All your research is done and now you are ready to dominate your draft. You have your players ranked and have noted the drop off lines in talent. Your homework shows you where players are generally being drafted and you have a mental notebook full of useful information about your opponents. Now it's time to execute and build your team.
The easy thing is to over think your draft and develop tunnel vision zeroing in on specific players. Now is not the time to reach and ruin all your hard work. Now is the time to be flexible, adjust and take what your opponents give you. Over the course of your draft, surprises will come up and your opponents will leave you scratching your head with some of their picks. If you are rigid in your approach you will miss the opportunity to grab a guy that should have never been available when you were picking.
Keep an eye on who is being picked and mark them off your list. Pay particular attention to the positions that your opponents are filling. Noticing that you and another owner are the only teams without a starting QB and seeing that you have three or more quarterbacks ranked in the same tier will allow you to fill depth at other positions confidently assuming your opponents will not take another signal caller. Work the depth at positions and draft the best available player according to need and you will be on your way to putting together a winning fantasy football team.
Showing posts with label fantasy football draft research. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fantasy football draft research. Show all posts
Sunday, July 17, 2011
Friday, July 15, 2011
Fantasy Football Draft Checklist-Check Your Heart At The Door
Your draft is coming together now and you are picking up momentum. One of the crucial pieces of knowledge that we looked at yesterday was to know your league and opponents' tendencies; it is just as important to not fall in to the trap of developing habits in your drafting strategy. The only manner you want to be predictable at is to be recognized for drafting based on your draft position, need and talent. By checking your heart at the door you won't fall in to the trap of drafting the guy that helped you win last year (unless he is the right guy at the right time anyway), or the aging star of your favorite team.
Too many great NFL players are average fantasy performers and get drafted far too early based solely on name recognition. Adopting a strict policy of drafting using with my system may leave your fantasy team without any players from your favorite NFL team and you may even end up with some players from your hated rival, but it will stack you with a team full of talent and ready to make a run at the title!
Too many great NFL players are average fantasy performers and get drafted far too early based solely on name recognition. Adopting a strict policy of drafting using with my system may leave your fantasy team without any players from your favorite NFL team and you may even end up with some players from your hated rival, but it will stack you with a team full of talent and ready to make a run at the title!
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Fantasy Football Draft Checklist-Know Your League
All the pieces are falling in to place now. You are putting in the hard work on the front end of your draft so that you can dominate your fantasy football league through the fall and winter. You have your players slotted based on position, you have identified the drop off points and understand where players are generally being drafted by referencing average draft position. The goal of fantasy football is to beat your opponents and win your league. I believe knowing the scoring system of your league and the tendencies of your opponents are the often overlooked pieces of intelligence that might allow you to find some gems in your draft.
How could anyone reasonably expect to do well in a fantasy football league without fully understanding the rules? If you take my advice to heart and put in the time and work to plug your projections in to your league's scoring system part of your work is done. Make sure you know the scoring system that is in place! The other side of this is to know the roster makeup and positions that you will need to start each week. Much of your preparation should be dictated by the parameters that your league has in place.
One of the advantages of playing in a league with the same group of friends year after year is that you learn the tendencies of your opponents. Keeping some historical drafting data and a few mental notes will serve you well on draft day. There will be one guy who is eager to grab a quarterback early, someone comes to the table wanting to have a top three tight end, kicker and defense and another guy grew up outside Detroit and has some inside info on that 5th string undrafted free agent receiver that caught eleven passes in the preseason. This info will allow you to know what to expect and where you can maybe pass on a guy until the next round. Another good bit of information is the favorite team of all your opponents. We all have a tendency to gravitate to the known and fantasy football is no different. All these small pieces of information can be utilized to put you a few precious steps closer to walking away from your draft with a winning team.
How could anyone reasonably expect to do well in a fantasy football league without fully understanding the rules? If you take my advice to heart and put in the time and work to plug your projections in to your league's scoring system part of your work is done. Make sure you know the scoring system that is in place! The other side of this is to know the roster makeup and positions that you will need to start each week. Much of your preparation should be dictated by the parameters that your league has in place.
One of the advantages of playing in a league with the same group of friends year after year is that you learn the tendencies of your opponents. Keeping some historical drafting data and a few mental notes will serve you well on draft day. There will be one guy who is eager to grab a quarterback early, someone comes to the table wanting to have a top three tight end, kicker and defense and another guy grew up outside Detroit and has some inside info on that 5th string undrafted free agent receiver that caught eleven passes in the preseason. This info will allow you to know what to expect and where you can maybe pass on a guy until the next round. Another good bit of information is the favorite team of all your opponents. We all have a tendency to gravitate to the known and fantasy football is no different. All these small pieces of information can be utilized to put you a few precious steps closer to walking away from your draft with a winning team.
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Fantasy Football Draft Checklist-Research Average Draft Positions
You are getting closer to putting together all the tools to have a strong fantasy football draft. Players are ranked and you have determined drop offs at each positions so that you can capitalize on similarly performing players, now you need to start the process of understanding what others think about the players.
Understanding ADP will help you answer several questions when trying to evaluate your next pick...
Is their a receiver that I need consider rather than a running back?
When should I take a tight end rather than another receiver?
By researching ADP you can better compare where players are being drafted across the position lines. In order to have the best grasp on ADP you will need to use the most up to date information. A magazine can not adequately account for all the changes that take place throughout training camp. Last year if you thought that you would be able to wait until the last several rounds to grab Arian Foster you would have been disappointed several times over. ADP will give you an idea of what others are thinking when drafting their teams but there are still other key factors that you have to recognize. Keep coming back to for more information on how you can prepare to dominate your league by having a strong draft.
