Tag: Exit Survey

It’s the eve of a new season so what better time to look backwards and finally review the 2024 Dynabowl rookie draft, the deepest wide receiver draft and shallowest every-other-position draft in league history; an interminable process lasting over 12 days, with the Bombermen delighting in accounting for a quarter of that. But how did everyone do? There’s only one way to find out. No, not a fight, nor letting those picks play out over the next 3 or 4 years. No, it’s time to see what everyone’s gut feels are before any of these players have footed a ball in anger.

7 GMs responded, which feels about par for the course. Let’s look at each team’s review in turn, starting with…

East Flanders Dungeoneers

Self-Assessment

Score	6
Why?	I don’t know what I’m doing so going for middle of the road, but going for 6 because of my first pick.
Who were you disappointed to miss out on?	Kool-Aid McKinstry
Did you approach the draft with a particular philosophy?	See who has a good score, does well on scouting reports, filling gaps in my roster and funny names as a tie breaker.

League Assessment

NB: 6 voters – you don’t complete this for yourself. Unless Chris neglected to remove the mandatory status for the questions about your team.

Best pick for fantasy	Marvin Harrison Jr (WR, pick 1.01, 6 votes)
Best value	Marvin Harrison Jr (4), Byron Murphy (DT, 2.01, 1), Sione Vaki (RB, 9.01, 1)
Worst value	Chop Robinson (DE, 3.01, 4), Tip Reiman (TE, 5.11,1), Javon Bullard (S, 6.01, 1)
Early picks likely to bust	Chop Robinson (3), All good (3)
Late picks likely to be useful	Kris Jenkins (DT, 7.01, 2), Sione Vaki (1), Tory Taylor (P, 11.01, 1), None (2)

Commentary

Pretty solid. Best offensive and best defensive players. Can’t complain about that. I’ll claim any success as my own. Adam knows why.

Sticking at 1 and taking Marvin Harrison gives a solid floor. I thought there was too much defense though.

Went very early on defenders and passed on some good options as a result. But you’ve got to start building somewhere

Great pick number 1. Not sure on any of the others

Too defense heavy for my tastes

I can understand the theory – my defence is bad and I need to fix it – but this wasn’t the draft for that, and honestly, after MHJ I think every player was at least a small reach, even if the player wasn’t going to come back in some cases (Byron Murphy). Also, the offensive side of this roster wasn’t good enough to pass on offence, and particularly WR, so often.

Ratings

Here Comes The Brees

Self-Assessment

Score	7
Why?	Some good picks, missed out narrowly on a few players
Who were you disappointed to miss out on?	Brock Bowers
Did you approach the draft with a particular philosophy?	Fill needs and best player

League Assessment

NB: 6 voters – you don’t complete this for yourself. Unless Chris neglected to remove the mandatory status for the questions about your team.

Best pick for fantasy	Bryan Thomas (WR, 1.05, 5), Edgerrin Cooper (LB, 3.05, 1)
Best value	Ray Davis (RB, 5.05, 2), Theo Johnson (TE, 8.05, 2), Bryan Thomas (1), Edgerrin Cooper (1)
Worst value	JJ McCarthy (QB, 4.05, 4), Edgerrin Cooper (1), Kwame Lassiter (CB, 12.05, 1)
Early picks likely to bust	JJ McCarthy (6), Edgerrin Cooper (3)
Late picks likely to be useful	Theo Johnson (4), Tyrice Knight (LB, 9.05, 1), Tykee Smith (S, 10.05, 1), None (1)

Commentary

Looks pretty awful

Okay – a distinct lack of potential due to no picks in 4-6 that I liked

Cunts stole my Coop. It was a shit draft and they got three good players, for my money – Thomas, Cooper and Davis.

I may have picked the Edgerin Cooper pick as worst value, but that’s mostly because there wasn’t ‘none’ as an option. I think probably the worst value is Brian Thomas Jr – not because he’s a bad pick at 5, but because I don’t see how he’s better than what’s on the roster – AJ Brown, Chase, Lamb and St Brown. Even though I really dislike this RB class, given needs, I think it might have been a better option. That or moving up for Bowers.

Not really a massive fan of anyone. Brian Thomas could be good, but could also be stuck as just a deep threat. McCarthy just didn’t seem worth a pick that high.

Ratings

Tamworth Two

Self-Assessment

Score	6
Why?	No high picks. A lot of speculation on the remaining picks. A possible reach at QB (but I think he could be special). But I like the players I’ve picked up
Who were you disappointed to miss out on?	None
Did you approach the draft with a particular philosophy?	Fill a few needs

League Assessment

NB: 6 voters – you don’t complete this for yourself. Unless Chris neglected to remove the mandatory status for the questions about your team.

Best pick for fantasy	Trey Benson (RB, 2.03, 2), Laiatu Latu (DE, 2.06, 2), Caleb Williams (QB, 1.10, 1), Adonai Mitchell (WR, 3.03, 1)
Best value	Kimani Vidal (RB, 5.03, 2), Caleb Williams (1), Trey Benson (1), Adonai Mitchell (1), Javon Baker (WR, 4.03, 1)
Worst value	Caleb Williams (3), Trey Benson (1), Javon Baker (1), Dedrion Taylor-Demerson (S 10.03, 1)
Early picks likely to bust	Adonai Mitchell (3), Caleb Williams (2), Trey Benson (2), Laiatu Latu (1)
Late picks likely to be useful	Mazi Smith (DT, 8.03, 1), Brandon Dorlus (DT 9.03, 1), Austin Booker (DE, 11.03, 1), None (3)

Commentary

I have Caleb as the best and worst value pick because I had him ranked inside the top 7, but also because this was a deep QB class and the path to relevance in this league for a QB is tight. If he hits his ceiling, it’ll look like a good pick, but that’s a pretty big ask. I really dislike giving up Myles Garrett to get a QB though. Every player of note in this group of selections could be a hit or a bust, there’s a lot of talent with red flags – injuries, character concerns etc. – that could work out really well, or really badly.

Solid as a rock. Kimani Vidal was a nice mid-round pick up

I’m pleasantly surprised to see the top end of Goody’s draft (the bottom end of everyone’s draft is awful). I’m not a fan of taking QBs so high because there’s such low demand in our league for them, and I think Williams will be good, but better in the NFL than in fantasy. I think Daniels is probably the best bet for fantasy, though a higher likelihood of being a bust.

There’s a tonne of upside – Williams, Benson, Latu and both Mitchells could be really good. But they all also have massive bust potential. Could be a kickstart to the rebuild, could be a massive waste of time.

Really solid start. I like all of the first 7 picks

Ratings

The 4^th Dynmension: Dynasty of Sadness

Self-Assessment

None provided

League Assessment

NB: 7 voters as none of them were Mike.

Best pick for fantasy	Malik Nabers (WR, 1.02, 4), Marshawn Lloyd (RB, 2.10, 1), Jerzhan Newton (DT, 4.02, 1)
Best value	Marshawn Lloyd (3), Dallas Turner (DE, 3.02, 2), Ricky Pearsall (WR, 2.02, 1), Cooper Dejean (S, 7.02, 1)
Worst value	Ricky Pearsall (3), Michael Penix (QB, 9.02, 2), Dallas Turner (1), Jerzhan Newton (1)
Early picks likely to bust	Ricky Pearsall (3), Marshawn Lloyd (2), Dallas Turner (2), Malik Nabers (1)
Late picks likely to be useful	Brendon Rice (WR, 8.02, 3), Michael Penix (3), Mike Sainsristil (CB, 10.02, 3), JD Bertrand (LB, 11.02, 1)

Commentary

Overall a very good effort, 7 on 10

I like it. Good balance of positions. Lots of good potential. A good draft to build off. Being manboob of course it will all turn to shit

Lloyd has arguably the best path to relevance (Jacobs is on a defacto one year contract), in a good offence, of any RB in this class, so to get him where he did (RB4?) was pretty good going, but this draft swings on Nabers, who’s a bit Garrett Wilson – clearly talented, but in an awful situation that I can’t see improving. The Giants have the worst O-line in the league, and they’ll have a year of a rehabbing Daniel Jones, following by picking a QB from a bad class too high, and not fixing the O-line, he could end up being the most frustrating player from this draft class, the talent is there but the team can’t utilise it.

Wasn’t a fan of Ricky Pearsall this early, but that applies to the NFL draft too, so maybe the 49ers know something I don’t. Lots of good players at decent values generally.

Perfectly fine draft. I probably would have gone Odunze rather than Nabers, but it’s very much pick your preferred flavour. Will it turn him into a challenger? Maybe. But probably not

Pretty decent up top

Ratings

Dynasore Losers

Self-Assessment

Score	7
Why?	My main aim was to take some shots at WR, and given my draft position I think I did reasonably well with that
Who were you disappointed to miss out on?	Ladd McConkey
Did you approach the draft with a particular philosophy?	Stock up at WR in a very strong receiver draft, don’t overdraft players in weak position groups

League Assessment

NB: 6 voters – you don’t complete this for yourself. Unless Chris neglected to remove the mandatory status for the questions about your team.

Best pick for fantasy	Keon Coleman (WR, 1.09, 4), Roman Wilson (WR, 2.09, 2)
Best value	Roman Wilson (2), Drake Maye (QB, 4.09, 2), Jalynn Polk (WR, 3.09, 1), Kool-Aid McKinstry (CB, 10.09, 1)
Worst value	Drake Maye (3), Roman Wilson (2), Jalen Coker (WR, 9.09, 1)
Early picks likely to bust	Keon Coleman (3), Roman Wilson (2), Jalynn Polk (2), None (2)
Late picks likely to be useful	Kool-Aid McKinstry (5), Rasheen Ali (RB, 8.09, 2), None (1)

Commentary

Drank the Kool-Aid and now his team is on fire

Fine. Very chalky. Nothing out of the ordinary. Nothing to be upset with, nothing to get excited about. I get the Maye pick in the context of his roster.

