Drafting 101

[cdubbz]

So im totally new to fantasy football and need some basic quick tips on drafting. So I know Running Backs are the most important position? What would you say the order of your draft should be ? First 4 rounds? When should u draft a QB? should your first two picks be a RB ? splain all that holla.

[hermes]

do you know what pick you have?

if you have one of the top 6 picks (and your league is standard scoring) then go RB, after that you can still go rb, but the top wr's wouldn't be bad either

maybe even some of the top flight qb's end of the first early second. but you should really try to get a top wr, this year.

[sfam]

A GREAT site to help you get up to speed is FFToolbox.com

http://www.fftoolbox.com/index.cfm

This is especially true if you're in a FF league that is using something non-standard. Case in point, lets say you're in a league that starts 3 wide receivers instead of 2 WRs and a Flex position (one that allows WRs, TEs and RBs). In this case, your WRs are going to come of the board lots faster, and you probably want to draft them earlier. FFToolbox allows you to "customize" your top 100 list based on the rules your league is using.

The other thing to really keep in mind later in the draft is to use your later picks for possible second-half season sleepers instead of just for mediocre backups that you will use in a bye-week. Your players WILL get injured, so you want some high risk/high reward possibilities on your bench. Hopefully some will pan out. Many sites have lists of these.

But in answer to your question, there are about 8 dominant RBs - in a regular league you probably want a RB for your first pick if in top 8. The reason isn't that they score more (QBs usually do), but that the difference in points percentage-wise from the top RBs to the mediocre ones is higher than the other positions usually (WRs recently have had similar averages).

Other thoughts - If you don't get Brady or Drew Brees in the second round for QB, no worries - there will be lots of good QBs till around 4th or 5th round.

Don't draft a kicker till the last round, and probably don't draft a defense till close to that.

[cdubbz]

coolcool thanks for the answers. I'm using a Yahoo public league with 10 teams.
The roster positions are: QB, WR, WR, WR, RB, RB, TE, K, DEF, BN, BN, BN, BN, BN, BN

Yeah, my strategy going in was RB in the first round or Brees with the last pick in the first. Second round RB or WR depending where I pick in the draft (most likley a WR if i get a top 3 pick in the draft). I have a strong want to draft Aaron Rodgers in the 3rd round, if he is available, but not sure...been on the bubble with that. But yeah, ill check out that site.

[cdubbz]

I also have a dumb want to draft QBs haha. i dunno why, i did a few mock drafts and i tended to grab high profile QBs over mediocre RB or anything else.

[sfam]

coolcool thanks for the answers. I'm using a Yahoo public league with 10 teams.
The roster positions are: QB, WR, WR, WR, RB, RB, TE, K, DEF, BN, BN, BN, BN, BN, BN

Yeah, my strategy going in was RB in the first round or Brees with the last pick in the first. Second round RB or WR depending where I pick in the draft (most likley a WR if i get a top 3 pick in the draft). I have a strong want to draft Aaron Rodgers in the 3rd round, if he is available, but not sure...been on the bubble with that. But yeah, ill check out that site.

If you have 3 WRs and you're not in the first 6 picks, you probably want to draft Johnson, Fitzgerald or Moss later in the first. If you don't draft a WR in the first, you REALLY should draft one in the second, and probably another by the fourth. There will be a run on WRs...the cool thing in this is if you bulk up on WRs early, you get the great ones, and then have a really nice pick of the glut at RBs later. The rest of everyone will be scrambling with Crappy WRs. My team in w/3 WRs I drafted this way (12 team league):

1. (6) DeAngelo Williams
2. (19) Reggie Wayne
3. (30) Wes Welker
4. (43) Kevin Smith
5. (54) Jay Cutler
6. (67) Lance Moore
7. (78) Knowshon Moreno

Again, the WRs went off the board LOTS quicker than in a 2 WR draft - there was very little left by the 7th round. Smith and Moreno were both good value picks. I got Beanie wells in the 9th. Again, the drop-off in QBs is just not going to be that high. Skip the top QBs and go for the WRs. The reason is you have 3 starts there - if you don't get them early, you'll get dragged down. Bottom line, I'd skip Brees if I was at the end of the first, and instead go with two stud WRs. Regardless, you want a WR in the first two rounds, and probably two WRs in the first 4 rounds - unless of course someone awesome drops for some reason.

[sfam]

I also have a dumb want to draft QBs haha. i dunno why, i did a few mock drafts and i tended to grab high profile QBs over mediocre RB or anything else.

The second tier crop of QBs are closer to the top QBs than the second tier RBs to the top RBs. Then again, the most important part of this (assuming you aren't betting) is to have fun. So if you want Rodgers for instance, get him. Chances are you might overpay for him, but such is life.

[cdubbz]

coolcool thanks for the answers. I'm using a Yahoo public league with 10 teams.
The roster positions are: QB, WR, WR, WR, RB, RB, TE, K, DEF, BN, BN, BN, BN, BN, BN

Yeah, my strategy going in was RB in the first round or Brees with the last pick in the first. Second round RB or WR depending where I pick in the draft (most likley a WR if i get a top 3 pick in the draft). I have a strong want to draft Aaron Rodgers in the 3rd round, if he is available, but not sure...been on the bubble with that. But yeah, ill check out that site.

