Taking on the Pros - Fantasy NFL Draft

Ok, so it's not "pros" that I'm up against but a good friend of mine formed a fantasy football league this year to compete against friends and family and asked me to join, so I did.  While I'm certainly no where near as knowledgeable about the NFL as they are, I threw my hat in the ring and jumped into the draft with little preparation at all.  I'm somewhat happy with my team, though I'd love opinions from more knowledgeable people, but I'll be the first to admit that I took some chances that maybe I shouldn't have.

The draft was fun and interesting, and there was plenty of chatter going on, so I have high hopes for a very entertaining season as I get my rear kicked by those who actually follow the NFL unlike myself.  I was disappointed when I jumped in and found that I would be drafting 9th as that ruled out a couple of players that I had wanted to grab such as Vick and Foster, but I made do.  Without further ado though, here are my draft selections this year.

A Year of Fantasy Hockey

As the playoffs roll along I'm going to take a few moments to recap another portion of the past NHL season, this portion being my participation in the Yahoo Fantasy Hockey Leagues that I was in.  This year I was in 5 leagues in all, four of them using points given based on how you ranked against the other players in a number of categories such as goals, wins, and so on.  The last one was my first ever head-to-head league which I joined along with a number of other listeners of the Puck Podcast.  Overall I would say that it was a successful season (outside of one league which was horrid), finishing 1st in 2 of the 4 points leagues and finishing 1st in the head-to-head league as well.

Fantasy Football ... My First Year

Having declined the invite to a co-worker's annual fantasy football league for the past several years I finally caved-in this season.  I didn't do much prep work or anything and for the most part (other than moving a couple players around and removing a few from my draft list) I didn't do much before the automatic draft.  I ended up with a pretty decent team, getting Drew Brees, Reggie Wayne, and a number of others that I thought would do me well.  For the most part they did really well though my Wide Receivers who I thought would do great for me were just average for the most part and my running backs (Charles, Bradshaw, McFadden) which I thought would be average were great most weeks.

Overall I have to be very happy with my first ever fantasy football league.  I scored the most points in the entire league during the regular season ... but unfortunately I also had the most points scored against me by nearly 100 points.  Despite having so many points scored against me I finished 2nd in the regular season with a 10-4 record just a game back on the league leader.

I ended the season in 6th place after a first round loss in the playoffs to the second highest scoring team that week (and only second because of a nearly 150 point performance from the highest scoring team).  That's certainly not how I hoped to finish given the strong regular season but should have been what to expect given that everyone seemed to have some of their best weeks against me.

I did enjoy it quite a bit and learned some things along the way.  It also increased my interest in the league as I became more interested in how teams and players were doing because they had a direct effect on my match ups.  I watched more football this year than in past years though I don't know that I enjoyed it any more than usual, it was just that I had a bigger interest in what was going on.  I think next year I'll definitely join again and may even get into a second league for fun.

Some things that I learned or discovered this season...

• First off you can only control your own team.  You can't stop your opponents from scoring however much they will so you just have to focus on having your team score as much as you can.
• Running backs are key and much more important than receivers.  They will see regular action and get a bulk of activity in games.  Receivers will be much more hit and miss depending on how much they are thrown to and can more easily let you down.  Having solid reliable backs to start, then getting good receivers is a good plan but the more surefire receivers are still worth a look.
• A good quarterback can get you a lot of points, but if you draft late focus on your backs because outside a few that will get big points regularly there are plenty of QBs generally that you can get a good option after a good back or two.
• Don't draft defense until late unless you're getting one of the best in the league, and even then it can wait until later on.  Kickers don't draft until the last round as they don't get a great deal of points generally anyway and can always be picked up later.  It's not a bad idea to keep backups in the QB, RB, and WR position over having a second kicker or defense.  Even if they don't play it keeps them out of the hands of your opponents.
• Watch trends.  If someone becomes a starter that wasn't expected to be a starter they could end up getting big points later on and be available after the draft.  Don't wait too long or someone else could snatch them up.  Example this year, Vick ... who just happened to get 50 points against me the first week of the playoffs for the team that didn't hesitate and picked him up early on when he became starter.
• Players are streaky.  They can get you 25 points one week and then get you 5 the next, especially receivers.  Try to judge best who will perform and who won't but don't be surprised when those flip-flop and don't get down because you choose wrong one week because this will happen.
• Having too many playoff teams while extending the fun for more isn't a good way to go.  Our 10 team league had 8 playoff teams allowing the 1st and 2nd place teams to finish 5th and 6th in the league.  Six would have been a good number in a 10 team league and is probably the right number in a 12 team league as well.  Allow the others to play in a consolation bracket to extend their season.

Anyway, I'll call the first season a disappointing success.  Disappointing that I finished 6th after successfully finishing 2nd in the regular season.  It was a fun ride and next year the league had best watch out.