World Series of Poker champion "Action" Dan Harrington, has made his reputation by limiting his mistakes and inducing some from his opponents. Sounds simple enough, right? Harrington doesn't go into a hand half cocked, but methodically weighs the risk vs. reward factors of the hands that he chooses to play.
In a fantasy football draft, like in poker, you must understand the concept of position. It is critical that you have an accurate estimation of which players will be available to you in your first five rounds. Why the first five rounds? Because the first five selections in your fantasy football draft will set the foundation for your team. That's not to say that you won't be able to collect some serious sleepers later on, but if you had the misfortune of drafting Lamont Jordan last year, your fantasy season was over before it really began.
I'm drafting from the four hole in this years "high stakes" World Championship of Fantasy Football in Las Vegas. I am already planning on laying a foundation with two running backs and one top tier wide receiver after the first three rounds. With my second pick (21st overall) there is a very short list of wide receivers that I would pick from to supercede taking another running back here - Steve Smith (he'll be long gone), or Chad Johnson (Ocho Cinco will be off the board by this point). Terrell Owens is an inury risk that I'm not comfortable taking here, especially since there's a good chance that I will have Frank Gore on my roster who's another M*A*S*H risk. Torry Holt, Reggie Wayne and Marvin Harrison are all excellent receivers, but if I take a running back with the 21st overall pick, there's an excellent chance that one of those receivers will be available to me with my third pick (28th overall).
Quite simply, your fantasy draft should be easy based on your pre-draft preparation. If you are fumbling around and/or agonizing over ANY of your first five picks, then you didn't understand what kind of a team you would be building based your draft spot. Understand that and you will be a formidable fantasy footballer, not just in 2007, but for many seasons to come.
