about half your roster is going to be picked up in free agency with this league’s thin benches. Those choices had me chasing for QBs and I never was able to pull the trigger on the $15 – $20 QB I desperately needed. As a result, that left me with Alex Smith as my superflex and Jared Goff as my backup QB. There’s a hint of floor and upside in that duo, but not exactly what I had in mind in a 14-team league.

Mark Stopa

In a deep format like this, everyone will have weak spots.. Given how RBs, WRs, and TEs emerge from nowhere each year, I’d rather be weaker at those positions than QB, and I auctioned accordingly.. There’s simply no chance any QB outside the top 20 is going to be someone you want to use each week, and many owners doing so are wasting a valuable bench spot on a third crummy QB to make up for the crummy one in their superflex.

As for the rest … Rawls and Richard are great ways to fade Lacy and Lynch, two guys I won’t be owning in 2017 seasonal.. I like my cheap Pats guys (Lewis, Hogan, Mitchell) because if injuries strike (Cooks, Edelman), they’ll be gold.. Remember, the earlier in 2017 your draft/auction occurs, the more upside on bench matters, as preseason injuries will happen.. Bills D gets the Jets at home Week 1; picking on NYJ will be an ideal way to stream defenses this year.

Kevin Payne

I got a starting lineup with the majority of my money and then went $1 for every bench spot. Didn’t draft a kicker or defense. Drank a lot of vodka. I’d recommend this for all.

Kirk Cousins, face of the Salfino franchise (AP)

Michael Salfino

The story of the draft was that QBs went for too little in this format and WRs went for too much. So I’m thrilled to land Drew Brees ($37) and Brees Jr., Kirk Cousins. The endgame worked for me because I got some really good WR values by my rankings: Britt, Matthews, Thielen, Cobb for a combined 9% of my budget. Britt for $3 thrilled me even though I want to avoid paying for players on teams that are likely to have major QB problems. The thing is, I think Cody Kessler is pretty good — if only I believed the Browns did, too.

I wish I said $53 for David Johnson instead of later having to say $54 for Le’Veon Bell. I have to worry a little about a holdout and Bell is a greater injury risk given their respective histories. My other regret is not saying $4 for Kareem Hunt, who has a David Johnson 2015 vibe.

Scott Jenstad

We came in with a plan for 2 of the top 22 QB (that is where we set our cut off) but not one of the top 3-4, one stud RB and then to play with the depth at WR and attack the mid-range WR after people had spent money on the top WR. I regret $29 total on CJ Anderson and Ameer Abdullah, although I do like Abdullah, but I think we could have bargain shopped for our 3rd RB slot and used that money to upgrade a bit at WR and TE. However, I absolutely love our late bargain WR and I think Coleman, Wallace, Doctson and Ginn for $6 made our depth and is an absurd group for the prices. I worry about 2nd TE in a 2 TE league as we ended up having to go bottom of the barrel there so that is a spot we will need to work on pretty quickly. I regret letting Jeff land Prescott for only $21, I would love to swap out $20 Tyrod Taylor for $21 Dak.

Andy Behrens

We bumped the league size up to 14 teams this year, which is pretty much the outer limit for a two-TE superflex format. The depth of this league led me to balance my spending across positions. I didn’t want to leave the auction with an unfinished team, knowing I had work to do on the wire. Going in, I’d intended to wait on receivers, the position offering the greatest depth; that approach resulted in decent deals on Garcon, Edelman and Decker.

If you guys want to see a roadmap to despair, check out Liss’ team. A disgrace to the fantasy industry.

Derek Van Riper

My plan going into the auction was to have one elite QB (Rodgers, Brady, Brees) and one elite RB (Bell, Johnson, or Elliott). It fell though, however, as the pricing at the top exceeded my expectations, and at 14 teams, I was slightly less adamant about sticking to a stars-and-scrubs approach. The value at the top of the pool came with the elite receivers, leading me to build around Julio Jones and A.J. Green instead. The most unexpected trend from the auction that makes my team vulnerable is the high cost of the mid-range and low-end quarterbacks thanks to two additional teams in the league, and our use of the Superflex. My hope, however, is that the likes of Carson Palmer and Joe Flacco can be within a couple points per game of the options who were priced up $10-15 higher, and that my strength at WR, TE, and lack of a hole (initially) at running back gives me good balance from week-to-week. 

