NFL
By: Greg Rector
Now that the pre-season games have begun most folks are now entering their fantasy football drafts. Of course, you have tons of options as to the style of the league you join, there are traditional snake drafts, auction drafts, and dynasty leagues to select from. For this article, though, I will focus on the standard snake drafts that most people will join on NFL Fantasy, ESPN, or Yahoo, the three most popular sites for Fantasy football.
Most people will join a 10 team league, while the second most popular option is a 12 team league. The talent pool thins out quite drastically with the two extra teams and is more challenging. For this article, I will stick to a 10 team league. Here are a few things that you want to keep in mind before the league is actually drafted.
Draft Position:
The first thing is your draft position. Yes, it’s nice to get the first overall draft pick however that also means you are waiting until the 21st pick of the draft to get your next player. That’s a lot of talent between the picks. The one advantage though is the back-to-back picks you get in the successive rounds. The really hard spots to draft from are slots three to seven in the draft. I actually love drafting in the last three positions over the first three spots. In all public leagues, the computer will decide the draft order. In custom leagues, the commissioner can decide the draft order or allow the computer to do so. You want to avoid the former as it leads to plenty of fights, so if you want to be in a custom league with friends or co-workers avoid that situation, I have seen leagues fall apart right on draft night. The other factor is whether you select an auto-pick team or attend a live draft. If you do the auto-pick league the computer makes the selections for you. Doesn’t mean you simply don’t do anything, however. You will need to pre-rank your players. If you are in a live draft to help speed things up you can queue up the players you hope to get and be ready to pick that much faster.
Position Order:
Here’s where all kinds of fights between fantasy players and so-called experts start. Do I draft Mahomes in round one? Do I take Travis Kelce? Do I take a wide receiver first? Do I take a running back first? Here’s how I approach those position questions. Remember you are building an entire roster, and no one will ever have the top-ranked player at every position. If you are in the first 8 slots go more traditional as in taking the best running back or wide receiver first and in the first few rounds keep building those two slots along with your flex selection, which can be a wide receiver or running back. Then focus on your TE and quarterback later on. I tend to break the rules if I am at the back end. Basically, you know the highest-ranked running backs are gone by the time you pick at 9 or 10, so drafting says a Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce back-to-back, that way you counter their strength at running back with a top-ranked QB and TE (Both scored the most fantasy points at their positions last year) then the next turn select two RB’s or two receivers, or one of each the next two turns you have. You might not have the highest-ranked guys at those slots but you will have contributors who are still good. I don’t always do that but I have used this to my advantage for several years. The reason I paired Mahomes and Kelce is another part of the fantasy football strategy. You know in the red zone that Kelce is Mahomes favorite target so why not benefit from the yardage and touchdown pass two times instead of once?
The Handcuff:
The previous example is something to keep in mind for all fantasy players. Double-dipping by having one of your receivers or tight-end paired with your QB. It just gives you more points. Keep that in mind for your bench as well. Here’s what I mean. Say you selected Dak Prescott and Ceedee Lamb or Amari Cooper on your starting roster. You won’t be able to use them in week 7 the Cowboys bye week. So as your QB2 maybe select a guy like Baker Mayfield and get Jarvis Landry to go with him. Both are usually available later on. Now Landry might not be Mayfield’s prime target but he has been consistent and it’s generally just for one week. So pairing teammates when possible just makes sense.
The Sophmore’s:
Here’s where doing your scouting comes into play. Yes we are all familiar with the “Sophmore Slump,” a guy has a tremendous rookie season but in year two regresses rather than signs of progress in his second season. On the other hand, some guys might not have lit up the world in year one but suddenly grow before your eyes. Since you know you won’t get every top guy at every position, knowing depth charts for each team matters. Here’s where this can come into play. Last year Justin Jefferson was electric for the Vikings in combination with Kirk Cousins, the question is do you believe Cousins who has a history of inconsistency, can repeat that a second time? If so good for Minnesota, but if you take that history of inconsistent play from Cousins into account then Jefferson might be a candidate for a drop-off. Meanwhile, a Ceedee Lamb or a Jerry Jeudy who both had a decent rookie season, could be primed for big jumps in season two. For Lamb, it would be by having a healthy Dak Prescott for a whole season. In those 4 plus games together last year they were a perfect 158 rating on pass plays over 20 yards. Think about that happening 17 times? Jeudy is also primed for a better season no matter if it’s Drew Lock or Teddy Bridgewater throwing the ball. The reason? He’s just that athletically gifted and he’s smart. Spent all off-season working on his route tree.
