Fantasy Football - the perfect physically distant game!
Did you ever wonder what all the hype is around Fantasy Football? Ever thought you might like to give it a try but don’t know how to get started?
Well, I highly recommend it and here’s why:
Fantasy Football is a fun, strategic, 16-week, interactive game that you can take as seriously as you want – plus, it’s physically distant!
You’ll learn just enough about what’s happening in the NFL to be able to engage in a conversation at a cocktail party or on Monday morning Zoom meeting.
It will keep you engaged on Sundays if someone in your household is otherwise obsessed with watching football.
And especially . . . it’s a great way to stay connected with family and friends, wherever they live.
Fantasy Football 101 - Let’s get started!
The Basics - Your Fantasy team is essentially an All-Star team made up of the best players in the NFL. Points scored by your players during the real NFL games will count towards your Fantasy team’s score. Your success does not depend on how much you know about football, but rather how well you set your lineup each week to maximize scoring potential. . . combined with a little bit of luck.
Join a Team - Hopefully someone will invite you to a league. The easiest way to play is through a Fantasy Football site such as ESPN, Yahoo or NFL.com. We use ESPN, so I will refer to that as our host program. Set up an account with a unique team name. The league Commissioner will send you an invitation to join and an invitation for a Draft.
The Draft - This is one of the most important responsibilities and by far the most complicated part of being a Team Manager (that’s your title). There are different draft formats, but a LIVE DRAFT is the most fun. We try to get as many of us together in the same room as possible, but physical togetherness is optional since everyone drafts from their own computer or phone. Plus, this year, with social distancing measures in place, Team Managers may prefer to draft remotely.
Pro tip: Log on to your ESPN account and practice drafting using the Mock Draft feature. Do this a few times so you can get familiar with the players’ names and how quickly they will get snatched up.
We play with 15 players per team – 1 Quarterback (QB), 2 Running Backs (RB), 2 Wide Receivers (WR), 1 Tight End (TE), 1FLEX (RB, WR or TE), 1 Kicker, 1 Defense and 5 Bench players. ESPN ranks all the players, but you will decide which players to pick for your team based on the specific positions you need. You don’t want all RBs and no TEs. The draft order will be randomly assigned right before the draft. Each Team Manager has about 1 minute to select their player before the program automatically picks the next best player available for you. Typically, the RBs are picked first. Somewhere around the 4th round, people will start picking QBs. You usually don’t need to pick a Defense and a Kicker until round 8ish. Spend your earlier picks on selecting good touchdown scorers as that’s how you will get the most points.
Pro tip: Try not to put too much emotion into your draft picks. This is easier said than done. I’m a sucker for Carson Wentz or Philadelphia’s defense and have been known to pick them earlier than I should. My logic is that I like to like my players. After all, you will be rooting for them all season. It’s your choice.
It’s Game Day! - Sometime before kickoff on Thursday night of each week, check your lineup to make sure you have all positions filled. Sometimes players get hurt or aren’t playing. Look at each player’s projected points and generally, put the players with the highest projected points into your lineup and keep the others on your bench. Pro tip: You may feel the need to use your own judgment if you have additional information, a hunch or a favorite player. This is probably not recommended, but how I like to play!
Waivers are your friend - Strategically using Waivers will impact the success of your team. Inevitably, on any given week, one of your players will be hurt or not be performing as well as you had hoped, or there may just be a better player available. Keep your team competitive by having the best players you can on your roster. By Tuesday, identify any players you want to pick up and put in a waiver request. Requests get filled in a certain order during the middle of the night. It’s so exciting to wake up on Wednesday morning and see which players you got!
Pro tip: Search the available players for stand out point scorers and set your Waivers early so you don’t forget. You can make changes and re-prioritize.
Bye Weeks (say whaaat?) - Each NFL team has one bye week. Make sure you don’t have players in your lineup that are on a bye week. This adds a little complication to setting your lineup, especially when you only have one player of a certain position, such as Kicker or Defense. Look ahead to make sure you don’t have too many players out on the same bye week so you can plan.
Pro tip: Don’t base your draft on bye weeks. You may have to pick up/drop a player during the heavier bye weeks, but that shouldn’t be a problem if you plan accordingly. The most important thing is to get the best players, i.e. highest fantasy point scorers.
Finally, don’t forget to Trash Talk your opponent and enjoy connecting with special people in this unique way. Have fun!