Fantasy Football Draft Guide

The NFL season is right around the corner, and that also means fantasy football is starting it's ramp-up. The hardcore ballers are beginning their stat-crunching pre-season analysis, but the popularity of fantasy football is growing. More and more people are getting into it every year, and it seems like for someone new to the game, it's too tough to figure out what you're supposed to even do, let alone devise any kind of a strategy.

I've joined a league, now what?

Well, you'll start with the draft, and you need to spend at least a few minutes to get prepared. Many online fantasy leagues will rank players for you, but there a couple of additional items you need to know before you jump in. The first rule, or guideline I should say, is that what order you draft a position is actually really important. Don't follow it to a T, because there is naturally some finesse involved (Peyton Manning usually goes early, which is unusual for a quarterback), but Running Backs (RB) and Wide Receivers (WR) are generally more valuable than Kickers (K) and Defenses / Special Teams (DEF/ST). Here is the outline I generally follow for drafting position order:

1. Running Back
2. Running Back
3. Wide Receiver
4. Running Back
5. Quarterback
6. Wide Receiver
7. Tight End
8. Wide Receiver
9. Running Back
10. Quarterback
11. Wide Receiver
12. Defense / Special Teams
13. Tight End
14. Running Back / Wide Receiver (either, depending on what you need)
15. Kicker
16. Defense / Special Teams

Strategy of bye weeks

Every NFL team has one bye week during the season. The strategy here is not to pick early picks of the same position with the same bye week, as that means they would both be benched one week, which could lead to a sure loss for that week. When I'm drafting, I like to write down who I pick in what round, what their position is, and what bye week they have. So say in the first round, I take Steven Jackson (RB) of the Rams. The Rams have a bye for week 9, so when round two rolls around, I want to make sure I draft a RB who doesn't have a bye week in week 9.

Here's the breakdown of bye weeks by team:

Week 4: Jacksonville, New Orleans, Tennessee, Washington
Week 5: Cincinnati, Minnesota, Oakland, Philadelphia
Week 6: Buffalo, Denver, Detroit, Indianapolis, Pittsburgh, San Francisco
Week 7: Carolina, Cleveland, Green Bay, San Diego
Week 8: Arizona, Atlanta, Baltimore, Dallas, Kansas City, Seattle
Week 9: Chicago, Miami, N.Y. Giants, St. Louis
Week 10: Houston, New England, N.Y. Jets, Tampa Bay

Don't draft drama

If you follow the NFL at all, you are aware that there are some players that are just high-risk. These are the guys that get themselves arrested, banned, and booed off the field. Some people will take a risk with some of these guys, but sometimes they don't pan out. I usually stay away from Terrell Owens. Michael Vick is pretty much a bust this year. Rookies are usually pretty high-risk too. Last year, a lot of managers drafted Reggie Bush thinking he would be the Michael Jordan of the NFL. While he had a great season for a rookie, those managers probably would have been better off taking a more proven back.

Check out rankings

There are some good sites out there to get a feel for fantasy rankings and who you should pick when. Some people like to print out a cheat-sheet. Most of the websites, such as ESPN, have rankings built-in to their draft application, so at every stage of the draft, you'll know who the best player for each position still available is.

Do a mock-draft

ESPN will let you do a mock-draft to get a feel for the draft experience so you're not going in cold. I highly recommend doing at least one just to see what it's like, and also to make sure you have the Java plugins, Flash players and what-not prior to your draft. It would really suck to login at draft time only to be late for your first-round pick because you didn't have the latest Java Runtime Environment installed.

Queue up your favorites

Everybody wants Steven Jackson and Ladanian Tomlinson this season. I had Jackson last season, and he was solid and consistent. I usually like to draft former Beavers players too, but last season, I was late for my draft and wanted to make sure I got the people I wanted. If you get setup at your fantasy football site early, many places will let you queue up your favorite players, so that if sometime happens and you're late to your draft, it will auto-pick for you based on your set priority. I highly suggest setting a queue, just in case you're late.