"These 5 fantasy football sleepers will help you win your league":http://ftw.usatoday.com/2016/08/2016-fantasy-football-sleepers
"How to find a breakout fantasy star": http://www.espn.com/fantasy/football/story/_/id/17381117/matthew-berry-2016-fantasy-football-team-names-breakout-players-risers-rookies
"Fantasy Football 2016: 6 high-reward players to target in your draft": http://www.behindthesteelcurtain.com/fantasy-football-news-roster-depth-chart/2016/8/17/12494604/fantasy-football-2016-6-high-reward-players-to-target-in-your-draft
Articles and videos like the ones listed above flood sports sites this time of year. Every paid fantasy "expert" claims to have a foolproof strategy to win titles. My question to them is how do you make guarantees in a game that's based on a sport that is consistently insane and unpredictable? What if the guys you guaranteed to be studs get injured or underwhelm? What if that late-round sleeper that was supposed to lead me to the promised land ends up being the only schmuck on my time that's any good? What if a previously great team full of highly-touted fantasy players suddenly loses their way?
As a loudmouth blogger with no shortage of opinions on this subject, I figured I would offer up a fantasy football draft advice column of my own. I won't guarantee you a damn thing, but I will say that I feel simple draft strategies like these are vastly overlooked among all the "draft this asshole and you'll crush the rest of the dumbasses in your league" pieces that are out there right now. I hope this serves as a departure from the typical draft pieces on the bigger websites and I'll gladly accept gifts if any of these strategies end up helping you win your league this year.
Trust Your Gut: This is by far the simplest advice I can give to people who are struggling with figuring out a draft strategy. If you feel like a player represents the best value at that pick, you should go for it, regardless of what position they play (you probably shouldn't take a kicker in the first 6 or 7 rounds though). Fantasy football isn't the exact science the high-profile experts at ESPN, NFL.com and Yahoo! make it out to be and you shouldn't be afraid to pull the trigger on a player you believe in because it goes against popular draft strategies.
Read the Room: Clearly this rule doesn't apply to people who are in public leagues with strangers, but for anyone who is in a league with friends, co-workers, etc., this is arguably the most important rule of fantasy football. Every person has a different approach for building a fantasy football team, so it's important to monitor the approach each person takes with their first couple of picks before you fully commit to a strategy. Following the default rankings to a T and/or entering draft with a firm plan is just silly given the full-blown insanity that can occur on a whim in a fantasy football draft room.
Don't Feel Obligated to Take a Running Back in the 1st round: NFL.com fantasy analysts Michael Fabiano and Adam Rank preach the importance of taking a running back in the 1st round in almost every column they write or television segment they appear on. Given the pass-first mentality that has taken over the league, Fabiano and Rank's unwavering love of running backs make them sound like a pair of men that have just awoken from a decade-long coma. The "bellcow" running back glory days of the early-to-mid 2000's where the likes of LaDanian Tomlinson, Shaun Alexander and Priest Holmes were the keys to fantasy gold are long gone. You can take a wide receiver, quarterback or even a tight end like Rob Gronkowski in the 1st round and still be on the path to potential fantasy glory. There are still a handful of guys that worthy of 1st round consideration (Todd Gurley, Adrian Peterson, David Johnson, Lamar Miller), but to say that running backs are the cornerstone of a successful fantasy team in 2016 is downright absurd.
Don't Go Overboard with Drafting Players from the Same Team: I have a friend that this does religiously because he won a title with the combo of Tom Brady, Wes Welker, Rob Gronkowski and Stephen Gostkowski in 2011. For those don't remember, that was the season the Patriots went 13-3 and went to the Super Bowl that season. His annual attempts to recreate that magical season have been unsuccessful. Taking a QB/WR, QB/RB, RB/WR, etc. combo from the same team is a logical move, but living and dying on the backs of 1 team is a disaster waiting to happen 99% of the time. 1 down week from that group and your title dreams could go up in smoke (this happened with my aforementioned friend when the record-setting 2013 Broncos offense, which he owned 5 members of, shit the bed against the Chargers in Week 15). A small number of people will get lucky and net a title using this strategy, but it's a popular move that usually backfires.
Don't Draft Players by Name: What I mean by this is don't draft players based on their legacies. Every single year there are older players that are overvalued due to the fact they've put together impressive, Hall-of-Fame caliber careers (in 2015 it was Andre Johnson and Peyton Manning) who ending getting drafted in the first 4-5 round and subsequently burning their fantasy owners with well below-average production. Unless that player is constantly putting up eye-popping numbers that deifies their age (ex: Adrian Peterson, Tom Brady, Larry Fitzgerald), don't waste a high pick on them.
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