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Opening games part of the Oregon Invitational

By Kelly Breckunitch

Thursday, August 23, 2007

I am addicted to ESPN. Last week, I was hooked on watching the world cup-stacking championships. Just recently, ESPN aired its fantasy league draft special. The poor performance by one of my favorite ESPN personalities, Michael Smith, inspired me to create a list of fantasy draft guidelines to help set up your fantasy team for success.

The National Football League season begins in 13 days. It’s crunch time for fantasy owners who have less than two weeks to complete their drafts. Here are some guidelines to help put together a successful fantasy team:

Start collecting

running backs

Take a running back with one of your top three picks. Smith didn’t, and his team certainly will pay the price. Running backs are the workhorses of fantasy football. They will earn most of your fantasy points in any given week. Most leagues allow only one starting quarterback, which allows more flexibility in drafting that position.

Usually, though, two running backs start on a fantasy team. According to Yahoo.com, the difference of points scored between the No. 1 and No. 25 running backs was 273 points, while the difference of points between quarterbacks ranked in the same positions was only 186 points. More parity exists among quarterbacks in the NFL. If Rex Grossman can lead the Chicago Bears to a Super Bowl, then you can wait to draft a quarterback in your league and take a talented running back first.

No defense, no kickers

Do not draft defenses or kickers too high. According to Yahoo.com, the top two defenses last year — Baltimore and Chicago — both scored more than 200 fantasy points, but the points fell dramatically after those two teams. The difference in points scored by the third ranked and last ranked defenses was only 110 points.

The top ranked kicker, Robbie Gould, scored 155 fantasy points last year, only four more points than sack-prone David Carr. The difference between the top kicker and 25th ranked kicker last year was only 59 points, although most kickers scored in the mid-to-low hundreds in fantasy points.

The top kickers tend to change all too often in fantasy football. Neil Rackers, David Akers, Adam Vinatieri and all the other top kickers won’t end up scoring many more points than the second-tier guys such as John Kasay, Olindo Mare and Rian Lindell. Do not reach for kickers or defenses in the early rounds or it will come back to haunt you. Wait until at least the tenth round to start drafting these players.

Rookies rarely make an impact

Do not draft rookies to fill starting positions. Rookies in the NFL rarely make an immediate fantasy impact. Yes, Marques Colston, Vince Young and Reggie Bush all had terrific seasons last year, but none of them finished higher than 31st in the fantasy rankings.

There are exceptions every year, yes, but you should not overreach when drafting rookies. Always draft an experienced veteran over a rookie when you have the choice.

Now, I am a big fan of Calvin Johnson’s potential and Marshawn Lynch could be a big threat in Buffalo, but you could take solid veterans like Darrell Jackson, Terry Glenn or Randy Moss before Johnson, and running backs like Brandon Jacobs, Travis Henry or Willis McGahee before Lynch.

These rules should give a general direction to follow in your draft and help you put together a solid team. At least, they will help you put together a better team than Michael Smith.

—Edited by Jeff Briscoe

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