Draft Prep - Part 2

5) Develop your own draft strategy – There are many options on how to approach a draft. One of the most common has been to take 2 RBs in the first 2 rounds of your draft. With the decline of true #1 RBs in the league, this strategy has lost some momentum. You need to pay close attention to your starting lineup requirements as well as your scoring system. If you start 2 QBs, then QBs might go sooner than in those leagues that start 1. Or if you get 1 pt per reception, then those players who might not score as much, but get receptions get a bump. I also don’t like to target certain players or positions in the top 6-7 rounds. I like to be flexible in those early rounds and just take the player who offers the best value where I’m picking. Later in the draft you can target certain position to fill out your roster. Whatever you do, come up with a rough game plan and you’ll more than likely be ahead of your league.

6) What to bring to the draft? – This is where keeping it simple is the best way to go. You don’t want to have to shuffle through multiple sheets or rankings to keep up during the draft. Condensing your rankings to one sheet is ideal. I like to rank more players than I’ll need, just in case I need a late round sleeper. I also like to bring a blank roster to fill out as I go and on the same sheet a list of the other teams and positions. This way you can check off positions as they are filled by your leaguemates. This allows you track what other teams need. This comes in handy when you’re still needing a QB and you know the teams drafting behind you have filled their QB quota, then you can wait a round or two longer and still know you should be able to get that QB you want.

7) What’s a sleeper and what’s a bust? - These are buzz words in the fantasy world and they mean many different things to many different people. I define a sleeper as any player that has the potential to outperform his draft position. Or on the other hand, under perform his draft position. Make sure you understand this before doing your research.

Next time I’ll talk about the last few items to do before the draft as well as give you some sleepers (see above), creepers (who is ready to take the next step) and leapers (who is ready to break out and become elite). Try and catch some of this week’s preseason’s games as they are closest thing we’ll have to real action until the season starts. Starters should play 2 or 3 quarters and give us a feel for how guys will perform.