Friday, August 4, 2017

Tips for Using Fantasy Football Rankings to Dominate Your League's Upcoming Draft

Whether you are an avid fantasy football fanatic entrenched in multiple leagues while also trying your luck at a multitude of online one-day fantasy leagues or just a casual fantasy fan trying to win your best buddy's league, there is one basic thing to keep in mind. To win your fantasy football league you need to first win your fantasy football league’s annual draft.

The most basic tool used for drafting your team is a fantasy football rankings list. This comprehensive guide can provide just about everything you need when it comes to sorting out the best NFL players by position in terms of their fantasy scoring potential for the upcoming season. There are a number of different fantasy football information sites that compile these ranking lists and while they all use the same basic criteria, the actual player rankings can still be vastly different from list to another.

Your job as team owner is to sift through all the available information on player rankings to come up with your own unique fantasy football player list that you can take into draft day with a high level of confidence. This can be easier said than done since anyone who participates in a fantasy football league is bound to be swayed by what you read and hear from the so-called experts out there. That is why it is beneficial to use at least two or three fantasy football rankings to try and come up with a consensus that makes objective sense to you. The key word here is ‘objective’ since you have to put aside the inherent bias that creeps into everyone psyche based on favorite NFL teams or favorite NFL players.

The dynamics of fantasy football change radically every season. You have your standout players that can be considered ‘blue chip’ picks, but really winning your fantasy league’s draft is more about the players you pick up in the later rounds. If you operate in an eight person league, you can almost script the first two or three rounds of the draft. With your customized fantasy football ranking list on hand, you will most likely go with the best available player on the board with your first two or three picks. The debate between taking a running back or a wide receiver in the first round rages on, but if you trust your rankings, then you should already know which player you are going to draft first.

Things start to get interesting once you move away from making the easy picks. If you did your homework by comparing the rankings from two or three fantasy football player lists, you are bound to come up with a few second-tier players that have scored well across the board. This is the best way to build the actual core of your team. Maybe you can find a running back that has some huge upside potential in 2017 based on the numbers he put up in the final few games last season.

Another tip to winning your draft is to make sure that you are up to speed on rookies since some fantasy football rankings do not include them in their lists or they are basically guessing on what their weekly point potential might be. One easy guide to putting a value on a first year player in a skill position is to check their betting odds to win NFL Rookie of the Year. Heading into last season, Dallas running back Ezekiel Elliott was the odds-on favorite to win this award and we all know what kind of year he had.

Knowledge is king when it comes to dominating your fantasy football draft and it all starts with taking the time to put together your own player ranking list that is a product of all the information that is out there.

No comments:

Post a Comment