So our league just had our Fantasy Football Draft. We have eight teams. I drafted Curtis Martin pretty early, which is bummer. I should have put him on my exclude list.
Anyway, I wanted to let you know my thinking on choosing a fantasy football team, because it has worked very well for me in the past. Let’s call this “my fantasy football tips for beginners”.
Prior to the draft, I put players who are out for the year on my excluded list. Then I start ranking players.
Usualy, I go around to places like CNN SI’s Fantasy Football site and ESPN’s Fantasy Football site and look to see what their experts are saying and who their sleepers are.
I usually move all my favorite running backs way up on my board. Next, I move my top 10 quaretrbacks up on my board. I don’t worry much about the wide recievers, except that I usually move the top two wide recievers up a little (just not above my top 8 running backs). The reason I don’t worry nearly as much about my wide receivers is that it seems like every year I can pick up really good wide recievers of the waiver wire. Every year there are wide recievers that seem to come out of nowhwere to have really excelent stats.
Next, I move up the top 2-4 rookie running backs. I had Reggie Bush in my top 15 players, but someone took him even higher. I also moved up Laurence Maroney and Mike Bell. Both of whom may have better stats this year than Reggie. I also wound up with Lendale White. Lendale is a reach, but has good potential. I like to stockpile running backs at the beginning of the year, because my goal is to have the best running backs and quarterbacks in the league every year. If I do that, I have found that I can win every week. Quaterback and running back seem like the most consistent fantasy scorers every week, that’s why I like to stockpile them.
I move kickers and tight ends way back in my list. I always wind up with a good kicker if I wait until week 2 or week 3 and take the best performer on the waiver wire. It seems like the best fantasy kicker changes every year, so there is no point in taking a kicker high in the draft. With the exception of Anotonio Gates, tight ends don’t score enough and aren’t consistent enough to spend a high pick on.
Defense on the other hand is important and I try to move at least a couple of defenses up in my draft order.
I make lots of waiver wire moves in the first three weeks. Especially, following week 2 when I feel like some of the people having big weeks two weeks in a row may be for real.
Throughout the year, I check the fantasy sleepers on major fantasy football sites and see if I have a need for any of them in my roster.
Following this pattern has helped me to consitently be in the top half of my fantasy leauges (sometimes winning them).
So those are my tips for choosing a great fantasy football team.
Now, here is my 2006 fantasy football team’s current lineup:
QB T. Brady (NE – QB)
QB C. Palmer (Cin – QB)
WR T. Owens (Dal – WR)
RB L. Johnson (KC – RB)
TE A. Crumpler(ATL – TE)
W/R J. Jones (Dal – RB)
W/R L. Maroney (NE – RB)
W/R A. Johnson (Hou – WR)
W/R M. Bell (Den – RB)
BN C. Chambers (Mia – WR)
BN T. Jones (Chi – RB)
BN L. White (Ten – RB)
BN V. Young (Ten – QB)
BN K. Curtis (StL – WR)
BN B. Johnson (Min – QB)
BN A. Toomer (NYG – WR)
BN M. Lewis (Jac – TE)
BN B. Griese (Chi – QB)
BN V. Morency (Hou – RB)
K J. Brown (Sea – K)
BN N. Kaeding (SD – K)
DEF New York (NYG – DEF)
BN New England (NE – DEF)
