I made mention of a tiered system for ranking players. The tiered system has also worked well for me because it's allowed me to remain very flexible --yet still on target- with meeting my goals. I'm not watching my ranked list shrink down from 1 to 250 and fretting that "all the good guys are gone". Nope. I'm merely monitoring my three tiers as a barometer on when I need to act. More accurately, I'm watching my middle tier most closely and hoping to pull a gem or two from the third.

Now before some of you want to "tier" me a new one for not explaining the tiered system just yet, keep reading.

I like to grab a large sheet of paper, preferably legal paper and make two horizontal lines crossing the page. The middle section comprises about half the page with the top and bottom splitting the difference. I do this because I tend to have a lot of names chunked in the middle tier.

Tier one

This has all the player names everyone will know come draft day. These are the fellas you will have to pick early to get. Donnie Edwards? See ya! Derrick Brooks? Ciao! Keith Bulluck? Adios! They have large bodies, contracts, tackle and sack numbers. My children can recognize them from their various sneaker and sports drink commercials.

Tier Two is my drafting pool, my playground, my bread and butter

I generally let these boys go by the wayside because of the types of leagues I play in. I place a huge premium on running backs and am usually obsessing about what 3-5 running backs I can get on board my champion caliber team. There have been those drafts though when I took a shot on a tier one name or two -if they slipped enough. Those are tough moments for me because I always figure I can fill a defensive gap during the season a lot easier than an offensive one. (More on that in future article.)

Tier two

This is my drafting pool, my playground, my bread and butter, my people if you will. It has the lesser known player names. It holds the guys that have consistently produced solid tackle numbers over a few seasons and game-to-game. They also throw in the occasional sack or pick. If you play fantasy baseball with HOLDs as a category then these are your top HOLDs guys who also get a nice number of wins and a handful of saves over a season. Lance Briggs saw his name at this tier a few years ago. Last year it was Antonio Pierce. Mr. Pierce is now on my top tier, though it's a little debatable as I don't quite believe he's reached household name status yet. His numbers are starting to shout tier one, however, and a smart owner in your draft will know this too.

Tier three:

This is not, I repeat not, the bottom of the barrel. Those guys never make the tiered list. This tier has your sleepers, underachieving youths, aging vets, and system guys. (A system guy is a player new to a position which has historically amassed points because of the system being run, not necessarily because of a sudden explosion of talent from the player.) I hold myself to a few picks from this group preferring to let others be risk takers. I do hold onto this list throughout a season to keep my mind on players I thought could have made my roster. If I see an up tick in a player's performance from this group over a two to three week period I usually act on it. Remember, they are on a tier to begin with.

A sample of a tiered list follows. It is incomplete but it demonstrates the approach well enough. I've compiled it with the understanding that an IDP's tackles, assisted tackles, sacks, fumbles caused, recovered fumbles, defended passes, and picks are being credited. The numbers following a player name are for tackles, assisted tackles, sacks, picks, and passes defended. I've left caused and recovered fumbles off the list as those are not the types of scoring plays you want to rely upon week in and week out to win games. I've also left DLers and DBs off the list for the sake of brevity.

Donnie Edwards 114-40-3-2-11                      Mike Peterson 95-37-6-3-6

Keith Bulluck 102-36-5-2-10                           Jonathan Vilma 128-45-.5-1-6

Brian Urlacher 98-24-6-0-5

Karlos Dansby

Jeremiah Trotter

Odell Thurman              Derrick Johnson

Lofa Tatupu                              Bart Scott

Cato June

Thomas Davis

Eric Barton                               Morlon Greenwood

David Pollack                           Roosevelt Colvin

I do futz with the player names within each tier as my draft approaches. I try to stack them in columns as a rough guide to their value within a tier. I'll also place the occasional star or directional arrow near a name if I believe the player has some momentum going in one direction or another. For example, as I type this column, news is out that Odell Thurman is out the first four games of the season. He's received my first down arrow of the preseason for my one year leagues. There would not, however, be any such negative marking if I were considering drafting him for a dynasty league.

I really enjoy using the tiered system for my draft day planning. It's not cumbersome and more importantly it keeps you focused on drafting a solid team from starters to bench players. If I've already resigned myself to not getting many, if any, of the tier one guys, then I'm drafting with an easy mind. I can remain focused on filling in a quality backup QB, or potential breakout WR, or my fifth and sixth RB. Can't have enough of those!

If you've got a drafting system that you feel works well, please jump onto one of our forums and share it. We're not above stealing…err…borrowing indefinitely your ideas on how to better prepare for our drafts.

Finally, let me remind you once again to do yourself a favor and check out IDPBlitz's draft tools. Let us help you win, for crying out loud!