When it comes to fantasy football drafts, it seems everybody has a different strategy, and different way of doing things. For example, there’s the guy who takes forever to make each pick, waiting until :01 is showing on the clock before finally deciding who to select with the No. 2 overall pick. Then there’s the guy who talks a lot of trash after each of his picks, no matter who the selection was, and usually they have a very witless team name that only they think is funny. They’ll spout things like, “cant believe i got derik andersun in the 9th rnd!! he’s gonna throw at least 25 tds this season! no 1 can stop the stinkbombz this year baybee!!!!”

We could go on, of course. There’s still drunk drafter, as well as the angry guy who gets his all of his players “stolen” right before he was about to select them, and the guy (or girl) who insists that their new significant other be in the league even though they’ve never played fantasy football before and make their selections based on some inane criteria like a cool-sounding name. Still, no matter who is in your league, the point is to win, and get the satisfaction of beating the Derek Anderson-led stinkbombz. And to do so means good drafting, obviously. But what is good drafting? Well, we’re here to help you out with that, and give you some quintessential tips on how to avoid some common mistakes.

High-Profile Does not Mean Higher Value: You see this all the time, usually with players who came into the league with a lot of hype, or who play in the largest media markets. Name recognition doesn’t mean anything in fantasy football. See the graph below? Those are the top-15 quarterbacks last season in fantasy points. See where former No. 1 overall NFL draft pick and Super Bowl winning signal-caller Eli Manning is? No. 14. And last season was his first with a completion percentage of at least 58 percent and a quarterback rating above 77.0. Reggie Bush was the No. 2 overall pick in the NFL draft and a Heisman Trophy winner, yet he’s never even run for 600 yards in a season.

Avoid Rookie Quarterbacks and Wide Receivers: Everybody talks about how good Matt Ryan was for Atlanta last season. And he was, relatively speaking, but his 16 touchdown passes were 16th in the league, and his 3,440 passing yards were 13th in the league. Again, referring to the graph, he was 15th in fantasy points at quarterback last season, which made him a QB2, despite having what everybody would call an amazing season for a rookie. There are clearly more exceptions at wideout, as we saw last season with the production of DeSean Jackson and Eddie Royal, but it’s also extremely difficult to predict just who will do what. If you could say with conviction that you knew in 2006 that seventh-round pick Marques Colston would amass over 1,000 receiving yards and eight touchdowns, or last season that you knew Royal would catch 90 passes, then pack your things and move to Vegas.

Don’t Overdo it on Handcuffs: One of the most overused strategies in fantasy football is the use of handcuff picks. If you’re reading this, you almost certainly know what that means, but just in case someone doesn’t, that’s the practice of taking the backup to your No. 1 running back to ensure that should he go down, you have a safety net. Things have changed in the NFL lately, however, and this strategy is one that has a chance to backfire. With the emphasis in recent years on two-back systems, taking a handcuff can be impossible to begin with. If you have DeAngelo Williams, it’s not very wise to take Jonathan Stewart soon after. Last season, they each amassed double-digit fantasy points only five times, and on three occasions they combined for fewer than 15 points. As for teams that utilize mainly one runner, there’s a reason for that. If you drafted Steven Jackson, do you really think Samkon Gado or Kenneth Darby will adequately replace him? This is not to say that some handcuffs aren’t important, just that they’re not as relevant. By all means, if you decide to draft Brian Westbrook, take LeSean McCoy. In other words, be smart about who really needs a handcuff.

Tags: Brian Westbrook, DeAngelo Williams, DeSean Jackson, Eddie Royal, Eli Manning, fantasy draft strategy, Fantasy Football, Jonathan Stewart, Kenneth Darby, LeSean McCoy, Matt Ryan, Reggie Bush, samkon gado, Steven Jackson

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Entry posted on Tuesday, August 25th, 2009 at 7:42 am. Filed under tags: Brian Westbrook, DeAngelo Williams, DeSean Jackson, Eddie Royal, Eli Manning, fantasy draft strategy, Fantasy Football, Jonathan Stewart, Kenneth Darby, LeSean McCoy, Matt Ryan, Reggie Bush, samkon gado, Steven Jackson,
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