Tips on Preparing for Your Fantasy Football Draft

If you love sports then you of all people would know football season is around the corner. There’s nothing like spending your Sunday afternoons in front of the tube cheering on your favorite football team.

Whether it’s your friends, family or co-workers, at some point in time this fall you will be constantly in the midst of football chatter.

With this in mind many people will be joining a fantasy football league or leagues in some cases. I mean what’s not to like? Paying detailed attention to football, bragging rights and the chance to win money are all perfect reasons to join a fantasy football league.

Here are a few tips on preparing for your fantasy football draft:

Football Research

Start with watching good old fashion television. Sportscenter has multiple channels and is running 24/7, every single day of the year. Spend an hour or two watching that channel and or the NFL channel if you are lucky to have it. This will prepare your mind by soaking it with all the latest headlining stories that deal with the NFL. Keep note of all the injuries that are happening as well as any legal issues that are occurring with any top rated player.

Sports radio is also a great media outlet to follow because most of us are in our cars commuting to work on a daily basis. If you do not commute in your own car, internet radio is another option. Radio stations are now being streamed live over the internet so now we are capable of catching our favorite radio stations on our phone or desktop. Podcasts are also available if you missed anything during the day. This tends to be another valuable option when you’re looking to gain more NFL information.

Aside from your typical media outlets, keeping an ear out when you’re hanging out with your friends and family can be not only entertaining but useful. You alone cannot possibly keep up with all the football information that is out there today, so why not use them to your advantage? Sort out the facts and take their opinions into consideration. If you hear something multiple times from different people that do not know each other, then nine times out of 10 this is something that can be useful for your draft.

Mock Drafting

A few days before your scheduled draft, set aside some time to run through some mock drafts. A mock draft is a draft that you can join with random strangers to simulate what a real draft would be like. These drafts do not cost anything and are free of charge. It’s a good measurement for learning what some people’s tendencies are in each specific draft position. But of course your particular draft will be different since these are random strangers and not the actual people in your league. This does however prepare you in terms of knowing which players are likely to be available at each draft position. This is also great for understanding what one minute and thirty seconds feels like in real time.

Strategic Planning

When you finally feel like all of the possible information has been gathered, it’s a good idea to organize everything into a spreadsheet of some sort. It’s not critical, but having to shuffle through sticky notes (in my case) is very time consuming. Choose around 10 players for each designated position and list them in order from the highest rated on down. This will be beneficial when you’re on the clock and the pressure starts to consume you as you debate which player to draft.

Another good idea is to have some additional windows on your browser open with the NFL’s previous year’s stats and any other useful football information. This is key when comparing possible draft picks against one another in a quick amount of time.

Following these simple tips can help you have a successful fantasy football draft and just maybe help you win your league this year. Good luck!