As we have discussed in the two companion articles for this, you can greatly aid your cause by understanding your league's scoring rules (Analyze Your League with LAG) and by tiering the players on your cheatsheet (Blood, Sweat and Tiers). This article will refer to concepts and findings in those two articles.

What you need in your draft is not just an ability to recognize the best available player, but to be able to understand what the best available player truly is for your team. The reality in fantasy football drafts is that you are trying to build your team while eleven or so other teams are doing the same thing. You are also not trying to draft, in order, the highest scoring player or you would end up with all quarterbacks and kickers. You are building a team of players from which you will be starting some select number of players per position each week. The highest scoring bench gets you nothing, the highest scoring set of starters gets you a championship.

Kudos on all your preparatory work, but you still have to draft. And the big factor here is that you have to go in some order. Almost all drafts use serpentine order meaning you get the reverse slot every other round. Pick #1 becomes pick #12 and then back to #1 and so on. Pick #6 becomes pick #7 the next round and then back to pick #6 in the next and so on.

Those draft picks ARE NOT for picking players that score a lot of points..

Those draft picks ARE for building your team by choosing the right mixture of players so your TEAM can score a lot of points. Make that the most points. Of anyone. Like better than when you go bowling.

Your Draft Slot

What draft slot you have is critical because it controls what players are available to you and how you will be able to build the optimal team considering only those guys still available at your draft slot. You may think that Terrell Owens, Jeremy Shockey or LaDainian Tomlinson will have monster years in 2003. It really does not matter if you never had a chance to draft them. The draft is about getting the best value out of what is available and building a team - not just picking players. Your draft slot is your final tool to use. It both limits and enables your team.

There is no bad draft slot and there is no good one either. Everyone loves the earlier picks since they allow the best access to superlative players but there is a price to pay for that in waiting so long for your next pick. Picking last in the first round may seem like a disadvantage since you have the 12th best player. By the same token, you will have two of the best 13 players. Any slot can win, any slot can lose. It is all about how you approach your picks in a plan to build a team and how well the individual players contribute to your team.

For the rest of this article, we will be considering the most common scoring scenario where touchdowns are all six points except passing scores are three. All yardage is divided by ten except passing yardage which is divided by twenty. Since defenses and kickers normally fall more deeply in drafts (and appropriately), we will not discuss those because we will be looking at your first picks based upon your draft slot. We will also consider a twelve team league that starts QB, 2 RB, 3 WR and a TE.

The first picks are critical since they build the nucleus of your team and in almost all championship teams, at least four of them end up as major contributors.

The reality of pick analysis is that it changes for each draft pick because after the first selection, the rest of the picks are controlled by what the others have left you. There is an obvious and significant difference with what you can do with the #12 and #13 picks, as opposed to what you can get with the #1 and #24 picks. Knowing in advance the realities of your draft slot will allow you to build the best team and using tiers, recognize where undervalued players are still left on the board. You have to enter into the draft with a plan. It may change, but at least you have a starting point with flexibility.

Enough of the text - we're better served by examining this year's crops of fantasy players as they match up to the draft slots and building a team considering the starters. Let's take a look at how we can select players based on draft position with a plan on how we can build a team. I'll be using the most current Huddle rankings for this demonstration but will not be updating it every time we change our rankings during this month. This is to give you a look at the thought process behind putting together positional value, tiering, understanding what other drafts have indicated this season and draft slot management.

First - here is what I have to work with based on my research and analysis considering the first round:

Running backs are going faster than a bag of french fries on the way back to the George Foreman's house. Since I know that runningbacks are scoring higher than any other position except quarterback (and even higher than them in some cases) I am certain the first seven picks will clear out my top tier of Tomlinson, Williams, Portis, Holmes, Faulk, Alexander and McAllister. The only question is the order they go. If any other player is taken in the first seven selections, I see the #8 pick getting a present.

