Now the Dirty Draft Day Tips

Turn a friendly conversation into a black ops, CIA information gathering mission. Call your buddy on the phone and casually ask, "Who do you like for your first round pick? You pick before me so it doesn't matter if you tell me." When they tell you that they're interested in players you like, misinformation, misinformation, misinformation. Try to cloud their head with made up facts and figures like "did you know that he was only targeted in the redzone twice last year?" or "On 12 carries inside the 5, he only scored 2 times." This strategy puts the responsibility on them to look up your stats to disprove them. If they don't, it could stick in their head when it is their turn to pick. Repeat this process several times until you have infiltrated the conscious of every opponent. Because let's face it, your opponents are married, have kids, work, responsibilities and nobody even knew if there was going to be football this year. The shortened prep time should help this misinformation strategy get a least a few of your prized players to drop a few spots for you to scoop them up.

Stop listening to over hyped experts, Mathew Berry comes to mind, when making important draft day decisions. With dozens of custom scoring systems, your league is most likely unique. These experts can only base their assumptions on standard, yards, TD only or PPR scoring systems. You know your scoring system better than anyone, go with your gut. Some websites allow you to enter your scoring system and based on their player predictions, will rank the players for you. This type of tool can be really useful. When you change a passing TD from 4 points to 6, a huge difference in the rankings occurs and several QB's move up into the top 50. If you add points for 50+ TD's, DeSean Jackson moves up the board. My point is, you can't put too much stock in these experts who do not know your specific scoring system when they rank players.

If you are meeting with your friends to draft, pour heavy. It's not against the rules to turn your opponents beers into boiler makers. Tell them its a new Irish microbrew with hints of whiskey. Try to make as many toasts as possible, its been a year since the last draft, somebody got married, had a baby or got a new job, take advantage. Try to create a nostalgic atmosphere, "It's been so long since we all got together, let's drink." "Thank god we got an afternoon away from the wives, lets drink." In addition, make sure you bring a lot of high salt snacks to drum up some thirst. If you have performed this strategy correctly, at least two of your fellow GM's will be slurring their way through rounds 10-16. Mission accomplished! Hopefully they remember some of the misinformation you planted weeks ago.

Draft Day Tips

Know your opponents. It is important to know the draft strategies and tenancies of other GM's in your draft. Look back at the last several drafts and some GM's will reveal a pattern. For example, some take a top 5 QB every year in the 2nd round, some take two RB's in the first two rounds every year, some may have a tendency to wait for a TE until the 10th round. The more you know about your opponents the better you can prepare for your draft. I have a GM in my league who drafts 5 RB's in the first 7 or 8 rounds every year and every year he sits 2 starting RB's on his bench, his WR suck and never makes the playoffs. But hey, its his prerogative. Knowing his strategy is important because I need to get my two starters in the first 3 rounds because if I wait until round 5 to get my 2nd starting RB, I'll wind up with Lynch or Woodhead. Set up an Excel spreadsheet and mock draft according to other GM's strategies, this can help you anticipate where to take the players that you have targeted.

Don't get caught up with bye weeks. There is too much statistical information to keep straight in your head, making picks based on bye weeks just adds to confusion. Do you really want a player who will score less or be less reliable because the player you really wanted shares a bye week with your QB? Pick the best player and don't worry about having one week with too many bye week players. If that happens to be your scenario, you lose one week and then your in a stronger position to win the rest of the season.

Even if your favorite football team has a few good fantasy players, be wary of drafting more than one. I say this because every league has a hopeless homer who lets their passion for their real football team ruin the chances of their fake team winning. I am not stating that it is bad to have more than one player from a team, I do not let that factor stop me from drafting the best player on my board. But more often than not, a GM can have their vision clouded by the hopes and dreams of their NFL team. Believe me, when your NFL team has a terrible day, its compounded when your fantasy team fails with them.