The Draft…

Draft day is coming up! you’ve got your latest ADP cheat sheet printed out, you’ve double checked injuries and even have a few special talents you really plan to target in the draft, highlighted and a cute little asterisk next to them on your print out. The only thing left to worry about is what chips and dip to bring and whether or not you should bring your antacids for the hot wings and chili.

Whether you are a first time drafter or long time drafter, it is hard to deny the child like sense of glee you get from completing your draft. With you being immediately thrilled
with the results of the draft or not, just the fact that you have a fantasy team to compete with strangers or friends for, in most cases, the sole purpose of gloating rights over your peers at the end of it all when you hopefully become the reigning champ, is oddly and amazingly satisfying. This is FANTASY Football, it is here for us to gain enjoyment out of. not to stress and over complicate things. If your not having fun, your doing it wrong.

You aren’t here for a story though, you are here to make the “FUN” easier to be had. Every analyst, beat writer, professional sportscaster can and will give every opinion as fact, “this IS the way you should draft”, “this IS when this player should be drafted”, “Zero RB is the best and only style of drafting that is viable!” etc.  on that note, here is a list of some of my opinions on what you could, should, possibly maybe take notes on doing in your draft.

EVERY DRAFT IS DIFFERENT SO THE GENERAL FORMAT THIS WILL BE GEARED TOWARD IS: 10 Team .5PPR (Point per reception)  1QB (Quarter back) 2RB (Running Back) 2WR (Wide Receiver) 1TE (Tight End) 1FLEX (RB,WR,TE optional position) 1DST (Defense/Special Teams) 1K (Kicker) snake draft

1. Know what kind of league your signing up for – Pretty obvious one but many times people will be game planning for a standard league and then show up to draft to find out its a 2qb full ppr league…. drastically different rankings and ADP for the print out you have and the one everyone else brought. wont ruin your team but definitely wont help it. So Please double check your league before the draft.
2. “You can’t win your league at the draft but you can lose it”- This is mostly true in any format. Proper preparation and not reaching too early for players in the early rounds is a good place to build your foundation. Nobody will lock down every starting position at the draft and win the league (unless maybe your in some weird 4 man league). Preparation at this point is your best friend and having a solid rankings sheet to base your decisions off of.
3. Build a Foundation – The foundation for your team relies on being able to land solid producers for your fantasy team within the first 5 rounds. no matter the position the goal is to have these players give you start able numbers CONSISTENTLY at the perceived rank. aka dont reach for guys in these rounds if you can avoid it. my rule of thumb is to aim for low risk early (round 1 through 5) and higher,riskier gambles the deeper you go past round 5.
4. Be flexible with how you draft – you may have a certain strategy lined up, certain player but what if THAT player THAT early round was drafted? who’s your back up option? do you have a back up option?…. round to round on whatever cheat sheet you possess you should have multiple options, multiple guys you believe have that first round value, that second value, that second round upside in the third round. sometimes, many times it wont be the same position player either and that is the hard part for many. Having that zero RB mentality where you HAVE to go WR WR in your first two rounds but what if you are picking 8th and everyone else has the same idea and not just your first option at WR goes but both your first and second round options go? what do you do? you could choose your 3rd round wide receiver option highlighted on your cheat sheet OR you could go over one column to where Running Backs are and choose the second RB of the first round at the 8th pick.
5. Pay attention to how everyone else is drafting – goes hand in hand with being flexible in your draft strategy and gets more and more strategic the deeper into the draft. If you are waiting on QB, its round 8 and every team has a starting qb except for you but you have 3 guys on your cheat sheet you wouldn’t mind being your starter… wait longer!. you have obviously won the strategy and should have better values at multiple picks.  Writing down everyone’s pick  and rosters on a blank sheet of paper (how archaic i know!) can pay huge dividends when deciphering if a guy will make it back to you the next round. be the nerd! it helps!
6. Make your own cheat sheet with TIERS – Putting players in tiers is considered by some to be an advanced way of ranking players. To me it should be the normal and standard way to perceive players values. It is not hard by any means to create your own tiers and can be done on your existing ranking print out. Here is 1 example : at the wide receiver position this year (2016) the general consensus is that the top 3 WR’s are Antonio Brown, Julio Jones and Odell Beckham Jr. These three would be Tier 1, as in this first Tier represents the creme of crop, this tier has the most likely outcome to be top 3 WR’s as well as the perceived ability to be there. YOU! on the other hand don’t think Antonio Brown can repeat his king of the hill domination and also you believe Aj Green and Amari Cooper have the potential to be that top guy this year. SO on your sheet just put a number 1 next to your tier 1 guys. you will immediately notice that Amari Cooper could be grabbed at the end of the second or early third round and you are more than happy with him being your number 1, what does this mean? this affords you more options! (the more options you have and are happy with the more fun and better your draft will go!) so instead of rushing wide receiver like you planned to, you decide to take an RB with the 3rd pick, next round comes and you are pick 18 and AJ Green somehow makes it back to you! you are ecstatic because to you he is your highest ranked tier 1 player at wide receiver and three tier 2 wide receivers were selected just in front. You snag him and low and behold cooper is there after the swing at pick 23.  So according to your personal fantasy rankings of top notch talent and guys that make you happy you were able to draft your favorite running back and two tier 1 wide receivers…. 3 first round picks according to your standards! this is a positive example but on the opposite end if both your guys were snagged according to your tier system you should always be able to look at the next position and be able to snag amazing value based on YOUR opinion.
7. MOCK DRAFT! MOCK DRAFT! MOCK DRAFT! – Did I mention to Mock Draft? ok good. no better way to prepare for your own draft than to mock draft. For one it can ease your nerves on drafting, builds confidence. The more mocks you do the better knowledge you will have for ADP’s, picking strategies, messing around with how your team would look if you went Gronk in the first round and QB early. my personal favorite site to use is draftwizard.fantasypros.com a link is on the side to mock draft and it takes you to this site. Can mock Draft in minutes and its great. with this site though don’t pay attention to the “Grade” you get at the end of the draft, it is based on the sites ranking system  and wont necessarily reflect the true strength or weakness of your team (can be a decent base judgment though, getting an F grade regardless usually is not a good sign). you would get an A+ if you selected the top player they suggest the entire mock draft. which you can do and see how you like your team, mock as many times as you want! its fun and by far the most educational thing you can do before going into your own draft.