EFS Expansion Team Draft Strategy-accumulate picks!

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EFS Expansion Team Draft Strategy-accumulate picks!
By Fred Haller
Mar 15, 2004, 11:42

The Bullys Expansion Draft Strategy

Originally I was going to draft using the Best Player Available theory. However when I started perusing the existing team rosters I discovered that 5 teams had 15 or more players I wanted to draft while some teams had 3 or fewer. I also had to take into consideration that even before the draft virtually the top 100 players would be protected by the existing teams. This was going to put my expansion team at a disadvantage so I needed to come up with a strategy that would let me build my team with players I wanted rather than players I was settling for. After much debate I decided that I would build my team through the rookie draft. I offered my services to draft and trade players to every team in the league. After the last pick of the expansion draft I had 13 players left on my roster. Out of the original 13, 8 are RFA's and 2 more have since been traded which leaves me with only 3 players under contract for 2004.

Through my draft and trade deals and my original allotment of rookie picks I have amassed 47 rookie picks in 2004. Out of these picks I have the 2nd and 3rd picks in every round which should be an advantage. Also I will have the advantage of having a roster made up of mostly rookie contracts that will keep my salary cap stable for a few years. All in all the strategy I employed is very risky but can bring great rewards and is not for the faint of heart in EFS.

Here is the outcome of The Bullys expansion draft and subsequent trades.

Rd Player Reasoning

1 Chad Pennington QB Traded for a 1st, 2nd, 3rd in 2004
2 Travis Henry RB Young Rb with only a 1 yr contract
3 Marcus Trufant CB Traded for a 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 7th in 2004
4 Patrick Ramsey QB Young QB drafted before the Brunell deal
5 Dat Nguyen IB Traded for a 2nd in 2004
6 Darren Sharper S Traded for a 2nd in 2004
7 Mike Peterson IB Traded for two 3rds in 2004
8 EJ Henderson IB Traded for a 2nd and 6th in 2004
9 Antoine Winfield CB Traded with a 2005 2nd for a 2nd in 2004 and a 2nd and 3rd in 2005
10 Michael Haynes DE Traded for a 3rd in 2004
11 Victor Hobson Traded after the draft for a 3rd and 5th in 2004 plus a 3rd, 5th, 6th, 7th in 2005
12 Pat Williams DT RFA with a 1st round comp
13 Kelvin Garmon OG Packaged with a 2005 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 2006 2nd for a 2004 1st, 2nd, 3 3rds, 4th, 5th, and 2 6ths
14 Corey Simon DT Packaged with Graham and traded for a 2nd, 6th, and 7th in 2004
15 Daniel Graham TE
16 Lance Briggs OB Traded for a 6th in 2004
17 Dave Wohlabaugh C RFA with a 2nd rd comp
18 Tommy Maddox QB Traded for a 3rd and 7th in 2004
19 Kendyl Jacox OT Traded for a 5th in 2004
20 Curtis Martin RB RFA with a 4th rd comp
21 Zach Piller OG RFA with a 2nd rd comp
22 Cie Grant IB Traded for a 4th in 2004
23 Tim Couch QB Traded for a 4th in 2004
24 Dexter McCleon CB RFA with a 3rd rd comp
25 Rob Morris IB Traded for a 4th in 2004
26 Gary Baxter S RFA with a 3rd rd comp
27 Wade Smith OT Packaged with a 2006 1st after the draft to reacquire my original 2005 1st and a 4th
28 Randy Thomas OG Young G with a cheap contract
29 Todd Wade OT RFA with a 5th rd comp
30 Reggie Hayward DE RFA with a 5th rd comp

Other Trades 2005 3rd and 7th Traded for a 2004 4th, 5th, and 7th
2006 5th Traded for a 2004 7th

All of the above transactions left me with the following picks in 2004: Three 1st's, Nine 2nd's, Eleven 3rd's, Six 4th's, Six 5th's, Six 6th's, and Six 7th's. This enables me to control over 40% of the draft and in essence will enable me to draft 12 First Round Picks and 17 Second Round Picks from the NFL Draft. I used the same strategy in Beta 3 last year and lost most of my games due to not having a starting RB or a consistent Offensive Line which I now have in this league. My team should be competitive from the beginning of the season and a trip to the playoffs is not out of the question.