Fantasy Football Geekly: Fantasy 101
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by Demonboy
IT'S ALL ABOUT THE MONEY
Fantasy Football 101
Welcome to the 2007 edition of what I humbly like to call Fantasy Football Geekly. This is just the first installment of what will be a weekly report after the season starts. For those of you who do not know me, I am just a huge fan of the NFL and I'm becoming a bigger fan every day thanks to Fantasy Football. By no means I am calling myself an expert in picks - yes, I can be good at times but I also can be bad. The advice I give is just my personal opinion. By no means are you obligated to take all or even any of it. I'm also quiet sure that I will disagree with some of you - which is fine, I respect your opinion.
I was asked a few times last year, why do I even post this report. That's a simple answer. First off, every other site out there that has sports either part or all (CBS Sportsline, ESPN, Yahoo, Fox Sports, etc) has thier own little Fantasy Football report - why not this site? Second - I love to write. Every year I'm in anywhere from 8 to 12 leagues on average, last year I was in 16 (I know I have no life lol). So why not myself write it?
My credits - 10+ years of Fantasy playing - mainly baseball... this will only be my 4th in Fantasy Football. However, in the 3 years prior, I've had a total of 30 teams, making the playoffs in 23 of them (8 1st place, 5 2nd place, 6 3rd place & 4 4th-6th).
Before I can do my picks for even week 1, this pre-season report will be my guide to those of you that may be new to Fantasy Football. However, I still think it covers the basics lol
Now on to my personal setup on leagues.
When creating a league, there are a few rules & guidlines I like to go by:
Positions
- 1 QB
- 2 RB's
- 3 WR's
- 1 TE
- 1 WR/RB flex (optional but I like this)
- 1 K
- 1 DEF
- 6 bench MAYBE 7 bench but no more than that.
Points & Rules
- 1 point per 25 yards passing
- 1 point per 20 yards receiving (10yrds per 1 point for TE's ONLY if your league allows this. Outside of a Todd Heap, Antonio Gates or Alge Crumpler, TE's usually don't get thrown to as much therefore their yardage for a point should be less).
- 1 point per 20 yards rushing
- 3 points per 12-49 yard FG
- 5 points per 50+ yard FG
- 1 point per extra point
- 6 points per TD
- 2 points per 2-point conversion
- Individual return yardage. This gives more flexability if your looking for a bye week filler or injured player(s) filler.
- TIE BREAKER RULE!! I don't care if I have to do fractional points, if tie-goto bench, whatever, there MUST BE A TIEBREAKER!! I despise ties!! You can either win or loose a playoff spot due to a tie. In my opinion, that's just wrong. Either give me the win flat out or the loss flat out. How would you like to miss the playoffs by just a measly 1/2 game (1 tie). It's not fun.
- Defense:
- 1 Point per INT
- 1 point per forced fumble
- 1 point per fumble recovery
- 1 point per 20 return yards
- 6 points per DEF/ST TD
- 2 points per safety
- 1 point per sack
- Points allowed:
- 7 points if shutout
- 5 points if 1-9 points allowed
- 3 points if 10-19 points allowed
- 1 point if 20-29 points allowed
- 0 points if 30-39 points allowed
- -5 if 40+ points allowed
- No more than 10-12 teams. Outside of that, when your looking for bye week fillers, sometimes your forced to get the backup to the backup. 10-12 teams is the perfect size.
- No individual defensive positions. Not everyone knows who is a good defensive player. Most people can only name 1 or 2 players - it's only true hard core fanatics that know individual defensive players.
- Playoffs - When it comes to the 'superbowl' do not have it on week 17! NFL teams that are in a playoff spot, usually will rest thier main starter(s) that way they're fresh for the playoffs. If you have your 'superbowl' on week 17, you'll find that it may be difficult on getting in a decent lineup. As for the number of teams - in a 10 team league, top 4 are in unless your league is split into divisions - then and only then it's top 6. In a 12 team, top 6 (even in 2 division leagues).
- Have your draft be between 2 days to 1 1/2 weeks before the start of the NFL season. You don't want to have a draft held on Aug. 3 if the NFL season doesn't start until Sept 6. A lot could happen in that month. When the NFL season starts on the 6th, have the draft between Aug 18 - Sept. 1. You'll get a much better feel of what's going on with the players - who's moving up, who's moving down, who suffored a season ended injury in pre-season, etc.
Live vs Online Draft:
Live Draft:
There's just something about doing a live draft. The hype, the build up, it's a total 'geeky' vibe. Usually, everyone that is there are good friends - so at times there can be a lot of trash talking (I'm one that does a lot of it lol). If you've never been to a live draft, go to one even as an observer. There's nothing like it. Some leagues make a weekend out of it - like a golf outing or other activity with the draft on the last day.
Online Draft:
The only real positive thing that I can say about a online draft is that I can do a draft sitting on the couch using a laptop in my underwear if I feel like it. While I don't like online drafts, I do understand that sometimes it's neccesary - like if not everyone involved can physically meet at the same time but they can get online. They also move a lot quicker than live drafts - picks are usually between 90 second - 2 minute timer.
