In order to fill each team's roster, players have to be drafted from a common pool to fill the lineups. One of two methods is usually chosen,
either snaking order or previous standings. For example in a 4 team league, a standard snake order is just each team drafting in
numerical order, keeping the same order in each successive round:
- 1st draft choice - Team 1
- 2nd draft choice - Team 2
- 3rd draft choice - Team 3
- 4th draft choice - Team 1
- 5th draft choice - Team 2
- 6th draft choice - Team 3
By contrast, a reverse snake flips the order every other turn:
- 1st draft choice - Team 1
- 2nd draft choice - Team 2
- 3rd draft choice - Team 3
- 4th draft choice - Team 3
- 5th draft choice - Team 2
- 6th draft choice - Team 1
- 7th draft choice - Team 1
There are many methods to choose the draft order, with the most common being draft positions drawn at random or using
previous season’s final standings to set the order.
When filling your roster, there are two common strategies. One is to always draft the best player available regardless of
what your roster requires, knowing that you can rely on future trades to properly fill your lineup.
Another is to fill your weaknesses, usually starting at runningback, then moving to wide receivers, quarterback,
tight ends, kickers and defense. Otherwise, just try to fill a starting line up and fill your weaknesses as you go.
Later in the draft it is wise to draft the ‘handcuff’ or backup player for your star players. If the star gets injured,
you will already have his replacement locked up either to field him yourself, or to trade to another team.
Consider the scoring system within your league carefully, as positions with more potential ways to score you points
are more versatile, thus more valuable - you should draft a player earlier in a round if they can add to your scoring totals faster.
