One Dozen Tried and Proven Ideas for a Great Draft

[madd futher mucker 36]

I usually refer to early August as the time when the fantasy football “swallows” return to Capistrano (AKA the FFToday Bored). That makes it time to again roll out some great ideas for a successful draft. Last year I mentioned 10 ideas. Many of you will remember that post and will know I'm recycling here. So for you, and based on last year's feedback from the “bored”, this year I expanded the list to a dozen.

 

1. Be prepared. Be organized with any data or drafting aids you will use at your draft. Consolidate information as much as possible to keep it cleaner and simpler. Bring highlighters and other supplies you may need. Do your homework ahead of time including enough mocking to feel comfortable with your draft position (I personally don't feel the need to do too many mocks).

 

2. Know your league rules and know your scoring system. Know them inside and out. Can you trade draft picks? Are there any uniques scoring features? If there is a flex position, what are the rules? The answers to these questions can make a huge difference in your over-all strategy and who you select. Consider roster size as well when considering positional scarcity. We are talking about game theory here.

 

3. Be flexible. Being flexible means that in any round you can take any position. If your first three rounds go RB, WR, QB, for instance, what do you need in the 4th round? The answer is the best available player. Then what do I need in the 5th? Again, the best available player. If value falls to you at wide receiver, scoop it up. If a tier 2 running back falls, grab him.

 

4. Tier players within positions - Tiering is the best way to quickly identify relative value, both within and between positions (I call this horizontal and vertical tiering).

 

5. Identify players to target and players to avoid. These are the players that have average draft positions either much earlier or later than what you think their actual value may be, or in later rounds, players with low floors but high upsides. It pays to clearly identify in advance the players you will not draft even if they fall several rounds below their ADP.

 

6. Know your league and their drafting tendencies. Who is likely to take a QB in the 1st round? Know what your other owners' favorite teams are. Some owners are biased towards picking players and "sleepers" from their local teams based on "excessive" knowledge, hype, or research. Use that to your advantage.

 

7. Track your opponent’s rosters as the draft progresses. This might be the best little-known drafting tip there is. You often will get an idea of who is likely to fall to you and who is not likely to fall to you in the next round. Take the best player available that you are pretty sure will not be there later. For instance, If you're picking at 6.10 and 7.03, look at the rosters of the owners who will pick in between. What positions are they likely to pick based on who they already have rostered so far? This is the time to put aside your draft sheet and creatively use your reasoning power to maximize the value of your roster.

 

8. Don’t be a slave to "Average Draft Position" in making your picks. You'll want to KNOW every player’s ADP but you never want to draft from an ADP list or use ADP as a primary drafting criteria. Use it only as a rough reference to where a player is most likely to go. If anything, if you feel a player is the best value and is one of your targets, draft AHEAD of his ADP or you won’t get him. Using average draft position as a primary basis for your draft decision-making will result in just having an average draft.

 

9. Don't get caught up in position runs. Always strongly consider taking another position rather than taking a player too early because there is a run on a position. Never take a player in a lower tier because of a run on the position.

 

10. Don’t be overly influenced by bye weeks. Except for your back-up QB, balancing bye weeks is not as good an idea as taking the best available player. You can always trade. When in doubt, instead of considering bye weeks as your tie-breaker, go with the guy who is in the better offense, or has the better schedule. IMO when deciding between two players, the best tie-breaker of all is the player with the best PLAY-OFF schedule, because if you follow all these ideas, you are likely to be in it - and what good is making the play-offs if you don’t plan on winning it all?

 

11. There is only ONE reason to draft a kicker before the last round of your draft. The 12th best kicker won’t get you that many more fantasy points than the top kicker (assuming that you can predict with any accuracy who will even be that top kicker - which is Mission Impossible anyway.) So what’s the one reason not to draft a kicker in the last round? When you league rules allow you not to draft a kicker at all. Yesterday, I drafted Eddie Royal and Eric Decker as the two last players on my roster. They are in a real camp battle for the WR#2 spot. I have up until the day before the opener starts to figure out who will win that camp battle. Only at that point will I drop one of them and pick up my kicker.

 

12. I mentioned that now is the time that the swallows return to Capastrano. Don’t be one of the swallows. This advice most often is what separates the Champions from the also-rans. The successful fantasy players treat fantasy football as if there is no off-season. They continue to actively research, follow the NFL draft, the camps, and the entire pre-season right up until the day of the draft. After the draft, they actively and aggressively manage their roster right up until the last day of the season. And they don’t even stop there. They’re taking notes of which players broke out during the NFL play-offs that could be the foundation their next year’s sleeper picks.

 

Feel free to add to the list, and have a great draft. Best of luck this fantasy year. - mfm

[Evil Genius 0]

#13 - Drink marginally less beer than the average Owner at the Draft.

