The NFL season is just around the corner. That means that it is fantasy football time. I don’t profess to be an expert, but I do believe that you can significantly improve your chances of success in your league by following a few common sense tips. Here, then, are my ten tips to help guide you to a winning fantasy football season.
1. Five singles beats a home run and four strikeouts – Too often guys try to show how smart they are by picking the no name player who is going to have a huge season that they can steal in a later round. For every Ryan Grant, though, there are several guys no one has heard of at draft time and still hasn’t heard of now. Winning a fantasy league s rarely about bold, flashy picks. Like in recent Presidential elections, conservatism is rewarded.
2. Keep an eye on injuries – It doesn’t matter how talented a running back is if he can’t walk. Players are going to get hurt during the season and you will have to deal with that then, but you might as well start things off with a healthy lineup. Spending a few minutes perusing injury reports is a very good use of pre-draft time.
3. Don’t trust unstable QB situations – If you don’t know who the starting QB is on a team, or if there isn’t a clear number one, then stay away from the QBs and receivers from that team. Uncertainty almost never produces big numbers.
4. Don’t discount kickers – A lot of people leave the kicker until the last pick and make them an after thought. A good kicker can get you a surprising number of points, though. Spending some time looking at which kickers and coaches tend to kick a lot of field goals can allow you to make a smart mid-round pick while the prime players are still on the board.
5. Don’t get too fancy in the first round – The same players are going to get selected in pretty much every first round there is. This is not the time to try to be clever or original. There is a reason why the most popular players are the most popular, so don’t blow your opportunity to pile up the points. It’s hard to win the draft based on your first round pick, but you sure can lose it.
6. Don’t get an itchy trade finger – Once you have drafted your team, learn to live with it for a while. Too often guys are tempted to make a pile of trades before the season has even began. Trust your first instincts, and give yourself time to see what you actually have before you make trades or other roster moves. If a guy wasn’t drafted and you play in a big league then there is probably a pretty good reason for it.
7. Look to the schedule to break ties – If there are two players at the same position that you like equally, look at who they play in the first few weeks to help make a decision. The guy who plays more teams more suited to his success is a better choice. For example, a running back who plays two teams with lousy run defenses is obviously a better choice than one who plays a bunch of brick walls.
8. Don’t forget bye weeks – There is no worse feeling than picking your team only to realize that all of your quarterbacks have the same bye week. Doing a quick check of this as you make your picks is a great idea.
9. Ditch your biases – I hate Peyton Manning with every fiber of my being (though I am man enough to admit that he was very funny on SNL). That doesn’t mean that he is a bad pick, though. Fantasy football is about winning, not building a fan club. Make sure that your choices are made for the right reason – the only thing worse than having a guy you don’t like on your team is getting beat by him.
10. Add depth only when it makes sense – Running backs are valuable in fantasy football. Some guys, though, will focus so much on adding running back depth to their team that they won’t be left with anything else worthwhile. You need to prioritize the positions you’ll pick, but you also need to pick all of the positions. NFL executives will pick the best player on the board in most draft situations, but you’ll notice that the Patriots and the Colts don’t spend first round picks on quarterbacks.
