There are many differing ways to play fantasy football and many different roster formations. Most of the fantasy football leagues I have seen have nine starting positions - quarterback, tight end, defense, kicker, two running backs, two wide receivers, and some sort of flex. That's pretty common, though there are a million variations. What doesn't vary is the way at least half (or more) of your competitors will approach their draft.
Here at Fantasy Knuckleheads we want you to be armed with the right tools to prepare for your drafts, execute on draft day, and manage your team throughout the season.
One of those tools is to examine faulty logic that is all too common in the fantasy football world. One aspect is this common approach to drafting a team: People will systematically fill out all of their starting positions (except kicker, usually... hopefully) before turning their attention to the bench. And sometimes the flex position even gets lumped in with the bench. Mercy.
This is a market inefficiency that you can exploit. It' i a buying opportunity for you, and we'll show you how to exploit it in this article and in much more depth in our training program.
Think about it, most fantasy football players will take their tight end and defense too early just because they are starting every week. What's worse is that very often they will even ignore the flex spot until round 8 since it isn't a defined position. For a lot of mistaken fantasy players the flex position just doesn't "feel" like a real starting role... It's too ambiguous so it doesn't get enough consideration.
A common draft might go something like this:
- Round 1: RB
- Round 2: WR
- Round 3: QB
- Round 4: RB
- Round 5: WR
- Round 6: TE
- Round 7: D/ST
- Round 8: WR
I'm only listing positions here and not even actual names, yet there are so many things wrong with this draft that I don't really know where to start. Sadly, I see it over and over again. I even see a kicker going in round 9 more often than I'd like to discuss. Folks just like filling out that starting roster.
Okay, here we go...
Quarterback in round 3? The super studs are gone by now. There may be good value still on the board, but the likelihood is that you should be waiting until several rounds later since quarterbacks in the #5-#9 range are often pretty similar. Last year the round 3 guy would have looked something like Tony Romo and the round 8 guy might have been Matthew Stafford. The fact that you would have lucked out on Stafford is beside the point, though it certainly bolsters it. The point here is that RB's and (to a lesser extent) WR's are a more scarce resource and you should be spending your early round currency on what is more difficult to obtain.
Tight end in round 6? Filling out that lineup, are ya? Listen, there might be a good one there for you in round 6 but you could get a very comparable one (or maybe the exact same one) in round 9. Use those picks to build inventory where you need it - Running Back.
D/ST in round 7? What are you doing, man? C'mon, defenses are hard to predict and don't give you a discernible advantage week-to-week. Plus, you're probably going to want to drop your defense when the bye weeks hit... Can't do that with the one you take in round 7. You are locking yourself in and you are going to have to play this expensive defense every week, even in shaky matchups.
WR3 in round 8? Of course you did. But do you know why you did? You took a wide receiver there because those names seemed to sound better than the names available at running back. You know what? You're going to need a couple more running backs and the names are going to continue to get worse. This could have been avoided if you had grabbed some inventory earlier instead of taking a defense and a tight end.
There is a semi-defensible rationale for drafting your starters first, that being the simple fact that you aren't getting points from the players on your bench. Doesn't it make sense to prioritize the players who will be scoring for you? Well, yes, but the problem with that is that the draft strategy outlined above doesn't give you the best chance to win.
You need to prioritize by the scarcity of the position and the potential point difference provided by quality options at the scarce positions. Getting a stud defense will help on certain weeks, but overall it is a small difference. Grabbing a second-tier tight end instead of a third-tier option will have almost no impact, even if you guess right.
And don't get me started on kickers.
Strategies and tactics like these are all defined and detailed in: "The Program" available here at Fantasy Knuckleheads. It is unlike anything else available in the market today... It is the "masters class in fantasy football." The most important thing is that it is a reusable training program that can be used for every league you are in to help you transform into an elite fantasy football player. It is a program designed to give you an immediate boost in efficiency in draft prep, draft execution, and in-season roster management... plus to help you evolve into one of the true greats in fantasy football.