Took a few players early that I had as don’t draft (Coleman & polk) and none of the later picks were ones that I was targeting so not for me

Seemed to be stuck picking in some fairly poor slots, but I’m not convinced by any of picks. Coleman probably has a decent floor, but everyone else could end up being useless. Especially Roman Wilson.

No huge stand outs but no misses either.

Ratings

NB – This question was mandatory for Slatz so he entered 1 as a score. This has been discounted when referenced elsewhere.

Hawkesville Hurricanes

Self-Assessment

None provided

League Assessment

NB: 7 voters, as none of the responses was from Neil

Best pick for fantasy	Xavier Worthy (WR, 1.06, 4), Jermaine Burton (WR, 4.06, 2), Isaac Guerendo (RB 6.02, 1)
Best value	Jermaine Burton (4), Xavier Worthy (1), Isaac Guerendo (1), Kamren Kitchens (S, 7.06, 1)
Worst value	Payton Wilson (LB, 3.06, 5), Xavier Worthy (1), Aeneas Smith (WR, 10.06, 1)
Early picks likely to bust	Xavier Worthy (3), Payton Wilson (3), None (2)
Late picks likely to be useful	Jacob Cowing (WR, 8.06, 2), Jordan Magee (LB 9.06, 1), none (3)

Commentary

Lack of a 2nd makes it look slightly worse. I’m okay with the first 3 picks but nothing for me after that

A laser focus on picking funny first names, I respect it

I’m not convinced by Worthy. Perfect situation but he’s mainly speed – I don’t think he’s the second coming of Tyreek. But if he is, he’s quids in. Beyond that I barely recognise any of the names, but that may be a me problem rather than an issue with his draft.

I like Worthy and Burton, and would probably like the whole draft more if he’d taken Burton in the 3rd and Wilson in the 4th. Wilson just seemed like a reach, and there’s too many LBs here overall.

Burton had the talent to go higher, but the character concerns that meant his actual draft position ended up surprising some people. Maybe it works out, maybe it doesn’t, but if it doesn’t I think this class is pretty bleak. I don’t have much faith in Worthy, he could be Tyreek Hill or he could be Skyy Moore.

I like the potential of a couple of these but they are not standing out. Burton could be great but not convinced

Ratings

Dynablaster Bombermen

Self-Assessment

Score	4
Why?	I actually think I’ve got some decent players, but I missed out on some targets by a few spots, which frustrated me, and it was just a shit draft in general so no one’s class was going to be great.
Who were you disappointed to miss out on?	Edgerin Cooper. Went two picks before I was going to take him
Did you approach the draft with a particular philosophy?	I wanted RBs, but it was a weak class, as it was almost everywhere, so I guess I’m happy with the ones I got. I wanted a good LB. I got one I’ve never heard of in the hope he might start. This might actually turn out to be one of my better drafts (comparatively) purely because I took two WRs who had inexplicably fallen and felt like I got some bargains, even though I didn’t really want them – Corley and Walker – and I got a Chiefs TE when Kelce is surely nearing the end, so maybe that’s something?

League Assessment

NB: 6 voters – you don’t complete this for yourself. Unless Chris neglected to remove the mandatory status for the questions about your team.

Best pick for fantasy	Jonathan Brooks (RB, 1.07, 4), Jared Verse (DE, 3.07, 1), Malachi Corley (WR, 4.07, 1)
Best value	Jonathan Brooks (3), Malachi Corley (2), Jared Verse (1)
Worst value	Jaylen Wright (RB, 2.07, 4), Jonathan Brooks (1), Spencer Rattler (WB, 10.07, 1)
Early picks likely to bust	Jaylen Wright (5), Jonathan Brooks (2), Jared Verse (1)
Late picks likely to be useful	Jaden Hicks (S, 9.07, 4), Cade Stover (TE, 8.07, 3), Spencer Rattler (1), DeWayne Carter (DT, 11.07, 1), Jahwar Jordan (RB, 12.07, 1)

Commentary

I will write this comment so reading it feels like Ben’s actual draft… Aaaaaaaaaaa biiiiiit liiiiiiiiiike Adaaaaaaaaaaaaam’s in thaaaaaaaaat I can seeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee the plaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan and the neeeeeeeeeeeeed at RB. Buuuuuuuuuuuut Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeen paaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaasseeeeeeeeeeed ooooooooooooooooooooooooon gooooooooooooooooooooooood plaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayers tooooooooooooooooooooooo piiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiick RBs iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiin baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad situuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaatioooooooooooooooooooooooons, whiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiich doooooooooooooooooooooooooooooesn’t seeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeem liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiike goooooooooooooooooooood draaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaftiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing tooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. Fucking torturous. [A bit like Adam’s in that I can see the plan and the need at RB. But Ben passed on good players to pick RBs in bad situations, which doesn’t seem like good drafting to me]

I really liked Cade Stover as a sleeper. I was high on Jonathan Brooks too, I think he’ll be very good. Jaylen Wright seemed wildly overdrafted to me – he feels like one of those guys who is a good scheme fit but lacks the talent for that to actually matter.

Taking 2 rb’s with first 2 picks in such a weak draft for RBS is a no no. Brooks should be solid though

Some great value and average picks

I get emotional just looking at it

Ratings

Champions of the Sun

Self-Assessment

None provided

League Assessment

NB: 7 voters, as none of the responses was from Max

Best pick for fantasy	Junior Colson (LB, 3.04, 4), Bucky Irving (RB, 5.04, 2), Xavier Leggette (WR, 2.04, 1)
Best value	Bucky Irving (2), Xavier Leggette (1), Junior Colson (1), Jalen, McMillan (WR, 5.07, 1), Malik Washington (WR, 6.04, 1), Max Melton (CB, 12.04, 1)
Worst value	Xavier Leggette (3), Junior Colson (2), Bo Nix (QB, 6.13, 2)
Early picks likely to bust	Xavier Leggette (5), Tevin Wallace (LB, 4.04, 2), Junior Colson (1), None (2)
Late picks likely to be useful	Nate Wiggins (CB, 8.04, 3), Max Melton (3), Isaiah Davis (RB, 11.04, 1), None (1)

Commentary

Really the value came in trades. Brock Bowers for Myles Garrett and Javonte Williams feels like quite a good deal. I wasn’t a big fan of the rest of the draft. Someone had to take Legette I suppose. Jalen McMillan could be really good. Too many LBs in a shitty LB class.

I’m not sure Max knows who any of these players are. But then I barely do, so I shouldn’t cast aspersions. Maybe rescued a bit by the Garrett trade.

Getting Myle’s Garrett for 10 was good value, and while I understand not wanting Bowers because of strength at TE, Javonte Williams is a dud, and you paid a late 1st round price for him (i.e. imo the difference between 4 and 10 in this draft is c. a late first). Selling cheap to Chris, of all people, is a cardinal skin and I’ve knocked a couple of points off for it, as overall I think without the Bowers trade it’s probably an 8. Other than that, I like some of these picks – Washington might have been a little high, but he is a speedster in an offence that loves that, McMillan was one of my pre-NFL draft crushes (but his landing spot was really bad). I don’t know who the fuck Tevin Wallace is, but double-dipping at LB in this class feels like a waste. NFL teams don’t know how to develop LBs any more.

RB was a need so can understand the trade for javonte with few decent options in the draft. Don’t think Garrett is necessary for him so that was a waste. Too many reaches on lb’s for me

Slightly below average

It’s Legette a fine draft

Ratings

Kelkowski Don’t Play By No Dyna Rules

Self-Assessment

Score	6
Why?	Always difficult when you’re at the back end as you can’t get the truly elite picks unless you trade. Got some of my targets. Wasn’t intending to load up on receivers but there were too many good options. Hardly any defenders is a concern. But then there weren’t any good defensive options in the draft
Who were you disappointed to miss out on?	Jer’zahan newton
Did you approach the draft with a particular philosophy?	I start with a philosophy but then it quickly goes out of the window and I panic

League Assessment

NB: 6 voters – you don’t complete this for yourself. Unless Chris neglected to remove the mandatory status for the questions about your team.

Best pick for fantasy	Jayden Daniels (QB, 2.08, 4), Ladd McConkey (WR, 1.08, 2)
Best value	Jayden Daniels (3), Troy Franklin (WR, 3.08, 2), Ladd McConkey (1)
Worst value	Ladd McConkey (2), Bub Means (WR, 10.08, 2), Troy Franklin (1), Luke McCaffrey (WR, 5.08, 1)
Early picks likely to bust	Ladd McConkey (2), Jayden Daniels (2), Troy Franklin (1), Ben Sinnott (TE, 3.10, 1), None (1)
Late picks likely to be useful	Adisa Isaac (DE, 8.08, 1), Bub Means (1), Anthony Gould (WR, 12.08. 1), None (3)

Commentary

I love Franklin and that is it

Daniels is the top fantasy QB in this draft and, given how the league values QBs, he did well to get him there – even if I don’t think QBs should go that early. I also recognise some of the other players. It’s an OK draft.

I like the top half of this draft more than the bottom. I’m conflicted about Jayden Daniels, he’s potentially a really good fantasy player, but I don’t trust his playstyle to keep him healthy and I hate breakout Seniors (and that goes double for Covid super-Seniors) as they are just adults beating up on kids and that’s not a good indicator for how they’ll do when everyone else is an adult, but rushing is the fantasy cheat code for QBs, so really him being a bust/success is entirely on his longevity/health. Troy Franklin is an odd one, he profiles like Jameson Williams and was drafted by the NFL in the 4th two years after Williams was a top 10 player. But Williams has never done much either, and Franklin is so skinny you have to be concerned about his ability to survive in the league.

