Fantasy Football Draft Strategy

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Episode 022: Fantasy Football Rich Hribar

Episode 022: The Fantasy Coach Podcast

Fantasy Football Edition:  Fantasy Football Draft Strategy

Featuring: Rich Hribar (@LordReebs) of The Faked Goods Podcast

Faked Goods
About My Guest: Sports and pop culture tweets all day. Fantasy Football Redraft Meteorologist for Dyno/DFS  and A-Z. 1/2 of the     Fan.

Episode Summary:  Rich and I try to get everyone ready for their fantasy football drafts by taking a peek at our redraft strategy.  We go over everything from when to finally pull the trigger at quarterback to how to avoid being a year too late on a guy.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers Outlook for XNSports 

Episode Rundown: 

  • Intro
  • We get to know Rich and find out how he pumps out all of that fantasy football goodness.
  • Should we be scared of Round One Running Back Busts this year?
  • When should the top tight ends be considered?  Jimmy Graham, Rob Gronkowski etc.
  • Are the RBs in the second and third round that much better of a gamble then the ones in the fourth and the fifth.
  • When should we finally pull the trigger at QB?
  • Is Reggie Wayne a value or should we avoid him this year?
  • The Denver Brocos’ Wide Receiver situation with the concussion suffered by Wes Welker.
  • Late round Keeper Targets.RevoLabels.com
  • Players who could suffer from game flow issues.
  • The Coach’s Office (brought to you by RevoLabels.com)
  • Outro

 

You can Download this episode as well as the previous three on Itunes and Stitcher Radio.   

Thank Yous For Episode 022:  I want to thank Rich Hribar for coming on the podcast and sharing some of his golden fantasy football stats with me.  I would also like to thank C-Quel for providing the intro music as well as the outro beat.  You can Find all of C-Quel’s current music available here.

 

Fantasy Football Draft Strategy: Zero Running Back

The Fantasy Football Black Book

 

There are many strategies that can work when it comes to winning your Fantasy Football leagues in 2014, but one fantasy football draft strategy seems to be really taking hold when people are drafting from the back end of a PPR (point per reception league) draft.  The zero running back strategy is taking over expert and amateur fantasy football drafts alike.  The importance of the wide receiver position and the ability to avoid potential draft busts with early round picks has taken hold.  The question marks at the running back position start right after the top five running backs, while the top six wide receivers are virtually guaranteed to approach their projected statistics.

The FSWA (Fantasy Sports Writer’s Association) Fantasy Football Leagues recently kicked off their drafts and mine is filled some of my friends from the industry.  One of of my friends in the league is Mark Kaplan, @DaTrueGuru, and he is picking from the 10 spot in out twelve team PPR FSWA draft.  I noticed his team was avoiding the running back position early in the draft and asked if he would mind sharing his draft strategy and thoughts and he, by some miracle, obliged.  I was particularly interested in his thoughts because I have been drafting very similarly from that same spot in leagues and because Mark has done extremely well in the FSWA leagues lately.  He even has a 2013 FSWA Fantasy Basketball Championship already under his belt and is currently among the leaders in the Fantasy Baseball Leagues as well.

Here’s Mark’s FSWA Draft Early Draft Strategy from the 10 spot:

The FSWA Insiders draft is a PPR league where we have to start three wide receivers and a flex. That means wide receivers rule the draft, but most people want to take running backs early and often, despite their injury risk and the fact that wideouts easily out produce running backs in PPR leagues. I had the 10th overall pick and knew right away I was going WR/WR because every running back after the first four main guys are all over valued and come with question marks.