This season is a little different since the tier one is not the standard three players. While I do consider Tomlinson, Portis and Williams as definitely less risk with good production than the other four, there is no reason to break this tier down since it should be the first seven picks in the draft anyway.

I have four backs in my second tier that would be nice to match up with a first tier back for a powerful backfield. I have six more backs in my third tier which are decent backs with some upside but likely a bit more risk. That makes 17 running backs that I would really like to have on my team and with 24 picks in the first two rounds, I pretty much expect that all will be gone by the third round. If not, they will be snapped up quickly in the third. The next tier is 13 backs deep and are players that I might be willing to settle for as my RB2 as long as I can get a RB1 and a top WR or QB. If I make my first two picks be from tier 2 and tier 3 for RBs, I have immediately set myself up for an average season, have no difference makers and will always behind the curve taken top positional players.

Quarterbacks are being taken later this season than any I recall in the past decade. I picked up Culpepper in the third round in one draft. I have regularly seen NO quarterback taken until the second half of the second round. No way I would take a quarterback in the first round this season and with the perceived depth I see in them, I'll probably wait until at least half a dozen are gone and maybe longer. I know from my tiers that there are a top five for quarterbacks, and while they will score well, the next seven quarterbacks will do pretty well and I can always get value later with a QB if I see better picks for WR, RB or TE.

Wide Receivers are actually being taken earlier than quarterbacks in most drafts, at least the top three which mirrors my first tier. Harrison, Owens and Moss - what's not to like? All three have shown great productivity and consistency over a long period of time in a position that is normally neither. I want those players pretty bad actually, since I know my running back tiers in advance, I can see what I leave myself with if I take on in the first or second round. The position does not score as well as RB or QB, but top guys with consistency are a major benefit.

Knowing this, here is how I would draft the first round by position and what the implications and plan would be:

For purposes of how I would conduct round two and a look down the road for each draft slot, let's complete one more round as I would see it and plan it. This is based on if the first round actually went as described above.

This has shown not the way your draft will go, but the way that different draft slots can work out, knowing what the scoring scenario does to positions, what other drafts are like this summer and using tiers to keep me alert to positional depth in an easy manner. Draft slot management is critical in those first four or five picks since teams will follow positional plans as they try to build a set of starters. After that - it's mostly about getting sleepers and strategic picks considering bye weeks, the NFL teams already on your roster (avoiding loading up on, say, ARZ players) and respecting the relative scoring values of TE, PK and DEF in your league.

Before we end, let's take a general overview of ways to build your team positionally and what it most likely would mean to your team. I am only considering the first picks as a RB or WR because this season I see no reason to take a QB in the first round. Remember - different tactics take on different results depending on the draft slot used.

So after all of this, I am here to say that the above is well thought out and in no way applies 1:1 to your draft. But is does give reason to what your plans are in the draft and a basis for building a team - not just picking players.

This is the application of the previous concepts discussed in the other articles Analyzing Your League where you can determine the value of positions in your scoring rules and how they play out in your particular league. Only when you understand the effects of the scoring in your league can you understand player value. Then all those cheatsheets come to life as you understand how it all comes together to build an optimal team.

Once you know your players and their relative importance between positions, you can use tiering to create a roadmap during your draft as discussed in the article Blood, Sweat and Tiers . This helps you to prepare in advance what you want to accomplish and allows you to make faster decisions when the draft does not happen as you planned or when that player you loved is snapped up in the pick before you. Just keep going in the right direction knowing the tiers you have still available.

Above all - have some fun in your draft! If you really want a player - take him early. There is nothing as fun as landing your sleeper and being correct. No draft will happen like you think and that is what makes it so entertaining. Just prepare for your draft, be armed with a plan, understand positional values and tiers and then dance through your draft like Fred Astaire while all the other Gingers try to keep up. In the end, it all comes down to what U.T. Coach Darrel Royal once said:

"Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity"

Are you ready for some football?