Fantasy Football Draft Guide 2024: Winning Guide To Scott Fish Bowl - SFB14

Everyone knows the Five Fs of fantasy football – there’s “Fantasy” and “Football” and “Fun” and “Friendship” and, umm, “For…a good cause”. Yes, that’s five! And the Scott Fish Bowl just so happens to incorporate all of them. Doesn’t get much better than that!

For those unaware, it’s the greatest fantasy football tournament in the world with experts and fans alike pitting their Scott Fish Bowl rankings against each other to battle for sleepers, breakouts and league winners. Best ball bros drafting side by side with the devy guys and the IDP gurus. And it’s all for charity, raising tens of thousands of dollars each year for Toys for Tots via Fantasy Cares.

Even if you don’t have an invite to #SFB14 just yet, you can still get involved! First, make sure you are signed up over at ScottFishBowl.com. From there you can donate, buy merchandise and join drawings/contests to potentially get in (hint - follow Scott Fish, Ryan McDowell and Fantasy Cares on Twitter for your best shot at that). Even if you don’t get a spot in this year's, you can also join the satellite leagues and the best ball contest on Underdog Fantasy once those are up. Winning those will get you a spot in next year's competition!

And for those competing in #SFB14 or any of the offshoot contests, here’s a little bit of helpful info as well as some Scott Fish Bowl Rankings to help guide you along the way!

Know The Rules

This is not your average fantasy league. The rules change every year and can often be pretty wonky. Make sure you check out the full Scott Fish Bowl Rules over here. Compared to your average fantasy league there are big bonuses for tight ends, you can start kickers at the flex, and there are even points for return yards. So, make sure you are well versed on those.

Make Friends (& Keep Them By Being Respectful)

I’ve quite literally made lifelong friends playing in this tournament (shoutout to the Fantasy Besties). So definitely engage in the chat for your draft pick as well as the chat for your league. The draft pick chats can be found by reaching out to the folks listed in this tweet. And, if at all possible, attend one of the LIVE events. Those are an absolute blast – I’ll be at the Boston one so come say hi if you are there!

And, while we are doing all that, make sure to be respectful to your fellow gamers. Even if it is a “slow draft” by name, timing out a bunch and using the full clock every time is frowned upon. Most of us have jobs so every once in a while it’s okay to take a while to make a pick, but try not to make a habit of it (set notifications on your platform). 

Also, I know the nature of fantasy is to disagree with each other, but let’s keep it friendly. Scott Fish is like fantasy Santa Clause, and he knows who is naughty or nice (and the naughty ones don’t get invited back).

Go BIG

I’m going to let you in on a little secret – you probably aren’t going to win. It’s a giant tournament with all the best fantasy gamers in the world, so no one is winning without a little luck. Since you are probably going to lose anyway, why not do it taking stabs on YOUR guys? Go for upside, go for broke. Plant some flags, be a homer. If you do win the tournament, it will be that much better when everyone asks you how you did it because you did it your way.

Donate If You Can

Obviously don’t overstretch your means, but, if you can, your donation means a lot. I’ve seen first-hand while helping out how many toys this money can buy for kids who otherwise might not have anything. There’re also ways to donate where you get something out of it too, like buying custom avatars from the SFB AVI Makers or shirts and hats from the SFB shop! This year’s theme is movies so there’s something there for the whole family!

Kick & Punt Returns

This year, the newest wrinkle for the Scott Fish Bowl is that you get points for kick and punt return yards. That not only adds a new group of viable fantasy options to the mix, but it enhances players that have a role on offense AND on special teams. That paired with an entirely new kickoff format could create some exciting upside and advantages for some players.

As part of that, I took some time to scour reports from around the league on who might be set to return kicks/punts, who might be in the mix, and who has the most fantasy relevance. This is a work in progress that we will do our best to keep up to date, but here are our thoughts as of right now:

Rankings

As I said, you have to plant your flags and get your guys. So, I’d encourage you to not just draft off these (especially if you are in my draft in Boston). But I figured it wouldn’t hurt to go through the rules and put together some basic rankings to help out – especially if you need something to print out and cross out at the draft. If there’s a name on there that you don’t recognize, it’s probably one of three things: a rookie, a return man or, my specialty, a deep sleeper tight end!