It’s extremely rare in today’s fantasy football world where you find a tool that can change the way you play the game. I may sound biased considering I’m employed by FantasyPros now, but I can assure you that I’ve used the Draft Wizard since its inception. While I’ve given you plenty of actionable advice this off-season, this is where you can put that advice to use, and I’m going to explain how. Keep in mind that everything we talk about here is able to be synced up with your league’s actual draft, essentially putting me right next to you in the draft room. Here is the link if you’d like to follow along while reading: http://draftwizard.fantasypros.com/football/

Initial Set-up

If you want a mock draft to be helpful and accurate, we’re going to need a few things. A few of the must have options include: Is your league standard scoring or PPR? How many positions do you start/how many bench spots do you have? Do you have keepers (yes, those can be imported)? In fact, no matter what your league’s settings are, you can sync it to the Draft Wizard, and it’ll automatically import the settings. It’s crazy to think about how I used to hop on whatever site I could to do mock drafts, and all you could select was which draft slot you preferred in either 10 or 12-team leagues.

With the way leagues are today (superflex, multiple flex options, no kickers, etc.), there is no way that using a mock draft site like that would work anymore. Not to mention the fact that you have certain people who go in there just to troll and select a kicker in the second-round, essentially ruining what was supposed to be a draft that helped prepare you for your real draft. Not anymore will you waste your time. In fact, you’ll be able to complete mock drafts in five minutes, and against whoever you want.

You’re able to do that because we’ve taken the ADP from each of ESPN, FantasyFootballCalculator, and others to form a composite ADP. You can also choose to draft against your favorite expert and his/her rankings, which is what you want to do if you play in a league full of fantasy football diehards who follow all the off-season news. Even better, you can build a cheat sheet with my rankings, someone else’s, combine them, or make your own. The best part of this feature is that your cheat sheet remains saved to your account, so you don’t have to re-enter it every time.

Customizable Drafting Experience

After you select your settings, this is where the fun begins. No matter which spot you’re picking from, it’ll automatically start there, and all the picks that were supposed to be made before you are there. You’ll see multiple players on your screen at this time, as they are the players that experts say you should be contemplating at this point. You’re able to change that option to have the top player from your list for each position pop up instead; it’s just one click. You’ll learn as we go that this tool pretty much allows you to do anything.

You’re also able to toggle something else in your view. Once you start, you’ll have the expert recommended players along with a percentage next to their name, letting you know what percentage of experts would make that pick. You’re able to toggle this to a few different things, including my favorite one, value based drafting. When you choose that, it gives you each player’s value over the next available at their position. Other options for your view include strength of schedule, player notes, projections, stats, and more.

Once you make your selection, the Draft Wizard will accelerate through the automated selection process, picking players for every team. The best part in all of this is that it randomizes the draft picks every single time. Why? Because you won’t have the same selections in every draft, so it’ll move players a few spots, one way or another, allowing you to have the feel of a real draft. So just because you were able to snag Michael Thomas at 2.07 in one draft, doesn’t mean he’s going to be there in your next draft.

Now that you have all the basics, you are able to use a lot of really cool features in the Draft Wizard. For example, you are able to click on Pick Predictor, which allows you to see the percentage chance that the player you want is available in the following round. For example, let’s say that you’re in the sixth-round of your draft and you want to take Pierre Garcon, but don’t know if he’ll last until the seventh-round. You click on the Pick Predictor, and it’ll give you a percentage chance that he’s taken before your next pick. In this example, there’s a 42 percent chance he’s taken, so if you really want him, you probably want to take him because it’s just a 58 percent chance that he makes it back to you.

There are other tools available in the Draft Wizard, like Roster Watch, which gives you an overview of the teams in your league and the positions they still need to fill in the starting lineup. If you’ve never used a draft board before, it’s one of the easiest ways to gain an edge in your drafts, simply because you know what the other teams need, while others are essentially guessing.

The Aftermath (Learning to Get Better)

When most drafts are complete, you look at your roster, trying to decipher where you went wrong and where you went right. But now, you’ll have the eyes of over 150 experts looking at your team and grading you. That’s right, you’ll get a grade at the end of your draft, just like you did in school. And just like in school, the more you practice, the better you’ll be.

The Draft Wizard will analyze your team, letting you know which players you reached on, as well as the players you got at a value. It’ll grade each position as well, letting you know where your team’s weaknesses are, as well as where it’s strong in comparison to the other teams in the league. One of my favorite things to do is go and look at the team that graded the highest, and see what strategy they used. While you won’t always agree with the results, it’s good to get an outside perspective.

Dominate Your League

Even better, you can do these mock drafts literally anywhere on your mobile device, because inside the app (click here) you’ll have access to cheat sheets, the draft assistant tool (see how to use the assistant right here), and more. And as mentioned at the start of this article, you’re able to use the Draft Wizard in your league’s actual draft. If you sync your league (we have eight sites that link right up), it’ll automatically update the draft picks as they happen, allowing you to do the thing you do best – drafting. Well, after practicing with the Draft Wizard, that is.

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Mike Tagliere is a featured writer at FantasyPros. For more from Mike, check out his archive and follow him @MikeTagliereNFL.