Brad Evans

When tequila happens, you land Mike Glennon, Sam Bradford and Deshaun Watson as your only QBs. Intended at the onset, I purposely ignored the QB and TE positions and instead focused on acquiring high floor RBs/WRs. Though loaded in the latter areas (RBs: McCoy/Gordon/Powell/Perine; WRs: Alshon/Hopkins/Tyreek), it came at a tremendous cost elsewhere. Inevitably, I’ll spin a RB off at some point for a passing upgrade, but my roster-construction experiment could blow up the lab.

Brandon Funston

Overall, I’m happy with the roster I was able to pull together – no glaring positional weaknesses. Miracle of all miracles, I was able to be a patient shopper and not blow my budget in the early-round inflationary period. But maybe I was a tad too patient, as I had $6 to play with at the end when everyone else was pretty much in $1-draft mode. I ended up using that $6 on Jonathan Stewart, but if I think back on how it could have played out better, it would have probably been to pay $8-9 for a tight end like Hunter Henry or Zach Ertz instead of $4 for Julius Thomas and gone with a $1 DeAndre Washington (I have Marshawn Lynch, so it would have made some sense) in the end at RB instead of J-Stew.

(Note: Funston traded Eric Ebron to Pianowski for Corey Davis and Jason Witten, shortly after the draft ended.)

Jeremy Maclin was a July bargain (AP)

Liz Loza

Thank goodness for Grey Goose and Jeremy Maclin. After spending the bulk of my coin on RBs, I needed to snag an undervalued wideout. With over 300 targets up for grabs in Charm City, Maclin is a steal late in drafts… and I got him for just $5!

Dalton Del Don

I entered with a “stars and scrubs” strategy, planning on spending big on quarterbacks and wide receivers. Whether that strategy works (or if I got the right players) remains to be seen, but I certainly executed it. I regret not securing more $1 running back fliers, as I need to get lucky there (my starters are ugly). But this auction took place in mid-July, and RB is by far the most volatile position. I’ll have to be extra aggressive with FAAB at the position.

Chris Liss

Here’s my writeup from Rotowire.

My thoughts are you need to have a decent QB at the QB flex spot. And one who won’t lose his job unless he gets hurt. If I were to do it over again, I’d probably have bought a third instead of Carlos Hyde and punted RB altogether. I’m fairly sure I could trade a $27 QB for a $30-plus back.

I didn’t intend to go big on TE, but you and I were advancing the bid on Gronkowski, who’s worth $40 in this format, and he stopped at $34. I was actually happy to get him even though I probably won’t have him anywhere else.

I went big on Graham because I had some money left, though he was the best player available (again in the two-TE format) and would rather struggle in the end game than leave $ on the table. It cost me a couple Stefon Diggs types, who I could use, but I’m probably better off with Graham.

Scott Pianowski

I agree with most of Peter Schoenke’s comments, up top. I like to go into auctions with a highly agnostic strategy, but this was a league screaming for more urgency at quarterback. Most fantasy players can take that position casually, given the league-wide depth, but that is not the case in a 14-team league where everyone is highly incentivized to play two QBs a week. I should have either gotten three solid starters, or two high-level guys who could land in the Top 10 with a reasonable runout. If we did this auction again tomorrow, I’m sure a bunch of teams would approach the QB position differently.

It’s never a bad idea to make an early overpayment in an auction if it’s something you really want or really need. I should have parked one major QB early, then seen how the market unfolded. Instead, I stuck to my agnostic leanings and probably paid for it.

I do like the rest of my team, but I’m thin at the one position you can’t be thin at. The trade market probably won’t be much; Brad Evans can tell you that. And it’s hard to imagine a lot of QB talent coming into the league, guys we haven’t already drafted.

(Note: After the draft, Pianowski traded Corey Davis and Jason to Witten for Eric Ebron and an open spot, to be filled later).