Fantasy football strategy, rankings, and podcasts

All fantasy football owners love draft day.  For some it may be the best part of the season, but here's to hoping its not.  Whether you're a seasoned veteran or a first year rookie there are some simple rules to follow on draft day to ensure you don't make some stupid mistakes.

Rule #1 - Cheat sheet, Cheat sheet, Cheat sheet!  It doesn't matter if you build your own or download one the day of your draft.  A cheat sheet will only improve your odds of making a smarter decision, IT WILL NOT HURT YOU!  I'm not talking about just a simple rankings list either.  Take the time to tier the players in every position, use highlighters, and mark your sleepers.

Having an organized cheat sheet that you put time into will ward off that evil voice in your head that says, "go ahead, draft that rookie 3 rounds early".  Stick to your cheat sheet, if you lose a guy you had your eye on then move on, that's why you devoted time to ranking and organizing in the first place.

Rule #2 - Every fantasy owner gets excited about their picks and theories, but don't feel this overwhelming need to talk to your buddy in your league about it.  He may applaud your "catch", right after he steals it from you in your draft.  Let your picks do the talking during the season, especially after your sleeper winds up being the 10th round pick of a lifetime.  

Rule #3 - Avoid distractions!!!  Facebook, your cell phone, hosting the draft at the buddies place with the hot roommate, all distractions.  It may seem trivial, however you're gonna look stupid and piss your friends off when you attempt to draft a player who got drafted 8 picks ago.  Distractions will also defeat the purpose of that valuable cheat sheet I brought up earlier.  In the later rounds it is easy to be distracted because a lot of the big names are off the board, however these picks are more valuable than you think.  Focus harder in the final rounds and make the picks purely based on fantasy value.

Rule #4 - NO ALCOHOL... OK, maybe just a little.  Seriously though, if you are in any sort of big money league, then avoid drinking too much.  It will make you do stupid things, like ignore your.... that's right, cheat sheet.  You can even turn this rule into an advantage, if you have the money go ahead and buy a bottle of Jack and be sure to let your friends know its fair game.  Everybody has a couple of friends who get wasted on draft night.  Do them, and yourself, a favor; take their keys and feed them more booze!  

Rule #5 - Relax and enjoy yourself.  Fantasy football goes by quick and seems to take forever to arrive again.

Enjoy every minute of it.  Good luck owners!

Fantasy football is like a club, and like any other club, there are certain inside jokes and sayings that only club members understand.  While the jokes and sayings vary from league to league there are certainly some words and terms in fantasy football that you should know before the season starts.  Here you will find a complete list of terms and descriptions to help you better understand what’s going on when “Jim picks up Ryan Mathews’ handcuff”.  Some of these are self explanatory, but for the rookies out there I want to make sure they are understood.

ADP (Average Draft Position):  An average number of where that player is being taken in mock drafts or real ones.  Gives you an idea of what the fantasy world’s value is for an individual player.

Auction Draft:  A fantasy draft in which owners are allotted a certain amount of fantasy cash to fill their roster spots by bidding on NFL players. Owners take turns introducing an opening bid for a player.

Basic Scoring:  Fantasy points are only earned when your starters score touchdowns, kick field goals, and extra points.  Also see Performance Scoring.

Bench Players:  Players which you choose not to start; you receive no points for their performances while they are in the bench slot.

Bust:  A player who is predicted to have a poor season compared to general expectations. The player might be injury-prone, have a future star behind them in the depth chart, or just won't be able to live up to their hype.

Bye Week:  The NFL plays 16 games out of 17 weeks during the season. The game week a team doesn’t play is called their bye week. It is important in fantasy football to make sure that your starters and backups do not have the same bye week since one of the primary reasons for drafting backup players is to have coverage during the bye week of your starter.

Cheat Sheet:  A drafting tool that lists NFL players ranked in order of predicted fantasy points

Commissioner:  The person who is responsible for maintaining the league, reporting the results of the fantasy games, running the draft, collecting entrance fees (if any), and generally keeping things running smoothly. It is important for the commissioner to be unbiased (fair) and honest.

Cut or Drop:  To remove a player from your roster.

