Rotowire Steak League Roster

One of the Rotowire 'house' fantasy football leagues is the Steak League, where the losers take the winners out for a nice steak dinner at the end of the season. Since I live a few time zones away from most of the other owners I'm exempt from that provision, but it's still a damn competitive and fun league to be in.

We switched from draft to auction this season: 14 teams, $200 cap, normal scoring, 1/2/3 QB/RB/WR with no Flex, plus IDP (one each DL, LB and DB) and the usual TE/K with six bench spots. Here's the roster I ended up with after a three-plus-hour bidding frenzy:

QB: Romo $26; Vince Young $2
RB: Gore $55; Shonn Greene $37; Felix Jones $16; Bernard Scott $3
WR: Bowe $21; Garcon $17; Kenny Britt $7; Donnie Avery $5; James Jones $1
TE: Heath Miller $1; Brandon Pettigrew $1
K: Dan Carpenter $1
DL: Brandon Graham $1
LB: James Laurinaitis $3
DB: Richard Marshall $1

Wide receiver prices were very high, by and large, which is why I ended up with the lackluster WR corps I have, but there's still enough upside in there to make it workable. The flip side of that was that running backs were going a bit cheaper than you might expect, and I was able to roster three viable starters (and three potential studs). If all three can stay healthy, I've got easy trade bait to go get a true #1 wideout.

In this league and other ones with a reasonably-sized bench, I tend to 'punt' taking a backup at any of the secondary positions (TE, K and the IDPs) and load up on RBs and WRs hoping to strike gold, instead spreading out all the bye weeks at those spots so I never need to use more than one bench spot to cover all of them. While I staggered the bye weeks, I ended up taking Miller as insurance in case Pettigrew's recovery from his knee injury is slow. I'll have time before the season starts to cut one or the other of them and take a skill position player with some upside.

The other bit of bye week juggling I do is to make sure my backup QB has a cushy assignment on the week I need him. In this case, the Titans are hosting the Broncos, which isn't too bad. Matt Moore (at New Orleans in what could be a shootout) and Chad Henne (at home against the Pats on Monday night) were my first two choices for the spot, but I got actual competition for both after nominating them and it just wasn't worth going to war over a #2 QB.

Glad I got Brandon Graham though. The more I see of that kid the more I love him. When the first adjective that comes to mind when everyone watches a rookie defensive lineman is "relentless", you know you've got something special.