A Guide to Fantasy Football for Beginners

It's the most wonderful time of the year! No, the holiday season has not snuck up on you again... although that is closer than you think. Don't forget grandma again. I'm talking about football season. And, more importantly, fantasy football season! What started out as a nerdy hobby for only the most intense sports fans has grown into a global phenomenon and there's no better time to get on board than right now!

Maybe you have friends who have been pestering you to play for years. Maybe you finally want to join that office league. Maybe you're fully ready to dive right in and be the commissioner of a brand new PPR chopped league with IDPs and superflexes. Okay, probably not that last one, but whatever the case, we're here to help you with our beginner's guide to fantasy football.

So, what exactly is fantasy football? Oh yeah, we're backing it up that far. Don't worry, I'm not going to get into the weeds of explaining what football itself is, but we are going to take a broad look at fantasy football.

Fantasy football is a game in which you manage (we'll refer to those participating in fantasy football as managers going forward to avoid confusion) a team consisting of real world NFL players and score points based on their real world performance. Now, there are a lot of variables as to how many points you might be scoring as league settings can be changed in a lot of different ways. More on that later. But, generally speaking, different stats are going to be assigned a point value and you will score points as your players accumulate those stats. For example, let's say Atlanta Falcons running back Bijan Robinson is on your team (great pick, you're off to a strong start). If Bijan runs for 100 yards and scores a touchdown in a game, typically that's 16 points for your team (one point per 10 yards and six points for a touchdown). Again, your league's scoring could be different.

Typically, you are matched up against another manager in your league on a weekly basis. You and your opponent will each have your own lineup of typically 8-10 players. Those players will accumulate points, and at the end of the final game for that week, whichever team has more points, will get the win.

Pretty simple, right? On the surface, fantasy football is a fairly simple game. Now, there are a whole lot of intricacies that we could get into if we were talking about more of an experienced league, but this is the beginner's guide. Let's keep it simple.

Now you may be thinking to yourself, "it sounds like this game is all just about luck." And to that I would say, if I didn't win the championship, I tend to agree with you for that given year. Jokes aside though, luck does make up at least 50% of the game. You could do absolutely everything right and be as prepared as anyone and your star player could tear their ACL in week one and ruin your whole season. As the saying goes though, "luck favors the prepared." And if your season is ruined by that injury, mine may have just gotten a whole lot better because I had that player's backup. So there certainly is a lot of value to doing your research and knowing the game as well.

But with all that being said, we're going to focus on seven general tips on how to enjoy fantasy football if you're new to the game. Starting with...

1 - Have fun

You would be surprised how easy this one is to forget. Some people (myself included) end up taking fantasy football very seriously. But it's important to remember it's a game and you are participating out of your own free will. At least, I hope you are. Is someone making you play fantasy football? If so, you should consider some boundaries.

Fantasy football makes watching football much more interesting. Seriously, you think I want to watch the Dolphins play the Raiders in week one? No, absolutely not. But if Ashton Jeanty is on my fantasy team, suddenly this game is wildly important to me.

So if that sounds like something that interests you, then give fantasy football a shot. But if it doesn't, and you don't think you'll be engaged and simply won't care at all after a couple of weeks, then maybe it's not for you. Trust me, as a commissioner of... six leagues? Seven leagues? I've lost count. I may have a problem. Anyway, as a commissioner of too many leagues, the last thing we want is someone playing who doesn't want to be there.

But if you do want to be there, fantasy football can be an incredibly fun social experience. You may go from not caring about football at all and suddenly find yourself trash talking your coworker about how you beat them last week or talking trades with a friend. It's a great way for a group of people to come together.

So just remember, fantasy football is supposed to be fun.

2 - Your platform makes it easy

First, by platform I mean the website or app that you're playing on. We here at Laughing Place prefer ESPN, but some other popular options include Yahoo, Sleeper or NFL. Whichever platform your league is on, it's going to make things easier than you think.

The most common reason I hear from people who don't want to play fantasy football is that they simply don't know football well enough. And while, yes, that will put you at a bit of a disadvantage to start, it may not be as big a disadvantage as you think.

For the most part, leagues will start with a draft. That is where you will pick your team and really lay the foundation for your season. It's also the most stressful moment for new managers because of the worry of picking the wrong players. You may be heading into your draft ready to pick Tom Brady with your first pick, not knowing that he's been retired for several years. And while that would be a problem, your platform has a fix for you.