I didn’t like Ladd McConkey this high. Such poor college production, but now we’re expecting him to come in and be a #1 WR? I don’t buy it. Getting Jayden Daniels almost a full round after Caleb is great value. I really liked Sinnott and Franklin as sleepers. Especially Sinnott.

Bub Means what? Took all the good WRs damn it

Ratings

Dyna Hard

Self-Assessment

Score	8
Why?	Very pleased that I was able to get 2 of the top 4 guys without paying a premium to trade up. Corum was also useful insurance with upside. Otherwise the whole draft class was a bit meh, so hard to be too excited.
Who were you disappointed to miss out on?	Ben Sinnott. I was hoping he’d be available at 4.08.
Did you approach the draft with a particular philosophy?	I wanted to stock up on WRs, but that didn’t really happen until some late round dart throws.

League Assessment

NB: 6 voters – you don’t complete this for yourself. Unless Chris neglected to remove the mandatory status for the questions about your team.

Best pick for fantasy	Rome Odunze (WR, 1.03, 3), Brock Bowers (TE, 1.04, 3)
Best value	Blake Corum (RB, 2.05, 3), Rome Odunze (1), Brock Bowers (1), Audric Estimé (RB, 4.08, 1)
Worst value	Blake Corum (2), Brock Bowers (1), Darius Robinson (DE, 4.10, 1), Braelon Allen (RB, 5.10, 1), Joshua Karty (K, 11.10, 1)
Early picks likely to bust	Brock Bowers (2), Blake Corum (2), None (3)
Late picks likely to be useful	Terrion Arnold (CB, 9.10, 2), Louis Rees-Zammit (RB, 12.10, 2), Joshua Karty (1), None (2)

Commentary

As usual, Chris wins by taking advantage of people willing to trade. We can only hope that the arrival of Teddy fucks his judgement and this kind of shit never happens again. You all have blood on your hands.

Some great high value picks

Ummm, the inverse of Max’s comments, getting 1.04 for 1.10 and Javonte Williams was robbery. Not Bijan-scale, but still a robbery. Adding Estime in the 4th who could well end up supplanting Williams was just trolling. I think there’s a path to Odunze being the top WR in this draft. T’Vondre Sweat is an interesting one, played really well in college, and massive athletic profile, but also seen as a massive reach by Tennessee where they took him, even if character concerns were a bit overblown. Given his strength against the run and the Jeffrey Simmonds of it all at the Titans he could end up a nose tackle, but if not he has a chance to be relevant, which is good value for that point in the draft. You forgot to include 1.03 in the picks summary, which is a pretty notable asset.

Pipping us to Brock Bowers was painful. I hope he’s terrible (I don’t)

Aggressive as usual and really solid picks. I don’t know how he does it. Hopefully teddy will slow him down in future

Ratings

Overall

Team	Self-Assessment	League Assessment	Difference
East Flanders Dungeoneers	6	6.167	0.167
Here Comes The Brees	7	5.000	-2.000
Tamworth Two	6	6.167	0.167
The 4^th Dynmension: Dynasty of Sadness	N/A	7.833	N/A
Dynasore Losers	7	5.333	-1.667
Hawkesville Hurricanes	N/A	5.000	N/A
Dynablaster Bombermen	4	5.000	1.000
Champions of the Sun	N/A	5.714	N/A
Kelkowski Don’t Play By No Dyna Rules	6	7.167	1.167
Dyna Hard	8	8.500	0.500

So Chris wins the draft, followed by Mike and Ian, and that definitely won’t change over the next few years. Meanwhile the Brees, Hurricanes and Bombermen lost it and may as well give it all up.

Reflections

At least one of you doesn’t understand what the word ‘Value’ means, having repeatedly suggested that picks in the 9^th round or later were the worst value picks those teams took, while also suggesting that taking Odunze and Bowers 3^rd and 4^th – ie getting two of the players universally rated as 2^nd to 4^th best (pick your own order) in the top 4 – represented good value. Don’t get me wrong, not bad picks, just players taken at pretty much exactly the spot everyone said they should go so offering precisely average value.

There wasn’t a huge amount of consensus across the league. A few picks were universally liked (Marvin Harrison Jr? What are the chances). The Bombermen can take comfort in having all if their late round picks marked by someone as having the potential to be contributor, suggesting an ability to pick players with decent upside at least. It’s a crumb after having the early rounds, if not slated, at least be given a thumbs down. At the other end of the scale, everyone seems overwhelmingly convinced Tamworth’s first 4 picks are destined to bust.

On a personal level, I still didn’t recognise a significant number of the players everyone drafted which either says something about the quality of my research or this draft class.

Draft Day(s) Trades

Who won each of the trades that took place during the draft?

Now, let’s just be clear on this trade. Ignore the players, look at the picks. Chris moves up 3 spots in the second round and down 8 spots from the 3rd to the 4th. That seems reasonably evenly balanced. Indeed, this draft pick value chart suggests it couldn’t have been much closer to even – a perfect swap would have been 2.05 & 4.07 for 2.08 & 3.10 – so one spot out. But Chris managed to get an extra sixth round pick out of the deal. How anyone then felt that Ian won the trade, I do not know.

Draft Miscellany

Biggest Surprise?

How much the fun of it was drained away by long pick times, particularly in the early rounds.

Just how shit it was. I think my lack of preparation was meritted and if it was a better class I’d have dived into it more. I’m also surprised I didn’t get more slated for taking so long to do everything.

That I didn’t get it completely wrong?

The running QBs falling so late. Blake Corum going so so high

That it ended. Seemed like it would never come

The continuing lack of trades. And how generally shit it was given that it had been heralded as a great class.

That it finished so quickly

Timings

Those who felt it went too long were very vocal in their distaste while a silent majority seemed to be OK with it, if not craving even more…

Historical Drafting

Who’s the best drafter?	Hard (4), Kelkowski, Losers, Brees (1 each)
Who’s the worst drafter?	Dungeoneers (4), Hurricanes (2), Sadness (1)

Other Draft Thoughts

Good fun, could have used more trades. I liked it taking a while.

Let’s hope next year is a better class. For all our sakes.

The highlight

It was a good time, wish it went longer

Who’s going to win Dynabowl XI?

Dyna Hard (4), Dynablaster Bombermen (2), Tamworth Two, Dynasore Losers (1 each)

Who’s going to be picking first in the 2025 draft?

East Flanders Dungeoneers (3), Tamworth Two, The 4^th Dynmesnion: Dynasty of Sadness, Hawkesville Hurricanes, Champions of the Sun (1 each)

Offensive Rookie of the Year

Marvin Harrison Jr (5), Jayden Daniels (1)

One vote came with the comment that they prefer Odunze’s chances overall, but think Harrison will be better year one.

Defensive Rookie of the Year

Byron Murphy, Laiatu Latu (2 each), Junior Colson, Jer’zahan Newton (1 each)

The 2023 Dynabowl Draft Exit Survey

July 30, 2023

Chris Braithwaite

Rating our own drafts

First up, lets do a quick summary of how everyone thought they did. Here’s how we each rated our own draft (except Pete and Max):

Team	Rating	Comments
Brees	6	It was fine. Always going to be tough at 10th pick and no 3rd round pick. Missed out on a few players we wanted, but also think we got some decent picks on off and def
T2	6	Very few picks, and the offensive targets taken off the board early. Saying that, I did get a couple of my targets for D. So 8/10 on that side but 4/10 on the Offence.
Sadness	4	I’m not excited by any of the players I’ve drafted
Losers	8	Went better than I expected
Hurricanes	4	Average
Bombermen	9	Beyond trading a handful of magic beans for Bijan, I don’t think it could have gone much better really. Sure, there were some long shot running backs I’d been keen on picking up later who went earlier than I expected/hoped, but I think my top 7 picks all stand a chance of being starters by the end of year two and then I like the wildcards I picked up. I don’t have expectations for any of them to be starters, really, but as lottery tickets, I think they’re decent.
Kelkowski	6	Tried to trade with Neil for Bijan. Should have pushed harder. Besides that got some of my main targets but missed out on a couple I really wanted that just didn’t fall to me
Dyna Hard	8	I got Bijan which starts me at a 10. But I reached on Richardson, Downs (I think, I had him as a late 1st talent, but thought I could have got him in the 3rd) and Musgrave, which knocks a couple of marks off for me.

So that’s only Neil and Mike who think they didn’t do at least above average. We’ll see how that chimes with what the rest of the league thought.

As to players people missed out on, only one player got two mentions: Chase Brown. Beyond that, Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Anthony Richardson, Jalen Carter, Jalin Hyatt and Tyler Scott each got a nod.

I asked people about overall philosophy. A couple of people mentioned BPA, a couple mentioned focusing on need, and then we had a few people focusing on stocking up at different positions: QB (twice), RB (twice), WR (twice), TE, DE, DT and “all defenders”, so literally everything bar kicker and punter. Which is probably a) why everyone is relatively happy with their draft as we weren’t really competing with each other and b) why Pete ended up with a kicker and a punter.

Right, that’s enough for overview, let’s get on to where we slated each other’s picks. I’ve decided to do some tables even though LibreOffice is fucking useless with them.

Pete

As always, I’m starting with Pete because his team gets listed first and I don’t know why that is. I’m just bitter about always having to scroll right to the bottom of things to see my team.

