Does draft position matter?

Getting back to my original purpose with this blog, I wanted to look back at my draft in more detail. Many people think that draft position is crucial to FF success. I can honestly say that the first time I played, I was the last manager to draft. It was a horrible year. My team had position players, but none of them was very good. Like many newbies, I blamed everything on my draft position: dead last. I even changed the name of my team to Last Pick Sucks!!!! And the season played out as you would expect, I finished up in the middle of the pack and didn't make the playoffs.

But what I was overlooking at the time was the real reason my team did poorly. I didn't attend the draft (I was in fact out of the country) and let the computer pick for me--big mistake! I should've called the team Computer Picks Sucks!!!

In all honesty, I no longer think position in the draft matters as much as drafting well. In my league this past season, the top 4 General Managers at the end of the season came from all over the board in terms of position.

2007 League Standings

Rank	Team	Draft Pick	Moves
*1.	Oilers	7	42
*2.	Ron Mexico's Dogs	12	22
*3.	Nature's Metropolis	1	26
*4.	Belichick's hoodies	11	9
5.	Dori's Destroyers	8	11
6.	Real Men of Jesus	3	21
7.	Hoobits	10	3
8.	Hoboken Hippies	2	11
9.	GOT A SISTER?	6	12
10.	Gridiron Goons	9	14
11.	Raffi's Rebels	5	-
12.	Dead Rabbits	4	5

One crucial point to be taken from this example is that draft position doesn’t really matter, although it may appear to be better to pick at the end or middle of the group than at the top. But really I don’t think position does truly matter, as long as you draft wisely.

Another crucial factor seems to be moves. The top three teams had the most moves, which really just means those teams had the most active (and by default, attentive) owners. These guys took the time to pick the best players, they did their research and they went into the draft with a plan. As the season progressed, they replaced injured players with fresh guys and they kept track of who was hot. Clearly, they made moves whenever they could. Now, the team ranked #4 shouldn’t really be factored into the equation, because their success depended solely on having nearly every New England player of merit. If NE hadn’t done well this year, that team could just as easily been at the bottom of the ranks.

So for the next draft, don't worry as much about what position you get as much as who you pick.