My Ultimate Draft Advice

Here, I will review what targets or situations I like and situations I value. Fantasy advice to some people but don't actively consider how it applies to their fantasy strategies or goals. So, before I mention anything specific, I want you to consider a few things for yourself.

1. What is your level of risk?
   1. Some situations are highly valued because they are murky and, by proxy, carry high risk/reward.
2. How many leagues/drafts are you doing?
   1. The more leagues you are in, the better it will be to have different strategies and players. This means you will likely have a few leagues you do well in and a few that may be more challenging. If you do one league, play to your style, go safer if you want to go safe since it's your only shot, or you may do the opposite and go big and go home. I think when we have many chances, going big or going home works better because if you believe in your fantasy abilities, you should have a great scenario or to
3. Get intimate... with your league rules.
   1. There are so many different permutations in leagues. I will be in five this year, each with radically different rules and roster sizes. The problem with generic ranking lists is that they are often for a standard league... which most leagues, I'd venture to say, have some unique rules.
   2. Example: Last year, the league I won and won by a lot, probably not because I was better at fantasy than everyone else, but because I understood my rules the best. I've written about this particular league before, but not so much the strategy. The scoring promotes good pocket passers with completion points and losses for incompletions. I also saw some inefficiencies in my league from personal experience, such as a lack of team stacks and considerations at depth. Last year, we had someone auto-draft a bunch of defenses, so other teams got spooked and took defense early, which, in my opinion, is a huge no-no. Rather than playing that game, I kept drafting high-upside rookies and streamed defenses all year. It's a keeper league, and I can tell you I'm excited to try to repeat with a locked-in with an 8th-round Achane. I drafted Lamar, Andrews, Ceedee, and Dak with this team. They also had good picks with a late-round Kamara and Achane. I had J.K. Dobbins, who, when he went down, I picked up Zac Moss (who was useful early season) and Kyren Williams, who went on to help be a league winner. Andrews got hurt, but with the rest of my starting line-up locked in, I could successfully stream Tight End All Season since that and defense were my only worries after week 4. Because I understood the rules and stood by my strategies, I ended up with a solid team at the draft and was able to make compounding improvements throughout the season to separate the team from the pack. Again, while I think I have good fantasy knowledge (or else I wouldn't spend the time writing this, haha), I believe my success was using that knowledge most effectively.
   3. Examples of differing strategies:
      1. I told you above about the league I won. It's a Superflex league with a 20-round draft and 12 people. We go deep there, and I get to stunt on my league mates with my upcoming rookie knowledge. However, I'm in another league where it's a very shallow bench, ten teams, and we have significant restrictions on roster construction (all positions have caps). In that league, it's almost impossible/foolish to target rookies in the draft since you need those slots for the depth you may need. I will quickly target those players on the waiver wire in that league but not the draft itself. I'm not here to say what's better, but you need to make these choices not in a vacuum; your league has rules, players who do weird things, and players who have homer biases—understanding that as a base level is how to apply fantasy advice to your league is the first step of differentiating yourself.
4. What is your goal with fantasy?
   1. Most people would like to win DUH. But maybe you're doing this more to have fun with friends, and it's a 20-dollar league, and you don't care about the money or the clout; you want to shit talk with your friends, then that's great! Do that. Do some basic research and have fun. Your goals will likely differ if you're in a $1,000 league with all fantasy experts. It's okay to have different goals for different leagues too. In fantasy basketball, my home league with my friends, which is 50$ matters much more to me than this massive 30-team dynasty-free basketball league I'm in. In that league, you could have sworn it's for thousands of dollars by the way people act with each trade, but it's a free league; rather than getting riled up when people are, in my opinion, overreacting, I remind myself what I value. I don't think fantasy players always think this way. Stress yourself over the leagues/things you value. Not the ones that have become obligations. The more a league feels like an obligation, the more you should consider leaving it or seeing if you can have someone manage it. Not every fantasy player is the same. Some may enjoy much more winning once every 15 years with their favorite players from their favorite team than being a perennial competition. Don't assume every other player thinks like you. And if that does, be aware of that.

My RB Cheatsheet

My WR Cheatsheet (Coming Soon)

My QB Cheatsheet (Coming Soon)

My TE Cheatsheet (Coming Soon)