Category	Our pick	Runner up
Best player	1.02 Jaxon Smith-Njigba WR (7 votes)	2.02 Kendre Miller RB (1)
Best value	Kendre Miller (4)	3.02 Marvin Mims WR (3)
Worst value	4.02 Zach Evans RB Marvin Mims (2)	5.02 Israel Abanikanda RB 5.11 Siaki Ika DT 5.12 Mazi Smith DT Kendre Miller (1)
Likely bust	Marvin Mims (5)	Kendre Miller (2)
Sleeper	7.02 Jordan Battle S (7)	8.02 Ethan Evans P (2)

Always a good start when your first 2 picks split votes for best player, and then your 2^nd and 3^rd picks are hailed as good value (although possibly a warning sign that you didn’t really get a standout pick). With pretty much every pick getting a vote for worst value, either that means it was a tough call to find bad value or you screwed up the whole draft. Jordan Battle seems to be well liked as a potential sleeper. So all in all, it seems a solid draft but probably unspectacular draft. And that’s what our ratings said: an average of 6, with a low of 4 and high of 8.

That’s reflected in the comments. If there was a word cloud it would say “safe”, “solid”, “good”, “decent” in big letters and not much else. JSN seemed to be his most controversial pick based on the comments, as a couple of people questioned taking him over Gibbs or looking to trade down (or at least questioned whether we should question it, which is far too meta at this point of the analysis). Given the absolute lack of trades and the general consensus that Pete is rebuilding, taking a WR seems sensible to me.

Ben and Stew

Reigning champions, do we think they are building a dynasty or, like Brees himself, are they destined to pad their stats for the rest of their career?

Category	Our pick	Runner up
Best player	2.10 Bryce Young QB(4)	1.10 Zach Charbonnet RB (3)
Best value	8.10 BJ Ojulari DE Zach Charbonnet (2)	4.10 Myles Murphy DE 6.18 AT Perry WR Bryce Young (1)
Worst value	Bryce Young (4)	Zach Charbonnet (2)
Likely bust	Zach Charbonnet Bryce Young Myles Murphy (3)	No one
Sleeper	BJ Ojulari (4)	7.10 Ji’Ayir Brown S (3)

The analysis here is very simple. We loved Bryce Young and Zach Charbonnet, we thought that Zach Charbonnet and to a lesser extent Bryce Young were good value, we though that Bryce Young and to a lesser extent Zach Charbonnet were bad value, and we think that Charbonnet and Young will be busts. Or good. BJ Ojulari got 2 votes for best player but only 4 people thought he’d be useful, so I guess there was a pretty wide divergence of opinion on him. The voting seems to back up our nonplussed opinion of this draft, with an average of 4.9, with a high of 7 and a low of 2, against his own rating of 6.

The comments seem to flag up that its tricky having the #10 pick: 6 comments, and 4 mentioned the challenge of picking at 10. Won’t someone think of the poor champions? And hey, two people did! Interestingly one person (I think it was Slatz, but I can’t be arsed actually checking) referred to Bryce Young as a “low-upside QB”, which I think is a bit harsh. I see him more as a high downside QB, with his tiny frame, but if he stays healthy he could be Burrow or Herbert level.

Tamworth Two

He came into the draft with the least amount of capital, what did we think?

Category	Our pick	Runner up
Best player	3.07 Tyjae Spears RB 4.07 Calijah Kancey DT 6.07 Luke Schoonmaker TE (2)	5.07 Emmanuel Forbes CB (1)
Best value	Luke Schoonmaker (5)	6.06 Adetomiwa Adebawore DT Tyjae Spears (1)
Worst value	Emmanuel Forbes (6)	Tyjae Spears (1)
Likely bust	Tyjae Spears (4)	Emmanuel Forbes (3)
Sleeper	7.07 Sydney Brown S (5)	8.07 SirVocea Dennis LB 9.07 Ventrell Miller LB (2)

I feel like its not looking good for Goody here. When your 6^th round pick ties in the vote for best player, either you got the best steal since Tom Brady, or no one liked your early picks. Everyone agreed Schoonmaker was great value though. And everyone (bar one mad person who called him best player, but I thought Pete and his CB fetish didn’t vote?) thought Forbes was bad value. But Sydney Brown is another safety that we liked as a late pick.

Goody came out with an average of 4.5, with a high of 7 and a low of 1, against his own rating of 6. I think “divisive” is the best word for this one. One person called the draft “fucking amazing”, one person called it solid. But then three panned it, saying that it was “awful”, that there was a lack of contributors in the draft, and lots of contenders for worst value. But well done everyone for factoring in draft capital – pretty much everyone mentioned the lack thereof in their comment.

Mike

We’re four teams in and I’ve already run out of intro material. This is promising.

Category	Our pick	Runner up
Best player	2.04 Dalton Kincaid TE (6)	3.04 Drew Sanders LB (2)
Best value	Dalton Kincaid Drew Sanders 7.04 Devon Witherspoon CB (2)	6.14 Keion White DT 5.04 Nolan Smith DE (1)
Worst value	Drew Sanders 4.04 Cedric Tillman WR 1.04 Zay Flowers WR (2)	6.04 Sean Tucker RB 8.04 Gervon Dexter DT (1)
Likely bust	None of the above (4)	Zay Flowers (2)
Sleeper	Devon Witherspoon (6)	9.04 Keaton Mitchell RB 10.04 Bryce Ford-Wheaton WR 12.04 Jammie Robinson S (1)

Kincaid seems pretty universally liked, while Sanders feels divisive – 2 calls for best player, 2 for best value, and 2 for worst value. The lack of mention of their 1^st round pick until worst value feels worrying, but at the same time Flowers only taking away two votes in that category makes it seem like its possible that pick was fine, its just that they picked up better players later on. And Devon Witherspoon seems to be adored. If you all like him so much, why didn’t you pick him?

The grading supports the general positive vibes: an average of 7.4, with a high of 9 and a low of 4, against his own rating of 4. Yes, we all like the players that Mike drafted far more than Mike, who drafted them, did. He was the only person to outperform his own rating by more than 0.1, and did it by 3.4 points. Cheer up mate. Maybe some of these comments will help: “Well done Mike, you bastard.” “I like a lot of this.” “Took a few from me when I was lining them up.” “Considered and strong.” “Really solid middle section.” (I think those last two are still about the draft, but they might be a personal reviews)

Slatz

Slatz thought he was a big winner in the draft. Did everyone else think he was a loser?

Category	Our pick	Runner up
Best player	1.09 Jalen Carter DT (3)	2.01 Devon Achane RB (2)
Best value	3.09 Michael Mayer TE (5)	4.09 Daiyan Henley LB 7.09 Will Levis QB (1)
Worst value	Jalen Carter (3)	Devon Achane Will Levis (2)
Likely bust	Devon Achane (5)	Michael Mayer (3)
Sleeper	Will Levis (4)	10.09 Ivan Pace LB (2)

Another interestingly divisive one. Carter heads up the list for best player and worst value, with Achane just behind him in both. Mayer gets the nod for best value but also solid consideration for most likely to bust. Depending who you ask, Will Levis is good value, bad value, a sleeper, or a freak who puts mayo in his coffee.

That all led to a very wide range of scores. An average of 5.6, with a high of 9 and a low of 1, against his own score of 8. One person called it a disappointing first 3 rounds, but one person said great early picks and then tailed off. One person called Achane a great pick, one called him a waste of a pick. One loved him getting Carter, one said it was bad value. One called it a bumper crop, one said he was picking players they weren’t interested in. If his draft was an equation, it’d all cancel out and just leave an equals sign.

Neil

I think its fair to say that Neil’s trade of the #1 pick is going to be a defining factor in this section.

Category	Our pick	Runner up
Best player	5.05 DeWayne McBride RB (3)	2.09 Rashee Rice WR (2)
Best value	DeWayne McBride (3)	3.06 Chase Brown RB (2)
Worst value	4.01 CJ Stroud QB Rashee Rice Chase Brown (2)	3.01 Tyree Wilson DE (1)
Likely bust	Rashee Rice Chase Brown (4)	Tyree Wilson (3)
Sleeper	9.01 Jatavius Martin S (4)	None of the above (2)

I think at this point I should say that I haven’t looked at the results before writing this up, and I write up this section first before looking at the overall scores and comments. But I get the feeling Neil is going to be in for a rough ride here. He came into the draft with the #1 pick and the consensus best player he drafted was at pick 45. Chase Brown is oddly divisive. Remember two people called him someone they wanted and didn’t get. Maybe those two people are the two who voted him best value, and everyone else called him either bad value or a likely bust (or both). Maybe it was the same two people who absolutely loved him? Tyree Wilson doesn’t seem to be as beloved by us as by the NFL though. But we all seem to like some DeWayne McBride, even if all he’s taught me is that I just cannot type DeWayne right at the first time of asking.

I’m not sure if Neil’s scores are divisive or just have one outlier. He got an average of 2.7, with a low of 1 and a high of 8 (the next highest was 3), against his own rating of 4. Trading away #1 seems to be the focus of the ire here: most people mentioned that trade as a negative (and one person basically just typed F over and over again, which I assume wasn’t a positive). People also didn’t like his trade in the 6^th round, but I think at least part of that is that people were allergic to trading in this draft. But three people said that they actually liked his picks. I think one person summed it up very nicely: “the picks he made were fine, the picks he didn’t make were awful.”

Benj

Benj gave himself the highest rating of anyone at 9, so lets see if we agree. He’s probably helped himself, because Benj is the first person so far to fail to skip the section marking his own draft. I can’t be bothered to try to take his ratings out of it though.

Category	Our pick	Runner up
Best player	1.03 Jahmyr Gibbs RB (5)	3.03 Jalin Hyatt WR (2)
Best value	Jalin Hyatt (3)	4.03 Lukas Van Ness DE (2)
Worst value	Lukas Van Ness 6.12 Puka Nacua WR 2.03 Roschon Johnson RB (2)	6.03 Brian Branch S 5.03 Trenton Simpson LB (1)
Likely bust	None of the above (4)	Roschon Johnson (3)
Sleeper	8.03 Keeanu Benton DT (3)	7.03 Charlie Jones WR 11.03 Andrei Iosivas WR None of the above (2)

Gibbs seems to be very well liked – one person pegged him as a bust, but otherwise he dominated the best player stakes, and Hyatt seems to be a popular pick. But then there’s more negativity in the middle rounds, and not a huge amount of votes for his later picks. But also there’s nothing that people see as a particularly egregious error either – Roschon Johnson maybe, but even with him more people think he won’t be a bust than that he will.

