Today I want to discuss some of the picks made in this year’s draft that will directly impact fantasy football.  It is pretty difficult for a rookie in a skill position to make a big enough splash statistically to be relevant in fantasy football, but as Percy Harvin owners can attest to… it happens.  Rookies are also often drafted higher in keeper leagues so that you can reserve them for future seasons.

Anthony Davis and Mike Iupati, San Francisco 49ers – The 49ers traded up aggressively to get the 11^th pick in the draft to get a new left tackle in Anthony Davis.  Davis is a prototypical left tackle at 6’5’’ 323 lbs; he has long arms and quick feet.  With their pick at number 17 they further fortify their offensive line with Mike Iupati.  Iupati is quick and athletic and is a sure fit at guard where he can pull around the edge and seal off lanes for Frank Gore.  These selections give the 49ers their physicality back up front and solidify Gore as my number four RB for next season’s draft.  Alex Smith also stands to benefit from better protection up front.

Sergio Kindle and Terrance Cody, Baltimore Ravens – The Ravens did not pick in the first round this year, but got two potential first round players with the 11^th and 25^th picks of round two.  The Ravens have been known as a defensive power house for years now, but since the emergence of Flacco, Ray Rice and now Anquan Boldin on the offensive side of the ball, the defense has slipped.  The 43^rd pick landed the Ravens a great edge rusher Sergio Kindle who will be transitioning from DE to OLB. The 57^th pick gives the Ravens a new 354 lb nose tackle in Alabama’s Terrence Cody, and has helped shore up the hurting front seven on defense.  With the addition of these two the Ravens do wonders for their defense and will return to a dominating force on that side of the ball.  As of now the Ravens are my number two ranked D/ST.

Jimmy Clausen, Carolina Panthers – I liked Matt Moore’s production at the end of last season, and was planning to list him as a sleeper for the upcoming fantasy football draft season. The Panthers first pick in this year’s draft didn’t till the second round and they jumped on the opportunity to nab the most pro-ready QB in this year’s draft class… Jimmy Clausen from Notre Dame was projected by many people to be a top 10 selection but he fell all the way down to the Panther’s lap at the 48^th pick.  Armanti Edwards was a QB in college but the plan is to transition him to wide receiver and utilize his throwing ability for trick plays and option plays out of the wildcat formation.  And to completely kill any chance that Matt Moore is going to start for any extended period of time they also ignored plenty of available needed talent to draft Tony Pike who played for the Cincinnati Bearcats.  Clausen is now the most viable QB from a fantasy standpoint but let’s be honest, you shouldn’t be drafting any of these guys.

Toby Gerhart, Minnesota Vikings – The Vikings made a surprising and perplexing decision to move up in the second round to take Toby Gerhart with the 51^st pick in the draft.  Gerhart is a big physical back that is adept running between the tackles.  In his 2009 Heisman Trophy campaign he racked up 1,871 yards and 28 TDs.  He led the country in both categories, but lost the trophy to Mark Ingram Jr. of the University of Alabama by the closest margin in the history of the award (28-points). As impressive as Gerhart is I don’t think that an offense that has Adrian Peterson can get the most out of him.  The issue is that because Gerhart is bigger physically than Peterson the goal line carries could very well go to Gerhart.  The Vikes needed to replace Chester Taylor who was shiftier than Peterson and was a better 3^rd down back for screens and check down passes, and they did not get that back in Gerhart.  It will be interesting to see how this plays out and I won’t be downgrading AP from his number 2 spot because they will need him more on third down, but it will likely cost him some touchdowns by the end of the season.

Dexter McCluster, Kansas City Chiefs – The fourth pick in the 2^nd round belonged to the Chiefs and they ignored a gaping need on the offensive line to add a dynamic playmaker at the running back position in Dexter McCluster.  While McCluster can do more than play RB all he can really do is take work from Jamaal Charles both on offense and in the return game.

Sleeper picks from the draft for the coming fantasy season: CJ Spiller (BUF), Dez Bryant (DAL), Demaryius Thomas (DEN), Ryan Mathews (SD), Dexter McCluster (KC – deep sleeper)

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Today we take a look at the most important part of Fantasy Football… the draft.  This is where it gets decided which players are on which teams.  Also, this is your biggest opportunity to get an advantage over your opponents.  Skill at drafting comes from experience so my first piece of advice is to do as much preparation as you can before hand and be very organized.  The draft works in one of three ways:

Live draft – participants meet in a physical location and are limited to pre-prepared materials to assist in making draft choices.  This is the purest form of draft and makes the participants rely on skill and preparation.

Online draft – participants meet (typically) on the website that will manage the operation of the league and use their software to facilitate the selection of  players.  It has become a common practice for these sites to include in-depth stats and analysis on each player so prior preparation is not as pivotal.

Automated draft – typically only for free public leagues and participants are able to set rankings for players to determine who the computer will select.  An automated draft can be a good idea for your first season doing fantasy football, however you should never miss an opportunity to gain draft experience so I do not typically recommend this to anyone.

Both Live and Online drafts will usually work in what is called a snake rotation.  The draft order is chosen at random and starts with number one, then two, and so on.  After the last participant has made his selection for the first round it is then his turn again right away to start round two.  You then proceed in reverse order till all players have chosen for the second round, and start round three with the person in the first position.  This continues for a varying number of rounds. (Depending on how many players are in your starting lineup which is decided by the Commissioner of your league.)

When you sit down at your first live draft and look at the player rankings you printed out before hand you still can’t help but feel overwhelmed by the sheer number of players on these lists that you have not heard of.  Don’t worry, most people can’t name three wide receivers for every team in the league, just do your best to have a balanced team based off the material you have available to you.

What position should you draft first?

It is common practice to select a running back (RB) first, in fact the first 6 or so picks are typically all running backs.  (In the next installment of this guide I will discuss why running backs are the most important players on your team) Most drafts only see two or three non-running backs taken in the first round and they are typically the best quarter back (QB) and wide receiver (WR) that particular year.

Most picks are based off of which player available has the most value at a position you need.  If we assume that you did indeed take an RB first you want to attempt to get an elite player at either QB or WR but do not force it if other people beat you to them.  If need be take a second solid RB and move on.

After this point it is terribly difficult to plan or predict what will happen in any given draft.  Focus on filling out your starting lineup first with any needed players of the three positions mentioned.  After that the primary three positions (QB, RB and WR) are filled you typically want to take a backup at both RB and WR.  At roughly round 7 or so the first tight-end (TE) is usually taken and then somewhere near round 9 some of the top defenses (D/ST… you select the entire defense and special teams units for a given team) are taken.  My advice to new players is to not be the first person to take a Kicker (K), tight-end or a defense or special teams, while you miss out on getting the best possible option at each of these positions the value of these players is very difficult to predict, and most seasons the top projected player at these positions does not live up to their expectations.

What should I try to avoid?

Two mistakes that new drafters often fall victim to are forgetting about bye weeks and relying on name recognition. Bye weeks are about the most important bit of information you can have on each player.  New drafters often ignore this information and end up accidentally drafting 5 players all with the same bye week.  You don’t want to ever lose a game, and spreading out your bye weeks is crucial to a successful regular season.  Also, new drafters rely on name recognition far too much.  Just because you know his name does not make him the best option.

What should I do to get better?

Practice, practice, practice.  It makes perfect… Many websites currently allow users to log in and sign up for a mock draft.  These results do not matter in the slightest as there won’t be any league to participate in, but the results can be emailed to you and you get the feel for how things work so that fewer elements of the drafting process will surprise you.

Happy drafting!

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