Posted by Paul in Fantasy Advice,Free Draft Kit on Jul 22nd 2009 and last modified on Aug 24th 2009. (Print This)
Fantasy Football Brothers Draft Kit is here!!!
In fantasy football, knowledge is power. Let Fantasy Football Brothers give you the knowledge you need so you have the power to dominate your draft. The first thing you need to do is PRINT this out and slip it into the middle of your favorite fantasy magazine or fantasy folder, as it will now be called. Over the next few weeks, we will be rolling out our free draft kit.
Draft Day Philosophy:
Each year we prepare for our fantasy football drafts. In the up and coming weeks we will spend countless hours going over stats and rankings to come up with a master plan to lead us to fantasy glory. The problem is your fantasy draft will never go as you plan. NEVER! We do countless mock drafts to get an idea of where we believe players will get drafted. We fall in love with players and panic when they get drafted two spots ahead of us. Next thing you know your on the clock and have been thrown off your game. You panic and make a poor selection that rattles your confidence and throws you off your game plan for the rest of the draft. It happens every year and no one is safe. You need to better prepare yourself for the unexpected. Follow these ten simple steps, or commandments if you will, and your team should be a contender come playoff time.
1.) Know your league rules inside and out. I can’t tell you how many times people fail to do this. This can only help you. Every year someone in your league will post on your league message board something along the lines of, “I didn’t know you could do that” or “I thought I was allowed to…” Don’t ever be that guy or girl. Also, you need to know how your waiver wire works. Is it a free for all or do you get a certain amount of picks? If you make a waiver selection do you lose your spot or is it based on your teams record? You need to know how your IR works and take advantage of it to stash players and extend your roster. All of this will cause some owner in your league an unnecessary headache. Don’t let it be you. Use your rules to your advantage.
2.). Know your league scoring system and plan your draft strategy around it. Does your scoring system favor running backs, quarterbacks or wideouts? If so, then that position will hold more value than others regardless of what standard rankings tell you. If your league doesn’t reward receptions, then players like Brian Westbrook lose value while someone like Brandon Jacobs gains it. Do you get extra points for longer touchdowns? In this format, someone like Greg Jennings of the Packers has more value than Reggie Wayne. Create your cheatsheet to cater to your leagues scoring system.
3.) Have a plan on draft day. This is the most important thing you can do. Know where your picking before your draft. Familiarize your self with players who are being drafted in those slots. Not just the first three or four rounds. A drunken monkey smoking a cigar can draft players in first four rounds. You need to do your homework or have us do it for you. For example if you have the 6th pick in a 12 team draft, know you are also picking in slots 19,30,43,54,67,78,91…and so on. Then use an average draft position, or ADP cheat sheet, to create a list of players who are falling in those slots. Use that list to devise a strategy and give your self an idea of what you can expect in each round. Figure out what positions in each round hold the most value. Your cheatsheet should have a list of the four primary positions with players who are falling around those picks.
This is a cheatsheet I would create for a 12 team standard redraft league if I had the 6th pick.
Example: RND:6 Pick 67:
RB-Chris Wells WR-Lee Evans QB-McNabb TE- Owen Daniels
LenDale White A.Gonzalez Schaub C.Cooley
C.Benson D.Jackson M.Ryan G.Olsen
Start your list today and make it for every round. Revise it in the weeks heading up to your draft. Then do it again the night before your draft and I guarantee, you will not be caught off guard. My list usually contains about four or five guys at each of the above listed positions for every round. I map out a general plan and have an idea of what my team will look like. You’ll be surprised at how effective this will be.
4.) Don’t worry about what anyone in your league says after you make a pick. If you draft Chris Johnson at #5 overall in a 12 team standard league your league mates might say you reached. However if your picking at 10 and you select him then it’s considered a great pick. It doesn’t make sense to pass on a player you want if you know he’s not going to be there on the flip. Always take chances on guys you want, but don’t reach too far. Also don’t show emotion or disappointment if someone you wanted gets plucked before your next pick. Use your fantasy brothers cheat sheet and stay the course. Feel free to use words like yikes and ouch when other owners make picks. Then whisper and laugh to one of your friends, this is sure to cause someone in your league an anxiety attack.
