As you might imagine, the subject of fantasy football comes up in my life a lot. Like a LOT. Like every day. Like multiple times a day.
The questions are exactly what you’d expect. Gimme a late round sleeper, I have pick X - who should I take, which one should I keep of these three etc., etc.
But you know what my favorite comment is? My absolute favorite is: “This is my first year playing.”
As fantasy football has continued to grow and grow in popularity, I hear that one less and less. Although I have heard it a lot more regarding Guillotine Leagues. This is a company and game I loved so much that last year I bought the company.
It’s very simple. You have a league like normal. You draft a team like normal. You start a lineup like normal.
The twist? At the end of the week, the team with the lowest score is chopped. Cut from the league. Their season is over. You keep doing this until only one team remains. It’s the best sweat in fantasy football.
Here’s the other great twist. All the players on the team that got chopped go back into the free agent pool. You have $1000 FAAB for the entire season, so it’ll be like Week 6 and you’re bidding on Saquon Barkley and Trey McBride. It’s literally the best version of fantasy football I’ve ever played. It’s why I bought the company. Try it, it’s free.
Anyways, the point is that my favorite phrase is: “This is my first year playing.”
Because I know what they’re about to experience for the first time. Something I’ve experienced since I was 14 years old when I did a 10 team NL only fantasy baseball auction.
And that day I learned something that hasn’t changed in four decades.
Draft day. It’s only the best day of the year.
Since that time, between mocks and real drafts, I’ve done tens of thousands of drafts.
Every possible kind of format, sport, league type, on and on, seriously … if it exists, I’ve seen it, done it, posted it on TikTok.
And as a result, I’ve seen a LOT of what to do and even more of what NOT to do. And what I have realized is that, while there is no “one right way to do it,” there are a number of specific principles successful players all follow. As luck would have it, as it is every year, that’s what this article is about.
This is an article for everyone. For people that are new to the game, veterans who haven’t been paying attention this offseason, hard core players who are interested in my view of the FF landscape this year and, of course, my friends on Reddit who look forward to complaining about this column every year. (Doing an AMA there on Thursday, August 28, fyi).
So brothers and sisters, friends of the revolution, I’d like to officially welcome you to the 26th edition of the often imitated, never duplicated, heart-stopping, knowledge-dropping, ADP-rocking, booty-shaking, strategy-making, earth-quaking, sleeper-taking, Springsteen-stealing, logic-justifying, death-defying, legendary DRAFT DAY MANIFESTO!
When you write a theory column for over a quarter century there is always going to be some familiarity. So, what follows are some thoughts that longtime readers will find familiar but there is also a lot that is new this year, including being updated based on 2024 results, the 2025 player pool and — speaking of new — I was just reminding all the people that have signed up for our brand new Fantasy HQ fantasy football command center where you can Sync your leagues for free in seconds.
Wait until you see this tool. Seriously. We spent the entire offseason building this thing. Fantasy HQ gives you an overview with roster management capabilities for every team, across every platform, all in one place. Do you play on CBS? Sleeper? Www.GuillotineLeagues.com? How about ESPN? Or probably more than one? FantasyHQ allows you to get customized advice for all of your teams in one place.
Anyways, back to the column, the point is we’re going to give strategy and theory for season-long leagues this year by looking at the player pool, and finding ways to attack each position. There will also be some over-the-top, self-serving promotion, and at least one new joke. (That wasn’t it).
As always, thanks to my producer Damian Dabrowski for his help at various points in this column. So let’s get to it.
After close 40 years of drafting, I can tell you, with the utmost of certainty …
These are The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Drafters:
Habit 1: They spend a ton of time of preparing
Just because it seems obvious doesn’t mean it’s not true. Draft day mirrors many aspects of life, but perhaps none more than this: What you put into it is what you get out of it. So, you need to prep, but before you prep, you need to know exactly what you are prepping for.
