For diehard fans of professional NFL teams the fantasy sports game can be cruel as often times you find yourself with rooting interests that impact your allegiances. For some, the way they decide to limit rooting against their home team is to simply draft all the players on that said team.  While drafting some players on your hometown team is perfectly okay, drafting an entire roster of your favorite NFL franchise is ultimately going to lead to fantasy football failure.

I should state that I am a fan of the New England Patriots.  The Patriots' roster is full of top fantasy performers such as Tom Brady, Rob Gronkowski, Julian Edelman, Brandin Cooks and even kicker Stephen Gostkowski.  This season running back Mike Gillislee is a popular mid-round pick after LeGarrette Blount rushed for 18 touchdowns last season and trust me I would certainly love to get my hands on some Patriots players, mainly Tom Brady, for this upcoming season but I likely won’t look to own more than two.  I find that owning too many on the same roster limits your scoring upside and while cheering for the Patriots is one of my favorite things to do I also like to win my fantasy football league just as much.  The easiest way to win your fantasy football week is to have your players score touchdowns and at most only two players can get points for touchdowns at one time, with the QB getting the passing TD and a receiver/running back getting the receiving TD.  If I owned all of the players listed above I would be limiting my touchdown upside per offensive possession so diversity throughout my roster is key.

Being a Patriots fan I also tend to hate the New York Jets, New York Giants, Baltimore Ravens and Indianapolis Colts.  Aside from the Jets, those other teams have viable fantasy players who are worth owning.  It would be poor strategy for me to ignore a player like T.Y. Hilton if he falls to me in a fantasy draft because I do not like the Colts.  Hilton is an explosive playmaker that has gained at least 1,000 yards in four straight years.  If the value is right and Hilton is the best receiver on the board I will not shy away from taking him.  If the Colts face off against the Patriots I will just be rooting for a high scoring affair between the two clubs so that Hilton gets his points and the Patriots still win.  

Of course not everybody is a fan of the New England Patriots or other top offenses like the Steelers, Packers, Saints, Falcons.  If you find yourself as a long time fan of the Cleveland Browns, not to rag on the fine Browns organization, it would not be smart to have too many players on that roster.  Sure many are high on Isaiah Crowell this season but there is not much after that.  I’d recommend that you don’t load up on Cody Kessler or Brock Oswieler at your quarterback position or even Kenny Britt at wide receiver.  The upside is limited with Britt and those two QB’s are going undrafted right now in most standard league formats.  Now I am not telling you to avoid the players on your favorite team.  If you wanna target one of them for your roster that is fine. It’s always fun when cheering for your hometown team also helps your fantasy roster just be smart about.  

I’ll leave you with these words of wisdom as I feel it sums up what has been written above perfectly.  Draft with your head not your heart.