Everyone Has One, and They All Stink...

... I am, of course, talking about a draft strategy, or a gameplan, for fantasy football. What did you think I was talking about?

Everyone asks me what my draft strategy will be this year. Well, here it is:

I'm drafting a kicker in the last round.

That's it. Sage advice, I know.

But truthfully, the only way to get better at drafting is to constantly put yourself in the draft environment. As silly and ego-maniacal as it may seem, doing mock drafts is the best way to prepare... not reading some column written by a talking head on ESPN (ahem... Matthew Berry). No, that won't do. And besides that, it's just plain ignorance to adhere blindly to that schmuck's draft list.

The key is to know your landscape. What I mean by landscape is becoming aware of the selection of players available to you at each pick. I don't necessarily need you to be able to recite the names of all 400 selections. But at the very least, know within two picks ahead and after yours the players that will be available to you. That way, if someone you wanted is taken ahead of you, you can go to the next best alternative. And if that stud you've been eying for weeks was taken just ahead of you, will you have the wherewithal to draft another potential breakout player? Or will you break out into a cold sweat and draft a defense in the seventh round like a donkey?

I've completed a ton of mocks leading up to my 2009 Fantasy Draft, more than I care to divulge, and no two drafts have been identical in nature. There have been drafts with early wide receiver runs, QB runs, and even tight end runs (why? who knows...). You need to stay ahead of the curve and grab the highest value players where you can. And you never want to overpay (that's another discussion for another time).

There are simply too many free sites out there that offer mock drafting for you to not take advantage of them. I see people panic in the draft room all the time because they are unprepared. They read an article that Player X will be great and go into the draft with expectations of drafting Player X. And when that player gets taken ahead of them, they go into complete shock. Or even worse, they select Player X three or sometimes four rounds too early and negate their value. Let me just say this, as loudly as I can, that there are value buys all over the draftboard. You just have to know the landscape and the ideal time to draft them.

And never draft a kicker until the last round.