5.) Don’t fall in love with your players. If you don’t make moves throughout the year, there is a very good chance your team won’t make the playoffs. Be pro-active, make trades and waiver moves to better your starting roster and depth. Trading can often put your team in a position to contend. Get an idea of each team’s rosters and see who makes a good match with yours. Without fail, you will always find at least two teams that match up with yours. You should always pay attention to injuries, trends and schedules. As soon as someone looses a marquee player because of injury, pounce on them like a lion does a wounded zebra. To do this, you should get every owner in your leagues cell phone numbers and email addresses. Always keep the lines of communication open. This is the only time that text messaging is ok. Also, if a player’s team has a difficult second half schedule, feel free to try and trade him away for someone who has underachieved for the early part of the year. Target players who have soft second half schedules especially during your leagues playoff weeks. Examples of this from last year are players like Tim Hightower and Bernard Berrian. Both players had success early on and if traded at the right time you could have bagged a solid starting player that would have upgraded your roster.
6.) Avoid trends on draft day. If a tight end run starts in the 4th or 5th round and five go off the board before your pick, feel free to go in a different direction. A run of one position means another position is sliding to you. This often happens with tight ends, quarterbacks, defenses and second tier running backs.
7.) Handcuffs are fantasy footballs version of insurance. Try and lock up one teams back field. If you draft Joseph Addai, you should target his running back mate Donald Brown. I think it’s ok to reach for Brown a round or two before his ADP suggest to control the backfield of a potent offense. Be careful with this though. You should stand clear of muddled running back situations. With Addai and Brown we know they will be the guys. Backfield’s like New England and Denver will be a crap shoot that should be avoided if possible, unless of course someone emerges as the clear cut starter. I will be posting my handcuffs cheat sheet the week we focus on running backs. You should print that out as well.
8.) Make sure you use updated player rankings and write-ups. Don’t walk into your draft with a fantasy magazine you picked up a month ago. Use updated ranking and cheat sheets. We will be rolling out our draft kit over the next few weeks to provide these tools for you. We will constantly update our content as camps and the pre-season gets under way. Stick with us and you’ll be fine.
9.) What to bring on draft night? Besides your fantasy football brothers draft kit you should bring beer and a porn magazine. That’s right, beer and porn. Drop the mag on a table and someone will pick it up, this will cause at least one owner in your league to focus on T&A instead of LDT & AP. Bring, at the very least, a 30 pack of beer and start handing out frosty beverages. Remember be a good friend and make sure no one is ever empty handed on draft night. You can have one but wait till your draft is over to start putting them back. There will be several owners who look at draft night as a chance to get out of the house. They have permission from there wife, girlfriend or mom to be at the draft. These guys will always put back beers at a solid pace. Sit back and watch the train wreck ensue. If your draft isn’t catered, mention ordering food in the 2nd or 3rd round, but procrastinate until the 6th. This is good for two reasons.
1.) Someone will focus on food as soon as it’s mentioned instead of focusing on rounds 3-6. Try to avoid simple take out foods like pizza and use menu’s. Buffalo wings are good for a few reasons, they’re messy, (ruin mags,cheat sheets) and hot (distractions, More drinking) You want your league mates reading anything but football related content.
2.) As soon as the food gets there the focus turns to inhaling it at a ridiculous pace. This should cause a couple bad picks between rounds 8-11.
10.) Know this. There are only three certainties come draft day.
1.) Your draft night will be the last time all season that every owner in your league is truly happy and optimistic about there teams chances. Make sure no one leaves with confidence, and leave with at least one bad trade offer each.
2.) It doesn’t matter how well you prepare, we can’t predict everything that will happen. Injuries are a part of the game and they are going to occur. Players who we never thought would break out do, and the players we expect to produce will not. This is a certainty and is why we love football.
3.) All will be good if you stay with the Brotherhood.
One Response to “Draft Day Philosophy.”
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Outstanding article! Full of great info and very entertaining to read. I’m now a big fan!