Common Drafting Mistakes (and How to Avoid Them)

If you love football as much as we do, you’re probably already counting down the days until this year’s draft and season begin. You probably also play fantasy football, and having a great fantasy team can make it a great season for you.

A great team starts with a great draft, so avoid these common drafting mistakes so you can have the best team this year.

Draft sober

We get it: the draft is a lot of fun. Part of the whole football fan culture is enjoying a few beers, but this is not the time to take the edge off your decision-making skills. Keep your wits about you while you draft — you’ll be able to enjoy those indulgences for the rest of the season.

Be flexible

You need a strategy. And this strategy should be built on careful consideration of player rankings from your draft kit that you have leveraged into your league’s rule structure. But you should not be so inflexible that you get left behind when a player you were counting on goes somewhere else. Always have a backup.

Have a plan

We should say it again: you need a strategy. You do need to prepare, and chances are, you don’t know the players, positions, and stats well enough off the top of your head to do it all without that preparation. Someone else will be thinking that, too. Let them take the hits all season while you benefit from your careful planning.

Don’t draft to trade

A lot of people make the mistake of drafting players just so they can trade them. While trades sometimes go well, a lot of the time they do not. Trades are difficult to predict and impossible to control. You’re much better off planning your strategy around making good choices for your team than trying to get someone else to change up theirs.

Use your money

Do not leave any money on the table when you are done. Just think about it: money you do not spend is simply lost. Useless. Wasted. Even if you spend the last bit on a totally uninteresting player, at least you have something for your money. And who knows? Unexpected players do unexpected things all the time.

Ignore your feelings

We know you love your home team. We all do. Favoring your own team in the draft, though, is the best way to destroy your season. Even if your real team does well all year, that doesn’t mean that your fantasy team will do well in a league against players who more sensibly mixed things up.

Always play by the rules

Make sure you know your league rules and abide by them throughout the draft process. It just never pays to break one, even by accident. You will lose points at the least and you could end up destroying your whole team.

Think forward, not backwards

A player’s past success could be a strong clue to performance in the coming season. But it isn’t always that way. Players change teams and teams change rosters. Poor performers will suddenly have a breakout year while the stars choke. Don’t get stuck in the past.

Pay attention

Another reason you should have your strategy laid out and practice a few times is that it makes it easier for you to keep an eye on the other players in your league. If you know what you’re doing, you can watch them and figure out their strategies. You might even be able to predict their next move.

Remember that it is a game

Fantasy football is just a game. Your future, your livelihood, your family, and your self-worth do not depend on the results of your fantasy football team — leave all that stress to the actual football players. Always focus on having fun.