Brisco_County
Apples and roadmaps
Everyone in my FFL lives in Houston. They know the Texans. Foster wouldn't have lasted until rd 5. Andre Johnson went EARLY in round one. Schaub went as one of the top five. I doubt that would have happened in a league full of yankee types.
Yesterday I got Foster in the 3rd (someone with a draft tool was targeting him early), today I got him in the 5th. If my old roommate wasn't targeting him just to spite me, I could've gotten him in the 7th today.
This is going to sound crazy, but it was part of a bigger strategy: I had the #1 pick in our league, so I took Andre. Not being a homer, it's just that AJ is alone in tier 1, then the dropoff to tier 3 is huge, while there is plenty of value in later rounds for RB's. I hoarded receivers and took value picks on RB's. I ended up with AJ, DeSean Jackson, and Roddy White (passed on Fitz because of his QB). RB's were Jonathan Stewart, Foster, Spiller, LT, Donald Brown, and Ivory. One of those will pay off big, so I don't care about passing on Chris Johnson or Peterson.
I only play in leagues with non-Houstonians so they never know our players at all. A lot of them still consider Slaton our #1 RB.
Other than AJ and Schaub, I get so much mid to late round value out of Texans players because the national media pretty much ignores them. Even in IDP leagues, Mario, Cushing, and Pollard are passed on despite high projections.