by William Penn

Created on: May 01, 2008

Every year people wonder just what makes a championship fantasy football team. And every year also brings cries of, "If only I had the first pick in this year's draft I would have won it all." To which I reply with God's answer to Noah in the Bill Cosby routine - "Right".

You see, most people do not understand that LaDainian Tomlinson is not going to make your fantasy team a champion in most seasons. For the uninitiated, this may seem like blasphemy. I am going to show you why this is not the case (at least for a standard scoring league of 1 pt/10 yds rushing and receiving and 1 pt/25 yds passing and 6 pts/TD at all positions and a point per catch or PPC for receivers, tight ends and running backs. The teams must start 1 QB, 2 RB, 2 WR, 1 TE, 1 K, and 1 DEF) .

First of all, the first pick in the draft does not mean that you will get the best players in the draft every round and in fact, hinder your choice of pick more than a later pick in the round. Due to the fact that most fantasy leagues use a snake (or alternating) draft, the person who picks first in the first round, picks last in the second, first again in third and so on. The person who picks second in the first round picks second last in the second round, etc.

The point is: If you pick first overall, you are just about doomed to pick a stud running back with your first pick or you might as well give up the season right then and there. If you play in a standard 12 team league, your second pick won't be until pick number 24. That is a long time to go to get your first running back. So any pick other than running back with the first pick is almost suicide for a choice and unless you are lucky enough to somehow luck into the next Adrian Peterson somewhere in the later rounds of the draft, I wouldn't count on making the playoffs in your league, much less winning the championship.

Here is why picking first is not really an advantage: Let's say that in your league that just about everyone picks a running back in the first two rounds. This is fairly accurate in most leagues and will also probably have two quarterbacks (Brady and Manning) and approximately three to five wide receivers (ie Moss, Owens, Andre Johnson, Braylon Edwards, and Wayne) picked in the first two rounds as well. That being the case, the first person picks anything other than a running back with the first choice. This means that the 24th pick will be their first running back which is the 16th best running back choice. Per CBS fantasy football

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