Here are some of the best ways to set your league’s draft night roadmap. Why use a random draft order generator when you can get creative?
Fantasy football comes with enough stressors. The agonizing over draft picks, scoreboard watching, lineup tinkering and waiver decisions can break even the most seasoned of managers. So before you jump into all of that, you might as well enjoy some fun competition. There’s no better way to implement that for you and your league mates than by setting your draft order in an unorthodox yet fulfilling way.
How to Set Your Fantasy Draft Order? The 10 Best Ways
Getting creative to set the draft order can be a significant value-add to your fantasy football experience.
Your options to do so via a group activity will depend on everyone’s physical location or willingness to travel, but if all 10 or 12 (or however big your league is) of you are able to be present, the possibilities are truly endless. From feats of physical and mental aptitude to food and beverage challenges, here are 10 of the most fun suggestions:
1. Run the 40
This one’s easy: Line everyone up, and determine the draft order by the finishes of the NFL Combine’s flagship exercise, the 40-yard dash. It’s not too taxing on the bodies of fantasy football managers, which, let’s be honest, are not likely to be in peak physical shape across the board, so that’s a win. It does, however, let every manager get a bit of the NFL experience as a way to tee up the season.
If everyone isn’t able to be present in one location (plenty of fantasy leagues are contested by managers based all over the place, after all; it’s hard enough getting everyone to agree on a draft date and time), then have everyone film themselves running the dash and submit their times, adhering to the honor system. No AI-adjusted deepfake 4.24s, please. We see through you.
2. Texas Hold ‘Em Poker Tournament
Shuffle up and deal to see who picks when, with the last player standing getting the first pick and the order determined by when managers are eliminated. The first player out gets the last pick, the next player out gets second-to-last and so on. No rebuys.
If you’re in a 12-team league, for instance, start with two six-person tables and set the parameters to whittle down the field in a timely fashion. Up the blinds after a relatively short amount of time to speed things up, so it’s not a marathon. It’s a lot of effort just to set the draft order — but it’s also a poker night with your crew, so everybody wins.
3. The Draft Order Draft
What’s better than one draft? Having a draft to set up the draft. You can draw names however you’d like, but here’s the rub: The first name out doesn’t automatically get the first pick; that person gets to choose which pick he or she prefers. So at the Draft Order Draft, the order of names matters somewhat, but the strategy that follows over who wants to pick where keeps things awfully fascinating.
And how’s this for a twist: If you and your fellow managers have oodles of disposable income and want to make your pool of winnings even more robust, you could auction off each pick, with each slot going to the highest bidder and the overall proceeds going toward the league prize money — or a charity. You choose!
4. Have Your Kids Choose
This is admittedly for the Olds. But if you’re a mom or dad in a league with other moms and dads, then get the kids involved and make it a family affair. Maybe they pick names out of a hat. Maybe they go old school and choose like they’re picking teams out on the playground.
Pro tip: maybe halt their involvement before they’re submitting your FAAB bids or waiver claims on your behalf.
5. Free-Throw Contest
Everyone takes 10 shots, and the order gets determined by who makes the most and on down the line. If there needs to be a shoot-off to break a tie, then subsequent rounds would be an additional three shots.
Just make sure you’re not in a league with Steph Curry or Steve Nash to give yourself a fair chance at the top pick.
A game of knockout (first one eliminated gets last pick, and so on) or a half-court shot contest (first one to make it gets first pick, etc.) are other bonus ways to inject basketball into this football tradition.
6. Musical Chairs
Put draft order on the line, and we guarantee this game of musical chairs will get intense. You’re never too old for this. And if you want to make it more NFL-slanted, use the old ESPN NFL PrimeTime highlights music or NFL Films themes to get the adrenaline flowing.
7. Celebrity Cameo
Get all managers to pool together some cash for your favorite celebrity or athlete on Cameo, give that person a list of names and have them randomly set the order for you.
