Below is a 2009 Fantasy Football Draft (Expert League) that we are currently in the middle of. This fantasy football league, not fantasy mock, consists of some solid fantasy football informational Sites. We usually get heavily involved in trading in some leagues, in order to put our trade advice to the tests, and then in other leagues we do not trade at all. We advise fantasy owners on both draft day approaches, so we test drive both fantasy football draft strategies for your viewing pleasure. In this particular fantasy football draft, we traded. We traded a lot. Our goal in this draft was to trade away much of our middle-round depth to stock up on big guns. If this is also your draft strategy of choice heading into the 2009 fantasy football season, we recommend that you keep tabs on our 2009 Fantasy Football Player Spotlights… this is where you can find our waiver wire advice and our list of players On-The-Rise and On-The-Decline.

This is a PPR format (scoring here) and the line-up requirements consist of: 1QB, 2RB, 3WR, 1TE, 1DST, 1K.

Our current roster through six rounds: Frank Gore, Brian Westbrook, Randy Moss, Terrell Owens, Braylon Edwards

As you can see, we have done a lot of trading up to make our line-up rich with top dogs. We even have a seventh-round pick, which will be used to land a quarterback. Our tight end will be a bargain grab later on in this draft, as the cost of trading up will now catch up with us and we will be left without a draft selection for quite some time… but the trading up is well worth it with our line-up above. Randy Moss could be top five this year in PPR formats, and the Brian Westbrook/LeSean McCoy combo will prove to be a top 5-10 fantasy back on 16 starts in this type of scoring format. Terrell Owens and Braylon Edwards have their share of risks heading into 2009, but both are fantastic PPR WRs to have behind Moss (and we start 3WRs and 2RBs in this league). Frank Gore is a big-time sleeper of ours this year. The 26 year-old is very underrated at the age of 26 and is falling into the beginning of the second-round in some early drafts we’ve seen. Steal. Gore has top five overall upside in all leagues and formats this season. We will talk more about the values of a lot of these guys in a coming article, so stay tuned for that. Here are the first six rounds of this draft.

Follow this draft in full here.

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Edwards has his risks, as stated above. Owens too, but man I love that roster!

Note: I just traded my 9th and 12th for a late 7th so that I can grab a QB.

Landing a strong QB, vs what would have been a weak late grab, this team will be tough to beat if healthy.

McCoy is KEY to getting that RB1 type production out of Westbrook's slot!

Gambler said:

yeah…need McCoy for sure….I'm a huge Westy guy but that surgery scares me.  Get both and you'll only have to worry about philly always listing Westy as questionable for 15 weeks this year (like always).

Get your QB then maybe try for Orton late (I've got him in the 11th twice).  Just got a feelig he'll be a real suprise with all the throwing he will have to do this year.  Should be a good backup.

Good stuff, Gambler.

Line-up thus far:

QB1: Matt Ryan

RB1: Frank Gore

RB2: Brian Westbrook/McCoy

WR1: Randy Moss

WR2: Terrell Owens

WR3: Braylon Edwards

TE1: _____________

Yes, we traded away just about all of our middle-round selections, but that's the price you pay to get this kind of line-up in a PPR format and still have 7 picks in the first 7 rounds, with our first three picks being in the top 17 overall.

This strategy isn't for everyone, and we will have almost no depth (out of the draft), but this team, if you follow it, will show how our Player Spotlight Feature can build you your depth if you just grab the waiver wire guys we pimp.

omahabrad said:

This is going to be an interesting draft to watch.  I Think this strategy is going to backfire on you.  you don't have another pick for eight rounds.  Sorry to be negative but I don't see how this team will compete if there is any injuries to your starters.  Good Luck and I hope you are spot on with your Player Spotlights.

It's just one of many "Xtreme" draft strategies. We plan to prove that any path taken can deliever a winning squad. We mostly employ this aggressive, yet insane-like, strategy in dynasty/keeper drafts, but we thought we'd roll with it in a redraft format.

If you think this is too extreme in dynasty/keeper formats, just take a look at our squad thus far in the Dirty Dozen Expert Keeper League:

This is a PPR keeper league (but only 1 point per 4 receptions for rushers)… WRs are PPR. Adrian Peterson is ours for another two years at the cost of a 2nd rounderand Wells is a 2nd round keeper as well for 3 years after this year. So next year we can just trade our third rounder into the second round and we still keep our first round pick next year.

…and we just drafted both Bernard Scott and James Davis, both will be 13th rounders for three more seasons after this year.

This style of trading isn't for everyone, but I love rolling the dice with a bunch of middle round picks like Donald Driver and Jamaal Charles if it means I can upgrade all my WRs into at least a Terrell Owens-type.

Tophington said:

Hey Smitty it looks like you also have 11! picks in the last 3 rounds could go into a litlle more detail about the actual trades that were made to help gauge the kind of value I could get by trading away middle and late round draft picks for early round picks. It would be much appreciated.

I did a lot of 2 for 1s all the way down. Basically, I traded a 4.02 (Ryan Grant) and 6.02 (Thomas Jones) for 2.05 (Brian Westbrook) and 10th (which is TBA but could be a Leon Washington, Hightower, McGahee, Roethy is still on the board….

It all started with that pick, so I moved my 4th to the 2nd (and feel Westy is a steal if you get McCoy)… then I lose my 6th, but again we're talking Thomas Jones like and I'm ok with losing that given a 10th would buy a Hightower or McGahee, etc. Granted we traded our 10th too, as well as a plethora of our other middle rounders, but again, I'm not concerned (in this draft, as we are trying out a strategy of trading all depth to get a power line-up) about losing the Donald Drivers, etc.

If all I'm doing is downgrading my Driver to a Austin Miles, and my LenDale White to a James Davis, I have no worries at all. There are some gems in the middle rounds, but I have to be honest when I say I'd rather waiver wire and late-round draft my bench if it means beefing up my line-up like we have. Not everyone likes Westbrook and Edwards, so some may not see our line-up as beefed up at all, but I'm a big fan of both and this line-up is just plain sick in a PPR IMO:

QB1: Matt Ryan

RB1: Frank Gore

RB2: Brian Westbrook/McCoy

WR1: Randy Moss

WR2: Terrell Owens

WR3: Braylon Edwards

TE1: _____________