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Archive #1
Posted 8/2/2002
Pick up almost any fantasy football magazine, check out any fantasy football website, talk to most fantasy football experts and they'll are start spouting off about the same thing. Strategy.
Everybody has a strategy that works.
A lot of people insist that you must use your first two picks on running backs. Some say a star quarterback is a must.
Some go for balance and others say you should stack a single position.
Almost all strategies have their flaws. And almost all strategies will work at one time or another.
So stop worrying about what strategy you're going to use and start worrying about the most important thing in fantasy football and each and every fantasy sport... knowledge.
The simple fact is what strategy - if any - will work is based a lot on what happens on draft day.
Perhaps the most important consideration is where you will be drafting. In most drafts, no one has that information until just moments before the drafting begins.
So, if you go in with the theory of picking running backs in the first two rounds, what happens if you have the ninth pick. Let's say the first eight guys pick running backs.
Then what? Do you stick with your strategy, or draft Kurt Warner or Jeff Garcia?
That's what I thought.
The fantasy football players who are successful from year to year are those who are the most prepared. They are not the guys who buy a fantasy magazine at Drug Mart on the way to the draft and they are not the guys who just pick their favorite players.
Sure, those guys may win sometimes, but he who is prepared is more likely to win all the time.
The man who wins all the time is the fantasy dork who comes in with his own list of players in the order he rates them. He has sheets to keep track of not only who he picks, but who everyone else picks as well.
He is not the man who asks "Is Ricky Watters still available?" Rather, he is the man who can tell you who took Watters and which round it happened in the blink of an eye.
The key is to be ready for anything. Know everything you can know about every player at every position. In the next few weeks this very column will be helping you with that by highlighting two positions each week as the season nears.
You need to know things the rest of the owners don't know. It will allow you to foresee things they don't see and pick up value in middle and late rounds while they scrounge for scraps.
Consider last season.
Most people though Jerry Rice leaving San Francisco meant he was washed up, or at least on the downside of his career. I knew better.
By looking at his stats from the last three years, I rated him 13th among all receivers. That easily made him a No. 2 receiver on anyone's fantasy roster.
Because no one else realized his value, I got him as my third wide out and it paid off big time.
I had the same luck with Tony Gonzalez at tight end, an often undervalued position.
Having your rings done at every position will allow you to see when a great player is slipping and grab him much later than he should have gone. It will also help you avoid getting lost in ridiculous "runs" and overvaluing mediocre talent.
Know about the rookies. Know who will play, who will not. And who is most likely to contribute.
(The difference between LaDainian Tomlinson and Michael Bennett last year was tremendous.)
It's even not that hard to figure all of it out. Read your magazines, watch preseason football.
Listen to sports radio.
Watch SportsCenter.
And most importantly... read this column every week for the next month and send your fantasy questions our way.
So, for anyone who hasn't figured it out yet. The key to fantasy football success is knowledge.
He who knows more, wins more.
-Ray Cooney
Fantasy Ballers
cooneyrj@yahoo.com
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