Shawn Siegele breaks down the most recent developments in his FFPC Superflex Dynasty League startup. He profiles the blockbuster trades, examines the best picks, and explains why owners are ignoring the RB-heavy ADP of the format.

Curtis Patrick and I are drafting in a loaded Pros vs Joes event that includes long-time friend Patrick Kerrane and many other talented owners. In 5 Takeaways from an FFPC Pros v Joes Superflex Startup, I detailed the early-round trends and broke down a couple of big trades that reshaped our roster.

Today, we move into the middle rounds where fireworks continue to go off unabated. We’ll discuss the impact of Cam Newton’s signing and the big trades that ensued. We’ll pay the price to pry Michael Thomas away from his owner, and we’ll debate Superflex QB tactics. How do you swing three twenty-something QBs and have anything left for other positions?

Finally, we’ll look at the benefits of emphasizing value and when it might be time to throw caution to the wind. How did the surprising trends at WR influence our overall strategy? Buckle up, it’s going to be a wild ride.

The Blockbusters

The Appetizer

Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good, or hopefully good, but also really lucky. That’s what happened when we were on the clock with the 9.01. I received a text from Curtis saying Newton had just signed with the Patriots. Twenty-five quarterbacks had already been drafted, making him the obvious choice for our QB3. If he returned to his pre-injury 2018 form, the pairing with Dak Prescott would give us two studs.

If we had stayed in this pick, Newton would have been the choice, but the other lucky element was the way it changed the value of the pick. We received a flurry of offers, and finally settled on this one.

If Newton is healthy and wins the Patriots starting job, we may regret the move, but making the trade allowed us to benefit from our good fortune, while spreading out the risk.

Sliding down three spots positioned us to take our original target with the pick, Gardner Minshew.

While Minshew has a decade worth of work if he wants to match Newton’s previous exploits, his rookie season was enough to inspire enthusiasm. He finished as QB17 on a per-game basis, generated efficiency numbers in line with his volume, and ranked No. 5 in rushing yards. This overall profile generated six QB1 finishes, including in Weeks 15 and 17 after returning to the starting lineup.

Minshew’s new weapons and upgraded coaching combined with his rushing upside and the Nick Foles trade make him a Round 6 or 7 value on our board.

The Main Dish

The Newton trade set the table for our fourth big trade of the draft. In Part 1, I described our move out of JuJu Smith-Schuster that gave us enough ammunition to swing a trade for Prescott. In this instance, acquiring the 9.12 provided the extra pieces necessary to address our WR hole.

This was a lot to give up. Taylor could be a top-five dynasty pick next season, and he could be joined by a stud from the 2021 class. We would have selected Jarvis Landry at the 9.12, and there’s a gaping chasm between his likely 2020 production and that of our eventual pick at 13.07, Chase Claypool.

On the other hand, we were able to land a WR coming off a historic season. Thomas’ acquisition now gives us balance across positions and four players with first-round ADPs (Christian McCaffrey, Dalvin Cook, Thomas, Prescott). Despite those moves, we still have a future Round 1 and Round 2, neither of which are tied to our own team’s performance.

The downside? Not as much depth as usual. In the next two sections, I’ll look at how we attempted to address our depth and explain the ADP trend that created an unexpected challenge.

Building Out the Lineup – Focusing on Value