I'm participating in a couple of drafts right now; I posted about one of them yesterday. It's that time of year. And no matter how many years you've been playing fantasy football, it can be good to take a step back and remind yourself of some basic (in some cases, very basic) things to do, and not to do. Here are 8 do's and don'ts.
DO know your scoring system, and draft off the correct rankings. I know, it's as basic as advice gets. And yet, people mess it up. "Standard" rankings are based on 1 point for every 10 rushing and receiving yards, but no points awarded for receptions. "PPR" rankings do give a point for each catch. In the PPR draft I'm in right now, half (18) of the first 36 picks were wide receivers. In the Standard draft I'm in right now, 23 of the first 41 picks were running backs; about a third (14) were wide receivers. Accordingly on our cheat sheets, the PPR rankings include just 11 running backs in the top 30 overall, while Standard lists 15 of them. Running backs go quicker in non-PPR formats, so you've got to select them earlier.
DON'T take a certain position just to take that position. Just because running backs or wide receivers are more or less valuable in one scoring system than another doesn't make a good option into a great one. If you're at the end of those top 30 picks, taking the 16th running back versus the 7th wide receiver is probably going to hurt your team. In the NFL and in fantasy football, star talent wins games and wins leagues. I might rather have a running back in a Standard league, but that doesn't make David Montgomery better than Stefon Diggs. Taking the best available player can be a tired mantra, but it's generally the way to go. End up a little weaker at one position than another and you can sort that out later in the draft or during the season. Having more star players than another team, regardless of position, is never a bad thing.
DO make sure you're up to date on NFL news. Stuff is happening all the time this time of year. Players coming up lame or getting carted off the field in practice. Players being activated off the PUP list. Big names like Dalvin Cook and Ezekiel Elliott signing contracts that pay them "up to" $5M, $6M, $8M. If you find yourself getting excited about Rhamondre Stevenson or Breece Hall sliding to you way below where they were ranked in the Cheat Sheet published two days ago, do a quick search on your favorite site for NFL news before racing to the podium. There might be a reason why such and such player is still available.
DON'T take for granted what teams say. DO pay attention to what they do. The Jets can say they're confident in Breece Hall's ACL recovery. Their beat writer can say that when he's healthy, he'll be a bellcow. It's just noise. Teams that are confident in one back's health do not give $8 million contracts to another one. They just don't. Yes, there are gray areas. The Jets have a ton of money and might be fully happy to spend a bunch of it on an insurance policy. But no matter how much money you have, using it speaks volumes. Dalvin Cook is going to have a significant role in the offense for as long as he's on the roster. Look around the league at any camp, any roster, and while you can take note of what teams say, what they do is a lot more important.
DON'T overdraft a backup. I totally understand the peace of mind of having your starter's backup to protect in case of injury. But all backups are not equal, and more importantly, all are not set in stone. If I draft Aaron Jones or Javonte Williams, yes, I might reach a little earlier on AJ Dillon or Samaje Perine. For one thing, those guys are the clear, certain No. 2 (in Perine's case, perhaps a No. 1A) running backs on those teams, and for another, they will probably play enough to merit starting consideration at times even if the starter gets hurt. But if you think you know who the backup in Cincinnati or Indianapolis will be at the start of the year, you're probably wrong. If you think you know who the 2nd-best back will be with the Giants or Raiders for most of the season (even if you know it will be Matt Breida and Zamir White in Week 1), you might also be wrong. Missing out on a potential No. 2 is often better than passing up a very good player at another position to take them too early.
DO have at least a vague sense of player tiers. As each of my picks approaches, I'm looking at the different positions and seeing how many players are left who I grade similarly at each one. We can all perceive dropoffs after the first 5 WRs, or 7 TEs, or 6 QBs. If my pick comes up and I see 5 similar wide receivers but only 2 similar quarterbacks, I'm going to lean to picking the quarterback, and getting a wide receiver with my next pick. I do this with every pick: don't force a position if there are a bunch of players left who I grade similarly. If your pick comes up and the last player at a specific tier for a specific position is just sitting there, it's usually a good idea to take him and feel good about it, then hit another position with the next pick.
DON'T overrate injury concerns. Some players have greater injury histories than others; that's a given. But no one is immune from injuries, and drafting a much lesser player because you think he's much more likely to stay healthy than another is a great way to wind up starting a much lesser player. George Kittle, having missed multiple games in multiple seasons and being hurt right now is a reasonable player to avoid. Kyle Pitts having missed a handful of games last year is not. Christian McCaffrey played in 20 games last year. Yes he was hurt the two previous seasons, but is he really more likely to get hurt this year than Austin Ekeler? (Different people can feel differently, it's fine.) JaMarr Chase missed a month due to a hip injury last year. Is he at greater risk of getting hurt than Tyreek Hill, who's played in every game the last two years but is six years older? It's a violent game and there's luck involved with injuries. Don't bake in too much assumption to your selections in that regard.
DO take players you like. Perhaps you're subscribing to our newsletter. Perhaps you're subscribing to five or six different fantasy professionals or advice or news sites. At the end of the day, it's your team. You watch football, you're going to live and die (not literally, one hopes) with your fantasy team all season. The season is too precious, and also too short, to spend it rooting for players that someone else liked a little more than you did.
If we rank Jefferson over Chase and you're a Bengals fan, it's OK to diverge slightly from the rankings. The projections are close, and there's a margin of error in all of them. Ian and I don't always agree 100 percent on players. Recently in a draft I was choosing between DeAndre Hopkins and Tyler Lockett. Ian ranked one of them slightly higher. My gut told me the other one would be a little better. Had I taken Ian's guy and he got hurt or suspended a week later, I would have been annoyed about it for a while. Better to take my guy on my team and live with the consequences. Because I'm the one who will be facing them each week.
Good luck in your drafts!