The Waiver Wire:
Every league utilizes a waiver wire where you can drop someone from your roster in favor of someone who originally went undrafted in the league. This is ALWAYS something you want to utilize. Like the draft, there is a priority order to the waiver wire from 1 to 10. Keep that in mind as the inevitable breakout game happens as do injuries to your roster. For those who drafted already this has come into play. Cam Akers, a top ten running back tore his Achilles tendon and is gone for the season. If you had drafted Akers, you already either dropped him in favor of Darrell Henderson who moved up the depth chart for the Rams, or another RB. Those injuries hurt because of the drop-off in talent. Hopefully, those players were smart enough to have drafted a decent bench player already.
Sleepers:
Every season some players are overlooked in fantasy drafts who end up being good contributors to the playoff teams in leagues. Here are my top 10 fantasy “Sleepers.” So here are a few names at the top 3 spots in fantasy, the quarterback, the running back, and wide receivers.
Quarterbacks
Tua Tagovailoa – Dolphins
The Dolphins added plenty of weapons in the off-season so as a good QB2 option who could also help if your QB1 gets hurt, Tagovailoa has the potential to keep your fantasy team in the running.
Jameis Winston- Saints
Hold the laughter folks. Winston is in a better place than when we last saw him with Tampa Bay, where he had his infamous 30 touchdowns and 30 interception season. Sean Payton is a quarterback-friendly coach, plus he had an entire season to watch and learn from Drew Brees.
Honorable mentions go to Daniel Jones, yes folks another guy who was given more weapons, if he can utilize them and is more consistent he could put up solid fantasy points.
Running Backs
Simply a punishing position as we already have seen with Cam Akers and last year with both Christian McCaffrey (1st overall ranked) and Saquon Barkley (3rd ranked overall)
Jamaal Williams – Detroit
I know a Detroit Lion, what are you thinking Greg?? Here’s what I am thinking De’andre Swift is talented but he hasn’t escaped the injury bug his first two seasons. While Williams was a solid backup for Aaron Jones in Green Bay.
AJ Dillon – Packers
Have you seen this man’s legs? They are like a solid oak tree, thick and awfully strong. Dillon also gets red zone carries much to the chagrin of Aaron Jones owners. If Jones were to suffer an injury the Packers’ running game wouldn’t see a huge drop in production.
Honorable mention to Tony Pollard of the Cowboys (Team already saying Elliott won’t be over-worked) so Pollard should score more points based on that alone, again if Elliott were to get hurt Pollard would be the RB1 in a high-powered offense.
Wide Receivers
Marquez Callaway – Saints
So if you’ve watched the Saints’ offense the last few years you would know that Micahel Thomas has been the favorite target for anyone taking snaps as the Saints QB. The X receiver spot has always been the primary focus for Payton’s passing game. With Thomas being injured Callaway appears to be the next man up. Could get you some solid numbers until Thomas can return.
Jalon Reagor – Eagles
Reagor struggled in his rookie season as did the Eagles overall. They drafted Heisman Trophy winner Davonte Smith as well. So why would I mention Reagor at all? The simple fact is the focus will be stopping Smith for every opponent and Reagor will see plenty of single coverage. Meaning he should benefit with more yardage and TD’s.
Last year I played in 8 ESPN and 6 Yahoo leagues, I won two leagues at each site and made the playoffs in all but one league, despite the injuries and COVID-19 issues through the league last year. I have been fantasy football for over twenty years.
If you have any fantasy questions feel free to ask me on Twitter @GregCowboys and I will do my best to answer them.
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