The Pre-Season Part 3: Gettin To The Good Stuff
- Thomas
- Aug 24, 2021
- 8 min read
“You can’t wake up to killin' people all the time” - Tre Flowers, on his “no rap before 8 AM” rule
Another week of August in the books, another LM Note to get us closer to draft readiness. I’ve got your voting results (which has a few important things to read over closely) and two draft-related things that will need your input… but they’re finally the fun things.
We are just ONE WEEK from JPFL Draft night and 16 days from the start of the NFL season!
So, Without further ado...
Voting Results
Thank you everyone for voting! I know it can be tedious at times, but PBut and I genuinely do want to be able to gauge everyone’s honest feelings about the league and changes we make so that it can be as fun and engaging as possible for everyone. We got some great feedback from everyone and have updated the constitution accordingly. We’re going full F1 and revamping some of the rules for next season to achieve MAXIMUM PARITY.
As always, proposals needed a 6-4 or better passing majority for approval. The following proposals have been passed to become official rule changes:
- The maximum number of players any owner can have on their roster at one position is equal to double the number of possible starters for that position, plus one.
Pretty self-explanatory. “Position hoarding” hasn’t been a huge issue in the past, and reduced bench sizes will open things up plenty, but this is like the failsafe.
The roster maximum breakdown by position maths out to
3QBs, 7 RBs, 9 WRs, 5 TEs, 3 Ks, 3 DEF.
Running Back and Wide Out might feel a little limiting but remember you have 6 bench slots now, not 8, so keeping 9 WR would give you 1 extra bench spot and 7 RBs would leave you with 2… so you probably aren’t going to press those limits anyways.
- League Dues increased from $45 to $50
Pretty strong consensus here, even with “holding firm” as an option. Mostly just covers the extra week of RS that now creates the 14th weekly high score pot up for grabs. New playoff payouts are: 1st $240, 2nd $84, 3rd $36
- Keeper cost formula changed from prior formula to current average draft position
Probably the biggest change approved this offseason but another that received strong support.
The rule will function as follows: To keep a player, you will give up the draft pick you own that is CLOSEST to the current average draft position of the player you wish to keep. If there is a “tie” between the closest picks, then you will give up the LATER of the two picks.
This is by overall pick NUMBER, not by pick round in general.
For Example, if you have picks 3, 18, 23, 38, 43, etc… and want to keep a player with an ADP of 21.3, you would keep that player at pick 23. A player with an ADP of 19.1 would be kept at pick 18… A player with an ADP of 40.5 would be kept at pick 43, as a result of the tiebreaker between 38 and 43 (both 2.5 away from the ADP)
As a result, there will no longer be a “round floor” for keeping a player, since you are paying current fair market value. If the player is being drafted at pick 152.3, then you’ll be able to keep them that late in the draft.
There will still be a 2-year keeper clock, meaning players can only be KEPT two seasons in a row before they must enter back into the draft pool (obviously doesn’t include the year you draft them).
We are also going to retain the rule that you may only KEEP a player in the first round one time before they must enter the draft pool again. It is important to note here that this rule doesn’t exclude keeping a player again if you kept them in the first round the year prior… it just means you couldn’t keep them again if their ADP puts them into the first round… so, for example, you could draft a player in the first round, then keep them the next year with your first-round pick and then keep them AGAIN the year following if their ADP dropped out the first round value by then.
Average Draft Position (ADP) simply refers to the average draft pick number that a player is being selected at globally for a certain set of scoring rules. We will take our ADP from FantasyPros, which can be found here.
Always make sure you’re looking at the “Half-PPR Scoring” when referencing ADP. FantasyPros calculates their ADP from draft data given to them by Yahoo!, Fantrax, Fantasy Football Calculator, and Sleeper. This gives us an incredibly comprehensive picture of exactly where the educated fantasy market values each player based off of millions of real life drafts.
The goal of this rule is to create as much of a clean slate as possible to start each season while still allowing for a “favorite” player to be carried over season to season. The initial goal of keepers was to create some fun narrative and intrigue but PBut was right about how much of an advantage it would inevitably give.
Under the new system, the maximum advantage you can gain is 9.5 picks vs the current market value of a player. This will be much more limited compared to Sam winning the league back to back years simply because he took a flyer on Kamara in the 17th round and received a 60 and 40 pick discount on him the following 2 years. Under the new system, you can still keep a player that you like from your previous roster, you’ll just be paying a fair price for them.
- 14th week added to JPFL Regular season: FLEX Pod week, matching up cross-division based on standings (1v1, 2v2, 3v3, 4v4, 5v5) in Week 7
If you haven’t heard, starting this season, the NFL is moving to a 17-game regular season (the season will still last 18 calendar weeks, because each team has a bye week). The league overwhelmingly voted to expand our regular season by 1 week to take advantage. The JPFL Regular season will now run from NFL weeks 1-14, the playoffs will be NFL weeks 15, 16, and 17… we then watch the NFL regular season conclude on week 18 stress-free (at least fantasy-wise)
To incorporate the weird imbalance, we will be using a FLEX week in week 7… Before the season, everyone will have a “dummy” matchup scheduled for week 7. Once week 6 goes final and the standings update accordingly (Tuesday morning), I will redraw the week 7 games to match up everyone with their opposite division counterpart, based on current standings. The division leaders will play, then 2v2, 3v3, 4v4, and 5v5. The rest of your schedule WILL NOT CHANGE as a result. You may end up playing someone in back-to-back weeks (though unlikely because there is only one cross-divisional matchup the week before and after) such is life.