That leads to a pretty strong consensus on Benj’s draft. An average of 7.1, with a high of 9 and a low of 6. It’s not the 9 that he predicted himself, but its good. Unfortunately that meant that the comments don’t have much unexpected. People liked Gibbs, people thought there was good depth throughout, although a couple of people commented that his later picks tailed off a bit. One person also pointed out that he managed a Jamie Oliver approved “Puka Tucker” combo.

Max

The best researched draft, so I’m expecting some very well thought out comments in response.

Category	Our pick	Runner up
Best player	1.05 Jordan Addison WR (4)	2.05 Jack Campbell LB (2)
Best value	3.10 Sam Laporta TE (5)	Jack Campbell Jordan Addison 3.05 Jayden Reed WR (1)
Worst value	Jack Campbell (5)	4.05 Felix Anudike-Uzomah DE 6.05 DeMarvion Overshow LB 7.05 Deneric Prince RB(1)
Likely bust	Jack Campbell (3)	Jordan Addison Jayden Reed None of the above (2)
Sleeper	8.05 Byron Young DE (6)	10.05 Henry To’oto’o LB None of the above (1)

This feels like a tale of a draft that starts quite strongly and then goes downhill after Sam Laporta. We all hailed him as good value, and agreed that the first two guys he took were the best players (although Jack Campbell probably could have gone later). But apart from Byron Young no one seems to have liked his late picks at all.

That ends up giving an average of 6, with a high of 8 and a low of 4. In lieu of having Max’s own rating, I have a picture of the distribution of our ratings.

Our comments lauded Max’s humour, as well as all of his earlier picks. A couple of people complained about Campbell being a reach and lamented how long Max took to draft (can’t wait to see what people say about my drafting speed…). People also seem divided about whether Max really doesn’t know what’s going on, or whether he’s actually secretly well researched. Or maybe there’s just a strong correlation between funny names and successful NFL players?

Ian

Ian took the first defensive player, which is often divisive. Well, its divisive to me anyway, in that I usually disagree with it.

Category	Our pick	Runner up
Best player	1.08 Will Anderson DE (5)	2.08 Jonathan Mingo WR (2)
Best value	Jonathan Mingo (2)	Will Anderson 8.08 Dontayvion Wicks WR 5.08 Michael Wilson WR 4.08 Bryan Bresee DT 3.08 Tank Bigsby RB (1)
Worst value	Jonathan Mingo Bryan Bresee Tank Bigsby (2)	Michael Wilson (1)
Likely bust	Tank Bigsby (5)	Jonathan Mingo (2)
Sleeper	None of the above (2)	7.08 Justin Shorter WR Dontayvion Wicks 8.12 YaYa Diaby DE 10.08 Parker Washington WR 12.08 Garrett Williams CB (1)

Once you get past Will Anderson, there’s not a lot of consensus here. Maybe that we didn’t like Tank Bigsby, with only one vote for him as best value and 7 combined votes for worst value and most likely to be a bust. Ian is the first to get “None of the above” for picking a sleeper, which is something?

It all adds up to a surprisingly (to me) high average of 5.8, with a high of 8 and low of 4, against his own rating of 6. I thought that the table above seemed to say that no one really thought too much of this draft, so I was expecting 4 to 6 as the range. The comments tend to call it unexciting: “nice and steady”, “middle of the road”, “not blown away”. Mingo got the most name checks amongst the comments, but they were a mixed bag (apart from the comment that pointed out “With Mingo and Dorian, we’ve almost got a misspelled tropical fruits theme going on”, which is genius).

Chris

With Neil getting panned primarily for the Bijan trade, I’m hoping that I get some rave reviews.

Category	Our pick	Runner up
Best player	1.01 Bijan Robinson RB (7)	None.
Best value	Bijan Robinson (6)	5.01 Will McDonald DE (1)
Worst value	4.06 Tank Dell WR 2.07 Luke Musgrave TE 1.07 Anthony Richardson QB (2)	1.06 Quentin Johnson WR (1)
Likely bust	2.06 Josh Downs WR (4)	Luke Musgrave None of the above (2)
Sleeper	8.11 Isaiah Foskey DE (3)	9.06 Marte Mapu LB (2)

Seems like people like Bijan, the only consensus pick in any category throughout the draft. I’m not surprised about the relatively wide spread of worst value, as I think I reached on a few players. If anything, I’m surprised that Josh Downs didn’t get any votes in that category.

That adds up to an average of 8.1, with a high of 10. The voting was two 10s, 4 9s and a 1, which is a very confusing spread and not explained by the comments. Maybe the rankings were confusing? A 10 was labelled as Die Hard 1, a 1 was labelled as Die Hard 5. Maybe someone misunderstood? Because I can’t imagine anyone thinking “oh yeah, Die Hard 5, that must be the highest rating.” Those were the only 10s given out in the draft. Thank you. My own rating was an 8, so not too bad. The comments seemed to be a mix of praise (“ridiculous”, “smashed the draft”, “nailed it” and “blistering”) and abuse “fuck this guy”. I still think its a bit generous – I reckon you lot are too low on Olave and I reached a bit too much on my other picks.

Overall

So how did we stack up overall then?

Team	Average rating	Own rating	Difference
Dyna Hard	8.1	8	-0.1
Sadness	7.4	4	-3.4
Bombermen	7.1	9	+1.9
Champions	6	N/A	N/A
Dungeoneers	6	N/A	N/A
Kelkowski	5.8	6	+0.2
Losers	5.6	8	+2.4
Brees	4.9	6	+1.1
T2	4.5	6	+1.5
Hurricanes	2.7	4	+1.3

Chris and Ian were closest to their own ratings, Mike was furthest away (and basically the only one who underrated his own draft), Slatz was most over-optimistic. And we managed to avoid voting for the teams with the least draft capital as worst drafts, but mainly thanks to everyone hating Neil’s trade.

I also took a look at who we think is most likely to be a bust or sleeper.

	1^st	2^nd	3^rd
Bust	Tank Bigbsy Devon Achane Marvin Mims (5)	Josh Downs Rashee Rice Tyjae Spears (4)	Too many people to list (3)
Sleeper	Jordan Battle (7)	Devon Witherspoon Byron Young (6)	Sydney Brown (5)

Technically there’s some bias towards Pete, Max and Benj’s players here as two didn’t complete the survey and Benj voted on his own draft, so they had a max of 8 possible votes compared to 7 for everyone else. I am mildly surprised that we had far more of a consensus on sleepers than busts. To get a sleeper, lots of people need to want the player but pass on them, but to get a bust only one person needs to like a player way more than consensus. Odd.

Trades

I have a feeling I know what the vote on one of these trades will be.

Bijan Robinson trade: 7 votes for Chris, 0 for Neil.
Pick 6.01 (Deuce Vaughn) for a 2024 6^th: 5 votes for Mike (Vaughn side), 1 for Neil, 2 for about even
Miles Sanders for 3.10 (Sam Laporta): 7 votes for about even, 1 for Max (Laporta side).
A couple of players on either side but mainly 2.01 for 2.09: 6 votes for Slatz (2.01 side), 2 votes for Neil.
Mark Ingram for 6.10 (Josh Whyle): 5 votes for about even, 2 votes for Pete (6.10 side), 1 vote for Brees.
Devin Duvernay for 5.05 (DeWayne McBride): 3 votes for about even, 3 votes for Neil (5.05 side), 2 votes for Max.

Not a huge amount to add here. The lack of trades was disappointing and surprising.

Other draft bits and pieces

For biggest surprise, trades got mentioned a lot. 6 people mentioned trades in the 8 comments. 5 people mentioned the Bijan trade as biggest surprise and 2 people mentioned lack of trades (and one person mentioned both). The only player pick that was a surprise was Richardson at 1.07.

SirVocea Dennis took away the coveted best name trophy with 3 votes. Zack Kuntz and Bumper Pool ran him close with 2 votes a piece, and Jammie Robinson got the bronze medal. I meant to leave an “other” here – I can’t remember if I did and they just got no votes, or whether I forgot. Let’s not worry about it. You’ve probably stopped reading by now.

One person thought the draft should have been in May, 7 people said the timing was just right. Same time next year then lads? And 6 of 8 people said they were happy with free agency running alongside the draft, with only 1 person outraged. So we could happily continue that next year too. And 4 people said the draft took about the right amount of time, 3 said too long and 1 said too short. So pencil in around 8 days next year too.

In terms of who has been best at picking rookies in Dbowl history, Chris got 5 votes, Benj got 2 and Goody got 1. That’s the second year in a row that Chris has led this category (3 votes last year), and Benj and Goody were also name checked last year, with 1 vote each. Max got 2 votes last year and none this year, despite outperforming Goody according to our ratings (6 v 4.5), so its a bit surprising that he’s fallen off the list. Maybe his “I know nothing” propoganda during the draft worked?

The worst drafter crown is shared by Neil and Pete, with 3 votes each. Benj and Slatz got a vote a piece. Yep, Benj got votes for best drafter and worst drafter. I could probably run back through the last 4 years of surveys and see how that lines up to the voting, but I won’t. Neil took the worst drafter crown last year too, with 3 votes, and Pete (1) and Slatz (2) each got votes. Ben and Stew got a vote last year but none this year despite what was seen as a poor draft.

In terms of overall thoughts, three people referenced the disappointing lack of trades, but I feel like fatigue set in at this point, so I won’t dwell on this question and will probably remove it next year.