Drafting online on one of these platforms, you'll typically find players sorted by their Average Draft Position or ADP. This means the players who get picked early, in all of the drafts on that particular platform, are going to be sorted to the top of the list. For example, the aforementioned Bijan Robinson is typically getting picked either first or second in draft. That's going to make his ADP somewhere between a one or a two and therefore you will find him at the top of the list of players when your draft begins. That list will continue in the order players are typically drafted, so you don't have to worry about picking someone who should never be picked, so long as you keep that list sorted by ADP and choose someone close to the top of that list.

Now, there are some exceptions to this. The first being the fact that you have to fill a roster with several different positions. Early in the draft, you'll find ADP is typically dominated by running backs and wide receivers, with a few quarterbacks and tight ends sprinkled in. Then, later in the draft, the opposite will be true as running backs and wide receivers start to dry up. So if you already have a quarterback on your team, and all the top guys in ADP are quarterbacks, you may want to scroll down to find someone at a position you actually need. Pro tip: stock up on running backs and wide receivers.

The second exception is injured players. You may wonder why an injured player who isn't going to play at all this year can be found higher up in ADP than healthy players. That's simply because the ADP hasn't caught up yet. A good example of this is San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Ricky Pearsall, who is now officially out for the season. In the weeks prior to his injury, Pearsall was being drafted somewhere in the 8th-10th round on average. Now he's obviously lower than that but his ADP might still have him in the 12th round. So when you get to that point in your draft, you'll want to avoid him and pick a player who is actually going to, you know, play. Luckily, an injury like this is usually noted on your platform with something along the lines of a little red "IR" next to the player's name. Avoid those "IR" players.

And one last thing on this one. Some platforms do offer the option to turn off sorting by ADP and players would instead be sorted alphabetically. That's not a league for a beginner and you should check with your commissioner on that first before agreeing to play. Alternatively, some leagues do a completely offline draft in person. While that can be a lot of fun, it also removes that ADP list. Luckily, ESPN has you covered with a whole bunch of downloadable cheat sheets so you can still be ready to dominate.

3 - You don't HAVE to follow ADP

Now, with all of that being said, take tip number two and throw it out the window. No, not really. But you should treat ADP like Pirate law and use it as more of a guideline than a rule. Again, if you need a player at a specific position, go and get a player who plays that position. If you want a player on your favorite team, go and get that player from your favorite team. Remember tip number one, have fun with it. You don't HAVE to stick to the ADP just because that's how other managers are drafting.

It is a bit of a balancing act though. You also don't want to reach too far for a player because then you are losing value. For example, if you use your first round pick to take a player who is typically being drafted in the fourth round, you probably could have waited and gotten that player later. So while you should go and get the players you want to get, be smart about it. Maybe take a more highly-rated player in the first and then use your second round pick to get that player you want.

Of course, you always run the risk of any player you want being picked before you can get them. Which brings us to our next tip...

4 - Know your league

If you spend a lot of time with people, after a while you tend to be able to anticipate their behavior. This applies to fantasy football, especially in the draft. When you've been playing with the same people for a long time you tend to have a better understanding of who is going to pick a star running back in the first round, who is going to be the first to pick a quarterback and who is going to inexplicably pick a kicker in the eighth round for the fifth year in a row. Pro tip: pick your kicker in the last round. Even more pro tip: convince your commissioner to remove kickers from the league.

Use this knowledge of your opponents to your advantage. Even if you're new to the league, odds are you know something about these people. Maybe you know your cousin is a big Bills fan, so he's probably going to pick Josh Allen. Maybe you know a friend of a friend is a big Swiftie and Travis Kelce is not making it back to your next pick. You can use this information to better inform your draft and know just how far you should reach for the players you want.

Speaking of informing your draft, you should always use this next tip before the draft even starts.

5 - Know your league... 's rules

As I've said, there can be a whole lot of variables when it comes to fantasy football. Every platform has their standards, but they all also allow commissioners to customize their leagues. This includes changing the positions in your starting lineup, changing the amount of points players get for specific stats and other potential rule changes.

Before you agree to be in a league, you should ask the commissioner if there are any specifics about the league that you should know. And even after you sign up, I would still recommend checking out the league settings just so you can fully prepare yourself before your draft.

Now you might be wondering how you should adjust to any potential rule changes. Don't worry, I haven't forgotten this is a beginner's guide. And again, your platform will have you covered. In addition to ADP, your draft platform will also have something along the lines of "Projected Points." Each platform will be a little different in this department, but they will all adjust for that league's scoring rules. So if your league has some strange scoring changes, you can always sort by projected points instead of ADP. Personally, I would still take both into account, but that's up to you.

