Your Team Sucks; Random Tips For Fantasy Football

It's almost that time of the year again; football season is right around the corner, and hand in hand with football season comes the fabled fantasy football.

I am by no means a fantasy football god, I play several leagues a year for fun. And while I may not win every single league, I never cease to observe wild and wacky behavior by at least one player in every league. I don't have 10 easy ways to go undefeated in fantasy football, but for the average player I can bring some simple things to attention, things that as stupid as they are, I see every year in my casual leagues.

A player does not have to win games to be a viable fantasy option:

Calvin Johnson is arguably one of the top 3 best WR's in the league and plays on the worst team in the league, the (0-16) Detroit Lions. The fact of the matter is, even though the Lions are horrid and their QB talent nonexistent, Johnson is still freakishly good, to levels where it is just unfair. In fantasy football (how some people can not grasp this is beyond me) it does not matter if they EVER win. What matters is that Johnson puts up huge numbers.

Johnson's 2008 Stats:1,331 Rec Yds (5th), 12 TDs (Tied for 1st), 7 plays for 40+ yds (tied for 2nd), 21 plays for 20+ Yds (tied for 2nd)


The Draft Dilemma:

All right I understand that you love your football team (a lot) ,and we'll say that team is the Miami Dolphins. And lets say you were oh so excited when the Dolphins drafted Pat White this year, and you could envision the godly stats he could muster up in the fancy pants wildcat formation. You just wanted him so bad you used your first round pick on him so no one else could steal him away from you, then proceeded to fill the rest of your offense with Miami players. Now whether I do or don't believe anyone on the Miami Roster is worth drafting, more prominent issues with this phenomenal drafting scheme are startlingly apparent. First of all, I may be all for sleeper picks and taking a risk once and a while, but you do make such a choice in the first round, bypassing solid top-ten players in just about every position. If Pat White, a backup QB devoted to trick plays is even worth drafting in any round, its certainly not till the later rounds, the first few should be devoted to a solid RB, QB, and WR. Second of all, it's downright senseless to fill your roster with players on the same team. Come bye week when your whole offense is sitting on the bench, you'll regret it. With these poor drafting techniques, your team will suck, plain and simple.

The Bench

The bench of your fantasy football team can be a very important aspect if you use it efficiently and wisely. You'll want to fill the bench with players that will fortify your starters in a number of ways. From Injuries; If your starting QB gets injured, it will help if you have a decent QB on the bench to switch into a starting role. For Bye Weeks; when one of your player(s) is off because of a bye, having another talented player to easily fill into the spot will keep you from trudging the waiver wire at the last minute. For Match Ups; Even talented players have trouble with some match ups. Lets say you have a good starting WR but he's playing against a top ranked pass defense this week, it might be better to switch a decent WR off the bench that is going against a better match up. Adjusting your lineup week by week based on match ups can be a good way to get the most from your whole team.

Complete teams win leagues

If you play Fantasy Football, you should know this simple idea. Teams that are solid and complete, win games, and win leagues. A few star players can not carry the weight and put up the points that a solid team can. For example, last season in one of my leagues I owned the best running back corp of any team in the league. I had Adrian Peterson, Michael Turner and Steve Slaton, a combination that was a rarity to acquire. I usually did well from week to week and a lot of the success came from them. But when I got to the playoffs, I lost in the first round, simply because the team I played was more well rounded, more complete, and as a whole put up more points.



Five sure ways to know your fantasy football team will suck:

5. You passed on Tom Brady because you just don't like him, picked a 5th RB instead and are now stuck with Trent Edwards.

4. Your bench is full of "sleeper" picks like Matt Leinart, Matt Jones, Tatum Bell, and Jim Sorgi.

3. Your whole offense is on the same NFL team, hooray for the bye week!

2. You drafted Ted Ginn Jr first overall, and like the dolphins management that year, you don't really know what your doing.

1. You drafted any of the QBs from Cleveland.