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Most players base their entire season on the
Fantasy Football Draft. Your team does not live
and die with the draft, but of course it is very
important, especially in football. When conducting
your Fantasy Football Draft the best advice is
to play it safe. Don’t try to out smart
yourself, draft a balance of running and passing.
Check your Leagues Point System
before the draft and occasionally during the season. Obvious,
but often ignored. Notice during the season which categories
seem to be manufacturing a lot of points. If you see a point
strength in the some category make moves for players who excel
at that category. You will be surprised how you can stop a
weakness on your team and turn it into a strength in the league.
Some leagues, like Yahoo Fantasy Football, have a STANDINGS
scoring summary. Use this to analyze strengths and weakness
of categories during the season.
Running Backs:
Draft a “sure thing” veteran running back. You
need to know that every week you will get consistent, top-scoring
from one your running backs. Make sure you look at the running
backs ability to score in the red zone and his ability to
catch the ball. Those two factors are what separate to good
fantasy backs from the average backs. Make sure to grab some
extra running backs in the late rounds. Extra running backs
are more important than any other position because of the
lack of change that happens at the position. Take a gamble
on a running back. A rookie or a back up of a top running
team is a good gamble.
Quarterback:
They will generally score the most points in Fantasy Leagues.
The problem is there are only a couple First allow us to introduce
the 4 types of Fantasy QB's: 1) The Franchise QB. This is
the Peyton Manning or Duante Culpepper of the 2005 Fantasy
Football Draft. 2) Fantasy Stud. These are sure things and
have potential to be a Franchise QB. This would be someone
like Donavan Mc Nabb. 3) The third and most common QB is the
Fantasy Starter. This is your Marc Bulgers, Aaron Brooks,
Jake Plummers and others. Finally, there is the Fantasy Hopefulls.
These are either inconsistent veterans or young QB's. Brian
Griese and Eli Manning fit these bills. You should put all
QB's into these categories to help your draft. "Franchise
QB's" are few and far between in any given year. It is
probably worthwhile to take one of these ahead of the best
running backs. "Fantasy Studs", which there are
few of as well shouldn't be taken ahead of your #1 running
back, unless the flow of the draft dictates this. "Starting
Fantasy QB's" are the most common QB's. There is a thing
line between Studs, Starters and the "Hopefuls".
A Fantasy Owner is better on drafting a top wide receiver
than a "Fantasy Starter" and at least equal to drafting
a "Stud". The point here is if you don't draft a
"Franchise QB" you are better to wait unit the mid-rounds
to get a "Starter" quality QB. Either start the
run on this type of QB's if the time is right or grab yours
during the run.
Wide Receivers:
The first bit of advice on WR's is to go back to the general
draft advice, know your point system. Some leagues give points
for receptions. If your league does, this gives possesion-type
receivers more value. It changes everything. After that is
established, just like at running backs, you need to get at
least one sure-thing WR. He needs to get the consistent 6-7
catches, 100 yards and a TD. Don't under-estimate the value
WR's, but don't over-estimate them either. There are around
60 wide receivers to choose from, RB, TE and QB have half
of that. After you have a stud, it is almost as likely to
find a second or a third in free agency during the season
as it is to find one in the draft. This is not to say don't
draft more than one, it is to say be aware of it.
Save gambles for middle and late rounds. Plenty of places
for gambles, just not too early.
Go into the draft with a small draft plan and some sleepers.
Then throw away your plan. The most important
thing during the draft is to ADAPT! Notice what
positions are and are not being drafted. Can you
hold off on drafting your Quarterback because
everyone has already drafted one? Was there a
run on tight ends? You better get one, even if
it is a slightly over-priced player. Go with the
flow of the draft and you will do better than
sticking to a plan. If you are new to drafting
and your league offers an auto-draft option, use
it. This will give you a safely drafted team.
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