2010 Fantasy Football – Draft Day Strategy and Tips – Part One

With the rise in popularity of fantasy sports and fantasy football in particular, there has also been a surge in opinions on the best way to approach your draft day strategy.

Opinions are like, well you know, everyone has them. Our opinions are based on a solid 15 years of high level fantasy football participation and are without bias.

Tips To Drafting A Winning Fantasy Team

One of the most important tips to drafting a winning fantasy roster is the one that may seem the most obvious. You must know the rules of your league. The format, the number of roster spots, weekly activation requirements and, most important, the scoring system.

League formats vary from standard which is not usually standard at all, to points per reception (PPR) to formats that include individual defensive players being selected and activated. We prefer a PPR Draft as it is a quality format with huge scoring.

Picking the right league, with an acceptable format, is just as important as selecting your players.

Go By The Numbers In Your Fantasy Football Draft

Roster limits vary from league to league but 20 players is about average. Leagues that have lower limits have more all star teams on them while leagues with larger limits tend to spread the wealth a little thin.

A 12 owner league with a 20 player roster limit means that 240 players will be selected on draft day. If you played in an eight owner league that went 15 rounds there would be 120 players selected.

Knowing your roster limits helps you set up your Draft Day “cheat sheet” to ensure you don’t leave anyone off the list as well as fine tuning it as tight as you wish.

Game day activations are also very important as each position will have a different maximum and minimum requirement. Leagues that activate 10 players weekly with one being a flex player (RB WR or TE) are the most common today.

If you play in a league that’s a PPR league with a flex position that activation should probably come from the wide receiver position. That means the importance of preparing to stockpile receivers goes up.

Know The Point Values In Your Fantasy Football League

As mentioned this may seem very obvious but it is so important that it can’t be taken for granted. Every league has different scoring and you need to know the point values.

One league may award four points for a TD while the next league may award six fantasy points for a TD. Some leagues give one point per 15 yards passing while another sets the mark one point for 20 yards of passing.

Negative numbers are especially important to know. Yours truly plays in a league that bilks us for five points for an INT and another league that is kinder at minus two points per INT. Of those two leagues a gun slinging quarterback that puts up lots of TD but throws a lot of picks would be more suited to the lower negative INT cost league.

Knowledge is key! We will have more tips and strategies in the coming days so stay tuned!