​As we await the next few weeks before the Chicago Bears training camp gets underway, we’ll take a look at the Windy City Gridiron Dynasty league, review the rookie draft that just took place, and examine the 14 rosters in the league. If you missed the original introductory article on the league, you can check it out here. This article will assess each team’s draft and, as a veteran dynasty player, offer my take on how they fared. In this league, every position requires a full roster, even kickers and punters, with the exception of the offensive line. Every statistic is tracked and counted, which is exactly how fantasy football should be played. Let’s start with a quick overview of the draft before grading each team’s performance.
The first two rounds feature fairly conventional selections in most drafts. The Lemon and Tyson picks at 3 and 4 can be debated, but that’s often how it plays out in many leagues. After that, the tier drops in high-end offensive talent, which is reflected by a rapid influx of defensive talent taking nine picks between 11 and 24. This wasn’t the strongest rookie dynasty draft, so teams had to get creative in their approach.
Here’s a look at rounds 3 and 4. In my experience, Round 1 is usually heavy with offensive players, Round 2 starts to sprinkle in some defensive talents, and Round 3 is where quarterbacks and more defensive players tend to come off the board. This isn’t a superflex league; in a true superflex format, quarterbacks would rise higher and appear in Round 1. In non-superflex formats like this one, typically one or two quarterbacks go in Round 1, but in a draft of this nature, defensive talent was already coming off the board earlier, and there simply weren’t enough quarterbacks worth selecting yet.
Finally, here’s a look at rounds 5 and 6. The last two rounds often resemble lottery tickets, especially Round 6, when you compare to the regular NFL Draft. In the first four rounds, there were 45 offensive linemen and cornerbacks selected. Cornerbacks don’t accumulate substantial fantasy points and generally don’t hold value until much later in the draft. When you consider there are about 140 total picks in the first four rounds, by Round 6 you’re typically evaluating fourth- and fifth-round players who might become impactful fantasy contributors. There are always a few who reach those heights, but most don’t.
Now, let’s evaluate the individual draft grades. I can’t be overly harsh on my own performance, since I traded up to the number one pick before the draft to secure Jeremyiah Love, who is easily the best fantasy asset in this class. Yet that move also came with a gamble that didn’t pay off as hoped. With only one defensive player off the board at my pick, I faced the choice at 14: I wanted three different defensive players, and I chose to trade down six spots, hoping that one of those players would still be available later. In hindsight, that decision didn’t yield the optimal result.