2021 Draft Recap and Season Outlooks

The 2021 BBL Draft was completed Saturday afternoon on August 28. Eight managers attended the draft in person while all ten managers were online in the draft room. Shoutout to Galen for being on a video call during the draft from D.C.

The First Round

The draft got underway at 2:30pm ET and Jordan Huhn (Amazon Piranhas) wasted no time with their first selection of running back Christian McCaffrey. This is the second consecutive season McCaffrey has been selected first overall. 

Out of the ten first round picks, the first nine taken off the board were running backs, with the final pick of the round being a wide receiver. 

Here are the results of the first-round selections. 

Amazon Piranhas – Christian McCaffrey 

Hipple’s Heroes – Dalvin Cook

All I do is Winston – Derrick Henry

Sahara Sandstorms – Alvin Kamara

Tropical Thunder – Ezekiel Elliot

Philly Special – Saquon Barkley

Everglade Squatches – Jonathan Taylor

GalensWinningWinners – Aaron Jones

Hurts so Good – Nick Chubb 

Tundra Icecaps – Tyreek Hill

No love for WR

As mentioned earlier nine of the first ten picks were running backs. Three more backs were taken in the second round. 

Out of the first 40 picks in the first four rounds, only 11 were wide receivers. This was a low number of receivers taken in the first four rounds in recent memory. 

Yahoo Draft Grades and Season Outlooks

Philly Special (A-)

Philly Special (Erk) is projected at the top of the BBL this season with a 12-2 record. They were the first team to take a quarterback (Patrick Mahomes) but the last manager to draft a tight end (Noah Fant). Unfortunately, fourth round pick JK Dobbins was ruled out for the year with a torn ACL he suffered late Saturday night. Philly Special will need Ronald Jones and Kareem Hunt to fill the void left from the Dobbins injury. Yahoo ranks Philly Special’s strength of schedule as the easiest in the league, so they are hopeful for a second consecutive playoff appearance. Last year Erk finished sixth. 

Hurts so Good (B+)

Hurts so Good (Tim) is led by a duo of Seahawks in Chris Carson and Tyler Lockett and projected to finished second also with a 12-2 record. They took the first tight end off the board in the second round (Travis Kelce) and the first kicker in the thirteenth round (Justin Tucker). Justin Jefferson also returns to this squad as he played a prominent role in last season’s playoff run. Tim had his best finish in the league last season finishing in second place. He is looking for another successful season in 2021.

Amazon Piranhas (B)

Amazon Piranhas (Jordan) is projected to finish fourth this season with a record of 8-6. They have one of the strongest running back rooms in the league with Christian McCaffrey and Antonio Gibson and will lean on them heavily this year. That’s also because they were the last team to draft their first wide receiver, when they took CeeDee Lamb in the fifth round. Take this quote for example, directly from the yahoo report card:

“We’ve heard of Stars-and-Scrubs, but is there such a thing as Scrubs-and-Scrubs? The top players from each position on Amazon Piranhas, as a group, are forecasted to score the fewest points in Books Boss League. Unfortunately, the rest of the roster isn’t any prettier, as those players are expected to combine for a point total ranking as the 3rd lowest.”

Jordan will ride the second easiest strength of schedule into this season, hoping to put last year behind him. Last season Jordan missed the playoffs but finished second in the consolation bracket. 

Everglade Squatches (B)

Everglade Squatches (Ezra) are projected to finish 9-5 with a third-place finish. The Squatches must have become a Raiders fan recently, as they drafted three players from the Raiders (Derek Carr, Josh Jacobs, Kenyan Drake). They will lean on youth, as their roster has an average of 3.9 years in the NFL- good for second youngest team in the BBL. This is mostly because they drafted three rookies (Kyle Pitts, Trey Sermon, DeVonta Smith). They have the fourth easiest schedule this season and will look to make the playoffs once again after finishing fourth last year. 

Tundra Icecaps (B)

Tundra Icecaps (Jack) are projected to finish in seventh place with a 5-9 record. The headline from yahoo reads: Tundra Icecaps might make playoffs but probably not. The yahoo report card woke up and chose violence, using phrases like “collapsed under pressure of draft” and “clearly overmatched” to describe the reigning champion of the BBL. Surely, we can expect more from the Icecaps this year.

