THE DRAFT

I was originally going to do a whole background on my fantasy football career, but then I decided to scrap the idea because I thought it would be boring as hell. Instead ill give a quick statistical background and jump right into it. Ive been playing fantasy football for 9 seasons and in those 9 seasons i have won my league 6 times(3rd twice, 1 bad season). Im not talking some chump yahoo league either... these are extremely competitive leagues with no "dud"(Owner does draft then never to be heard from again) owners. I would credit my success to being able to adapt to the new NFL systems and schemes and to my GOLDEN RULE:

GOLDEN RULE: NEVER DRAFT YOUR TEAM ACCORDING TO HOW MUCH YOU LIKE OR HATE A PLAYER OR TEAM!!!

I stress that to every single owner Ive played with and just chat to and you would be surprised how many of them just cant resist to draft that guy from their favorite team (HOMERS). My personal favorite is the good history pick... as the owner is sweating to decide between 2 players he thinks to himself: "hmmm well this guy had a couple good weeks for me last year", so he decides to draft him. They are the easiest traps to fall into to and once you can rid yourself of them you can finally have yourself an honest draft. I remember the player that broke the spell for me... keyshawn johnson.... God I hated him, but I got myself to draft him and it worked out.

The next big thing I see everyone obsess about is the draft strategy. Everyone loves the 2 running back (RB) safe system. That system is long gone... it worked great years ago when 28 of the 32 teams had only 1 RB that played, and now that # is down to like 10 teams.. if that. Too many teams go RBBC (running back by committee) these days to make it worth while. The NFL is a passing league these days and if you want to win your league you need to get great wide receivers (WR). Notice I didnt say good.. I mean great. Try and land yourself 2 top 12 studs and a 3rd guy somewhere in the top 20. Look for guys that get lots of targets(balls thrown to them). Top that with a top 5 QB and its a recipe for success. You can always draft RBs later on that will produce enough to be sufficient. I would even advise grabbing a top 5 tight end(TE) before getting that 2nd RB. As for Defense (DEF).. never grab one early.. fill for depth and grab one in the later rounds. DEF are always unpredictable and not worth the price to draft the top 3. There is always about a handful that come out of nowhere each season. Keep an eye always on defensive coordinators taking head coaching jobs, bc the teams they leave usually decline and the teams they join do fairly better defensively. Finally always save your last 2 rounds for kickers. Statistically for the 09 season there was a 35 point difference btw the #1 kicker and the last. Thats about 2 points extra a week. Big deal!

I hope this helps a lot of owners, especially newer owners, out and we'll be moving on to more recent weekly issues from here on out. If anyone has any trade/waiver/starting line up questions during the season feel free to post them here and we'll discuss all the best possible scenarios.

Food for thought- During the 2nd quarter of the Lions/Vikings game there was a shot of Julian Petersons arms.... Jesus Christ!! Now I have anointed his arms the new Chuck Norris jokes... so feel free to share.

1.If NFL.com tried blogging about JP's arms the entire world wide web would crash.

2.When the Seahawks or 49ers record a sack still to this day they give credit to JP for getting an arm in on the play.