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Fantasy Football Tips and How to Play

This is how to be the very best.

By John TasciPublished 5 years ago 5 min read
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Fantasy football is played by millions of people across Canada and the US. It adds more excitement and decision making as you get to make your own team. At least 2 people have to be in the league to play, but you should get as much as possible to make it more fun and nerve racking. It really either makes your day or ruins it since it is very luck based game.

How to Play

First you have to invite your friends OR just press get a team and you play with random player. I don't advise the "get a team" because most people don't care, nor do they edit their lineup. So it's just like playing computers. WHO LIKES TO PLAY COMPUTERS?!?! Moving on.. after you have made a league filled with players, you have to schedule a draft. This is where you use your inner genius to pick players of your choice. The creator of the league controls every setting, but for this writing's sake, we will use a traditional standard league.

Teams, Opponents, and Scoring

A traditional standard league would have 12 people in the league.

This is how the teams should look like:

  • QB - Quarterback
  • RB - Running Back
  • RB - Running Back
  • WR - Wide Receiver
  • WR - Wide Receiver
  • TE - Tight End
  • FLX - Either Tight End, Wide Receiver, or Running Back
  • DFS - Defense
  • K - Kicker
  • BE - Bench
  • BE - Bench
  • BE - Bench
  • BE - Bench
  • BE - Bench
  • BE - Bench
  • BE - Bench

Standard League Scoring:

Negative points are given if yards are lost. Sacks don't count as negative yards, ints and fumbles are also negative.

QB:

  • 25 passing yards = 1 point
  • rushing yards each yard = .1 point
  • passing touch down = 4 points
  • running touchdown = 6 points
  • interception = -2 points
  • lost fumble = -2 points
  • two-point conversion = 2

RB:

  • rushing yard = .1 point
  • rushing touchdown = 6
  • receiving yard = .1 point
  • receiving touchdown = 6 points
  • lost fumble = -2 points
  • two-point conversion = 2 points

WR:

receiving yard= .1 point

receiving touchdown = 6 points

lost fumble = -2 points

two-point conversion = 2 points

TE:

receiving yard= .1 point

receiving touchdown = 6 points

lost fumble = -2 points

two-point conversion = 2 points

K:

PAT made = 1 point

Field Goal missed = -1 point

Field Goal made (0-39 yards) = 3 points

Field Goal made (40-49 yards) = 4 points

Field Goal made (50+ yards) = 5 points

This is the scoring for a usual league. Of course, you could change rules, but it's better to stick to standard. You play your opponent and whoever has the most points wins.

Strategies When Playing

If you join fantasy football and don't have a strategy going into the draft you are going to get SCREWED! A great player always plans out how they are going to draft. Let me just give you an inside out cheat sheet in how you should draft. So RB is the most valuable position. Why... because there is only 32 starters just like QBs. They also do the most points in the game. Of course, QBs average more per game, but there are many good QBs and you only need one, maybe two for backups. For running back you should have at least four. So this is how you draft assuming you're in a 12-man standard league. I'm going to give a few so you make the final decision to what you want to do. I'm just going to list the positions in order for your draft pick to make it easier to write.

  1. RB, RB, WR, WR, TE, QB, WR, RB, DFS, RB, WR, K, RB, and WR
  2. RB, WR, RB, TE, RB, QB, RB, WR, WR, RB, DFS, RB, WR, and K

Honestly it all depends on how the draft is going. I usually break the rules if I find a player that should've been drafted earlier, but has stayed late. Handcuffs are also very important. Handcuffs are backup RB in a team where the running back is very strong. Usually when the top running back gets injured, the handcuffs do exponentially good. So if you have a chance, keep a handcuff.

Use free agents to your advantage.

No draft is perfect, neither is a team. Free agents are where your team comes clutch. Free agents are sometimes needed when your players are in a bye week and you need to substitute in a player, or a player in your team is doing back so you exchange it for a free agent, or you find an amazing player and decide to scoop him up. The strategy is simple just try to find players you believe would do good in the long term, or even short term.

Trading

Your team isn't good enough? There are no good free agents. Its time to get creative and start offering trades. Best strategy is buy low sell high. This might sound easy, but it does require a lot of patience. Sometimes you might even have smart opponents that understand the game while some people would give away too much. For example, in my league one of my friend offered Adam Thielen for Larry Fitzgerald. YES YOU HEARD ME! LARRY FITZGERALD! You trade the number one WR at the time for a 36-year-old WR. Of course, the guy took an advantage of the guy being a noob and accepted the offer. So the true definition of buying low is when a good player underperforms the first weeks. Maybe because the defenses were too tough, had injury, or just wasn't playing well. Any ways the owner of that player's confidence in him has been lower so the chances of getting that player for less than his value is more likely. Selling high means having an average player explode in a week and deciding to trade him for more than his value. For example, last year Amari Cooper was averaging around eight points per game in PPR. Then the week that they versed KC he scored 44 points! Then he returned to his normal average. It just seems fishy how a player does good only one week and not the rest. It's just like penny stocks. It explodes then falls back to normal. For both you have to understand when you have to trade.

Use the internet to your advantage.

Fantasy experts aren't that reliable as no one can truly correctly pick who's going to from best to worst. Although I do personally like some of their charts. The ones in fantasy football are by far the best to use. They even provide videos with players that are expected to boom, be a bust, or for even pick ups. For beginners the internet must be useful to understand how they value the players and what they might be missing so you can make your own chart. You're currently using the internet to read this and further understand what you want to learn. Remember however good your research was you still might not win, you need a little bit of luck.

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About the Creator

John Tasci

Blogging is what I do for fun! I enjoy providing free education for everyone. For more top quality content check out my website -> www.tascifinance.com

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