How To Draft A Fantasy Football Team
What type of player should be at the top of my fantasy football draft board?
I have running backs at the top of my fantasy football draft board. They are the breadwinners of fantasy football. If you go to a fantasy football draft and you're doing it online, I would say maybe the first two rounds - even three rounds - are dominated by running backs. There are a couple of reasons for that. The running backs are the most consistent players week to week. They are also harder to find. There are only so many starting running backs, especially now there are only so many that get all the carries. There are perhaps just 20 in the whole football league. That makes them very valuable in fantasy football. You have to start two every week. They tend to go very fast in the first round or two in your fantasy football draft. I think next off the draft board you want to look at wide receivers. There will be some really top level quarterbacks that will be in the top 40 picks or so, but for the most part, you're going to be looking at running backs and wide receivers as your first four or five picks in fantasy football drafts. After that, you want to make sure that you get a good starting quarterback, and a good starting tight end in the middle of your draft. For the most part, you can save the kickers and the team defenses for the end of the fantasy football draft. In a fifteen round draft, you can save those two positions for the last two or three rounds.
How should I select my players for my fantasy football team?
When selecting your fantasy football players, I think you ought to look for value. That takes a little bit of practice. Basically, you want to look for players that are unnecessarily undervalued. If there are a lot of famous players in your league that get drafted really high, that leaves some unknown players - maybe they've played for a bad team or a not-so-famous team. You can't worry about who's famous or who's on the highlights, or who does what. You just have to worry about their statistics. I think you want to focus on that when drafting a team. It's also good to make a loose plan of what you want to do on draft day before the draft and then stick to it. I think the best thing you can do is be informed. You can know the players inside and out, and that way when they come up, when you're trying to decide between a couple of players, you'll already know which guys you're targeting. It's always good to have a list of players and that way you'll be prepared on draft day to make a good selection for your fantasy football team. In terms of draft strategy, I think it's good to wait, in general, on quarterbacks and tight ends, and kickers and defenses even later. The reason for that is position scarcity. It's a little complicated, but basically, you only need one starting quarterback, and there are 32 in the league. There are only 12 teams in your fantasy football league. It's really easy to find a couple of good starting quarterbacks during the draft. You can wait until the middle of your draft and still find a couple of good ones. I find that's the same for tight ends. That's not the same for running backs and wide receivers because you have to start more of those - you have to start two running backs and three wide receivers. I think that's why I like to load up on those positions at the beginning of every fantasy football draft.
What type of research should I do in preparation of my fantasy football draft?
The first research you should do for your fantasy football draft is to follow the football news as much as you can on an everyday basis. A guy that's ranked really high in a magazine you buy in the middle of the summer might blow out his knee, and then he obviously is not someone you want to draft. You want to follow the news every day, maybe on a site like ESPN, Rotoworld or NBC. Before you draft, I also think it's a good idea to look at some rankings done by fantasy football writers. I'm one of those writers, so I'll make my rankings - I'll rank who are the best running backs, the best wide receivers, the best quarterbacks. You can go to a number of different fantasy football sites - not just the one I work for, but ESPN, Fox, NBC, etc. - and you find out who the highest ranked fantasy players are, which can at least give you a guide to drafting. I would not follow my advice word for word, because it's your own team and you need to decide what you need to do, but at least it gives you a guide and a framework to work from. Other than that, I think the main thing to do before a draft is to keep track of strategy articles, and keep track of who's hurt and who's not; injuries are very important in fantasy football.
What are some common drafting mistakes made by first-time fantasy football owners?
I think not being informed is probably mistake number one in fantasy football drafting. You want to know who is the starting running back for each team, and maybe someone's going to take a guy who got cut or is a backup or is out of the league. Another common mistake is with injury concerns. If someone's really hurt, and they're going to miss five weeks, you often see the first-time fantasy football player, who doesn't really know everything, drafting that injured player. Another strategy mistake, I think, is someone that takes a quarterback or kickers and team defenses, particularly, too early in the draft. They want to get all their positions filled. It's really not necessary to take them in the first few rounds of the fantasy football draft.
What type of offensive statistics should I look for when drafting my fantasy football team?
The first offensive statistics I look at are receiving yards, rushing yards, passing yards and touchdowns. Those are the most important statistics that you're going to find for fantasy football. I almost like yards statistics just a little bit better then touchdowns because they tend to be more consistent every year. If you have a wide receiver that gets 1200 yards every single season, he's going to score for you. Touchdowns can go up and down a little more, but obviously there very, very important, so you want to look for running backs that score more than 10 touchdowns, wide receivers that score more then 7 or 8 touchdowns and quarterbacks that throw for more than 25 touchdowns. In terms of the kickers, look for whoever's on a good offense, whoever scores the most points. For team defense, choose players for your fantasy football team who prevent the most points, and you can also look to see who gets the most sacks.
What type of players should I draft for my bench in fantasy football?
When drafting for your bench in fantasy football , you want guys that play. That's the most important thing. I think people overlook that. You want to get guys that are starters on their team. There are only so many starters around the league. You just want to build depth in your fantasy football team. If you happen to have taken some risks with your starter, maybe take some consistent veterans as your back-ups, guys that are very reliable every year. Towards the end of the draft, you might want to look for some younger players, with what is termed really high upside: they haven't really proven it before, but they have potential to really explode. I think with your last couple picks of the fantasy football draft, when you're building depth, maybe go for a home run. Go for a guy that someone's been calling a sleeper, that maybe a website you read said could really break out this year and have a monster season. That's what I like to use for the last few picks of the day.