Fantasy football overview

Over the next couple days I am going to be doing some post about fantasy football ranging from basic strategy to rankings at each position. I don't want to call myself an expert because i'm not but I do have a great interest in sports and more than a passing knowledge of statistics so that qualifies me as a fantasy football expert. Watch out Matthew Berry.

From my perspective there is no better way to kick off the fantasy season than getting your league together and doing a snake draftwith everyone in the same room. The point is to have fun but you don't want to make a fool of yourself. Hopefully this overview keeps you from being the league dummy.

(Sidenote no matter how bad your draft is you can recover in the waiver wire and in smart trades so don't panic.)

Now the most important thing is to pay attention to who has been picked and who is on the clock. There is nothing worse than the guy who has no clue who is on the board still and that it is his turn. If you find yourself picking players already gone or worse on your roster you might want to consider picking up extra snacks so your league invites you back next year.

Now to actually drafting lots of people get freaked out about who they are picking in the first and 2nd round. Mr. Berry is going to post an article soon that says the majority of your points are going to come from these picks but the catch is even through these should be the best players on your team this is not where you win the season. Yes you can lose the season with thiese picks but you can't win it. That being said the focus should be getting 2 players that are going to be high floor guys not super flashy players that are boom and bust. Think singles and doubles in the first round.

The time to swing for the fences it at the end of the draft. On your bench if there are two players you are split on and one you think has top 10 position upside but a floor of outside the top 60, vs a player you are confident will be a 35-45 player go with the boom or bust guy. The logic is simple a bench player who is going to finsh as the 35 guy may only have 2 weeks where he is worth the start and is going to never get off the bench. If the other player is going off he is a guy that can win the league by providing your roster another start worthy player or a trade chip to strengthen a eeakened position. Take the player who can impact your team the most weeks.

The next important lesson is to recognize position scarcity and the difference between the top of the position vs the bottom starter. At the QB position for example the bottom stater would be qb 12. Now the qb position tends to cluster around the middle so there is not going to be much difference between QB 5 and QB 17. That's why generally qbs are not drafted in the first round since a later qb scores closer to the players than other positions. Now each league is different and if your in a 2 qb all tds 6 points you might value qbs more. The key to understanding this is understanding your own league rules. Take a look at the league scoring page from last year and see where the clusters exist.

Generally looking at this the difference between positions is as follows:
RB
WR
TE
QB
DEF
KIC

The RB and WR have larger spreads because you play multiple of these players at the same. Generally 2 at each plus a flex. The other positions generally see only 1 at the spot.

That leads to one thing everyone should know by now. Pick your kicker and defense in the last two rounds. 1 these positions are hard predict year to year and 2 there is not much difference between the top and bottom at the position.

Some people say the key to a good draft is knowing the people in your draft. If an owner also drafts WR early and often you may want to consider grabbing one before they pick at the end of a round. These small details can be the difference between grabbing the player you want and missing out.

The point is to have fun so draft a team that you will enjoy rooting for. If you hate the bears don't draft Mitch Trubisky. Also if your a big fan of a team it may be best to avoid them or target them depending on how you would react to them beating you. Enjoy yourself and don't take it too seriously.

That's a basic overview on how not to make a fool of yourself and enjoy the draft. I'll cover some more in depth stuff as the week goes on.