How to PlayFantasy Football
Everything you need to know for the Forest Hills League — drafting, strategy, building your roster, how points work, playing week to week, and working the waiver wire.
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Drafting
Drafting is the hardest — and sometimes most nerve-wracking — part of fantasy football. Your draft position is randomly assigned by the system one hour before the draft begins.
Draft Order
Your draft order is randomly generated by the system one hour before the draft starts. Log in around 8:00 PM to see your draft position and get ready to pick.
Time on the Clock
If you already know your pick, go early. Otherwise the computer auto-selects for you when time runs out. By the later rounds, once your starters and most of your bench are set, it's completely fine to let auto-pick take over.
The Snake Order
Auto-Pick
IMPORTANT: Auto-pick is off by default, so you're always in control of your own picks. But keep an eye on the clock — if you don't select a player within your allotted time, the system will automatically draft the best player available based on your current roster, and it will switch auto-pick on. Once that happens, it stays on for the rest of the draft until you manually switch it back off.
Draft Strategies
So who do you pick first? That's up to you, and it depends a lot on your draft position. If you're picking early in round one, take the best player available — especially the best running backs or wide receivers on the board.
For the last several years, the winning approach has been prioritizing RBs and WRs in the first couple of rounds. A true WR1 or RB1 is hard to find, and not every team runs its offense the same way.
Round-by-Round Blueprint
Take the top running back or wide receiver on your board, regardless of position need. These are the players who separate winning teams from the pack.
Keep taking the best RB/WR value on the board. This is also the window where the elite, top-tier quarterbacks typically come off the board if you want one early. By the end of Round 5, you should have both starting RB spots and both starting WR spots filled.
Round out your lineup — tight end, your flex piece, and a mid-tier quarterback here if you passed on the elite tier earlier.
Build depth at RB/WR, take a breakout candidate flier, or grab a lower-tier backup QB if you still need one.
This is when you handcuff your top running backs' primary backups — not any earlier. Kicker and defense are almost always the very last picks, since both are easy to stream off waivers all season.
Draft Philosophies to Live By
Things to Avoid
Creating Your Team
Your roster has 9 starting positions — active when you play another team — plus 6 open bench spots.
Starting Lineup (9)
Bench & Injured Reserve
All 6 bench spots are yours to fill however you like. Injured Reserve is an additional slot on top of those 6 — it only opens up for a player who's genuinely hurt.
Who to Pick Up?
Who to pick up first is important — it could make or break your season. While all starting positions are needed, some are more important than others, based on the amount of potential points a position can score. We'll get into the point system later, but a position like the RB has the potential to score at least 9 to 22 points a game, compared to the Kicker position, which averages 3 to 10. So in the next section, we'll talk about strategy.
How Does My Team Score?
Players score from passing, rushing, receiving, and kicking — and lose points from turnovers. Defenses score by shutting the other team down.
The QB is the only position with passing, rushing, and receiving.
Passing Points
Points Lost
For Example
Say Josh Allen throws for 200 yards, which includes 2 touchdown passes, and 1 touchdown where he ran the ball in. Josh Allen's points for the game would be:
A passing TD is only worth 4 — less than a rushing/receiving TD's 6 — because the QB already has more ways to score than anyone else, including running it in himself for the full 6.
QB, RB, WR, and TE all share this scoring for rushing & receiving.
Rushing Points
Receiving Points
Points Lost
For Example
Say Bijan Robinson rushes for 120 yards with 1 rushing touchdown, catches 3 passes for 30 receiving yards, and loses 1 fumble. Bijan Robinson's points for the game would be:
Starting Points on Defense
Your defense starts every game with 25 points. As the opponent scores, that total drains.
Bonus Points
For Example
Say your defense allows 13 points, records 2 sacks and 1 interception, and forces and recovers 1 fumble. Your defense's points for the game would be:
Kicking Points
Kickers score on extra points and field goals — longer kicks are worth more.
For Example
Say a kicker makes 2 extra points, a 35-yard field goal, and a 47-yard field goal. That kicker's points for the game would be:
Bonus Points
On top of everything else, big individual games trigger extra milestone bonuses.
Passing Milestones
Rushing Milestones
Receiving Milestones
Playing
Set your lineup before the first real game of the week — usually Thursday Night Football, though some weeks add games on other nights. Then, throughout the season, use the waiver wire to pick up free agents and drop players who aren't working out.
Lineup Lock
swap freely
that slot locks
locked in
Before You Lock In, Check For…
Especially watch bye weeks — a player on bye scores zero no matter what.
Waiver Wire: Priority Order
The wire opens after the first full week of games — that's when you can start claiming free agents off it.
The Weekly Cycle
Then just watch the games and have fun.
Cheat Sheets
A quick reference for draft day — real, current names grouped into tiers so you can see where the drop-offs are at each position.