Obviously it helps if you’re subscribed to the free, daily Fantasy Life newsletter.
But the first thing you need to do is study the rules and, most importantly, figure out the best ways to exploit said rules. It’s super obvious, but you’d be amazed at how many people don’t do a deep dive on their league settings. From the obvious: What’s the scoring? Because that obviously will impact the type of players you target. Is it half-point PPR or full PPR? For example, last season in half-PPR scoring, 10 of the top 12 players in fantasy points per game were RBs (excluding QBs). However, in full PPR, that number was only six. Is there premium scoring for tight ends? Points for first downs? For long punts? Don’t laugh. I played in a punter league once. And crushed it like a grape, thank you very much.
What’s your roster size? How do you acquire free-agent players in your league? If it’s a free-agent budget, you can be a bit riskier on draft day because you will have a shot at every player if you need to replace someone. But if it’s a waiver system, it will be tougher to get the hot free agents, especially if the rules allow someone to sit on the top pick for multiple weeks. So, you’ll need to focus a little more on depth during the draft. Does your league have IR spots? If so, how many? Being able to use IR spots allows you to take more chances on talented but injury-prone players. Or players that are already hurt. For example, some leagues allow players who have an “OUT” designation to be placed in the IR spot, which means that if you draft Chris Godwin or Brandon Aiyuk and they’re not ready to go by Week 1, you can place them into your IR slot and pick up an additional player. How about a spot for suspended players? If you play in a league with an NA spot, drafting players like Rashee Rice or Jordan Addison becomes much easier. I believe that Rice will be an extremely productive player once he returns to the field, but how high I’m willing to draft him depends largely on the opportunity cost. In a shallower league with an NA spot, I want to be aggressive in targeting Rice because he can be a difference maker down the stretch and in the fantasy playoffs. But in a deeper league without such a spot, spending an early pick on Rice could mean having to burn a bench spot on him for multiple weeks.
All of these questions lead to roster construction, which will be a key part of your draft-day success. Reconciling how players are acquired during the season with roster size or any roster restrictions (for example, a limit on the number of RBs), will help you as you start to evaluate players. Can you fairly easily find solid production at various positions during the year via the waiver wire? If so, you can roster more “fliers.” Conversely, in deeper leagues where the free-agent pool is scarce, you’ll need some solid middle-of-the-road types to plug in during bye weeks and when injuries hit.
When do your playoffs start? How many teams make it? How are Week 14 byes going to affect your fantasy playoffs? With the NFL having moved to an 18-week season, some of these questions are more important than ever before.
Effective drafters also account for what platform they are playing on, because wherever you play, the draft is highly influenced by the default rankings in the draft room. People panic during a draft and often take the highest-ranked player available. Having a set of rankings you trust and believe in, and comparing them to the default ranks of whatever site you play on will help you identify which players are going too early, which players are going too low, what market inefficiencies there are, and how you can exploit them. For example, look at these current ADP (Average Draft Position) differences between ESPN and CBS leagues (note: this ADP may already look different by the time you’re reading this, but this is how it was at the time of my writing).
ESPN ADP vs. CBS ADP Differences
Jalen Hurts: 29.7 vs. 42.1
Breece Hall: 54.1 vs. 32.9
TreVeyon Henderson: 87.1 vs. 57.8
RJ Harvey: 93.5 vs. 56.8
Tony Pollard: 99.5 vs. 68.6
DeVonta Smith: 74.8 vs. 58
George Pickens: 76 vs. 63.4
Tetairoa McMillan: 89.5 vs. 67.5
Chris Godwin: 101.4 vs. 70.6
Jonnu Smith: 162.6 vs. 117.2
Now, yes, this ADP is affected by several factors and will change quickly as more drafts get completed, but it’s still shocking to see some of these disparities. Just think about how differently you would build your team if you could draft a high upside rookie RB like TreVeyon Henderson or RJ Harvey in the eighth round instead of the fifth round. Or Breece Hall in the early fifth instead of the in the middle of the third. Use this information to your advantage and ensure you’re not reaching for players you don’t need to be. And one more related tip. If it’s a league where you know the other managers, you can add in notations about the tendencies of other drafters. (This one always reaches for young, buzzy players, this other one stockpiles quarterbacks, etc.)
