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Free Fantasy Football Strategies:
If you’re looking for a few free fantasy football tips for the
NFL season to improve your fantasy football odds, FootballLOCKS.com has a few FF tactics
for you.
We’re not going to
give you the obvious fantasy football cheat sheet info readily available
from many sites that deal exclusively in fantasy football. We’ll skip
the “what to do with the first pick” fantasy football advice.
Fantasy football strategy topics below include;
Strength of Schedule
Trimming Your Draft Board
Jekyll and Hyde schedules
Draft Mentality!
Strength of Schedule / Weakness of schedule:
We’re beginning with the all-important
fantasy football tip… Strength of schedule (also known as weakness of schedule)…
Whatever you want to
name it,
if there’s one free fantasy football draft tip you should take away, it’s
to use those strength of schedule charts that are popping up all over the
internet.
After all, the game of football has evolved dramatically in recent times.
Whether it’s a position like tight end where
more teams have been able to find seemingly uncoverable bodies in the mold
of an Antonio Gates. Or the QB position where overly strict pass interference rules combined
with the increase of
gigantic wide receivers and tight ends have turned anyone with half an arm into a
4,000 yard passer– there is depth up and down your draft board like never before.
So do not be
fooled into a false sense of draft day security by the sheer number of
fantasy football stars on the draft board.
To get a leg
up on your competition
it’s paramount to consider the strength of schedule (SOS) which you’re prospective draftees
will face.
One strength of schedule fantast football spin is to be certain to make adjustments for injury situations
and off-season roster moves because the schedule strength charts don’t always
reflect reality!
For example, in ’08 the Minnesota Vikings picked up pass rushing dynamo Jared Allen from the Chiefs.
Strength of schedule charts based on the prior season’s statistics didn’t reflect this newly added power
to the Vikings’ defensive line.
Allen’s presence negatively impacted the performances of offensive players facing the Vikings.
Meanwhile, teams playing the Chiefs that season had it easy since they had lost their dyanmic pass rusher.
Keep such key offseason player changes at the forefront of your mind when using strength of schedule to either
increase the value of players
on your fantasy football draft board or decrease their value accordingly.
Trimming Your Draft Board:
Everyone knows that compiling a draft board can be a lot of work,
and the draft moves fast. You need a good plan to stay focused in the
heat of the moment. So when it comes to your draft sheet, look for ways
to trim the fat and make your draft board leaner and meaner.
Be willing
to think about what NFL players you don’t want to draft, because of
their difficult schedules, in addition to those players that you
do want to draft because of their easier schedules. The quicker
you can say, “no” to drafting a player when scanning up and
down the available players left in your draft at any moment
in time, the quicker you can get to a player you know is a
good pick for your team.
Divide Your Draft Board into 2 Key Columns:
On the left put players with easy schedules.
On the right put players with harder schedules. This can help you focus and improve
you odds of putting together a team of players well positioned for success,
which is especially important if you’re betting large sums of money
to win your league.
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Moving on now with more tips on how to trim your fantasy football draft board.
Team / Player Draft Day Avoidance:
Before the NFL season begins, FootballLOCKS.com performs a study of the
strength of each team’s schedule for the upcoming season to make
NFL predictions.
If you read the
free
pro football predictions you can see the emphasis placed on scheduling as
an element of making annual NFL football predictions against Las Vegas regular season
NFL win totals lines.
By the way, if you’re betting NFL football this season, check out the preseason
prognostications, you may find a few free NFL football betting tips.
Use the scheduling angle to make fantasy football predictions too.
Case in point the 2007 Buffalo Bills
were scheduled to play twelve games versus teams that finished
at .500 or better in 2006, including 8 games versus teams that made the playoffs
the previous year. They had lost Willis McGahee, and several key players on defense. In general we liked Lee Evans
as much as anybody, but we cautioned you to avoid him in the draft. And it was good advice as his yardage dropped
34% year over year and his touchdowns fell off by 37.5%… Call it a 35% drop off on average overall.
Translation?
In a 16 player draft you would have had to get Lee Evans 5 to 6 rounds later (16 * 35% = 5.6) than the average projection based on his previous season’s
numbers to break even on the pick!
So consider letting players with harder schedules fall to you in later rounds.
The conclusion is to beware of placing too much value on players
in potentially tough scheduling situations. Otherwise the odds could turn
against you costing you the money you bet in your fantasy football league.
So make notes of which teams have tough schedules in the upcoming season.
Pay close attention to the quality of defenses your draft prospects are
slated to play against also accounting for any late season cold weather games
in an effort to trim your draft board.
Avoid drafting players on teams with the most brutal
schedules too high up. See if some can fall to you in a later round making them value
picks. It’s potentially one of the best fantasy football spins going.
Your Leaner, Meaner Fantasy Football Draft:
Now that we’ve ironed out a strategy for moving players into two columns
on your draft board;
- The easy schedule column and/or potent offense column
- The avoid column where you’ll only be happy to
pounce if they fall lower in the draft than you
normally would expect them to be drafted
Hopefully your odds of winning your fantasy league should
be improved– as you will have a much
clearer path to fantasy football draft day dominance.
Keep reading for a piece on teams with
Jekyll & Hyde schedules.
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Jekyll and Hyde schedules
What’s a Jekyll and Hyde schedule you ask?
A Jekyll and Hyde schedule is when a team
plays a very easy schedule in one part of the season, and then a very difficult
schedule in another part of the season.
Teams can have difficult first half
schedules and easy second half schedules, or easy first half schedules, and hard second half schedules.
Then there’s inverted Jekyll and Hyde schedule’s
with easy in the first quarter, difficult in the 2nd and 3rd quarters, and then easy again in
the 4th quarter of the season.
The opposite can also hold true. For example,
difficult in the first quarter, easy in the 2nd and 3rd quarters, and then difficult again in
the 4th quarter of the season.
The bottom line is to structure some of your ff draft and trading activity around the
presence of Jekyll and Hyde schedules. It’s been one of my most
potent fantasy football tactics. Doing so can help you win your fantasy football league.
I’ve given you the concept. It’s up to you to comb through your players’ schedules to see
who has a tough run games that may warrant making a trade to get out of a soon to be falling stock!
Fantasy Football Draft Room Mentality:
It’s your turn to draft. You have a certain player in mind who you think will have a big year.
But there are five or six other players on the typical fantasy
football player rankings charts listed ahead of your guy… Furthermore,
you know if you wait for your next pick,
he’ll be gone.
Should you gamble and pick another player ahead on the chart, hoping your guy will still be there for your next pick?
Or should you grab the player you like ahead of where they normally go?
Here’s what I do… If the player is a stud at his position, and the other players whom are
ranked ahead aren’t
the top players at their positions, then I
draft the player I want, regardless of what somebody else’s
player ranking chart shows…
If the player suits your team, then
grabbing that player just might make your season. You have to ask yourself,
“If I don’t take this player now, what will be left at this position
when my next pick rolls around?”
Don’t be afraid to reach a little for great players. Especially if you like their strength of schedule.
Because in the end, a team with great players usually performs
very well (baring injuries). That’s our draft mentality for you.
Click the following for a list of NFL bye weeks
for your fantasy football team balancing act. As always, make sure you have substitute players for those
pesky byes. There’s nothing like the sinking feeling of facing a key opponent in your league
while short-handed because you didn’t plan ahead for half decent subs.
We hope you enjoyed
this bit of free fantasy football info.
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