Ideal Drafting Time

This seems to be a popular topic among fantasy circles...when to draft your teams.  Some like earlier drafts because it allows sleepers like Ray Rice to remain sleepers that you can draft late and look like a genius for doing.  Others like later drafts because you can avoid costly preseason injuries.

Me?  I personally like to draft as late as possible.  I did do an early draft a couple years ago because a friend was leaving the country for 2 month European vacation and wouldn't return until the season started, and I cleaned house with the sleepers that year.  Everything considered, however, I just don't like holding my breath each week of the preseason to see what happens.  Plus, with numerous depth chart changes and the ability to watch rookies in their first live action at the NFL level, I find it more advantageous to everyone in the league to have as much information as you can before the season starts and you settle into your targets.

Fantasy football is ultimately meant to be fun.  Sure, it's incredibly frustrating when dealing with injuries, drafting busts, having the 2nd highest score of the week but facing the top scoring team, and so forth...but there's a lot of fun to be had when doing your draft preparation and watching it come to a head when your sleeper enters your lineup on a bye week and tears shit up.  It also allows you, as perhaps a Cowboys fan, to watch a random Dolphins/Bills game and yell at the TV because they're not throwing to Lee Evans enough (even though he's at 7/90 in the first half).

By ideally having a draft after the 3rd week of preseason, when the depth charts settle and most of the starters have avoided a major preseason injury, you have the most information available to you to prepare for the season.  This, to me, is the most fun a draft can be.  Everyone gets a chance to see players perform on the field before making a final evaluation.  Preseason can be a bit overrated at times, but after an offseason full of fluff media pieces about almost everyone, it's nice to be able to see tangible progress from players you have your eyes on drafting.