How’d you draft? Mikey has the answers you need now that your fantasy football draft is over!

We are less than two weeks before the start of the NFL season and many of you have participated (or will soon participate) in a fantasy football league draft. Some of you may be new to fantasy football and may have been overwhelmed by the draft itself. Some of you may feel great about the draft but are curious about what is the next step. In this article, we’re going to try in that next step. You’ve drafted, now what?

No matter what fantasy league you participate, the draft never goes according to plan. There are always owners that draft the player that you wanted. There are also owners that draft players at unexpected times and throw the draft into chaos. A lot of times, all a fantasy owner can do is survive the draft and get the most that you can from your picks.

Once the draft is over, the question can be posed “now what?” The first thing you need to do (and may seem counter intuitive) is to take some time away from your roster. It’s easy to want to start nitpicking your roster right after the draft but take some time away from it. You can do this because those players who aren’t drafted are held on waivers for a few days, so you cannot change your roster anyway even if you wanted to do so. You need to have time away so that when you go back to look at your roster you’ll be more objective.

After taking a break, the next step is to evaluate your roster and see where your strengths and weaknesses lie. Like any real team, your fantasy team will have strengths and weaknesses. You will have some positions that are better and have more depth than other positions. Make a note of this as this will be important moving forward in developing your team.

Next, is to pay attention to the waiver wire. This means not only the waiver wire of your fantasy league but also the real life waiver wire. It’s important to pay attention because you don’t want to own a player that is cut by his real life team. Also, it is important to know how the final rosters shape up for real life teams as that will be a factor in shaping your team. Once the starters have been announced, you should check out the fantasy waiver wire to see who is available. Not all contributing players will have been drafted, so check and see where you have a need and check the waiver wire to see if there is a player that can meet your need.

Another option is to check with other owners about a possible trade. Some owners tend to gravitate more towards trades in improving their roster. This is a option but I personally tend to rely less on trades. The main thing about trades is you need to have someone else involved in the trade. That team will also be looking to strengthen their team. In order to improve your team in a trade, you will more than likely have to trade a player that is at a position of strength on your team in order to get better at a position that you are weak. The best kind of trades tends to help both teams but there’s always an inherent risk when trading.

The last tip I’ll leave you with is to make sure your roster is ready to go when the season starts. You will be making changes throughout the season but it’s important to have your starters in place so that you can start the season strong. You don’t want to start the season in a deficit.

Keep checking back with us here on the website and on the podcast. Also, be sure on Twitter to tweet out how your fantasy team is doing in whatever league you’re participating. Tweet with the hashtag #geekfootball so that we can all participate in the conversation.