Tips for Your Fantasy Football Draft Day

Team "Immaculate Reception" is up for the first pick, and their choice is... Stephen Gostkowski? O_o

In case you're unsure of who Mr. Gostkowski is, he is the kicker for the New England Patriots. I can't begin to tell you how many times I've done drafts this years with kickers, defenses, and rookies going in the first round. While he is one of the top kickers in the league, there is no reason to even think of drafting such a player until the final rounds of your draft. Period!

Now the reasons NOT to draft a Kicker or Defense in the earlier rounds are pretty simple. Kickers have the lowest value of all players on the field. They aren't reliable, and don't score enough points for your team based on the values of yardage and touchdowns the other positions have. Defenses are also unreliable. They may keep the team to less than 10 points one week, and then give up 45 the next. You may at times even end up with negative points because of your defenses poor game play. Save the last few rounds as a chance to pick up a Defense or Kicker, after the sleepers and backups are gone. You won't regret it if you do. Even if you end up with the worst kicker in the league, hes probably less than 40 fantasy points off from the top Kicker.

In the first rounds of your draft, you should be targeting players that get high yardage, and the most touchdowns possible. There are many sites that have the top 100-200 players listed. But don't base your picks based solely on their predictions. Do research on your own time of the best players from the previous year, and possible breakout candidates for this coming season. Make sure to keep a cheat sheet of these players to have at your side for draft day. Look at schedules to help you determine how easy a running back or QB might have it. There are so many things that factor into a players fantasy points.

After you come up with a list of the players you would like on your team, organize the list into which ones you will choose first based on value for fantasy points. Chris Johnson will be at the top of every ones chart so putting him on the top of yours will be obvious. Don't try and make bold predictions without a little knowledge to back them up. You don't want to end up picking players that may not deliver while the yearly points machines are flying off the board.

The first few rounds should be restricted to taking Running Backs, Wide Receivers and Quarter Backs only. They will ultimately be the ones that decide whether you win or lose your match ups each week. Stick to a strategy if you're able to. There are only a select few Featured backs in the league (running backs that rarely share the ball in the backfield), so they will go in the first round and then its down to the committee running backs. The featured have the potential to carry you all the way through the season with the high amount of fantasy points they rack up weekly. There are quite a few good Quarter Backs in the league, so they can be held off a few rounds if necessary. Unless they're a hot commodity in your draft and you feel you must grab one with the group, then by all means make that choice. That being said, Aaron Rodgers has the potential to have the most fantasy points in the entire league this year. I myself will be going for him as my #1 draft choice in all leagues, regardless of draft position.

Rookies are hit and miss. Some already have so much hype around them (Ryan Mathews) that it will be hard to steer clear of drafting them in the earlier rounds. Its a rarity for rookies to top the fantasy points of the veterans on the field that still have a lot of game left in them. Aging players also start to lose value when placed against younger ones on the same team. Greg Jennings is a far better pick than Donald Driver would be at this time (as much as I love Mr. Driver and all hes done for The Pack).

Have snacks ready, drafts can range from 30 minutes (when nobody shows up in your live NFL.com draft) to over a few hours depending on the allowed time for each team to choose a player to draft. Pay attention to what positions you need to fill, and which ones can wait til the later rounds. Have fun, chat with others, talk about football and players and why you like this one and not that one. Talk a little smack if you will. Fantasy football is all about having fun. At no point should it feel like life or death. Please don't cry when your player gets drafted right before you're turn is up. Nothing is more annoying when it comes to the draft than a player that can't build a team without exact players he lined up.

Have fun and good luck on drafting day!