Mastering the Fantasy Football Draft

Football season is right around the corner, so naturally it's about that time to gear up for fantasy season. Depending on how competitive you are and how much is at stake in your league, some might take this more seriously than others. You can take these tips as far as you'd like, but I'll lay out everything you could do from what to pay attention to leading up to the draft to what to look for when you're on the clock.

Pre-Draft

The research process starts when the league is first created. If this is a league from previous years, that takes some of the guess work out as you probably know who the other players are and what the rules are. Always check to make sure the commissioner didn't try to pull a fast one and change come subtle settings. One change can make a huge difference. Get an idea of what the scoring system is, the roster size, and other important league settings that can impact the way you approach your draft. For example, my pre-draft rankings for a non-PPR, 1 QB and 1 flex league will be extremely different from if it was a 2 QB, 3 WR and 2 flex league. Now the latter isn't exactly the most common league format, but the more leagues you join and the more people you play against, the more wacky setups you'll encounter.

Once you know what you're dealing with, you can start planning your strategy. Now that you know your roster size and scoring settings, you'll be best served starting to figure out your own rankings. Everyone has their own rankings, so it's important to know who you like for this season and who you might want to stay away from. It might also be helpful to create a tier system so you can group players together to make it easier to differentiate from who's left on the board.

Depending on the competitiveness of your opponents and the league as a whole, you might need more or less preparation than what was discussed here. No matter how much time you put in before the draft, you can make up for any lost time with a great in-draft performance.

During the Draft

Now that you've spent some time looking at your league settings and coming up with your rankings, tiers and must/must not drafts, it's time to put these ideas into action. With the draft in progress, there are many ways to approach it, but two different strategies seem to be most common. Owners can either deploy the value-based drafting approach or the need-filling approach. With the value-based draft style, you would take the best available player when it's your turn to pick, regardless of your team needs. If you like need-filling drafting, you would pick the best player at the position you need the most. There are pros and cons to both of these approaches, which we'll dive into next.

Value-based drafting is great because you know you're getting the best player on the board every time you make a selection. Even if you end up need-filling towards the end of the draft, almost every drafter starts out a draft picking the best available player, then evaluating holes later. The downside to this strategy only comes if you overload on one position and leave holes elsewhere in your roster. A smart drafter would probably start out the first few rounds picking the best players, then in the middle and later rounds evaluate which positions they are strong in and which need help and adjust accordingly. A need-filling strategy works as long as you start the first few rounds picking the best player. After a few rounds, you will get a sense of the strength of each position and where you might want to focus your attention during the next few rounds. It really is up to personal preference, but a hybrid of the two seems to be the most effective way of dominating draft day.

The last thing to consider when drafting your team is how you want to approach bye weeks. Like the drafting methods, there are two common ways to do this. Many people like to avoid having players at the same position that have the same bye week. This gives the team the ability to have viable replacements that are available during the starters' off weeks. The other method, which isn't as commonly used but people still like it, is to load up on one or two bye weeks. This would involve drafting your first handful of players, seeing what their bye weeks are, and not shying away from drafting more players that share the bye weeks. This would allow the team to have a full roster for all other weeks besides the one or two that they load up on. This works best when your team has a very strong starting lineup, so you would want the starters to be intact for as many weeks as possible, rather than swapping out one or two starters every week.

During the Season

Now that your team is put together, it's your job to monitor your roster each week to string together some wins. The most important things to keep tabs on during the season are injuries and weekly matchups. Players will oftentimes be questionable throughout the week, but their status will become more clear as Sunday approaches. Don't bench a superstar who was a late add to the active roster, and don't start someone who is out this week! Similarly, look at who each player is playing against this week and make sure it's a decent matchup. If they're going against an elite defense and you have a viable replacement on the bench with a friendly matchup, consider making a swap. Make a habit of checking the waiver wire throughout the season to see if players were dropped from opponents' rosters who might help you, and see if there are any free agents who have been performing well and you can scoop up before someone else does. Keeping all of these things in mind will take your team to the next level.

Have a great season!