Hey all - it's time to cook up something special with the Commish and I have got a good one for you today. For many of you, the draft is this weekend or very close around the corner. For some of you it might have been this past weekend. This article is for both groups… the guys working feverishly to get ready for their draft and for the guys sweating over injury reports hoping they don't see their guys' name.

The draft is coming up and you're ready, or so it would seem. You have any pick other than the first one or two so you aren't totally sure what is going to be available and what is not. What can you do to better utilize your study time for the draft? Obviously, it makes no sense to memorize the names of every player at every position. Here are a few time savers that seem common place to me but might be very helpful to you if you haven't thought of them or tried them.

The first thing I do before looking at one website or buying one magazine is look at the league. I look how many roster spots each team has to fill and then how many teams are in the league. I multiply those two numbers figure out how many players will be drafted. I don't need to research any more players than that. So why waste my time? In one of my leagues each team fills 15 roster spots and there are 14 teams so 210 players will be drafted. Now in that same league we keep three players so I can subtract 42 players (3 x 14) from 210 and now I only have to look for 168 players.

Now I'll start scouring the web pages and newspapers. Notice I didn't mention magazines or pay for info football sites. I have a personal thing... Don't Ever Buy What You Can Get For Free! There are plenty of free sites that will give you the info you desire without making you pay. I'll start looking for depth charts and top 100/200 lists that use the same scoring method as I do. Joe Bryant's site is very good at www.cheatsheets.net. Of course, your reading this article so you already know about Mike Krueger's FFToday site. Now that I have found my info I start marking out the players I don't want or that are already taken. This narrows down my list and I am now a lean mean drafting machine.

The final straw is creating a format that allows me to get all of the info right at my fingertips. I don't want to waste time making my pick because as the commish I should know exactly who is gone and when they went before my pick comes up. In fact I might be the only guy that keeps the draft moving at a reasonable pace.

What I do is create a an excel spreadsheet that helps me put all of the players I want right at my fingertips and helps me remember my sleepers once the draft starts. I am begrudgingly going to allow you to have a copy of this spreadsheet. The spreadsheet that you will get is last years so you will have to update it for it to make sense. But, have fun... it's pretty nice. It works best if you print it double sided on card stock. It feels really good to go to a draft with a sharpie, this draft card (36K zip file), a pen and a notebook. I like to try to intimidate as many guys as I can. I see guys coming into my draft with volumes of magazines and I just laugh. I am a minimalist I suppose.

Now, for you guys that have already had your draft you are probably dying. Your looking for anything to keep the rush going and you have lit so many candles at the local Catholic church for your team that you've got a waxy film on your hands. Now is the time to start looking at the other owners teams and concocting those mid-season trades... looking for players that will be coming back from injury about three weeks into the season (Fred Taylor) or players whose second half schedule should mean increased playing time and/or an easy schedule... looking to move the players that will be sitting the bench come the final weeks of your season. There is no time like the present. Also, look at the rosters and familiarize yourself with the free agents available in your league. It's now time to be thinking about who stays and who goes on your team if it looks like an unheralded rookie or third year player took your players starting role after your draft. Don't wait you need to act now!

As I mentioned last week I am going to begin adding a recipe at the bottom of the article each week for you to use at your draft party, trade session, weekly football watching, or Superbowl party. This is an easy dip to make that really sticks to your ribs.

C H E E S E B U R G E R  D I P » Prep Time: 5 mins. » Ready In: 15 mins. » Skill: No Experience Required » Serves: Makes 2-3/4 cups. » 1/2 lb. ground beef » 1 lb. (16 oz.) VELVEETA Pasteurized Prepared Cheese Product, cut up » 2 Tbsp. KRAFT Pure Prepared Mustard » 2 Tbsp. catsup BROWN meat in skillet; drain. Reduce heat to low. ADD Velveeta, mustard and catsup; stir until Velveeta is melted. SERVE hot with French fries, bread chunks or crackers.

See ya next week!

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