Trading Fantasy Players

Knowing when and how to trade is very important. It can also be very difficult to be a successful at trading. Most of the time if you're in a good league where people know their stuff, you're not going to be able to rip anyone off. Its a bit insulting to propose a ridiculous trade to someone. Trading can be very beneficial even if its completely even.

Say if you need a backup running back. You are probably going to want to trade away one of your bench WR or QB for a backup RB. Look at the possible people to trade with and see what they need. Look for weaknesses in their team and then tell them how if we traded these players both of our teams would be better. It is great to send a note along with the trade of why you think it is a good idea. Most trades only happen with the low tier players.

Be prepared to get turned down on trades and don't use it as a major source for your players to fill injuries and bye weeks, that's the waiver wires job.

Your bench

Your bench players are not only there in case someone gets hurt or for your starters bye week. Another important part of your bench is matchups. What I mean by matchups is say for example you have a good quarterback, not amazing but just good. You also have a slightly above average quarterback on your bench. It is important to look at the matchups for both quarterbacks, meaning look at the teams they are playing against. Do some research about their defense and whether or not they give up lots of passing yards or not. If your good quarterback is playing the best defense in the league, you might want to consider playing your backup. This is why the late rounds can be so important of a draft. You need to get quality backups who can be a starter a couple of times a season.

You will make mistakes sometimes, trust me it happens. You play your backup and your starter ends up doing great. My rule of thumb is if you are unsure who to play, stick with your starter. Basically the same philosophy that NFL coaches use.

Pay League vs Free Leagues

There are tons of free fantasy football leagues to join, yahoo.com, espn.com and nfl.com are to just name a few. I used to enjoy the free leagues when I first started playing fantasy football for obvious reasons, but there was one major problem. Almost every single free league people don't actually follow their team throughout the draft. If there is an online draft you'd be lucky if half the people show up. Playing in these leagues isn't so much fun if no one is taking it serious. I end up playing against people who have 3 starters on bye weeks and I win easily.

This year for the first time I joined a pay to enter league. This particular one is with friends and family, and was $140 to enter. All the money that is collected is spread out to the 1st and 2nd place finishers along with weekly winners, so you do have a chance to win a lot of money. The money isn't so much the important part though, its more about the dedication everyone puts in. There is no such thing as team owners playing people on a bye week. People actually use the waiver wire and offer trades to each other.

If $140 is too much there are plenty of online sites where you can pay $20-40. With this small fee there is a much better chance that everyone in your league will take it seriously. Usually there are great prize structures associated with winning as well. So if you've played fantasy football for a couple years I still suggest trying the pay leagues, I think you'll learn alot more and have much more fun.

Why I like Fantasy Football

I love football, I am a New England Patriots fan. I've always liked watching the Patriots but I was never a huge football fan. The reason I like fantasy football so much is because it makes you a bigger fan of the game. Now each week I have fun watching random games between teams just because they have my players on them. Also its fun to root against the players that are on my opponents team. Sure I understand if you think this is all silly, watching sports in a way is, but I think they're good social activity. Can be alot of fun when you're in a league with friends and family, watching games together.

Its a hobby, just like playing videos games, reading books or playing the guitar. It is something we do on our free time for fun. Obviously its not for everyone, but if you're on the fence maybe you should give a league a try, probably next year though its a little late now :\

When to draft a Kicker

Most leagues draft 12-18 players. A kicker should ALWAYS be picked towards the end no matter what. Someone might think, well I got my starting players for every other position why not get a great kick in say the 7th or 8th round. No no this is bad. Those middle rounds it is much more valuable to get backup players. The thing with kickers is that the top 10 in the league all score approximately the same amount of points throughout a season. Thats why there is no rush to pick one. In my recent draft, which was 16 rounds, I picked only one kicker and it was in the 15th round. Also don't worry about a backup kicker just yet for your starter's bye week. I suggest just wait until that week and drop a weak bench player.

In conclusion, get ONE kicker in the last couple rounds no matter what.

Waiver wire

All leagues have a thing called the waiver wire. This is the method used to pick up free agents for your team. The waiver wire is extremely important for picking up hot players to replace your injured or lackluster players. Now the way it works is the following, after every week each team in the league is ranked by how well they did. This is the priority list, and is used to determine who gets what player. What you need to do is pick which players you would like to get and make an order.

Say there are 5 players you want, you are not necessary guaranteed to get any of them, and it is important to put your most desired player on the top of your priority list. You also need to specify which player you would drop to make room for them, but they are only dropped if you get the player you request. At a particular time, usually sometime around Tuesday the waiver wire goes into action and players are picked based on the priority list.

Hoped this help, I know I had difficult time understanding it at first.

The quarterback

Here is some great information about picking quarterbacks in drafts. I always had a difficult time knowing when to pick them. What it comes down to is just the value of the particular player. Will there ever a #1 overall quarterback in a draft? Probably not but there always is a couple in the first round.

edit, new video old one wasn't working

Ryan Grant done for season

If you are a Greenbay Packers fan I'm sure you already know but their starting running back Ryan Grant is out for the season. This is a big blow to a team that is expected to do very well in the playoffs. For fantasy football this just increases the value of the Packers Quarterback and Wide Receivers. So the value of AAron Rodgers, Greg Jennings and Donald Driver just went up a bit. Also keep an eye on the backup for Greenbay, Brandon Jackson. He could be taking over as the #1 back and be a valuable fantasy player.

