The Brotherhoods Guide To Fantasy Football Drafting

Bill ShermanJul 28, 2010

In fantasy football knowledge is power. Fantasy Football Brothers was created to give you the knowledge you need, giving you the power to dominate your draft. Our only goal is to help you win a fantasy championship. The first thing you need to do is bookmark this site because you have found the best. Over the next few weeks we’ll be rolling out our draft kit starting with the quarterbacks on Monday. If your idea of fantasy football fun is donating money to your league year in and year out stop reading now. If you are tired of losing and ready to turn your league on it’s head, then I strongly recommend printing out everything we post from now until your draft. Stick it in the middle of your favorite fantasy magazine and bring it with you everywhere you go. Have it with you when you’re at the beach or on the toilet. Read our write ups and you’ll be up to date and familiar with every player that is fantasy relevant. If you have any questions feel free to take advantage of our Ask a Question Feature. Our job is to answer any question you have in a timely manor. We’re also available to bounce ideas off of. The fantasy game can be a lonely one. Secrets win leagues. Let us be your secret weapon.

The fact is, we know people work and have families. Most of you don’t have enough time to do the research that it takes to have a successful fantasy season. That’s where we come in. We provide a service that allows you to dominate your league without skipping a beat in your personal life. It’s what we do and we love doing it. If you stick with us I guarantee you will be happy you did.

Draft Day Philosophy

Each year we prepare for our upcoming fantasy football drafts. In the up and coming weeks we will spend countless hours going over stats and rankings to come up with a master plan to lead us to fantasy glory. The problem is your fantasy draft will never go as you plan. NEVER! We do countless mock drafts to get an idea of where we believe players will get drafted. We fall in love with players and panic when they get drafted two spots ahead of us. The next thing you know your on the clock and have been thrown off your game. You panic and make a poor selection that rattles your confidence and throws you off your game plan for the rest of the draft. It happens every year and nobody is safe from it potentially happening to them. You need to better prepare yourself for the unexpected. Follow these ten simple steps, or commandments if you will, and your team will be a contender come playoff time.

1.) Know your league rules inside and out.

I can’t tell you how many times people fail to do this. This can only help you. Every year someone in your league will post on your league message board something along the lines of “I didn’t know you could do that” or “I thought I was allowed to…” don’t ever be that guy or girl. Know how your waiver wire works. Is it a free for all, or do you get a certain amount of picks? If you make a waiver selection do you lose your spot? Is it based on your teams record? You need to know these things, and you’d be surprised at the number of people who don’t. Also, know how your Injury Roster works and take advantage of it. More often than not your IR will allow you to stash players and extend your roster. All of these simple rules will cause some owner in your league an unnecessary headache. Don’t let it be you. Use your league rules to your advantage.

We All Know He Is Going Deep

2.). Know your league scoring system and plan your draft strategy around it.

This is another one that gets overlooked way too often. It’s simple enough, yet people go through an entire draft not knowing what position your league favors. Does your scoring format favor running backs, quarterbacks or wide outs? Make sure you know, and plan your strategy accordingly. League scoring is so different that standard ranks seldom have value in most formats. If your league doesn’t reward receptions, then a player like LeSean McCoy will lose value while someone like Michael Turner gains it. Do you get extra points for longer touchdowns? In this format, DeSean Jackson of the Eagles will have more value than Sidney Rice. Create your cheat sheet to cater to your leagues scoring. Our new Draft Day Rank Tool will allow you to submit your league scoring and rank the players accordingly. This will give you an edge over your league mates.

3.) Have a plan on draft day.

This is the most important thing you can do. Make sure you know where you’re picking before your draft. Familiarize yourself with players who are being drafted in those slots, and not just the first three or four rounds. A drunken monkey smoking a cigar can draft players in the first four rounds. You need to do your homework or have us do it for you. For example; if you have the 6^th pick in a 12 team draft, know you are also picking in slots 19, 30, 43, 54, 67, 78, 91…and so on. Then use an average draft position, or ADP cheat sheet, to create a list of players who are falling in those slots. Use that list to devise a strategy and give yourself an idea of what you can expect in each round. Figure out what positions in each round holds the most value. Your cheat sheet should have a list of the four primary positions with players who are falling around those picks.

This is a cheat sheet I would create for a 12 team standard redraft league if I had the 6^th pick.

Example: RND:6 Pick 67:

RB-Jahvid Best WR- H. Nicks QB- B. Favre TE- J. Finley

Brandon Jacobs P. Garcon K. Kolb B. Celek

J. Harrison D. Mason Eli Manning J. Witten

Start your list today and make it for every round. Revise it in the weeks leading up to your draft. Then do it again the night before your draft and I guarantee you will not be caught off guard. My list usually contains about four or five guys at each of the above listed positions for every round. I map out a general plan and have an idea of what my team will look like. You’ll be surprised at how effective this will be.

4.) Don’t worry about what anyone in your league says after you make a pick.

