How to Play Fantasy Football for Beginners

The basic structure of fantasy football is you are allowed to have 15-18 players on a team. As a fantasy football beginner, it is better to have less players so that if someone you pick turns out not to be good, then you can have higher quality players from the free agent pool to choose from.

To build your team, there is a fantasy draft where you will get to select 1 player each round. Typically there are 10 or 12 teams in a league and each will have a draft pick. The draft order will be assigned randomly. Draft strategy depends on the number of quality players and your league’s scoring rules. Usually, the higher pick you have the better. The downside to having a top pick (#1 for example) is you will have to wait until the last pick of the second round to select a player again. The positive aspect of this is you’ll get the first pick in the third round which gives you a back-to-back draft selection.

This style of drafting is called a serpentine draft. It is very similar to a regular pro sports draft like the NFL draft. You can trade fantasy football draft picks, but this is not recommended, especially for beginners. If you’re a newbie to fantasy football, the best advice is to prepare and then draft your roster according to the best available players you see.

A starting lineup in fantasy football varies according to the league you’re in but the basic structure is:

1 QB (quarterback)

2 RB (running backs)

3 WR (wide receivers)

1 TE (tight end)

1 D (defensive team)

1 K (kicker)

If you’re unfamiliar with football, a quarterback is the player that throws the ball. Running backs usually run the ball but occassionaly catch it. Wide receivers almost always catch the ball. Tight ends are very similar to wide receivers except for they are bigger players that have more blocking duties. A defensive team is the entire defense for a team. A kicker kicks field goals and extra points.

“How To Play Fantasy Football”

What you will need to do is make sure you have at least every position filled on your roster. A typical fantasy football draft lasts 15 rounds. Star running backs are usually taken in the 1st round. Elite quarterbacks and wide receivers tend to fall to the second round. The best TEs usually should be drafted no earlier than the middle of the fourth round. Defenses start being taken in the 8th round but it is recommended you should wait on these. Your starting kicker should be drafted in the last rounds of the draft – usually the 13th, 14th, and 15th rounds.

What are sleepers in fantasy football?

Sleepers are players in fantasy football that experts usually think are a “steal” for where they are being drafted. For example, if you draft a backup QB in the 13th round but he ends up having star numbers (statistics), it is said that this player was a steal because you got such a great value for him. Sleepers are the predictions of steals.

What is average draft position?

Average draft position or ADP is the average pick number that a player is being taken using recent drafts to form the average. Usually average draft position is formed by using the most recent 100 drafts. All the players selection numbers are averaged out to give you their fantasy football ADP. For example, say we took a sample size of three fantasy football drafts and in those drafts Tom Brady was selected as the 7th pick, the 8th pick, and the 9th pick overall. Tom Brady’s average draft position would be 1.08 or first round, eigth pick.

This is the intro to fantasy football for beginners.  You need another 15 minutes to get a good feel for the nuances of the game of fantasy football and how it works.  The information in this website will go a tremendous way in learning “how to play fantasy football”.  For part II, read my blog post on how fantasy football works.

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