Karma and a Kicker: The 2015 Super-16 Draft

“With karma and a kicker.”  That’s how Who Dat’s Coach Melissa proposes to capture the 2015 Super-16 Championship.

The S-16 draft was held this past Sunday, and, if you’re unfamiliar with the format, this AF league is filled with 16 teams, representing 16 NFL clubs with the keepers of their choice from the NFL team they represent.  It uses formation offense and IDP with defensive scoring balanced against offensive so that players from both sides of the ball are equally important.  At the draft, teams can then fill out their rosters with the studs from the other 16 NFL teams, creating a league where each team has theoretically twice as much talent as the teams in the NFL.

When Coach Mel showed up late to the draft, she found that the computer was kind enough to autopick a kicker for her in the first round.  As several other coaches proceeded to engage in some good-natured smack talk about her misfortune, the Who Dat’s coach uttered the best line of the draft: she’s going to beat us all “with karma and a kicker.”  There’s a good chance her strategy may go wide right however, as it seems the kicker she was auto-drafted, Buffalo’s Dan Carpenter, appears in danger of losing his job after a horrible preseason.  Those Aints just can’t catch a break.

The Who Dats weren’t alone in their draft day kicker strategy, as two other no-shows, BIGDOGINTEX and 2014 S-16 Champion BEARMINATORS both also had kickers auto drafted for them in the first round….this ‘kicker first’ strategy just may catch on.

Beyond the kicker storyline, it was a rather intrigueing draft.  The way things fell this year, 8 of the consenses top 10 FF players were available in the draft, and teams didn’t hesitate to pounce on them.  Adrian Peterson went first overall to the expansion 1 Eye Til I Die – imagine, AP in the Black and Silver.  Marshawn Lynch lasted till 10th overall and will play – ironicly – for BowMen’s 49ers, while Aaron Rogers was the first QB off the board at 14th overall, selected by H-Town’s Foster Kids – now that would solve all of the Texans’ quarterback problems.

Teams seemed to like the philosophy that defense wins championships, as the defensive studs started to come off the boards in round 2, ahead of players like Charles Johnson and Jonathon Stewart who went 1 and 2 at the start of the 3rd.  In all, 4 defenders were drafted in the 2nd, 5 in the 3rd, and 7 in the 4th.

Quarterbacks were popular as well, besides Rogers going to the Texans, 2015 will see Russel Wilson playing for the Brown’s Dawg Pound and Peyton wearing the green and white of Geno’s Jaw Breakers.  In a trio of surprising picks, Big Ben is now a Dolphin, Blake Bortles a Lion, and the Brother Eli will back up Andrew Luck on the Indy-structibles squad.

The S16 East may be the division to watch this season.  The cloud of suspension over the Ice Cold Bruschi’s QB is gone; the Northern Fins and Geno’s Jaw Breakers each seemed to have two of the strongest overall draft classes of the day; and, after taking last year’s #2 overall running back Le’Veon Bell (to pair with last year’s #1 who arrived in Philly via trade) with their first pick, The Eagle Has Landed took Maclin and D-Jax with picks 2 and 3, putting the boys all back together again and creating a Super-Eagle squad.  We’ll soon find out, as The Eagle Has Landed will face two-time champion Birds of Prey in Week 1’s Game of the Week.  The wait has been long and tortuous, but football is finally back.