For those of you who have read some of my previous blog posts
and articles on the website, you know that one of the most important ways to
get off to a good start in your dynasty fantasy football leagues is to have
success in the original startup draft. This is where you build the foundation
of the roster that you are going to be working with for the long run. Having
success in the startup draft can leave you in a great position for many years
to come. Not every fantasy owner is going to have a great startup draft though.
Whether you are one of the people who fell for some of the common mistakes that
I mention in my article, “Avoiding Common Mistakes When Drafting in Dynasty”, or
the pieces just didn’t come together well for your team, digging yourself out
of this hole can be tough. Although it is going to be a challenge, this is no
time to panic or even go as far as to give up on your team. When you sign up
for a dynasty fantasy football league, you are committing for the long term. You
will have the commissioner of the league as well as your other league members
counting on you to hold that commitment no matter how bad your team may start
out. The worst thing that can happen to a dynasty league is to have members who
are not involved and investing in the league. All it takes is one member who
decides they give up to put a whole league in turmoil. We have all been in that
situation, whether it is redraft or dynasty, where there is a league member
slacking, so we know it is important to not be that league member.
So you
screwed up in the startup draft and you are not happy with your team, now what
do you do?
1.
Do your research.
Fantasy football is all about researching and analyzing
which players are going to be in the best position to succeed and help out your
team. You do a ton of research just for the draft, but it doesn’t end there.
Once the draft is over, take a look at some of the players that went undrafted
and are still out there. Every year there is a couple of players that go
undrafted that end up becoming key fantasy football assets for teams. If you
dive deep into analyzing the draft, you may be able to find some sneaky picks
that probably should have been drafted. I would spend a lot of time on the
internet looking at fantasy football websites trying to find any advice you can
get or insight on sleeper players. It is also a smart idea to take the time to
look through each NFL team’s depth charts to see where some of the best
opportunities for players may be. Doing your research and having as much knowledge
on fantasy football and players will always be helpful no matter what point of
the season you are at.
2.
Draft picks.
One of the differences between redraft and dynasty that make
dynasty so much better is that you have future rookie draft picks to work with.
These draft picks have a lot of value in many owner’s eyes because it is a
chance to gain young talent down the road. You can also use these draft picks
to save your team. The two ways to do this is either to stack up on draft picks
by trading or to trade away the picks you have for players that will produce
now and help save your team. Either way can work for a struggling dynasty owner
as long as you are getting good value and focusing on the needs of your team.
3.
Free Agency.
Some people would say that fantasy football leagues are won
through free agency. Every year there are at least a few players that are not
drafted by a team that turn into hidden gems. It is also common to have players who are not producing
to start the year, so an owner drops them and then they end up finishing the
year strong and winning you games come playoff time. If you are consistently monitoring
all of the transactions in the league, you can be on top of free agency and
have a better chance at finding some of those steals that can turn your team
around. An example of this is last season, one of the members of my current
league dropped Dion Lewis, running back of the New England Patriots, about halfway
through the year. Lewis had not been producing much to begin the year, so his
owner released him and my team wasn’t doing so good so I stashed him on my
roster just for the chance he bounced back to the solid player I’ve seen before.
Luckily for me, the very first week I picked him up, he had a really good game
and started to get more and more playing time. He continued to produce with the
increased opportunity and by the end of the season was the number 11 ranked running
back which puts him at a RB 1. This happens all the time and being active in
free agency and finding the right steals can turn your team around fast.
4.
Trading.
Trading is the fastest way to try to improve your fantasy
football roster after a poor draft. This ties into draft picks and free agency
that I’ve talked about above. Like I said, with draft picks you can either
choose to stock up on them and improve your team with rookies in future years
or you can trade them away to acquire solid players that can contribute to your
team now. There is always going to be value with draft picks. If you are able
to land one of those sleeper free agents like I mentioned, it is never a bad
move to try to take that player that you basically got for free and try to
trade him to a contending owner in your league. The most common strategy to
overcome a bad draft or improve a bad team is to use your players that are
contributing now and trading them to a contender for multiple (maybe less
talented) but younger players who can potentially develop and improve in the
future. This is a move that real NFL general managers make all the time and it
works for fantasy football too.
To wrap it
all up, if you are unhappy with your startup draft, don’t be that league member
who gives up on his team and ruins the fantasy football experience for everyone
else. Take the time to do your research, utilize your rookie draft picks, be
active in free agency, and look for trades to improve your roster. If you focus
on these four things you can overcome a poor draft.
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