Fantasy Football 102

As we venture into fantasy football season, we want to make sure we’ve got all the information necessary so that when draft day comes, I’m not scrambling to find a cheat sheet at the very least. I’d reach out to my commissioner if I had any questions about when the draft is and particularly with this year’s Stampede Blue free fantasy football leagues, I’d want to know details about how my league is scored. Remember, there are a big 3 scoring options most leagues are going to use: standard scoring, PPR and Half-point PPR. I will write in the most general sense possible (because my strategy across league types is widely the same).

On draft day, most of us will have access to our cellphone, maybe a tablet or if we’re really lucky, maybe we’ve got a laptop or desktop computer available to us. If this is the case, then the articles I write are for you. However, if for some reason, you’ve signed up for a league that won’t let you use available technology for your draft, then I don’t know what to tell you. Maybe try to remember who the best offenses in the league are and draft primarily on who you’re most confident in? It’s hard for me to picture drafting without a full-blown computer in front of me.

I have done a few PPR mock drafts just to get back into the swing of things. In fact, you can see my string of tweets from my second overall mock draft @likelyalien on Twitter. My squad ended up like this:

I did something I don’t normally do in a draft (draft TE/QB mid-round instead of wait) and to be completely honest with you, it felt incredible and I think I can simplify your draft for you considerably. I feel like leaning RB early and then just nabbing your QB/TE in the middle rounds while capitalizing on late WR depth is the flow of a draft I’m here for this year. I actually took Mayfield at 78th when he was ranked 68th and still had players ranked ahead of him on my board. I got to take OJ Howard at 59th when he was ranked 50th and at that point, he was BPA anyway. We get told things like “don’t draft a QB or TE early” and “draft a DEF and K last”. Some of this advice we can take to heart (streaming ST/K is where it’s at), and some we can decide for ourselves.

A friend of mine sent me an e-mail I rephrased a bit that kind of sparked this change from me:

In my work league I got the 1^st overall pick in the lottery. I have done a couple of mocks with BPA and I really didn’t like the outcome. So I tried another with “forcing” Kittle and Mahomes with the 24^th and 25^th pick respectively. Below are the results. I really don’t think my RB/WR squads got exponentially worse. I get slightly better depth at those positions when everyone stops to take them. Additionally, I have the consensus #1 QB and RB alongside the #2 TE.

Thoughts?

It made me think about it. What if you just take what you want (be greedy with your QB/TE pick in the middle rounds) and let the draft kind of unfold around those picks as a cure to the typical BPA strategy that does get kind of boring and monotonous. I’ve done two mock drafts so far and really feel like the draft falls apart around me after about Round 4. Every time I pick, there’s a great group of players and I feel like I’m getting value all over the place. I did get chided for the 4th Round Damien Williams pick in my mock, so we eat crow, too. Darwin Thompson is fast, ladies & gentlemen.

So there’s your 2019 Stampede Blue fantasy football draft strategy. Prioritize RB early, hit mid-round QB/TE and capitalize on WR depth late to make up for it. Have a great time at your drafts this year! Already drafted? What do you have? Questions? You already know you’re too RB light, right?

For those about to hit me with it, know that there are strategies like RB/RB, WR/WR, BPA, Early QB/TE, Late QB/TE, and of course you don’t draft your defense or kicker until the last two rounds.

Get your guy.

That’s what I’m saying.

Don’t wait.

You’ll be disappointed if you wait too long.