Fantasy: 7 deadly sins you must avoid committing in your draft

The NFL season kicks off next Thursday, which means the majority of fantasy football leagues will hold their drafts this weekend. It also means the majority of fantasy leagues will have at least one owner embarrass themselves by making one of the mistakes outlined below.

Don't let it be you.

1. Don't go into your draft without a firm plan

You don't have to spend weeks or days prepping for your draft, but set aside a few hours to formulate a plan of attack. Look at expert rankings (like the updated ones theScore's own Justin Boone posted) and learn where players are expected to go off the board. Look at rankings from a few different sources (like Yahoo! and ESPN) and try to identify players who are ranked too high or too low. 

Then, make a list of 150 or 200 players ranked in the order you value them and print it off (or have it available on your phone). Use this to guide you in the draft.

If you already know what pick you have in the draft, make a plan for how you plan to approach the first few rounds. Do some mock drafts to get a feel for how things are likely to shake out.

2. Don't be a homer

It's fun when the players you own in fantasy are the same as the players you root for on your real-life team of choice, but the best fantasy owners know that hard decisions have to be made when the draft begins. That can mean gritting your teeth and drafting Aaron Rodgers even when you're a die-hard Chicago Bears fan. More importantly, it means understanding the importance of not overdrafting Russell Wilson even when you're a 12th Man 'til you die.

3. Don't overvalue rookies (or undervalue veterans)

Everyone loves a shiny new toy, but rookies are rarely worth the price in standard leagues (keeper and dynasty leagues are a different story). theScore's Blake Murphy wrote an excellent piece on this in which he analyzed how frequently rookies fail to live up to their draft status. The TL;DR version is that your chance of hitting on a superstar rookie like Eddie Lacy is so small that you're probably better off spending your draft picks elsewhere. 

Perhaps the best strategy for drafting rookies is to avoid taking the first few off the board and instead wait to grab one or two who fall to you in the late rounds. If they hit, great. If not, they're easy to drop for a waiver wire claim early in the season.

Conversely, veteran players are typically undervalued in fantasy leagues. It's hard to get excited about players like Frank Gore and Fred Jackson because they've been around so long and have never really been superstars. Yet all they do is produce strong fantasy numbers year after year, and owners keep passing them over for rookies and possible breakouts (many of whom never break out).

4. Don't over-prioritize sleepers

Sleepers are crucial in fantasy football only because of the potential production-to-cost ratio they offer. But when you take a popular sleeper candidate a round or two earlier than his average draft position he stops being a value pick and becomes a regular pick or, worse, a reach. Don't do it.

Identify a list of 10 or so sleepers to target in your draft and then wait until late in your draft to take a few of them. If they start going off the board early, keep waiting. Aim to take sleepers 8-10 on your list, not 1-3. 

Remember: if your leaguemates begin overdrafting sleepers, the board flips and the reliable/boring veterans become the true sleepers. Snatch them up for pennies on the dollar.

5. Don't draft backups you don't need

Unless your plan at quarterback is to wait until late in the draft and take two to use in a QB-by-committee strategy, you don't need to bother drafting a backup quarterback. Use that roster spot to take a high-upside player at running back or wide receiver.

Likewise, you don't need to draft a backup tight end. There are always decent tight ends available on the waiver wire since most fantasy leagues only require you start one of them.

And don't you dare draft a backup kicker.

6. Don't draft a kicker until the last round (if at all)

If you draft a kicker before your last pick, you need to reevaluate your understanding of fantasy football's fundamentals. Kickers are interchangeable for the most part, and it's always easy to find a decent one on the waiver wire.

Using a mid-round pick to lock up a consensus top kicker like Stephen Gostkowski or Mason Crosby is never worth missing out on adding depth at running back or wide receiver.

Savvy drafters often won't even bother taking a kicker and instead choose to use their last pick on a "lottery ticket" at quarterback, running back, or wide receiver. Maybe an injury will occur and your lottery ticket will pay off before Week 1. If not, you can always drop him and add a kicker on Sunday morning.

7. Don't autodraft (even the late rounds)

Do you really want to put the success of your fantasy team in the virtual hands of a computer? Avoid autodrafting at all costs. 

Life gets in the way sometimes, and you can't always be at your computer, printed cheatsheet and beer in hand, for your draft. But there's never an excuse for not drafting live. Download your league manager's app to your smartphone (do it now, not after the draft starts) and discretely make your picks regardless of whether you're in church, class, or Congress. No excuses.

And don't bail after you draft your starters and let the computer fill out your roster. Do you want a backup kicker? Because that's how you get a backup kicker.