How to Draft a Championship Fantasy Team
If you are reading an article then odds are you take your league seriously.
You either hate your coworkers or love your friends enough to study actual literature in pursuit of their demise. However deep down you’ve buried it, you need to win — it fuels you.
Or not. And that’s chill too.
Why trust me? One big reason: I was ousted as a league commissioner for collusion. That means I cheated to win a fantasy game about adult men running around in a field for too many minutes. If you think someone who cheats to win a fake game doesn’t have passionately misplaced priorities, I don’t know what else to tell you.
Photo: Dwain McFarland/PFF
Today I want to give you ten tips on drafting a strong team. If you are in my league, stop reading now. If you aren’t, I hope this helps!
I’ll explain some common misconceptions about drafting and leave you with the know-it-all to at least not come in last.
1) Draft for All 17 Weeks
A lot of people draft with an expectation of being stuck with that exact roster for the rest of the season. The opposite could not be more true: teams evolve through trades, add/drops, injuries, and the occasional mid-season retirement. Recognizing that a player might miss early parts of the season but can pay dividends after Week 6, or noticing someone has an easy few matchups that will land a sell-high scenario can be sneaky methods to optimize the long-term talent of your roster.
2) Do Not Draft a Quarterback
You heard me right. Unless you’re in a 2QB league or have Mahomes on the board in the 5th round, pass. The value-added of a top signal-caller is not enormous, and great options can be found in the 14th, 15th, and 16th rounds, as well as after the draft.
This one is a gut call when someone’s still on the board late, but either waiting or skipping on a quarterback entirely can maximize your “gamble picks” — picks that have high risk, high reward, especially in the middle rounds.
3) While You’re At It, Do Not Draft a Kicker or Defense
There’s hardly a statistical advantage from K1 to K10, so kickers are truly a waste of a pick. Defense depends on your personal strategy, but consider this: the top defense in fantasy nearly every year scores fewer points than the collective points of whoever was playing the worst-ranked offense each week. In other terms? Looking for defenses on waivers that are playing the 30th, 31st, or 32nd ranked offense will give you more consistent and more productive results.
4) Don’t Draft a Tight End Until the 8th Round, Earliest.
Unless Kelce, Gronk, Ertz, and Kittle are on the board a full round after their projection.
Last year’s Evan Engram stans watched as often-undrafted Darren Waller become an infinitely better value pick. The lesson here is that “tier 2” of tight ends are as common as Antonio Cromartie’s children (look it up).
5) Don’t Just Draft Eagles
I once just drafted Phillies players in a baseball league because I was 11 and dumb. It went horribly.
6) KYP: Know Your Personnel
I never had enough minutes to put this to work, but my high school baseball coach always taught us, outfielders, to Know Your Personnel. If the kid on third is fast, that might change your approach. In fantasy, this works two ways: You need to know the board.
Don’t be the guy who, every round, asks, “Who’s available?” or “Is Player X any good?” Doing your homework doesn’t stop there, though. If you’re in a perennial league, start to notice what your friends do. If patterns arise, you’ll know when to reach and when to sit tight.
7) Draft Consistency, Not Explosiveness
This applies more to wide receivers than anything else. There are two types of guys, those being the Tyreek Hill, Julio Jones type. Sure, once every four weeks they hit 32 points, but the other three games they can leave you with crumbs.
Alternatively, there are the Davante Adams, Michael Thomas types, the ones who see 10+ throws every week and catch 9 of them. They’ll hit 60 yards and a touchdown or 100+ yards every. Single. Week. That second type wins championships.
8) Draft 1 Rookie Running Back
Sometimes fantasy is less about skill and more about playing the odds. Each year three or four rookie tailbacks are talked about. Your job is to pick one somewhere between rounds 5 and 10, maybe two if the board falls a certain way. Sometimes they hit, sometimes they don’t. You might land a Derrius Guice, but you might land an Alfred Morris.
Photo: Getty Images
9) Risk High, Reward High
The first five rounds of the draft are about building a core. You open with an RB1, maybe WR1 if the board falls a certain way. Either way, entering round five most people will have two running backs and two wide receivers. Finish your core out with the best available flex (always lean running back when deciding between two evenly-valued flex options), then start betting the house. Every pick, for the rest of your draft, could be running backs and receivers and I would call it a success.
After the fifth round, take rookies.
Take the guy who just got traded to who-knows-where into a totally new system. Take the guy who just got out of jail, as long as whatever he didn’t wasn’t THAT bad. Take risks. You have 11 rounds to make mistakes, but you’re likely going to hit on one of those picks. Make sure when you hit, it was worth the wait.
10) Have Fun
But not in a cute way. You know what’s fun? Winning. Win your league. Start with the draft. Do your homework, come prepared, take risks, and then start managing your squad every day for the rest of the season.
The draft is like firing the starting gun at NASCAR: You’re off and racing, but the finish line is far away. You know what’s fun? Going undefeated. So yea, go have fun.
August means draft season, so start printing your cheat sheets and reading your op-eds! And remember: Matthew Berry guesses, too. Now go embarrass your friends, your coworkers, and likely yourself.
Keep your eyes peeled for How To Host a Perfect Draft Weekend, coming next week.
Featured Image: ESPN Internet Ventures
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Categorized:Eagles