Every year the NFL season gets closer to kickoff, millions of football fans are preparing and or drafting their fantasy football teams. All fantasy football leagues have members that think they have more insights than others in their league, but there are some real strategies that could give you an advantage over your peers. The fun aspects of fantasy football include building a “dream” football roster how you envision it, talking smack to friends or family, and tracking your teams’ successes or failures throughout the NFL season. In order to best enjoy these elements of a fantasy football league, there’s no doubt that your draft is critical towards ensuring more victories, more bragging rights, and potentially more cash. Here are some of my favorite strategies to implement for fantasy football drafts.
The most important piece of information you need to know while heading into your fantasy football draft is whether your league is standard or points per reception (PPR) scoring along with other custom rules and modifications. Standard scoring means that there are no points awarded for a pass reception, therefore benefiting running backs slightly more, while PPR includes 1 point per pass caught which benefits pass catching RBs and all WRs. The second thing I strongly advise fantasy footballers to do in their drafts is to select a running back (RB) within the first two rounds. It is the most important position to lock down because it is the most scarce while also containing the least number of high-volume and high-upside players. The difference between a top 10 RB and top 30 RB is much larger than that of wide receivers (WR). I would never suggest selecting a quarterback (QB) any higher than round 4 or 5 because it typically has the most depth positionally as the difference between a high end to middle of the pack QB is the least amount of difference despite the position averaging the greatest number of points for your team. Another important nugget within your fantasy draft is knowing that the middle to later rounds is where you can separate from others, as those rounds there are less certain bets projecting player outputs (and more boom/bust players), meaning in-depth research and due diligence is extremely important before and throughout the draft. Lastly, try not being too swayed by drafting your favorite athletes or players on your favorite team. Don’t worry if the value isn’t there or you are already strong in a certain position that your favorite/team player plays.
To all fantasy footballers, good luck in what should be yet another fantastic NFL season, and make sure to consider these strategies when drafting or building your fantasy team.