D'oh! Homer love

Honesty time! We all have one team we root for, and that team has an arch-rival that we would never in a million years root for. For me, my team is the Raiders, and I would never root for the Chiefs. In other words, you will never see Mahomes or CEH or Kelce or Hill on my team. Not even their kicker! When Leveon Bell ended up on the Chiefs last season, I traded him away immediately (unintentionally a great thing in hindsight). I will NOT find myself in a situation where I root for Chiefs.

My point is, there are 32 teams in the NFL, and it is entirely possible to build a winning roster while only utilizing 31 of them. In fact, it provides a slight amount of clarity when there is one team you don’t even have to consider them going into a draft, or streaming players from the waiver wire.

On the other hand, make sure not to overvalue your favorite team’s players. Sure, if your home team has a top 5 player at any position, it’s ok to pick him slightly earlier than ADP, but don’t take a guy in the first round who is averaging being picked in the third round (or later). Always weigh the ECR and ADP against your own biases. You always want to draft the best player available, even if it isn’t the guy on your home team.

Also, if you draft your home team’s kicker and/or defense, don’t be afraid to move on if they underperform early in the season. My example: Last season, the Raiders defense underperformed early on, and I was able to pick up Miami’s defense instead. That saved me in the defense position.

Another thing to consider: If you take a QB and an RB from the same team, unless the RB is a big receiving threat, they will end up eating into each other’s production sometimes. A great game from Derrick Henry could mean a lesser game from Ryan Tannehill, and vice-versa.

There’s nothing wrong with a little home team love, but only in moderation.