On Monday, July 6, Scott Fish Bowl 10 (SFBX) kicked off, one of the biggest days of the fantasy football calendar. Hosted by Scott Fish, the slow draft (8-hour time limit per pick) is one of the industry’s biggest events, spanning 120 divisions of 12 teams each, all vying for the overall championship. The league is made up of fantasy football’s best analysts, as well as some lucky fans, making it a highly sought after invite. QB List was lucky enough to receive two entries, as Colin Weatherwax and I made the cut.
The rules are complicated, so check out my Day 1 writeup if you are unfamiliar with the format.
The best part of all of this? It’s for a good cause. In the past, all money donated went to Fantasy Cares, but this year Scott opened up donations to whatever cause was most important to us. Please donate to your favorite charity if you are able, and tag Scott Fish on Twitter.
Colin’s Picks: Popples Division
After kicking off the first three rounds with Alvin Kamara, Miles Sanders, and Chris Godwin, Colin had a ton of flexibility heading into day two of the Scott Fish Bowl. As it turns out, that flexibility allowed him to start grabbing some great wide receiver values.
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Colin: I woke up Tuesday morning to see that my pick was made via my pre-draft list, and loved seeing that D.J. Moore made the cut. He was the top pick in my queue with Kenny Golladay being second. With very poor quarterback play last year, Moore was a top 10 WR in this format last year and I think with consistent and better quarterback play he could be in line for a solid WR2 season. Teddy Bridgewater hasn’t locked onto a specific receiver in the past but he will have so many weapons at his disposal that Moore could be a huge benefactor for Teddy. Pairing his potential volume and consistency with Chris Godwin is exactly how I wanted to start this draft.
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Colin: I, like Erik, am so enamored with Odell Beckham Jr. that I considered taking him where I took Moore in the 4th round. So I was surprised when he was still there in the 5th round. I understand why he drops. He burned so many people last year and the offense as a whole looked awful but hey, it can only get better right? I’m sounding like a broken record but there is no question about OBJ’s talent. He is one of the most talented and gifted football players in the league that it has to all come together at some point, right? I’m asking more questions than giving analysis but if it all clicks he is a definitive WR1 in this format. If it doesn’t come together he is still easily a WR3, which is all I need him to be. Although he will be frustrating to own and I can never bench him if healthy, I’m ready for the roller coaster ride.
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Colin: This is the spot where I really considered taking a QB. The best available were Baker Mayfield, Joe Burrow, Daniel Jones, and Jared Goff. I like a few of those QBs and am perfectly comfortable with any of them as my QB1 so instead of splitting hairs and deciding between the 5 QBs I liked, I pivoted and went back to the receiver well with A.J. Brown. Calvin Ridley was in consideration but I looked at it and realized that Brown was the #1 option in the passing game for a team that will control the ball and have the opportunity to throw at will with Derrick Henry being a huge focal point for every defense. Ridley, whom I love, has to compete with Julio Jones for targets. Julio Jones. It made the decision a lot easier for me to roster Brown when I thought about how many more targets he could potentially get. I’m not a big believer in a Ryan Tannehill repeat performance from the end of last year, but I think he is competent enough to sustain a WR2 or WR3 for fantasy and as my WR4, I felt this may have been the steal of my draft so far.
Erik’s Picks: Polly Pocket Division
It was a slow day for the Polly Pocket division, as I did not make my first selection until well into the evening on the east coast. Much like Colin, I found it hard to pass up on the receiver value that was waiting for me at the round 5/6 turn.
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The theme of the draft so far has been missing out on running backs, with Dalvin Cook and Jonathon Taylor going one pick before me in the first and third rounds respectively. After rostering Mike Evans in the fourth round, I had brief hopes of James Conner, Chris Carson, Cam Akers, or Mark Ingram making it back to me for my next pick. But the league continued to hammer running backs, with Akers and Conner going to teams that had already used their first and second-round picks on a running back. In a massive field tournament like this, the thought of reaching on a running back just to take one feels sub-optimal, and I saw a couple of clear values sitting there at wide receiver. Colin already talked about A.J. Brown, but I just couldn’t bring myself to pass on him in the fifth round as my WR3. While I do have some volume concerns in that Tennessee offense, Brown is a dream WR3 type. His talent and athleticism are undeniable, and even if he is up and down at times he should have some difference-making weeks. And I don’t think any of us would be shocked if Brown’s talent willed him to a fantasy breakout despite volume concerns. With my next pick on the turn, I once again found myself unable to turn away from the wide receiver position.
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You’ve heard the Calvin Ridley hype this year, so I probably don’t need to sell you much on him. Ridley excelled last year as Mohamed Sanu was traded to the Patriots and Austin Hooper missed time with an injury. Atlanta did nothing to replace the lost volume in Sanu, and though they did trade for Hayden Hurst to replace the departed Hooper at tight end, there’s always a chance that Hurst struggles to incorporate into the offense in this disrupted off-season. Ridley has massive volume potential, and if anything were to happen to Julio Jones, Ridley would likely be among the league’s best fantasy receivers, something he may approach even with Jones around.
Now you may be asking yourself whether I know that I need to play two quarterbacks and two running backs in this format, and that is a fair question with this roster constructions. My running back targets would have been David Johnson, David Montgomery, and Raheem Mostert if I had taken one at the 5/6 turn, and I can likely kiss all of them goodbye. At quarterback, I was looking at Jimmy Garoppolo, Joe Burrow, and Jared Goff, and I’ve likely missed my chance on them as well. But I felt that there was too big of a difference between the wide receivers available to me and the more in-demand positions, so I continued to chase value. Eventually, teams are going to have to start chasing wide receiver (three teams still haven’t drafted a single one), so not only do I want to prevent some values falling to the competition, but I hope that as they play catchup I will start to see quarterbacks and running backs fall further than expected. It will be a struggle prioritizing quarterbacks and running backs over the next several rounds, and I will have some difficult decisions ahead. But I believe that this wide receiver heavy approach was the best way to adapt to this specific draft slot and format.
Check back tomorrow as we recap more picks from the Popples and Polly Pocket divisions of SFBX. And don’t forget to donate to a good cause if you are able!
(Photo by Daniel Dunn/Icon Sportswire)