And if the weird change to your league is in the positions in your starting lineup, you'll just have to adjust accordingly. Maybe your league has three starting wide receivers instead of the usual two. If that's the case, wide receivers become a bit more important and you may want to focus more on them early in your draft.

The biggest potential change here would be if your league allows you to start two quarterbacks. Suddenly, quarterbacks become very important because they generally score more and there just aren't as many of them. While NFL teams will play anywhere from two to six running backs, wide receivers or tight ends, they generally only play one quarterback. This means there are only 32 starting quarterbacks in the NFL. If there are 12 teams in your league and everyone can start two quarterbacks and probably also wants a third on their bench, there simply aren't enough to go around. So definitely check to see if you can play two quarterbacks, and if you can, prioritize at least one or two good ones.

6 - It doesn't end at the draft

Draft day might be the most fun part of the fantasy football season, but the game carries all the way through the NFL season. Or, at least, almost all the way through. Pro tip: if your league plays its championship in week 18, get a new league.

After the draft, this becomes a weekly game. Now, how involved you want to be is really up to you. If you're in an all beginners league, you can probably set you lineup on Thursday, check it again Sunday morning and be good to go. But if you really want to be all in, you're making waiver claims each week to scoop up valuable players, you're utilizing IR spots if your league has them to stash injured players and you're probably even doing research on who you should be trying to trade for before they have a huge week.

Again, you don't have to fully buy in and sink all of your time into fantasy football. Like I said, at least 50% of this game is luck. If you just want to go with the flow and let the team you drafted make watching football on Sunday more interesting for you, then go for it. But if you want to surprise everyone in your league by being the new addition who comes in and wins the championship in your first year playing, you're going to want to sink at least some of your time into this weekly game.

Luckily for you...

7 - Your platform still makes it easy

Man, these platforms really do a lot of the work for you. Each platform will provide projected points for every player in the league. So if you're looking to set your lineup, you'll see a number assigned to each player based on how the experts think he will perform that week. Player on a bye week? Zero points. Player going up against the Arizona Cardinals? Probably a higher projection than you typically see for them. The numbers are all there for you to use.

That doesn't just go for your lineup too. Sometimes the situation calls for you to pick up a new player. Maybe that player on their bye week is your starting quarterback and you have no one else on your team. That's when it's time to go to the waiver wire and find a new quarterback for that week. And again, your platform will show you projected points for all players, making it easier for you to choose who to pick up.

In most cases, they will also show you players who are trending, meaning they are being picked up the most across all leagues on that platform. It's kind of like an in-season ADP. This is useful for different situations. Maybe a great player is going to be coming back from an injury soon but isn't playing this week. Their projected points would be zero so you wouldn't see them high on that list, but they could be valuable in the future so it might be worth scooping them up.

How does picking up a new player work, you ask? Well, while this is another topic that could contain a lot of variables, the most common system in fantasy leagues is a rolling waiver list. All this means is your league is set up into a sort of queue. If you're at the front of the queue (waiver priority 1) you will be first in line to pick up a new player. Once you do pick up a new player, you go to the back of the queue and the next person up takes your place. But you know how queues work. By the way, typically your league standings will also show the order of waiver priority.

Waivers typically go through on Wednesday mornings. This makes sense because the final game of the week will (usually) be on Monday night, managers will have Tuesday to decide which players they want to pick up and on Wednesday morning (typically very early in the morning), the platform will run those waivers and players will be added to teams. We can get into waiver strategies and really get into the weeds of how they work in a future article, but for now let's look at the basics. Remember, it's a queue. So if you're 10th in the queue and you put in a waiver claim for a player other people want as well, odds are you're not going to get that player. Keep that in mind, and have a backup plan. Once the waivers run and players have been added to teams, the remaining players typically become free agents and you can pick them up at any time, without losing your spot in that waiver queue.

As I said though, this is another area that could vary in a lot of ways depending on your league. So again, be sure to check those league settings.

Hopefully these seven tips have helped and have you feeling ready to tackle fantasy football (please remember there is no actual tackling in fantasy football). And hopefully I haven't just bombarded you with so much information that you no longer want to tackle fantasy football. When in doubt, just remember tip number one. There's a reason I put it first. Fantasy football is supposed to be fun. If you're feeling overwhelmed by it, don't stress yourself out by playing a game you don't think is fun. Find the right league of like-minded managers and make it whatever you want it to be.

And when you're ready to dive in, ESPN will be right here waiting.