Hey!
Quick story first, because it's the reason I do this for a living.
My dad got me into fantasy football when I was around 13 or 14. He pulled me into his league with all his buddies. The little kid sitting at the adults table.
So when I won $10,000 in a league last year, the first thing I did was fly my dad first-class to Italy for 2 weeks. His first time ever going. Full circle moment. It was incredible
But here's the thing, I'm not perfect. Nobody is. I took DJ Moore in the 4th round last year and he was a flat-out bust. I'll get to that. The goal isn't to be perfect, it's to make fewer mistakes than everyone else in your league.
Here are the 7 reasons why I won that $10,000 experts league:
#1 All The Work Happened In The Summer
Draft night is not the night to be doing research. By the time draft night shows up, all the hay should already be in the barn.
This is what I do full time, sometimes 50, 60, 70+ hours a week. I read 1-2 hours of beat reports a day, I update projections daily, track every coaching change and personnel move. This is all part of the draft day prep.
When I sit down on draft night, I’m not researching. I’m executing…
#2 I Read The Room And Exploit It
You don't need to spy on your leaguemates for weeks. You just need to pay attention at the draft itself.
These guys were going WR, WR, WR, classic best-ball brain. And rookie fever was real, guys flying off in the 4th and 5th rounds who weren't even guaranteed to play meaningful football.
So what was sitting there waiting for me? Elite, proven RBs. They handed me CMC and Jonathan Taylor in the first 2 rounds. Then Trey McBride at TE in the 3rd…
#3 I Had A Printed Plan And I Stuck To It
This is the big one. This is the Blueprint.
I walked into that draft with my targets, avoids, and full tiers by position, color coded. Green meant value relative to ADP. Red meant fade at ADP. Simple.
A live draft is chaos: trash talk, a ticking clock, maybe a beverage or 2. That's exactly when people make panic picks. A plan keeps you grounded when everything is designed to knock you off, that’s what The Blueprint did for me.
Want me to help you win your fantasy league this year? Learn more about The Fantasy Blueprint by clicking here.
#4 I Let The Value Come To Me
Once the studs were locked in, the rest of my draft was sitting back and grabbing value other people were scared of.
Nobody wanted Jakobi Meyers, I took him in the 7th. Nobody wanted Brock Purdy, I grabbed him in the 9th, and he finished as a top fantasy QB on a per-game basis. Chris Olave fell to the 6th round because of an uncertain QB situation.
None of those were hero picks. They were value picks I'd identified months earlier…
#5 I Didn't Flinch When They Dunked On Me Live
People were roasting me in real time. Mason from Flock Fantasy said I was tanking my draft because I hadn't taken a WR by Round 3. Nick BDGE couldn't understand why I took JT in the 2nd over AJ Brown.
Spoiler, Jonathan Taylor outscored AJ Brown by a mile. People also laughed at me for taking Rhamondre Stevenson in the 10th. He ended up being a solid flex with multiple multi-TD weeks, especially compared to most 10th round picks.
When you've done the work and trust your plan, the noise doesn't move you…
#6 The Draft Set The Tone
Your draft sets the tone for your entire season. You cannot trade or waiver-wire your way out of a bad draft if the rest of your league drafted well.
I dominated this draft so thoroughly that I only had to make 2 trades all season, minor flex moves around bye weeks and injuries.
That's a symptom of nailing your draft…
#7 I Minimized Mistakes (Because I Made Some)
Back to DJ Moore. I took him in the 4th round. He was a bust. A few big games, but as a 4th-rounder, he didn't deliver. By the end of the year he wasn't even the best WR on his own team. I cut ties and traded him.
I missed. Everybody misses.
But because I walked in with a plan, I made less mistakes everywhere else that one busted 4th-rounder didn't matter. I still went 14-2. I still scored the most points. I still won the league
A system doesn't make you perfect, it makes you make fewer mistakes than everyone else in the room. And over a full season, that's how you win.
That’s what The Fantasy Blueprint is all about.
It’s at the lowest price all offseason right now, and it's the difference between scrambling on draft day and calmly destroying your league.
— Sal
P.S. Here’s my winning lineup that brought home $10,000
