Correcting An Autodraft: Week 1/2—How to Fix a Disaster

It’s very rare that I do an auto draft for any league no matter what the stakes.  If I’m paying for the league or not, I’ve always found that participating in the draft is half the fun, so why miss it?

Unfortunately, I didn’t have a choice for one of my friends’ football leagues this season.  It’s a free league, so I didn’t mind too much, but I wish I had a chance to pre-rank my players at the least.  Something came up at the last minute, costing me a chance to set all but the first few players.

So, I knew what I was going to get in the first round, but was left to hope for the best after that.  It turned out worse then I ever could have imagined.

First of all, let’s just set the rules of the league.  It is a 10-team league, but it has two quarterbacks and a flex spot, so it is still rather deep.  It is also not a PPR league.

Here’s the roster that I was left with after the draft:

1. LaDanian Tomlinson—RB
2. Clinton Portis—RB
3. Pierre Thomas—RB
4. Dwayne Bowe—WR
5. Antonio Bryant—WR
6. Hines Ward—WR
7. Jay Cutler—QB
8. Owen Daniels—TE
9. Pittsburgh Defense
10. Jake Delhomme—QB
11. David Akers—K
12. Willis McGahee—RB
13. Michael Crabtree—WR
14. Shonn Greene—RB
15. Miami Defense
16. Heath Miller—TE
17. Nick Folk—K

There are just too many negatives to really list.  Pierre Thomas in the third?  Bryant in the fifth?  Akers in the eleventh?

So, being handed this debacle of a team, I made it my own goal to try to turn it into a winner.  (I actually came close in the first week, losing by 1.1 pts.)

I want to make something fun out of a difficult situation and went to work.  I’ve made numerous trade offers, though none have been successful quite yet.  I’ve also hit the waiver wire hard, making the following moves:

Prior to Week One:

• Drop Miami Defense, pick up QB Mark Sanchez
• Drop Heath Miller, pick up RB Jamal Charles
• Drop Shonn Greene, pick up QB JaMarcus Russell
• Drop Nick Folk, pick up WR Mushin Muhammad
• Drop Michael Crabtree, pick up WR Sydney Rice

I haven’t stopped there, already hitting the waiver wire this week:

• Drop JaMarcus Russell, pick up WR Justin Gage
• Drop Mushn Muhammad, pick up WR Laurent Robinson

I’ve worked on and sent out a slew of additional trade offers this week, hoping to shake things up.  I may be down early, but I’m far from out.  There’s always hope, you just have to try and figure out where to go and how to make positive moves.

So, here is my question to everyone here.  What would you try to do to improve this team?  Would you trade one of the running backs?  Dwayne Bowe?  Jay Cutler?  Who would you target?

Given the state of this team, I’m going to continue to update on its status on a week-to-week basis, and let’s see just how much magic I can work.

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