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Tuesday, July 1, 2014

Why Every Fantasy Football Player Needs To Join A 3 Team League

A few years ago, myself and two of my friends were driving down to Bourbonnais, IL to see the Chicago Bears at training camp. One of my friends mentioned that he joined a three team fantasy football team at work and he wanted our advice. After the laughing subsided, we inquired further as to what our friend was doing joining a league that only had two other members in it. At least the fantasy football league in The League has EIGHT members in it! Our friend stated that some of his co-workers wanted to join a fantasy football league at work, but he couldn't find enough co-workers to start an actual league, so they started a three-team league. Instead of drafting individual players, a manager would draft an entire team, and said manager could play any player from the team he had drafted. So if you drafted the Denver Broncos, you could start Peyton Manning, Demaryius Thomas, Wes Welker, Montee Ball, Emmanuel Sanders, Julius Thomas, Matt Prater, and Denver's DST.

Even though our initial reaction was that of disdain, we could not stop discussing this three team league the entire car ride to Bourbannais. We discussed strategy and which particular teams are good and which are not. By the time the car had arrived at Bears training camp, the entire car wanted to do our own three team league. So while myself and my two friends were waiting to get into the facilities, we conducted our own three team league draft.

Cut to Saturday night, I was out at a bar with the friend who originally told us about this three-team league idea (his name is Irwin and you can follow him on Twitter @irwinweiner) and another football fanatic friend named Ben (you can follow him on Twitter @bennieb33) and this notion of a three team league came out. And wouldn't you know it, we all loved the idea so much that we decided to conduct our league again this year. And trust me, you're going to want to start your own league as well.

RULES

- POSITIONS

* 2 QB
* 3 WR
* 3 RB
* RB/WR
* 1 TE
* 1 K
* 1 D/ST

- Each Manager Will Draft 4 Teams
- Standard Scoring + full point PPR
- We only go to Week 16 (no Week 17 bullshit)
- Obviously, this is points/rotisserie and not head-to-head
- Snake Draft, no Auction
- No trading
- 3rd place team owes the 1st place team dinner

THE DRAFT
FIRST ROUND

- IRWIN (@irwinweiner): Denver Broncos

IRWIN: Having the first pick, Denver was a no-brainer for me

- BEN (@bennieb33): Green Bay Packers
- ADAM (@thecover3): New Orleans Saints

SECOND ROUND

- ADAM (@thecover3): Washington Redskins

ADAM: Having the last pick in the first round and the first pick in the second round, I chose New Orleans and Washington. Like with actual fantasy football, this league is won by quarterbacks. They score the most points, and I'm just chasing points. The Saints pick was easy because I got the best QB available (Brees) and the best TE in the game (Graham). With my next pick, I went bold and chose the Redskins. I probably should have gone with the Bears, but again, I'm chasing QBs. I'm all in on Washington's offense this year. I think the addition of Jay Gruden and DeSean Jackson means Washington's team is going to explode, and RG3 and Alfred Morris will return to their 2012 numbers.

- BEN (@bennieb33): Chicago Bears

BEN: How was this team still on the board?! Yes, I hate the Bears, but sometimes one has to let feelings go to win a title. When I made this pick, I knew that my WR depth was already complete and my RB depth was solid.

- IRWIN (@irwinweiver): Detroit Lions

THIRD ROUND

- IRWIN (@irwinweiner): Philadelphia Eagles

IRWIN: For building a team in this type of league, you want teams that have one-stop shopping. That's why I chose the Detroit Lions. They give me my second QB (Stafford), the best WR in the game (Calvin), plus RB depth in Bush and Bell and possibly my defense. Next I chose the Eagles because it gave me the #1 RB on my board (McCoy) plus some wide receiver depth.

- BEN (@bennieb33): Seattle Seahawks

BEN: Again, another team I don't care for in real life, but in fantasy? Absolutely. Russell Wilson is only going to get better and is a dual-threat QB, Marshawn Lynch is a BEAST, Hauschka was quietly a top five kicker last year, and the prospect of a healthy year for Percy Harvin, PLUS the LEGION OF BOOM? Again, this was a no-brainer at this point in the draft. 

- ADAM (@thecover3): Cincinnati Bengals

FOURTH ROUND

- ADAM (@thecover3): Minnesota Vikings

ADAM: I needed defense, and Seattle was my pick before Ben stole it from me. The highest rated defense that also provided me depth in this kind of league was Cincy. Aside from defense, I got the best WR available (A.J. Green) and some RB depth (Bernard). My Minnesota pick was based solely because I needed a RB, so I chose the #1 RB on the board (A.P.) and the prospect that Cordarrelle Patterson is the player Matthew Berry projects him to be is just gravy.

- BEN (@bennieb33): Dallas Cowboys
- IRWIN (@irwinweiner): Atlanta Falcons

IRWIN: I was debating between Kansas City, Houston, and St. Louis to get a good RB plus my defense, but I decided to play it to safe and get the WR duo of Julio Jones and Roddy White.

OPTIMAL LINEUPS

IRWIN

QB: Peyton Manning
QB: Matthew Stafford
WR: Calvin Johnson
WR: Demaryius Thomas
WR: Julio Jones
RB: LeSean McCoy
RB: Montee Ball
RB: Reggie Bush
RB/WR: Roddy White
TE: Julius Thomas
K: Matt Prater
DEF: Denver Broncos

BENCH: Wes Welker, Emmanuel Sanders, Golden Tate, Joique Bell, Darren Sproles, Matt Ryan

BEN

QB: Aaron Rodgers
QB: Tony Romo
WR: Randall Cobb
WR: Jordy Nelson
WR: Brandon Marshall
RB: Eddie Lacy
RB: Marshawn Lynch
RB: Matt Forte
RB/WR: Dez Bryant
TE: Jason Witten
K: Steven Hauschka
D/ST: Seattle Seahawks

BENCH: Alshon Jeffries, Percy Harvin, Terrence Williams, Jay Cutler, Russell Wilson

ADAM

QB: Drew Brees
QB: RGIII
WR: A.J. Green
WR: DeSean Jackson
WR: Pierre Garcon
RB: Adrian Peterson
RB: Giovani Bernard
RB: Alfred Morris
RB/WR: Marques Colston
TE: Jimmy Graham
K: Blair Walsh
DEF: Cincinnati Bengals

BENCH: Cordarrelle Patterson, Marvin Jones, Pierre Thomas, litany of NO WRs, Jordan Reed


WHICH OWNER DO YOU THINK HAS THE BEST TEAM? ARE YOU GOING TO GO OUT AND START YOUR OWN THREE TEAM LEAGUE? LET US KNOW ON OUR FACEBOOK PAGE!

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