Serious Draft Strategy

Before I get started, let me warn you; this stuff can get complicated. If you don't spend a lot of time thinking about football, fantasy football, math or combinations of those three things, you may get a headache.

I will separate this into smaller chunks to make it more digestable. I will also be using other peoples work to help explain this. I learned it by reading their stuff, so why reinvent the wheel?

If I don't credit the orginators of this material I apologize. I will try, and I don't mean to steal your intellectual property.

Oh, and I may not get all the math right, or the applications of the math. I'm a fantasy football player, not a statistician. Not that the top fantasy players aren't statisticians (a lot are)

A Common Way to Draft

Here is a common draft theory.

The Stud Running Back Draft: This is one of the more popular ways to draft a team. Since there are about 20 viable fantasy starters in the whole NFL, there will be more players drafted than are worth it. Running back is probably the most vital position in fantasy football. Basically, you will draft two running backs first. No matter what. After that you fill in the rest of your starters. Pros; You have a better chance of getting two top 10 RB's than most other teams. Cons; There is a good possibility you will miss out on the top quarterbacks and top wide receivers. You might get the 9th and 10th best backs. That's not a good return on your investment. Especially if someone gets the top back and the 11th back, but picks them four rounds apart.

This draft style doesn't really plan for the rest of the draft. So what would you do after this? Just follow a cheatsheet? Okay, if that's what you want, but next I'll show you how really serious players play.

The Two Worst Ways to Draft

These are the worst ideas for fantasy drafting. Next post will cover a better idea for drafting, then I'll talk about the way I do things.

The Homer Draft: This is probably the worst way to draft. The owner starts picking his favorite team's players. This might be his favorite college or pro team. If it's an NFL team, he's screwed when he gets to a bye week. If it's a college team it could be a good idea, if the team is Miami. Pros; You will be a source of great enjoyment for the other owners. Cons; You will likely be viewed as the village idiot.

The Cheatsheet Draft: You likely don't spend all your leisure time thinking about fantasy football, and you probably aren't a professional sports reporter. This draft style involves purchasing a professional magazine and drafting the top player left on their cheatsheet. Pros; The pro fantasy magazines usually do a good job of picking top players.(it's their job after all) You don't need to think about a lot. Very enjoyable most of the time. Cons; Not thinking about player values is not the way to win. What happens if the pros are wrong?

Rules of Fantasy

Let's discuss how to set up a scoring system for your games. The best thing to do in selecting a scoring system is to make sure all the owners in the league understand the system, and that it approximates their level of NFL knowledge. Outside of that recommendation I suggest that leagues try bonus scoring with individual defense. That means players score points for their yardage, touchdowns, and get a bonus if they pass a certain yardage threshold. Defensive players are drafted and get points for tackles, sacks, interceptions and fumble recoveries.

Whatever the scoring method, try to avoid complicating it too much. Don't change point values if different positions do the same thing. For example, a passing touchdown shouldn't be worth more for a wide receiver than a quarterback. Don't make use of silly stats like yards per attempt, distance of score(unless it's a field goal), or numbers of attempts. Don't penalize NFL players by subtracting points either.

While I can see the argument, "if it hurts an NFL team, it should hurt the fantasy team too," the other side can be looked at as well. Fantasy teams are made up by players who probably don't play together in the NFL. Your fantasy quarterback shouldn't be penalized if an interception occurs when his NFL receiver falls down. Also, subtracting points adds complexities to your scoring system without adding to fantasy enjoyment.

Finally, try to balance your scoring system so that the player values are like the NFL. Quarterbacks and running backs have the most value, followed by receivers. Linebackers are the most valuable defensive players, followed by top defensive backs and linemen. Kickers are a dime a dozen. So, go set up your league and have fun.

I will use this scoring system if I am discussing players: Passing TD 4 points, Rushing/ Receiving/ Defensive TD 6 points, 10 yards Rushing/ Receiving 1 point, 20 yards Passing 1 point, Over 100 yards Rushing/ Receiving 3 bonus points, Over 300 yards Passing 3 bonus points, Tackle 1 point, Sack 4 points, Interception 5 points, Field Goal 3 points, Extra Point 1 point.

Fantasy Football Genesis

In the beginning men created the NFL and the football fans. The football fans were without interactive fun, and excitement. The men said, "Let there be TV contracts", and there were TV contracts. And they saw the football on TV and it was good. Then the men said, "Let there be a game in the midst of this NFL season. And let it divide the casual fans from the gamers." Thus men made the football game, and divided the fans which did not play from the fans who spent money to draft a team, and it was so. And they called the game Fantasy Football.

Fantasy football is easy to understand. Players start a league and draft teams made up of actual NFL players. Each player drafts their own team. How the NFL players do in their games affects the points the fantasy team receives.

In a standard league, each NFL player is individual, they can only be on one team. In some leagues an NFL player can be on multiple teams. Leagues where NFL players are not unique usually use salary caps for each team, with each NFL player assigned a salary. This results in owners not all taking the same player.

Most leagues play head to head with each team playing one other team each week. These leagues usually use a playoff system to crown a champion. The playoffs usually start before the end of the NFL regular season, and end on the last weeks of the season. Some leagues just have teams accumulate points for the course of the season to pick a winner.

Coming Soon

I will be sharing my knowledge of fantasy football with you. I will share what I like, what ideas I don't like, the best way to score your fantasy league, draft strategies and more.

There is no published release schedule for my knowledge, but I'll make up for that by stealing knowledge from other sources and sharing them with you. All credit to the original authors of course.

What a great time we are going to have.

(Edit- I was using the royal "we" to refer to ourself in the third person, but it looked pretentious.)

Allez Cuisine!

So, here I begin what will ultimately be considered a great waste of time.

I may post all of the things I know about fantasy football on here. If you jerks in my league can find it, you will know exactly what I am going to do.

Or I may not do anything at all. Which are you going to put your money on?