Fantasy Football 101: A Beginner's Guide to Competing in the DFF Grand Prix

Fantasy football is a tough thing to get into. It seems intimidating at first. There's a lot going on. In the end, if you love football, it ends up getting really easy. And if you find you're not really a big football fan, I'm willing to bet that fantasy football will make you one.

To get started, you don't need to know every player in the NFL. You don't need to watch twelve games every Sunday. You definitely don't have to be a stat wizard.

If you're just starting fantasy football, this article will help you out. If you've been playing for a while, this article will give you some tips and tactics that may be a little more specific to the DFF Grand Prix.

You're not just trying to win your Yahoo league. You're trying to outperform the field using two teams.

With that in mind, I've broken it out into a few sections. Starting with the most important…

Know the Rules Before You Build the Team!!!

I just posted a link to the Grand Prix rules in the Grand Prix clubhouse. Go read them.

The single easiest mistake for a new fantasy manager to make happens before the draft even begins: assuming every fantasy football league works the same way. There are a boatload of fantasy formats out there. And this one is MUCH different than most.

Scoring systems determine which players are valuable: standard, half-PPR, PPR, etc. Starting lineup requirements determine which positions you need. Bench sizes affect how aggressively you can stash players. Waiver rules determine how you replace injured or underperforming players.

Before worrying about who you want to draft, understand what your league is asking you to do. Grand Prix is half PPR and standard roster construction.

Draft Opportunity, Not Just Famous Names

If you're new to fantasy, you'll likely want to get all the names you recognize. Take a breath, go look at their fantasy production (you can look at player stats on Yahoo). Fantasy football isn't a contest to determine who the best NFL players are. It's a contest to predict which players will accumulate fantasy statistics. This is a key distinction. Everyone knows Patrick Mahomes….Patrick Mahomes was a shit fantasy player last year. Players that get a lot of touches can be more valuable than more talented players with fewer touches.

When evaluating players, ask:

• How often will he touch the football?

• How often will the quarterback look his way?

• Will he be used near the goal line?

• Is he actually on the field most of the game?

• What happens if the player ahead of him gets injured?

Fantasy managers commonly call this volume or opportunity. Talent matters. Opportunity often (but not always) matters more.

Don't Draft From a List Like It's a Shopping List

Player rankings and Average Draft Position—usually abbreviated ADP—are extremely useful. This is a key metric to use and be familiar with, but it is NOT infallible. It is entirely determined by the masses. Many of whom are NOT good at fantasy football. And it’s a self-licking ice cream cone. The higher the ADP, the more managers draft those players at that ADP, which reinforces the ADP.

The other thing to consider is that this number is golden. If a player's ADP is 50 and you draft him at 42, that doesn't mean you made a mistake. You may really believe in that player and don't expect them to be there when your pick comes back around in the next round. Conversely, there may be a player you DON'T like, but is still available well after their ADP. At that point, consider sucking it up and taking the gift that's been given (make sure they aren't still there because they got broke in practice or were suspended for beating their wife or baby momma).

Bonus tip for this section…. GO DO MOCK DRAFTS on Yahoo. It’s easy to get into them. Especially do this if you've never played before. You need to see how the draft software works, you need to see what tools are available to you…click ALL the buttons, see what they do. The tools are available to you because years and years of fantasy football has determined what information players need to make good decisions. Look at the draft board, look at player dispersion among other managers, who do they have, what do they need, what do YOU need. Maybe you don't need a RB but there is a great value pick and the WRs available are kind of shit. This level of involvement does take a bit more expertise, but if you're drafting for the first time, take note of these things.