Finally, mock draft as much as possible, especially once you know what spot you are picking from. What happens if you go with Brock Bowers in the second round? What about a “Zero RB” or “Hero RB” approach? What if you go RB heavy and start your draft with 3-4 running backs? What if you take Lamar Jackson or Jayden Daniels early? The more options you play with to see how your team turns out, the more prepared you will be when the real draft happens, and you’ll be much more comfortable adjusting on the fly.
Habit 2: They identify the relative depth at every position
It isn’t enough to just have an opinion on every potential player. You need to understand every player’s value relative to every other player and the depth of that position as it relates to your roster needs. QB is deep, you say? Not if you play in a 14-team Superflex league. Then they start going quickly.
When you draft, you’re not just collecting as many good players as possible. You’re constructing a roster with finite resources. You have only so many spots, and you need to also understand how easy or hard it will be to replace players during the season.
Here’s a quick overview of how I see the positions this year:
Quarterback
There’s a clear elite tier at the top this year, which includes Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson, Jayden Daniels (who, I’d like to mention is a member of the Washington Commanders), and Jalen Hurts. And it’s a tier I find myself targeting quite often. Not only is the combination of upside and floor you get from this group unmatched, but I also find they usually go in an area of the draft where the skill position talent starts to plateau. I still don’t recommend taking a QB in the first two rounds in most standard leagues, but I have no issue taking any of the top four as early as the middle of the third. The next group of QBs (Joe Burrow, Patrick Mahomes, Baker Mayfield, Bo Nix) is the one I’ve been taking the least. And it has less to do with the individual players – I absolutely love both Burrow and Baker – and more to do with player archetype. I just don’t want to pay that high of a price for a pocket passer when Jared Goff, Brock Purdy, and Dak Prescott are all available three to four rounds later. The one exception in that low-end QB1 range for me this year is Justin Fields. He’s already shown a top five ceiling during his time with the Bears, and unlike last season, job security should not be an issue this year. Finally, if you miss out on the elite tier and Fields, I love grabbing two of Caleb Williams, Drake Maye, Trevor Lawrence or J.J. McCarthy and hoping one of them breaks out. All four should add value with their legs, and in the case of Williams, Maye, and Lawrence, I’m betting on coaching, scheme, and personnel changes taking those offenses to the next level this season.
Running back
Last year was a strange one for RBs. Not only did the position stay surprisingly healthy, but we got very productive seasons from a slew of older players. Derrick Henry, Alvin Kamara, and Joe Mixon all finished as top 10 RBs. James Conner was top 15. Aaron Jones top 20. Mixon is the youngest of the group and he turned 29 last month. And guess what? That outcome did absolutely nothing to change my strategy for 2025. Running back is still a young man’s game and if anything, last season’s outlier performances only make it more likely we see the trend flip back in the opposite direction going forward. In general, I feel very good about the 13 RBs I have inside my top 30. All of them are strong targets when utilizing a “Hero” or “Anchor” RB strategy and I also don’t mind grabbing two of them if you can get a good value on Bucky Irving, Chase Brown or Omarion “Ride or Die” Hampton as your RB2. (The Rashawn Slater injury sucks but I’m still sticking by Hampton. Expect a lot of runs to the right!) But at minimum, I want to try and get at least one of those top 13. I start to get a lot more selective in rounds four to six. I’ll mix in some Kenneth Walker or James Conner when I need early season production and TreVeyon Henderson or RJ Harvey for upside, but honestly I often prefer the WRs in these rounds and find myself breaking ties in that direction. Once we get outside the top 80-90 picks there’s a nice pocket of RB 3/4 types that have stable enough roles to be fringe FLEX plays most weeks, but also have the potential to be RB2s with increased volume. This group includes players like Tyrone Tracy, Jaylen Warren, JK Dobbins, Jordan Mason, and Tyjae Spears. Finally, once we get outside the top 40 at the position, there’s no shortage of exciting rookies (Bhayshul Tuten, Dylan Sampson, Jaydon Blue… I love Jacory Crosby-Merritt, Kyle, Monangai, and Jordan James as a late-round flyer) or high-value insurance options (Zach Charbonnet, Tyler Allgeier, Ray Davis) to fill out your bench. Yes, the range of outcomes on those players is much wider, but so is their contingent upside. And finally, as an overall approach to the position, you want to target volume and high-value touches (receptions + red zone opportunities). Remember, RB talent matters, but it’s far less correlated to fantasy production than at any of the other positions.
