For those who just opened this article expecting a breakdown of what Fantasy Football Evolution is you may have come to the wrong spot. BUT! Never fret, an introduction to FFE can be found by clicking here.

With a year of experience under my belt with Fantasy Football Evolution, I like to consider myself a bit of a crafty veteran with this site, while others may say I’m due for a sophomore slump. It’s all semantics. But there are some universal truths to gaining an advantage with FFE. It’s a unique competition that occurs in three tiers: head-to-head matchups against computers, cumulative scoring, and then a tournament. Last season the first stage was eight weeks long. But in 2018, to move the championship round up to Week 16 of the NFL season, FFE is doing away with the eight-week stage one and changing it to seven weeks. So in previous years where you had to go win five matchups in those first eight weeks to move on to stage two, this season you only need to win four due to a shorter stage one. Here’s why that’s fairly important.

Scheduling

Knowing how FFE works gives you a leg up on the competition. Most guys purchasing teams and drafting right now are doing it all wrong. Patience truly is a virtue so while it’s the best value and cheapest deal to purchase teams right now, DO. NOT. DRAFT. Wait until later in August and after Labor Day. Even then, you can actually still wait. Technically you don’t need to officially draft your FFE team until Week 4 of the season. Since you need four wins in stage one to advance to stage two, you can technically wait a few weeks into the season to draft your team. By waiting you’re able to wait out some of the early season injuries. David Johnson owners got burned pretty early in 2017, and would’ve loved to have had the opportunity to draft a new team after the first couple weeks. Waiting a couple weeks also gives you the chance to see if there are any early season breakouts you would’ve otherwise missed out on if you drafted before Week 1. These are guys you can draft between weeks one and three that other owners may not have exposure to.

The downside to waiting on drafting is you’re painting yourself into a corner so to speak. Remember you need four wins to move on to stage two. So if you do opt to draft after Week 3, you need to win your four remaining matchups from Weeks 4-7 to move on to stage two. Does the choice to wait and draft impact the points needed in stage two to move on to stage three? No. Stage two is about the accumulation of points in Weeks 8, 9 and 10. In addition to those three weeks it accounts for what you averaged during stage one. So while other teams that played from Weeks 1-7 may have more cumulative points than your team from Weeks 4-7, it’s all about the average.

Now it’s important to get a feel for when teams are on a bye week. Here are the bye week breakdowns by FFE’s stages:

Teams on Bye During Stage One: Carolina, Washington, Chicago, Tampa Bay, Detroit, New Orleans, Green Bay, Oakland, Pittsburgh, and Seattle.

Teams on Bye During Stage Two: Atlanta, Dallas, Los Angeles Chargers, Tennessee, Arizona, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Jacksonville, New York Giants, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Denver, Houston, and Minnesota.

Teams on Bye During Stage Three: Buffalo, Cleveland, Miami, New England, New York Jets, San Francisco, Kansas City, and Los Angeles Rams.

Now if you want my best suggestion, you don’t want to overload your team with players from that last group. Stage three is a tournament style where if you lose, you’re done. You can’t afford to have too many players on bye during this period. Likewise, stage two is all about cumulating points so you obviously want your studs in your lineup to push you to the final round where the top 64 teams qualify. In stage one you can afford to have some players on bye. Stage one just requires your team to win four games so you can afford to lose three games.

For the casual player who is only going to buy one FFE team, I’d suggest drafting mostly players on bye during stage one, but you can still get some exposure to teams on bye during stages two and three. You’ll want as many options to consider during those weeks to optimize your lineup.

No Free Agent Pool

Again, this is another reason to wait a little bit when it comes to drafting. With FFE, the team you draft is the team you get. You can’t reach into a free agent pool to replace a player that was injured. Want to pick up a handcuff to your running back on the Patriots? Too bad! So with this in mind it’s actually encouraged to draft handcuffs. In the event there’s an injury or you’ve selected a player from a committee backfield it’s not a bad idea to just select the committee entirely. Want to take Devonta Freeman ? You should probably select Tevin Coleman as well. This also means that if there’s a sleeper you like, you need to decide whether you want to gamble on them with a late-round selection. Run some mock drafts through Fantasy Football Evolution’s mock draft software. You get a couple freebies so you can get a feel for where players are going heading into the season and how you should build your roster.

