Many of you have requested and received the first iteration of my Preseason Top 250 Rankings. In a couple of weeks--after the first round of preseason games, when final position battles start to resolve themselves--I'll make this list public, and will continue to update it every day or two until Week 1. If you want to get a sneak peek, send me a message.
Next week I'll start running through my annual "bold predictions," except this time instead of limiting it to 10, my goal is to broadcast 50 of 'em--guys who will either severely underperform or overperform expectations. The plan is to highlight five each day, which hopefully will make you a little more empowered heading into your drafts. Last year I hit six out of 10; the year before, eight out of 10.
Speaking of drafting, one strategy that's helped me every year is to identify three incredibly undervalued targets at each position. For example, this year my undervalued QBs are Matthew Stafford, Jay Cutler, and my favorite, Andy Dalton. Cutler and Dalton won't be drafted in most 1-QB, 12-team leagues. But as I've discussed earlier this summer, they should be.
The purpose of targeting undervalued guys is that every draft has the potential to be stressful. And when stressed, people make bad decisions.
In a league last year vs. guys from ESPN, CBS Sports, Yahoo! Sports, etc., I came prepared, but I still choked in the 10th round when I bypassed a huge underrated RB target, Jeremy Hill, for Seattle's third-string RB Christine Michael (I was hoping Michael would step in if Lynch got hurt--what a mistake). I paid for that error the rest of the season. My two primary RB targets--Mark Ingram and Ahmad Bradshaw, who I snagged in the latter half of the draft--both were producing at RB1 levels before getting hurt.
This confluence of events meant I was exposed at RB by midseason, and although I made the playoffs, I lacked the RB firepower to compete for a title (yes, Hill could have won it for me).
So keeping these underrated guys in our back pocket means we don't have to sweat it when the guy right before us takes the best WR available. We've still got a few prime bargains to draft when the time is right.
Next week I'll start running through my annual "bold predictions," except this time instead of limiting it to 10, my goal is to broadcast 50 of 'em--guys who will either severely underperform or overperform expectations. The plan is to highlight five each day, which hopefully will make you a little more empowered heading into your drafts. Last year I hit six out of 10; the year before, eight out of 10.
Speaking of drafting, one strategy that's helped me every year is to identify three incredibly undervalued targets at each position. For example, this year my undervalued QBs are Matthew Stafford, Jay Cutler, and my favorite, Andy Dalton. Cutler and Dalton won't be drafted in most 1-QB, 12-team leagues. But as I've discussed earlier this summer, they should be.
The purpose of targeting undervalued guys is that every draft has the potential to be stressful. And when stressed, people make bad decisions.
In a league last year vs. guys from ESPN, CBS Sports, Yahoo! Sports, etc., I came prepared, but I still choked in the 10th round when I bypassed a huge underrated RB target, Jeremy Hill, for Seattle's third-string RB Christine Michael (I was hoping Michael would step in if Lynch got hurt--what a mistake). I paid for that error the rest of the season. My two primary RB targets--Mark Ingram and Ahmad Bradshaw, who I snagged in the latter half of the draft--both were producing at RB1 levels before getting hurt.
This confluence of events meant I was exposed at RB by midseason, and although I made the playoffs, I lacked the RB firepower to compete for a title (yes, Hill could have won it for me).
So keeping these underrated guys in our back pocket means we don't have to sweat it when the guy right before us takes the best WR available. We've still got a few prime bargains to draft when the time is right.