Welcome back for part 2 of our multi-part series designed to help you have a better understanding of what is required from you to have the best chance  to win your fantasy football league. In the first part of the series we really got back to the basics and built the foundational knowledge that you need to have to set yourself up for success. I highly encourage you to go back and read the first article, especially if you haven’t done it yet. This article, and future articles are going to continue to build on this foundation, so the better you understand it the better off we  will be. To recap briefly, before starting we should have a basic understanding of the league we are in, the coaching and player changes that occurred after last season, and how to interpret ADP data.

The first thing that we are going to discuss in this portion of the series is going to build directly off of our discussion of understanding coaching changes that have occurred. Why is this the first thing we need to understand? The answer is far more simple than you think, but I am going to give a deeper explanation to help everyone understand. It is easy for us, as fantasy managers, to get caught up in the name value of players that we know. The problem with this is that many players that we know are a product of the scheme that they play in, and that scheme is determined by the COACHES! There are several coaches that have very well known tendencies. The first example I will provide is Andy Reid. I am always going to look to invest in any running game coached by Big Red. Andy Reid’s scheme has consistently provided a top 10 rusher going all the way back to his time in Philadelphia. Regardless of what else happens on his teams, he will always ensure that he has a productive running game. So, specifically for this season that means that a player I am targeting is Isaiah Pacheco. I believe that he is currently being undervalued at his current ADP, so I am advocating him as a great value pick for us. BUT, he is not the only Kansas City RB that I am interested in. Clyde Edwards-Helaire is essentially the only other experienced RB on this roster, and the Chiefs re-signed him to a new deal this off-season. He is a guy that you can get essentially in the last round of your drafts, and if Pacheco goes down, he should be able to step into a starters role and could be a league winner for you. I do not consider this a true handcuff situation, and I will discuss what my definition of handcuffing is shortly. But, even if I miss out on Pacheco I am still trying to get CEH late, because I believe in the system. I am investing in the system, not just the specific players.

Another example of investing in a coaching system instead of just the players for me this year is the Tennessee Titans. This offensive scheme is going to look incredibly similar to what we have seen from Cincinnati. Think back to what the Bengals have done the last several years. It is a wide open passing attack that heavily involves the Wide Receivers and Running Backs, while not putting much emphasis on the Tight Ends. So, to that end I am incredibly interested in acquiring pieces of this passing game, starting with the Quarterback. I am much higher than consensus on Will Levis this year. I believe that he will be able to put together a top-12 QB season, and you are able to draft him very late with an ADP of 153 and QB24, this is a discount that I will be all too happy to scoop up. I am also interested in both Calvin Ridley and Deandre Hopkins. I think both guys have top 24 potential and both are currently being valued as WR3’s or even FLEX players with Ridley’s ADP being WR34 and Hopkins coming in with an ADP of WR38. I also believe that both Tony Pollard and Tyjae Spears should be targets for us. Both guys have a similar skill-set, and I think they will be used somewhat interchangeably. ADP seems to indicate that many players feel the same with Pollard’s ADP coming in at RB29 and Spears’ coming in at RB31. These are FLEX worthy values and I think both guys will firmly outperform this and both be RB2 worthy on a weekly basis.

These are just a couple of coaching situations that I am advocating, and I encourage you to do some of your own research on other situations that have proven to be historically strong. I will point you in a couple of directions. If I were looking to invest in situations, I would look strongly to Los Angeles, Seattle, and Carolina.

Now that the basic foundation is taken care of, let’s start making a plan on how to approach our drafts. The next statement is one that shouldn’t need to be made, but I know someone out there needs to see it. Before you begin your fantasy draft, you need to have at least a basic draft strategy, or plan. If you walk into your draft unprepared, you are setting your leaguemates up for success. Now, is it possible to win without a plan? Possibly, but you are relying almost entirely on luck, and at some point luck will run out. Now, let me make sure I make this point. While I am telling you to walk into your draft with a plan, MAKE SURE THAT YOUR PLAN IS FLEXIBLE. Every draft is different, and you need to be ready for the curveballs that are thrown at you in your drafts. Also, A PLAN DOES NOT MEAN A SPECIFIC PLAYER. I don’t think I can make that point strong enough. Your draft plan should be able to work for you regardless of your draft position. Too many fantasy managers create their strategy by building around a specific player, or set of players, and if someone else drafts them before they are able to, it causes their plan to fall apart, and they claim to be sniped. I say relatively confidently that, since I began to understand the fantasy game, I have NEVER been sniped. This is because my plan allows me to be flexible and always find the best value available at the time.