Laurence Maroney traded to Denver

The New England Patriots have traded Laurence Maroney to the Denver Broncos for a 4th round draft pick. Maroney has been a bit of a disappointment since he has been a Patriot. Being injured alot and notorious for his dance style of running he was never fully accepted by the Patriots fans. I don't really like the trade because we didn't get very much for him, and I still believe he has so much potential if he could be healthy.

As for Fantasy Football, he may be a player to pick up off of waivers once he is healthy, but only if he is 100%. He is not going to be their #1 back, they have Knowshon Moreno. So I'm not really sure where he will fit in for them. Becareful putting him on your roster.

Knowing your scoring system.

Knowing your scoring system is probably the most important way of being successful in a fantasy football league. Is your league a touch down driven or a yards gained driven league. By standard it is usually fairly balanced, but it my case it was not. Touch downs were only worth 4 points for all positions, so yards gained was a big source of your weekly points. Also there are bonus' in my league if your player gets a certain amount of yards. This bonus can really be the difference between a win and a lost.

The way to take this into consideration when drafting is you need to look for players that match your point system. Running backs who get lots of touch downs but only because they run it in from the goal line may not be that valuable to you. You want the player who will run 100 yards a week but may only get 1 touchdown.

Randy Moss

So yesterday after a really great win against the Bengals, Randy Moss vented on the podium at the press conference. What he wants is an extension to his contract right now. He feels that he hasn't been appreciated by the ownership, team and fans for the past 3 years. Tom Brady just received a contract extension for 4 years just a few days ago making him the highest paid player in the NFL, so obviously Moss is a bit bothered by this. In my opinion he does have a right to be upset, he is one of the best receivers in the history of the game, and easily a hall of fame candidate when he retires. Moss just wants to get paid, and its unfortunate as a fan to have to hear about this. As a fan we don't really care about contract issues or how much players make, we just want wins and have the best players as possible on our team. So after hearing his comments yesterday afternoon it is a bit unsettling, but I think the days of Randy Moss in New England will be ending at this season.

Football starts today! (sort of)

Ok I know the season started on Thursday with the Vikings and Saints, but I feel like the season really starts today. My team (Patriots) are playing a very important game against the Bengals, which I'm very excited for. It is also going to be very exciting keeping track of my other players on my fantasy team. I have a few playing at 4oclock so I hope those games are being broadcast.

What I am most worried about is my quarterback. I picked Jay Cutler in the 4th round of my draft, which some people might consider too early for him. He had a great season 2 years ago, and although he put up great numbers last year, he had a ton of interceptions. This year he got a new coach that he has worked with before. What I've read is that he is going to be throwing much better but we'll see. If he puts up bad numbers I'm going to be screwed for a few weeks. My backup is Ben Roethlisberger so I have to wait 4 weeks for him to even be available.

Gooo CUTLER

Funny fantasy football rap video

Although this is kinda off topic I thought it was a pretty cool video. Hope you enjoy!

Running backs as a first round pick

Running backs are usually the highest scoring players in fantasy football. Conventional wisdom for drafting usually says to get a running back in the 1st and 2nd round. I tend to agree with this to a point, because it depends alot on your scoring system. For me I had the 6th pick, so I was in a good position to pick Andre Johnson 1st (the best wide receiver). It came down to the wire but I ended up not selecting him, I choose Michael Turner instead. Turner had a great year last year but was injured, he was on pace for some incredible numbers. I heard he was completely healthy so I went with him.

First round picks are so important. You must get good production out of your 1st round guy or you'll be in big trouble in my opinion. Its obviously possible to win a league without even a 1st round pick, but highly unlikely

Finally my 2nd round pick was Mendenhall of Pittsburg, with I thought was a good value pick for 2nd round. Hoping he does well.

Rotoworld

One of my favorite sites that I used to become well prepared for my fantasy football draft was Rotoworld.com. It is a great site because it has up to the minute information about players. Looking through their injury report was very helpful before the draft. I was able to know exactly who was hurt and for how long. Also they have great rankings and cheat sheets for your draft needs.




Not only is it great for fantasy football but it has great information for all sports. You're able to have all the important information at your finger tips to check on your favorite team and sport. I like it a little more than sites like ESPN.com because often you get stories and articles mixed. If i want just news and information rotoworld is the way to go.

First fantasy football draft

Last Friday night I went to my first live fantasy football draft. Now I've played fantasy football for a few years now, but its always been in free leagues. This league I'm in cost $140 and has 12 people, so its no joke. Playing for a decent amount of money adds a whole new level of excitement. For example, just last night I was watching the Viking vs Saints game, I am a big football fan but I usually don't watch games other than my home town Patriots. I had the Saints defense and the Viking's tight end. It was so much fun cheering them to get points that I didn't really care about the outcome of the game.

Anyways about the draft, it was like I said a live draft, all 12 teams owners were there. Tons of good junk food was consumed and then we began. Unfortunately I had strep throat at the time so it made the night much longer than it should have been but it still went by pretty fast. Luckily I was very well prepared, I did do my homework and I knew the players fairly well.