Will Bradley’s Fantasy Football Advice You Can Depend On

I started here at Q92.3 in January, and apparently I am not as repulsive to other humans as I thought. As soon as I revealed that I am a hardcore sports fanatic (which took about 3 seconds) I was tagged as someone who needed to be invited into a Cedar Valley fantasy football league. That draft is today.

I am here to share my wisdom as a two-time Fantasy Football World Champion. Some of this is actually serious analysis. If you can't tell the difference, then you are probably the one who needs this advice the most.

Good luck!

1) There are two attitudes a newcomer to a league can take. You can be an obnoxious know-it all, or you can play dumb.

Benefits to being an obnoxious know-it-all: It's entertaining. You may intimidate other people. And you may annoy people enough to take them off your game. Mind games. Fantasy football is all in your head anyway (it even uses the word "fantasy" in the title) so mind games are completely appropriate. (Sample obnoxiousness: volunteering to pick last, because "you could use a challenge this year".)

Benefits to playing dumb: People may go easy on you until they realize you're not dumb. They will let their guard down and not take you seriously. It can also be entertaining. (Sample fake-stupidity: "What team does Tim Tebow play for this year?")

2) Drafting first (or last) in the first round is death.

There may be strategic advantages, because you get two picks in a row when the draft order flips between rounds (a "snake draft"), but in a 10-team league you're going to have to sit through 19 other draft picks until your turn comes up again and that means a lot of idle time between your picks. You will need something to occupy that time. I recommend Angry Birds Star Wars.

Since a lot of players you would really want may be very well gone in the eternity you have to wait to pick again, you may have to "reach" (draft someone before you're supposed to) for someone you really truly want.

3) Find the cliff at each position and get someone before you fall off of it.

At some point, every position (QB, RB, WR, TE, K, Defense) will have a point where the dropoff in quality goes from "I can live with this guy" to "I'm screwed". That dropoff is the cliff. Fill all your positions with at least one decent guy before worrying about depth.

4) If you can't get a top QB in the first 2 rounds, wait a while.

If the very best QB's are gone you should hoard RB's and WR's, and also work on getting a top player at TE and defense, because there aren't that many.

Most leagues punish you for interceptions, so if you are forced to wait for a second or third-tier QB, go for one that is careful with the ball. He may not throw a lot of TD's and give you monster numbers, but he won't kill you either.

You can also go for one that runs a lot, because the points for rushing yards will offset the loss in points for passing yards and TD's.

5) Double up!

If you have a QB and a WR from the same team, and one throws a TD pass to the other, you get two touchdowns on one play!

This works best if either the QB or the WR is really great. If it's an average QB and an average WR it probably won't work as well.

6) Don't go overboard with guys from one team.

If you have the QB, RB, and TE from the same NFL team on your roster.......you do realize there's only one football, right? Spread it out.

7) Don't go overboard with your real-life favorite team.

It makes the highs higher but the lows lower. And also, if your favorite team scores you should be happy, not pissed off that they didn't score correctly.

Also something I used to do when I was hardcore....I would try not to draft anyone that played against my favorite team, that way I would not force myself to root against my favorite team. That limits your options.

8) Make at least a mental note of everybody's bye weeks.

If everyone on your team has Week 8 off, you screwed up.

9) Be a sheep.

If the six guys all right ahead of you take a running back, you may want to take one too. You may have a great gameplan but the other people in your league will mess it up with their selfishness. Other people are the worst.

10) Things you absolutely don't need.

You don't need to pick a kicker before the final round. You also don't need two kickers. You don't need a backup TE.

11) Injuries matter.

Avoid guys who get hurt a lot. Look for the backups to players who get hurt a lot, and draft them late. Does this mean you're rooting for certain players to get hurt? No, you're simply waiting for something that was probably going to happen anyway. Like a sunset.

12) What to look for in a position.

Each league is different with rules and scoring, but unless we're talking about a superduperstar generally speaking this is what you want:

A QB on a team with a bad defense, which means he'll have to throw a lot which gets you more passing yardage points than usual, and garbage-time touchdowns when the other team's defense won't care.
A RB that can catch the ball out of the backfield, which gets you receiving yardage as well as rushing yardage, and if you're in a PPR league bonus points for the catches. (If you don't know what PPR is you're not in a PPR league.)
A WR who plays with a great QB. Great QB's raise average WR's to their level. Make sure he's no lower than 3rd on his real team's depth chart though.
A TE who gets the ball in the red zone a lot. He may have 30 catches on the year for 400 yards, but he has 9 TD's because at the goal line they toss it up for him after faking the run.
A kicker on a team that is basically lousy on offense. You want his team to be able to drive down to the 30 and then crap out so you get 3 points from the kicker. Great teams on offense score TD's and the extra point is 1, and they moved the extra point back this year to make it harder anyway.
A defense with a great defensive line. The points-allowed bonuses are overrated and you can't bank on that. Getting turnovers are great but you can't bank on interceptions. You get special teams points but you can't bank on kick returns. You can bank on sacks. Consistent points, and pressure on the QB leads to more turnovers which benefits you too.

13) Don't pick too good.

There will be times in a season when you will pick up players during the season. Injuries, nobodies who become somebodies out of nowhere, or bye weeks for TE, kicker, and/or defense.......you need players you're cool with dumping to make room for those players. If you have to stress over which hostage to shoot, your team is too good. Dropping a player and then having half the league put a waiver claim on him immediately means you shouldn't have dropped him. You need to draft a couple of players who, when you dump them, nobody will want them.

Enjoy football season, everybody!