Ten Commandments For Upcoming 2010 NFL Fantasy Football

Fantasy football season is in full swing, fantasy football drafts are happening every day between now and opening day.

This article is going to cover some of the basics you need to know to succeed in fantasy football. Let us call them the 10 Commandments of Fantasy Football brought to you by The Sports Ministry

I.      Thou Shalt know thy League Rules.

This seems like a very basic commandment, but it would startle you to know the number of people who join a fantasy league and prepare for their draft without knowing the basic rules of their league. Important things for you to know, how many points you receive for each position, how many of each position you can start, do your players get points for receptions, does your quarterback get 4 or 6 points for each touchdown thrown. 

These are just the basic rules. You have to know so you can adequately rank players and choose which players need to be moved up and down the draft board

II.     Thou Shalt Make Time.

Don’t sign up unless you are going to devote 15 minutes a week to manage team. Weekly maintenance of your Fantasy team is something that can greatly improve your team and makes a league much more enjoyable for everyone. A person really only needs to check in on their team twice a week — on Sunday between 11-12:30, to make sure they have rosters set and no injured players are on the field for you and on Tuesday to check your results, put in request for players and do add/drops.

III.     Thou Shalt Mock Draft.

Once you know your draft spot (usually told to you in advance of the draft day), then you can start doing mock drafts from that position to get a feel for what players might be available or not available at certain positions. Mock Draft Central, ESPN and CBS all provide good mock draft options, I use Mock Draft Central.

IV.    It Is Good To Covet Thy Neighbors (league members) Knowledge.

Knowing about each of the members of your league can give you a great insight to what might happen in the draft and more importantly what strengths and weaknesses they might have once the NFL season starts. Is this your first year in a league of strangers, that can be both good and bad. They don’t know you either. Are you in a league with the same players from years past, if so use that to your advantage. What players have they historically liked, what players have they been burned by. Each of these things can come into play when it is time to make draft decisions.

V.   Thou Shall Honor the Weekly Football Schedule.

Most football fans take it for granted that their football players are going to perform well each and every week, we look at average points scored and think well this player is going to put up x number of points and I will easily win my game. Even the best fantasy players have a bad week, and if you don’t watch the matchups each week, you could have an average player on your bench outscore your super star just because of match ups

VI.    Know When Thy Players Rest.

Knowing when your players have a bye week is easy in most online formats, it is right there for you when you make your pick and also on your screen before each game. But when you are doing draft selections, you need to keep this in mind as well. Some leagues don’t have a deep bench (check Commandment One for knowing your league rules) and you will be hurting to field a team if you selected players from teams all having a week six bye.

Knowing bye weeks is also great for analyzing your match up. Are you up against the best team in your fantasy league, but notice he has a majority of superstars on week four byes. The key to being prepared for bye weeks, is to have bench players that can cover your bye weeks for starters, and also knowing what weekly match up will favor a player you are bringing in for just one week while Peyton enjoying his bye week.

VII.  Prepare the Day of Your Playoffs Is Fast Approaching.

Most of the best teams during the regular season rarely win the playoffs or the super bowl. There is one universal answer for this, they are not preparing for the playoffs. It is imperative that you begin looking at week 14-16 match ups half way through the season. You might have locked a position in the playoffs and now need to sacrifice a great player for a good player with a better matchup come weeks 14-16. It doesn’t hurt to know who your draft selections play at the end of the season, but who really wants Andre Johnson if they face the Jets in Week 16 (your  super bowl). Now your stud WR is shut down, and some second string hack up against a weak secondary is having a career day

VIII  Don’t Worship One Week Gods

This is the biggest mistake inexperienced fantasy players make. They see that a player ran for 200 yards and had three scores, and now they are flocking to the trade boards and offering the whole house for them. If you have a player that is up against a tough opponent just be realistic about his potential, if you have a running back that has two or three easy games and puts up huge numbers, take advantage of those less experienced fantasy players and offer this guy up for trade

IX.   Thou Shalt Be Prepared For Injuries.

Injuries are going to happen. Each year one of the first round draft picks gets injured, either out for a season or a few games. How can you recover from this, understand they are going to occur. For example this year, if you draft Frank Gore you might want to “handcuff” your team by selecting Brian Westbrook. Know which players are prone to injury, which players will benefit from those injuries and be prepared

X.    Thou Shalt Persevere.

You may start out 0-4 in your fantasy league, your team is plagued by injuries, your opponents have career days every time you play them. These things happen. Don’t write off your team. Evaluate your team, start looking for things you can do to help build your team. I’d rather give up a player that scores me 20 points a week at RB, for a QB and WR that combine for 35 points a week; especially if my QB and WR were weak. It is important you don’t throw in the towel.

Now will you win all your fantasy leagues just by following these 10 Commandments, NO, but you will be a much more experienced player who is a threat to win each and every week. My final thought is this, to you guys out there who get grief from your wife or girlfriend about the time you spend on football, here is the best thing you can do, invite them to join a league. Get them involved with a league (Women’s leagues made up of the other wives and girlfriend’s of your league are very popular) there are some excellent women fantasy players out there.

Now they might not harp on you, they might actually encourage you to watch more football. With that everyone wins.