How Does Fantasy Football Work?
by John Clifton
Fantasy Football - How Does It Work?
A lot of the tutorials on this website are for fantasy football beginners, but I wanted to write a few words covering the basics for those people who have absolutely no idea about fantasy sports. Maybe your friend asked you to join his local league and you aren't sure what you'd have to do as a fantasy owner. Maybe you're the wife or serious girlfriend of a hardcore fantasy football owner and you want to know why he's so obsessed with this odd-sounding game. Maybe you've just joined a league and you want to know what to do leading up to your first fateful draft. So let me go over the mechanics of fantasy football and an outline of a typical season.
Before I begin, I want to mention that the 2011 NFL preseason (and fantasy football season) is going to be different than any other preseason in recent memory. Because of the 4-month lockout, NFL free agency is only about to take place around August 1st, instead of its usual start date of March 1st. NFL free agents are players who's contracts have expired or who have been waived by their teams. This means they can sign with any team they want (under most circumstances). Having free agency on the eve of training camp adds a whole other level of chaos and confusion to fantasy football newcomers. Magazines won't have the latest moves and analysis, and you'll have to follow through the Internet what's going on.
NFL Training Camp
NFL training camp is when all 32 teams organize two-a-days practices, inter-squad scrimmages, and preseason exhibition games. The teams leave their home town to get away from families and other distractions. They try to learn new offensive plays and schemes and defensive schemes, coverages, and blitzes. This is where coaches do the most instruction of young players, and these players can most impress coaches with their athleticism and efficiency (not always good when younger and untrained). Most older players try to sharpen their skills while avoiding injury. The media descends on the training sessions and reports on all things big and small. Because veterans just try to rest and because defenses tend to gel quicker than offenses, a lot of what is reported isn't of much value to fantasy owners. That doesn't mean none of it is, so a fantasy owner has to keep a close eye on NFL training camp news.
NFL Preseason Games
The NFL preseason schedule includes 4 games for each teams--2 home and 2 away games. In these games, players try to hone their skills and timing in game simulations. While they keep score, the scores really don't matter much. Many of the players who play the bulk of these games won't even make the team. In the 1st and 2nd game, starters usually only play 1 or 2 series, or one quarter at the most. The rest of the game has little to do with your fantasy season. Game 3 of preseason features the most starter action (and means the most), because starting units usually playing the entire first half and even a series or two into the second half (to practice halftime adjustments). This is the only time teams can get a rhythm and show a little of what they might be like in regular season, but the schemes are basic to avoid tipping off regular season opponents. The 4th game of the preseason is the most useless, because players are resting for the season opener, essentially getting a bye week.
NFL Regular Season
The NFL regular season is when your fantasy football season takes place. Most fantasy schedules are over by Week 16 of the NFL regular season, stopping one week short of the full NFL regular schedule. That's because NFL teams about to make the playoffs often rest starters that week, which would throw off fantasy league championship games significantly. Most fantasy football seasons are therefore 16 weeks long--13 for regular season and 3 weeks for their playoffs. This is how fantasy football corresponds to the NFL season, so now let's look at fantasy football closer.
Fantasy Football Preseason
The preseason of a fantasy football season tends to involve team owners getting an invitation to join a league, along with an email link to the league website. On the league website, you'll post on the message board trash talk about last year and the upcoming year, discuss when the fantasy draft is, and perhaps argue (or vote) on new league rules. Like the NFL preseason, fantasy preseason is a pretty boring time. Visiting the website every day or so is useful, though, because most sites these days have a fantasy news feed which gives the latest updates on every player that will be available in your coming fantasy draft. You can also look to see the average draft position of NFL players, to see where the bulk of fantasy leagues are drafting a player (what round). This gives you an idea where you should be drafting these players, and helps you build a draft list or fill out a mock draft.
Fantasy Football Projections - Fantasy Football Draft List
What you should be doing in this time is building a fantasy football draft list. Most years, you can buy a magazine and just go from the cheat sheet found inside. Other fantasy owners print off a cheat sheet (draft list) from a fantasy football website they trust. Cheatsheets are found everywhere and, if you go with a legitimate site or publication (but not ESPN, FoxSports, or Sports Illustrated), they should serve your purpose well. But there's one big drawback to this method: the information is stale the second it get posted or published.
Serious fantasy football owners build their own draft list, projecting where they think players will finish. This might sound complicated to the fantasy football newbie, but these guys are really only taking last year's list according to final point totals, then adjusting players on those lists according to what's gone on in the offseason. If a player got hurt at the end of last year or in the offseason, they are moved down the list. If a team drafted a player high in the NFL draft at an offensive player's position, the veteran might be moved down the list (because he might lose his job, or touches). If a player is added through free agency at that position or it's been announced that last year's backup is going to get the first shot at starting, then the player is downgraded.