Deep league:  A league with more than 12 owners and/or large team sizes. There are more players on fantasy rosters in deep leagues than in a 'normal' league of 12 owners with total rosters of 16 to 18 players (total of 192-216 players drafted).

Depth Chart:  An NFL team roster with players classified as 1st, 2nd, or 3rd string.

Draft:  The meeting of owners and commissioner before the NFL season where owners select the players for their team. It can be done by auction or snake method. Some leagues give the top spots in the draft to the teams with the poorest records from the previous season, others draw for draft positions.

Dynasty League:  A league in which you keep your entire roster from year to year. The next season a draft is held to improve your team. Usually the draft order is based on the previous year's finish. Dynasty leagues are a long term commitment.

FF or FFB:  Short for Fantasy Football

Flex:  A spot in your starting lineup that you can use more than one type of position player; typically RB and WR. Some leagues allow TE’s and QB’s in the flex spot too.

Flier (or Flyer):  An ambiguous term meaning either taking a chance or picking a player off the waiver wire.

FPG:  Fantasy Points per Game

Free Agent:  A player who is not currently on any team's roster. If the league has a waiver system, free agents are players who have cleared waivers.

Gamble:  A player with both high potential and high risk. Players in this category are usually injury-prone, have a high probability for being suspended, or are approaching the end of their career. We recommend not drafting more than one or two gambles on your team.

Ghost ship:  A team that is not being actively managed by its owner or the act of not actively managing a fantasy team.

Handcuffing:  Drafting your stud RBs' backup in case the stud gets injured.

IDP (Individual Defensive Player):  Rather than a team defense approach, some leagues decide to have starters for defensive linemen (DL), linebackers (LB) and defensive backs (DB). The number of starters and scoring systems for these positions varies widely.

Injured Reserve (IR):  An option in some leagues, an injured player can be sent to the IR for a certain number of weeks. The player cannot return to the active lineup and does not earn the owner any points until that number of weeks passed; however another player can be added to the team since the IR player doesn't count against the player limit

Keeper League:  A league in which a certain number of players can be retained from the previous season by each owner, so that their whole team does not have to be redrafted. The number of players can vary. If you retain your whole team it is called a dynasty league.

Mock Draft:  A fake draft that is used to practice drafting strategy and gauge where players will be drafted in actual fantasy football drafts.

Owner:  The person who makes decisions about a fantasy football team. This includes drafting, cutting, and starters.

Performance Scoring:  A system where you receive points for yardage (as in 1 point for every 20 passing yards) in addition to the points scored in a basic scoring system.

PPR (Points Per Reception):  In some leagues, owners earn a fantasy point for each reception their players have during the game. In these leagues, wide receivers become more valuable, as well as running backs who catch well out of the backfield.

Projections:  Similar to a cheat sheet, projections rank players in terms of fantasy value, but predicted statistics are also assigned to players. Since many leagues' scoring methods greatly differ, this is more useful than a cheat sheet because you can apply your own scoring system to determine their fantasy value in your league.

QBBC (Quarterback by Committee):  A relatively new strategy in fantasy football, the QBBC strategy directs owners to pass on the big name QBs and instead draft multiple QBs in the middle to late rounds. Instead of drafting a big name QB in the early rounds you fill your roster with RBs and WRs.

RBBC (Running Back by Committee):  Running back by committee is used by more NFL teams each year. Teams are having success using a fast, small back between the 20-yard lines and a large power back near the goal line. Other NFL teams seem to rotate their RBs to keep them fresh.  However, this creates difficulties in fantasy football since points are awarded for both yardage and touchdowns. Running backs that get the bulk of both a team's yardage and touchdowns are becoming more valuable.

Scoring:  Abbreviations include: TD = Touchdown, FG = Field Goal, XP = Extra Point, INT = Interception and Pts = Points. Also see Basic Scoring and Performance Scoring.

Sleeper:  A draft term for a NFL player that an owner believes is going to have a breakout season. Usually sleepers are drafted in the middle to late rounds of a draft.

Snake Draft:  The type of draft where teams are in a specific order.  Teams will select players in the first round and then reverses the order in the second. For example, in a 12 team league #1 would draft first in round 1 & #12 would draft last. But in Round 2 #12 would draft first and #1 would draft last. The teams would be in normal order in odd rounds and reversed in even rounds.

