Draft strategy for next year?

[wtr23]

Evening guys, hope everyone is enjoying the fantasy playoffs this time around.

I came here seeking some advice for next year. A few of my buddies decided to start a fantasy football league last year, I had no idea what I was doing but I decided to join in. We held the draft, the season played out. Unfortunately we had a few flakes in our league, our league of 12 had maybe 6 active guys. I managed to make the playoffs as the seventh seed, but I was knocked out of the first round of the playoffs (losing 117.7 to 162.24). I had a record of 7-7, i'll post my roster after the draft and compare to playoffs.

Drafted Team - 2011
1(11) DMC 2(14) Rivers 3(35) Bradshaw 4(38) Wallace (best pick IMO)
5(59) SD DEF 6(62) Kaeding LOL 7(83) Manningham 8(86) Garcon
9(107) Cooley 10(110) Jason McCourty (IDP) 11(131) Rashad Jennings 12(134) Verner (IDP)
13(155) Hines Ward 14(158) LT 15(179) T. Hightower 16(182) Sanchez

I knew nothing about fantasy sports at the time...don't laugh because I drafted a Defense and kicker in consecutive rounds that weren't round 16 and 17 . DMC and Bradshaw both went down with multiple week injuries, so the free agent pool was my best friend. I made a couple excellent pickups in Cruz and Murray and that alone saved my playoff hopes.

Playoff Team
QB- Rivers
RB- DMC, Bradshaw, Murray, K. Bell, B. Jacobs, P. Thomas
WR- Wallace, Cruz, Floyd, Burleson
TE- Gates
K- Kasay (Kaeding put on IR in the first game)
DEF- Seattle (rotated year round)
D- D'Q Jackson, JPP


This year was much different. We waited till the very last minute to round up the teams, and we ended up doing autodraft since we couldn't schedule a live draft before the season started. Ended this season much better at 10-4, helped by a 7-0 start.

Pre-season Roster - 2012(autodraft)
QB- Rodgers, Cutler
RB- Murray, R. Bush, Helu
WR-Wayne,Jennings, Djax, M. Williams, Crabtree
TE- Hernandez, Clark
K- Hanson
DEF- Ari
D- Ryan Mundy

and ended up with this, again FA pickups and a few trades here and there...

QB- Rodgers
RB- DMC, Murray, Moreno
WR- Wayne, Cruz, Amendola, Blackmon, Streater
TE- Hernandez, Pitta
K- Bryant
DEF- SEA, CIN
D- L. David, Bowman



It's just my 2nd year doing fantasy football, and I'm already hooked. I managed to do ok with the autodraft team, but the team I drafted last year wasn't great. I'd like to hear a few tips on draft strategy, hopefully I can come back draft day 2013 and assemble a better squad. In what order do you draft your players? I know, DEF and Kickers in the last rounds . Which skill players do you go for first, when to start drafting TEs...any tips would be appreciated!

[rareform21]

the dude at this one site I was reading touched on where/how to draft TE in 2013 at
fantasyfootballmagic

It basically says don't take both a QB and one of the top 2 TEs early. Should be one or the other.

[mycuccismells]

To me the best way to approach a draft is by placing guys in Tiers at their position. So for QB you may have a Tier 1 with Brees/Brady/Manning/Rodgers, Tier 2 with Newton/Ryan/Kaepernick/Wilson/RG3, Tier 3 with Eli/Ben/Romo/etc. You do this at every position and then try to gauge where the biggest drop offs are, how many players you need at that position, and how injury prone that position is.

At QB there is a decent drop off after those top 4, and then probably 5-6 guys after that who could all finish within the top 5. Considering QBs dont get injured often and you only start one in most leagues I dont try to reach for them. If one of those top 4 falls into the late 2nd or early 3rd then i grab them, otherwise better to wait until round 6-7 and get one of those running QBs who have a relatively high floor and ceiling.

RB on the other hand you will notice that once you get into the 18-20 range you will start to see a big drop off. Considering most leagues start 2 RBs (possibly a third in the flex) if you dont draft them early then you start getting into those timeshare backs who have inconsistent production and touches. In addition RBs tend to get injured the most so its the position where you need the most depth on your bench as a safety net, because RBs on the waiver wire are very uncommon. Because of that i try to get 2-3 of those top 20-22 backs if possible, not only for my own safety but also for trade value down the line.

Tight ends are sort of the wildcard, you have Gronk/Graham/Hernandez/TonyG and then a group of around 10-12 guys after that. You only start one of those so either reach for the top 4 or just grab one in the 9-10 rounds.

All that being said there is no right or wrong draft strategy, and whatever strategy you go in with shouldn't be followed 100%. Every draft is different and you need to adapt to what other people are doing. My general philosophy is to load up on running backs early and often, making sure i get 2 in the first 3 rounds. But if I can get a stud in the first round and then say a Graham in the 2nd and a Manning in the 3rd then maybe i go that route. If Calvin Johnson falls to me late in the first maybe i take him and try to strike gold with an up and coming RB.

The key is really understanding value and how it relates to your need in terms of position requirements and scoring based on your scoring system, overall depth at the position, and how you think others are drafting.