NFL
By: Greg Rector
Fantasy Football 101
The rules on how to win your fantasy football league are pretty simple. Foremost in your mind, you need to understand that you won’t have the top player at every position. Get over that fact or you’re going to lose every time. My fantasy roster below is just one example of how to play the game properly. I used ESPN’s standard fantasy football league.
Never draft too many guys from your favorite NFL team. Three offensive players and one defense is the limit. if you want to win your fantasy football league.
In this draft, I had the 9th selection out of 10 teams. Because the draft goes in the snake format I picked 9th and then had the second pick of the second round. Here’s where went off the rails so to speak. I drafted Travis Kelce and then grabbed Patrick Mahomes with my second pick. Now almost everyone else had drafted running backs and wide receivers in front of me.
1st Selection was Travis Kelce
2nd Selection was Patrick Mahomes
3rd Selection was Najee Harris
4th Selection was Jaylen Waddle
5th Selection was Deebo Samuel
6th Selection was Kenneth Walker III
7the Selection was 49ers D/ST
8th Selection was Dak Prescott
9th Selection was Brandon Aiyuk
10th Selection was Jamaal Williams
11th Selection was Odell Beckham Jr
12th Selection was Cole Kmet
13th Selection was Browns D/ST
14th Selection was Michael Gallup
15th Selection was Kendre Miller
16th Selection was Harrison Butker K
So, I decided to take the top tight end and the top quarterback in fantasy football. Was I worried about the usual take a running back first form? Not at all. As you see I ended up with Najee Harris and Kenneth Walker III as my two starting running backs. Now my wide receivers I was worried about because you need a guy who can get you receptions.
That’s where Jaylen Waddle and Deebo Samuel came into the mix. Now neither one is considered to be Justin Jefferson or Ja’Maar Chase but they will do just fine.
Because of where I was selecting from I went to the Niners defense and then took my backup quarterback in Dak Prescott. Notice I also focus on players with different BYE weeks at every position. That’s another key error fantasy football players make. You need to spread out the bye weeks so because the Chiefs have a week 10 bye my second QB is off on week 7 Same applies to every position.
After I had drafted my starters I went looking for the best player available at the bench positions. So that’s where I have my players who I need for one week or in case of an injury to one of my starters. Yes, you will need to use the league waiver wire and that part of the game sucks.
Now just remember that you can win in fantasy football even selecting 9th or tenth in your league is an advantage at times as you can see by my roster.
Picking Last In A Draft
Here’s a team I drafted with the 10th selection out of the ten teams. Someone else had drafted Patrick Mahomes very early on this draft. However, because of the players taken ahead of me, Austin Ekeler was still available at the 10th pick. You bet I drafted the Chargers’ RB because he is a PPR master.
What you’ll also notice is I didn’t hesitate to draft rookies. Certainly, most rookies won’t light up the league. But do not forget that many rookies will contribute enough to win your fantasy football league. As a matter of fact, I usually select two rookies however because of he way this draft fell I selected four rookies.
1st Selection was Austin Ekeler
2nd Selection was Ceedee Lamb
3rd Selection was Jahmyr Gibbs
4th Selection was Lamar Jackson
5th Selection was Darren Waller
6th Selection was Diontae Johnson
7th Selection was Brandin Cooks
8th Selection was Dak Prescott
9th Selection was Cowboys D/ST
10th Selection was Steelers D/ST
1th Selection was Daniel Carlson K
12th Selection was Jamaal Williams
13th Selection was Dalton Kincaid
14th Selection was Quentin Johnson
15th Selection was Zay Flowers
16th Selection was Jeff Wilson Jr
Picking Early Selections
Here’s where most guys and gals also fail to realize what they should do when they select in the middle of the draft in fantasy football. They are usually the guys or gals who end up never putting together any two good players. Now even if you can’t get Justin Herbert Keenan Allen and Austin Ekeler together the way I did look at who else I paired up in this draft. I drafted the Lions’ wide receiver running back and their quarterback as well as the Chargers’ trio. I had the second selection overall.
Why because I have two really good offenses and I can switch from one team to another depending upon the matchup of whom the Chargers or Lions play each week. This strategy has helped me win more fantasy football leagues than any other one has.
So here are three approaches and trust me two of these three teams will end up in the championship games in these fantasy football leagues.
1st Selection was Austin Ekeler
2nd Selection was Amon Ra – St.Brown
3rd Selection was Tony Pollard
4th Selection was Jahmyr Gibbs
5th Selection was Keenan Allen
6th Selection was Justin Herbert
7th Selection was Dallas Goedert
8th Selection was 49ers D/ST
9th Selection was Cowboys D/ST
10th Selection was Quentin Johnson
1th Selection was Tyler Higbee
12th Selection was Daniel Carlson K
13th Selection was Jared Goff
14th Selection was Dalton Kincaid
15th Selection was Chase Brown
16th Selection was Zay Flowers
As you can see whether select early or late in my draft, I use a strategy. It involves pairing up players as best as I can while also remembering the bye weeks.