Wide receiver
Following breakout seasons from Malik Nabers, Brian Thomas Jr., and Ladd McConkey, the top of the WR position is as loaded as it’s ever been. I’m making it a priority to try and grab one of my top 11 this year and depending on the league type, I’m very comfortable starting my draft with two receivers from that group. I find myself doing this primarily in best ball and industry drafts where I know RBs will fall, so it really helps to know your league. Once we get to the WR2 range, Davante Adams, Garrett Wilson, and Xavier Worthy are some of my favorite targets. I don’t mind being aggressive with players you like in this tier, but you also don’t want to go too WR heavy this early because this season I believe some of the best values at the position are in the WR25-40 range. Jameson Williams, George Pickens, Tetairoa McMillan, Travis Hunter, and Jaylen Waddle are just a few of the players in this range that I find myself drafting repeatedly. And finally, I love completing my WR room with a reliable high-floor option like Jakobi Meyers or Jauan Jennings. These aren’t “sexy” picks, but the fantasy points count the same. And adding a player like Meyers or Jennings is a great way to balance your roster if you’ve already drafted several more volatile receivers such as Rome Odunze or Chirs Olave. In standard-sized leagues, I almost always want to have all my WRs come from the top 40 or 45 in my rankings, aside from leaving a spot or two for my favorite late-round dart throws. If recent history has shown us anything, tacking on a rookie receiver in the final rounds is never a bad idea, but unless you’re in a very deep league, I’d much rather use my later picks on insurance backs than low-upside depth WRs such as Michael Pittman or Christian Kirk.
Tight end
I’m back in on elite TE this year, although I find myself with a lot more Trey McBride and George Kittle than Brock Bowers thus far. It’s nothing against Bowers – he’s phenomenal – I just think McBride and Kittle could deliver comparable seasons from a point in the draft where the opportunity cost is notably lower. If I don’t get one of the top three, however, I’m typically waiting until the back end of my top 12 to grab a TE. I’ll still take Mark Andrews on teams where I’ve drafted Lamar (especially following the Isaiah Likely injury), and Evan Engram once again profiles as an effective PPR scam artist, but I honestly don’t see a huge gap between my TE5 (T.J. Hockenson) and my TE12 (Jake Ferguson) right now. In a 12-team league, I’m more than comfortable entering the season with Colston Loveland, Tucker Kraft or Ferguson as my TE1. If you’re playing in deeper leagues, Brenton Strange, Hunter Henry, and Cade Otton are all viable options. And if that’s not deep enough for you, I also like two New York tight ends going for free in drafts, the Jets’ Mason Taylor and Theo Johnson of the Giants. Finally, remember that if you’re looking for the next late-round breakout TE, you want to focus on players with good athleticism, solid QB play, and a viable path to becoming either the No. 2 or No. 3 option in their passing attacks.
Habit 3: They abide by the one big secret of fantasy football
At a fundamental level, fantasy football is entirely about minimizing risk and giving yourself the best odds to win on a weekly basis. That’s it. That simple. From the time you read this article until the end of your season, every single thing you do need leads back to that very simple, but rarely followed approach.
