The first major industry-wide fantasy football event every year is the Scott Fish Bowl draft. It’s the largest fantasy football draft, with thousands competing in 12-team leagues while raising hundreds of thousands of dollars for charity.
There are a multitude of scoring quirks, including double-points for tight end catches and first downs, distance-based field-goal kicking and the ability to play multiple kickers, kick and punt return scoring that makes 100 return yards in a game worth 20 points, SuperFlex, six other flexes where only 1QB, 1RB, 1WR, 1TE are mandated in your weekly lineup — so, if you want to play eight tight ends, you can. Fantasy Life runs a tool that tracks ADP, as well as the multitude of roster builds.
All positions have similar scoring baselines. You can construct your rosters in wildly divergent ways. Drafts are 22 rounds. We all have 11-men benches. Only about half of the kickers are drafted in most leagues. That means that 240 or so QBs, RBs, WRs and TEs are drafted. That’s about 40 QBs, 70 RBs, 95 WRs and 35 TEs. So you have to assume the waiver-wire is going to be practically worthless all season.
Here’s my team:
Pick 1.1 Josh Allen (Bills, QB1, QB1 on acclimation throughout the SFB): I get he slowed down in the second half and was not remotely a fantasy game-changer in that period, but he was still the top fantasy QB from Weeks 11-18, and he had two games of 30-plus points in the playoffs. It’s reasonable to ask whether the loss of Stefon Diggs, even as a decoy, will hurt Allen. My feeling is he’s not WR dependent. We’ll see.
Pick 2.12 Garrett Wilson (Jets, WR8 for me, WR8 in SFB): A chalk pick. Obviously has peak Davante Adams upside with Aaron Rodgers. A lot of this is a bet on Rodgers, but he’s a top five all-time arm and that’s the last thing to go. Rodgers only needs to be average post-Achilles for this pick to work, and I think he’ll be good. Rodgers’ 2022 season wasn’t influenced by age as much as a banged up, inexperienced WR corps, a gimpy Aaron Jones (ankle), the loss of both tackles and the broken thumb.
Pick 3.12 Drake London (Falcons, WR10, WR10): This is part of a two-step that I felt would allow me to wait at second QB until the next pass — I wanted to disincentivize the rest of the league from taking the passer I wanted as my second QB. Note that the Fish Bowl is also a tournament, so people really want to stack their QBs.
Pick 4.1 Kyle Pitts (Falcons, TE7, TE6): Step two of the plan to get Kirk Cousins with the next pick, which would be just short of his ADP, but I had to wait 24 more picks to select and had to sweat out an inevitable second-QB run in that span.
Pick 5.12 Kirk Cousins (Falcons, QB17, QB18): Mission accomplished on the stack. I’m all in on the Falcons. Obviously, I don’t care about an Achilles injury to a QB who can operate from the pocket. His injury was much later than Rodgers’ but, again, there have been major advances in the surgery and Dan Marino came back 30 years ago from this injury and had an All-Pro-level season.
Pick 6.1 James Cook (Bills, RB14, RB14): He was RB10 in the second half last year, a point per game in PPR behind Jahmyr Gibbs in that same period. Cook is the arbitrage Gibbs for me. I get that he’s not going to be the goal-line back. I mean, Latavius Murray was used more in the red zone last year than Cook — that’s bad. But the floor was more important to me with this pick.
Pick 7-12 Tee Higgins (Bengals, WR32, WR30): Higgins and Chase have had similar usage when both have been healthy. Players can’t really hold out now due to the CBA rules; so I’m not worried at all about that.
Pick 8.1 D’Andre Swift (Bears, RB19, RB23): This is my one reach. Why? I famously have faded Swift in the past, but it’s always the price, not the player. We all are enthused about the Bears offense. He’s the primary back. I think he’s about 50% to be the goal-line go-to and 90% to be the third-down back.
Pick 9.12 Marquise Brown (Chiefs, WR43, WR34): I have no idea why Brown slid this far in my league. He’s the only high-floor option among all of Patrick Mahomes’ receivers, given Travis Kelce’s age and the odds of a lengthy suspension for Rasheed Rice.
