Managing A Fantasy Football Team

What tools should I use to play well in fantasy football?

The internet is the best place now. I mean, you can watch the pregame shows on Sunday and those are fun. And you can watch Sports Center during the week. It's not going to hurt. But the internet is the fastest way. You can go get news where I work at RotoWorld, NBC Sports.com. You can go to ESPN. There are so many sites, you can just pick one that's your favorite. Message boards are also a good way to get advice from other owners. That's a great resource, I think. There's just so much information out there. That's one thing you don't really have to worry about. It's all about how much you want to get and I recommend if you want to win, just keep, spend a little bit of time each day.

How does 'trading' work in fantasy football?

Trading works in fantasy football with twelve teams in your fantasy football league, where you can trade pretty much anyone you want to another owner in your fantasy football league. So this is where maybe a lot of strategy comes in, and if you didn't have a great draft day this is how you can improve your fantasy football team. Or if you had a really good draft day and you have a ton of good players, say you have four or five really good running backs, that's a great problem to have because you can trade one of those running backs to someone else in your fantasy football league to help you at a position. Maybe you need help if you need a wide receiver. So basically you want some stragey involved in your fantasy football league, you want to sell high and you want to buy low. If a guy is playing a little better than you think he really is you might want to trade him to a guy on another fantasy football team who's a proven great player but is not playing quite as well this year. Basically this is where a lot of strategy becomes involved. You can try to trade a couple of players for one really good player from another fantasy football team, I always recommend that. I always trade debt for a superstar, because it's those superstars that win fantasy football games.

When should I trade one of the players on my fantasy football team?

You should trade one of the players on your fantasy football team if you think he's playing over his head, that's one way to do it. If a guy is so hot that you think he's just getting lucky, that's one way to trade him. Another one is if you kind of see his schedule coming up looking very difficult. Say he's been the best player in the whole league in the first half but his schedule is all of a sudden getting very difficult, that's another time to trade him. If you hear some rumors that maybe he's going to get benched, and you see in the news that his coaching staff aren't too happy with him, maybe the guy you're trading to knows that, but maybe he doesn't. It's up to you if you think you're taking advantage of him. but it's not the worst thing in the world to do. Even if you see something kind of coming in the future, as maybe he's injury prone or kind of hurt, then again that's time to get rid of him from your fantasy football league.

Why is preseason important in fantasy football?

When managing a fantasy football team, it's mostly important pre-season to see where players are on a depth chart. Find out who's starting, who's not starting and who's hurt. That's the most important thing. That's going to decide who's the main running back, and who's the back-up running back, sometimes. What pre-season is not important for is the stats that you see in pre-season. A lot of people playing fantasy football get really carried away with a guy that gets a hundred yards a game in pre-season. This just doesn't make a difference because the conditions are so different, and the players aren't trying their best, so you just can't read too much into pre-season stats. The main thing in fantasy football is to see who's healthy and who's starting.

Why is 'strength of schedule' important in fantasy football?

The strength of schedule is important when managing a fantasy football team, because each week the match up for every player is so different. Some players are going to have really hard schedules. Some players are going to have really easy schedules. One thing I would warn about, though, is projecting who has the hard schedule and who has the easy schedule before the football season starts, because that's very tough to determine. The NFL is an unpredictable sport and you don't necessarily know who's good and who's bad. I think when the strength of schedule really comes into play is maybe four or five games into the season. From then on, you can see who are the good defensive teams and who are the bad defensive teams, and that can help you make trades in your fantasy football team, if you see someone that has a tough schedule coming up. That will really help you make your line-up decisions: If someone has a really tough match coming up, they're playing against a team that's number one against the run, maybe you want to think about sending your running back. I would definitely wait until about a month into the football season to see how it all shakes out and see how the good defenses are.

Why are 'coaching changes' important in fantasy football?

I think coaching changes are one of the most underrated aspects of fantasy football. I change my rankings so much in the off-season based on who the coaches are. That is because every coach has a different system. Some football coaches are really into defense and playing a ball control, ground control game, and that means their running backs are going to get a lot of carries. Some coaches love to air it out, like Mike Martz. Wherever he's at, his quarterbacks and his wide receivers are going to do really well. The west coast offense is a system where receivers tend to be a little better and a little more consistent. They get more catches; it's definitely a passing based offense and the running backs might not be quite as good. Coaching changes are something that takes a little bit of expertise and homework when managing a fantasy football team. Perhaps read some fantasy football articles online, but it really depends on coaching style, if some teams play really fast like the Bengals or the Colts. Those are football teams that traditionally score a lot of points. They're going to score more fantasy football points. Some teams like to grind it out and they're into the running. They're not going to score as much.

What tasks do I need to stay on top of in fantasy football?

The first task to stay on top of when managing your fantasy football team is checking and setting your line-up. I think that's probably the one thing that hurts fantasy football owners the most. Maybe they just forget to check their line-up, or they set it out on a Wednesday, but a player can get hurt. If at all possible, checking Sunday morning is a great idea. If you don't have time to, check you fantasy football line-up as close you can get to Sunday morning. That's one task to stay on top of. Number two is picking up players every week on the waiver wire. Even if you don't pick up someone, just look to see who's out there. There are probably going to be times during the year when there are some guys off the waiver wire that have come out of nowhere and they're just fantastic - they're going to go right into your fantasy football starting line-ups. You want to stay on top of that. Whenever your waivers run, you at least want to look and see who's available and consider making a couple of moves. Those are pretty much the main tasks - just setting your line-ups and looking at the waiver wire. Other than that, you can make trades when managing a fantasy football team, but that's up to you.

What are some tips that I can utilize to win my fantasy football league?

To win your fantasy football league, one tip is to stay on top of it. Always stay active in terms of trading and taking advantage of value. Never consider your roster a finished product. It should always be moving. You should always be improving your roster. If you're 4 and 0, keep trying to improve the last guy on your fantasy football roster. Eventually it may help you. Eventually you may be able to trade him. One thing, I think, is fantasy football players take the guys in drafting, and they just stick with them all season. I think it's good to try to improve your roster throughout the season.