First, let me congratulate you on taking the first step towards winning your 2021 fantasy football league. If you are here reading this article, that means you came to Razzball to get some information on how to be better prepared for your season. Now that you have started preparing for your upcoming draft, its time to think about what the next steps are. Other than reading some articles to learn about sleeper players, impact rookies and draft strategies, what else can you do to get an edge on draft day? Let’s take a look at a few things you need to do to make sure you’re ready when you are on the clock. Remember, you cant start driving until you start the car!
While you are here, the first thing I would recommend you doing is checking out our 2021 Fantasy Football Projections page. This will give you a good starting point to see where players are ranked and what kind of stats they are projected to produce. You can view them as overall or sort them position by position. Bring your laptop with you to your live draft or keep the tab open on your web browser if you’re doing an online draft, and you can reference this page when making your draft decisions.
The next thing you need to do is the simplest part of your draft preparation but might be the most important thing as well. Log in to your league page and make sure you know and understand your league rules and scoring settings. The last thing you want to do is be “that guy” who realizes halfway through the draft that it is a PPR (points per reception) league. Check the league page to see if it is PPR or standard scoring. If it is a PPR league, then check the scoring settings to see if you get a full point for each reception your player makes, or a half point. If it is a standard league, you know you want to focus more on the players who score more touchdowns and get the most yardage. In standard scoring, the number of receptions does not have as much of an impact. This can help you when deciding between guys like Dionte Johnson or Chase Claypool.
While you are there, check to see if there are any additional bonuses such as added points per reception for specific positions. “Tight End Premium” is becoming more popular where you get more than 1 point for each reception made by a tight end. You want to know ahead of time if your league does have that bonus scoring so you know that you may want to prioritize getting one of the top end tight ends for the added value. One of the other important scoring variations we see are the number of points awarded for a quarterback passing touchdown. Some leagues give 4 points per passing touchdown while other leagues are set at 6 points. For me, this can make a difference in the way I prioritize quarterbacks in that I will give a bump to better pocket passers in a 6-point league and a bump to more mobile QBs in a 4-point league. If you’re debating between Jalen Hurts or Tom Brady as your QB, this can be the deciding factor. In a 6 point per passing TD league, I’d lean Brady, expecting him to throw 10 more passing TDs and get me 60 more points. In a 4 point per passing TD league, that 60-point differential becomes 40 and is more easily overcome with the rushing upside and rushing TDs that Hurts can bring to the table. This is why it is so important to know your league scoring settings before the draft.
Another setting to check on before your draft is the roster and starting lineup construction. If you are in a super flex league, where you can start a 2nd QB in your super flex spot, you need to prioritize the quarterback position early as they tend to come off the board quickly. If you are in a 1 QB league, you can wait a bit longer knowing that you are only starting 1 each week. Most leagues have 2 starting running backs but the number of starting wide receivers varies sometimes. Some leagues start 2 where other leagues start 3. The number of flex positions that you start each week can vary as well from league to league. It is important to know how many of each position you are required to start. It can help with making the decision of if you take another wide receiver a round earlier knowing that you will need to start 3 each week as opposed to waiting a round if you only need to start 2. This will also factor into the end of your draft when you’re deciding what positions to have on your bench for bye weeks and injury insurance.
Doing the research on players and coming here for advice is a great step to help you gear up for your championship run. Equally important though, is doing your homework on your league roster and scoring settings. Give yourself enough knowledge and preparation to formulate a solid plan heading into your draft. With that knowledge and research, you can be better prepared than your opponents and immediately have a leg up on them in the draft room. You are always welcome to follow me on Twitter @FantasyCoachJB and ask me any questions you may have on draft strategies, draft preparation, or anything else for that matter. Good luck to you all and happy draft season!