2023 Dynabowl season

Buoyed by a strong draft, Chris took home 50% of the votes to win the Dbowl title in 2023. 2 people voted for Slatz, and one a piece for the Brees and Max. Only 1 person said they wanted to vote for themselves but thought it was arrogant.

Neil got 7 votes for picking first in 2024, with Pete getting the other vote. 1 person admitted to voting for themselves. I’m assuming that was Neil just by sheer weight of votes.

The offensive rookie of the year vote was a three-headed race. “Bijan Robinson” picked up 4 votes, “Bijan” picked up 3 votes, and “Robinson” picked up 1. Should be a tight race. Maybe I should create a shortlist in future… Defensive rookie of the year was similarly consensus-driven, with some variant of Will Anderson picking up 7 votes, with Drew Sanders the outlier with the other vote.

A couple of vaguely interesting rules changes were suggested: scrapping all the bonus picks, changing the order of the bonus picks, and a lottery for the first 6 picks. Plus someone formally submitted one during the draft but forgot what it was, so it must have been very well thought through.

2023 NFL season

Bijan Robinson again got the nod for our NFL offensive rookie of the year (4 votes), with Bryce Young (2) and CJ Stroud/Jahmyr Gibbs (1 each) following him. And Will Anderson kept up the “life imitates fantasy” vibe with 5 votes for NFL defensive rookie of the year with 5 votes. Calijah Kancey, Jalen Carter and Christian Gonzalez got 1 each.

Mahomes got 4 votes for our NFL MVP, with Jalen Hurts picking up 2 and Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson with 1 each. NFL Defensive Player of the Year was far less of a consensus, presumably because its not just limited to one position: Nick Bosa got 2 votes, then Sauce Gardner, Myles Garrett, TJ Watt, Quinnen Williams and Micah Parsons each got 1. The Chiefs and Eagles tied as our Super Bowl favourites with 3 votes each, followed by the Bengals and Bills with a vote each. The Bucs and Titans are our Neil and Pete, with 2 votes each to pick first in the 2024 NFL draft. The Cardinals, Bears, Rams and Texans each got 1 vote.

Errata

There was no consensus on which fictional character you’d pick to play for your team. Superheroes featured heavily (Superman, Incredible Hulk, The Flash and Iron Man), literature/film came in second (Fezzik, Elizabeth Bennet and Mr Tickle) and actual fictional football came in third (Matt Saracen).

If anyone is interested in TV recommendations, there wasn’t one mentioned twice. Justified, Yellowjackets, The After Party, Colin From Accounts, The Rehearsal and Picard all got mentioned. In terms of book recommendations, 3 people said they didn’t read, and then the following were mentioned: Barca: The Rise and Fall of a Modern Superclub; The Devil in the White City; Jade City/Empire/Legacy; Murderbot; Shogun; Far From the Madding Crowd. Game recommendations didn’t get much interest: Clank in Space, Monopoly, Marvel Snap, Legacies, Unpacking, and Immortal. You can work out for yourself which are board games and which are video games.

And the question you’ve probably scrolled right to the end immediately to find the answer to: mightiest NFL dong. No consensus here: Bumper Pool, Hunter Renfrow, Nick Foles, Jalen Ramsey, Orlando Brown, Daniel Faalele and Dawand Jones each got a vote. As did Vietnam. The mystery continues.

The 2022 Dynabowl Draft Exit Survey

July 19, 2022

Commish

Rookie Draft Survey No Comments

This exit survey was run by Chris Braithwaite, GM of Dyna Hard. I am certain that everything shown in this report is exactly right and hasn’t been twisted in any way, shape or form. Anyway, onwards…

Welcome to the 100% accurate assessment of the Dynabowl draft. Why even bother playing the games after this when we know exactly how good all of these players are going to be, right?

We’ll start out simple: average scores per team. There were two teams way out in front, with an average of 7.3. Max takes it by a nose, 7.33 to 7.25, over Chris. That’s especially impressive given Max’s admission that “I genuinely don’t know who any of the players are.” Ignorance is evidently bliss. Max was the only person to garner a 10 (apart from Goody trying to sneak a 10 in for himself), but Chris was the only person where every vote was 6 or higher. So there’s that. It’s then a drop of 0.9 down to Pete in 3^rd at an average of 6.4. So lets just skip right to the bottom, where Benj is sitting with a score of 4.9, just behind Goody’s 5.0. And lets take a moment to give credit to Neil, who was the only person who managed to have his drafted rated as a 1 and yet had enough people who liked his draft to get him to a solid mid-table finish. Congrats?!

Team	Rank	Average	Max	Min
Max	1	7.3	10	5
Chris	2	7.3	9	6
Pete	3	6.4	7	5
Mike	4	6.1	7	5
Neil	5	5.8	8	1
Ian	6	5.5	8	3
Ben & Stew	7=	5.3	7	4
Slatz	7=	5.3	8	2
Goody	8	5.0	8	2
Benj	9	4.9	7	3

The overall average was 5.9, so if your score was below that, you did badly. But good work overall everyone on using a reasonable scoring scale, rather than the actual NFL draft grades which seem to have A- as a fail.

Comments

Enough with the numbers, lets get to the comments. We’ll go in the same order as the rankings for this draft, so the comments get progressively worse. Lets not make this thing too cheerful, right?

Max

Okay
I like quite a few if them. Good effort
Loved this draft. Burks and Williams were my top 2 WRs, Pickens could easily be in there to were it not for the character concerns. He could easily have got 3 WR1s here. Generally liked the value throughout and it was difficult to pick anyone as a bust.
Had the capital to get some high end talent and didn’t make any boneheaded picks with it. However, endorsed domestic abuse, so swings and roundabouts.
Good solid team bolstering
Really like most of this draft, hard to be critical. Jameson Williams might be the best receiver in the draft (Watson has a higher ceiling, but way more variability). If Burks is Brown 2.0 as suggested then that’s another win at 4.

Chris

Some good early picks but no one after that
Decent. I like most of them
I like the receivers drafted and could be shrewd value with Pickett
A lot of players I had on my list. He was picking after me so maybe this should have been my draft?
Solid as usual
I don’t like Olave because he doesn’t match up physically well against anyone and I’m not sure how often even a mediocre corner will give him a free release. In space he’s Edelman-esque though. I also am very down on the whole Saints offence. Wan’Dale Robinson I like there, White I’d hoped to get and Skyy Moore could be great, although I think he’s risen a bit too high in fantasy/NFL drafts to be the player I liked as a sleeper pre-draft.

And here’s what Chris thought: “I am still not super happy with picking Moore – my rankings loved him so I just decided to trust them. Was disappointed not to get more defensive players, but I liked the couple I got.”

Pete

Solid and predictable
Hall and Watson should be fine. The rest?
I feel like it’s a good mix of solid chalky players (Hall, Bell) who should have a good floor and then boom/bust guys like Watson and Andersen. I liked him double dipping at CB for 2 elite prospects – they still seemed like OK value, which isn’t usually the case with the 1st CB. His team is notably better after the draft than it was before.
Steady
Wadda lodda corners.
It hinges heavily on Watson – Hall will be what he’ll be. Either a solid committee back who ends up mid-tier, or a clear win, but he’s the #1 pick, generally you’re going to get something there barring unforeseen things like injuries. Watson’s ceiling is right up there. If you somehow hit on the best WR in this class and the best RB, then it’s a big win.

Here’s what Pete had to say for himself: “This wonderful human being deserves all the success that is undoubtedly coming his way.”

Mike

Started well and then tailed off with some average picks
Not normally a fan of so much d early but I like what boob has done
Good draft capital but not sure he got any stars out of it. The defensive players are all good, but I don’t think any are going to turn his team into a contender and Walker doesn’t feel like he has top 5 upside. Threw a lot of interesting darts in the middle rounds though.
Quay Walker will “bust” only in fantasy terms. He’ll likely work well at run stopping but I don’t see him getting the kind of plays you need at LB to be successful in our league. Volume drafting is probably sensible to try to turn the team around. The more darts the better.
Embrace the D
Austin is nice there as an upside guy, though he’s tiny. I think the Steelers might be a bit more creative in his use than the Seahawks with Eskridge. I love the Hamilton pick and Ebikete could be awesome, always bet on athleticism in that position. And Lloyd could be Isaiah Simmons or Micah Parsons… Walker, I get, and I wouldn’t have passed on him at 3 – it’s more about the shallowness of the draft in that position than talent. But not much else to get excited about.

Mike’s fairly tepid assessment was “Lot of mid round talent reflecting lots of mid round picks.”

Neil

First two picks great, not much to shout about after then
Awful. Don’t like any of these picks
Cook felt like a major reach. Hutchinson is good but propped up by his draft capital in a super weak class. Did good work in the middle rounds though – I feel like everyone from Hutchinson to Tindall has a legit shot to be their team’s #1 at their position. And Snoop Conner has a realistic path to relevance.
Good value later in the draft, although Cook felt like a bit of a reach at the top
Nothing silly. Some players who will contribute. But I’m hardly tumescent reviewing it.
Decent
I felt Cook was bad value at 8/9 – I understood why he was mocked there because of the RB class being shallow – but to take him at 5 with Williams and Wilson or even Moore, Watson and Olave still there feels like a massively wasted pick for a guy who seems like he’s probably somewhere between Cole Beasley and JD McKissick. Willis has a massive upside if he develops enough as a passer to start.

Ian

Not many high picks but some good quality lower down
Didn’t have too much capital in the end, but did ok with it. Spiller was great value, I thought he’d go a round earlier (and he would have if Goody hadn’t made a big offer). Taking 3 TEs feels a bit wasteful to me though, and I can’t see how Dulcich becomes fantasy relevant in that offense – it’s just so crowded.
Got some good late round value with players falling to them. Could make up for a lack of early picks
Literally no one I was thinking about taking.
Not a lot to work with, but flags fly forever! Oooo Rah!
He traded all his picks to win. And won. In that sense it’s a 10/10. If we’re purely judging on picks made… they’re pretty bad picks, but what do you expect with so few and so few early.

