Fantasy Football 101

A post by "Cousin Dave " To see more posts click here

Editor’s note: Cousin Dave is a fantasy football advocate and expert that has participated in some form or another in fantasy football since it became popular in the late 90’s.  His goal as he explained it to me during our conversation is to provide you all with a weekly perspective on players to watch for,  tips on the game, and advice for the weekly domination of your perspective leagues.  Remember fantasy football championships aren’t simply won on the draft board but in the regular season.

Shall we begin? Class is in session. My Credentials:

I have been playing fantasy football since I can remember through multiple sports websites; particularly Yahoo! Sports and ESPN. In the Yahoo! Sports website I am involved in an ultra-competitive, custom league known as the Gentlemen’s Club. In my rookie year in the game, I finished 8th out of 12 teams.  In my sophomore year, I finished 5th out of 10 teams.  In my junior year, I finished 4th out of 16 teams. And in my last season with our league, I finished in 3rd place out of 12 teams.

Every season of Gentlemen’s Club has varied with some aspect of the game. From the number of teams participating to how our scoring system is setup, I have faced numerous challenges in understanding how to keep an elite and competitive status. We have gone from a standard scoring system to a combined point-per-reception (PPR) and Individual Defensive Player (IDP) custom league setting.

Over that five year span, I have participated in public leagues outside of my custom league as well as in both Yahoo! Sports and ESPN. In those public leagues I have captured multiple 2nd place trophies and two championships.

As shown above, in every year, I have only progressed further with my knowledge of the game and how to compete at the highest level.

So what is Fantasy Football? Here is my personal perspective. Definition of the Game:

Fan.ta.sy foot.ball (noun) – (Usually an) Online game of “made-up” teams consisting of NFL players choosen by auction or draft; A competition in which participants create an ideal football team by choosing actual players from real teams, and points are scored by the real performance of the players from their live in-season games.

That is only just touching the surface of what fantasy football is all about. You essentially have put together what you believe to be an all-star team. Basically, you’re playing to win the game against anyone and everyone willing to compete against you by employing a combination of real NFL players who give you the best chance of scoring as many points as possible.

Just win baby. Period. There’s no other alternative. It’s competition, it’s you versus them, it’s smack talk, and it’s bragging rights.

League Formats:

Now that you have a brief understanding of what this game is all about let’s take this a step further. When you start out playing, you can join through any public forum on some of the most popular websites. There are many different leagues to join. Here is a quick look at what these leagues mean:

Standard - This is the most popular form of the game. It is a league that has teams pick their players in a snake format draft order. Each owner sets their lineups each week based on their alotted players per position per league rules.

Their are two types of standard league formats: head-to-head and total points.

Head-to-head leagues are my favorite. This is where team owners matchup against other team owners in weekly competition pitting the teams they’ve drafted against on another. The team with the higher point total at the end of the matchup or NFL week wins.  At the end of the regular season, the teams with the best win/loss record make the playoffs for their run at the championship.

Total points league does not track wins/losses. Instead, all teams have an ongoing points total and the standings are determined by the highest total points. The teams that end up with the highest point total at the end of the regular season advance to the playoffs.

Point-Per-Reception (PPR) – A PPR league, my personal preference, is exactly what it sounds like. All position players (RBs, WRs, TEs, and QBs) are given a point-per-reception. Yes, even some of these PPR leagues allow for point-per-completion for Quarterback positions as well.

This accounts for every touch in the game and generally results in higher scores on your head-to-head matchups which can keep it interesting.

Individual Defensive Player (IDP) – An IDP league is for the motivated fantasy football player. This type of league utilizes individual defensive players as compared to just using an entire team’s overall defense, which is most common in many standard formats. In this league you have the opportunity to pick your favorite defensive players, just like your offensive players, from different teams to make up your defensive front.

This type of league will keep you more involved with not only who the outstanding stars are on offense, but who the stars are on defense as well. In this format you will learn so much more about players from a defensive perspective and how they can impact the performance of a game. It brings the entire game into perspective from both sides of the field.

Keeper – In a keeper league you draft your players as you would in any standard format. However, you are allowed to keep a predetermined amount of players for the following year assuming you continue to play in the same league with the same competitors. Per your league rules, you will more than likely only be allowed to keep a handful of players for the following year.

Getting Started:

Now that you all have a greater understanding of what these leagues mean and what format you may prefer to start out in, where do you go from here? It’s simple. You sign up for a league and begin doing your research. That’s right, I said it, do your research. Fantasy football is essentially almost won and lost beginning on draft day, but the draft, my friends, is not the be all and end all.

All leagues are free to play. To sign up for a league, you can sign up for two kinds of leagues: public or custom.

A public league is one in which you can join to play with people you will not know in a general standard format. This league will incorporate the website’s pre-determined scoring and rankings of players automatically. This type of league will not have custom settings to incorporate other formats of your liking.

A custom league, the fun league, is one in which you can join to play with friends and family and customize all league settings to your liking. In this type of league you will see more custom league preferences of PPR, IDP, and Keeper league settings.  This league incorporates the websites pre-determined scoring and rankings of players as well, but you can modify all league settings and scoring to your personal preferences. You will be given a League ID and Password to join these particular types of leagues.

The game of fantasy football itself starts weeks in advance of your league’s actual draft. More importantly, fantasy football starts with an understanding your league’s personal settings and scoring. By understanding your league’s settings and scoring, you will have an advantage of knowing what types of players (i.e.: Running Backs, Wide Receivers, Quarterbacks, etc.) will score you the most overall points during a season and consequently which players you should draft, look out for on the waiver wire, and possibly trade for.

Honestly, you will want to read as much as you can to get all of the facts to come to your own understanding of the game of fantasy football. That’s a lot of information. How do you break it down for your own personal benefit to get ready for your league’s draft? This is called your draft strategy. This game is won and lost in your own individual effort. It is knowing who are the premier players and who are the players you should keep an eye on for possible breakout performances; generally known as “sleeper” picks because most people do not know who these players are (yet).

The next best thing you can do for yourself after your reading is compete in mock drafts prior to your actual draft. This will help give you a general idea of what players will fall to your draft position. From there you can begin to determine how you want to set yourself up to compete in your draft day decision-making opportunities.

End Game

Let’s face it, winning is all that matters. Welcome to the game of fantasy football. Let’s go!

udothedishes . . . see you next class.