We have come to Fantasy Football draft weekend and if you have found this site you likely know how to prepare, but there are always some quick reminders that we have to make sure of before we draft. I know articles like these can get long winded and sometimes overwhelming so I have attached a cheat sheet you can print-out or save to your desktop at the bottom of this post.
Rule Number Uno
The first thing you need to do to prep for your fantasy football draft is know your scoring rules. I’m actually shocked that I have to write that, but you can’t imagine how many people play and don’t know how players actually get points. There are many different scoring rules and your drafting philosophy should be centered around your scoring system.
Draft and Chill
One thing that gets generally overlooked is comfort, especially at a live draft. Make sure you are in a comfortable seat, make sure you have easy access to the draft board and have a cooler with a couple of beverages and some snacks, you want to make sure to limit distractions. Also, be sure to choose a seat where people can’t look over your shoulder, I forgot this one year and I was so buzzed I didn’t realize what was happening until I was sniped a half-dozen times.
Player Values
ADP (Average Draft Position) can vary significantly from site-to-site. Make sure to compare your draft list (cheat-sheet) to the draft list in your draft room, it will help you identify sleepers so you don’t have to reach for the guys you like. Many sites are listing ADP from mock drafts or they include drafts that happened in March into their calculations. There are hidden gems on every platform, especially the more popular platforms where you will rarely find players that know what they are doing.
Drafting Solo
While creating the fantasy football draft rankings and cheat sheet I go through a whole draft myself. Making every pick as if each team is my own. It's a good practice if you have the time, it becomes extremely difficult because at some point you will need to draft players you just don't think are going to perform. You also begin to realize that every player is a value at some point. If you try it do yourself a favor and every once in a while ask yourself, "What if I'm wrong about this guy?"
Your draft is not likely to be as neat and organized into tiers as this draft, but it is the easiest way to get through the process as quickly as possible. You will likely find that this process takes much longer than your real draft, with no clock many of the picks will torture you for much longer than you may think.
No Mock Zone
I do not like or encourage mock drafting for many reasons, but it is a good idea to do one on your league platform before the draft. If for no other reason than you will familiarize yourself with how to set up your queue and where to find those hidden gems we are always searching for. The main reason mock drafts are generally useless are because none of the participants have skin in the game.
Foolosophy
My draft philosophy depends more on where I am in the draft. With all of the differentiation in draft philosophies it would seem as though there would be some system that would emerge to prove to be the correct one, but it doesn’t happen that way. We have zero-RB, heavy RB, double TE1 (essentially TE in the flex), late round QB, and plenty of others that are tweaks to these strategies.
For years I had been using the RB heavy approach and winning, but all of the sudden everyone in my league jumped on board to the extent that one year we had all RB’s in the first round, every pick. The first WR didn’t come off the board until halfway through the second round. You have to remain fluid in your draft, know that there are other options at every turn, and making a mistake will not cost you your league fees, there are plenty of ways to make up for mistakes after the draft, but it can be a huge benefit to minimize these mistakes.
Tiered Rankings
I, like most professionals, rank players according to tiers, if there are two players you’re deciding between in different tiers obviously go with the better tier regardless of position, if they play the same position and are the same tier go with your favorite, or wait and grab a player from a different position.
2024 Draft Cheat Sheet
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