As mentioned by Dyv in the introduction to his guide: "It's not the will to win that matters—everyone has that. It's the will to prepare to win that matters."

I couldn't agree more with that.

I know that not only are there a lot of great minds on this site and in this Dobber Community, but a lot of people who complement their smarts with hard work and diligent research put towards their fantasy teams, which is just as or even more important than just simply knowing a lot about football.

I thought this would be a good thread to discuss ways in which you do your research. There's a thread like this relating to fantasy hockey leagues on this site, so I thought it would be a good idea to create one for football fantasy leagues as well.


To get things started, here are some of the things I find are good to do to gain an edge on your opponents, as well as little things one should look out for when assessing a player's value:

1. Looking at the number of targets one gets is key - guys with more targets I try to target. A guy who gets 5 receptions for 60 yards on 5 targets one game will draw more attention than a guy who gets 3 targets for 30 yards on 12 targets. I find hidden, breakout value on the latter as if that player keeps getting thrown to that many times I find the odds are likely he'll break out.

2. Don't let big plays distort a player's value, and don't be fixed on the total number of yards one gets. If a guy has 3 receptions for 100 yards, but one of his 3 receptions was for 85 yards, don't let that 85-yard reception make that guy be ranked higher in your waiver priority than a guy who had maybe 7 receptions for 60 yards. The odds are likely that the player won't be catching 85 yard bombs on a consistent basis, so if you take away that catch, what's left are 2 receptions for 15 yards. There are exceptions, of course, but I find too many times people don't research exactly how a player got all his yards. Garbage time totals are a key thing to look at as well - don't overvalue a guy who got most of his yards when the game was out of reach.

3. Study snap counts. The more often a player is on the field the more likely that player will make plays and thus achieve fantasy points.

4. Look at matchups A COUPLE weeks in advance. This point ties into this article: http://football.dobbersports.com/ind...ion&Itemid=189. One quick thing I'll say is grab that defense you want that has a favourable matchup for week 10 in week 7 if you got the roster spot for it. The sooner the better! If you wait until week 9, chances are other GM's have noticed that matchup by now as well and you run the risk of being in a waiver priority fight.

5. Anticipate an injury. If I got any dead weight on my roster, I'll drop a guy to pick up the backup of a RB in case the starting RB of that team gets injured that week (especially if the main RB is playing a tough defense). If the starter doesn't get injured that week I could then just simply drop him the following week for another speculative pickup, or further keep him and roll the dice on another week.


There are many more, and I will shoot them off as they come to me.

Now, what do you guys think are good ways in which one can research and/or prepare on a weekly basis when it comes to fantasy football?

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Roster:
C - Stamkos, Bergeron, M.Koivu, Stepan
W - Malkin(C/W), Benn(C/W), Backes(C/W), Iginla, Vanek, Voracek, J.Staal(C/W), Hemsky, Saad
D - Yandle, Goligoski
G - Lundqvist, Smith, Dubnyk, Khudobin
IR - Karlsson, Martin

12 teams h-to-h partial keeper league. Daily line-up changes.
End of the year u keep 1C, 2W, 2D, 1G
Categories: G, A, +/-, PIM, PPP, SHP, GWG, FW, W, GAA, SV%, SHO
Lineup: 2C, 4W, 4D, 2G, 5Bench, 2IR

Great read.
To be honest, although I looove fantasy sports... fantasy football has always been my least favourite.

This is a bit curious to me, because I love watching & rooting for players on Sunday/Monday. The day's worth of watching the stats and refreshing matchups are so exciting, I love it.

But when's it's all said & done I find that fantasy football seems to have more of the "luck factor" than hockey or baseball.
And for this reason, I've really always been more fond of fantasy hockey or fantasy baseball because the smartest owners do well.

I've seen leagues where the smartest football guy drafts a team and it finishes at the bottom of a one-year league. This almost never happens in fantasy hockey or baseball (even with injuries).
And I've been in leagues where the dumbest guy (say, a "Taco") ends up winning it. Like WTF.

So - I love to hear these strategies and techniques... I need something to convince me that doing thorough research is going to reward me with a top finish during the season!


Note: Good article on ESPN today from Matthew Berry. Lots of info.

The most important thing you can look at in the offseasons is which FBs and Cs got traded.

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Tweet @ Me brah!
10 team Auction Keeper-Year 6, No FAs, Points only, Weekly Lineups (2nd and Final Tank Year)
C-Kopitar, M.Koivu, Stepan
W-Kovy, Schenn, Boedker, Skinner, Kadri, Conacher
D-Wideman, Kronwall, Timonnen, McBain
G-Schneider
Bench:Palmieri,Lintback,Allen, Larsson
Farm:Granlund,Pirri,Silfverberg,Schwartz,Nieto,Tof foli,Etem,Dumba Yakupov,Rattie,Lack,Gormley,Markstrom,Nyquist,Reil ly,G Reinhart, BSmith

-Take a look at which teams hired new Offensive Coordinators and what their philosophy is.
-Let someone else draft the RB coming off of an ACL tear.
-Never bench your studs no matter the matchup.
-watch football. You should be doing this anyway

These are just a few guidelines I follow for my FF leagues.