 

#14 - Don't let others borrow or work off your (highly marked and notated) cheat sheets

 

#15 - Sneak in a little trash about the late round picks you actually hope to snatch up, and when you snag them, say "well, I guess somebody has to take X...I will endure the pain".

[msudavedawg 5]

#13 - Drink marginally less beer than the average Owner at the Draft.

 

#14 - Don't let others borrow or work off your (highly marked and notated) cheat sheets

 

#15 - Sneak in a little trash about the late round picks you actually hope to snatch up, and when you snag them, say "well, I guess somebody has to take X...I will endure the pain".

 

Definitely #14. Despise those chumps that try to cash in on all your hard earned research when they haven't looked at one mag or FF website.

 

Would also add:

 

#16 - When your friend informs you on the day of the draft party that he can't make it and asks, "Will you draft my team for me?" you answer him with a firm, "Hells No!"

 

#17 - Mock heavily. I'm not talking about mock drafts. I mean when someone spends the #2 overall pick on Steven Jackson you mock the ever livin' crap out of them the rest of the night. Someone takes a TE in the 3rd round, you talk up that they picked the wrong TE for the next 3 rounds. Someone takes a kicker too early, you start discussing great kickers from past drafts. Hell, mock the bad picks they made the year before that everyone still remembers. Never underestimate the power of getting into someone's head during the draft. Make them focus on the bad picks they made so they will keep making them and leave better players for you.

[Evil Genius 0]

if you are the Commish,

 

#18 Commish tip i)...have the Draft not at your house but at a bar or restaurant. Less to clean up, before and after. Nobody drinks your booze, eats your grub, annoys your wife or riles up your dog. Try to find a place with a private area or room.

 

#19 - Commish tip ii) get a cute sticker/Draft Board girl with an assertive personality. Have her call 'time' on guys, instead of you. Since she's cute, and obviously female, no one will say ### to her when she lays down the law. Tell her to call 'time' whenever there is a significant pause, and give one minute after that. Things will go smoothly and quickly. Have everyone chip in $2 to buy her a little something, and she'll likely do it again next year.

 

#20 - Commish tip iii) have all Owners fill out Draft cards - recipe index cards work great - and have them put all possible contact information on them. Cell phones, e-mail. These cards are a good double check against the Board, and you can keep these handy for the season at your computer desk.

 

#21 - Commish tip iv) if they refuse to pay up at the Draft, but you are going to cut them slack anyway, simply inform them that they cannot Add/Drop or Trade until such time as their fees are square. They will pay.

[gregzeetheking 0]

 

 

#21 - Commish tip iv) if they refuse to pay up at the Draft, but you are going to cut them slack anyway, simply inform them that they cannot Add/Drop or Trade until such time as their fees are square. They will pay.

 

 

I like this one

[wicked joe 0]

3. Be flexible.

 

Don't stick to any rules. You know what you are doing or you don't.

 

Nice list. Good read.

[IronToe Nedney 0]

It's the salmon who return to Capistrano, Harry.

 

[Jarvis Basnight 119]

If there is a player you really believe in, take him a round earlier than you think he should be taken. ADP and value drafting means nothing once football starts. The only thing that matters is winning.

[PackYourNut 47]

STRIPPERS! To put the names on the big board!

[Frozenbeernuts 1,654]

If there is a player you really believe in, take him a round earlier than you think he should be taken. ADP and value drafting means nothing once football starts. The only thing that matters is winning.

 

The season that roddy, rice, turner all had their breakout years i waited a litle too long and lost out. Last year in all 4 of my drafts and i jumped on the breakouts i had pegged leading to a successful campaign overall.

[plasma george 52]

I usually refer to early August as the time when the fantasy football “swallows” return to Capistrano (AKA the FFToday Bored).

What you just call me ?

[Evil Genius 0]

If there is a player you really believe in, take him a round earlier than you think he should be taken. ADP and value drafting means nothing once football starts. The only thing that matters is winning.

 

The above is:

 

#22 Don't be afraid to reach for a player if you are confident.

 

Adding further to the list:

 

#23 For the Draft and beyond, try to scour multiple information sources. If you are on CBS, especially, it's easy to get lazy and accept their player-information as current and accurate. It often isn't. Develop a consensus-type opinion from various sources. Then, go with your gut.

 

#24 Play in a league with the right kind of stakes for your pocketbook and mentality. Too little at stake, you will not care. Too much at stake, you will second guess yourself. Play for the right amount.

 

#25 Get in a league where you trust the Commish, if not every Owner. The right guys, whether experienced or green, cut-throat or for laughs - you will know when you feel right about it. There are way too many leagues out there to be wasting your time playing with dishonourable a-holes.