Luckily Demaryius Thomas was there for me at 10 and I instantly took the highest scoring WR in PPR leagues last season. Then my boy, Brandon Marshall, was there for my next pick and again, instantly took him. B-Marsh is so reliable and is basically a guarantee to get 100 receptions (has done that in two straight seasons). Just like that, I have two players that should each get me 300 points.
demaryius-thomas
Now the tough decisions start. With my third pick, I was staring at some very questionable running backs like Reggie Bush (J. Bell was already gone and just not a fan of Bush), Rashad Jennings (has never been the #1 guy before), Frank Gore (means I would have to reach on Carlos Hyde in a few rounds,so would basically be spending 2 picks on one RB), Ben Tate(injury concerns). That is a road I wanted to avoid. Julius Thomas was there as well, but not only is he overrated (had only 65 catches last season), there are also a lot of other TE’s I like rounds 8-10 that I’d rather draft at their value, than draft Thomas in the third round. Therefore, I was going to target a wide receiver, but which one? I was choosing between Andre Johnson (who was ranked 96th for some unknown reason), Victor Cruz, Keenan Allen, and Pierre Garcon. I ended up going with Andre Johnson because he’s an elite wide receiver (finished 10th overall among WRs last season and has played in 16 games in each of the past two season). When it gets back to me, J. Thomas, Cruz, Jennings, and Bush are gone and I’m faced with the decision again: reach on a questionable running back, like T. Gerhart or B.Tate, or take another elite WR. Decided to go WR for the fourth time, this time was deciding between Keenan Allen and Garcon. It was basically coin flip and decided I like the upside of Allen so went with him.
Keenan Allen
Now my starting roster is set with four wideouts that should all produce 270 plus fantasy points this season (there were only five running backs last season that reached 270 fantasy points and one of those guys was Knowshon Moreno). Instead of taking running backs that might produce in the third or fourth round, I loaded up on great wideouts. What about running backs? Well there are going to be plenty of guys in the fifth and sixth round that have just as much upside and question marks as the guys in the third or fourth rounds like Fred Jackson, Pierre Thomas, Baltimore RBs Ray Rice and Bernard Pierce, Chris Johnson, to name a few. Now, I will be taking running backs the rest of the draft (besides getting a QB and a TE). But here’s the thing, all I need is one of my late round running backs to emerge as a #1, out of all of the ones I will end up taking, to be almost unstoppable. If I can get 10-13 points from each of my running backs (which isn’t hard to get in a PPR league) I end up taking, then my team will be extremely successful.
I want players that are consistent and will put up points, despite what position they play. Instead of reaching on a running back that might get me 200-220 points, I’d gladly take the wide receiver that is going to score 270 points. The objective is to score the most points each week, not build a pretty looking roster, and by going with four wide receivers to start the draft, I’m on my way to scoring a plethora of points of every week.
**I want to thank Mark for taking the time to do a guest post for me and implore anyone who enjoys fantasy sports to give him a follow on twitter, @DaTrueGuru**

Editor’s Note- Check out this interview for the Fantasy Sports Network featuring Michael Salfino talking about Zero Running Back

For more great Fantasy Football content check out the latest episodes of The Fantasy Coach Podcast and check out The Fantasy Football Black Book 2014 Edition.

Episode 019: Fantasy Football Nick Mensio

Episode 019: The Fantasy Coach Podcast

Fantasy Football Edition:  Fantasy Football Wide Receiver Strategy

Featuring: Nick Mensio (@NickMensio) Rotoworld.com

Nick Mensio
About My Guest: Nick Mensio is a football writer for Rotoworld.com. The 2014 NFL season marks his third with Rotoworld.

Episode Summary:  Nick and I discuss the wide receiver position in fantasy football.  We discuss if Calvin Johnson will be dethroned as the number one fantasy wide receiver and even talk a little about Miles Austin’s Hamstrings.  (Just a little)

Episode Rundown:

  • Intro
  • Get to know Nick a little.
  • The Big Six wide receivers?
  • Discuss options at the position in rounds 1-9.
  • Discuss the rookie class.
  • Discuss Late round targets.
  • The Coach’s Office, Brought to you by RevoLabels.com
  • Outro

You can Download this episode as well as the previous three on Itunes and Stitcher Radio.

Thank Yous For Episode 019:  I want to thank Nick for coming on the podcast and discussing the wide receiver position.  After tonight’s episode I may have to go out and buy more stock in Dez Bryant.   I would also like to thank C-Quel for providing the intro music as well as the outro beat.  You can Find all of C-Quel’s current music available here.

