Following seven rules can make your Fantasy Football season more enjoyable and profitable, too.
The Fantasy Football Draft is one of my favorite times of the NFL calendar. We get to be coach, general manager, and owner–and all in one shot!
The downside is that many of you will lose your season before it even begins. That’s because the draft is more important than you think. But if you follow these seven simple rules, the waiver wire will cease to exist, and opponents will be begging you for trades.
Ryan: Example of a wise QB pick (photo, SI.com)
Rule #1: Don’t ever draft a quarterback in the first round! In fact, don’t even think about it until the 7th Round. Twelve QBs will put up big numbers just about every week. There will be another 3-4 QBs who’ll become starters as the weeks pass by. Drafting a player like Aaron Rodgers or Pat Mahomes too early will hurt the rest of your roster! Other players, like Matt Ryan and Baker Mayfield, will give you consistent and reliable fantasy points and–very importantly–you’ll be able to draft them much later on.
Rule #2: Stock up on running backs and wide receivers. Wait for the QB–and even the tight end–unless you can grab a Travis Kelce in the 3rd or 4th round. Nevertheless, you need to draft nothing but RBs and WRs for at least the first five rounds. Why? The reasons are simple. These players get hurt often, and they are more interchangeable than any other positions during the Fantasy season. Players get injured, some have down years, and often backups become starters. Get as many top wideouts and backs as you can.
Bleep! (photo, Free To Find Truth)
Rule #3: Drafting a kicker before the last round is like taking JaMarcus Russell with the first overall pick in the NFL draft. Predicting a kicker’s success is only as good as the number of opportunities he has. The only barometers we can go by is how accurate a kicker is and how often the offense can get that kicker in range. Those outcomes aren’t easy to predict when you look at the full spectrum of a season. So do yourself a favor: draft the best kicker left on the board with your final selection. Picking a kicker is pure luck, so don’t waste time putting them in your queue.
Rule #4: Defenses are hard to predict. We usually know which defensive units are best going into a season but, in reality, the majority of defensive points come from turnovers, sacks, interceptions, and returned touchdowns. Even Special Teams account for valuable points through forced fumbles and turnovers. With that, I recommend that you draft the best defense available with your second-to-the-last pick and play the waiver wire matchup during the season if need be.
A healthy Todd Gurley gave me a Fantasy advantage (photo, The Sporting News)
Rule #5: Don’t allow last year’s stats deter you from drafting a Pro Bowl-level player. A couple of years ago, Todd Gurley had a subpar season. The following year I drafted him with the 4th overall pick. The whole league laughed at me! Well, I got the last laugh because Gurley led all RBs in Fantasy points. Sometimes guys play hurt during the season without us knowing. Then, after an offseason of recovery, they return to form. Derrick Henry did it last season. Perhaps a guy like Dalvin Cook will make a similar comeback this year.
Rule #6: Make sure you grab your starter’s backup running back. Running backs go down every week–sometimes for a couple of weeks at a time. Instead of scrambling to the waiver wire, make sure you draft a reliable backup. For example, if the Chiefs’ starter Damien Williams gets hurt, it would be a smoother transition to have a reliable backup, like Carlos Hyde, to fill in. If Alvin Kamara gets injured, you’d better have Latavius Murray on your bench. Don’t underestimate the importance of these late draft picks!
Rule #7: As the draft unfolds, always pay attention to what the person in front and behind you are doing. Looking at their rosters will help determine what they might do. You’ll get a better idea of who’s available. You might take a risk on a player that you’d otherwise not pick. For example, if the player drafting before you already has a QB, then consider this: take a chance on grabbing another skilled player before drafting the QB you would have taken a round earlier. If the team behind you is looking to fill a spot, then think about preventing that choice by drafting that player yourself. Using these strategies is like killing two birds with one stone. (I hate saying it, but it’s true.)
Follow these seven rules, and I’ll bet you’ll have a successful fantasy football draft!
