1. Use a cheat sheet

The first rule of fantasy football (is you don’t talk about fantasy football, actually not really) is that you have to be prepared. Don’t rely on fantasy magazines or ESPN’s rankings for anything. Most of those were compiled weeks ago. You want up to date rankings. This requires you to either do a lot of research and come up with your own big board or find a reliable website to updates its rankings frequently (and what do you know, you’re on one right now). Here are my top 100 and my positional rankings.

You want to rely on a top 100 primarily, but have positional rankings handy in case you desperately need a position. Don’t be afraid to take best player available over positional need. There are some cases where need outweighs value, but overall, you’re going to be playing the matchups frequently anyway. You want a lot of depth. Positional rankings allow you to judge the depth at the position, but primarily you want to use a top 100 and cross off as you go along.

2. Have a list of sleepers

Positional rankings are also handy for one other thing. They let you know when all the starting caliber talent is gone at a position. When this happens, you want to start taking high upside sleepers. A lot of people make the mistake of drafting low upside, safe backups that don’t have the upside to be much more than a 4^th or 5^th player at a position for you. You want to take backups with a lot of upside. Best case scenario, they become starting caliber and give you more flexibility. Worst case, they bomb, you cut them and you pick up one of the many waiver studs that become available. Here are my sleepers.

3. Draft a backup quarterback based on your QB1’s bye week

There are some cases you can’t do this, but for the most part, it’s best to draft a backup quarterback who has an easy matchup in your starter’s bye week. More detail on this is available here. There is another rule you want to follow with starting quarterbacks. If you miss out on an elite talent and have to settle with a low end quarterback, you want to draft a high upside backup who has the ability to potentially become an elite talent (Bradford, Kolb, Stafford, McCoy, etc.)

4. Never draft a backup tight end unless it’s a sleeper or too good to pass on

Tight ends aren’t a big enough part of fantasy for you to waste 2 rosters spots on. Ideally, you get one, a solid starter and you pick up a backup off the waivers for his bye week and drop a disappointing high upside pick to get him. There are two exceptions here. Sometimes a value too good will just present itself. If a 2^nd tight end is the best player on your board, don’t hesitate to take him once your into the mid to late rounds. I did this in 2009. I drafted Visanthe Shiancoe as my TE1, but a round later, Brent Celek was just too good of a value to pass on and I drafted him. Celek took the starting job and ran with it while I was able to draft Shiancoe. The other exception is when a tight end is atop your sleeper board. It’s essentially the same reasoning as the first exception.

5. Never draft a backup defense or kicker

There are no exceptions here. Those two positions are too unimportant and/or random for you to use a 2^nd roster spot on one.

 

6. Have a top tier of defenses

You don’t want to be that guy you drafts a defense in the 8^th round and then has his fellow drafters laugh at him while no one else drafts another defense for 2 rounds. You also want to avoid being that get you gets a crappy defense. This is why it’s important to make a list of your top 4 or 5 defenses and then when half of them are off the board, take your best available. My top 4 are here.

7. Don’t reach for your top tier, however.

If you miss out on your top tier, it’s not a huge deal. You can just wait until the 15^th round (right before you draft your kicker) and play the matchups with defenses. Did you know, last season if you had used whichever defense played Carolina, you would have had the #1 fantasy defense. Obviously, you can’t always have a defense that plays the worst offense in the league, but you can almost have a defense that plays a bottom 4 or 5 offense. It’s a nice consolation prize for getting a top tier defense so don’t reach.

8. Never draft a kicker before the last round

Kickers are all random for the most part. Wait until week 16 and draft a kicker that some random fantasy service tells you is the best available. It doesn’t matter. If he sucks, drop him and pick up one that doesn’t. I don’t even rank kickers for this reason.

9. Pay attention to ADP

You might have a player ranked 65, but if his ADP is in the 130s, it might be smarter to draft a player you have ranked 70, but with an ADP of around 75. It’s simple reasoning. That first guy could easily be there when you make your next pick. The 2^nd guy probably won’t. You want both right?

10. Draft handcuffs for uncertain players

Jeremy Maclin was really sick this offseason. Riley Cooper will step into the lineup if he misses any games or doesn’t play well. If you draft Jeremy Maclin, make sure you can get Cooper. Chris Johnson’s holdout could go into the season. Chris Johnson owners will want Javon Ringer, who figures to be the lead back in Johnson’s absence. Michael Turner and Maurice Jones Drew are both injury risks. You want Jason Snelling and Rashad Jennings respectively. There are more examples of this, but you get the picture by this point.

11. Know your league rules

What roster slots does your league use? Is it PPR, 1/2 PPR, 2 PPR? Are touchdowns worth more? Are yards worth less? Do you have some random weird scoring settings? You need to know this. It’s for this reason that I not only provide predictions on how many fantasy points a player will score in a standard league, but also how many they will score in a PPR or a 6 point passing TD league. I also include all their projected stats in case you play in a weird league and need to calculate projected points yourself.