Fantasy Football 2012: The 5 Biggest Mistakes You Must Avoid During Your Draft

There isn't necessarily one absolute "right" way to conduct a fantasy football draft, as any number of variables can affect how it will proceed, especially given that it involves a group of human beings making decisions.

I mean look at Congress. Sheesh.

However, there are a few easily avoidable mistakes that will all but certainly torpedo a fantasy draft if you're not careful, leaving you mumbling at the end about baseball season not being too far off.

Here's a look at how to avoid those mistakes, because really...

No one wants to look forward to baseball season.

Know What You're Getting Yourself into

One of the easiest mistakes to avoid is also one that never fails to rise up and bite fantasy owners with alarming regularity.

Don't assume anything before you go into a draft.

When joining a new league, the first thing you absolutely must do is take the time to acclimate yourself to the league's scoring system and lineup requirements, as they can impact player values dramatically.

Don't assume that your tenth fantasy football league is exactly like your first nine, because loading up at running back may not do you much good if it turns out you have to start three wide receivers and thought you only needed two.

Unless you're playing in an NSA fantasy football league the info is available. Avail yourself.

Don't Pigeonhole Yourself with a Set Strategy

If there's one thing that's absolutely certain in a fantasy football draft it's that nothing is absolutely certain, which is why the ability to be flexible with your draft strategy or even abandon it altogether is absolutely critical.

Sure, you may think going in that you're going to play it safe and go with running backs with your first two picks, or that you're going shake things up and go with two wide receivers, or that you have the first five rounds perfectly mapped out starting with taking New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski.

Granted, research is a huge help in preparing for your draft, and mock drafts can be great practice.

Then the real thing will start and everything goes flying out the window three picks in.

Be flexible. Don't force the square peg into a round hole.

Take value where you can get it, even if it means making picks you never thought you would going in.

Let the draft come to you, and while you may not end up with the team you'd planned on having it will at least be one you can compete with.

You Can Never Have Too Many Running Backs

Unless your fantasy league is set up in a fashion that renders them irrelevant, if there's one position where's it most important to ensure that you have depth, it's at running back.

Not only is the number of true "feature" backs in the NFL decreasing every year, but no position gets hit harder by injuries every season than running backs.

Furthermore, when the injury bug does sting your squad, good luck finding anything on the waiver wire, because unless you play in a very shallow league it will be picked clean and then some.

If you spend a top-three pick on Arian Foster of the Houston Texans, then you'd better be prepared to grab Ben Tate too. If he gets snatched out from under you, grab a later-round value pick like Pierre Thomas of the New Orleans Saints.

Whatever it takes, load up. You'll need them more than you think, and even if you don't someone else will, which can leave you sitting in a seller's market when trade talks heat up.

Don't Take a Kicker Before the Last Round

Granted, somebody has to be the first team to take a kicker in every fantasy football league.

Don't be that team, unless it's the first pick of the last round.

Not only will you be the subject of any number of tired kicker jokes lobbed at you by your league mates, but you'll have wasted a pick that could be better spent on depth at wide receiver, running back or any position that's not kicker.

Resist the urge, stay the course and wait.

Stay Active!

Granted, this isn't a tip for during your draft so much as after, but it still bears mentioning.

So, your draft went fairly well, you're all set for the season to start and then....

Everything falls apart.

An injury hits, you catch a couple bad scoring breaks, every team you play has their best week ever and before you know it you're sitting at 0-4 and wondering what the heck happened.

That isn't the time to just throw up your hands, swear up fantasy football and take up needlepoint.

Those bad breaks, generally speaking, will even out over the course of a season.

Hit the waiver wire, swing a trade, whatever you need to do. Just keep plugging away.

I've manged teams that started 0-5, then won seven of eight, snuck into the playoffs and won the title.

Look at what the New York Giants did last year. That can be you.

And for heaven's sake, have fun! Unless you bet the rent money (and if you did shame on you) then fantasy football isn't life and death. It's a game. Relax.

Besides, the remote for your TV works better if it's not sticking out of the screen, and laptops don't bounce well at all.

Believe me. I know.