Pick 10.1 James Conner (Cardinals, RB29, RB21): The SFB universe ranked him ahead of Swift, who I drafted, yet Conner somehow falls to me here. He’s the 100% starter and bell cow to start the season. The public and my league especially is obsessed with third-round real-life draft pick Trey Benson, but I don’t see Benson carving out a fantasy-worthy role in the absence of a Conner injury.
Pick 11.12 Bo Nix (Broncos, QB28, QB32): A reach, I guess, but a certain starter with an offensive head coach who I really respect in Sean Payton. He’s started the most games in college history. (I had to have a third QB because my others have the same bye week.)
Pick 12.1 Jameson Williams (Lions, WR53, WR52): Remember, some WRs we’d ignore in leagues with no return yards were elevated here above where I took Williams. I wasn’t betting on returners, which are very fluid now. Williams has obvious upside, though I won’t reach for him. I’m agnostic on Williams.
Pick 13.12 Cole Kmet (Bear, TE19, TE16): The market is overrating the competition for targets. There’s no competition for targets at TE. That’s a position on all the play sheets. Can Kmet win there given his skills and with minimal defensive attention? Absolutely. I’ll be surprised if Kmet is not top 10 at the position.
Pick 14.1 Curtis Samuel (Bills, WR59, WR54): Just a gift given I drafted Allen. I was at market on Keon Coleman early in the draft season, but the vibes out of Buffalo are anti-Coleman, at the moment. So by implication, they are pro-Samuel.
Pick 15.12 Jaleel McLaughlin (Broncos, RB49, RB51): I reached, but I have no belief in Javonte Williams and the Broncos don’t seem to, either. McLaughlin is an ideal zeroRB. I see him as the arbitrage De’Von Achane, meaning there’s maybe a 30% chance he gets the touches of Achane and does about as much with them.
Pick 16.1 Tyrone Tracy Jr. (Giants, RB50, RB52): The queues in this league were compiled in an insane asylum, basically, so I missed that Kendre Miller was available. This was the one mistake I made in managing the draft. I had queued both picks, which contributed to the problem. But bottom line, I have little faith in Devin Singletary. Why does this dude get referred to by a nickname (“Motor”), by the way? You have to earn that. Tracy should at least get the third-down stuff given that Singletary is a terrible receiver and worse pass blocker. The Giants, maybe the worst team in football, will be trailing a lot.
Pick 17.12 Malachi Corley (Jets, WR75, WR83): A reach, if one exists this late. The Jets tried to trade up for Corley for hours during the draft and took him in Round 2, which means they probably have a first-round grade on him. I expect him to be used heavily in the slot. We’ll see.
Pick 18.1 KaVontae Turpin (Cowboys, WR76, WR80): Bill Belichick, who lives for special teams, says he’s the best returner in the NFL and I didn’t want to be shut out given the crazy upside these guys have if teams decide to allow returns with the new rules. (Personally, I’d pay the five-yard tax and kick it through the end zone every time.)
Pick 19.12 Isaac Guerendo (Niners, RB65, RB77): I don’t get people drafting Elijah Mitchell. The Niners have spoken. You can’t have a backup who’s always hurt. They traded up for Guerendo, who had a starter grade by the draft experts. He runs a 4.33 40 at 220 pounds. He’s a top handcuff as a later/last pick in conventional redraft leagues.
Pick 20.1 Gabe Davis (Jaguars, WR88, WR72): He’s a starter. The Jaguars paid him and seemed to target him. He’s basically sitting in the trash pile. This is just a snap-count pick.
Pick 21.12 Lucas Krull (Broncos, TE37, TE60): Payton’s offense features tight ends historically in the “Joker” role and Krull is the sleeper here. He attended Tight End University where Travis Kelce, George Kittle and Greg Olsen develop up-and-coming TEs. Just a wild spec play.
Pick 22.1 Michael Penix Jr. (Falcons, QB36, QB37): Four QBs is the number that should be rostered among our 22 spots and he’s the Cousins’ handcuff with some upside if Cousins should get hurt (0% chance he gets benched).
(Top photo of Drake London, Kyle Pitts: Brett Davis-USA TODAY)
