Week 6: Almost Perfect

This past week was a great week for me. The Jets came from behind and won in the final seconds and I won 2 out of 3 fantasy games. Going into Monday night I thought I was going to have a perfect week. I had already won my other 2 games and I was up by 24 points in the one league where my opponent had a Running Back and a Kicker still to go. I knew it was going to be close but at halftime of that game I thought I was going to win because I was still up by 15 points. I went to bed only to wake up the next morning to have lost by 4 points. Oh well, it was still a great week but I am waiting for that perfect week.

-Riley

Week 5: Ups and Downs

This week my teams went 1-2, however the Jets got another victory bringing their record to 4-1. Like I said in previous weeks, my number 1 concern is the New York Jets. They played Monday night and beat the Minnesota Vikings in a thrilling game. My fantasy teams didn’t fair as well. I lost in two of my leagues and won in another. The only reason I won in the one league was because the person I was playing against for got to change their line up and they left people in their starting line up that were hurt and did not play in their NFL game. Sometimes it is skill and sometimes it is luck. That win was due to the ignorance of my opponent. Hope week 6 goes better!

Riley

Week 4: Monday Night Surprise

Sunday was a great day for me. The JETS won, I finalized wins in 2 of my leagues, and I was ahead in my 3rd league going into the Monday night game. I was well on my way of having a perfect football week. Going into the Monday night Dolphins vs. Patriots game, I still had Tom Brady and the Dolphins defense left to play. My opponent had the Patriots defense but I was also up by 10 points. This is what I call an almost sure thing. “Almost” being the key word. If you ask any fantasy expert they would say that I had this game locked. Then the amazing happened. The Patriots defense scored 3 touch downs, had 4 interceptions, and sacked the QB a few times. This gave the Patriots defense 32 fantasy points. Because the Patriots D did such a great job, Tom Brady really did not need to throw a lot of passes, hence, he did not score a lot of fantasy points. Finally, the Dolphins defense did nothing giving me only 2 points. The final out come of the game was that I lost by 10 points. I guess there is never a sure thing in fantasy football.

Fantasy Tip of the week: Now that the weather is getting colder and the weather is not always nice, make sure you check the weather on game day. Rain, snow, and mostly wind can make a huge difference in your player’s performance. Stay away from starting players who will face these harsh conditions.

-Riley

Week 3 Brings Injuries

There is nothing worse in fantasy football then seeing your team lose players to injuries. On one of my three teams, my three best players all got hurt this past weekend. Luckily none of these players will be out the entire season, however, they can miss certain weeks. Because of the injuries, I lost 2 out of 3 games this week. However, the Jets won Sunday night to make my weekend a good one! Now I can to find players or waivers to replace my currently injured stars. Wish me luck.

Fantasy Tip of the week: There is a term in fantasy football called “Handcuffing.” It means to draft your best player’s backups. In case your best players get hurt, you then have their backup on your bench to put into your lineup for the week your best players are sitting out.

-Riley

Week 2 looking a lot better!

So after a miserable week 1 of the NFL season for me, week 2 looked a lot better. First and foremost, the Jets (my favorite team) beat their rivals, the New England Patriots. Above everything fantasy related, I route for the Jets over any fantasy player on my team. I took great pleasure seeing the Jets win.

Moving on to fantasy, this week I went 2-1. As stated in an earlier post, who you decide to start each week makes a big difference in whether you will win your game or not. This week I made one of the best decisions of my fantasy career. The last hour before I could make a change to my roster on Sunday, I decided to sit Tom Brady and start Michael Vick as my QB. Michael Vick was not even on my team but I was able to pick him up off of waivers because no one else had him on their team. It turns out, by picking up and starting Vick, I won the game. If I did not start him and decided to start Brady I would have lost by 1 point. It is times like this when I think fantasy football is not only about luck, but there is also some skill involved.

Fantasy Tip of the week: It is important to check the waiver wire each week to see who is still available to be picked up. Sometimes new players emerge to become standouts. It is very rare that you will start with the same team in the beginning of the season that you will end with. You are going to drop players who get hurt and who do poorly in favor of new players who were not popular before the season started. So each week, check out who is emerging in the NFL and pick these people up.

-Riley

Week 1 is in the Books!

So the first week of the NFL season has come and gone and it was not a good week for me. I went 1-2 in my three fantasy leagues and to top it off the JETS (my favorite team) lost to the Ravens. This week in fantasy brought some major surprises along with some great numbers from classic reliable players.

