Fantasy Football Bench Strategy

Fantasy football leagues often aren’t won thanks to the efforts our #1 pick. Or even our #2 or #3 picks. The reason for this is because those guys are supposed to be excellent. They are supposed to blow it up week in and week out, that’s why we spent our first picks getting them. Okay, maybe Chris Johnson last year won some people their league because he so outperformed even the other top players, but he’s the exception. Normally top players live right up to expectations and no higher. And since everybody gets a few top picks in a round by round draft, nobody gets much of an advantage with them. Instead winning comes down to your mid-draft picks who then exceed your expectations and become studs. A guy who picks a running back in the 7th round, only to see that player finish as a top five...

Read More

Understanding Value Based Drafting

Come draft day you know you’re not supposed to just start drafting the players with the highest fantasy point projections. If we did everyone would take a quarterback in the first round. Instead everybody wants a running back. And the reason for this is because we all base a players value on how many points he should earn within the context of his position. The thing is, most of us don’t specifically know how valuable a player is by his position. We just let the cheatsheet we downloaded do all the thinking for us. But not today! Today we look at Value Based Drafting, or VBD, to see how the real analysts determine how players stack up. Ranking...

Read More

Auction Draft Strategies Vol. 2

Because there’s a wonderful variety of methods you can choose when deciding how to pick your team in an auction draft, I’m presenting three more auction draft strategies for you to use. Just examples, not necessarily great examples, of how you can design a draft plan to get the players you most value. So get out your thinking helmets and let’s get to work! #4. Triple Stud This auction draft strategy is actually the one you’ll find recommended within the pages of Yahoo!’s fantasy football draft kit. It’s reproduced for you here—because you can’t copywrite a draft auction strategy and I’m completely free to do so. The central idea of the Triple...

Read More

Snake Draft Strategy, Part 2

2nd thru 4th RoundsIf you had an early pick in the first round, you’ll get a late pick in the second and an early third round pick. Frequently there are still great quarterbacks and wides available. This is why getting the first or second pick is so ridiculously advantageous. By my very unscientific calculations there is usually a big drop off of projected quality around the 22nd or 23rd pick. Because of this, it’s possible for an owner who receives the 1st pick of the draft to end up with three pretty awesome players. For example, this year in one of my leagues I got the first pick and selected Chris Johnson, Tom Brady, and Randy Moss in...

Read More

Snake Draft Strategy

So your draft day is coming up and you need to prepare. Snake drafts involve a fair share of luck and opportunity, but that doesn’t mean you want to go into one without knowing your stuff. Odds are if you’re playing fantasy football you’re doing so on one of the big online hosts, ESPN, Yahoo!, etc. They’re sure to have plenty of information and listings and a draft kit. Be sure to read them over.Once you’ve done your basic research, gotten to know this year’s studs and potential studs, you need to make your cheatsheet. You can’t formulate a strategy without a cheatsheet to work from. Most big fantasy football sites have cheatsheets available...

Read More

Creating an Auction Draft Cheatsheet

The most important tool you have on draft day is your cheatsheet. A handy go-to guide for how players stack up against each other so you know who to bid on and how high to go. Because when draft day comes you don’t want to be trying to work from memory or some vague list that takes too long to make sense of while bids are flying by all around you. Your cheatsheet is also useful for coming up with draft strategies in the days beforehand. With current average prices and expected point production next to each player you can design a roster maximizing production while minimizing cost. It’s always good to be prepared. In this article I will show...

Read More

Auction Draft Strategies Vol. 1

Following up my article on developing your own auction draft strategies, this time around I’m going to show three examples that you can use for your draft or at least get a better idea of how to build your own. #1. Double Stud Fantasy football teams tend to be built around players known as “studs.” These are positional leaders who are going to blow it up every week and slam 15 to 20 points home on your opponent. Or maybe 10 to 15 points in the case of wide receivers. Not everybody can have a team with a couple of studs, or sometimes even one stud, but at least they at least can spread their wealth around and pick up more mid-level producers...

Read More