Matthew Berry’s intros are getting longer and longer. I wish he would just have a link at the top of his articles that would skip over all the fluff. Kind of like this – if you want to just get to the draft tips, feel free to skip the fluff.

Speaking of the Talented Mr. Roto, I’ve heard a lot of guys say they wish they were Matthew Berry. I’m not one of them. I mean it has to suck to churn out entertaining columns each year – like his latest love/hate list – only to get a truck load of hate mail in return. People clamor to read his stuff but not nearly as much as they clamor to bash him when one of his predictions falls flat. At least in my circles, he’s the guy everyone loves to hate. I don’t care that he makes a good living doing stuff that we do for free, I still feel bad for the dude.

So, I’m doing my part to build up his fan club with new blood. Last week a fantasy rookie asked me for advice on what to read up on to prepare for his draft. I naturally sent him a link to Matthew Berry’s Draft Day Manifesto. Literally 5 minutes later, I got a reply email saying, “Dude, that $#@! is way too long.”  Too long? After he got his feet wet with a few beginner articles, I was going to tell him to check out Matt Waldman’s 740 page Rookie Scouting Report at FootballGuys. Or the 2,500+ fantasy articles you can find on their fantasy content directory, TodayInFantasy.

But I get it. Some people just don’t have the time or interest to “work” at playing fantasy football. And, in retrospect, I guess 10,000+ words for an article on fantasy football draft tips is a bit much even if it’s coming from Mr. Berry (especially when half the words are devoted to fluff). I’m at 350 words of fluff now. So my goal is to do a Draft Manifesto in 1,000 words or less (including the fluff). This Lazy Man’s Manifesto is devoted to the guy that wants to win without doing the “work.”

Draft Prep – 5 things you can skip to get ahead.

1. SKIP reading fantasy football magazines. Instead of saying “Display until September 2010″ these print publications should say, “Warning: This information is old – very old.”

2. SKIP reading fluffy fantasy blogs. Did you skip my intro? If yes, nice job. If no, read #2 again.

3. SKIP reading random fantasy advice sites. Just check back at our site in a couple weeks and we’ll tell you who the top fantasy football experts are.

4. SKIP preparing a bunch of notes and spreadsheets. You should only bring ONE cheatsheet to your draft. I would highly recommend our Expert Consensus Rankings…once it’s live.

5. SKIP researching and agonizing over Chris Johnson vs Adrian Peterson…unless you have the 1^st pick in your draft. If this is the case, you’re even better off because then you can SKIP researching all the guys with an ADP in the first round (they’re not going to be around for your 2^nd pick). If your league doesn’t divulge your draft position until the day of the draft, it’s time to call your commish to whine about it.

Draft Day – 5 tips for a solid draft.

1. Know 3 things inside and out: (a) where your draft is located – even if it’s online, (b) where your one page cheatsheet is, and (c) where to conveniently lose your cell phone so you don’t have to pick up calls from your wife during the draft. Trust me, this last one is critical.

Drafting a kicker is about as smart as this kicker looks.

2. Don’t go out on a limb with your first couple picks. Not so much because you need to grab “safe bets” while you can (which you do), but because you don’t want to get ridiculed for the rest of the draft. Take the guy you’re supposed to take.

3. Use your middle rounds to pick up guys that make others say, “You bastard. That was MY sleeper!” There’s an ultra simple way to do this. Just make sure your cheatsheet has players highlighted that have an Expert Consensus Rank that’s higher than the Consensus ADP…and grab those guys. They’re not really “sleepers” but anyone being undervalued is someone you should consider.

4. Use your late rounds to swing for the fences. Pick up guys that will be worth jack crap or the equivalent of a mega millions winning lotto ticket. You don’t want “safe bets” here. You want guys that are one injury away from being studs or young guys that haven’t had a chance to prove anything yet. The easy way to spot these sleepers is to look for names in your cheatsheet that you don’t recognize. The higher they’re ranked, the better.

5. Do not draft a kicker. Not even in the last round. If your draft is being held before the first game of the season, there is no reason to draft a kicker. Pick up a random RB or WR. Something could happen in the preseason to make this the most “brilliant” move of the draft. Just don’t forget to pick up a kicker before the first game!

If this advice doesn’t work out well for you, I’m not going to feel that bad. You probably deserve it for being lazy. We will have some cool tools tailored to “lazy guys” during the season. If you want to be notified of our future updates, please register.

Photo Credits: Link