With our annual News-Herald fantasy football league draft Sunday morning, I decided to employ a new strategy.

After years of compiling cheat sheets and extensive - admittedly sometimes far too extensive - research, this time the "don't overthink" option made the most sense.

That meant no prior research, no discussing who was the better eighth option at running back with others. Nothing.

That meant looking at what position I wanted in a particular round, the top 3-4 options according to ESPN's PPR (points per reception league) board and trusting my instinct.

There have been years during which I have actually compiled cheat sheet rankings by taking multiple cheat sheets, averaging their rankings together and using that as my own.

In the end, though, does it really give you all that much of a competitive advantage?

Don't get me wrong. I enjoy fantasy football a lot. It just seems like, if because of a variety of factors you may end up at .500 or a league champion while doing significant research or not doing so at all, you might as well not.

In the end, I think I did all right. Drafting No. 8 in the 12-team N-H league, here's what I ended up with as a team:

1QB: Eli Manning, NYG
2QB: Josh Freeman, TB
1RB: Trent Richardson, CLE
2RB: Jonathan Stewart, CAR
3RB: Kevin Smith, DET
4RB: Michael Bush, CHI
1WR: Larry Fitzgerald, ARI
2WR: Roddy White, ATL
3WR: Anquan Boldin, BAL
4WR: Kenny Britt, TEN
5WR: Nate Burleson, DET
1TE: Vernon Davis, SF
2TE: Coby Fleener, IND
1DEF/ST: Houston
2DEF/ST: Atlanta
1K: Alex Henery, PHI

So much of fantasy football strategy is reliant on depth and luck. Let's see what happens.

- Chris Lillstrung | @CLillstrungNH