Starters or Starting Lineup:  The players that you select for a particular week that you will receive points for. A typical starting lineup would include one quarterback, two running backs, two wide receivers, one tight end, one kicker, and one team defense. Some leagues include individual defensive players (IDPs) in lieu of a team defense.  Some leagues also include a flex position, see flex.

Stats:  A player's numerical accomplishments for a given week.

Stud:  A NFL player who has proved himself to be a top scoring player at his position. These players should be started each week regardless of match-up and should only be benched during bye weeks and significant injuries.

Team:  The collection of players that a fantasy owner has.

Team Defense:  Drafting an entire team's defense (rather than individual defensive players), you earn points when any player on the defense records a sack, interception, fumble recovery, safety or touchdown. Most leagues include special teams with the team defense, so if the team scores a touchdown when returning a punt or kickoff you will also earn points.

Trade:  The technique in which owners agree to swap players.

Transaction:  A roster change. Some leagues have a transaction fee.

Waiver Wire:  Some leagues have players recently dropped by teams to go into a "waiver" status for one or more days. When in this status, owners cannot immediately add the player. Instead they make a waiver claim for the player. When the commissioner processes waivers, usually the team with the least wins get first claim on players, and then the team with the second least wins, etc.

The primary principles of fantasy football are simple; scout players, draft your team, give yourself the best chance to win week after week, make the playoffs, win the league.  While those principles are easy enough, it’s everything in between that can be intimidating for rookie owners.  Well drinkfive is here to help with our first ever “How To” guide to fantasy football.

(note:  These are simply the basic to wet your whistle; they will vary depending on your leagues set up and rules)

Scouting:  Simply the process of doing research on NFL players to ensure you know enough to put a good team together.

Goals:

• Create/Find a draft cheat sheet that you feel comfortable going into your draft with
• Develop a system or strategy for drafting your team
• Test your strategy in mock drafts

No matter what you know, or think you know, about the NFL, fantasy football requires research if you want to compete.  This means taking the time to sit down and pour over statistics and trends.  That’s right rookies, T-I-M-E; time is the key to fantasy football, so make sure you have plenty of it before getting involved.

Once you’ve decided to dive in and become an owner your first goal is to create a draft cheat sheet.  A draft cheat sheet is a list of players that you will want to have in some order of value (i.e.  Aaron Rodgers should be ranking higher than Jay Cutler).  A player’s fantasy value is the most important aspect to fantasy football, you’ll learn why later.

There are numerous strategies developed for fantasy football, but I can legitimately tell you that not one of them is a sure fire way to win.  Whether you look up a strategy to follow, or develop some super secret strategy of your own, you MUST HAVE A STRATEGY entering draft day.  Your strategy must be; non-biased, organized, and tested.  That means do not diminish the value of Aaron Rodgers because you’re a Bears fan, or increase the value of a player because he’s “your boy”.  Be organized enough to think on your feet.  Most drafts are timed; meaning you only have so much time to make your pick, which is easy in the early rounds, but it gets more difficult later in the draft. 

That brings me to my third point; test your strategy.  Mock Drafts are an important tool heading into the fantasy season.  Not only can you test your strategy in a “realistic” situation, but you can get an idea of what the fantasy world is thinking.  Pay attention and participate in as many mock drafts as you can, then pour over your results to spot the trends and tighten up your strategy heading into draft day.

Draft Day:  The best part of the fantasy season.  Draft day is the where it all begins, and where it all can go downhill.  Don’t get it?  You will after your first draft.

Goals:

• Stay focused and clear headed
• Draft the best team you can, or most valuable team you can (there is a difference)
• Establish a connection with the rest of your league

Some drafts take place at bars, some drafts online, and some drafts at your buddy’s house, who is undoubtedly single.  No matter where the draft takes place the goals are the same; draft the best damn team you can and start your road to victory.  In order to do that you have to stay clear headed.  This doesn’t mean you can’t  have fun, it just means you need to avoid making those slobbering drunkin draft choices because “your gut tells you he going to be the best damn back up kicker in the league” (yes, an exaggeration I know, but you get the idea).  By all means, drink beer, have fun, and talk trash; but don’t let yourself get too distracted or too intoxicated.  It will not be a fun season if your draft does not go well, remember that.

