The 6 Biggest Draft Mistakes a Rookie Fantasy Football Owner Can Make

1. Drafting a defense or kicker in the middle rounds

This is fantasy football 101. Wait until the last two rounds to pick a kicker and defense. It’s nearly impossible to determine from year to year which defenses will finish in the top 10. Heck, a lot of the top 10 defenses aren’t even drafted, yet many owners will fall in love with certain teams that were good last season only to find they underperformed this year. The same principle applies to kickers. There really isn’t much of a difference between the best kicker and the 12th-best kicker. Many solid kickers can be acquired during the season very easily. For these reasons, it’s best to wait until the end of your draft to pick a kicker and defense.

two. Draft a player who has been cut by an NFL team

One of the most embarrassing scenarios in a fantasy football draft is the owner choosing a running back or wide receiver that the NFL team just cut a few days before the draft. This is an absolutely wasted selection. Now, if it happens with a kicker during the last round of the draft, the pain may be minimal. Kicker cuts are highly publicized, but with any other position, this lack of preparation is inexcusable. Do a lot of homework and don’t make this mistake.

3. Draft a player who is injured (off-season)

There’s an old poker saying that if you don’t know who’s the fool at the table, it must be you. If you want to know where the easy money is in the fantasy football draft, he’s the guy who picks a running back in Round 5 who tore an ACL in a preseason game the week before. The room will burst into laughter. Don’t be this guy. Do homework. If time is limited before the draft, at least check the latest news and injury report before heading to your draft. I could save you a lot of humiliation.

Four. Waiting until round 3 to pick a RB

I’ve talked about it in my Fantasy Football Aid draft strategy articles, fantasy owners need to identify the tight positions in their league and pick those players early. In most leagues, the RB position is scarce. Let’s say each team starts 2 RBs, but the NFL only has 32 starting running backs. In a 12-team fantasy football league, 24 of the 32 running backs (75%) are required. When you consider that many teams employ a running back by committee (rbbc) approach, the actual RB percentage required increases even more. By contrast, only 12 of the 32 quarterbacks (37.5%) are required. What this means is that RBs will be harder to find later in the draft and throughout the season. QBs will be abundantly available. It is advisable to take an RB with one or both of your first two picks.

5. Have a smaller list of players to be selected from

This will drive experienced draft players crazy. He’s the guy who fights during the last three rounds of the draft because they brought in a 48-runner roster, but 60 were drafted. He’s the guy who’s asking for his neighbor’s list because he doesn’t know who’s available. If there are 12 teams in the fantasy league and each can draft 5 running backs on the roster, you’ll need to bring a pre-draft ranking list of 60 running backs, for example. It’s a simple pre-draft planning task.

6. lack of strategy

Each owner must enter the draft with a plan. Whether using value-based drawing techniques, levels, or a simple printed list from a reputable expert, a strategy is essential to success. Know which position you would like to target in the first three or four rounds, for example RB WR RB QB or RB RB WR QB. Highlight a list of sleepers you’d like to grab in the middle rounds. Do you prefer to accumulate riders based on the scoring system and the scarcity of the position? Do you want to meet the initial lineup requirements first, then the backups? These are questions that need to be considered before the draft.

When I go into a draft, I write down my ideal starting lineup based on where I pick each round and the ADP (average draft position) value of the players. It’s okay to get a few places ahead of the projected ADP, but don’t go more than one round or you won’t get good value.

I hope you found these tips useful. You don’t have to know everything about playing fantasy football to incorporate these beginner tips. Experienced homeowners will find them obvious, but for novices, avoiding these basic mistakes will save you an awkward moment.