Introduction

In 1999, I was exactly where you may be right now. I decided to give the whole “fantasy football” thing a try, even though I had no idea how to play.

Back then, the online version of the game was just starting to take off, and Yahoo! had just begun offering its free league services. I did a bit of research and talked to a few buddies about strategy, but I mainly learned the game through trial and error(s). I had no definitive resource guide to help me get off to a good start in my fantasy football career.

Things have changed today. Since 2007, Fantasy Football For Dummies has put helpful guidance and friendly advice right at your fingertips — the keys to a successful fantasy season, which I didn’t have when I began to play the game. This resource can make your fantasy football season less frustrating. You can avoid many mistakes and start racking up victories by knowing the basics of the game, the popular strategies for winning, and the etiquette of league play.

Also, when I began playing, I knew very little about the available online resources. I just bought the first fantasy magazine I saw and went from there (and yes, printed magazines still exist). This book also includes an overview of major fantasy football providers and expert websites that offer tools and advice you can turn to when looking to improve your team.

Now with this second edition, I’ve refined strategies and updated the facts to match today’s NFL and fantasy rule sets, including FLEX and PPR. I also cover the biggest boom in fantasy football since the Internet: Daily Fantasy Football. In an all new Part 4 of this book, I deep dive into DraftKings, FanDuel and all things DFS involving online prize money: It’s fast paced, exciting and you can bet big to win big, but play at your own risk!

Fantasy football was built to mirror the best parts of pro football and it does just that. Fantasy football is as exciting and fun as it is frustrating and unpredictable. Hope for the best and expect the worst!

About This Book

Fantasy Football For Dummies gives you the foundational information you need to play fantasy football. This book is a unique guide because it offers in-depth lessons on how to play the game and serves as a reference for where to play and where to get great expert advice. Unlike most fantasy websites and magazines, which offer advice with the assumption that you’re already a fantasy addict, this book serves the beginning fantasy player along with plenty of advice sprinkled throughout for more advanced players. You can open this book, scan the table of contents or index to find a subject that interests you, and flip to those pages to improve certain parts of your fantasy game or read from beginning to end to get an understanding of the full spectrum of the fantasy football world.

Conventions Used in This Book

I provide the following basic conventions to help you navigate your way through the concepts and discussions in this book:

• I italicize all new terms and follow them with easy-to-understand definitions.
• I boldface all keywords in bulleted lists and all steps in numbered lists.

• I use monofont to highlight all websites and email addresses to set them apart from the normal text.

  Most of the companies that provide fantasy football games and content have websites of the same name. For example, you can find Rotowire at www.rotowire.com. If some web addresses break across two lines of text, rest assured that I didn’t put in any extra characters (such as hyphens) to indicate the breaks. So, when using a web address that spans two lines of text, type in exactly what you see, pretending as though the line break doesn’t exist. For the fantasy websites, I also capitalize all the links to help you easily identify them.

• Although you can choose to play fantasy football on a wide array of web providers, to simplify matters throughout this book I use the default settings for Yahoo!. No matter what provider you choose, make sure you double-check the league settings before you start to play.

Furthermore, because fantasy football is a game based on the National Football League (NFL), it can feature some confusing terminology. For example, each person who plays fantasy football is a player in the fantasy game, and they depend on the players in the NFL game. See what I mean? Therefore, when I refer to coaches, I mean you, the fantasy participant — unless I specifically say “NFL coach.” Whenever I say player, I’m referring to the NFL players who make up your fantasy league.

Finally, fantasy sites and experts use a lot of positional shorthand based on NFL depth charts, and this book is no different. I call the starting running back the RB1, and his backups are called RB2 and RB3. You can apply the same shorthand when you’re the king of your own team’s depth chart. Here are the positional abbreviations to look for:

• QB = Quarterback
• RB = Running back
• WR = Wide receiver
• TE = Tight end
• K = Kicker
• DEF = Team defense
• D/ST = Defense/Special teams

What You’re Not to Read

Throughout the book, there might be personal asides or historical references to the crazy game we call fantasy football. These anecdotes, which I often place in sidebars, are not essential reading in order to grasp fantasy football.

Foolish Assumptions

When writing this book, I made a couple of assumptions about you, my dear reader. Here are my two main assumptions:

• You’re a football fan. I don’t explain how offenses can get a first down or when the forward pass was invented. You know the pro league, and you know many of the NFL stars by name. Understanding the game helps you evaluate talent and choose quality players during the fantasy draft process and during the season. It’s possible to stick only to expert advice and cheat sheets to play fantasy football, but I don’t advise it. For a more in-depth look at the game and rules of football, check out Football For Dummies, 6th Edition, by Howie Long and John Czarnecki (Wiley).
• You own (or have regular access to) a computer or a smartphone and you’re not afraid to use it. Almost all fantasy leagues are run exclusively online, from the drafting process to weekly team management. I assume that you can surf the web, download an app and click on links. Being able to navigate the Internet quickly and effectively is part of the game.

How This Book Is Organized

Fantasy Football For Dummies explains the game to you from start (the draft) to finish (the championship). However, like the NFL, the fantasy season is never truly over. You can use the research information to scout players and potential sleepers year-round. This book is organized so that you can jump in anywhere, depending on your experience level and the status of your season and league.

Part 1: The Xs and Os of Fantasy Football: Just the Basics, Please

Part 1 provides readers with an overview of the game. You find out how it works, how different fantasy leagues are set up and run, why scoring is so important in fantasy football, and how you can join or create a league that’s right for you. I also explain how you can prepare for the most fun day on the fantasy calendar: the all-important fantasy league draft.

Part 2: Advanced Scouting and Drafting Secrets

Researching the NFL players and picking the best possible talent for your fantasy team is a very important aspect of fantasy football. This part provides guidelines for you to use when you try to separate the wheat from the chaff at the different roster positions. Then when you’re ready for draft day, this part explains important draft strategies to help you assemble your team.

Part 3: Let the Games Begin: In-Season Strategy Guide

After you assemble your dream team in the draft (or endure a nightmare brought on by another coach always selecting your coveted players), you need to know how to guide your team to glory during the fantasy season. This part walks you through your many in-season management duties and breaks down the most common issues you’ll face and decisions you’ll have to make. If you draft well and you make some shrewd moves during the season, your team may qualify for your league’s playoffs, and you may even win your league championship! The fantasy postseason is its own beast, so I end this part by explaining the rules and strategies for enjoying postseason success.

Part 4: Daily Fantasy Football – A New Draft Every Week

Fantasy football can be fun, but what happens when you aren’t interested in playing through a whole season? Is there a way to apply your fantasy football drafting skills for one week, or even just one game? Yes. It’s called Daily Fantasy Football. And it’s taking the NFL and fantasy sports by storm.

Part 4 focuses on introducing you to this exciting recent development in fantasy sports, by exploring the basics of finding a DFS provider, setting up an account, and then getting started entering tournaments and competitions. Learn the difference between popular contest types, from 50/50s to H2Hs to larger Guaranteed Prize Pool tournaments worth hundreds...