What’s your fantasy? Not that ya perv! What is your fantasy football preference? What is your strategy? Competitive cash league or just for fun? There are so many questions and options for any and everyone who is interested in fantasy sports.
Today the options are endless
I have been playing fantasy football since 1992, back before there was internet and I had to run out every Monday and Tuesday morning to grab the paper to then add up every player’s stats by hand and award everyone their points. It really sucked being the commissioner back in those days. Today the options are endless, hell now 90% of the people I know not only play in their annual leagues but are now heavily involved in daily fantasy sports.
Anyway, I am going to go over some of my strategies for drafting, trading, keeping as well as go over my personal top 12 in every position as well as my predictions for some breakout players and rookies.
When picking a league to join make sure you understand the points scoring system as you could be expecting a huge payday, only to learn your commissioner doesn’t award points for things like catches or rush attempts.
Most people I know like to play in only 10-team leagues, but for me personally I like 12 team leagues, that way you play everyone only once during the season and then the top eight go to the playoffs. The one downfall to a 12-team league is the availability of decent backup quarterbacks. Inevitably there will be one guy who will hoard quarterbacks as trade bait because he has no real drafting skill…If you suddenly feel attacked Steve, I am talking about you haha.
I know this is going to be basic knowledge for most of you reading this but for those who are new to FFL’s or for those who want to understand what the hell it is their significant other spends 20 hours a week contemplating over, here are some basics.
I won’t say I’m the high priest of fantasy football
Most teams consist of a minimum of one quarterback, two running backs, two wide receivers, one tight end, one flex, (i.e., either an RB, WR or TE) one defense/special teams and one kicker with five to seven bench spots to fill in with players for anyone who gets injured and/or to sub in on your main players bye week. Got all that? Good.
I won’t say I am the high priest of fantasy football, but over 30 years, I have won over 100 championship trophies in fantasy football. Here is my basic strategy, whether I am picking first or last.
My absolute number one pick in every draft is my quarterback. Now 99% of you will disagree with this, but here is why. The top 10 QB’s generally score more points in the year than the top 10 position players. For example, in standard leagues Patrick Mahomes scored 486.3 points last year.
The top running back Josh Jacobs only had 275.3 points. The top wide receiver Justin Jefferson had 240.66 points. After the first round, I then look for the best available RB. Round three I go tight end or my second quarterback. Wide receivers are everywhere and with the massive influx of new WR blood every year I tend to go for them in later rounds.
Somewhere near round six I snag the top defense as most people are still trying to hoard RB’s and WR’s. Most team owners will wait until the very end to snag a defense and then finally a kicker. Keep in mind that the idea is to score the most points every week. Now keep in mind this is for a standard league, an auction league is a completely different animal, and I will go over that next week.
My Top 12 Players for Every Position in the 2023/2024 Fantasy Season:
QB
Josh Herbert
RB
WR
Justin Jefferon
TE
Dalton Kincaid
DEFENSE/SPECIAL TEAMS
San Francisco 49ers
Buffalo Bills
New York Jets
Philadelphia Eagles
Dallas Cowboys
Miami Dolphins
Jacksonville Jaguars
New England Patriots
Kansas City Chiefs
Cincinnati Bengals
New Orleans Saints
Pittsburgh Steelers
KICKER
Jake Moody
Best Sleeper Value/Rookies ( These are ONLY my predictions…or hopes haha)
Bijan Robinson RB
Quentin Johnson WR
Jordan Addison WR
Johnathan Mingo WR
Jahmyr Gibbs RB
Dalton Kincaid TE
Tank Dell WR
Kendre Miller RB
Charlie Jones WR.
Josh Whyle TE
Chase Brown
Zach Evans
Ok, so there we have it. A brief rundown on fantasy football, my strategy, my rankings and my favorite rookie picks. Thanks for taking to time to read this and if you have any comments or questions or suggestions, feel free to send me an email at TheBigTykie@gmail.com