If you draft Drew Brees at #5 overall in a 12 team standard league, your league mates might say you reached. However, if you’re picking in the 10 spot and you select him, then it’s considered a great pick. It doesn’t make sense to pass on a player you want, if you know he’s not going to be there on the flip. Always take chances on guys you want, but don’t reach too far. Never show emotion or disappointment if someone you wanted gets plucked before your next pick. Use your Fantasy Brothers cheat sheet and stay the course.

Remember it goes both ways. Feel free to use words like yikes or ouch when other owners make picks. Then whisper and laugh to one of your friends, this is sure to cause someone in your league an anxiety attack. They’ll be more focused on what you think than focusing on their next pick.

5.) Don’t fall in love with your players.

If you don’t make moves throughout the year, there is a very good chance your team won’t make the playoffs. Be pro-active; make trades and waiver moves to better your starting roster and depth. Trading can often put your team in a position to contend. Get an idea of each team’s rosters and see who makes a good match with yours. Without fail, you’ll always find at least two teams that match up with yours and make good trade partners. You should always pay attention to injuries, trends and schedules. As soon as someone loses a marquee player because of injury, pounce on them like a lion does a wounded zebra. To do this, you should get every owner in your leagues cell phone numbers and email addresses. Always keep the lines of communication open. This should be the only time that text messaging is acceptable, but that’s a story for another day. Also, if one of the player’s on your team has a difficult second half schedule or is showing signs of wearing down, feel free to try and trade him for someone who has underachieved during the first couple of weeks. Just remember, it’s important to be patient. The season is too long to push the panic button early. Remain calm and target the owners who usually freak out after two strait losing weeks.

If you stick with us you’ll probably have a very good starting roster with solid depth. Feel free to trade away your depth at the trade deadline or just before. Solid depth has never won anyone a fantasy title.

6.) Avoid trends on draft day.

When trends occur people panic. If a tight end run starts in the 4th or 5th round and five go off the board before your pick, feel free to go in a different direction. A run of one position means another position is sliding to you. This often happens with tight ends, quarterbacks, defenses and second tier running backs. It’s ok to grab a guy with value at the end of a run, but don’t reach.

7.) Handcuffs are fantasy footballs version of insurance.

We buy car insurance, house insurance and life insurance. Why not fantasy insurance? Try and lock up one teams back field. If you draft Adrian Peterson or Chris Johnson, you should target Toby Gerhart and Javon Ringer a round or two before their ADP suggests. It’s ok to secure the backfield when there is a clear cut starter and backup. However, this doesn’t mean you should draft every running back from one team. Stand clear of muddled running back situations. We know Gerhart will be the guys if Peterson goes down. Backfield’s like New England and Washington’s will be a crap shoot that should be avoided if possible. Unless, someone emerges as the clear cut starter you should stay away. We’ll be posting our handcuffs cheat sheet the week we focus on running backs. You should print that out as well.

8.) Make sure you use updated player rankings and write-ups.

Don’t walk into your draft with a fantasy magazine you picked up a month ago. Use updated ranking and cheat sheets. We will be rolling out our draft kit over the next few weeks to provide these tools for you. We will constantly update our content as camps and the pre-season gets under way. If you stick with us and use our Draft Tool you’ll be better than fine.

9.) What to bring on draft night?

Besides your Fantasy Football Brothers Draft Kit and Rank Tool, you should bring beer and a couple of porn magazines. That’s right, beer and porn! Drop the magazine on the table and someone will pick it up. This will cause at least one owner in your league to focus on T&A instead of MJD & A.P. Bring, at the very least, a 30 pack of beer and start handing out frosty beverages. Remember to be a good friend and make sure no one is ever empty handed on draft night. You can have one, but wait till your draft is over to start putting them back.

There will be several owners who look at draft night as a chance to get out of the house. They have permission from their wife, girlfriend or mom to be at the draft. These guys will always put back beers at a solid pace. All you need to do is sit back and watch the train wreck ensue. If your draft isn’t catered, mention ordering food in the 2^nd or 3rd round, but procrastinate until the 6^th. This is good for two reasons.

1.) Someone will focus on food as soon as it’s mentioned instead of focusing on rounds 3-6. Try to avoid simple take out foods like pizza and use menu’s if possible. Buffalo wings are good for a few reasons. They’re messy, (ruin mags,cheat sheets etc) and hot (distractions, more drinking) you want your league mates reading anything but football related content.

2.) As soon as the food arrives the focus turns to inhaling it at a ridiculous pace. This should cause a couple of bad picks between rounds 8-11 throwing owners even more off their game. Let the panic ensue.

10.) Know this.

There are only three certainties come draft day.

1.) Your draft night will be the last time all season that every owner in your league is truly happy and optimistic about their teams chances. Make sure you shake their confidence and that no one leaves with confidence in their team. Also by the time you leave be sure to have at least one bad trade offer(the more the better) on the table with another owner.

2.) It doesn’t matter how well you prepare, we can’t predict everything that will happen. Injuries are a huge part of the game and they are going to occur. Players who we never thought would break out do, and some players we expect to produce will not. This is a certainty and it’s why we all love football.

3.) Like I said, we can’t predict the future. However, we have become very good at forecasting it. Everything will be good if you stay with the Brotherhood.