Fantasy Football Roster Management - Extreme Spreadsheeting

It's time to manage your roster, track your player performance, look for prospects, and plan for the upcoming bye weeks. I do it, of course, through spreadsheets.

And I've uploaded the spreadsheet of all spreadsheets to help you do just that. I've been using this for years. You can download it from my MediaFire site here:

FF Roster Management 2013.XLSX

This bad boy allows you to enter the offensive/defensive points (positive and negative), as well as bonus thresholds (like extra points for long field goals, yardage bonuses, etc.) all on one tab. And all the weekly scoring worksheets are automatically updated.

Here are the worksheets you'll find inside...

• Owners - Handy reference. Just fill in Team Name, Owner's Name and Email.
• Bye - 2009 NFL Bye Week Schedule.
• Roster Key - A guide for color-coding your roster, prospects, and the player scoring.
• Roster - Enter your roster of players and track how/when they were acquired, their weekly scores and their season totals.
• 1-17 - A tab for each week of the season (though most don't go all 17 week). You enter the stats and the gray formulas to the right calculate your points and totals. You can track your opponents and your bench, too.
• Scoring - Your league's scoring rules - you can alter the points/bonus thresholds on this one tab according to your league's rules - the formulas on the 17 Weekly tabs get points from here so no need to update the Weekly tabs!

It's free people. And it's helped me for years.

Hope you like it!

~Mike

It All Starts Soon - Don't Panic!

Here's some friendly advice before the season begins: Don't panic.

I need to remember this myself because I've made some transactions early in the season that I lived to regret. Don't stay up until the wee hours of Monday morning making wild roster changes because of Sunday performances - unless your player is out for the season, which you won't really know until Wednesday anyway. I had Vinnie Testaverde the year he tore his ACL in Week 1. I was looking for Quarterbacks Sunday afternoon (that's an exception).

And don't start dropping everyone based on the combined performances of Weeks 1 to 3. I've made this mistake myself. It takes weeks for some players to get into the groove. It's very easy to think "I have to dump this guy. He's nothing like last year, or what they projected." You need to trust your roster, and adjust when it makes sense.

It also takes weeks before you know which rookies or originally lower-ranked players start stepping up and taking over, and that you can trust to perform week to week.

Now, if someone else is panicking, and starts offering trade deals, and they're really to your advantage, consider them, but be cautious. The same rules apply here. A receiver pulling in 180 yards and 3 TDs in Week 2 may be all his points for the season - he may not be the new go-to guy you were counting on.

Remember there have been coaching changes, trades, drafts, cuts, and the introduction of new offensive/defensive strategies and plays. Quarterbacks and receivers are still finding their rhythm. And groups of players are still evolving into a team. It's just like a team/project change at your own workplace - even when it's just one or two new players in the unit, or the loss of a player, it takes a while to reform and click.

Good luck!

Oh, I'm Ready

Yes, Randall Hank Williams, son of Hiram "Hank" King Williams, father of Shelton Hank Williams, and if I may be so informal, Bocephus.

Yes, yes, yes, I am indeed ready for 21 weeks of ass-kicking, smack-talking, bone-crushing, acrobatic, mesmeric, ridonculous and brilliant displays of grace and athleticism, tailgating, stadium-hopping, HD-watching, Sunday-partying, official-logo-team-attire-wearing, all-I-can-possibly-eat pizza, brats, hots, burgers and beans, all washed down with more beer than I could or should drink, football.

Thank you, kind sir, for asking.

Fantasy Football: Six Things to Remember

Here are some reminders:

• Any given Sunday - there are two teams in every game and the winner is never predetermined.

• Regardless of the skills or notoriety of the athlete, he is a human being and may or may not perform as expected when you start him, bench him, or oppose him. In fact, oftentimes the better-rated players psych themselves out or get caught up in their own hype and end up choking. So don't fret over your lineups. We all have stories about how many points are scored on our benches.

• It's all guesswork. Whether picking a game or setting your lineup, it's all a crap shoot. Make your choices and move on.

• Gender, former athletic trophies and bravado may add color to your Fantasy Football match up, but they have nothing to do with the ultimate outcome. Don't let the meatheads intimidate you. Geeks rule!

• You will never watch football the same way again. You will obsess over your game picks, roster choices, every yard/reception/score/mistake your players make each week. And you will attempt to perfect this telekinetic voodoo mindmeld thing you'll try through the TV whenever you see an opponent's players, hoping they fail, and fail miserably.

• It ain't rocket science. Oh you can use rocket science, thermal dynamics, velocity coefficients... There are plenty of complex algorithms available to help you determine scores, player performance, etc., and I've spent more than my share of time in analysis paralysis, but I also do just as well making quick picks. Just enjoy yourself!