Become The John Wick of Your Fantasy League
You have to love a good action movie franchise. Sequel after sequel, the hero always finds a way to escape seemingly insurmountable odds and come out on top. Doesn’t it feel like there are managers in your Fantasy league that accomplish the same feat? Year after year the same two or three managers always seem to make the run at your Fantasy Championship. Are they really just built different than the rest of your league?
You may not be seeking revenge on your enemies, fighting to discover your true identity, or dismantling a shadowy superpower, but your favorite action movie heroes can teach you how to become better Fantasy Football managers. While it’s true you can’t win your Fantasy Championship at the draft, these draft tips will help you go from a perpetual zero to perennial hero.
The Perfect Draft Is Mission Impossible
They haven’t started filming Mission Impossible 8 yet, but we already know the plot. To save the world Ethan Hunt and the crew need to break into a facility of sorts and foil the enemy’s plan. They do their reconnaissance, design a brilliant strategy, memorize and rehearse it…only for something to go wrong, leaving it up to Ethan Hunt to masterfully improvise his way into completing the mission. Roll the credits.
All too often when managers decide to really buckle down and get serious about Fantasy, they lean too heavily on the first half of the Mission Impossible equation, coming up with a brilliant strategy, and completely neglect Ethan Hunt’s true strength—the educated pivot. Your draft is going to go array. You will get sniped, the secret code won’t work, the escape hatch will be locked, and if you stubbornly stick to your original strategy, you will panic draft yourself right into enemy hands.
Does that mean coming up with a brilliant draft strategy is pointless? Absolutely not. Your “Plan A” and “My Guys List” are crucial to getting your mission off on the right foot. But, they simply cannot be your end-all-be-all approach to drafting. You need to become more like Ethan Hunt, and that starts with changing your preseason mindset. The moment you formulate your “Plan A” draft strategy, all of your research, spreadsheet preparation, and mock drafting should shift to preparing yourself to make the educated pivot when you're called to go off script. Force yourself to ignore Mock Draft Grade confirmation biases, intentionally push yourself off your strategy during mock drafts, and memorize every path back to the rendezvous point. It’s all too easy to think you can lean on your improvisation skills like Ethan Hunt, but he doesn’t just randomly throw himself off buildings and onto canvas-covered trucks. He’s put in the work, he’s memorized his options, and knows the truck will be there before he jumps. You need to do the same this draft season.
Read the Draft Room Like Your Life Depends On It
In the grand scheme of the Bourne series, the little diner scene early in Bourne Identity when Jason verbally dissects his surroundings for Nicky Parsons may not seem like much, but it’s fundamental to his character’s ability to dominate any situation. You don’t need to memorize where all the exits are located, the license plates of the cars in the parking lot, or determine which car is most likely hiding a firearm, but you do need to up your situational awareness if you want to own the draft room.
Paying attention to the entire draft board during your draft may seem obvious, but it's the precondition for the next true key to dominating your draft. It’s easy to get tunnel vision or distracted between your picks. You start thinking about which players may be around during your next turn, you leave your computer to get another drink or snack, or start chatting with your league mates. But, how can you maximize your draft value if you aren’t aware of your opponents' roster constructions and needs? This is Drafting 101, and hopefully, it’s already your standard practice. So, how do you take that simple habit and turn it into a weapon?
Before your next draft go through the last two or three of your league’s draft histories, and suss out each manager’s drafting tendencies or habits. Which managers draft QBs early, and which ones always wait? Who fills out their starting rosters before they let themselves fill their bench, and who can’t help but draft a player from their favorite NFL team? Make detailed but easy-to-digest notes of every pattern, predisposition or bias you can find, and organize them so you can act on them when it’s time to strike. If you implement those two deceptively simple situational awareness tactics, you‘ll be the one catching your league mates off guard, not the other way around.
Tier Based Drafting makes you dangerous
How does John Wick fight with such flexibility and fluidity? There’s an almost liquid nature to his movements. It’s because he has trained himself to feel comfortable handling any weapon from any orientation, allowing him to flow freely from one engagement to the next. Sure, he enters the fight with his preferred firearms, but he has the confidence to transition to whatever weapon he may need to pick up or firing position he may need when called upon. It’s time you put aside your rigid Top 200 ADP list, and become liquid-lethal in any draft with Tier Based Drafting.
Tier Based Drafting is a spreadsheet system where players of similar positions are lumped into tiers based on their projected points. Is the player at the top of the tier projected to outscore the player at the bottom of the tier? Sure, but by a negligible amount of points when stretched across an entire season. This system gives you a much clearer picture of which position you should be drafting at every point in your draft, and opens a wider range of desirable players within each position; giving you the confidence to draft with the flow of John Wick clearing an enemy hideout.
Let’s say you hit Round 5 and your roster needs another Wide Receiver…but there’s a solid Tight End option that would be awesome for your team. What do you do? Well, like John Wick momentarily dropping his pistol to pick up the shotgun to clear a room, your tiers may tell you that there are enough Wide Receivers in the same tier available for you to snag that brute of a Tight End before picking up your Wide Receiver in Round 6 and carrying on with your draft. Practice this system, master the flow during your preseason mock draft sessions, and you become liquid-lethal in your upcoming drafts.
Become The Hero
A solid draft is crucial to a deep post-season run. Yes, your roster will get shaken up with injuries and waiver wire adds, but without the proper foundation, you’ll spend the rest of your season shooting from the hip. Your favorite action heroes may look like they’re flying by the seat of their pants, but they’ve practiced every motion, surveilled every situation, and prepared for anything that comes their way. It’s time you go from praying-and-spraying your way through the Fantasy Football season, and do what it takes to finally start the Fantasy Football hero franchise of your own.
