If you are in a league but don’t know anything, this is the post for you. Here are some basic guidelines for choosing a team as the next 2 weeks are prime draft days. Keep in mind you take my advice with a grain of salt. I have never won a standard fantasy league but I also have not lost. These are the basic steps, rules and tips for those of you who want to be involved in your office pool but don’t want to be laughed at or face the punishment of losing!
Alright, admittedly this is a repost but I still get so many questions about Fantasy football especially around this time of the year that I figured I would report this! I will also be doing this explanation by podcast this time.
The Basics:
- Every week you will have an active team and a bench. Your active team will have: 1 QB, 2 WRs, 2 RBs, 1 Flex, TE, K, Defense. You will then have 6 players on your bench.
- A flex player can be RB, WR or TE
- You will be required to draft your players on a certain day before any NFL games start. Last day to draft is 9/8 (the day before the 1st NFL game: Cowboys at Buccaneers). Typically the draft is a snake draft format meaning if you are 1st to draft in round 1 then you will be last in round 2.
- Do NOT auto draft! You will get screwed. You can technically set your preferences but it’s not dynamic enough to really let you succeed.
- I highly recommend doing a couple of mock drafts on whatever website (CBS, Yahoo, ESPN, etc) you are actually going to play on. This lets you get the hang of it without the pressure.
- Most leagues are head-to-head leagues which means you will be facing another person’s team every week in matchups. You win the matchups by your active team (not counting your bench) scoring more points than your opponent. Yes, some weeks you will get screwed and the perpetually loser has a killer week, scoring 100+ points and sometimes you squeak out a win with only 67 points.
- There are 13 weeks in a typical season and the rest (week 14 – 16) is considered ‘playoffs’. Typically, you only make playoffs if you are top 4 by win record. Then the #1 seed will play the #4 and #2 will play #3 in the same format as the season but each round will last 2 weeks.
- If you’re in a bigger league, they can take up to 6 teams with the #1 and #2 seeds getting a bye.
- Scoring: (this is standard scoring – your commissioner can change this)
- 1 point for 25 passing yards
- 1 point for 10 rushing/receiving yards
- 6 points for TD
- 4 points for passing TD
- -2 points for turnover (interception or fumble lost)
- 1 point for every extra point
- 2 points for passing/receiving/rushing a 2 point conversion
- 3 points for a FG (up to 39 yards)
- 4 points for a FG (40 – 49 yards)
- 5 points for a FG (50+ yards)
- 2 points for turnover recovered by defense
- 6 points scored by defense
- 2 points for a blocked kick
- After the draft, you can (and prob should) trade players. You can swap out players on your roster for available players pretty easily unless another person has already done so. You can also trade with fellow players but that can be tricky! If it’s a highly sought after player, they can charge you multiple players for their one! Teams have a deadline by which you can trade for the week which varies depending on your commissioner’s rules but they have to be done by the first game of the week (usually Thursday night).
- It is also customary to come up with a clever team name. This can be a pun on player’s names (Ertz So Good) or a team name. Here are some of my favorites that I have seen over the years
- Hot Chubb Time Machine
- Shake it Goff
- Zeke and Destroy
- Oh Saquon You See
- Bend it like Beckham Jr
- Guns & Rosen
- Dak to the Future
- Le’Veon a Prayer
- Turn Down for Watt
- Ladies and Edelman
- and every guys favorite….Eiferted (pronounced I fehrted)
Draft Tips:
- Wait on QBs!
- This is such a hard thing to do, especially if you don’t know a lot about football because these players are the names you know best. But it is key to wait! The most common rookie mistake is to take a QB as your first pick (or your second).
- The reason? Because all QBs will give you a ton of points per game. They touch the ball every play. Good options will be left in the later rounds, even if you’re the last one to take a QB.
- I try to wait until round 4 or 5 to take a QB. Don’t be alarmed when Patrick Mahomes from the Chiefs gets taken early because he will.
- So if not a QB, who do you take first?
- A RB! The RB is (in most leagues) the one who determines who wins or loses your match up that week. First of all you pick 2 for your roster when most NFL teams feature 1 with 2 WRs on most plays. This means there are fewer RBs to go around that will get a significant amount of touches (~25 per game). Even good WRs only get 5ish catches.
- Recommended paths: RB/RB/WR or RB/WR/RB
- Last picks?
- Kickers (‘K’) and Defenses. Kickers don’t score a lot of points comparatively with the rest of your team. There is very little difference points wise for your fantasy team between the #1 kicker and the last in the league. Kicker production also varies season to season depending on how many time their team doesn’t score. Think about it, most coaches would rather score a TD than a FG, so the kicker won’t score you points unless its absolutely necessary.
- Defenses also don’t give a ton of points. That being said, every once in a while a game will be crazy and they will get a fumble recovery but these are too hard to predict.
- Pick safe options first, chance it later
- Your first 2 picks are the most important (no pressure!) because these will determine your team’s success for the season. Other people, especially those who have played before, will use their first 2 picks very wisely and you will be starting from behind if you don’t.
- Take a risk on random players later rather than sticking with normally mediocre players. Here is where high risk high reward can pay off.
- Draft a backup for your standout
- If your first pick was a standout RB, then you will need a backup RB. This reduces your risk if they get injured and when your star has a bye week. 33% of RBs drafted in first round drafts (from 2016 – 2018) got injured at some point. Take multiple RBs!