League Fees & Payouts:
League Fees:
Determining both of these require a little thought. Is this going to be a friendly league or hardcore cut-throat? If this is going to be just a friendly wager league, then anywhere from $20 - $50 per team is fine. If it's a cut-throat league where it's pretty close to the best-of-the-best, then you're probably looking at anywhere from $150 per team on up to I've heard about $500 per team.
If this is you're first or one of your first Fantasy Football leagues, then start small - no more than $50.
Payouts:
I belong to several different pay leagues that are between 10-12 teams. In each league, the payout is different. So this is totally up to you. However, to give you a small example of a couple of leagues:
In my $150 10-team 2 division (5 teams per division) league ($1,500 total prize money):
The 2 divisional winners each get $250 right off the bat. The remaining $1,000 is divided between the 2 teams that are in the championship. This is worked out between the 2 teams on how they want to do it - split it down the middle at $500 each, winner gets $600 looser gets $400, $700/$300 or winner take all. As you can see, this is a very competitive almost cut-throat type league.
In another league, this is more friendly. It's a 12-team 2 division (6 teams per division) league. Buy-in is $20 ($240 total prize money):
1st - $75
2nd - $55
3rd - $40
4th - $30
5th - $20
6th - $20
Everyone else plays in the 'looser bracket'. The team that wins this bracket gets the overall #1 pick the following year while the rest get nothing.
Again, this is totally up to the commish of the league.
Where to Hold Your League
Now it doesn't matter if you choose online or live, you must post your league on a site somewhere. Doing it on paper could only create contraversy and you don't need that.
Yahoo: This is probably the easiest to choose. It's pretty user friendly and you don't have to worry about it too much (micro-manage). Great site for those first timers in Fantasy Football or first timer commisioners.
Fox Sports: The overall interface looks good. However, it can be slow at times. It also had a small problem for me last year - sometimes it took 2 or 3 attempts for either an add/drop or change of roster (bench/active) before it finally took.
CBS Sportsline: I love this site. It's very manageable, it's very versatile in the way you can select the points. The only problem here is that it costs $129.95 for the year. If you choose this way, it's best that you ask all the managers of the teams involved to help contribute to the fee. I.e. in a 10-team league, ask for $13 more than the league buy-in. In a 12-team league, ask for $10.83 or $11 more than the league buy-in.
My order of prefrence: CBS Sportsline followed by Yahoo then Fox Sports.
Predraft
When it comes time for the draft, I cannot stress this enough - HAVE A PLAN! Don't deviate from any plan you have (I'll assist with this later) once you deviate from the plan, that's where you get caught chasing. Once you start chasing, it's very difficult to get back on track and you end up having a less than average draft.
Before the draft is where I do all my research on who I want (1 of mine is on Aug.18). On average, I usually do about 2 weeks of mulling through the players (7/26 - 8/8). Then almost a week of doing mock drafts (antsports.com is pretty good for this) while still mulling through the players (8/9 - 8/15). Then about another day or 2 making my own personal rankings by position. When I come to the draft, I carry 1 maybe 2 sheets of paper while everyone has a cluster-fuck of books & printouts scattered all over the place. Now no matter how many leagues I join, I use the same 1 or 2 sheets on every one.
What is on those sheets of paper? That's easy - the players I want IN ORDER of my personal ranking system. How do I determine how many players to list? Easy - let's say hypathetically, 12 team league using 3 WR's... I just do the math 12 X 3 = 36... right off the bat, I need to list at least 36 WR's but, to play it safe, I'll list between 50-60 WR's (need bye-week fillers)... same formula goes for QB's... 12 teams X 2 QB's (1 start + 1 bye week backup) = 24 QB's. Now on those pieces of paper, next to each players name I also have a number that represents the bye-week that player has (need to make sure I have bye-weeks covered).
Commissoners: About 3-4 weeks before your draft, is when you should order your draft board (A big board where team owners can see who has been picked pictured below in the background). This would give ample time for the order to go through and you can go over it to make sure all the players are listed. Commishkit & FJFantasy are just 2 exmples where to get these. You can also try Ebay. 1 commissoner I know found a great place through Ebay for a 12 team 16 round draft board relatively cheap.
Draft Day
When you get to your draft, be calm, be relaxed and be cool. No not the "Fonzi" cool - strutting in like you own the joint... but cool in the way of - if someone takes your #1 player, don't panic... go to your #2 or even #3. I'd rather have a team of nothing but middle of the pack type players than 1 or 2 studs and a whole bunch of no-bodies.
Commissoners: If the live draft is not being done at your house, please arrive in plenty of time to set up the draft board, seperate the player stickers by position, make sure that there's enough food & drink, etc beforehand. Thought - you may want to concider holding a live draft at your local sports bar, Hooters (some give live draft specials) or if you want to go a little on the expesive & entertainment side - your local strip club. Yes a strip club - I live near a DejaVu and they advertise Live Football Draft specials in the VIP room which includes err "entertainment".
Game Plan Rules:
- Have a game plan and STICK TO IT!
- Don't panic!
