As I head down the homestretch of the fantasy football season, it’s time to get ready for the playoffs.
In three of my leagues, there is one prominent thing I have in common – winning my division. And, I’m the top scoring team in overall points in two of the three leagues. In the other, I’m second – trailing by just 23 points.
I’m in a great spot to win money in all three leagues, and more importantly, titles.
Despite the difference in the point systems for all three leagues, there is one other thing in common – I used PC Drafter to help make my selections this year. When all three of the drafts were over, the program predicted I’d be the top scoring team in two of the three leagues, second in the other – much to the dismay of my opponents. And, it’s been exactly correct…
So while PC Drafter said I shouldn’t be surprised, I still am a bit. But, it’s mostly how the program helped me to pick three successful teams in three different scoring systems.
This summer on 4for4.com, I did a bunch of mock drafts using PC Drafter, and hopefully those mocks helped you pick your teams and you found similar success. This was honestly the first year I gave PC Drafter a serious shot. It didn’t take long to master the program. Perhaps the most time-consuming part is figuring out your league’s scoring system, because if it differs from the norm, or any of the preset ones, you do need to set the positions to calculate your leagues scoring system. But, that’s what gives you the most accurate draft.
After that, let the mocks begin.
Only one of my leagues was a start from scratch league, the other two were keeper leagues. So, what I did was made the first two draft picks consist of each team’s keepers. One particular league is more active than the other when it comes to trades, and last season a lot of picks were swapped in deadline day deals. But PC Drafter made it easy to swap those picks in the program once the league’s draft order was set up, so I didn’t have to flop picks as they came up live, that was all done ahead of time which kept me organized. (And yes, I’m one of those guys who brings my laptop to the draft.) If I did have to do it during the draft, it was just a couple of clicks in the process.
When doing mocks, PC Drafter can allow you to pick against any number of computer opponents so you can master your strategy before your draft day. During draft day, the program makes it easy to keep track of other teams and their picks, and it saves you from pages and pages of notes. I find it easy to bring my laptop with PC Drafter on it than printouts off the Internet. With the program, everything is right there on your laptop, including the schedule and strength of opponent, bye weeks, opponents rosters. It’s almost not fair … almost ...
Here’s a look at my three leagues, their scoring systems as well as how I put together the teams.
League 1
Scoring League
This is the league I personally run myself. It’s a 12-team league and it’s based on touchdowns and 100 and 300 yard games. As I said above, the beauty of PC Drafter is you can enter your scoring system and it will base the players strictly on that – obviously the key to making your picks.
This league gives six points for touchdowns, passing, rushing and receiving. You get five points for 100 or 300 yards games, and then 2 additional points for every 25 yards after that. So, 150 rushing yards is worth 7 points. The downfall to this league is 99 rushing yards is 0 points. But that’s all part of the strategy.
Obviously, you have to make adjustments as the season goes, as well as free agent pickups along the way. So, when PC Drafter told me to pick Matt Leinart, it only made sense to grab Kurt Warner when it was announced he was the starter. And, what a pickup that was. The rest of my team is based on strong running back play. I have Brandon Jacobs, Larry Johnson, LenDale White and Kevin Hightower after originally drafting Chris Perry.
Jacobs and White are similar in that they get the goal line carries and the touchdowns. I was fortunate enough to play White his two biggest weeks: vs. Kansas City and against Detroit. Jacobs has been pretty consistent, going over 100 yards a few times this year but notching double-digit touchdowns for the season, like White. Those are big points in this league.
My receivers are Randy Moss and Marvin Harrison. Moss has been okay and Harrison a bit of a disappointment. Dallas Clark is my tight end, another disappointment, but solid tight ends are few and far between in this type of league. They often result in 0 points.
Steven Gostkowski is my kicker and has been one of the better ones all season.
In a scoring league, you can be carried all year by one player, and with six points for a passing TD, QBs are a top priority, and are the overall point leaders by position for the league by far.
League 2
Point-Per-Reception League
The basis of this league is pretty obvious. Running backs and stud receivers are huge getting a point for every pass they catch on top of touchdowns and yards. Coming into this league, I made a trade in the offseason to nab Brian Westbrook and my other keeper was Steve Smith. Last year I put up with Travis Henry and a bunch of underachieving running backs so I had to get a good one. When someone put Westbrook on the block, I was willing to give up whatever I had to, which ended up being pick 1.4 in the draft. Without a first round pick, I did have two second round selections.
There I took Jacobs and Plaxico Burress. You already know about Jacobs, and although he’s not a pass-catching back, he made up for it with touchdowns. Burress was a stud early on before, well, you know…
The next two rounds I drafted Willie Parker and Donovan McNabb. Parker has had his injuries but picking up Mewelde Moore was a great backup and fill in. McNabb has been pretty consistent this season, aside from two weeks. Hines Ward and Benard Berrian were my backup receivers and Tony Gonzalez was my tight end, who had a great year among fantasy tight ends.
David Akers was my kicker and although he struggled from long range he put up points.
This league played a flex player, so I very often was able to play Westbrook, Jacobs and either Parker or Moore. Another vital move was picking up Correll Buckhalter, who filled in very nicely when Westbrook went down. Luckily for me, the Pittsburgh and Philly running back situations didn’t miss a beat this year when their starters when down. Couple those running backs with Smith, Plax and Gonzalez, subbing in Ward from time-to-time, and you can see why I put up points.
This league also doesn’t tie you down with roster restrictions, so I made sure to take advantage, often only keeping one kicker, one team and one tight end and filling the rest of the slots with backs or receivers.
League 3
Standard Yardage League
This is another keeper league, and for the last few years I’ve been both fortunate and unfortunate to protect Steven Jackson and Brian Westbrook. The two backs are the envy of the league, but I’ve had problems keeping them in my lineup healthy as you all know.
Because of my struggles last season, I picked fifth this year and selected Larry Fitzgerald, who has been nothing but a stud this season. Because we play three receivers, it’s an important position to be deep in. Round two was Chad Johnson, and imagine if that went ANY other way…
In the fourth round I had two picks because of a trade and there I took Antonio Gates and Donovan McNabb. Quarterbacks are big and get six points for a TD, so McNabb was a bargain for where I picked him considering many quarterbacks were kept or taken early.
In the fifth round I perhaps got the steal of the draft in Roddy White, who easily passed Johnson on my WR dept chart. PC Drafter told me to pick White and it was a selection that made my draft when I look back. Gostkowski was my kicker in this league as well.
When my lineup is healthy, McNabb, Jackson, Westbrook, Fitzgerald, White, Gates and Gostkowski can rack up the points. Unfortunately, that wasn’t always the case. So, I backed myself up in this league with Buckhalter, so either Westbrook or Buck were fixtures in my lineup every week. When Jackson didn’t play, I wasn’t thrilled about Antonio Pittman and often had to piece that position together. It didn’t hurt me as much because my receivers outscored most other teams week-to-week it allowed me to still win with, say, 10 or less points from one of my back positions.
Obviously, PC Drafter can only do so much with your draft, but it can get you off to a great start. From there, you have to be wise in your free agent pickups and trades. That’s why draft day is key, you need to start out with a solid team or the rest of your moves won’t matter too much. Knowing your league rules is also important.
So, next summer, when it’s time to get into fantasy football mode, keep PC Drafter in mind and give it a chance to get you a solid foundation to your team for the 2009 fantasy season.
