Fantasy Football For Dummies. Martin A. Schulman

       Bye week: Every NFL team is inactive once during the regular season; an NFL team’s off week is its bye week.

       Cheat sheets: The lists of pre-ranked players — overall and by position; see Chapter 4.

       Collusion: Two coaches working together to win a league; see Chapter 11.

       Daily Fantasy: An alternative to standard fantasy football where you bet money on individual weeks or games; see Part 4.

       Damaged goods: When a player involved in a trade is hurt; see Chapter 11.

       Elite: The highest ranked players at their positions.

       Fantasy formula: A simple way to evaluate a player’s potential: skill plus opportunity equals success.

       Fantasy worthy: A player who plays enough to make a fantasy impact.

       Fleecing: Taking advantage of a bad coach in a lopsided trade; see Chapter 11.

       FLEX: A flexible slot on your roster where you can select from multiple positions; see Chapter 6.

       Game-time decision: Waiting to see if a hurt player will start. Status won’t be revealed until inactive lists are posted 90 minutes before kickoff; see Chapter 10.

       Insurance Policy: Formerly known as “Handcuffing”. Drafting a backup and a starter from the same NFL team; head to Chapter 9.

       Keeper league: Coaches retain a certain number of players from one season to the next.

       League settings: The league rules and stat modifiers that determine fantasy point values.

       Pre-rankings: How NFL players are rated for fantasy purposes before the season starts.

       Private league: A league you can join by invitation only and that’s controlled by a commissioner; see Chapter 3.

       Public league: Anyone can sign up and play; see Chapter 3.

       Sleeper: A little-known player who’s ready to awaken and be great.

       Star: A top-rated fantasy starter.

       Trade bait: Good players you can offer to other coaches; check out Chapter 11.

       Trading deadline: Last day of the season to make trades; see Chapter 11.

       Vulture back: A running back who steals goal-line carries from the starter; jump to Chapter 5.

       Waiver wire: Dropped players are here before they become free agents; check out Chapter 11.

Recognizing That Fantasy Success Starts with the Draft

      Before the NFL season begins, every fantasy league must conduct a draft to fill the teams’ rosters. Because there are 32 NFL teams and often only 8 to 14 fantasy teams in any given league, a fantasy team should have the cream of the NFL crop. I’m talking All-Pros, Pro-Bowlers, and other valuable commodities. This section gives you the highlights of a draft. Chapter 4 gives you the complete lowdown on preparing for and understanding a fantasy draft. Part 4 covers constructing lineups for Daily Fantasy Sports, which is slightly different.

      What draft? Am I joining the Army?

A fantasy draft is where you build your fantasy team in preparation for the season and its weekly management. In a public league, the draft occurs at a preset time determined by the league provider. In a private league, your league commissioner chooses a draft type and a draft date for your league and notifies the coaches, usually by email. (Chapter 4 explains the different draft formats.) Here are the three most common ways that a draft can be run:

       Live offline draft: In a live offline draft, all the coaches decide on a place and a time to meet and select their players. This old-fashioned way to start a season is the most fun, in my opinion, even though it isn’t always practical if your league members are spread across the country. Even so, many coaches plan an annual road trip to be at the draft in person, no matter where it’s being held.

       Live online draft: A live online draft is the most popular and the easiest way to gather your league to draft players. Your fantasy league website provider uses real-time technology to run the draft online. Each coach logs into the site at the specified draft time and uses the draft interface to select the available players they want to draft.

       Autopick draft: An autopick draft occurs online, but your league provider drafts each team for the league. Coaches don’t have to log in at a specific time or place, but no one has control over the actual draft. Public leagues often use this format because it’s hard to get 12 coaches to agree on a draft time when they don’t know each other.

      Identifying the two types of drafts

      Most fantasy football leagues have drafts that use one of the following formats: the snake draft or the salary cap draft (a format previously known as auction-style). The following sections cover these drafts and briefly explain how they work. (Chapter 4 dives deep into the differences between these two draft types and what you need to do to prepare for each one.)

      

If you’re new to fantasy football or don’t want to make a huge time commitment, I recommend playing in a snake draft league. If you’re an experienced player or just a rabid football fan, read up on the salary cap draft; you may welcome the challenge.

      Snaking through standard draft rules

      The standard draft is in a snake draft format. The snake draft is divided into rounds — one round for every available roster spot on each team. For example, if your league has 15-man rosters, your draft will have 15 rounds.

In a snake draft, each fantasy coach has one pick in each round. Each team makes its first-round pick based on a predetermined order (see Chapter 4 for deciding draft order). When the first round is over, the team that picked last in the first round picks first in the second round — in other words, the draft snakes back on itself. The team that had the first pick in the first round now has the last pick in the second round and the first pick in the third round. The process continues through all the rounds of the draft. If you can picture a snake moving back and forth in an “S” pattern, you’ll get the idea.

      

The key to building a good team in a snake draft is preparing based on your draft position. If you get an