WLTL’s sports director Cole Tuisl ‘17 sat down with LION to answer some questions and give us some tips on Fantasy Football.

Juliana (Q): How do you pick your teams and players?

Cole (A): There’s an online draft through the website you use, whether it’s ESPN, Yahoo or NFL Network and you log on at your draft time. Your draft pick determines when you pick and it’s usually a serpentine style draft. In a 10 team league if I had the seventh pick in the first round, I get the third pick in the second round, and it goes on like that for however many rounds there are.

Q: Do you have any strategy in picking your players?

A: Absolutely. There’s so much [strategy] that goes into picking a player. [For example,] how many opportunities they have to get points, if someone will get a lot of chances in the redzone, injury risk/history, if their roster on their actual team gives them the opportunity to succeed and value at the draft pick. For your first round pick, you [want to] pick a guy that is almost guaranteed to put up a high amount of fantasy points with low risk of anything bad happening, like injury or underperformance.  [In] your 10th or 11th round pick, you’re going to take a risk on somebody who probably won’t, but might put up big numbers. There is also strategy on when to pick a certain position, but that depends on the person. The most common [strategies] for that are to take a team defense and a kicker with two of your last three or four draft picks and to take a stud running back with one of your first couple draft picks.

Q: What is the hardest part of choosing your players?

A: Nothing is guaranteed. You can’t control injuries, someone you thought would be available at your draft pick isn’t and there’s a lot of thinking about if you’re getting the best value. Over thinking a pick or going against your gut can easily happen. It seems like so much can go wrong, and you only have 90 seconds per pick to think about who you’ll draft.

Q: How often do you change players?

A: Weekly, you almost have to. Nobody is going to find the best possible player on all 14 or 15 of their picks, and no team is going to be able to avoid injuries. There are always players that disappoint you and there’s others that surprisingly play really well, [racking up] yards that weren’t drafted at all. Trades are also a big part of fantasy football. Bye weeks for players are an issue too, [for example] if your kicker or team defense isn’t playing this week, you have to pick somebody up to replace them that week or longer.

Q: How do you earn points and essentially win in Fantasy Football?

A: More yards and TDs turn into more points from any position, unless it’s team defense where less TDs and yards mean less point deductions. More points means more [wins] for your team.

Q: How long is the Fantasy Football season?

A: The regular season is about 13 or 14 weeks, and the playoffs [follow] in the last couple weeks of the NFL’s regular season.

Q: In your opinion, do you have to be an expert on football to participate in Fantasy Football?

A: Not at all, just do a little research a few days before your draft and you could have a solid team. Even the Fantasy Football experts like Matthew Berry on ESPN are wrong sometimes.

Q: What is your favorite part of Fantasy Football?

A: Trash talking, managing a team, betting money and winning. Winning a league is one of the best feelings ever, especially if you put a lot of money on it.

Q: Do you feel there are any cons to participating in Fantasy Football?

A: If your team or teams get off to a really bad start, the fantasy season is not a fun one. My only team last year didn’t get a win until week eight and having to come to school every day saying I was 0-5, 0-6 and 0-7 was awful. On top of that, if your favorite football team isn’t doing well, it can make the entire NFL season a miserable one. So when the Bears started the 2015 season 0-3 and I was 0-3 in fantasy, I was having a terrible start to the season.

Q: What advice and tips would you give to others entering Fantasy Football?

A: Do a little research, it can go a long way in making sure you don’t draft anybody who’s draft value is way too high.