Spring can be a depressing time for football fans. 31 teams fell short of their ultimate goal. That means the Super Bowl probably wasn’t much fun for you unless you’re a fan of the New England Patriots. And based on the ratings, most people are not Patriots fans.
But the offseason also provides a few opportunities. You shouldn’t just sit around and lick your wounds as you tell yourself that next year will be different, not when you can instead start getting ready for the upcoming fantasy football season. Sure, your league may not draft until late August or early September, but that doesn’t mean you can’t make preparations now. Here’s some ways to start getting ready for fantasy football in the spring.
Follow the draft
While your league’s draft is important, there’s an even more important one coming before that. The NFL’s rookie draft is held in Nashville at the end of April. There are already a ton of mock drafts, but you’re going to need more than that. You need to know everything you can about your team’s needs, for starters.
Let’s say your team has needs at three key positions: running back, guard, and kicker. You need to know everything there is to possibly know about the top pro prospects at each position. You need to know what the chances are that your team will take someone.
A lot of teams play mind games with each other in the spring, They’ll talk players up or down in hopes that they’ll convince other teams to either take a chance on a guy or not take a chance on a guy. It’s hard to know what to believe sometimes.
But some sources are more trustworthy than others. A 2019 fantasy football draft kit can give you all the tools you need to prepare for April’s draft, but it can also do a lot more than that. The right draft kit gives you player profiles so you can figure out which players are underrated and which ones are past their prime. It also gives you expert advice from people who know what they’re talking about.
Talk to your leaguemates
While a draft kit can help ensure that you have the best fantasy football season ever, at some point, you should also loop your leaguemates into the conversation. After all, the league wouldn’t work without all of you coming together and figuring things out.
It’s a good idea to start by debriefing each other on the highs and lows of last year’s season. Talk about how the draft process went. There are multiple ways to pick your players, and it may be time to make a change regarding the draft rules and draft order. Picking numbers out of a hat is the obvious way, but it can also be a little too simple and easy. For instance, maybe you can settle the draft order through an old-fashioned Madden NFL 19 tournament.
Spring is also a fine time to discuss what the winners and losers get. A lot of leagues decide they don’t want to bring money into it. They’d rather it be about winning for the sake of winning. That’s a noble idea, but you can up the stakes without breaking the bank.
Let’s go back to the Patriots. They were America’s most-hated NFL team in 2018 — unless your league is based in Massachusetts or Connecticut, then chances are that your league also dislikes the Patriots. So it might be appropriate to make the person who finishes last wear a Tom Brady jersey every day for a week. But make sure it’s all in good fun, though. You can lightly embarrass the league’s biggest loser without subjecting them to extensive public humiliation.