Upon draft day you may have delusions of grandeur that you’re going to get the all star team of fantasy football, but it won’t happen.  Remember, fantasy football is a football fans dungeon and dragons, everyone does their research, everyone wants to win, and everyone will be taking it seriously.  The first few rounds will fly by as tier one players drop off the board, and provided you’ve done your research you shouldn’t worry too much about your picks in the first couple rounds.  As you work into the middle rounds, that is were winners are made. 

You can follow one of two basic strategies; Drafting for need, or drafting for value. Drafting for need is looking at your roster and examining what position you need filled.  There are plenty of strategies surrounding this basic idea, and you should certainly try a couple out to see how you like them.  Drafting for need is a safe drafting strategy in that you know you will have all your positions filled with a player of your choosing.  The con to this strategy is what you’re missing in value.  Just because you need a running back and its round 10, doesn’t necessarily mean that is the pick to take a running back with.

Drafting for value is a bit more risky because you’re taking a gamble.  When you draft for value you are looking at all the players available at their positions, then you decide who the most valuable one with that pick is.  So when you picks come up you look at the best available QB’s, RB’s, WR’s, and TE’s, then compare them to who is left in those positions to see how valuable they are with that pick. If you’re still not getting it, try searching for “value based drafting”.  The con to value drafting is that value is a relative term.  We all do our best to predict the most valuable players, but there is no guarantee you are making the correct “value based” pick.

The last goal of draft day should be to establish a connection with the league.  Whether you are all good friends, or coworkers; it is important to establish a “professional” connection.  What I mean is; you are an owner now, so act like one.  Talk to the other team owners and pick their brain; find out who they like on their team and who they aren’t so sure about, find out if they plan on making trades or building off the waiver wire, at the very least exchange emails so you can get a hold of them when you need to make a move because you’re first round Jamaal Charles pick just flopped down clutching his knee on the sidelines in Detroit (I’ll never forget!). 

Waiver Wire and Trades:  The end of the draft is just the beginning of the season.  Before you take a breath remember that you still need to win this thing, and your best weapons are the waiver wire and trades.

Goals:

• Put the best starting lineup out there from week to week
• Don’t get screwed in a trade
• Don’t drop Cam Newton before week 1 (only applies to my drinkfive editor: Jason Evans)

We’ll start by explaining the waiver wire because it is undoubtedly your best chance to add talent to your team.  The waiver wire is simply the players who are not on a team.  Here are the basics.  Every league has different rules as far as when you can and cannot use the waiver wire, so make sure you clarify this with your league and commissioner beforehand.  Also, when a player is dropped from a team and put on waivers, it usually means he is not available for a certain amount of time.  You can only have so many players on your team, which means you must drop a person onto waivers before picking somebody up.

By no means should you assume that your draft was so ungodly perfect by every owner that the waiver wire has no talent on it.  You will learn quickly that all the advice and educated guesses in the world cannot predict the outcomes of NFL seasons, or we would all be filthy rich.  After drafting you will want to go onto the waiver wire and flag players you think could be valuable.  This will allow you pay closer attention to them specifically and compare them side by side.  You may also want to start deciding which players on your roster you’d be willing to drop, it’s a tough choice, but you’re an owner now and you can't worry about the player’s feelings (they have no idea you’re dropping them anyway).  However you use the wire, make sure you are on it consistently enough so that you don’t miss out.  The goal is to put the best roster up every week and a waiver pick up may be the deciding factor in a win or a loss.

Besides the waiver wire you can make trades.  Depending on your league trading may happen regularly, or it may happen very rarely.  The biggest, absolute most important rule to remember when making a trade is to take your time and do as much research as you can.  DO NOT GET SCREWED.  It happens every year in every league; somebody gets talked into a bad deal. Trades can be the difference between a winning record and losing record, so try to make them if it is necessary.  You should also hear out trade proposals when they come your way, you never know how desperate the other guy is.  Most importantly is bargaining; do not accept the first deal you get until you have bargained or counter offered. 

Those are the very basics to fantasy football and from this point on you’ll be hooked.  There are all kinds of terms and words exclusive to fantasy football that you should know; which you can check out here at drinkfive.com.

Good Luck Owners.