RevoLabels.com

Episode 017: Fantasy Football Micah James

Episode 017: The Fantasy Coach Podcast

Fantasy Football Edition: Fantasy Football Running Back Thoughts

Featuring: Micah James (@FFMagicMan) of The FFToolBox Radio Show

FFMagicMan_Avatar  About My Guest:  Micah James is the winner of the 2012 FSTA Accuracy Rankings Challenge (1st out of 61 Expert entries) and Runner-Up in 2013 — Heard nationwide on SiriusXM Fantasy Sports channel and worldwide on the FFToolbox Radio Show on BlogTalkRadio — here to help you win your fantasy football Championship this season!

Episode Summary:  Micah and I discuss the fantasy football running back position from top to bottom.  We talk about the big four, and if it’s even a big four, and even delve into the late round rookie running backs we may be targeting.  We also talk about his recent success in the Pro’s Vs. Joe’s league and how he fared in this year’s draft.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Episode Rundown: 

  • Intro
  • Is the Big Four running backs really the Big Four? Jamaal Charles, LeSean McCoy, Matt Forte, and Adrian Peterson.
  • Who do we think will end up in that top four that isn’t ranked that way now?
  • Our thoughts on Arian Foster and Marshawn Lynch.
  • Which running backs are we targeting after the 2nd round/3rd round turn in fantasy football drafts?
  • Which running back that switched teams in the off-season will be more valuable to fantasy owners?
  • Which PPR running backs will help teams to a championship?
  • Which running back will bounce back this season?
  • Which aging veteran will score the most fantasy points this season?
  • Which rookie running backs are we drafting in Fantasy Football drafts?
  • Outro

You can Download this episode as well as the previous three on Itunes and Stitcher Radio.

Thank Yous For Episode 017:  I want to thank my former co-host on the Trick Plays Podcast, Micah James, for coming on the show and discussing the running back position for the 2014 Fantasy Football season.  I would also like to thank C-Quel for providing the intro music as well as the outro beat.  You can Find all of C-Quel’s current music available here.

 

Fantasy Football Mock Draft 2014

My early years playing fantasy football were spent doing tedious tasks.  Writing down fantasy scoring out of the USA Today on Mondays and Tuesdays and hoping there weren’t any corrections in the Wednesday edition.  (Damn you backwards swing passes!)  Scoring during the fantasy football year was tedious, but draft preparation was even worse.  The only way to do a fantasy football mock draft in the 1990s was to breakout the old spiral notebook and try use your knowledge of the drafting habits of your league mates to do a proper predictive mock.  This method was of course flawed as it was hard to do anything, but go round by round using your personal rankings and always being left unhappy because your favorite guys wouldn’t fall to you.

The bad preparation would inevitably lead to me being unprepared on draft day as my friends would reach for rookies or seem like they were drafting off of magazines printed three years before.  In the years that followed strategies and technologies seemed to grow by leaps and bounds.  More and more league mates were showing up with customized cheat sheets from FootballGuys.com and 4for4.com.  I was tough for the average fantasy football player to keep up with the fantasy “Joneses”.  I would do my best using the free tools that were on the internet at the time, but mock drafting with a computer with bad artificial intelligence and outdated rankings always made it a process that almost wasn’t worth the effort.

DraftWizard_FB_300x250

That all changed when the Draft Wizard was invented.  The Draft Wizard is the single best tool a fantasy football player can use to prepare themselves for a Fantasy Football draft.  You draft side by side with artificial owners that are using the strategies and rankings of the best in fantasy sports.  You also get the added benefit of draft pick suggestions based on what real pro fantasy football players would do.  All of this can be done in minutes instead of hours.

Do you want to see what your team would look like if you tried to go late round quarterback, but only have 20 minutes before your train gets to your stop? No problem.  Do you get frustrated after you make a bad pick because you felt rushed?  Don’t worry about it.  You can jump out and start all over without frustrating eleven other fantasy owners.  What are you waiting for?  Try it today and let me know what you think.

 

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