Neil took the Max approach here: “Who are these guys.”

Ben and Stew

Okay at first, but Karlaftis was a reach
Reasonable solid effort without being spectacular
I loved Wilson as a prospect, so they’ve done well there. I wasn’t a big fan of Davis-Price, but can’t argue with the upside and he was quite cheap. Hated the Karlaftis pick though, I think he’s going to be one of those decent NFL guys but who maxes out at about 8 sacks. So not a fan there. They tend to do well with defensive players though.
Boom-bust profile
Pretty by the book. Nothing to get wildly excited about but nothing which makes me want to vomit in my mouth. Which is a nice change.
Good competent draft in a tough spot (6)
This draft comes down to Wilson really. And it’s really hard to know how good he’ll be if Zach Wilson continues his trend of trying to make Nathan Peterman look good retrospectively. Karlaftis should be fine, if not special – maybe in a Spags defence with his ears pinned back he might be more, but I’m not sure how long Spags will be around there. Pierce is an X factor, ridiculous athletic talent with true #1 ceiling, but he’s so raw he’s basically unprepared sushi.

Slatz

Love the first 5 picks
Don’t like it at all. Lots of reaches
I was comparatively low on London and Thibodeaux so I expect to be an outlier here. And I love Davis, but don’t think a rookie DT who needs a tonne of projection to be relevant in the NFL is worth a 3rd. I feel like there’s a lot of guys who will stick around the roster, I don’t think there are many who will be stars. Honestly, Harris is the only guy I think he got who he didn’t overdraft.
Seemed to know the guys he wanted to draft and took them
It’s obviously the best draft. Obviously. Because everyone else took the wrong players, which means he must have got the right ones.
Reasonable draft for the awkward tweener drafting position

Here’s what Slatz had to say: “10/10 of course. Seriously though, passing on White to take Thibodeaux was a tough call, and needs to work out as RB was a real need. Davis is a gamble some will hate, but I love a guy like that and I had to hold myself back from taking him in the second, so for me I feel like that pick was value.”

Goody

Pretty rubbish
I didn’t like any of their picks bar Dotson (and didn’t really like the trade for him). Pierce and Allgeier feel like desperation picks for a win now team, and Asamoah isn’t going to contribute for at least a year, if not two. Otton might be decent, but that’s about it.
Decent value with limited picks
Lots of reaching. A number of players I wouldn’t have minded getting 2-5 rounds later. Not to my taste. But he’s happy and that’s nice.
The drive to succeed within the season leaves his drafts a bit threadbare.
Both Allgeier and Pierce represent the same thing – dice rolls on opportunity/volume with players of limited draft capital and questionable efficacy in bad situations. If both work out the value question goes out the window. If both fail then this looks pretty bleak. Both seem about as likely?

Here’s what Goody had to say: “The best draft ever.”

Benj

Average at best.
Too d heavy early on for me. Not many picks I liked
Didn’t have too much capital, but didn’t do much with it. I wasn’t a fan of Dean and most of the other players feel like they’ve got limited upside.
I like the mid round skill players. Be interested to see how the DTs turn out
Similar ignore-the-draft team building strategy to Goody. Comment withheld.
Hard to judge properly on someone who traded away high picks, without valuing in what was gained vs what could have been gained. Dean looks like a steal, but Philly have been a graveyard for LBs. If he balls out (and he has the talent to be Roquan Smith) that’s a really good spot to have grabbed him.

And here’s what Benj had to say: “Didn’t have a first, traded out of the second, didn’t stupidly reach for anyone, got some of the players I hoped for, but was patient and, again, didn’t stupidly reach for anyone I’d earmarked. I’m pretty happy that I got some contributors. I may not have a star in there but I think it gives me some solid depth.”

Trades

While we’re jumping all over the map, lets continue the trend and look at the trades that happened during the draft. This is what we thought, from least balanced trade to most balanced (and there’s a bit of judgement in this):

Goody gets 2022 pick 20 (Jahan Dotson). Ian gets Jalen Hurts, Allen Lazard. (6 favouring Ian, 3 saying even.).
Goody gets Tyler Lockett, 2022 pick 19 (Tyler Allgeier), 2023 Round 6 pick. Chris gets Mike Evans, Denzel Ward. (5 favouring Chris, 3 saying even, 1 favouring Goody)
Ben and Stew get picks 69 (Sam Howell) and 99 (Daniel Bellinger). Chris gets pick 66 (Tyler Badie). (4 favouring Chris, 4 saying even, 1 favouring Ben and Stew. And I think I was that one).
Slatz gets 2022 pick 25 (Jalen Tolbert). Neil gets Fred Warner. (4 favouring Neil, 3 saying even, 1 favouring Slatz.
Neil gets picks 93 (Myjai Sanders) and 113 (Jalen Nailor). Slatz gets pick 75 (Daxton Hill). (4 saying even, 3 favouring Slatz, 1 favouring Neil)
Goody gets picks 17 (Dameon Pierce) and 47 (Brian Asamoah). Benj gets pick 28 (Jermaine Johnson), 38 (Romeo Doubs) and 39 (Demarvin Leal). (5 saying even, 2 favouring Benj, 2 favouring Goody – perfectly balanced)

I’ll try something as a summary: a net positive rating for all these trades by team. So you get +1 for each vote saying you won a trade and -1 for each vote saying your lost a trade.

Chris: +7
Iran: +6
Neil: +1
Benj: 0
Slatz: -1
Ben and Stew: -3
Goody: -10

Max, Pete and Mike didn’t make any trades. Benj just made the one perfectly balanced trade. I guess there should be a way to get a bit more nuance here: Neil and Slatz only traded with each other, but I feel like Neil winning a trade involving a 3^rd round pick and then losing a trade for an 8^th round pick doesn’t really cancel out as much as this table says. And then, does Ben and Stew losing a trade for a 7^th round pick really matter? But I can’t be bothered trying to work that out – the data is above if anyone fancies it. But anyway, we all agreed: Goody’s trades were bad, Chris and Iran’s were good.

Individual drafts

I’ll just do these in the order I listed teams in the survey. I’ll say that is so this doesn’t spiral into relentless negativity, but really its just cos its easier for me. For all of these, I’ll just list any answer which got more than 1 vote.

Pete

Best player

Breece Hall (7)

Best value:

David Ojabo (4)
Troy Andersen (3)

Worst value:

Christian Watson (3)
David Bell (3)
Troy Andersen (2)

Bust:

Christian Watson (4)
David Bell (3)

Sleeper

Sauce Gardner (3)
Bryan Cook (3)
Terrel Bernard (2)

It seems we were content with Breece Hall as the consensus number 1, and not at all high on Christian Watson or David Bell. So I guess we’ll find out if Pete knows better than the rest of us. Andersen getting support as both best value and worst value is fun, I love a polarising prospect.

Ben and Stew

Best player

Garrett Wilson (7)

Best value:

Ty Davis-Price (3)
Garrett Wilson (2)
Alec Pierce (2)

Worst value:

George Karlafits (5)
Sam Howell (3)

Bust:

Ty Davis-Price (5)
George Karlaftis (3)

Sleeper

Velus Jones (5)
Daniel Bellinger (2)

So safe to say Ty Davis-Price is a polarising guy. 3 calling him best value, 5 calling him a bust. Same with Karlaftis – not too many calling him a bust, but general agreement that he was bad value.

Goody

Best player

Jahan Dotson (5)

Best value:

Cade Otton (3)
Brian Asamoah (2)
Jahan Dotson (2)

Worst value:

Tyler Allgeier (3)
Dameon Pierce (2)
Jordan Stout (2)

Bust:

Tyler Allgeier (4)
Dameon Pierce (3)
Jahan Dotson (2)

Sleeper

Cade Otton (7)

Its probably not a good sign when you trade up for 2 RBs, and both get support as worst value or a bust. But then Dotson was overwhelmingly seen as the best player and still also garnered support as worst value and a bust too. Basically, everyone liked Cade Otton and that’s about it.

Mike

Best player

Kenneth Walker (4)
Devin Lloyd (3)
Quay Walker (2)

Best value:

Trey McBride (3)
Calvin Austin (2)

Worst value:

Quay Walker (6)

Bust:

Kenneth Walker (4)
Quay Walker (3)
Kyle Hamilton (2)

Sleeper

Phidarian Mathis (3)
Damone Clark (2)
Trent McDuffie (2)

So people either loved or hated Kenneth Walker – he’s either the best player or he’s a bust. Similar for Quay Walker, except that everyone thought he was overvalued too.

Slatz

Best player

Drake London (6)
Kayvon Thibodeaux (2)

Best value:

Jalen Tolbert (4)
Jordan Davis (2)
Christian Harris (2)

Worst value:

Kayvon Thibodeaux (3)
Jordan Davis (2)
Jalen Tolbert (2)

Bust:

Jalen Tolbert (5)
Jordan Davis (3)

Sleeper

Daxton Hill (4)
Matt Corral (2)
Ty Chandler (2)

We generally seemed happy that Drake London was a perfectly fine pick in the 1^st, and then it got polarising: Thibodeaux got support as best player and worst value; Jordan Davis got support as best value, worst value and bust; Jalen Tolbert was either best value or a bust. Basically, we have no fucking clue what is going on here, which is no different from any other team’s draft.

