Wow, what a year for fantasy football. I personally won 4 Fantasy Football Championships in seven leagues but I also got embarrassed in a couple "draft only" leagues that I have long forgot about.
Well actually no, "good for you", because tonight I am going to share with you a little bit of insight and behind the scenes information of how I accomplished a 57% Win ratio in my fantasy football leagues. Let me clarify, I am not an expert fantasy football beast but I am, a well research fantasy mind who has years of fantasy football seasons under my belt and I know a thing or two about winning championships.
First thing you should know is that when you "walk with the wise you become wise" and that's biblical bro.
Fantasy Sports, Daily and Weekly Fantasy Drafts for Cash Prizes
So tonight I am writing this article to hopefully help you for next years season and if you are in some of my leagues maybe you can take some tips and give me a better run for the money!!!! HAHA. Keep in mind I will also summarize my losing teams so that you can hopefully learn from them as well. This is article one of seven.
League #1 Details:
Co-Worker League - 12 Teams - Standard Scoring - ESPN Snake Draft
Draft Pick #1
Result = Championship
Draft Results:
| 1 | Adrian Peterson, Min RB |
| 24 | Brandon Marshall, Chi WR |
| 25 | Jimmy Graham, NO TE |
| 48 | Lamar Miller, Mia RB |
| 49 | DeMarco Murray, Dal RB |
| 72 | Tony Romo*, Dal QB |
| 73 | Andrew Luck, Ind QB |
| 96 | Josh Gordon, Cle WR |
| 97 | Chris Givens, StL WR |
| 120 | Justin Blackmon, Jac WR |
| 121 | Blair Walsh, Min K |
| 144 | Rams D/ST D/ST |
| 145 | Ronnie Hillman*, Den RB |
Final Roster:
| QB | Tony Romo*, Dal QB O | Draft |
| RB | Adrian Peterson, Min RB Q | Draft |
| RB | DeMarco Murray, Dal RB | Draft |
| WR/TE | Brandon Marshall, Chi WR | Draft |
| WR/TE | Jimmy Graham, NO TE | Draft |
| WR/TE | Josh Gordon, Cle WR | Draft |
| D/ST | Chiefs D/ST D/ST | Free Agency |
| K | Phil Dawson, SF K | Free Agency |
| Bench | Zac Stacy, StL RB | Free Agency |
| Bench | Shane Vereen, NE RB | Free Agency |
| Bench | Michael Crabtree, SF WR | Free Agency |
| Bench | Ryan Tannehill, Mia QB | Free Agency |
| Bench | Matt Schaub, Hou QB | Free Agency |
| IR |
Draft Strategy
This was a well drafted team which is fairly typical with the #1 draft position out of the gate. My draft strategy going in was to get AP and then a top 3 QB and complement that with a Top 5 WR around the corner in rounds two and three. That strategy changed drastically when 6 Quarterbacks were taken in the first 23 picks. This is a perfect example of learning how not to panic. I think people hesitated in rounds 1 & 2 and felt pressured to grab a QB when they saw Rodgers, Brees, and Manning all go in the first 16 picks.
So like a shark I took advantage of that and I rerouted my strategy and stocked up on a bomb combo of Jimmy Graham and Brandon Marshall locking up my WR/TE positions. Jimmy Graham was a perfect example of a player that you know is a beast and can score well, who just had an off year previously. After that, the rest is history. I missed on Lamar Miller, and Chris Givens but nailed DeMarco Murray with the 49th pick of the draft. I also took advantage of Josh Gordon and Justin Blackman late in the draft.
In Season Management
Tony Romo was my highest scoring player followed by Brandon Marshall and Adrian Peterson. My Top 6 scoring players for the year were all drafted players. I made two MONSTER free agent pick ups on this team and they were the Kansas City Defense after week #1 and the Zac Stacy around week 6 or 7. I don't need to explain the Kansas City upgrade but I do need to share why the Zac Stacy pick up was huge and most likely won the league for me. I picked up Zac Stacy when both Adrian Peterson and DeMarco Murray were both healthy simply for the fact I didn't want other teams to take him. I grabbed him two weeks before he blew up and he came up BIG for me on the weeks that Demarco missed and also Adrian Peterson.
Trades
CK traded Arian Foster, Hou RB to SEOJ
SEOJ traded Andrew Luck, Ind QB to CK
The only trade that I made in this league was for Arian Foster but this was before he was a week before he was put on the IR. So i rate my trade summary for this league with a F for failure but who knew.
Tips to take home:
- Draft Smart & Be prepared. Like I stated earlier many people panicked when the QB's were flying off the board but after the season only TWO of the six QBs proved worthy of being drafted that early. Not to mention that the other Four QB's taken that early in rounds 1 and two under performed and three of them finished outside the top 14 QB's.
- Have a good Draft Cheat Sheet. Before the draft I prepared by predicting my first 5 picks of the draft. Every pick after AP was carefully mapped out. With the #1 pick I knew I had picks 1,24,25,48,49. So with that info I took a highlighter and highlighted the top 25 players with a green highlighter and ranked them in order knowing that I would have three of these players to base my team off of. I then did the same with a pink highlighter with the top 49 players. This may seem extremely mundane to you but for me this allowed me to prepare and visualize my team before the draft even started. STOP thinking like a Third Place team. Winners go the extra mile!
- Be aggressive early with Defenses on the Waiver Wire. Don't hang on to a defense because of last years stats turn and burn baby. KC was a huge piece to my Championship puzzle.
In summary I feel a good draft followed by steady activity on the waiver wire helped me Win this league.
PS this was a BACK to BACK Championship run in this league, so the pressure was on all year long!