Josh AllenBye 7
Jayden DanielsBye 7
Lamar JacksonBye 13
Drake MayeBye 11
Jalen HurtsBye 10
Joe BurrowBye 6
Jaxson DartBye 8
Trevor LawrenceBye 7
Dak PrescottBye 14
Bo NixBye 10
Brock PurdyBye 8
Matthew StaffordBye 11
Caleb WilliamsBye 10
Justin HerbertBye 7
Patrick MahomesBye 5
Kyler MurrayBye 6
Tyler ShoughBye 8
Jared GoffBye 6
Daniel JonesBye 13
Baker MayfieldBye 10
Jordan LoveBye 11
C.J. StroudBye 8
Sam DarnoldBye 11
Bryce YoungBye 5
Cam WardBye 9
Geno SmithBye 13Jahmyr GibbsBye 6
Bijan RobinsonBye 11Christian McCaffreyBye 8Jonathan TaylorBye 13
De'Von AchaneBye 6James Cook IIIBye 7
Jeremiyah LoveBye 14Saquon BarkleyBye 10Derrick HenryBye 13
Ashton JeantyBye 13Kenneth Walker IIIBye 5Chase BrownBye 6Omarion HamptonBye 7Breece HallBye 13Javonte WilliamsBye 14Travis Etienne Jr.Bye 8Kyren WilliamsBye 11
Quinshon JudkinsBye 11Cam SkatteboBye 8Bucky IrvingBye 10D'Andre SwiftBye 10Bhayshul TutenBye 7David MontgomeryBye 8Jadarian PriceBye 11Josh JacobsBye 11Rhamondre StevensonBye 11
Jaylen WarrenBye 9Rico DowdleBye 9Jonathon BrooksBye 5TreVeyon HendersonBye 11Tony PollardBye 9Kenny GainwellBye 10MarShawn LloydBye 11Chuba HubbardBye 5J.K. DobbinsBye 10Kyle MonangaiBye 10Jacory Croskey-MerrittBye 7Woody MarksBye 8Zach CharbonnetBye 11Tyjae SpearsBye 9Ja'Marr ChaseBye 6Puka NacuaBye 11Jaxon Smith-NjigbaBye 11Amon-Ra St. BrownBye 6CeeDee LambBye 14Justin JeffersonBye 6Drake LondonBye 11Rashee RiceBye 5Nico CollinsBye 8A.J. BrownBye 11Chris OlaveBye 8Malik NabersBye 8Garrett WilsonBye 13George PickensBye 14Zay FlowersBye 13Tetairoa McMillanBye 5DeVonta SmithBye 10Emeka EgbukaBye 10Davante AdamsBye 11Ladd McConkeyBye 7Terry McLaurinBye 7Tee HigginsBye 6Jaylen WaddleBye 10Rome OdunzeBye 10Jameson WilliamsBye 6DJ MooreBye 7Luther Burden IIIBye 10Carnell TateBye 9Courtland SuttonBye 10Michael Pittman Jr.Bye 9Marvin Harrison Jr.Bye 14DK MetcalfBye 9Parker WashingtonBye 7Alec PierceBye 13Christian WatsonBye 11Mike EvansBye 8Matthew GoldenBye 11Brian Thomas Jr.Bye 7Michael WilsonBye 14Jakobi MeyersBye 7Trey McBrideBye 14Brock BowersBye 13Colston LovelandBye 10Tyler WarrenBye 13Kyle Pitts Sr.Bye 11Harold Fannin Jr.Bye 11Sam LaPortaBye 6George KittleBye 8Tucker KraftBye 11Dallas GoedertBye 10Travis KelceBye 5Jake FergusonBye 14Mark AndrewsBye 13Isaiah LikelyBye 8Brandon AubreyBye 14Cam LittleBye 7Cameron DickerBye 7Ka'imi FairbairnBye 8Jason MyersBye 11Evan McPhersonBye 6Harrison MevisBye 11Andy BorregalesBye 11Tyler LoopBye 13Eddy PineiroBye 8Jake BatesBye 6Cairo SantosBye 10Chase McLaughlinBye 10Wil LutzBye 10Harrison ButkerBye 5Chris BoswellBye 9Tyler BassBye 7Joey SlyeBye 9Blake GrupeBye 13Chad RylandBye 14Will ReichardBye 6Jake ElliottBye 10Texans D/STBye 8Broncos D/STBye 10Seahawks D/STBye 11Ravens D/STBye 13Eagles D/STBye 10Rams D/STBye 11Steelers D/STBye 9Jaguars D/STBye 7Bills D/STBye 7Vikings D/STBye 6Chiefs D/STBye 5Packers D/STBye 11Browns D/STBye 11Patriots D/STBye 1149ers D/STBye 8Cowboys D/STBye 14Saints D/STBye 8Lions D/STBye 6Bears D/STBye 10Dolphins D/STBye 6Cardinals D/STBye 14Buccaneers D/STBye 10
How to Practice
Before draft day, you can run a full practice draft on ESPN — as many times as you want, from any draft position. It's the best way to get a feel for strategy, and to get faster at finding and selecting players under the clock.
How It Works
Heads up: the practice draft clock only gives you 30 seconds per pick — much faster than the 1:30 you'll get on real draft day. Don't be alarmed if it feels rushed at first. That's the point: practicing under a tighter clock helps you get quicker at finding and locking in players, so the real thing feels easy by comparison. And remember, on draft day itself you'll have plenty of time to log in and get set up before your draft actually begins.
Finding the Practice Draft Button
Your Dedicated Team Link
Bookmark your own team's page below — once you're logged in, it'll take you straight to your roster instead of digging through menus.
These links only load your team if you're already logged into ESPN Fantasy with your own account.