Why do people have their Fantasy Football draft so early in the summer?

Question

Most people on here seem to have drafted already for this year! This seems kinda stupid to me...a lot can happen in the coming weeks. My League's draft isn't until the end of August. When is your League's draft, and how early/late do you think a League should draft?

Answer 1

My free leagues (i.e. Yahoo) I draft in mid to late August. My pay league, we draft the Sunday before week 1. I totally agree that it is a huge risk to draft right now as there are always some cuts that shock everyone or a pre-season injury that could destroy your draft! The best draft time is as close to the start of the season that you can get.

Answer 2

When I draft early its for basically two reasons: 1) Because I just want to start looking at NFL players rather than MLB players and 2) To gauge where certain players go for my better leagues.

I have 3 or 4 different sign in names. For the teams I am basically doing a gauge for I put them under my last 2 names. Then after I find leagues I like or have keepers in, they go under my 2 main names. I like to gauge on how players will get drafted so I usually do 2 live drafts right when fantasy football opens, another 2 during the mid-way point before season starts, and the last 2 a couple weeks before the season begins.

Answer 3

Of course it's never too early to speculate! You got it, go with CJ. Charles is a great running back, but he's going to lose goal line carries to new Chiefs RB Peyton Hills. Plus the Chiefs passing game is pretty weak, so teams can focus on stopping the run and scoring opportunities will be limited. Vick could have a big year, but drafting a solid QB late should be pretty easy this year. Unless you play in a 2 QB league, or you have a scoring systems that's favorable to QBs, then wait on one this year. Guys like Manning x2, Rivers, and Romo are going in the fifth round of a lot of drafts, so I'd happily grab solid WRs and RBs in the first few rounds and wait for one of those guys at QB. I know Vick is tired about hearing about injuries, but c'mon man, considering the way he plays he's probably going to get hurt for at least a few games. Like you said too, CJ seems ready to go this year.

Answer 4

Mid August at the very earliest. Ideally, drafting should be done from late August to early September. Just to make sure you don't draft someone who goes on IR, or perhaps gets cut. You might even see a surprise player emerge during preseason. My two cents.

Answer 5

Join smaller leagues, better chance of getting the players you want.

Plus, some people have multiple teams. See what the difference would be between their early and late draft teams.

Answer 6

I agree with you. I think since Fantasy Football is so big now they can start early and there will still be several leagues still available. I usually wait until the last preseason game to start.

Answer 7

I prefer the later draft as well, I would hate to draft a stud, just to see him go down in training camp for the season. Just an opinion.

Answer 8

We have a keeper league, and hold our annual draft at the end of August. I, too, think it's stupid to hold it before exhibition games have been played, especially given the number of injuries that happen in preseason.

Answer 9

My league drafts early september. I think drafting late is better because it gives training camp, its injuries, and its depth chart changes to occur.

Answer 10

Late August...I think that it should be as close to kick off as possible. I don't want to draft a guy only to see him get hurt in training camp.