By Jacob Seawright
Now that the NFL football season is in full swing, fans all around gather to watch the teams they love…but behind every true football fan, there is a fantasy football “guru” who has a love-hate relationship with their fantasy football team. To have a great Fantasy football team, you need to know what you are talking about. Of course, everyone believes they know more than the next person…and whether that is true or not, they will believe it wholeheartedly. This is what makes its fun, competing against friends, family, and colleges to prove that you have a superior knowledge of football, and to prove that you are better than everyone else. Along with knowledge, an important thing you need to have is luck. Countless times I have seen people who have never watched football or who have no idea what they are talking about come in and dominate a league.
One of the biggest worries for a fantasy football manager is injury. Injuries, especially this early in the season, can turn the best team in the league into the worst instantly. This year there were a number of early injuries that left many fantasy managers devastated. This is what separates a good and bad fantasy manager- the ability to take a broken team and make it whole again.
That being said, after sending out a survey to multiple students at SVU, the majority of them had an extensive list of injured players. Jacob Moody, a sophomore here at SVU says:
“It has affected my team pretty severely. I drafted Aaron Rodgers and he got hurt and is out for the season, luckily it happened pretty early in the season so I was able to trade pretty easily. I ended up trading for Kirk Cousins, which has worked out very well.”
When you are able to adapt and replace your starter with a solid alternate or, even better, draft a player that will be a great backup if you are concerned about certain players.
The Draft
Perhaps the most crucial part of it all is the draft itself. Many people have different approaches to how they want to pick their players. In an anonymous survey I sent to SVU students, I asked, “What is your draft approach/strategy?” Not surprising to me, I got a wide array of answers.
One student said “I don’t really ever have a set plan, I just go with the flow…and this usually works.” Going with the flow can be risky, but I’ve had my best draft using this strategy. Another student said, “I have a list of players that I want or need and backups for whoever I don’t get.”
This is definitely the safer option so you don’t forget about players and you also have an idea of what round you should take certain players. Everyone has a different way of drafting, and I don’t think there is a right way…just do what has worked for you in the past.
Sleeper, Bust, or Breakout Players
When doing your draft, there are three other things that you have to think about and that is sleeper, bust, or breakout players. A sleeper is a player who is being overlooked and will outperform his average draft position. A bust is a highly regarded player who will underperform. And a breakout is a player (rookies included) who will put up career best numbers. This can be one of the most tricky parts of fantasy football. You never really know who can fall off the map, and you never know what new player can breakout. You can do your best to make predictions, but who knows what will really happen.
One respondent said “I had a very long shot drafting Puka Nacua and Sam Laporta, sadly I traded Sam Laporta, but he has been doing very, very good. Puca Nacua has worked out the best sleeper pick I’ve ever made. He is currently a top 5 wide receiver in fantasy points.”
Picks like Puka Nacua can give your team the extra push it needs. He recently set an NFL record for receptions through his first four games. Nacua was drafted in the 5th round of this year’s draft out of BYU, a pick like this is a huge risk. In this case, it worked out great…breakout players like this don’t come around very often.
Puka Nacua – Los Angeles Rams Wide Receiver – ESPN
Fantasy football can be very complicated- if you make it that way. There are many things that go into it. Depending on the league you’re in, you can win prizes ranging from trophies to money, and in some leagues, there can punishments… one student added, “We don’t do any prizes, but we have a punishment for last place, our last place has to do something called a milk mile. It is a 1/4 gallon of milk drank before each four laps of a mile.” It’s things like this that adds to the stakes and excitement, that will push you to want to compete and beat any opponent that steps in your way.
Fantasy Football: A Game of Skill And Strategy was originally published in The Herald on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
