Fantasy Football Draft Terms
The NFL Draft will be a lot like your fantasy football draft. https://t.co/fMWXNhsuQO
— Matt Graves (@LWOSGraves) April 6, 2020
ADP (Average Draft Position)
The overall selection of a player will be taken on average in a draft based on where a player is commonly drafted in fantasy leagues.
Auto Pick Draft
An auto pick draft occurs online, but your league provider drafts each team for the league.
Bench
The bench consists of the reserve players on your roster that are not in your starting lineup.
Boom-or-Bust
The Boom-or-Bust designation describes players that typically have either very successful or extremely unproductive weeks.
Breakouts
Breakout players are average players but are expected to step up their game and produce much better numbers.
Busts
A bust is a player who has high expectations but does not live up to those expectations. The most common occurrence of a bust is a player coming off a career year in which he will not be able to duplicate.
Cheat Sheet
A pre-ranked list of players overall and by position. I highly recommend that you create or find a cheat sheet before your league’s draft, so you have an easier reference before upcoming risks. As players are drafted, you cross off their name, and this gives you a clear definition of which players are still available.
Ceiling
The ceiling is the best possible outcome for a particular statistic. A player’s ceiling is the opposite of their floor.
Collusion
In fantasy football, collusion refers to two or more league owners working together to unfairly create an advantage.
Commissioner
The Roger Goodell of your fantasy football league. This person runs the league without bias and justly. More than likely, the Commissioner initiated the league, created its rules and bylaws, and holds all of the league’s funds.
Consistency
Consistency displays the extent to which a player produces fantasy points within a specific range.
Draft
The best time of the year. Draft season. You and your league mates get together in person or online to select players that you will have on your team this season.
Draft Board
A draft board is a printed grid that tracks draft selections during the fantasy football draft.
Draft Guide
A draft guide is a fantasy preview publication, or available online that covers all pertinent NFL players who might be drafted in fantasy football drafts. This guide also includes strategies, cheat sheets, etc.
Drop
A drop consists of “waiving” a player off your roster to the free-agent pool while adding or claiming a player to add to the owner’s roster.
Elite
The elite are the highest-ranked players at their positions.
Floor
The floor represents the lowest possible outcome that a fantasy owner could reasonably expect for a player. The floor is the opposite of the ceiling.
Handcuffing
Handcuffing refers to a player that is sought-after because they are the backup to a high-value player, almost always a backup running back.
Keeper
A keeper is a player(s) that you keep on your roster from year-to-year.
League Settings
The league settings are the rules and stat modifiers that determine fantasy point values. Understanding your league settings allow you to correctly value players. Your draft strategy revolves around the league settings.
Linear Draft
A linear draft is drafting where draft pick selection follows the same order in each round, similar to how the NFL Draft is orchestrated.
Mock Drafts
A tool that fantasy owners utilize so they can see where players were drafted and then plan accordingly for their upcoming draft. Check out my favorite at FantasyPros.
Offline Draft
In the most old-fashioned and cherished manner to draft, all of the team owners in the fantasy football league decide on a time and place to meet and select their players.
Online Draft
The online draft is the most popular and the easiest way to gather your league mates to draft players. Each team owner logs into the fantasy league site provider, such as ESPN, Yahoo, CBS Sports, Sleeper, or MFL, at a specified draft time and date and utilizes the draft interface to select available players.
Owner
An owner is another name for a fantasy football league member who is in charge of a fantasy football franchise in your league.
Player Projections
Player Projections are rankings of players based upon their predicted stats for their upcoming game(s) or season. ESPN does an excellent job of listing their projections in comparison to last year’s stats and other position players.
Reach
A reach occurs when fantasy owners select a player well above their ADP or who doesn’t provide a great value compared to his fantasy production.
Rookie Draft
A draft that typically takes place in dynasty leagues. The rookie draft consists of incoming rookies to add to each fantasy football roster usually completed after the NFL draft takes place.
Sleeper
A sleeper is an under the radar player who’s ready to awaken and eclipse his draft value.
Snake Draft
Each member of the league takes turns drafting players from first to last. However, the order is then reversed in the following round. For example, the team with the first pick will select first in the odd rounds, but they will select last in the even rounds. A snake draft is also referred to as a serpentine draft.
Stud
A top-rated fantasy starter that fantasy owners can depend on for production weekly, regardless of matchups.
Taxi Squad
A taxi squad in fantasy football enables fantasy owners to hold on to the talent from rookie drafts on a roster. Typically, a player must have two or fewer years of NFL experience to be eligible. The taxi squad is essentially your fantasy version of an NFL practice squad. Multiple variations can be implemented and discussed in length here.
Team Defense
Team defense is a fantasy football roster position that earns points based on the performance of a team’s entire defensive unit. The performance includes points for stats like sacks, interceptions, fumbles recovered, and points allowed.
Team Defense/Special Teams
Team Defense/Special Teams is a fantasy football roster position that earns points based on the performance of a team’s entire defensive unit and their special teams unit. The special teams unit can accumulate points for touchdowns.
Tiers
Tiers are a method of breaking down players into groups of expected performance in preparation for the draft.
Upside
The upside is the existence of potentially favorable outcomes that would result in a player outperforming his draft selection. Upside indicates potential.
Value-Based Drafting
Value-Based Drafting is a fantasy football draft strategy introduced by excellent FootballGuys. The concept involves that a player should be rated based upon how many points that player scores versus other players at his position. A great indicator of this concept is that running backs and wide receivers tend to be drafted above quarterbacks, even though most quarterbacks will manage to score more points overall.
Zero-RB Strategy
This strategy de-prioritizes running backs in favor of other skill positions.