Every week millions of fans watch a sporting event for various reasons. Some enjoy the atmosphere. Others love the game itself. While many, like myself, just like sports in general. For those who love watching games of any kind, we cannot get enough, and that’s why we turn to fantasy sports. Each year as fall comes around 32 NFL teams prepare for their season, and at the same time millions of fans prepare to draft their fantasy football teams. 

Getting Started

Fans create leagues of typically 10 or 12 friends and draft NFL players to fill out their team. Each team is made up of a Quarterback, 2 Running Backs, 2 Wide Receivers, a Flex, a Tight End, a Defense, a Kicker and 7 bench spots. Once teams are drafted the league creates a schedule and the season gets underway. 

During the season points are acquired for each fantasy team based on their players performance that week. Every week of the season two teams will go head to head and whichever 

scores more points is deemed the winner. As the NFL season comes to a close, the fantasy playoffs begin. In the final weeks of the season, the teams with the most head to head wins will go into a playoff bracket where finally, after week 16 a champion will be crowned. So how can you win a fantasy football league? I’ll give you everything you need to know to get started so you can beat your friends and have fun doing it. 

Drafting A Team 

When drafting a player, a few things should be considered. First of all, players should be drafted based on their talent. It shouldn’t come as a shock that the most talented players should be drafted first. Next, players should be drafted upon position. It is important to draft a balanced team as you have to fill out each of your starting spots each week. After that it is important to consider the players current team. As all players rely on their teammates to help them produce, it is always better to draft players who are on good teams. While some people are able to produce points regardless of their team (take Saquon Barkley for example) the average player cannot and so their situation is important. 

Setting Your Lineups

Each week you will be faced with an important decision on which players to play. Since each team has only 9 starting spots, many players will have to be left on the bench every week. This leaves us with the decision of who we think will score the most points. When deciding who to play a good place to start is projections. These are computer guesses as to how much each player will score. However, since these are not entirely accurate we still have to do some guessing of our own. So the next place to look is at who your players are playing against. If a player is going against a bad team, he is more likely to score more points than if they were playing a very good team. For example, if one of your players is playing against the bears it may be a good idea to start someone else since their defense is the best in the league. 

Making Trades

Trading with other teams in the league is personally my favorite thing to do. While it is not required, all of the best teams will at least make a trade here or there to try to get a little bit better. When making trades you should consider a few things. First of all you should know what the market is. Which players do you have that your opponents will want. While yes it does suck to have to give up players, nobody is going to make a trade without getting something they want in return. Now that you have decided who you can trade away, it is important to choose good players to trade for. When choosing a player to trade for you should pick those who you think will get better throughout the season. If you can find players for cheap who you think will get better, this is a great way to win leagues. 

Free Agency

The last but arguably the most important part of fantasy football is free agency. Since there are only 17 spots on a team, many players will not be on a team and so they will be considered “Free Agents.” These players may be picked up by anyone each week from Wednesday to Sunday. When adding players in free agency you have to see what position your team needs as well as which players are the most talented. Each week we have the chance to watch players perform and see which ones did the best and hopefully we can be the first to pick them in free agency. 

Have Fun

Now you know how to draft a team, set your lineups, make trades with others and add players in free agency, all you need to do is remember to have fun. Some weeks you will win and some you will lose, just try to have fun throughout the season and your fantasy football experience should be a great one.