Fantasy Football Draft
This is the time when you build your team. This is
your opportunity to laugh at your opponents who pick injured
players. This is your chance to find gems in the 7th round who
outperform players picked in the 3rd. In other words: don’t
screw it up! Let’s go over some advice that you should
follow on fantasy football draft day: 1.
Bring your own cheat sheets! I can’t stress this enough.
So many people use the fantasy rankings that their draft software
uses (a la Yahoo), without noticing that they have not updated
it to reflect recently injured players. Also, your fantasy
scoring system is not reflected in pre-made rankings. If your
receivers gain one point for each reception, that will have
a huge effect on the placement of possession receivers. Use
the given rankings as a starting point, but alter them to
reflect injuries and scoring systems.
2. In a local fantasy league? Don’t
draft your local players. It’s a natural tendency for
fans to overrate players on their favorite teams, so if your
league is based in St. Louis, you would probably have to overpay
to draft guys like Bulger or Holt. Hype them up the weeks
before your draft while conversing with the other owners,
and then sit back and laugh when your favorite player gets
picked three rounds too early.
3. Serve lots of alcohol at the draft…and
don’t touch it! Watch your buddies confuse Luke Staley
with Duce Staley, while you remain unimpaired. It's no fun
seeing two of everything while trying to find someone on your
cheat sheet. Although most will be fine after a couple drinks,
it’s simply not worth the risk. Any slight advantage
you can gain is worth it, and if just one owner accidentally
skips over a player because of the alcohol, you’ve done
your job. Remember owners, don’t drink and draft!
4. Keep track of everyone’s picks. Online,
this shouldn’t be a problem, because your fantasy drafting
service will likely do it for you, but it may be a difficult
task in a live draft. However, it’s worth the troubles.
You may be thinking, why bother? Simply, it gives you the
ability to pass on certain players you know will be available
later. For example, let's say you’re picking 8th in
a 10-man league. You are ready to take a kicker, but there’s
also a deep-sleeper RB on the board. By looking at your notes,
you notice that the guys with the 9th and 10th picks have
already taken kickers, and would have no reason to pick another.
Therefore, you can safely take the sleeper RB, confident that
your kicker will be there when the draft swings back around.
Although this isn’t the complete guide
to building a championship team, these simple tips will give
you the edge, which might just score you a few key players
that might eventually make a huge difference. Expect four
more quality fantasy drafting tips later in the summer. |
