Yahoo Draft Grades – for Posterity and Future Ridicule

So last night we completed the 21st draft in SC League’s history, and as is a recent Yahoo tradition, they gave everyone grades. Based on these grades, they gave the vaunted “Best Grade” moniker to Tim, despite the fact that they gave Dave a higher letter grade…

So, how do they determine these results? It appears to based entirely on how much of a monkey you are. You get points based on where you drafted a player based against that players ADP in leagues using Yahoo’s suggested ratings. Meaning, if you want to get an A, basically all you have to do is take the highest-rated player on the board every pick. #SCIENCE.

So we’ll take a look at these grades, and then revisit the post at the end of the year and see how accurate they were.

As you can see, Dave’s A- is meaningless, as is the 6-way tie of B grades – clearly TIM! is the best behind his “Elite Set of RBs” – a 4-headed RB corps that includes exactly one established star, paired with 2 rookies and a RBBC option who is trying to fill the shoes of Todd Gurley. And I’m not knocking Tim. He had a real nice draft and his team looks pretty balanced – I just question Yahoo’s method here.

Anywho, let’s take a look at some of the more interesting observations from the report cards…

Yahoo is predicting Jason’s Murphy Inn-ies will have the hardest schedule in the league, while TIM! is clocked in with the easiest run to the Trophy. Here is the total ranking, from hardest to easiest. Maybe Jones will stop crying now…

Jason
John
Trigger
Kronner
Matt
Kyle
Steve
Dave
Jones
Tansuche
Mark
Timmy

As for Yahoo’s steals and reaches, ignoring Def. since they don’t know how to compute that obviously, here are some standout picks…

STEALS

Of the 12 “steals” – there were 11 RBs and a WR. Most of these guys are going to be handcuffs or bench guys, but the one that has the best chance of really making a difference is also the first one of them drafted.

Miles Sanders (QAnon) – This is a guy with a first-round grade (RB7 from ESPN), who Mark was able to grab in the 3rd round.

The other guys listed are Sony Michel, Zack Moss, Alexander Mattison, Jordan Howard, Devin Singletary, David Singletary, Marlon Mack, Phillip Lindsay, Latavius Murray, Ronald Jones, and DeSean Jackson.

REACHES

8 of the 12 reaches were IDPs, so we’ll skip over them and see how right they end up on these 4 guys…

Tyler Boyd (Murphy Inn-ines) – Yahoo dragged this pick based on 12 ADP spots, but Boyd was the 27th WR selected, while ESPN has him ranked as WR28, this seems like it’s about the right spot. And knowing that I had 2 picks before Jason was going to get another shot at him, I would have taken Boyd.
DJ Moore (Red Bank Mallrats) – Again, 12 ADP spots before where Yahoo had him, Moore was the 10th WR off the board, and ESPN has him ranked at WE9 – personally, I think he;ll finish higher than 9th…
Tyler Lockett (QAnon) – This time, another WR, but now 13 ADP spots early. Kaiser is getting the championship team back together from last year and snagged Lockett here with the 39th pick (WR14) vs ESPN’s ranking of WR19.
DeVante Parker (TIM!) – 15 spots ahead of ADP, Parker was taken as WR20 (ESPN WR27), Yahoo doesn’t like us taking WRs I guess.

So we’ll revisit all this stuff later in the year and see how Yahoo did.