A few commonly accepted Fantasy Football Draft Strategies include: Zero RB, Hero RB, Robust/Bully RB, QB early, and QB late. In this section we will give a short explanation of these strategies and you can determine if any of them are for you.

First off, Zero RB. Zero RB is a strategy that exploded in popularity over the past few years because of the changing landscape in the NFL. Essentially with a Zero RB strategy, you will not plan on taking a running back until, usually, around the 6th-7th round. This means that you are attempting to load up on high value WR, TE, and potentially QB. This strategy is dependent on finding value in later round backs, oftentimes due to injury to running backs who get drafted in earlier rounds. It can also be achieved by finding a back who will be filling a lead role unexpectedly due to changing teams, or being a rookie that earns the role during practices.

Secondly, let’s briefly discuss Hero RB. Hero RB is a strategy that grew somewhat from the popularity spike of Zero RB. It uses a lot of the same strategy, but instead of not drafting any RB’s early, it predicates that you draft ONE ELITE RB in the first 2 rounds. Once you have this elite RB, you go back to pushing RB until late so you can draft the top end talent at other positions.

The third strategy that we will discuss is a bit of a throwback strategy. Robust or Bully RB means that while all of your other leaguemates draft WR early, you start gobbling up all the top RB talent. This is how fantasy used to be played, RB’s ruled the world. In the modern NFL, RB’s have been undervalued, so fantasy players have followed suit. This strategy is a bit unique in the current landscape, and if you are good at identifying high value late round receivers, it could give you an advantage over your leaguemates.

The last two strategies will be discussed together. Early QB and Late QB are two sides of the same coin. Early QB simply means that you are planning on grabbing one of the ELITE QB’s early, and will build your roster around them. Late QB means that you are going to focus on building value at other positions, and that you will get a QB or two in the later rounds that you believe will be able to give you quality production at the position.

Now that the basic strategies have been discussed, I will tell you that my draft strategy is none of these. In my almost 30 years of competing in fantasy leagues, I have developed a draft strategy that I call Value Based Drafting. While every strategy has its pros and cons, I believe that my value based drafting can provide you with the biggest advantage possible, while limiting your risk as much as possible. To properly utilize value based drafting, you will need to have a very good understanding of how to use the ADP tool that we have in our toolbox. You will also need to be incredibly flexible in your roster building. Using value based drafting means that you are incredibly likely to have an open position in your lineup for a while, and this terrifies some fantasy managers. So, how do we use value based drafting? First off you need to have done your research, and have your personal rankings and projections down cold. Then you have an understanding of ADP, and specifically your platform/leagues ADP. Once you have these two things, you build a value chart that gives you a players value as compared to ADP. Some players will be valued above ADP, and some will be valued below ADP. This is natural, and is a part of the process. Some of the players that have values below ADP, might be players that you are a fan of, or are players that have been valued above ADP in the past. None of that matters. All that matters is how that player is valued for this season. Past seasons don’t matter. Now, you let the draft unfold as normal, and when it is your time to pick…you pick the player that has the highest value on your board…REGARDLESS OF POSITION OR PERCEIVED TEAM NEED. This point needs to be hammered home. I can assure you, that in all my years of doing this, I have NEVER drafted a team that had more QB’s or TE’s than I needed. When done correctly, you will find that the players that typically have the best values will be the players at the high value positions, like RB and WR. Now, this strategy works for me, but I cannot and will not advocate that everyone use it. It is a complex strategy that needs both confidence and experience. 

That is going to do it for today’s article. The next part of this article will focus on how to build strategies for the other types of leagues. We will touch on strategies for Keeper, Dynasty, and Auction leagues. Those strategies will build on the basics of the strategies that we built in this article, and the tools we developed in the first article in this series. As always you can find me on X(Twitter) @2fatguysff I am also active on The Sports Affiliation Discord, and encourage you to reach out to me there!

Until next time!