Fantasy Football: Unconventional Strategies That Work
By Adam of Rotopicks.com
When researching strategies for fantasy football leagues and games of all types, you can easily get bored reading the same recommendations over and over again. What is interesting to note is all of your opponents are reading the same articles and most likely planning to use the very same strategies as you. As such, I've tested many contrarian ideas, and after going against the grain, I found a few that actually work and will help you increase your odds of winning your fantasy league. Enjoy!
Bust out the Bust Lists
Fantasy football is all about lists and rankings. There are thousands of Top Player lists, ranging from keeper leagues, weekly rankings, positional rankings, etc. Two of the most (if not THE most) popular lists are sleepers and busts. Everyone likes to find those diamonds in the rough that rise up depth charts during the season and prove their owners to be genius prognosticators. Enter the sleeper lists, lists recommending "undervalued" players primed for a breakout season.
Conversely, it is important to identify players that are "overvalued". Be it injury, age, or competition, Bust Lists focus on players that will underperform and the adage is always the same: draft sleepers and avoid busts.
I argue the opposite is often true and I love plowing through Bust Lists for potential players I could own. Why? That seems counterintuitive. Well, the answer lies in the exposure and consistency Bust Lists garner. Basically, everyone will enter the draft with the same list of sleepers and busts. Every year, a handful of players (usually older players) are "doomed to regress" according to pundits... and everyone agrees with those predictions. As a result, fantasy footballers overcompensate and allow these busts to fall way too far or go for way too cheap. Thus, following a bust can often lead to a better bargain than most sleepers.
Take it one step further, and you can argue the same is true for sleepers. Usually, a handful of sexy players break out during the preseason and rise up the draft boards. Be careful with these guys. They are usually unproven and hype leads to people overvaluing them. Often times these guys are racking up stats vs. other teams 2nd and 3rd string defensive players.
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Same Bye Week? GREAT!
Advanced fantasy football drafters always take bye weeks into consideration. The common wisdom is to even them out. If you have an RB1 with a bye in week 6, stay away from drafting an RB2 with the same bye week. It makes sense. But what if the opposite occurred? What if you purposely drafted elite players with the same bye week? Well, what happens is you have a nearly full squad for the entire season minus only one week (granted, injuries can and will affect this, but injuries cannot be predicted).
So, the strategy here is to sacrifice one week. Get those players who will not be active for the same week. Instead of spreading out the byes for a more "well-rounded" schedule of rosters, consolidate them so a majority of the season is bye-week-free.
Wide Receivers Playing for the Heavy Underdog Team
When rating a Wide Receiver (and a Quarterback), nothing is more glorious than a shootout, two teams lighting up the scoreboard and airing it out for 4 full quarters. So, what is the next best thing for a Wide Receiver? Well ironically, sometimes it is using a WR on the team that gets blown out.
The term "garbage time" is a misnomer. It refers to fantasy points that are inconsequential to the outcome of a game. For a RB, you will often see garbage time points via carries he gets during the last few minutes to run out the clock. For a WR, the opposite is often true. A WR can rack up plenty of points in the waning moments of a game when his team is getting slaughtered. I have taken advantage of this strategy many times with great success.
When a team is getting blown out, they will take it to the air. On the other side of the ball, the winning team's defense plays a conservative prevent style defense, with deep defensive backs that give the receivers plenty of room and opportunity for a reception. Even better, the receivers will typically make a play toward the sideline so they can get out of bounds and stop the clock. So, in these blowouts it's not that uncommon to see a WR rack up 4 or so receptions without ever getting hit, in the span of less than a minute. This is a beautiful thing for fantasy footballers.
So, it sometimes pays off to scour the point spreads, find a double digit underdog, and consider their top receivers. Sure, their team will probably lose, but your fantasy team might not have to share the same fate.
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What is Fantasy Football? - We explain how the game works for those of you looking to get into the action!
What are PPR Leagues? - Ray explains what point per reception leagues are and how they work.
Daily Fantasy Football Rules - If you're going to play the game, you've got to know the rules! Elliot sets you straight on everything from salary cap leagues to snake drafts to survivor tournaments.
