Okay, so I’ve been playing fantasy football for years, and every season I try to refine my draft strategy. This year, I decided to really dig in and figure out who the best players were, regardless of what the “experts” were saying. Here’s how I went about it:
Started with the Basics (Stats, Stats, Stats!)
First, I grabbed last year’s stats. I didn’t just look at total points, though. I went deep: I looked at targets for receivers, carries for running backs, passing yards for quarterbacks – the whole nine yards. I used a couple of different websites because, you know, gotta cross-reference!
Watched Some Games (Okay, a Lot of Games)
Then, because stats don’t tell the whole story, I actually watched games. Yeah, it’s time-consuming, but I wanted to see how players were getting their points. Were they consistent? Did they disappear in the second half? Did they rely on one big play? This helped me get a feel for their actual on-field performance.
Considered the “Off-Season Shuffle”
Next up was factoring in all the off-season changes. Did a quarterback get a new, awesome receiver? Did a running back’s team lose a key offensive lineman? These things matter. I spent a good chunk of time reading team reports and articles to see how these changes might impact player performance.
Looked at Strength of Schedule
I then considered the strength of the schedule. It’s no good picking someone that appears good, but they are playing the top 5 defenses every other week. I looked at who each team was going to go up against, and roughly worked out how easy or difficult their opponents would be, by looking back at how they did last year, and taking into consideration any changes that happened during the off-season.
Mock Drafts, Baby!
After all that research, I jumped into some mock drafts. This is where the rubber meets the road. I wanted to see where players were actually being drafted and get a sense of value. Could I snag a top-tier running back in the second round? Was a certain quarterback being consistently overlooked?
My “Secret Sauce” List
Finally, I created my own personalized rankings. This wasn’t just a list of the top players; it was a tiered list based on my research, with notes on why I liked (or didn’t like) certain players at their average draft position.
Iterate and Refine and Iterate Again
I took this list, and repeated mock drafts, noting where I could take each player, and refining the list each time. What good is research if you don’t learn from it and do it again?
It was a lot of work, I refined it, and refined it again. But, I used my finalized list to help make my selection decisions, and I feel really good about my team this year. I feel confident about every player on my draft, all thanks to my pre-season process. Let’s see how it plays out!