- Swap the JPFL Beer Mile with the Waffle House Challenge
This was passed with a 6-4 majority. My current plan is to swap it into the Parrott Demerit punishment replacing the beer mile as the “food grind/draft lottery” half of things because it is 1) much easier to do in a location remote from me/the rest of the JPFL if need be 2) more fun to document/more accessible for JPFL tuning in and 3) more likely to go viral. HOWEVER, I think it is worth discussing during the draft if we would like to make it “loser’s choice” between the two (beer mile/waffle house) or if we just want to outright become a Waffle House League
Did Not Pass
Removal/Replacement of Special Teams
Elimination of Keepers
Parrott Demerit System Rework
Removal of special teams (kicker and/or D/ST) is something to keep in mind as we play this season. Other than that we’ll see how the new keepers and punishment go for now.
Draft Day
The 2021 JPFL Draft Tuesday, August 31st, 2021 at 8:00 PM Eastern Time (6:00P Local for Chuck and Ollie). As always, the draft will take place on the super convenient “Clicky Draft.” You will just need an internet connection and a device that can use it. There is no app or anything needed, you’ll just go to a link that I provide on draft night.
We are currently anticipating 100% attendance at the draft, which is kickass!
If you cannot make the draft, for whatever reason, feel free to create a preference list and get it to PBut and me and we will collectively try to draft the best team possible for you (as we always do for the auto drafters).
I will put out the link to claim your team in ClickyDraft shortly, for now, you only need to take care of two things:
Keepers
The deadline to submit your keeper for the 2021 season is going to be Saturday, August 28th at 11:59 PM. This way I can get the list organized and announced on Sunday and everyone can have the rest of Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday to strategize while finally all relevant information.
Once again, keeper cost will be calculated based on average draft position, taken from FantasyPros here:
You will give up the closest number pick to the ADP of the player you are selecting to keep.
Again, for example, if you have picks 6, 15, 26, 35, 46, etc… and want to keep a player with an ADP of 22.8, you would keep that player at pick 26. A player with an ADP of 18.1 would be kept at pick 15… A player with an ADP of 40.5 would be kept at pick 46, as a result of the tiebreaker between 35 and 46 (both picks being 5.5 away from the ADP)
When you’re thinking of what picks you have, remember the draft snakes. You can view a full 2021 draft board that will update as people claim draft slots here:
Due to Expired Keeper Clocks and/or First Round Limits, the following players cannot be kept:
Nick Chubb (Brian McAvoy) – Keeper Clock
Patrick Mahomes (Charlie Gaskin) – Keeper Clock
Aaron Jones (Pat Butler) – Keeper Clock
Ezekiel Elliot (Pat Lockett) – First Round Limit*
Christian McCaffrey (Nick Butler) – First Round Limit*
Saquon Barkley (Thomas Simmons) – Keeper Clock
*Note: Players hitting their first-round limit can still be kept if their owners adjust their pick inventory (via trade) so that their closest pick to the player’s ADP is not in the first round.
Keeper history can be viewed here:
Keeper submission should be sent here, once again the deadline is August 28th at 11:59 PM:
But, you probably want to wait on that until you know your spot in the draft:
Draft Lottery Start
Part two of your homework… As is tradition we must now draft our draft slots in the order that we finished on our Ben Simmons Challenge (usually “JPFL food grind”) Predictions. We will be selecting first-round draft slots, but remember, the draft snakes so that the final pick in round one gets to pick first in round 2, the final person in round two picks first in round 3, and so on and so forth.
Lottery Order:
1 – Pat Lockett
2 – Jacob Wild
3 – Nick Leon
4 – Charlie Gaskin
5 – Nick Butler
6 – Thomas Simmons
7 – Joe Bridenstine
8 – Brian McAvoy
9 – Oliver Allen
10 – Pat Butler
This needs to be done by Friday evening at the latest so that Joe, Brian, and Ollie have at least 24 hours remaining on the keeper deadline once they know their picks. I’m going to set the pick clock at 6 hours to decide.
Aside from the notifications in discord, PBut or myself will text you when it is your turn. If you don’t get your selection in on time, you will simply be passed, like the NFL draft, and we will run down the order continuing to make picks until you hop in with your selection.
Once again, the full draft board can be found here if you want a bigger picture and a full list of picks at each slot.
That’s all for now. Mull over your keeper decision; be ready to select your draft slot when your time comes… 7 days and counting until the big day, I’ll see you then. Prepare accordingly!
Pat Lockett is officially on the Draft Lottery Clock
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