Tomorrow night is my first draft of the season — my coveted keeper league.  Although we only keep three total players, there is no penalty (or benefit) for keeping a player previously drafted in a later round — all keepers count against rounds one through three regardless of draft position. For example, if you keep one player — lose your first round pick; two players — lose first and second round picks; three players — lose first through third round picks.

Before I go further, it is imperative to walk through how our league is scored. The commissioner set the point structure to keep any one position from drastically outweighing another.

• QB: 6 points per TD; 1 point for every 20 passing yards; 3 point bonus at 300, 400, and 500 yards passing; -2 points for INTs and Fumbles.
• RB/WR/TE: 6 points per TD; 1 point for every 8 rushing or receiving yards; 0.5 point PPR; 3 point bonus at 100, 150, and 200 yards rushing; 3 point bonus at 80, 120, and 160 yards rushing; 1 point for every 20 return yards; -2 points for Fumbles.
• K: Standard
• D/ST: Liberal scoring that scores a “bad” day at 10 points.

As this is a rebuilding year, my approach is to target young skill players (not older than 25) with a demonstrated floor in the first half (17 rounds) of my draft.  The back half will be used to fill any open positions and take a few fliers. I spent the summer drafting a handful of MFL10s (team name @modestreality) and generally know which players I am targeting in these rounds. Of course, this is just a framework and depends on how the draft moves.

If you are looking for real draft advise, checkout Matthew Berry’s Draft-Day Manifesto.