3rd game of preseason. Watch it. Like ALL of them.

__________________
Tweet @ Me brah!
10 team Auction Keeper-Year 6, No FAs, Points only, Weekly Lineups (2nd and Final Tank Year)
C-Kopitar, M.Koivu, Stepan
W-Kovy, Schenn, Boedker, Skinner, Kadri, Conacher
D-Wideman, Kronwall, Timonnen, McBain
G-Schneider
Bench:Palmieri,Lintback,Allen, Larsson
Farm:Granlund,Pirri,Silfverberg,Schwartz,Nieto,Tof foli,Etem,Dumba Yakupov,Rattie,Lack,Gormley,Markstrom,Nyquist,Reil ly,G Reinhart, BSmith

I study the ADP lists.
I study my league's rules.

I then apply those rules to the ADP lists from the BACK of the draft forward. That is, let's say we have 15 roster spots in a league and 12 teams. That means (quick math) 180 players will be taken. I go to the ADP list, look at players #168-200 and figure out which player (or two) in that area of the draft I hope to get. I then look at the 14th round (picks 156-168) and do the same thing. When I'm done, drafting from the back moving forward I may notice that there are 5 WR I love at the end of the draft, or 3 RB or even 2 QB. If that's the case, I now know when it comes to a tough choice earlier in the draft RB I like vs. WR I like, I know I can take one position because lots of players I like later should be available.

The other thing I do in drafts is I like to drafts quantity vs. quality. At least 2 positions I want to nail down quality. Let's say in this year's draft I decide I want to dedicate my first 2 rounds to WR, 3rd round to TE, 4th round to another WR, 5th round to QB. I'll end up with 3 STRONG WR, 1 STRONG TE, 1 good value play QB and ZERO RB?? So in this strategy, my next 5 picks are: RB, RB, QB (I like to get another sooner rather than later if I waited until the 5th to get my QB) then RB and RB again. Now I've set up with quality WR, quality TE, Fair QB with a good backup and 4 RB - hopefully 2 of whom will pop or have good matchups I can use week-to-week.

I generally 'target' targets too for wide outs... but check out a little blurp from ESPN's recent magazine.

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Girrrrrooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooux

Never heard of the backwards ADP thing, but that is a cool tactic.

__________________
Tweet @ Me brah!
10 team Auction Keeper-Year 6, No FAs, Points only, Weekly Lineups (2nd and Final Tank Year)
C-Kopitar, M.Koivu, Stepan
W-Kovy, Schenn, Boedker, Skinner, Kadri, Conacher
D-Wideman, Kronwall, Timonnen, McBain
G-Schneider
Bench:Palmieri,Lintback,Allen, Larsson
Farm:Granlund,Pirri,Silfverberg,Schwartz,Nieto,Tof foli,Etem,Dumba Yakupov,Rattie,Lack,Gormley,Markstrom,Nyquist,Reil ly,G Reinhart, BSmith

Wheres a good place to check on targets and how players get their yardage?

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H2H Each Cat - Yahoo - 14 teams - Cap Hit
Start: 2C 2LW 2RW 4D 2U 2G 7B
Cats: G A +- PIM SOG PPG PPA SHP GWG FW HIT W GAA SV SV% SO
Svalbard Armored Bears:
C: Getz, M Richards(LW), Turdis, Little
LW: Kovy(RW), Moulson, Kunitz, _
RW: Eriksson(LW), Clarkson, _, _
D: Pietrangelo, JJ, Streit, Spurgeon, Brodie, Nikitin
G: Lundqvist, Holtby, Harding
JV: Tarasenko, Bishop, Eakin, Killorn, Grigorgenko, Grimaldi, Collberg, Faksa, Lindholm, Irving

Targets: Pretty much any boxscore of players stats for a specific game. ESPN.com or NFL.com are two off the top of my head that I know list the # of targets the receiver received during the game. This stat is listed as "TGTS" in ESPN. (http://scores.espn.go.com/nfl/boxscore?gameId=320805018)

How players get their yardage: once again, boxscore or highlights. In ESPN, a players longest run/reception is noted as "LG". (http://scores.espn.go.com/nfl/boxscore?gameId=320805018)

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Roster:
C - Stamkos, Bergeron, M.Koivu, Stepan
W - Malkin(C/W), Benn(C/W), Backes(C/W), Iginla, Vanek, Voracek, J.Staal(C/W), Hemsky, Saad
D - Yandle, Goligoski
G - Lundqvist, Smith, Dubnyk, Khudobin
IR - Karlsson, Martin

12 teams h-to-h partial keeper league. Daily line-up changes.
End of the year u keep 1C, 2W, 2D, 1G
Categories: G, A, +/-, PIM, PPP, SHP, GWG, FW, W, GAA, SV%, SHO
Lineup: 2C, 4W, 4D, 2G, 5Bench, 2IR