(Closed) First-time Fantasy Footballer, PLEASE help me!

• OtterHalf
• 6 years ago

• Wedding: November 1999

We do fantasy every year and it is a lot of fun.  You really do not need to know the rules of football to do fantasy (they take forever to learn). You just basically need to understand the different positiins and the players in the NFL that will bring in the most points for that position.  If yoy go to a barnes and noble (or another bookstore) they sell magazines specifically for fantasy. Younwill find a lot of great info in them.

• sweetkischa
• 6 years ago

• Wedding: September 2010

My husband LOVES fantasy (fill in the sport).  And football.  I feel for you.  The pp is right, fantasy is different than actual football, and there are magazines (oh, the magazines!) that will help figure it all out.  Sometimes, my husband will get me to do a little throwaway league with him so he gets me to participate (usually with lots of his help) and I don’t mess up his “real” leagues (the ones where $ is involved).  Sigh.  But it might be a good way to get started.

• babu22
• 6 years ago

• Wedding: November 2012

here are the resource links I sent out to my all-ladies fantasy football league.  we have a lot of first timers.  basically, you don’t actually have to know a lot about football – for instance downs are totally unimportant in fantasy.  You just have to learn the rules of fantasy football.  I suggest going to whatever online site you’ll be using and reading the rules.  Boring, but helpful.  I linked espn’s below because that’s what we use, but if your league uses yahoo or cbssports, read their rules.  That’s how you will get scored.  You win a “game” by getting more points than the team you’re matched against.  You win the season by winning enough games to make it to the playoffs and then winning the playoff bracket. 

http://games.espn.go.com/ffl/resources/help/content?name=introduction-videos

http://games.espn.go.com/ffl/content?page=fflrulesindex2012  

http://games.espn.go.com/frontpage/ffldraftkit

http://sports.espn.go.com/fantasy/football/ffl/story?page=NFLDK2K12_TMRManifesto

Last year was my first year, and I loved it!  i ended up in 8th place out of 16 teams, so solidly in the middle!  I’m in 3 leagues this year, including the ladies-only league I started. 

Good luck!  I hope you end up enjoying it as much as I have!

• daybyday
• 6 years ago

• Wedding: November 2006

I’m in an ESPN league and pigskinaddiction.com is my go-to source.

• Cecilia37
• 6 years ago

• Wedding: July 2012

I print out the CBS draft kit every year (never win though!).  Sometimes the less you know the better, just pick the best available player in each round and cross your fingers.

http://fantasynews.cbssports.com/fantasyfootball/draft-kit

Some of the best-drafted teams tank in the first week due to season-ending injuries nd the like.  If you can look at who gets injured the least, that mught be a useful addition.  But I drafted Payton Manning who never gets injured and he was out for the season right away, ugh.

Also remember that past performance can be pretty meaningless, and draft some rookies in the late rounds that have a high upside (i.e. you don’t have to use an early pick on them, but they are back-up to a good position so if someone gets hurt they could become very valuable).

Also, check out your top picks once you have them for who should be handcuffed (i.e. pick up their backup too).  OR you can pick up a good handcuff for a player someone else drafted, if you want the option to trade with them for someone else.  Not everyone should be handcuffed, so don’t do it unless there is a good reason.

There’s also an iPhone app that you can use to keep of the draft and quickly see the next best available player, but it can be hard to update it real-time during the craziness of a draft.

If it is a draft with alcohol, DO NOT drink.  This is my number one piece of advice and one I never follow.  Others will get drunk and make stupid mistakes, missing big players, making uninformed picks because they spent the round of picks talking instead of planning, etc.

Decide your top 12 (or however teams are in your team) picks beforehand, put a lot of thought into that first pick.  Do it wrong and you’ll kick yourself.  Decide if you want to draft a Ring Bearer or a QB first (sometimes this decision hinges on where in the draft you are).  If you get one of the first three picks, you’ll probably want to pick up a top Ring Bearer, unless you’re in a PPR league.  If you’re late and no one has picked a top three QB or WR, getting one of them might be better than getting a less valuable Ring Bearer.  I personally think QBs are great first round picks if one of the best available.  Yes, worse QBs are still more valuable than worse RBs, BUT a star QB can carry your team to victory every week.  Sometimes a star Ring Bearer gets stuffed by double or triple coverage and ends up seriously underperforming for their position.