Seven Habits of Highly Effective FF Players
1. Protect Your Investments
There is only one thing worse than drafting LaDainian Tomlinson as the 1st pick overall, and seeing him go down with a season ending injury in week 2, and that's if you forgot to draft LT's back up Michael Turner. If your top players go down for a few weeks (or at worst, the season), it will definitely hurt; but if you don't have their back up, it will hurt even more. You will now have to go out and acquire a replacement, and all the other fantasy owners will know this and try and get the most out of you. Therefore, it is very important that you draft your star player's handcuffs, especially running backs and wide receivers on good passing teams. Drafting your star player's handcuffs is very important, but that is only the start; you also need to keep a close eye on every team's depth charts. Just because someone starts the season #2 on the depth chart, doesn't mean it will stay that way, so be sure not miss out on any action that occurs with your players and their back ups.
2. Don't waste a high draft pick on Quarterbacks
Regardless of your fantasy league's point systems, QB's will always end up scoring points and if you look back at the top 25 fantasy players from the year before, at least half (if not more) are QB's. What that means is that with the exception of Peyton (and I wouldn't draft him high either), just about all of the rest of the QB's in the league will generate a very similar amount of fantasy points. The fact is that QB's will always score points, because by nature they have the ball in their hands to start the play--meaning even if they have a bad day, they will still score points; whereas a WR or TE (or even sometimes a RB), will not score very many points because they didn't get the ball at all. So, try and wait till the middle rounds to grab your QB, and look for ones that either pass a lot or are on teams that scores a lot of points.
3. Stay true to your draft board
Heading into the draft, every good fantasy owner prepares a list of players ranked based on how they think the players will perform in the upcoming year. Once the draft begins, it doesn't take long for someone to go out on a limb and take someone early that will mess up your rankings. After the time you spent making your rankings, don't forget your reasons for making them and stick to your guns and stay true to your rankings. Many owners get in trouble when they start to sway from their plan and modify their rankings. The only time you should sway from your rankings is if you see the talent at a certain position dwindling at a faster rate than expected and you don't have anyone at that position.
4. Team Systems/Strengths and coaching strategies
When preparing for the draft and making your rankings, it's a good idea to pay attention to which teams are more prone to running or throwing the football. Knowing that will give you a good indication of how a team plans to use their players on offense, thus allowing you to have a better idea of what to expect in the upcoming season for certain players. A player in a more suitable system almost always outperforms a more talented player who is caught in the wrong type of offense. Any WR who plays on a team with a top flight QB will automatically have a higher likelihood of putting up big numbers, same goes for any RB who finds himself running behind a top notch offensive line. There's nothing worse than taking a stud WR who has a dud of a QB controlling his fantasy destiny.
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