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Monday, March 11, 2019

Fantasy Football Draft 2019 Preview

It's March 2019, and you're not even CLOSE to thinking about Fantasy Football! But that's because you're not an addict like me, and you're not even reading this right now. That's right, I'm not even talking to you, loser... I'm talking to my fellow addicts, because you guys and gals, YOU understand me! Hello my Fellow Fantasy-Football-Addicted friends, and welcome to my preview of the 2019 Fantasy Football season! My annual Fantasy Football Spreadsheet masterpiece has a first addition, and I have a few thoughts to share with you. So here we go, these are my rants and ravings of a lunatic who's obsessed with all things Fantasy Football, and hey BTW, my wife would kill me if she knew I spend time creating Fantasy Football rankings spreadsheets and writing a Fantasy Football blog, so please don't let her know about this! Shhhhhh!

1. The Curious Case of Antonio Brown

Oh Antonio, what have you done! You were my #1 ranked Fantasy WR, for years... for YEARS!! (think Goodfellas, the scene with a young Henry Hill and his father in their kitchen, as the father unloads a beating on young Henry after learning that he hadn't been to school in months, in MONTHS!!! https://youtu.be/2BSIR5FbayA?t=87)  So you shot your way out of Pittsburgh, blonde mustache and all, eh Antonio!?  As such, I now have 9 other WR's ranked ahead of you! That's mainly because you've landed in WR purgatory over there in Raiders Nation. Sure, I get it, you lined your pockets, and this is a business, I totally understand that. But you know who doesn't give a shit about that? Fantasy Football ADDICTS!  We don't give you style points or extra credit for getting rich, fella!  BTW, the last guy who languished in Raider WR purgatory, yeah... ummm, he is now ranked AHEAD of you.  And that guy wasn't even a top 10 ranked Fantasy WR heading into the 2018 season. I hope that stings. But it won't. Because you're like, totally uber-rich, and I'm 100% sure that you will never read these words.

2. Damien Williams Love Fest

Hi Damien, my name is Aaron, and I don't know, I was kinda-sorta wondering if you might like to maybe consider being on my Fantasy team this year? I mean, if you're like, into it or something, maybe... oh forget it, you probably have a ton of guys and gals asking you to go steady, forget every word I said!!!  Anyway, I kinda have a crush on Damien. A guy who was not ranked in my 2018 Draft Guide, and I had 90 RB's ranked!!!  The guy absolutely crushed it in 2018, I am drinking the Kool-Aid, and it's delish!  Question is this... is this the Kool-Aid that they served in Jonestown back in '78!? Or is this the sweet nectar of my youth that the portly Kool-Aid man used to rave about as he slammed through a wall!? Well I really want it to be the latter, mainly because I don't want to fall into a deep slumber quite yet, as I'm still hoping for a 2nd Eagles Super Bowl win!! (Don't hate me for this, at least I support the team that is closest to where I have lived for all 44 years of my life! And no, unlike Fabs and his Cowboy-Fantasy-Delusions, my Eagle-love does NOT creep into my Fantasy addiction, I'm able to keep the 2 worlds from colliding https://youtu.be/uPG3YMcSvzo?t=20 !).  Anywho, Damien is currently just inside my top 10 RB's, and I don't care about PPR vs Standard, this is an "any way you slice it" ranking for me. I feel like Williams was just getting into his groove, and for me, I just think that he's going to finish as a top 3 RB in 2019, barring injury (or video evidence of a crime that the NFL now pretends to care about because everybody got mad at them for not caring enough about it in the past and hence they now pretend to care more about this sort of thing, provided there is indisputable video evidence that gets leaked to the public about the thing that they pretend to care about, hence forcing them to pretend to care about it). SHEESH!

3. The Running Back Revival vs the "ZERO RB" Draft Strategy

Speaking of my love fest with a Running Back named Damien... there has been a trend in recent years called the "Zero RB Draft Strategy", and it was the opposite of a Love Fest.  The strategy had many permutations but was essentially based on the avoidance of drafting a Running Back with your early round draft picks. In using this strategy, you might draft 3-4 WR's and a TE1 before even thinking about taking your RB1 (preferably a "high upside" RB).  This strategy had been gaining momentum steadily in recent years, and had certainly peaked in 2018, as countless draft gurus and analysts touted the Zero RB strategy.  That strategy has officially reached GAME OVER status.  Thanks to the Kamara's and Barkley's and McCaffrey's and Zeke Elliott's of the world, there's plenty to love about taking a Running Back in the 1st and/or 2nd rounds. In fact, in my favorite 12 team league of 2018, before it was cool to piss on the Zero RB strategy, I went ahead and did just that!  I was sitting there with the 12th and 13th pick, and I decided to take Christian McCaffrey and Melvin Gordon back-to-back. Fast forward to week 15 of that season, spoiler alert, I won the league!  It was nice knowing you, Zero RB Strategy, don't let the door hit you in the ass on your way out! Oh and by the way, the Running Backs of 2019 are REAL, and they're SPECTACULAR! (https://youtu.be/LaW4MBwGhF0?t=202)

That's all for now, my fellow Fantasy Football Addicts, I need to leave you now for a while so that I can try and repair a marriage, a marriage heavily damaged by the 2018 Fantasy Football season!!!!

-Fantasy Football Addict

Thursday, April 14, 2011

Top 3 Fantasy Football WEBSITES

Alright folks, as we enter the 2016 Fantasy Football season, you may be wondering what's the BEST Fantasy Football website?  Hi there, this is Aaron D, owner of www.FantasyFootballAddict.com, Fantasy Footballer, Analyst, and Draft Guru!  There are quite literally tons and tons of Fantasy Football websites. If you're starting a new league, or your league wants to move to a new site, or, if you just want to play in some leagues by yourself, then here are some sites to consider.