Just think: For $250 of your hard-earned dollars, you could have Antonio Brown — yes, that Antonio Brown — actually influence your league. And for just $60, you could have Jamal Anderson bless your draft order with a signature “Dirty Bird.” You might not like the results, but the end product will be unforgettable.
8. Drink For It
Let’s preface this by saying please drink responsibly, do not drink and drive and if you’re in recovery or sober, keep on fighting. But if adult beverages are your thing, there are ample drinking games that can get the job done here. A beer pong tournament, flip cup, quarters — all the hits will do the trick.
9. A Round of Golf
Whether it’s nine holes or a full 18, get your whole league some fresh air and time outdoors before you’re dedicating your Sundays to being glued to the TV. It’s pretty straightforward: Golf leaderboard = draft order (with playoff holes implemented as necessary in the event of a tie).
If playing a proper golf course is too daunting or too much of a time commitment, then consider mini-golf, which would essentially accomplish the same thing.
10. Turn to Other Sports
You can determine an order of finish based on results in another pool, such as a March Madness bracket challenge, or assigning each manager a horse in a specific race or a golfer in a certain tournament or a NASCAR or F1 car for the races on those circuits.
No matter the sport, you’re bound to wind up with an order of finish that suits your league’s needs, and you’ll have extreme rooting interest in something you might otherwise not pay much attention to, given that it comes with high stakes for you and your fantasy season.
Frequently Asked Questions
Still looking for more about setting the draft order? Fear not. Hopefully we can answer some more of your questions, such as:
How do you do a draft lottery?
In real life, the NFL assigns draft picks based on the previous season’s records and playoff finishes. The Super Bowl winner gets pick 32, the team with the worst record picks first.
If you want to bring a touch of some of America’s other sporting traditions to your fantasy football draft, then you might consider adding some odds to the calculus. You can assign a different weight to each team in the lottery based on their previous season’s finish, much like the NBA does. Or you could just play it down the middle, give each team one ping pong ball (or whichever object is being used to draw the order) and keep the chances even across the board.
How do you randomly decide on draft order?
Fantasy football platforms — including Sleeper — generally have an option to randomly set the order, which takes all of the fun out of setting the order, but also all of the effort required to do so on your own. Whatever the random generator gods say goes.
You can also seek out an off-platform generator or take the technology out of it and pick names out of a hat. It’s all randomized and left to chance. It’s also a method that may leave people unhappy but can’t really be disputed.
Where is the best spot to be in a snake draft?
That’s a loaded question that all depends on your league’s setup, size and/or your intended draft strategy. If it’s a keeper league and you’re set on studs, for instance, it might not matter as much.
It also can depend on the year. If there’s a clear-cut, five-player top tier, then you’ll likely want a top-five pick before the talent drop-off hits. If it’s a deeper year, then your first-round pick might not matter as much as how many early picks you’re able to accumulate.
Generally speaking, it’s obviously great to have No. 1 overall, because you’ll get the top dog in addition to being able to pick on the turn in rounds two and three (after stomaching a long wait). In a 12-team league, that gives you three top-25 guys.
If you’re not going to be at the top of the order, one could argue it’s best to be at the end. That way, you’re at least guaranteed two top-12 players (that’s again specific to a 12-team league; adjust that number based on your league size) that you can build around.
What if my league does an auction? Can we still have fun?
The order of nominating players for an auction draft doesn’t matter nearly as much as the order in which you’re picking in a snake draft, but if you are hooked on the idea of setting an order by some means of enjoyment, then by all means go ahead. The stakes won’t be quite as high, though.
Order Set? Start Playing on Sleeper
No matter which method you choose, you’re bound to add a layer of fun to your fantasy league by mixing it up when setting your draft order. And once that order is set, take your league over to Sleeper by signing up on the website or downloading the app. Sleeper’s season-long fantasy football leagues are free to play and are full of unique, customizable features that can meet the needs of any commissioner.
Sleeper also features paid-entry DFS games, if that’s more your speed, such as Sleeper Picks and Daily Draft, which won’t necessarily require you to set a custom draft order but will still scratch your fantasy football itch all the same.