If you have 3 WRs and you're not in the first 6 picks, you probably want to draft Johnson, Fitzgerald or Moss later in the first. If you don't draft a WR in the first, you REALLY should draft one in the second, and probably another by the fourth. There will be a run on WRs...the cool thing in this is if you bulk up on WRs early, you get the great ones, and then have a really nice pick of the glut at RBs later. The rest of everyone will be scrambling with Crappy WRs. My team in w/3 WRs I drafted this way (12 team league):

1. (6) DeAngelo Williams
2. (19) Reggie Wayne
3. (30) Wes Welker
4. (43) Kevin Smith
5. (54) Jay Cutler
6. (67) Lance Moore
7. (78) Knowshon Moreno

Again, the WRs went off the board LOTS quicker than in a 2 WR draft - there was very little left by the 7th round. Smith and Moreno were both good value picks. I got Beanie wells in the 9th. Again, the drop-off in QBs is just not going to be that high. Skip the top QBs and go for the WRs. The reason is you have 3 starts there - if you don't get them early, you'll get dragged down. Bottom line, I'd skip Brees if I was at the end of the first, and instead go with two stud WRs. Regardless, you want a WR in the first two rounds, and probably two WRs in the first 4 rounds - unless of course someone awesome drops for some reason.

Thanks bro. Real good tips! Totally changed my plans of going for Running Backs until they ran out. But I still think im goin to get a RB in the first round if i can land a nice one and a WR in 2-4 rounds. I have some fave players i just want on my team just to have so i'll see how that goes.

My draft is thursday (tomorrow) at 2:45 pm so i'll def let you guys know.

[sfam]

Thanks bro. Real good tips! Totally changed my plans of going for Running Backs until they ran out. But I still think im goin to get a RB in the first round if i can land a nice one and a WR in 2-4 rounds. I have some fave players i just want on my team just to have so i'll see how that goes.

My draft is thursday (tomorrow) at 2:45 pm so i'll def let you guys know.

Sounds like a great plan! Also, if you have a tabbed browser, its a good idea to take those FFToolbox lists for each position and have them at your ready so when you're in your later rounds, you have some good ideas about relative value for players you're not sure about.

[cdubbz]

k. don't want to turn this into a "rate my team" thread, but i just did a mock draft and drafted the first 5-6 rounds. I had the 8th pick in the mock drat out of ten teams. So I had the 8th, 13th, 28th, 33rd, 48th, 53rd...etc picks.

The first seven picks were:
Adrian Peterson (Min - RB) , Michael Turner (Atl - RB) ,Maurice Jones-Drew (Jac - RB) ,Matt Forte (Chi - RB) ,Brian Westbrook (Phi - RB) ,Randy Moss (NE - WR)

My TEam
1. Larry FitzgLaDainian Tomlinson (SD - RB)
2. Andre Johnson (Hou - WR)
3. Ryan Grant (GB - RB)
4. Aaron Rodgers (GB - QB)
5. Thomas Jones (NYJ - RB)
6. Vincent Jackson (SD - WR)
7. Darren McFadden (Oak - RB)
8. DeSean Jackson (Phi - WR)
9. Kellen Winslow (TB - TE)
10. Zach Miller (Oak - TE)
11. Ben Roethlisberger (Pit - QB)
12. Miami (Mia - DEF)
13. John Kasay (Car - K)
14. Ted Ginn Jr. (Mia - WR)
15. Nick Folk (Dal - K)

So i loaded up on WR early on and blah

[vincecarter4pres]

Overall I like your team.
Couple things though. One is don't ever draft a backup kicker, just drop yours on his bye week.
2, don't ever draft Thomas Jones, he will be very mediocre this year. Three, you need more overall RB depth, so don't draft a 2nd kicker and instead draft another RB.
Also, try not to go back to back TE's, it's another position where you can get away with no backup and then drop your worst bench player come your starting TE's bye week.
Very solid overall for a rookie though.

[CrookedJ]

Overall I like your team.
Couple things though. One is don't ever draft a backup kicker, just drop yours on his bye week.
2, don't ever draft Thomas Jones, he will be very mediocre this year. Three, you need more overall RB depth, so don't draft a 2nd kicker and instead draft another RB.
Also, try not to go back to back TE's, it's another position where you can get away with no backup and then drop your worst bench player come your starting TE's bye week.
Very solid overall for a rookie though.

LMAO . . .good draft though..

Its pretty hard to make a strategy before hand. I planned on going WR/WR in first two rounds, but I picked 7th and D WIlliams was still available, round 2 all the top WR's were gone, so took Brady, and still ended up with Boldin, Houshmandzadeh at WR in rounds 3 and 4.


**
Another lesson I've learned the hard way is to know your scoring system inside and out...... My league has return yards ( 20 = 1 point) with bonus points at 100 return yards in a game. So I targeted speedy backs and wr's that will return a lot of kicks. Was able to pick up Felix Jones, Sproles and Percy Harvin while other owners were picking offense only players.

Last year I got screwed with a league that gave very low points for receiving yards (25=1) making WR's and TE's that didn't get regular TDs completely useless. I guess I should ask why all the leagues I play in have messed up rules.

[cdubbz]

So i got the 9th pick in the draft that starts at 2:45...im thinking Fitzgerald will be taken by then and if he is i may go Breez and a RB in the immediate second round...thoughts? Or should i just go after two running backs in a row with the first two picks and get a QB later? haha, i know im asking a lot, but thanks for any insight

[cdubbz]

first two rounds....frank gore and brandon jacobs. fitz went #3

[vincecarter4pres]

go marques colston or whose your momma