- DO NOT CHASE! (chase - noticing a run on a position and your scambling in that position to find a player and you start deviating from your plan. I.e. In a particular round you're looking for a WR but you notice a 2nd run on RB's and you don't have a #3 RB. You stop looking for that WR you want and start looking at that RB instead).
- Don't be affraid of going outside the box. Now that doesn't mean draft a DEF in the 1st round, but it does mean don't be affraid on drafting a WR in round 1 or even a QB in round 2, etc. In 1 of my leagues last year (10 team I picked 10th), I did something different - I drafted 3 WR's in the 1st 3 rounds (Steve Smith rnd 1, Anquan Boldin rnd 2, & Torry Holt rnd 3). All 3 are top players, I was thinking to maybe trade away 1 of them + 'middle of the packer' for a top notch QB or RB leaving 2 very good WR's. That didn't happen but I still sat in first the entire year. My QB was Drew Brees (rnd 11) and I traded Todd Heap (rnd 6) for Marques Colston (listed as TE/WR in Yahoo - used him as the TE) in week 5. I also had Kevin Jones (rnd 10), Chester Taylor (rnd 15) & Fred Taylor (rnd 7) as my RB's. Not bad for thinking outside the box huh? Suprised I was even able to pull that off! (lol)
- No matter where in the draft you pick, your 1-3 picks should be your top guys. Those are your "cream of the crop" players. More often than not, your 1st 3 picks will win or loose many matchups for you. By the end of the 3rd round, you should have your #1 player at WR, RB & QB.
- Make sure to cover your byes! If you have 2 WR's that have a bye-week of weeks 5 & 7, don't pick another week 5 or 7 bye-week WR no matter how high that WR is on your list! You don't want to get caught scrambling looking for a filler at the last minute when you realize that 2 or more players at the same position are on the same bye-week and no one really decent is left.
- If possible, at all costs avoid any & all Denver Broncos RB's. This headache is just not worth it. I HATE YOU SHANAHAN!
- Don't wait until draft day to do your research. Don't sit there during the draft going over stat sheets, 'experts' picks, none of that. This goes back to rule #1 - HAVE A GAME PLAN.
Where to draft players:
Most people use Yahoo in an online draft. In those types of drafts, the drafting usually goes RB, RB, WR, WR, QB, WR, TE, DEF, K no matter the draft position. I don't like that - it's very limiting. If you're fine with that - then by all means go for it. But, as for myself, I usually have 2 different patterns:
| Drafting of postions | |
| 1-5 (10 team) or 1-6 (12 team) | 6-10 (10 team) or 7-12 (12 team) |
|
Rnd 1 - Best avail RB |
Rnd 1 - Best avail QB or WR |
note 1: Best avail means the highest ranked player on your personal ranking system.
note 2: Personally, both of these systems are proven & work very well - at least for me. They may or may not work for you.
As you can see, the 2 drafts do vary slightly. Why is that? The 1st half of the draft, there's a very good chance that you can pretty much predict how the draft is going to start... let me guess here Shaun Alexander, Larry Johnson, LaDainian Tomlinson & Peyton Manning (spots will vary but those will be the front 4). Honestly, I don't like the Manning pick as a top 4, top 10 maybe but not 4. Anyways, there's a very good chance if your 1-6 that you can grab a dominating RB. When it's your turn for in round 2, since you have that #1 RB, now look for your next most productive spot (I have WR listed but you can switch it to a QB then go for WR in rnd 3). Get your #1 guy in that position. In round 3, you can now grab that #1 player at your last most productive position.
On the back half, honestly when it comes to points, there's not that much of a difference between a #10RB or #5RB. Why waste your 1st pick there? In most leagues, TD's rule. Who is going to get you the most TD's (points) a #6RB or a #1 or 2 QB? The QB! Another example - who is going to get you more TD's (points) again with a #6RB or a #1 WR? The WR! On the way back, you can still get an easy top 12 RB. You're 1st pick is not wasted and you get some value out of you're 2nd pick. In a money league last year, it was a 12 team league I had the 9th pick. I picked up Chad Johnson in rnd 1 and Rudi Johnson rnd 2. If I would've picked Rudi in rnd 1, chances are on the way back, Chad would not of been there. When managers saw that I picked a WR in rnd 1, I set them scrambling wish you would've been there when the "oh shit's" starting flying out of mouths & the sound of paper/pages flipping was heard. Steve Smith went rnd 1 pick 10, Torry Holt then followed pick 11 rnd 1 and to finish off rnd 1 (pick 12) it was Marvin Harrison. When rnd 2 started, it went right back to RB's. But now, the RB's that would have been picked in rnd 1 were now being picked in rnd 2. By doing that, it left a lot of good RB's still on the board for when it came back to me. See the value?
By going outside the norm, if you send at least 2 other managers in the opposite direction of where you're next pick is going to be, you're chances to get that player increase by a minimum of 9-11%.
You'll also notice that I did not list a K or DEF bye-week filler. Why waste a draft pick on 2 positions that will be changing almost every week. Unless you have a top 3 DEF or K, I doubt that you'll be using the same DEF & K all year. If you do, that's rare. I think I did it once last year between all the leagues I was in. Now, if you have the bench spots, then that's ok to get those fillers.
