Getting ready

[thunderkyss]

So how do you guys prepare for your fantasy draft?

I'm only going to play in one league this year. I'm not at all happy with the way I've placed ever, & really want to get serious about playing. Best I've ever done was the 4th seed, going on to win the Super Bowl, but the league championship is awarded on points.

It's a ten team league, non-keeper, non-ppr.

In the past, I'd get a few FF magazines... but draft based on a "cheat sheet" acquired at the last minute. Is that what you do? Do you make your own cheat sheets? Do these mock drafts help you? ADP?

I tried looking at ADP, but the guys in my league are pretty unpredictable. Three of the guys ate pretty hardcore. They're usually the top three in the league every year. Three of us are semi serious. One regular who doesn't know what he's doing & the other three spots turn over every year.

Any websites worth reading? Any worth paying for? Do you make notes any where? Do you use a laptop on draft day? A tablet? Your phone? Pen & paper?

 

[ObsiWan]

Like you, I'm only semi-serious in that I don't webcrawl all the FFL websites. I usually just use ESPN and CBS Sports because they rank by position and have a decent synopsis of all the key players. I have yet to pay for access to a website when those two are free.

And I usually print out a sheet that lists/ranks guys by position and scratch them off as I go. But I use my laptop to "scout" guys I'm thinking about picking up.

Speaking of which, our draft is on Friday, 8/28. Guess I better start pulling my list together.

 

[Playoffs]

Don't pay.

Use someone else's free rankings like ESPN, NFL.com, or CBSSports or similar.

Don't waste money on magazines.

Print 3 sheets for your draft: Overall Top 30 to 50 to 100, Position rankings, Defense rankings. (Add ADP if you have those.)

Go back and review final fantasy scoring leaders in your league's scoring system. Note the gaps within position groups.

Decide on a drafting strategy beforehand and follow it. (Review league drafting history in developing your plan.)

Follow your cheat-sheets... Don't be smarter than their rankings, unless you actually are.

If it's a live, in person draft don't drink too much.

Do talk trash during the draft, bring up injuries to drafted players or demotions... whether true or not.

 

[ObsiWan]

Do talk trash during the draft, bring up injuries to drafted players or demotions... whether true or not.

 

[powda]

Talent + opportunity = success (normally.)
My biggest issue isnt identyfing good players...it's knowing when to play them. I routinely made management mistakes last year leaving points on the bench. It cost me - some of it was bad luck and some of it was not being better informed.

Let's separate ff into categories : draft and team management.

In the draft your league scoring likely values some positions higher then others. Know it and exploit it. There's also a matter of supply and demand to consider when weighting the positions.

1)First things first: pick a position and rank the players. I start with rbs. I find a publication ranking i mostly agree with and start my own list ranking players on TALENT.

2)Once I have that in order, I look at free agency aquisitions and again adjust my rankings. (Great offensive line aquisitions for instance would bump a running back up...2 good rbs like murry/Mathews drop them both. A new good qb elevates a wr/te.) You get the drift.

3)Next i take that ranking and judge it vs coaching/scheme changes. Again i adjust based on tendencies. As an example, forte had a hundred+ catches last year. I play in a ppr and tresman is no longer with the bears - he's a raven. For me forte may lose some spots in my personal ranking and forsett gains a bump.

Rinse and repeat. Once i have rankings for all individual positions i start to compare the positions against one another and create tiers. Im my leagues scoring system for instance arron rodgers is ABOUT as valuable as L mccoy.

Once i have starters in place and 1 solid reserve at each position i tend to gamble more on sheer talent. The year julio jones and aj green were drafted i got them both LATEEEEE in my league. If we had a keeper league i would've killed it the following year.

If you draft defensive players vs defenses look for 3 down linbackers...

I was always that guy whos first 3 out of 4 picks were rbs (flex rb) ,but the nfl trend has shifted with so many committe back fields. It worked for a while but the results have dwindled in the last few seasons. I'll likely value top qbs, tes, and wrs more then i ever have.

Again, your scoring system (and league draft trends) should dictate what's best for you...but thats a summary of how i evaluate talent. Now if i could just figure out when to play a third string wr for his career 3td performance over calvin johnson i'd be good. Someone share some advice on the right time to cut/get/bench/play guys and i might be set.