The player of the week had to be Houston’s Arian Foster. Foster had 231 rushing yards along with three TDs. This earned him a total of 41 fantasy points which is an amazing week in any league. The always reliable Peyton Manning also had a great day throwing for 433 yards and 3 TDs for a total of 33 fantasy points. Unfortunately I played against both of these players in two separate games. Just to give you an idea on how good these players were this week, a good week for a RB is 15 points and a good week for a QB is 20 points. You can see with their numbers how both players went above and beyond a good week. These could be two of the best games of the entire season for these players.

I look forward to week 2 where I hope I can get some more wins.

Fantasy Tip of the week: With 18 players on your team and only 9 starting spots, sometimes it is difficult to know what players to put into your starting lineup each week. One of the main strategies I use is to look at the team’s opponent for that week. You might have a slightly better player playing against a very good defense but I rather take the slightly worse player playing against a worse defense.

Riley

How to Begin Playing

Starting a league

There are many types of fantasy football games but for the purpose of this blog I am going to stick to the basic version of fantasy football. First, you need people to be in your fantasy football league with you. I recommend anywhere from 8 to 12 people. The more people you know in your league the more fun it is, but you can join Internet leagues where the people are random strangers. Once you have the amount of people in your league you have a “draft.” During the draft, each person selects NFL players from any of the 32 teams. Your draft order is predetermined (usually selected out of a hat). The object of the draft is to select the best players available to be on your team. In order to have a successful draft, you need to know what position players you can play in your game. A traditional team looks like this:

1 Quarter Back

2 Running Backs

2 Wide Receivers

1 Tight End

1 Team Defense

1 Kicker

8 Bench players (can be any position)

During the draft, you select players for these positions until you fill your team with 16 players from any of the 32 teams.

Once the draft is over each team now has their team of 16 players. They are now ready to play the game.

Playing the game

Each week of an NFL football season, you assemble your roster of the best players on your team for each position. You then play one other team from your league. The object of the game is score more points then your opponent for that week. In order to score points, your players on your team need to do well in their NFL games. A traditional scoring system looks like this:

4 points for a passing Touch down (TD)

6 points for a receiving TD

6 points for a running TD

1 point for 10 yards rushing

1 point for 10 yards receiving

1 point for 20 yards passing

3 points for a field goal

6 points for a defensive TD

1 point for a recovered fumble

1 point for an interception

The scoring system for each league varies and is easily customizable based on each leagues preference but the above is a standard league.

So let’s say that one of your running backs scores 1 TD and rushes for 90 yards. Your running back would earn you 15 points (6+9). You would add up the rest of your player’s scores for that one week and you would compare it to your opponents player’s scores for that same week. Whoever has the most points wins the game for that week.

You then play the other teams in the league alternating who you play each week. Typically around week 13 the regular fantasy season is over and the teams with the most wins go to the playoffs. The playoff system in any fantasy league can vary but typically it lasts 3 NFL weeks. The winner of the playoffs is the winner of the entire league and usually wins a pot of money.

That is basic fantasy football in a nutshell. My favorite thing about fantasy football is that every game during the entire NFL season you are either routing for or against a player. It makes every game fun to watch and very entertaining. I hope you get the jist of how to play. I look forward to sharing strategies and player information throughout the season. Good luck!

For more information on fantasy football or if you would like to join a league check out ESPN's Fantasy Football page.

-Riley

An Intro to Fantasy Football

It is September, and it is finally here! No, I am not talking about the start of a new school year. I am talking about one of my favorite times of the year, The Beginning of Football Season. Whether it is the NFL, college football, high school football, or your son is on a P-Wee team, chances are someone close to you is going to be talking about football a lot during the upcoming months.

With football season comes one of the most popular games played in America, Fantasy Football. Fantasy football is a phenomenon that has been popular for the past 20 years or so. During the past 10 years, it has been on a sharp incline in popularity based on the ease of playing on the Internet. Millions of people play fantasy football each year and there are hundreds of websites on the Internet dedicated to playing. Whether you play for free or money is involved, it is a fun game that I look forward to playing every year. In my first blog post I will explain fantasy football basics and go over the rules of the game. After that my blog will be geared towards people who play fantasy football. I hope at least some of you play and if not, I hope I will interest some of you into trying it out. One thing is for sure, if you like NFL football you will like fantasy football.

-Riley