Now, BEFORE you do your draft(s), keep in mind that you need a good draft strategy!  When you're done here, just remember that for only $9.95 I'm offering my personal Fantasy Football Draft Guide, which you can order TODAY from my website! Forget the magazines, forget the website printouts, this is the professional Fantasy Football Draft Tool that I personally use in every single one of my drafts! This Draft Guide is the best way to guarantee that you have a strong, smart, DEEP draft! Visit http://www.fantasyfootballaddict.com/ and click on the Paypal "Buy Now" buttons. Now, on to our site recommendations...

#1 http://www.rtsports.com/  - it's not the most robust site, or the most flashy site in the world, but it's not the worst either. I've used this site for a number of years, and I've never seen the site go down once. I am a BIG fan of reliability.  So it's definitely reliable, and like I said, reliability is key. Online drafting works great. Stats are updated very quickly on game day. But one of the best things about this site is they have a "Pick em" option, or what they call "NFL Picks". This allows users to pick the outcomes of the actual NFL games each week. It's week 1, you go through all 16 games and pick the winner, nice and easy! So it allows leagues to find other fun ways to keep you involved. Let's say, for example, that $100 of league dues is set aside for the overall season winner of the NFL Picks. Or maybe each weekly NFL Picks winner gets $10, something fun like that. 

Using it on an iPad/iPhone or other mobile device, they came up with a mobile interface starting in the 2012 season, so although it still goes through Safari (vs. an App), it makes it easier to use than just going to the main website. (The mobile address is m.rtsports.com) .  The mobile app is not as robust, but whatever you can't do in the mobile app, you would click on "Full League Website", and that would take you out of the mobile site, and you'd then be put into the full site.

The downsides?  This is not a FREE site, I believe it's $89.95 per season.

#2 http://games.espn.go.com/frontpage/football  aka ESPN. ESPN definitely has the best "look and feel" of any Fantasy Football website out there. It's just plain "sexy"! Ease of access to player stats is unparalleled. It's also FREE.  As I mentioned before, I like the NFL Picks concept, which is why RTSports tops my list. But if you don't give a darn about having an NFL Picks as part of your league, then it's a no-brainer, ESPN is the best site out there. It's hard for me to explain my reasoning other than "they did it right". It's true, ESPN spent the money to make a streamlined site that's ultra-slick and very easy to use/navigate. ESPN, keep up the good work, and please don't change a thing!

#3 http://fantasy.nfl.com/  NFL.com. This is a FREE site, which is probably the best thing about it.  I don't like the live draft, it gets the job done but it doesn't really blow me away.  They also have a free iPhone/Android app, this is HUGE! Most or all of us want to be able to update our fantasy teams on our phone during the season, so this is great news.  The downside of NFL.com is that it's really confusing and hard to figure out where everything is.  It takes a while to get used to the layout, and to find everything that you are looking for, like schedules, stats, etc..  But for a free site, it crushes the Yahoo's of the world.

HONORABLE MENTION - CBSSports.com (http://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/football/games/chart)
CBSSports offers a Free version, but the Free version lacks ability to have flex positions, waiver wire and roster limit options, etc..  So for the full "Commissioner" package, the price is $159.99, that's a bit rich for my blood.  Haven't used the site, but have heard good things about it from people who've used this site.  But for me, the price is not right.  If you've got the money to spend, though, it's worth checking out, as you can create your league and run it as a free trial for a few days in order to see if it's the right fit for the league that you want to create.

So that's what I recommend, folks, ESPN.com is awesome, and iPhone/Android app is free, which is a great move on their part.  NFL.com is getting better each year, they've thrown a lot of money at it, it's FREE, and they also have the FREE iPhone/Android app.  RTSports.com is fairly "bare-bones", but it has NFL Pick Em included, and it is a very reliable site, BUT it's not free.

DON'T FORGET, in order to PREPARE for your fantasy draft(s), you should join some of the $30 entry fee leagues that most of these sites have (I use RTSports.com).  Basically, I use these as my "mock" drafts.  Why?  Because actual Mock Drafts are horrible, only a few "real" people are actually in the mock draft, and after the first or 2nd round, everybody drops out and it goes on "auto-pilot".  But in these $30 leagues, you have 10 or 12 real people actually in the draft, for the ENTIRE draft, and it gives you a chance to execute your draft strategy, to see the trends, and to also see if you're truly prepared or not.  Plus, if you're using the Draft Spreadsheet Tool, it will give you an opportunity to get used to using it during a live draft! It's definitely worth doing a few of these paid leagues, even if you have no intention of actually setting a lineup each week.  Again, think of them as PAID MOCKS.  But it's probably a good idea to just log in once a week and adjust your lineup, because who knows, you might win a league or 2 (and some decent money)!

And lastly, as I mentioned earlier, if you want to try to draft like a pro, forget the magazines, forget printing out random rankings, go to http://www.fantasyfootballaddict.com/ and click "Buy Now" to get our 2016 draft tool, and do your draft from 1 excel spreadsheet that has everything right there in one place!  No more messing up bye weeks, no more struggling to find which players of value are still on the board, no more shuffling through papers as time ticks away on the clock!  If you pass on it, well that's fine, but just hope that nobody else in your league gets one!

Here's a sneak peak at the main tab of the draft spreadsheet, this is BEFORE you draft...

Here's what it will look like 4 rounds in...  the YELLOW players are the player's that you've drafted...

And this is a quick look at the "Top 150" tab of the spreadsheet...

This is the STRATEGY window, where you keep track of what position you are targeting in each round, so that you can remember to stay focused on your STRATEGY for the entire draft!


DRAFT LIKE A PRO!
Go to http://www.fantasyfootballaddict.com/ and contact me today!