Tips to excel in fantasy football

The impact of fantasy football is difficult to understate. Millions of people get involved every year, and it’s even impacted the way NFL games are now broadcast in America. There are YouTube channels and websites dedicated to providing tips and updates for fantasy football players - it’s a big deal.

If you’re thinking about joining a fantasy football league, or even setting up your own, the first step should always be to ensure you choose a reputable and reliable vendor to do it through. For example, playing fantasy football with DraftKings is always a smart choice, as they are one of the leading fantasy football sites.

Once you’ve found somewhere to play fantasy football, it’s time to get started, and here you have two options; join a league or create your own. It might be that someone you know, maybe a friend or coworker, has already made a league and invited you to it, in which case you can just dive right in. Once you join, make sure you’re aware of the league’s rules and, of course, give your team a name.

If you’re creating your own league, you obviously have a lot more control. You give the league a name, set a password and then decide when your draft day will be as well as how many teams will be permitted in the league - between 10 and 12 is the standard range.

Then comes the really fun stuff; draft day. This is where you pick the players to fill out your roster, who will then be earning you points (or, in some cases, not) throughout the season. Most leagues hold their draft day as close to the first game of the regular season as possible so that all the ‘managers’ involved have all the latest information on injuries, team news and form.

An NFL player can only feature in one team per league, meaning draft day can get pretty competitive. Like the NFL Draft, the teams in a league take turns picking players one at a time, and there is usually a time limit on each pick to ensure the draft doesn’t go on forever.

The order in which teams make their picks can be randomized, or you can come up with a fun way of determining it, like a Mario Kart race before draft day, or a push-up contest. There will be numerous rounds of selections until each roster is full, and most leagues will include a quarterback, two running backs, two receivers, a tight end, a flex (running back or receiver), a team defense and a kicker within each team.

You’ll be creating a starting lineup, as well as a bench - the commissioner of your league decides on how many bench spots each team will have. Once your roster is full, you’re ready for the season to begin.

Each week, the players in your starting lineup will earn you points depending on how they play in the real NFL games. Players on your bench will not earn you points, so it’s important to pay attention to team news each week to ensure your starting lineup is primed. Once a player begins their NFL game in a certain week, they are locked into the position you had them in your team, whether that’s in the starting lineup or on the bench. You can only move them again once that week’s games are over.

Each week, every player will be given a projected stat for how they are expected to perform, and you should also be aware of bye weeks. Each team in the NFL gets a week off in the season, so pay attention to when the players in your roster won’t be playing.

Points are awarded to individual players based on their stats in each game - the result of these matches are irrelevant in fantasy football. Things like touchdowns, passes made, distance travelled with the ball all produce points for your fantasy team. The team with the most points at the end of the season wins.

Each league will also have a waiver wire, which relates to the free-agent pool of undrafted players. If you want to draft in one of these players, you can put in a bid using a waiver wire - some leagues will have unlimited ones, others will only allow a select number for each team. Of course, if an undrafted player starts blowing up on the gridiron, then more than one manager will likely bid for them. In this instance, the manager with the highest waiver priority wins the bid - this is usually the manager in the worst position of the league at that time.

In order to draft a player in, you’ll need to drop someone from your current roster. Never make rash decisions here by drafting out a stalwart of your starting lineup who had a bad week.

The best tip for fantasy football is to stay informed. Keep up to date on players’ form, upcoming fixtures and team news so that you can tweak your roster accordingly to maximise your potential points each week. Fantasy football can seem daunting at first, but after some research and time spent on planning your team, you’ll be in the groove before you know it.