Every draft pick, waiver move, potential trade, start/sit decision and so on. Everything. I can’t predict the future. Neither can you. Neither can anyone else. So all you can do is minimize risk, give yourself the best odds to succeed every week, make the best call you can in the moment, and let the chips fall where they may.
Patrick Mahomes ranked second in pass attempts per game last season. It was his fifth straight season finishing inside the top three. What’s most likely to happen?
Kyren Williams has led all RBs in snap rate in each of the past two seasons. He has an 85% snap rate during that time. No other RB is above 80%. What’s most likely to happen?
Mike Evans leads all players in end zone targets over the past two seasons. He’s seen at least 30% of his team’s end zone targets in nine of his 11 NFL seasons. Since 2018, he has only one season where he scored fewer than eight touchdowns. What’s most likely to happen?
Trey McBride led all TEs with a 29% target share last season. He’s had at least a 20% target share in 22 of the 24 games he’s played with Kyler Murray since Murray returned from injury. What’s most likely to happen?
Arthur Smith offenses have ranked 25th or lower in pass attempts in five of his six seasons either as a head coach or offensive coordinator. An Arthur Smith QB has not finished higher than QB15 in PPG (min. eight games) since Ryan Tannehill in 2020. What’s most likely to happen?
Now, most likely to happen doesn’t mean it will happen. It just means it’s much more likely to happen than not. And that’s all we can ask for. If you consistently play the odds, you’ll win a lot more than you won’t. And when you are evaluating players before and during the draft, when you are building your team, that’s what you need to do. Just remember once again: At a fundamental level, fantasy football is entirely about minimizing risk and giving yourself the best odds to win on a weekly basis. So always ask yourself ... what’s most likely to happen?
Habit 4: They use rankings flexibly and in context
Whether they are mine, your own, someone else’s, an average of multiple people or even just the default ones in the draft room, when you draft, you are going to have a set of rankings. They are certainly helpful, but they should be used only as a guideline, and more so in the early parts of the draft. Once you get your first five players, it really becomes about roster construction based on what positions you need to fill, how much risk you’ve already taken, and how the draft is playing out, taking into account all the factors we’ve already discussed.
I say this speaking as someone who spends an inordinate amount of time on his rankings, but no list is going to nail end-of-season value, especially if you consider weekly variance.
Let’s use Zach Charbonnet and Austin Ekeler as the example here. Looking at Fantasy Life consensus ADP, both players are going in the RB35-45 range. Some sites have Charbonnet going higher, others have Ekeler.
Over at FantasyLife.com, my friend Dwain McFarland has Ekeler and Charbonnet back-to-back in his 2025 RB projections. He has Ekeler projected for 143.9 points and Charbonnet for 137.6. Less then seven points apart over a full season.
And last season, Ekeler finished as the RB29 in PPG (11.4), one spot ahead of Charbonnet who was the RB30 at 11.0 PPG.
But let’s take a closer look at how their 2024 seasons played out.
Ekeler played 12 games and scored 10+ points in eight of them. He had a consistent role in the offense, playing at least 43% of offensive snaps in 10 of those games, but there was no ceiling to his production. He had only three games with 14+ points, which wasn’t surprising given that he averaged under 10 touches per game.
Charbonnet had similar per game production over the course of the full season, but he got there in a totally different way. In the 11 games Kenneth Walker was active, Charbonnet was largely unusable – averaging six touches and 6.5 PPG while playing only 36% of the snaps. But in the six games Walker missed, Charbonnet averaged 18.3 touches and 19.2 PPG, including a 38-point game in Week 14 and a 25-point game in Week 3.
