Newbie wonders the best way to fully utilize FBG (1 Viewer)

[Monsters of the Midway]

I posted this in the Website Questions forum and moved it on Doug Drinen's advice.

I'm new to this site. I love it. There's so much information available that I feel like I'm missing out on a lot of it. I don't really know how to best utilize the wealth of information on this site. I basically read the spotlights, check out the rankings and troll the message boards. I downloaded the Draft Dominator but don't really know what to do with it

So my question to you veterans is this:

Knowing what you know now, if you logged onto FBG as a new member today, what are the first 5 (or whatever) things you would do? Example:

1. Download & customize DD.

2. Customize MyFootballGuys.

3. Look at the forums.

4. Check out the projections/faceoffs. etc.

Thanks in advance. I'm a longtime successful fantasy guy (since 1993) and I'm very impressed with the content and especially with how knowledgeable the members are. I want to be sure that I don't miss out on any valuable tools/information as I continue to dominate my leagues.

 

[Cecil Lammey]

Welcome and thanks for joining!

The draft dominator is probably the powerful fantasy football tool that has ever been unleashed on the world.

In addition, definitely make sure to check out our podcast, The Audible, which includes news, interviews with players and beat writers, reports from training camp, and we're currently halfway through our preseason watch list, in which we break down each division, position by position. During the year we review each week's games and preview the upcoming week's games. Stay tuned in the offseason, when we travel to college all-star games including the Senior Bowl, the combine, the draft, and interview many of the draft eligible players.

 

[Bri]

I posted this in the Website Questions forum and moved it on Doug Drinen's advice.I'm new to this site. I love it. There's so much information available that I feel like I'm missing out on a lot of it. I don't really know how to best utilize the wealth of information on this site. I basically read the spotlights, check out the rankings and troll the message boards. I downloaded the Draft Dominator but don't really know what to do with it So my question to you veterans is this:Knowing what you know now, if you logged onto FBG as a new member today, what are the first 5 (or whatever) things you would do? Example:1. Download & customize DD.2. Customize MyFootballGuys.3. Look at the forums.4. Check out the projections/faceoffs. etc.Thanks in advance. I'm a longtime successful fantasy guy (since 1993) and I'm very impressed with the content and especially with how knowledgeable the members are. I want to be sure that I don't miss out on any valuable tools/information as I continue to dominate my leagues.

Hey rex,Since you didn't mention having a draft coming up within a day or two as if you're pressed for time...just enjoy it.A good # of people on the staff have played as long as you. A good amount of people on this board have too. I would guess you just need to get comfy with everything. There's not alot FBGs can offer you that you haven't already experienced in 14 years. I would guess though that their goal would be to present it to you in a better way, in more detail, and have as much info as many sites combined all smushed into one.News, you've seen. DD has been copied so ya probably used one of them. Stats, you've seen. Articles, debates etc.....Dodds is(rightfully so) pretty proud of how he presents the info from his staff, just dig in. See why alot of people think they're the best.

 

[Big]

IMO:

1. Go find and read the original VBD article.

2. Decide if you are going to do your own 2007 projections - if so go get projection dominator.

3. Load your league and projections (or accept the FBG projections) into the draft dominator. Run this tool several times both auto and manually drafting the league.

4. Read read read - daily updates, player spotlights, and especially the face-offs (nice to see a player argued).

5. Message board.

 

[lebowski]

I suggest...

1. Use projections dominator to help you develop your own projections and save that file.

2. Import it into draft dominator and do about a 1000 mock drafts. Be sure to change the default ADP's to different types so you don't get the same draft over and over again.

3. Read Face offs and spotlights. I also highly recommend the individual player pages, especially if you are having difficulty figuring out certain players.

4. TRAINING CAMP REPORTS ARE AWESOME!!! Keep up on those and other news from the message boards, daily emails, and the news blogger.

5. Agree with earlier post to read the article on VBD! This should maybe be #1 on your FBG to do list.

6. After doing all this go back to your projections and tweak them based on your research.

7. Download to draft dominator and your ready to draft!

8. Do more mock drafts with draft dominator.

In addition their in season content is great too.

 

[smcindoe]

- Read the VBD article if you're not already familiar with the concept

- Get the Draft Dominator and spend some time playing with it

- Subscribe to the daily updates, even if you only have a few minutes to skim them. You'll be amazed what will sink in and stick

- Hang around the forums whenever you have 15 minutes to kill. See what people are talking about today

- Check in on the forecasts every few days

- If you have some more time, start hitting the articles in depth

 

[GregR_2]

Actually this is a great question not just for newbies. While I'm not a cheatsheets guy, I date back to when Old Yeller had been around for quite awhile, and I know there are things out there I could improve by using that I haven't tried yet.

1. The email updates are worth the subscription fee by themselves. Read them daily.

2. Check the blogger frequently for info that maybe wasn't widespread enough to be worth the daily mails, but that is still useful to know.

3. Go through the archive of articles. Read the VBD article.

4. Read most anything by Doug Drinen. He has some articles that put to the test rules of thumb that people follow. Also read Shick's Standard Deviation article.

5. Try draft dominator. Play with it, do some mocks, get used to it.

6. Do a set of projections. It doesn't matter even if you're a gut person and want to be a gut person. Do the projections just because the act of doing them is very useful in forcing yourself to be rigorous about investigating player's situations. Plus once you have them, you can plug them into DD.

7. Read the weekly matchups to see if there is anything that you have missed in your thoughts about your players each week. Also check the FBG projections. But I think again, unless you're a total newbie, you should make your own decisions and use FBG as a reality check to see if maybe you are missing something they thought of.

 

[Monsters of the Midway]

Guys,

Thanks a bunch for the info, particularly about the DD. I started playing around with it yesterday, doing my first (abbreviated) mock draft. I subscribe to another ff site and like it a lot but I don't think that it has as much info-particularly with a statistical bent that is right up my alley-as this one does. Plus my friends all use the other site so I need an additional source of info.

I skimmed the VBD article but will read it again.

I wasn't planning to take the time to do my own projections but you guys changed my mind. GregR's point that the act of doing the projections forces you to compare similar players makes a ton of sense. I'm already bumping into the same players mocking on ESPN. It seems like I'm staring at Greg Jennings or Santonio Holmes midway through every mock. I'm still not 100% sure who I like there. Projecting things out will finalize that decision.

The most enjoyable month of fantasy football for me is probably August! That's when I really immerse myself into FF. I've already read the Prospectus, the Fantasy Index and kept up here and on my other site.