Neil

Best player

James Cook (5)

Best value:

Malik Willis (3)
James Cook (2)
Channing Tindall (2)

Worst value:

James Cook (3)
Aidan Hutchinson (2)
John Metchie (2)

Bust:

Malik Willis (3)
Aidan Hutchinson (3)
John Metchie (2)

Sleeper

Jeremy Ruckert (3)
Snoop Cooner (3)

Neil’s draft was weirdly polarising. It had the biggest range of overall ratings, and it also had an unusual spread of best value, worst value and busts. Basically, most people found something to like about Neil’s draft and something to hate too. And no one liked or hated the same players. So this will be an interesting one to see how it plays out in future years.

Benj

Best player

Nakobe Dean (7)
Jermaine Johnson (2)

Best value:

Romeo Doubs (3)
Nakobe Dean (2)
Tyquan Thornton (2)

Worst value:

Nakobe Dean (2)
Jermaine Johnson (2)
Logan Hall (2)

Bust:

Logan Hall (4)
Nakobe Dean (2)
Jermaine Johnson (2)

Sleeper

Desmond Ridder (3)
Charlie Kolar (3)
Kingsley Enagbare (2)

I guess some of us really liked Nakobe Dean (best value) and some didn’t (Bust, worst value), but we generally thought he was the best of a bad bunch. And then we didn’t really like Logan Hall.

Max

Best player

Jameson Williams (5)
Treylon Burks (2)
George Pickens (2)

Best value:

Jameson Williams (3)
George Pickens (2)
Brian Robinson (2)

Worst value:

Travon Walker (2)
Brian Robinson (2)

Bust:

Travon Walker (5)
Treylon Burks (2)
George Pickens (2)

Sleeper

Isiah Pacheco (3)
Kyle Phillips (2)
Brandon Smith (2)

Max’s best player results are fun, especially combined with the bust results, and probably drove his high ratings. The fact that Williams was overwhelmingly more popular than Burks but was picked quite a lot later is interesting. The fact that some people still loved Pickens over both is also interesting. And then the fact that most people thought Travon Walker would be a bust over any of them is interesting too. Although that last bit might just be a bit of noise driven by people not liking Walker as a prospect.

We also seemed to love Jameson Williams – 5 people called him the best pick, 3 called him the best value (as pick 7) and no one called him most likely to bust. So that’s interesting.

Iran

Best player

Isaiah Spiller (6)

Best value:

Isaiah Spiller (6)

Worst value:

Hassan Haskins (3)
Isaiah Spiller (2)
Greg Dulcich (2)

Bust:

Danny Gray (3)
Isaiah Spiller (2)
Hassan Haskins (2)
Greg Dulcich (2)

Sleeper

Chad Muma (5)
Chigoziem Okonkwo (2)

I wasn’t sure whether to include 4 players in the bust rankings for Ian simply because the 4^th player was the 70^th pick. Spiller being the overwhelming favourite player from this class, and then no real consensus on worst value or bust, seems to say that we basically liked the Spiller pick but not much else. Except Chad Muma. We liked the value there. 2/9 rated Spiller’s lack of speed as the pre-draft story they actually factored in when picking.

Chris

Best player

Skyy Moore (4)
Chris Olave (3)

Best value:

Rachaad White (4)
Wan’Dale Robinson (2)

Worst value:

Wan’Dale Robinson (3)
Skyy Moore (2)
Rachaad White (2)

Bust:

Wan’Dale Robinson (6)

Sleeper

Kaiir Elam (4)
Malcolm Rodriguez (3)
Isaiah Likely (2)

Seems like a couple of people liked Wan’Dale Robinson as good value, but most people thought he was a big reach. Rachaad White feels like the interesting one here, getting votes at best value and worst value. Someone also voted for Isaiah Likely at pick 119 as my worst value, which feels like they either thought I had a hell of a draft or didn’t read the question.

The sleeper picks were mildly interesting: Pickett got a vote as best value, but no picks as a sleeper. People did care about Pickett’s tiny hands – 4/9 said that was the pre-draft storyline they actually considered when making picks.

Random draft bits and pieces

There wasn’t any consensus on the biggest surprise. And some disagreement, between “defensive reaches so early in the second” and “it being so offense heavy.” The other comments were:

How far veluss Jones fell. The slating did for him. Bargain
Cook going top 5
No QBs picked for ages
That I didn’t excessively reach for anyone.
Goody blowing up his team for two mediocre RBs

There also wasn’t consensus on the best name. Sauce Gardner got 1.5 votes, but other than that there was only one vote per player: Smoke Monday, C Otton, Tyler Baddie (sic), Romeo Doubs, Snoop Conner, Ty Fryfogle and ZaQuandre White. Lets hope next year is better. A quick skim of a consensus board seems to think it might be: Henry To’oto’o, Habakkuk Baldonado are both in the top 50.

The only pick comment that people actually liked was “I expect Hassan to be Haskins some questions pretty quickly.” Must do better next year folks.

In terms of getting sniped, Tyler Badie was the only person who was mentioned twice as someone you wanted but some fucker picked first (and you are welcome). Props to Slatz for saying that he got sniped on Kyle Hamilton and then still traded Fred Warner to get a 3^rd round pick where he couldn’t take Hamilton.

We’ve been arguing about how to quantify good or bad drafts, and it turns out we don’t really agree on who has been good or bad anyway.

Best drafter in Dbowl history

Chris (3)
Max (2)
Goody (1)
Benj (1)
Can’t remember this draft (2)

Worst drafter

Neil (3)
Slatz (2)
Pete, Mike and Ben & Stew (1)
Don’t want to say (1)

There was an odd consensus here. Simply because no one got votes as best draft and worst drafter. I didn’t check whether anyone voted for themselves. And no one seems to remember Iran drafting at all.

But as we’ve now got 3 years of post-draft surveys, I figured I’d take a look back and see how we rated each other over the last few years. There’s been some impressive consistency: Chris has been 2^nd every year, Mike has been 4^th every year, Iran has finished either 6^th or 7^th.. And some less impressive consistency, as Goody and Benj have each finished in the bottom 3 every year. Pete also has an excellent upwards trend.

Team	2022	2021	2020	Total	Rank
Chris	2	2	2	6	1
Ben & Stew	7=	1	1	9	2
Mike	4	4	4	12	3=
Max	1	6	5	12	3=
Neil	5	3	7	15	5
Pete	3	5	10	18	6
Slatz	7=	9	3	19	7=
Ian	6	7	6	19	7=
Benj	9	8	8	25	9
Goody	8	10	9	27	10

The average total is 16. So above that you’ve been good, below that you’ve been bad. It feels overall like vague tiers of Chris, Ben & Stew, Mike and Max; Neil, Pete, Slatz, Iran; Benj and Goody. You could probably put Neil in either the tier above or below, or just make him a tier of his own. Over the last few years anyway. With the depth of analysis you’d expect, I can’t be bothered to see how that correlates to draft capital. But from memory it has felt like Benj, Goody and Iran haven’t had too many picks and have been rated as drafting badly as a result.

It is amusing that based on our surveys, 2 of us think Benj or Goody are the best drafters, and they have been consistently seen as very bad the last 3 years. And 2 of us think Mike and Ben & Stew have been consistently good recently but are seen as bad. While there’s more agreement that midtable Neil and Slatz have been bad.

But I am the best. That’s the key.

With the sort of talent we have for drafting and also for evaluating the performance of everyone else, you definitely want to rely on our collective pearls of wisdom about it. The only consensus was in “do more research” and “do more prep”. And then we had:

“too much hope in the top 10”
“If you draft the best guys you can be really good”.

Helpful. You want the best players, but also the people you think are definitely good players probably aren’t. But what about this?

“Trade all your picks. Then you can’t fail”
“Do not, under any circumstances, get involved in a draft day trade with any of the followi…” (I have no idea what happened here).

So definitely trade all your picks no matter what, but also don’t trade. And then my favourite:

“It’s a crap shoot and only 2 or 3 of us are any good at shooting those craps. And none of them are Slatz”
“Bet on athleticism, because the misses don’t matter and the hits are massive. Take players you like, it’s not as much fun rooting for dickheads.”

Its a crap shoot, but its also very easy to game. I particularly love the shout-out to Slatz (based on the last 3 years he’s not been good, but he hasn’t been awful) and also that the certainty on display in the latter one seems to be from Slatz.

General Dbowl stuff

I asked who you thought would win the league this year. You picked two favourites: Chris (4) and Iran (3). And then threw in Goody and Benj with 1 vote each as contenders. Essentially, if you made the playoffs last year, you have a chance this year.

3 people said Iran would repeat at the top. 3 people also said Pete would repeat the bottom, following by 2 votes for Mike. Neil, Max, Slatz and Goody also got votes for this shame. So that means that everyone thought Ben and Stew would be solidly mid-table, getting votes in neither category.

7 out of 9 thought the draft was at about the right time, so pencil it in for this time next year folks. And there was equal disagreement about whether we should fucking pick already (4) or drag things out more (3), so you can pencil in next year’s to take around a week.

The most divisive question in the draft was how impressive Ian getting through the whole draft in 0 seconds. The average score was 2.4, but that was made up of 4 ratings of 1 and 4 ratings of 5. So maybe expect some people to prioritise time and some people to not. How insightful.

There wasn’t much consensus on whether we need comp picks: 3 said good riddance to them, 5 said Benj should be ashamed for forgetting them, and one person said a 4^th round pick for whoever pisses off Slatz the most. Expect a rule change submission soon.

And speaking of rule changes: 7/9 said they were open to a rule about creating an exempt list to get rid of players we morally object to. And 4/9 said that they had a rule change to submit. So expect a couple of rule changes coming through soon.

Right, that was long. I should probably give this an edit. I’m not going to though.

Finally, it’s the 2024 DynaBowl Rookie Draft Exit Survey

The 2023 Dynabowl Draft Exit Survey

The 2022 Dynabowl Draft Exit Survey

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