So, which RB would you rather have? Well, I guess it depends, right? Or maybe it doesn’t. In most leagues, the answer should be Charbonnet. Yes, he cost you a bench spot for 11 weeks, but you also got six weeks where your 12th round pick was a top 15 RB. Meanwhile proud Fantasy Life investor Austin Ekeler, himself a savvy fantasy football player, gave you a more consistent floor but you would likely have to have been playing in a 14-team Superflex league for him to have weekly value to your team.
I used Charbonnet/Ekeler as the example here because the numbers lined up so perfectly, but you can apply this same framework of using rankings within the context of team building to players going in all areas of the draft and across multiple positions. Let’s look at Bills WRs Khalil Shakir and Keon Coleman as another comparison point. Both players are going in a similar ADP range, but they’re very different receivers. Shakir is a low aDOT slot option who regularly catches 5-6 passes a game and scores double-digit points, but he doesn’t see many deep targets and isn’t a big touchdown scorer, so he has a relatively low ceiling. Coleman, on the other hand, was very inconsistent as rookie but flashed some big-play potential and emerged as Buffalo’s primary deep threat and red zone target. If he were to take a big step forward this year, a 1,000-yard, 10 TD season is well within his range of outcomes. So, unless you have a firm stance on which player you think will be better, it comes down to roster fit. If you’ve already drafted several volatile players and need to add some consistency, Shakir’s high floor should be very appealing. Conversely, if you already have other high-floor, low-ceiling WRs, then a player like Coleman is a good way to add some upside to your roster.
Habit 5: They focus on winning weeks
It’s very simple, but so many people forget that fantasy football is a weekly game. Let’s go back to the Zach Charbonnet example one more time. Getting a 38-point game from a RB you drafted outside the top 100 picks in Week 14 as you potentially battle for a playoff spot is obviously huge. But what really makes it valuable is that everyone who had Charbonnet KNEW to start him that week.
Charbonnet already had two big games earlier in the season when filling in for Walker, and even going back to 2023, there was plenty of evidence showing that whenever Walker was out, Seattle was comfortable giving Charbonnet 20+ touches and using him as a true three-down back.
And that’s the crucial part. It’s not enough to have players who score a lot. It’s important to know WHEN to start them.
Starting players like CeeDee Lamb (or Eights as I call him) of the world is easy. In theory, your first five picks should all be “CeeDee Lambs” -- the players you will start every week barring injury or a bye.
But what about the rest of your lineup? Once I get to the middle of my drafts, I no longer seek players who are consistent high-floor performers. Because they’re all gone. Now, I want players who could wind up as an elite option at a position in any given week, and that I feel I’ll have a chance to see it coming.
I used to call this the “Never James White” Rule.
James White was a solid fantasy football player during his peak. From 2016-2019, White was the RB25 in PPG. But for those playing in standard sized leagues, James White never had as much fantasy value as that ranking would lead you to believe. The reason being, he very rarely had 20-point games that could win you a week. It was just a consistent stream of 10-12-point games that added up over time.
Now, compare that to Charbonnet or any of the other RBs I have used to make this point in previous seasons (Alexander Mattison, Khalil Herbert, Tyler Allgeier, etc.). Stashing those players on your bench for most of the season may be frustrating, but the potential payoff is absolutely worth it.
This is why I say rankings are just a loose guideline and in many ways their accuracy in the context of a full season doesn’t matter on a week-to-week basis. To give a “player you draft in later rounds” example for this season, consider Ray Davis, Trey Benson, and Rico Dowdle. Davis racked up 152 total yards in his only start last season and averaged over 15 PPG in his three games with 12+ touches. We know Buffalo is going to have an effective rushing attack and with James Cook currently in a contract dispute, Davis can earn himself a bigger role with a strong camp. That, and if Cook were to miss any games due to either injury or a holdout, Davis would immediately become a top 24 RB. James Conner is one of the most underrated running backs in the league. He’s also 30 and has handled 220+ touches in each of his four seasons with Arizona. I know from speaking with a team source that the Cardinals are high on Benson, and Conner himself recently said the second-year back should see a lot more playing time this season. As for Dowdle, he showed last year that he can lead a backfield, racking up over 1,300 scrimmage yards for Dallas and finishing as a top 24 RB in PPG. Chuba Hubbard is the unquestioned starter in Carolina, but if he were to get hurt, it’s not Dowdle and not rookie Trevor Etienne who would take over as the starter for an improving Panthers offense.
