Fantasy Football School (1 Viewer)

[killrobotkill]

Okay you guys are right.I traded up in the first round in my keeper league to the 5th overall pick to make sure I could draft Andre Johnson. He was drafted at 1.02 and I had to settle for Calvin Johnson.Definitely can see where I out "skilled" the competition.

Almost all games are some blend of luck and skill. The only game where there isn't *some* degree of luck involved is chess. And even that's debatable, depending on how you select who plays black and who plays white.

 

[B Maverick]

Luck is a significant part of fantasy football.

One topic I haven't seen mentioned is to know your league(s). This matters in several ways:

1. Scoring system -- know every aspect of your league scoring system

2. Roster size/lineup configuration -- the size of your bench and lineup options (if any) can and should cause you to alter your draft and waiver strategy

3. Learn each league's tendencies, both individually and collectively. If you compete in the same league for several seasons, tracking other owners typical draft preferences can help you attain more value in your picks. In addition, knowing the collective personality of a league enables you to know when to be aggressive vs. patient in drafting specific positions, sleepers, etc.

4. In-season player movement also can vary highly league to league. Some leagues have near-constant trading, others average one trade per year or outright outlaw it. Many leagues have that one owner who grabs every waiver wire wonder, so you must outbid (if a waiver bid league) or take a chance on an emerging player a week or two early if you strongly believe in a given player.

It's important to enjoy the process, win or lose, to the extent you can. If you aren't enjoying FF, it's not worth your time, but it also becomes difficult to do the little things mentioned throughout this thread that often prove to be the difference between a mediocre, good, or even great season.

I was going to post this. I am not a shark by any means but this is something I have found to be important.

Also, I would say if you are stuck trying to decide how to rank a couple players or which two seemingly similarly ranked players you should try and pickup, go with the one you WANT to root for. This is supposed to be fun, so sometimes the deciding factor should be who you like.

 

[Bronx Bomber]

Great responses guys, this is exactly the stuff I was looking for

Don't give up on guys almost immediately. I have been burned a few times where I felt the need to pick somebody up only to see my dropped player go nuts the following week.

I definitely tend to do this. I dropped AJ Green after week 1 because of bye week issues in week 7 instead of holding him and trading him later once he emerged.

 

[The Jerk]

Another item to add that is more of an intangible is that you need to play to your strengths. Everyone here, myself included, is giving you lots of advice. All of it can be useful to some extent, but eventually, you need to come up with your own recipe for success. As you try out some of these approaches, you will find what seems to work best for you. A lot of strategies can be successful, but some are better than others for a given FF player. Sometimes it depends on how much time you are willing to invest, or it may be how much you like to crunch the numbers. Maybe you are better at draft day strategy, or mining the waiver wire.

As alluded to by others, there is a balance between patience with underperforming drafted players and being too slow to add a waiver wire player. If you play long enough, you'll likely end up on both the right and wrong end on these types of decisions. The same goes for playing matchups. You can have success either with avoiding nearly all matchups or with playing a lot of matchups. Eventually, as you gain experience, your own styles and preferences will emerge. These decisions will just feel right. No, you still won't get all of them right, but you'll have a better feel for what works for you and what doesn't work for you. Trying out others approaches from time to time can reveal some new insights, and going against the grain keeps you from getting stale. However, over time, it is likely that certain techniques are your strong suit and that you should try to use these strengths to your advantage rather than trying to be something you're not.

Sorry if that got a little too metaphyiscal, but at least for me, I've learned that there are some things I'm just not very good at, so I stick to what works for me rather than trying to do a little bit of everything.

 

[da_budman]

some good advice here but the most important thing hasn't been mentioned: Never , ever, EVER....... Listen to Otis.

 

[wiscstlatlmia]

Im curious to hear from some of you seasoned veterans... I just grabbed a notebook to write down some mistakes I've made and lessons I need to learn about playing FF. It's only my second season so I figured Id ask the Shark Pool of your biggest FF lessons you've learned over the years, mistakes you've made that you don't want to repeat., or overall advice you have for us young sharks...anything on drafting strategy, roster management, etc

Honestly, biggest lesson I have learned throughout the years is to not count out rookies who have no produced stats yet. It may take a while and be frustrating at times, but all these guys have talent...All of them. Also dont discount guys for one year of bad stats or one bad stat in general, do yourself a big favor and do your research(watch highlights, listen to experts and try to catch a game or two) before discounting or falling completely in love with a guy. There is a lot of bias out there and while a lot of peoples opinions are fantastic, you MUST see things for yourself to actually have a great idea on certain guys. even in the past year these are Some of the propaganda I have heard that have been proven to be untrue:Calvin Johnson's ball skills are overratedDarren McFadden is soft and not a good between the tackles runner , always goes down on first contactChris Wells has an average skill setGreg Little has bad character Greg Jennings is an average NFL WR and is widely overratedMatt Forte is a below average pure runnerBrandon Lloyd is a one year wonderThe thing is you would have known all of this to be untrue before the season started if you actually watched them play.The key is to not just use stats to base your opinion. they help but they are hardly relevant if you have not actually watched the guy play before.

 

[marklot]

LMAO