My First Fantasy NFL Draft

I had spent a fair bit of cash on American football yearbooks during the summer. As most of these books have sections dedicated to fantasy football, I thought I'd make the most of the information I had at hand and play in a fantasy football league this year.

I had played in the NFL fantasy league that Sky Sports promotes on its website in the past. The Sky version was a simple one where you can pick an entirely different team each week.

A proper league has live drafts where you select up to sixteen players for the entire season. You then have to choose the players you want to play and which ones you want to leave on the bench.

I was fortunate enough to have the first overall pick in the draft. I went with Arian Foster from Houston. The running back has been projected as the best fantasy pick for the season so it was only right that I made him the top pick in our league.

I went into the draft with all the books beside me. I had even written lists onto page-upon-page of A4 paper and I did my best to stick to a strategy.

It all went out the window in round two when one player I didn't envision remaining after round one (Larry Fitzgerald) was still available. I couldn't pass him up.

I also wanted to pick my favourite player, Peyton Manning. After missing last season, and with four neck surgeries to cap that off, I knew he would still be around in the mid-to-latter parts of the draft so stocked up on running backs and wide receivers until I thought the time was right to select Manning.

I took insurance by drafting another two quarterbacks (Josh Freeman and Andrew Luck) just in case Denver's Manning project didn't work out.

Denver's real gamble on Peyton Manning is now mine.

Below are all the players I've drafted:

Quarterbacks
Peyton Manning
Josh Freeman
Andrew Luck

Running Backs
Arian Foster
Doug Martin
Reggie Bush
Isaac Redmon

Wide Receivers
Larry Fitzgerald
Julio Jones
Eric Decker
Brian Quick

Tight Ends
Greg Olsen
Coby Fleener

Defence
Buffalo Bills

Kicker
Mason Crosby