Can you lead a franchise to the Superbowl in one year? Can you be the Head Coach and General Manager of a team from the sidelines? If you find these questions intriguing,, then fantasy football is perfect for you.
Fantasy football is a game where you create your own virtual team through a draft and then receive points through the statistics of the players you have; every week, you set your lineup with the players you think will score the most points.
Fantasy football is very popular. According to a Washington Post article from last year, 59.3 million people play fantasy football in just the United States and Canada alone. Everyone is able to play fantasy football, regardless of status or age.
Whether with friends, family, colleagues, or classmates, lots of people make their own leagues for fun, bragging rights, money or just to get a better knowledge of the game.
Junior Ving Levy, a fellow classmate and co-manager of mine, said the reason he plays fantasy football “is because of my love for football and the additional aspect of following and rooting for individual players in the game I’m watching. Also, it gives you more to watch for on Sunday’s; you can have a good week to some extent, even if your real team loses.”
Levy also said that he plays with camp friends, family members and peers from current and past schools; these annual league help him maintain friendships with his fellow members. When asked what makes him keep playing every single year, he answered, “The competition with brothers and friends, and the desire to come back and win to show I’m the best.”
The draft is essential to your success in fantasy football. You try to draft the team you want and believe will be the best to take you to the championships. There are two types of drafts in fantasy football. One kind is an auction draft, where all teams have a set amount of money and bid on players to fill their roster.
Another kind is the snake draft, where the draft is separated by rounds for each roster spot. In the first round, each person picks in the order that was established. When it comes to the second round, however, the order is flipped: the person with the first pick of the first round now has the last pick of the second round, while the person with the last pick in the first round has the first pick in the second round.
Levy said he preferred the snake draft because “it gives an equal chance to all teams, making it more skill to outdraft opponents and draft the best team.”
However, you don’t just draft whomever you want - each pick and player has value. You should try not to overdraft players (where you draft someone not based on their value), as you may be able to get that player in the next round, and you would then be wasting a pick.
Levy said he has overdrafted players before and it left his team worse off, as it is as if he now doesn’t have a player in that round, also, you may be lacking skill at that position now, which can make it hard for your team, and desperate for a trade.
On the other hand, sometimes you need to make a reach for a positional player you need and want, even if it’s a reach, just because he won’t be available in the next round.
Research is very important for understanding player’s values. The values are determined by fantasy websites and fantasy analysts, so it’s important to do some research before you come to the draft.
When asked how he prepares for the draft, Levy responded, “I do some research and see what analysts on espn.com and nfl.com say about players and their values. Additionally, I look at the player's stats from previous years to see if he’s consistent. And, lastly, I do a couple of mock drafts. Most importantly, I try to go with my gut because, after all, it’s really just a guessing game.”
Levy gave some advice on how you should try to draft: “I prefer to make sure to get a running back and a wide receiver in the first two rounds. I like to take tight ends and quarterbacks very late, right before everyone else takes their backups. I also try to draft a lot of bench receivers and running backs before drafting a kicker, defense, and backup quarterback.”
Levy also added that you should try to stay away from injury-prone players. It can be a huge risk to draft them because they can easily get injured later in the season and hurt your roster.. Levy said this happened to him last year and caused his team to miss the playoffs.
Roster and scoring settings are essential to the draft and can majorly impact the way you draft your team. For example, a lot of people play with “point-per-reception,” which means that a player receives a point each time he catches the ball. This makes wide receivers much more valuable, as they now score more points weekly.
In addition, the number of players you have in each position also matters a lot. Whether you are playing with two or three wide receivers, or if you are playing with flex (a utility spot for either a wide receiver, running back, or tight end) affects how many players you should draft at each position.
Roster and scoring settings are different for all leagues, based on the number of people and what the league wants. Levy said that when he plays in a twelve-person league, he prefers his roster to consist of one quarterback, two running backs, three wide receivers, one flex, one tight end, one kicker, one team defense, and 6 bench spots.
Levy said he preferred this roster “because it maximizes the challenge of limiting the holes on the roster.”
For scoring settings, Levy prefers “half-point-per-reception,” because it “increases the value of the receivers, lowers the value of running backs, and makes each week higher scoring. This can affect the draft because now receivers who receive more catches than yards are featured, and running backs who are used in the passing game are much more valuable.”
Note that the season far from over after the draft. Every week, you must set your lineup with the players you think will do the best. In addition to just setting your lineup, you can also make trades to get your favorite players or just a positional player you may need.
Levy explained how he decides his roster every week: “A lot of it is just gut feeling. Obviously, I start my higher draft picks basically every week. If I’m deciding between two guys who are pretty even, I look at matchups, and how their stats are this season.”
Levy also looks every week to see if he is balanced at all his positions; if not, he tries to trade for the positional players he needs. But it’s important not to trade too much. It’s equally a problem to never trade at all.
Players may miss games throughout the season. If this happens and his backup is a free agent (a player no one drafted), then you will want to try to pick him up for your fantasy team, as he will be the starter for the week and thus can help your team win their matchup.
Sometimes random players just take over the starting job and continue to play very well; these players should also be picked up, as they will often be more effective than some of your other players.
There are also other settings that can make fantasy football more fun and competitive. If you want a competitive league, you should definitely have matchups every week instead of most points throughout the whole season, even though most points throughout the season shows who has the best team.
Levy noted the limits of what fantasy football can do: “I think fantasy football is great until someone gets addicted and that’s all he cares about.” Fantasy isn’t supposed to make you a different person. It’s just a great way to have fun with friends while fulfilling your dream of becoming the coach, manager and owner of your own team.