Understanding ADP will help you answer several questions when trying to evaluate your next pick...
Is their a receiver that I need consider rather than a running back?
When should I take a tight end rather than another receiver?
By researching ADP you can better compare where players are being drafted across the position lines. In order to have the best grasp on ADP you will need to use the most up to date information. A magazine can not adequately account for all the changes that take place throughout training camp. Last year if you thought that you would be able to wait until the last several rounds to grab Arian Foster you would have been disappointed several times over. ADP will give you an idea of what others are thinking when drafting their teams but there are still other key factors that you have to recognize. Keep coming back to for more information on how you can prepare to dominate your league by having a strong draft.
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Fantasy Football Draft Checklist-Set Position Thresholds
Once you have established the rankings for each position based on your league's scoring system, the next thing you need to do is to determine thresholds at each position. Thresholds are just a fancy way of saying that you should determine where there is a group of players that you can expect to score similarly and where the drop-offs occur.
Knowing where the talent drops off at a certain position can be especially useful if you are drafting near either end of your draft. If you are caught between players at different positions but have determined that you can expect a similar performance out of 3-4 guys at one position and their is a drop off at the other slot you should grab the guy at the bottom of the threshold and know that there will still be a guy that you can live with available when your pick rolls back around.
The easiest way that I have found to draw these lines is to take my projections, run them through my scoring system and then divide these numbers over sixteen games. This will give you an idea of a weekly scoring expectation if all things go as planned throughout the season(they won't). Breaking down the numbers incrementally will allow you to better evaluate actual game by game performances. Now you have drawn some thin lines that will allow you to more objectively draft players based on the numbers and not the names.
The next step we will look at will be to know average draft positions of players and understanding what your opponents may be thinking.
Knowing where the talent drops off at a certain position can be especially useful if you are drafting near either end of your draft. If you are caught between players at different positions but have determined that you can expect a similar performance out of 3-4 guys at one position and their is a drop off at the other slot you should grab the guy at the bottom of the threshold and know that there will still be a guy that you can live with available when your pick rolls back around.
The easiest way that I have found to draw these lines is to take my projections, run them through my scoring system and then divide these numbers over sixteen games. This will give you an idea of a weekly scoring expectation if all things go as planned throughout the season(they won't). Breaking down the numbers incrementally will allow you to better evaluate actual game by game performances. Now you have drawn some thin lines that will allow you to more objectively draft players based on the numbers and not the names.
The next step we will look at will be to know average draft positions of players and understanding what your opponents may be thinking.
Fantasy Football draft Checklist-Rank Your Players By Position
The most fundamental part of preparing for your draft is to take the time to create your own rankings for each position. Many of your lesser opponents will merely pick up a magazine that catches their eye and adopt those rankings as their own. The problem with relying on a magazine for your rankings is that, unless you are drafting in June, those rankings do not account for many changes that take place between publication and your draft day. Another problem with using the rankings straight from a magazine, or any other source for that matter, is that they may not be using the same scoring system as your league uses to establish projections. There are a variety of scoring systems that are popular and a slight variation in the scoring system could completely sway how you slot your players.
So if grabbing a magazine on the way to your draft isn't a good system, how do you go about establishing your own player rankings? The first thing you need to do is to understand your scoring system. Once you have a good grasp on your league's scoring, I suggest you put a spreadsheet together so that you can calculate player projections that are customized with your score system in mind.
Another key to accurate projections is to use several sources. It is not unusual for me to grab two or three magazines and then consult my favorite websites frequently right up until draft day. This will allow you to have a variety of perspectives and will cancel out one source who may favor or dislike a particular player. By using websites that update projections throughout training camp and preseason games you will be able to adjust your projections for injuries, timeshares, or sleepers. These subtle adjustments will allow you to capitalize in the mid rounds where you are building your team's depth and the keys to a winning team.
So if grabbing a magazine on the way to your draft isn't a good system, how do you go about establishing your own player rankings? The first thing you need to do is to understand your scoring system. Once you have a good grasp on your league's scoring, I suggest you put a spreadsheet together so that you can calculate player projections that are customized with your score system in mind.
Another key to accurate projections is to use several sources. It is not unusual for me to grab two or three magazines and then consult my favorite websites frequently right up until draft day. This will allow you to have a variety of perspectives and will cancel out one source who may favor or dislike a particular player. By using websites that update projections throughout training camp and preseason games you will be able to adjust your projections for injuries, timeshares, or sleepers. These subtle adjustments will allow you to capitalize in the mid rounds where you are building your team's depth and the keys to a winning team.
Monday, July 11, 2011
Fantasy Football Draft Checklist
Preparation for your fantasy football draft is as important as anything else you will do for the upcoming season. So, over the next several posts I will review the keys to prepare for a successful draft. Regardless of the type of approach you take to your draft the more prepared you are the better you should pick.
What are the steps you need to take to properly prepare for your draft?
Rank Players by Position
Set Position Thresholds
Research Average Draft Position(ADP)
Know your league
Check your heart at the door
Be flexible
Check back throughout the week for a breakdown on each category so that you can go to your draft with confidence that you have done all your homework and leave your draft knowing that you have a competitive team.
What are the steps you need to take to properly prepare for your draft?
Rank Players by Position
Set Position Thresholds
Research Average Draft Position(ADP)
Know your league
Check your heart at the door
Be flexible
Check back throughout the week for a breakdown on each category so that you can go to your draft with confidence that you have done all your homework and leave your draft knowing that you have a competitive team.
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