The Icecaps could struggle this season at running back as they were the last squad to draft one, taking David Montgomery. The Icecaps also are all in on the Rams this year drafting Matthew Stafford, Sony Michel, Tyler Higbee and the Rams defense. One positive thing going for the Icecaps this season are wide receivers, taking Tyreek Hill and DaVante Adams with their first two picks. Jack is looking to become the first repeat champion of the BBL, as he claimed his first title last season.

GalensWinningWinners (B-)

GalensWinningWinners (Galen) is projected to finish in sixth place with a record of 7-7. They made a smart selection in drafting AJ Dillion to handcuff their first-round pick Aaron Jones, both of which are Packers running backs. GWW was also early to draft a kicker in the thirteenth round, as they drafted the second kicker off the board in Harrison Butker. GWW has the third easiest strength of schedule this season and will look for another strong performance this year. After back-to-back last place finishes in 2018 & 2019, GWW reintroduced themselves to the league with a third-place finish in 2020 scoring the most points overall during last season.

All I do in Winston (C+)

All I do is Winston (Blake) is projected to finish the season at 7-7 and in fifth place. They wanted to make sure they got an elite quarterback early, as they drafted the second quarterback off the board in the second round Josh Allen. They have the fourth toughest strength of schedule this year. Blake will look to improve and make an impact this year after last season where he finished ninth overall despite having NFL MVP Aaron Rodgers on his team. 

Sahara Sandstorms (C)

Sahara Sandstorms (Logan) is projected to finish ninth with a 3-11 record this season. They have no shortage of wide receivers on their roster because they made sure to grab six during the draft. Yahoo ranks them as having the second most difficult schedule in the league while also saying wins will be hard to come by. Last year Logan missed the playoffs but won the consolation bracket. He will look to make his second playoff appearance this year, after announcing that he has once again, rededicated himself to the League.

Tropical Thunder (C-)

Tropical Thunder (Book) is projected to finish last in the BBL with a record of 3-11. Yahoo describes this team as “having the look of a cellar dweller”. The Thunder were the last team to select their first quarterback, doing so in the ninth round drafting Matt Ryan. They actually then spent their next three picks on more quarterbacks in Ryan Fitzpatrick, Trey Lance and Carson Wentz. The Thunder were also the first team to fill their flex position in their roster in the fifth round. Yahoo ranks the Thunder strength of schedule as the most difficult in the league. Book will look to improve on his fifth-place finish last season and certainly hopes to prove the yahoo report card wrong. 

Hipple’s Heroes (C-)

Hipple’s Heroes (Ben) is projected to finish 4-10, good enough for eighth place. They are hoping for a strong connection from Tom Brady and Chris Godwin as they will be rooting for the Buccaneers this season. The Heroes opted for veterans in the draft, as they are the second oldest group in the league with an average of 5.4 years of NFL experience. They have the third most difficult strength of schedule this year. Ben joins the BBL for his first season since 2014, where he finished last.

Grades are courtesy of the yahoo report card, which were released shortly after the draft. 

Other News Around the League

As mentioned, Ben Hipple joins the BBL for the first time in six seasons, after being in the inaugural year of the League back in 2014. His team’s name will be Hipple’s Heroes.

Ben replaces long time manager Nick Martin who retired after last season in 2020. Martin had a career record of 44-64 over seven seasons and his best finish of 3rd place came in 2014. 

Tim Witmer has changed his team’s name to Hurts so Good. Last season Tim went by Wentz upon a Time. 

Blake Martin has changed his team’s name to All I do is Winston. Last season Blake went by Fresh Prince of Helaire. 

Fun Fact

Naturally, when hearing the name Hurts so Good, the popular John Mellencamp song comes to mind, or at least it did to most of the league on draft day. Shockingly enough, Tim had no idea that this song existed when crafting his team’s name. This made for a fun atmosphere when that exact song came on the speaker and Tim didn’t know what was going on.

Stay tuned this season on the website with weekly articles from the league matchups! Good luck to all managers this season!

Cheers!