Using Fantasy Football Rankings to Your Advantage

Participating successfully in fantasy football depends a lot on strategy, which is why you'll have to make use of available information to make the right decisions.  Choosing your roster of players, for example, will significantly affect your standing in the league. This makes it necessary that you study and understand fantasy football rankings to increase your chances of making it to the finals and yes, even win your league championship.

Rankings are often posted weeks (even months) before the start of the fantasy football season.  Before your league's draft day, you'll have to milk as much information as you can from the data to help you decide which players to pick for your team.

To prepare for draft day, it will help if you rank your players according to position.  Include columns for your roster requirements, your league's scoring system and the player's statistical projections.  Projections, by the way, are updated on a regular basis, so expect it to change again and again.

What about rankings published in magazines?
Some fantasy football experts warn newbie's to be wary about rankings provided by sports magazines and those you find on newsstands.  Although they might contain information that you'll think is useful, much of the data you'll find in these publications is outdated.  If the rankings aren't current, you won't find them useful at all, not to the scoring system of your league and not to you when you need to make your selections when draft day comes.

Sports sections in your local newspaper, on the other hand, can offer you a better look.  News about trades, player injuries, violations and other stuff that will affect your player's performance on the field are regularly published here.  Information from this source is also up to date.

Where to find fantasy football rankings
There are plenty of websites that post current and past season rankings, so you'll have a pretty good idea which players have shown good performances, which players to watch out for and which players to consider second priority.  Some sites you might want to check out:

FFToolBox.com   This site is a good source of free information about current fantasy football rankings.  News, cheat sheets, drafting tips, even recent rumors are posted here, which will help you 'read' your players' rankings better.

DrFantasyFootball.com   It has links for player rankings, a season guide and even a cheat sheet you can refer to.  Player rankings are categorized by draft position, so it's easier to zero in on the players you want.  Stats and standings are also available on this site.

You might also want to check out FantasyFootballCafe.com and FFToday.com for updated player rankings.