The Actual Draft

The actual FFE draft is prepared to kick your ass if you aren’t ready. This isn’t like your season long redraft league you do with your co-workers or fraternity brothers (or sorority sisters for that matter since fantasy football is accepting of all genders). Since the first stage is against computers, those AI teams are on autopick. Here are the minimum requirements your roster must fulfill:

  • Quarterback – 3
  • Running Back – 4
  • Wide Receiver – 4
  • Tight End – 2
  • Kickers – 2
  • Defense/Special Teams – 2
  • Additional roster spots – 3

This is a 20-round draft that will be completed in a matter of minutes so there is little room for error. Now those are just the roster requirements. Below are the weekly lineup requirements:

  • Quarterback – 1
  • Running Back – 2
  • Wide Receiver – 2
  • Tight End – 1
  • Kicker – 1
  • Defense/Special Teams – 1
  • Superflex – 2

Now you do get two extra superflex spots. This is of particular importance because here is my biggest suggestion to people drafting for the very first time through Fantasy Football Evolution…

Editor's Note: So it's with my deepest apologies to acknowledge a mistake I wrote up earlier regarding FFE's draft format. While the AI's in your league are on autopick you are not under a time constraint so users are able to draft over days and weeks until the season begins in September. Keep in mind you still can wait to draft even a few weeks into the season.

Do NOT Wait on Quarterbacks

The best thing you can do for your team is get three great quarterbacks. They will fly off the board and FFE leagues are unforgiving to owners who wait on the quarterback position. At least two of your first four or five picks need to be spent on a quarterback. You should definitely have your quarterbacks drafted by round seven and it’s not a terrible idea to draft a fourth quarterback as well. FFE lets owners start three quarterbacks each week so it’s arguably the most important position for your roster. If you take three top quarterbacks you’re starting off with a strong chance of getting out of stage one.

Quarterbacks to Consider: Aaron Rodgers and Drew Brees are at the top of the list of quarterbacks you want to own. They’re elite and when healthy they’ll rack up a ton of points. Particularly an Aaron Rodgers /Davante Adams pairing is feasible with Adams going in rounds three or four. Drew Brees is another fantasy asset that has performed at a high level, but we are coming off a year where the Saints were more committed to the run. Regardless he’s still playing at an elite level. And if you remember what was mentioned earlier, you should target players with bye weeks during stage one. Conveniently enough that’s when both these guys are on bye. Other guys you can look at with bye weeks during stage one are Russell Wilson , Ben Roethlisberger (if you feel good about his health), Matthew Stafford , Cam Newton , and Mitchell Trubisky (if you think a breakout is imminent under a new head coach).

Quarterbacks to Avoid: Believe it or not, it may benefit your team to avoid drafting the Greatest of All Time, Tom Brady . Brady has a tendency to regress in the month of December so he’s not a great fantasy football option during that month, especially when the Pats are usually coasting to a first-round bye in the playoffs. Don’t forget, New England also has their regular season bye week during the first round of the FFE main event tournament bracket. It also may be wise to proceed with caution with the Browns quarterbacks. A lot of hype is surrounding the Browns heading into the season. Baker Mayfield could very well take the league by storm and I will have some exposure to him as a late-round quarterback stash in case he takes over the job. However, they have a Week 11 bye like New England and their schedule after that is fairly tough against Cincinnati (twice), Houston, Carolina, and Denver. Other quarterbacks you can ignore due to stage three bye weeks are the other three teams from the AFC East (that whole division is on bye the same week which is somewhat odd), plus Patrick Mahomes and Jared Goff . Those last two quarterbacks have their bye week in Week 12, which is the second round of the main event tournament. Goff in particular has a very tough schedule from Weeks 13-16 against Detroit, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Arizona. Three of those games will be on the road so despite the Rams great offense, this is a fairly difficult late-season schedule.

Final Thoughts

Let it be known that some of this will also boil down to luck. In my first season playing FFE in 2017, I was shocked and surprised I even qualified for the main event tournament field of 64 teams. I was even more fortunate to finish in the top 16. Obviously I went against the grain with building some of my rosters. Out of the seven or so lineups I had last season only one made the main event tournament. I plan on owning more teams this year and still know the odds of making the final stage are very slim. Will I take Baker Mayfield on a couple teams? Sure, I love his upside. Will I load up on the big name studs that slip in my draft and not take a quarterback as early as I preached? Yeah, I’ll do that for a team or two. But if you’re a beginner or if you’re only going to own three teams or less take a lot of this advice to heart. For those that will own an abundance of teams don’t be afraid to diversify and get exposure to a lot of different players being aware of their possible playoff schedule.

Don’t forget to also register for Fantasy Alarm’s private contest through FFE where you can compete against myself and other writers from Fantasy Alarm. If you have any questions or need any draft advice feel free to shoot me a DM on Twitter (@RealDANlanta). Happy Drafting!