Hello all my fellow crazy fantasy football players.  This time of year as training camps open up, we begin to explore the depth charts.  For us Fantasy Football Fanatics (FFF), we begin to do our mock drafts and dream of a championship run. 

Whether you are a seasoned veteran or just getting into this craze, I will try you provide some weekly thoughts to help you along your path to bragging rights! 

Let’s begin with the real purpose of doing mock drafts.  Many owners fail to do their homework and when the real drafts begin they are not ready for what is about to come.  The goal of mock drafts is to create your player value rankings!  

To determine how you rank players, you must look at the scoring system your league uses.  You have to understand the way points are totaled.  Some leagues are touchdown heavy and others give a point for every catch.  You cannot do your player value rankings if you do not first understand the scoring in your league. 

Now that you’ve got an idea of how to rank your players, the question comes down to what is the importance of mock drafts.

The answer is this homework helps you in two very important ways.  The first is you are prepared for the draft.  You have a game plan and won’t spend agonizing minutes playing games of eenie-meenie-miney-mo while your league sighs in exasperation.   The second, and most important, is you will have a better understanding of a player’s value when it comes to taking him off the board. 

Everyone will have some type of ranking sheet at your draft, but you will have one that works for your scoring system.  The first few rounds will see all the household names flying off the boar, like Quarterbacks: Rodgers, Brady, Brees; Running backs: Foster, Rice, McCoy; Receivers: Calvin Johnson, Fitzgarld, and Welker. 

But what you need to know is leagues are not won or lost (barring a major injury that the Fantasy Gods deliver) in the first three rounds.  It is the middle picks, normally slots 4 – 10, that will lose you your title. 

I recommend having at least 5 mock drafts completed before your league’s actual draft. Time to get started on those then and I’ll get started on mine.

Until next week, when we discuss sleeper picks for the season.