As you are filling out your bench, you need to view it in the context of the quality of players available on the waiver wire. Now, don’t go wild. Drafting a high number of boom-or-bust players makes sense only if you know you can easily find viable production on the waiver wire during bye weeks or in case of injury. But the positive is that it won’t cost much draft-day capital for these upside types. They generally will be ranked much lower in pre-draft season-long rankings than they will be ranked in the weeks when you know you’ll need to use them. That’s why I don’t want to reach for players like Najee Harris – who still hasn’t returned to practice and is sharing a backfield with a far more explosive first-round rookie in my “Ride or Die” Omarion Hampton – when Braelon Allen comes cheaper despite being a Breece Hall injury away from becoming a must-start option.
Habit 6: They are adaptable and trust themselves above all others
Obviously, you should be watching, reading, listening to as much as possible before you draft (including Fantasy Football Happy Hour, now LIVE every day at Noon ET on YouTube, and on demand on Peacock, YouTube and wherever you get your podcasts), and that means all August and September until the season kicks off Thursday night September 4, with the Cowboys at Eagles on NBC and Peacock (I’m a company man). This will help you have an opinion on every player. You don’t need to memorize every stat or break down every play but just have a general sense of whether you are “pro” or “con” the player and what general value you give him. Because, as Mike Tyson likes to say, “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.”
The point is, you never know what to expect during a draft. There can be extreme runs and there can be drafters who have wildly different values than you, so players you didn’t expect to be available are there for the taking. And there may be someone drafting in front of you using your exact rankings they printed from nbcsports.com and laughing as they draft the player you want while commenting, “Hahaha do you LOVE this pick, Berry?!”
That last one may be specific to only me.
But highly effective drafters are the ones who don’t enter with a specific hard-and-fast strategy. By doing the work and being prepared, by mock drafting like it’s your job, by being flexible, you’ll be able to adapt on the fly and you won’t let your draft be dictated by anyone or anything, but you.
Habit 7: They approach the draft as just the first step toward success
Just because draft day is the most important day, that doesn’t mean it’s the only important day. You don’t have to win the league during your draft. In fact, it’s unlikely that you will. If your fantasy football season is a building under construction, then the draft is the foundation. If there’s a run on quarterbacks, instead of forcing it and reaching early for a guy in the tier below, grab another wide receiver. Give yourself some surplus so you have something to trade. Trust me, another lower-tier quarterback will still be there next round.
And this goes with what I was talking about in terms of not sweating rankings or ADP too much and going for upside, because you’re likely dropping some of these guys on the way to glory anyway. Last year, Baker Mayfield, Sam Darnold, Bo Nix, Bucky Irving, JK Dobbins, Jakobi Meyers, Jauan Jennings, and Jonnu Smith were all waiver wire pickups. Jerry Jeudy, another in-season add, was the WR7 over the final 10 weeks of the season. Happens every year.
And remember, sometimes a winning waiver pickup is one you only need for a couple weeks. Take Jalen McMillan for example. Over the first 13 weeks last season, McMillan was the WR96, averaging 4.5 PPG. Then from Weeks 14-18 he averaged 19.8 PPG and was a top 12 WR. A player who was unusable for 75% of the season suddenly became a key part of championship winning teams.
Your fantasy season will be a constant work in progress, so understand that as you construct your team on draft day it’s not just about acquiring players in the draft, and later via free agency and trade, but ultimately how you use them. In-season roster decision-making will be crucial for you to get that championship. But that’s a story for “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective In-Season Managers.”