- A backup QB is the exception to the rule. He isn’t hugely important like RBs and WRs are because the chances of them playing (and producing the same amount of points) is slim
- As far as picking backups:
- All things being equal, chose a younger RB with less mileage on them (this is besides the huge stars). RBs tend to take a lot of hits and therefore it’s a younger position. 2.5 rookies average in the top 12 their rookie years.
- Every other position: avoid rookies. A rushing rookie QB is ok (not great but ok). WRs: stay away from rookies! IF they get on the field, the chance of them doing well consistently is slim. Only 3 WRs in the last 7 years came out as a rookie to move up to WR1.
- Resources
Other Tips:
- Play your match ups
- Meaning, play your players who are facing a notoriously bad team. Teams playing bad teams tend to produce more offensive points (and therefore points for you). If you’re torn on who to play from your bench, play the player who has the worse opponent.
- Use this when evaluating 2 roughly equal players. Do NOT bench whoever you used your first pick on in lieu of a player with a weak opponent.
- Don’t forget to swap out your guys who have bye weeks.
- This is a tip more for the middle of the season and sounds self-explanatory. But when work gets crazy, it’s easy to forget to change your lineup. This means you need to be wary on who plays on what days; sometimes the weeks are odd if there are holidays.
- Stay patient
- If your first round pick has a rough couple of weeks, don’t give up on him. Things to consider after a slow start: your stars’ health, his O-line’s health and # of touches
- If his O-Line has a bunch of injuries meaning younger greener talent, then that means your stars’ blocks will not be as efficient, making it harder for him to get a run started.
- If your first round pick has a rough couple of weeks, don’t give up on him. Things to consider after a slow start: your stars’ health, his O-line’s health and # of touches
- Do not get too attached to your drafted team. The best teams make changes! This especially is true from season to season. You do not win your league at your draft!
- Feel free to use that to your advantage too if you want to trade with another person. If you know they are a Sooner fan, you know most likely they will trade you for a previous Oklahoma player for more than they are worth.
- Play more for now than you think. Winning your match up week after week will give you a chance to make the playoffs and most importantly, will not put you in last.
- Another important note before you join a fantasy league is that most work leagues have a punishment for getting last! I have heard of multiple horrifying punishments. Some examples: taking the SAT (with a minimum required score), taking professional photos for a nude-y calendar, etc.
Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash
Terminology:
- ADP (Average Draft Position): the average place a certain player is usually drafted. You should come across this in your research for your draft and see it during mock drafts
- Bench: the 6 players that will not contribute points to your team that week
- Bye: when a player has the week off (aka their NFL team isn’t playing)
- Commissioner: the person in charge of the league
- Depth chart: the order of each position on a NFL team
- Draft: how a team is picked
- Drop: when you let a player go from your team
- Flex player: a player that can be a RB, WR, or TE
- Free Agent: a player who is not currently on a team
- Mock Draft: a practice draft
- PPR (‘Points-Per-Reception’): This is a scoring method in fantasy football to make WRs and TE (or RBs who catch) give you more points. Usually full point or half points per reception.
- Roster: players on a team
- Sleeper: a player that will exceed expectations of his draft slot
- Targets: the number of times a player is given the ball by the QB
- Waiver wire: a temporary freeze on a player that indicates someone has picked up that player. The person with the highest waiver priority gets the player.
- Usually the last person in the draft gets the 1st rank in the waiver wire
Top Pick Recommendations:
These are the projected top 10 scorers in each position. The ESPN Top 50 overall projected players are the filled in bullets. The players after the hallow bullets are outside of the top 50 projected scoring players (notice how they’re all RBs and WRs – take that hint!)
- QB- Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen,
- Kyler Murray, Dak Prescott, Lamar Jackson, Aaron Rodgers, Russell Wilson, Justin Herbert, Tom Brady & Jalen Hurts
- RB- Christian McCaffrey, Dalvin Cook, Derrick Henry, Saquon Barley, Alvin Kamara, Ezekiel Elliott, Jonathan Taylor, Nick Chubb, Aaron Jones & Antonio Gibson
- WR- Davante Adams, Tyreek Hill, Stefon Diggs, DK Metcalf, Calvin Ridley, DeAndre Hopkins, AJ Brown, Justin Jefferson, Terry McLaurin & Mike Evans
- TE- Travis Kelce, Darren Walker, George Kittle,
- Mark Andrews, TJ Hockenson, Kyle Pitts, Logan Thomas, Noah Fant, Robert Tonyan & Dallas Goedert
- K- Harrison Butker, Justin Tucker, Graham Gano, Jason Myers, Brandon McManus, Jason Sanders, Younghoe Koo, Mayy Gay, Greg Zuerlein & Tyler Bass
- D- Buccaneers, Steelers, Ravens, Washington, 49ers, Bills, Broncos, Patriots, Rams & Browns
Just Good Manners
- Don’t quit your league. This makes it less fun for everyone
- Be on time for your draft. If you’re not then when it is your turn, the full time has to run out before the draft can go on.
- Don’t team up with other players – this gets other players very angry.
- Don’t take forever to respond to a trade request. Even if you’re turning it down, most people understand. They just need to be able to move on.
- Don’t make an insane number of crazy trades. Talk about a way to make your commissioner mad fast as they have to approve trades
- Don’t forget to pay up! That’s just good manners for life.
