Benchwarmers

By Robby Wellington – Staff Writer

Assuming that you’ve done your homework and ranked your players at their respective positions, drafting in fantasy football is a pretty simple process. All you have to do is pick the top guy whose name hasn’t yet been crossed out. However, once the top talent is off the board, the big question is how should you go about filling out the all-important bench spots. Below is a brief guide.

(Note: All comments below are based on 15 player team with a starting roster of 1 QB, 2 RBs, 2 WRs, 1RB/WR, 1 TE, 1 K, 1 Def and 6 bench spots).

First off, anyone carrying more than one kicker really should not be allowed in your league. If you notice any such team, apply the weakest gazelle principle and go after them with countless 3-for-1 trades until you’ve stripped them of their top talent. And unless you’re in a league that rewards defenses heavily, you can probably get away with only having one defense. In fact, you can probably treat defense like a kicker, draft one late, and rotate your starter on a weekly basis based on which free agent has the best matchup.

Unless you see a quality guy really slip, it’s probably best to stick to one tight end as well. The position is deeper than ever this year, and you can probably wait until the end of your draft to snag a solid guy.

Wide receivers and running backs on your bench depend quite a bit on whether your league supports the 3 WR format or the flex. With a flex, you probably don’t want any more than two wide receivers riding pine. With your bench, it’s all about upside, which lower level running backs invariably have more of than wide receivers. A running back with a decent chance at taking over a cushy starting job possesses more value than a wide receiver who you know is good for 800 yards and five touchdowns, especially when there’s a guy on waivers good for 750 and four.

One of the great fallacies of fantasy football is that it is important to draft a starting quarterback and then wait a handful of rounds to draft his backup. Quarterback is the easiest position to predict output based on opponent (more on this next week), and therefore, it is always a prudent play to pick up two to three mid level guys and start whoever has the cushiest matchup. The mix-and-match starting strategy should surpass all but the top couple of quarterbacks’ season totals. It’s also important to note that the shallower a league’s bench, the more value Peyton Manning and Tom Brady have, as they are probably the only two safe plug-and-play quarterbacks available this year.

So, the ideal bench in the above format should have 2-3 running backs, 2 wide receivers and 1-2 quarterbacks. The late rounds are still important, so draft wisely.