Lastly, maybe take a player you really like because fantasy is supposed to be fun and maybe you don't want to be stuck rooting for a player on the actual football team playing against your favorite team in any given week. If I have Caleb Williams on my fantasy team and they are playing Detroit, it's gonna hurt when they play Detroit and I don't know whether to be happy or pissed off that he throws a TD. If you're playing to win, you suck it up and deal with it, but it's something to be aware of. Hopefully, you're feeling good after your draft but if not…

Your Draft Does Not Determine Your Season

This may be the most important advice in this entire article. Do not mentally grade your season when the draft ends. You win leagues by being vigilant and adapting to the circumstances during the season. Every NFL season has opportunities to change your stars. Maybe a starting RB gets hurt and his backup is a monster in the making. Maybe a QB that wasn't expected to be good ends up showing out in the first couple of weeks but wasn't drafted. Pay attention to the news. Find a fantasy podcast and listen to it REALTIME, not when it is put on Spotify. Coaches change how players are being used, and that could really affect the fantasy points they earn. The waiver wire exists because the NFL changes every week. Check it. The manager paying attention usually has an enormous advantage over the manager still starting the team they drafted in August.

Don't Chase Last Week's Points

A player scores 27 fantasy points in Week 1. Everybody rushes to the waiver wire to grab them. That isn't necessarily a bad thing but… before you join them, figure out why he scored 27 points: Did his role change? Did he suddenly play 80 percent of his team's offensive snaps? Did his targets jump from three to nine? Did the starting running back get injured? Those are meaningful developments. The flip side: Did he catch two passes for 110 yards and two touchdowns? That's a great outing but it doesn't mean it's repeatable.

The flip side of this is not to panic-dump players. I have a perfect example from two years ago. Terry McLaurin started REALLY slow and I needed some help at WR. I dropped him. He went on to be the overall WR6 that year. It was a horrible decision, but I panicked because I was losing games and wanted to fix things now. The same thing applies, before dropping, look at WHY their numbers are crap. Are they not getting the utilization? Are they just facing insane defenses? Did they have bad QB play? I could have avoided dropping McLaurin if I had followed this tip...

Use Your Bench

Your bench isn't where you store players you hope you'll never need. These are the players that have potential. It is where you prepare for the chaos of the season. Players that fit this mold: backup running backs with a realistic path to a starting job can be extremely valuable, young receivers earning increasing playing time can become starters later in the season, players returning from injuries or suspension can sometimes be acquired before their value increases. Think one or two weeks ahead.

The Grand Prix Changes the Equation

Traditional fantasy football teaches you to care about one thing each week: Did I beat my opponent? But this is where we discuss how to play in DFF Grand Prix and Grand Prix managers need to think bigger. Your Yahoo matchup matters, but you're participating in a competition that extends beyond the individual league you were assigned to. That means simply sneaking out a low-scoring victory isn't necessarily the same thing as having a great week. You'll need to pay attention to what's happening across the league. Last year the Grand Prix champion did not finish first in either the H2H league or the PNTS league. Check in to the Grand Prix clubhouse weekly. Do you have a good lead on the field and need to protect that lead? Then maybe you play high floor people (if you don't know what that means check out the other articles for beginners on here). If you have some ground to make up, perhaps you swing for the fences on a couple of risky high-ceiling players. Even if you are way back….

Keep Playing

Every fantasy season eventually gets frustrating. Your first-round pick gets hurt. You lose by 0.4 points. Your opponent's DST somehow scores 22. It happens…more often than we want to think. The worst decision you can make is to stop managing your team. The Grand Prix is a season-long competition. Keep setting your lineup. Keep checking waivers. Keep looking for trades. Keep accumulating points. Those bad things that happened to you can happen to other managers; that's where you make up ground. Things change quickly in fantasy football. The more years you play, the more this becomes apparent.

The Simplest Fantasy Football Strategy

If all of this still feels like a lot, remember these things: Pay attention, keep improving your roster, never stop competing.

You will learn everything else by playing. And that's the point. As with all things, you will get better week to week and year to year.

And Most Importantly

The reason I've been doing this for 20+ years is because fantasy football gives me a reason to care about a random 4:05 PM game between two teams I could give half a shit about, celebrate a six-yard reception like someone just won the Super Bowl because they are on my team, and spend Tuesday morning wondering why an NFL coach refuses to give the ball to the obviously superior player sitting on my fantasy roster. Playing fantasy makes the entire football season more enjoyable and interactive. It also gives you tons of bullshit to talk about with friends and family.

Welcome to fantasy football. And if you're playing the Grand Prix: Welcome to the race