On the other side of things, if a player came strong at the end of last year (even the NFL playoffs), he might get moved up the ff projections. Career backups who finally get their chance to start are moved up, while rookies drafted high are also placed on the list--though usually only midway through the list of veterans at their position. Players that are the undoubted starters are placed high on lists, while players splitting time with another guy are downgraded. Players on the best NFL offenses tend to be rated high, while players on lousy offenses tend to be downgraded--though usually not as low as you'd expect. Here's the thing: fantasy football is much different than NFL football.
Fantasy Football Mock Drafts
The borderline obsessive fantasy owner is going to create his own mock drafts, where he tries to guess what the other owners in the league are going to do with their picks, then build a draft strategy around what's likely to be available when their turn to draft comes. As you might imagine, this is highly speculative. As a borderline obsessive fantasy owner myself, it does have value, because it helps you figure out where the talent pool starts to get seriously thin at certain positions. In my experience, though, mock drafts and national averages never quite reflect what your local league's draft is going to look like, for better or worse. I prefer to do a mock draft with one or more other players in the league, to add the element of surprise, or to join mock drafts online just to practice drafting teams. Increasingly over the years, I do mock drafts less, but a new owner might find it helps prepare him for the real thing.
Fantasy Football Drafts
The fantasy draft is the best day of the fantasy football season. This is the moment of infinite possibility, when you can still draft the perfect team. This is the day which has the most to do with winning or losing the league title. If you have a good fantasy draft, you'll have an enjoyable fantasy season. If you have a bad fantasy draft, you'll have an excruciating fantasy season--or ignore it a month into the season (bad manners) and not be asked back for next year.
You'll find several types of drafts. Redraft leagues are the most common. The redraft is where every single NFL player returns to the draft pool every year and you have an equal chance to get every player, at least before draft position has been assigned. The redraft league often follows the serpentine draft pattern, where the person with the first pick in one round has the last pick in the next round, balancing out the draft somewhat. It looks like a serpentine when diagrammed on a piece of paper. As opposed to the redraft, you might find yourself in a keeper league or a dynasty league. The keeper league is where you keep a certain small number of star players on your team from year to year, while the dynasty league allows teams to keep everyone from the previous season. If you're new to fantasy football, I would suggest you start with the redraft league, because you might get frustrated dealing with the institutional advantage that long-time league members have in a dynasty or keeper league.
The auction draft doesn't have rounds like an NFL Draft, but instead requires owners to toss out the names of NFL players and have all the competitors bid on their services using fake money (usually) under a salary cap. Many fantasy football owners who do the auction swear you'll never do a draft again, and I personally have loved the resource allocation aspect of the auctions I've been involved in. Unfortunately, most of the old-timers in my main leagues tend to be the exceptions to the rule, because they've done auctions and always vote out any idea of trying them again (a big shame).
Fantasy Football Owner Duties
Once the fantasy football draft is over, you'll have a few weekly duties to perform. This is the minimum expected of good fantasy football owners.
- Pay League Dues - Usually at the draft.
- Set a Lineup Weekly - Don't start injured guys or bye week players. That's considered bad form.
- Take Part in Free Agency - Vacations are different, but try to pay attention to free agency and improve your team throughout the year.
- Don't Ignore Trade Offers - Whether you turn it down or accept it, don't ignore trade offers for days and weeks. Most of the time, these show up at your email address, so you have to try to ignore them. If someone makes 10 offers a week, you might ask them to stop, but decline the offers and move ahead.
Those are the key responsibilities of a typical fantasy football owner. That's the minimum expected to be considered a participant and a polite ff owner. The following two suggestions are less mandatory, but make the game a lot more enjoyable for everyone else.
Make Trades (if possible) - Most trades you should decline. Fantasy football owners tend to make trade offers that are good for them and not for you, so it's okay to decline most offers. But if you get a trade offer that gives you an advantage, don't turn it down because you don't want to make a mistake. It's only a game, so play the game.
Make Trade Offers - If you don't like the trades being offered, make some of your own. Most will be declined, but you'll find you can get a more advantageous bargain if you initiate some of the negotiation. Make counter-offers when you are offered a package you don't like. This makes you an owner who actively participates.
Finally, if you engage in message board discussions, you're going to become one of the guys and people will have a better idea about your personality. This is a good way to keep track of old buddies and make new friends. You either become the rival people would love to shut up, because you're mouthy, or you become the guy whom people give the benefit of the doubt to when you make a 50-50 trade. If you want to make people suspicious of your trades (that don't involve them), I suggest you never respond to their trade offers and you never post on the message board. After a while, people begin to think you were an actor paid by their opponent to set up a second team for trade purposes. They probably won't actually think that, but you'll become the guy who's in the league only to make trades with one team.
Do all of the things above throughout the regular season and you're certain to be invited back next year, especially if you don't make yourself completely disagreeable on the message board. Even then, people like rivals and adversaries in fantasy football, so unless you try to oust the commissioner, you'll be considered a good addition to the league if you come to the draft prepared, pay your entry fee on time, set up a real lineup every week, try to build through free agency, agree or decline trades in a timely fashion, occasionally make an offer or counter-offer, and post on the message board. That's all there is to being a fantasy football owner.