This is Matt Abrams and I am an analyst for LastWordonSports.com. I have been an avid fantasy football lover & player for the last ten years and I have been very successful in competitive money leagues.
Because of my prior success in fantasy football, I have decided to compose a list of some of the biggest do’s and don’ts of fantasy football.
My Top 5 Fantasy Football Do’s
- Do your research & go into your draft prepared. Often times I hear that fantasy football players do not use the cheat sheets on ESPN.com or even take a look at the fantasy rankings that are compiled by experts. Use these tools, like I do and I promise it will point you in the right direction and give you an advantage over your opponents.
- Do understand the rules of the league that you in. yard effort in Week 17 last year. Read more: http://www.kffl.com/article/497/PPR_vs._non-PPR_scoring.html#ixzz363WmUDJJ. The point here that I am trying to make is that knowing the rules of the respective league that you are in can help alter your draft strategy and play a big role on deciding whether to draft this player or that player only because he gets more receptions.
- Do pay attention to bye weeks. Each team has a bye week in the NFL and that means the players on that team will not player in whichever week that team has their bye week. Make sure when you draft your players, you don’t draft a backup wide receiver that has a bye week as your starting wide out. Bye weeks play a key role In fantasy football because often times, the weeks that your starting quarterback, defense and special team, and starting running backs are all on bye weeks, that is when your team can be most vulnerable. Be careful of bye weeks they can be your friend when playing an opponent and your enemy when your best players are on a bye week.
- Do build your team around your running backs. The running back position in fantasy football is, in my opinion, the most important position in fantasy football. These players get you points rushing the ball, catching the ball and of course for scoring touchdowns either in the air or on the ground. In all my years of playing fantasy, I have always taking my running backs first and it has always paid off. Trust me when I say that you can get a quality quarterback in the third round or higher. I won my league with Matthew Stafford and look who people took before him… Brady, Peyton Manning, Rodgers, Kaepernick, Brees, Luck, and yes even Cam Newton. I can assure if you build your team around your running backs that will give you the best chance of winning.
- Finally do, if an opportunity arises, upgrade your roster & accept a good trade offer. These two points go hand in hand which is why I decided to put them together. In my experience of playing fantasy football, asking peers, and talking to friends I have never finished the season with the same team that I drafted. This is very normal for many reasons: injuries occur, the productivity of a draftee has dropped significantly, or a trade transaction took place. If any of the reasons stated above occurs or another reason not listed, take the opportunity to add others players to your team to help give you the best chance of winning. This may seem like common sense but you would be surprised how when an injury occurs they just wait it out because ESPN or a fantasy expert hypes their return sooner than expected.
My Top 5 Fantasy Football Don’ts
- Don’t forget to update your lineup each week. This is one of the worst things you can do and it could be the difference between a win, a loss, or even missing the playoffs. I cannot stress this point even enough, make sure you check you fantasy league every week and be aware if your player is on a bye week, injured or even the matchup maybe bad for one of your players and you want to switch them out with a backup. As long as your lineup is updated each week with the players that give you the best opportunity to win, you should be fine.
- Don’t share you draft strategy with anyone in your leagues. This should go without saying, but I cannot count how many times, in leagues that I have been in with my friends and they shared who they wanted to draft with me and the other people in our league. I have used this kind of information to draft and trade key players and have caught others off guard. Keep your plan and draft strategy to yourself and make sure that you keep that private.
- Don’t draft your sleeper picks too early. For those who do not know, a sleeper pick is someone you believe is going to have a breakout season. These are usually players who are not rookies, but they can be. For the most part they are not well known NFL players. Sleepers are drafted in the middle to late rounds and are often times and surprisingly it is not your number one pick that will win your league for you, it’s the guy who you draft in the eighth and ninth rounds that produce like your number two pick. Remember that your sleeper picks are sleepers for a reason, because it’s a big risk and big reward type of deal. So be careful drafting your sleeper pick to early and losing sight of the bigger named players you need to draft to win your league.
- Don’t drop, trade away or bench your star players because they get off to a slow start and are in a slump. Many fantasy football players expect their players to start producing big numbers right away, especially their star first, second and third round draft picks. The key here is patience.Do not trade away your star player(s) if they are not producing the way that you want them too because more often than not, you will receive a bad trade offer that doesn’t benefit you. Lastly, do not bench your star player right away because the backup you selected in the later rounds will probably not produce the way that you were hoping for. However, if you can get a decent trade offer or a player in free agency that can produce in the way you’re hoping for, feel free to go through with that. Don’t panic and start trading away players who are under-performing, you are not likely to get good value in return.
- Don’t quit on your fantasy team under any circumstances. This is one of the biggest sins you can commit when it comes to fantasy football. Don’t be a poor loser and abandon your team simply because they aren’t living up to your expectations. By not continually keeping your best squad on the field every week, you can adversely affect the playoff race by giving one of the teams in contention an easy victory.
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