Fantasy Football Draft Strategy

Here is a list of practical fantasy football draft strategy points to consider when you do your draft. This advice has helped me dominate expert leagues and I am postive and confident that the advice I’m sharing will also help you dominate. Enjoy this list and make sure you apply these strategies and take action! Be sure to share with you friends, but not your league mates!

1. Load up on Running Backs!

So here’s the deal, you need to load up on running backs and that’s the bottom line! This needs to be first on your priority when approaching your draft. You have to go into your fantasy football draft knowing who the running backs are that will get the volume and which guys are not in a minimal committee! Listen, more and more often we see coaches implementing running backs by committee and getting that solid workhorse back is crucial to your success at winning your league. Note a workhorse running back should get at least 70% plus of the workload.

Load up on Running backs!

Here is a solid tip on drafting that solid RB. You need to make sure that the RB has shown that he can handle a full workload and have seen him do it before. There will be rookies that come in every year that will fall under the workhorse title. Try to make sure you target one of them you feel will break out as early as you possibly can without reaching. I understand things change but you need know that he is primed for a year of high volume and carries. Ezekiel Elliott is a good example of a running back that gets his share of the workload every single year.

Now in later rounds I do suggest you secure some rookies with major upside. I’ve had great success grabbing the NEXT big rookie breakouts when loading up on young talent. Later rounds is a good time to do this, but sometimes you may want to snipe a rookie RB in earlier rounds if you believe the upside and opportunity is there. Make sure you look at the depth chart and project volume and opportunity for any running back you decide to draft on your roster. In my 16 Rounds course, I release every year I give you my big sleepers and breakouts. My in-depth research gets rid of a lot of you guess work!

2. Know the league rules

Yeah yeah, this may sound like common sense but common sense is not so common anymore! You have to know your league rules. Some of the league rules and things you need to look at are as follows:

• PPR, half-point or Standard scoring
• Weight of the scoring at each position
• Roster positions. For example, is this a 2 Qb league? How many rb’s do I need and how many bench spots are there
• Is this a 8, 10, 12 or 14 person league
• When is the draft and how much time do I have in between picks?
• Snake draft or auction draft?

Understanding the league rules will play a massive part in the drafting process. A solid example of this is the number of quarterbacks in your league. As a rule of thumb, I always draft 2 QB’S in a single Qb league and 3 Qb’s in a 2 quarterback league. I do this to cover myself and have depth. The point here is that knowing the league rules, scoring system, and landscape. Again, this is critical to dominating your fantasy football league.

3. Know the ADP’s (Average Draft Position)

I can relate drafting in fantasy football to chess. You need to make a move and draft that player before someone else does. You need to anticipate when a player may be taken off the board. There are many similarites between the two and knowing your ADP’s for the players in that given year are important. The last thing you want to do is get the player you really want to draft sniped by your fellow league mate! Make sure you don’t over reach though.

Drafting is kinda like Chess

The secret to avoid getting sniped and getting the players you really want is knowing when players are coming off the board on average. The majority of players just follow ADP and draft based on that. If you do that you will lose. You need to think outside the box and draft players with upside before the ADP at times and get value in later positions.

Mock drafting is the best way to guage when players are being drafted. You need to do a lot of fantasy football mock drafts. Once you anticipate you will elevate your drafting game. A lot of casual fantasy football players don’t have a clue of players that are being drafted after round 4. Doing a lot of mocks will put you light years ahead of the average gamer.  Be a wise player and a drafting genius,  know the average draft postions, you will thank me when you get all the players you really wanted.

4. Wait on a Tight End

Waiting to draft the tight end position is something that I have done every year and have had solid success with. Typically there are about 1-3 tight ends from the year prior that put up really solid fantasy points. The tight ends are then put on a pedestal and drafted super early in next years draft. (This happens with other postions as well but stick with me for this example). Tight ends are important but NOT as important as other postions such as a running back early on. The draft strategy that has worked for me is waiting on tight end until after the 6th round give or take. After I have grabbed a safe TE in rounds 6-7, I will get a TE with upside at round 10 or after. This way I have a TE that could potentially breakout and a safe one in mid rounds.

I am happy with about 10 points ppr out of my TE every game. I find this position to be very volatile and always end up waiting later and backing him up with an upside TE. Try it out, you will be surprised with the outcome. No matter what happens, you will be happy becuase you will be loaded at WR and RB after 5 rounds.

5. Anchor your team with an ACE QB

Anchor the ace QB

Always, Always, Always make sure you have a solid QB that puts up points every single week! These guys tend to put up the most points every single year. Usually, 1-3 Qb’s end up being the TOP scoring player each year. The great news is that the trends of quarterbacks are easier to spot. Statistically you can see how well a QB can perform every single year and there is much less volatility.

As mentioned before don’t be afraid to double up and get yourself a backup QB. There are many reasons I always get two quarterbacks in a one QB league and 3 Qb’s in a 2 Qb league. The most obvious reason to back up your qb is because you want to cover that bye week. No better feeling than having two solid qb’s on your roster at all times. Another reason I make sure I have a back up is to cover injuries or just lack of performance. I tend to draft Qb’s earlier to make sure I have a solid producer every single year. I typically draft a quarterback as early as the 5th round.

NOTE on drafting a QB: Sometimes rookies or second-year players come out and have a breakout year and are inflated for the next draft year. BE VERY careful here, as they have not yet proven they can deliver year in and out. Some people fall into the trap of drafting them as early as round 1 and 2 and then they bust.  Secure and anchor yourself with a proven Qb and back him up with an upside qb later in the draft!

6. Balance your roster and have tons of depth!

So what do I mean by a balanced roster??  Let’s get more advanced, Counselor style!! It means several different things. Stick with me, once you understand this you will be thinking outside the box.

Firstly, balanced means you need to get a balance of players that have upside and players that have consistency and are safe. This balance will give your team boom potential. For example, in the first the 1-4 rounds you really want the safer more proven talent. (Side note: normally we see RD 1-3 talent bust at times!) Bottom line you still want the elite talent that has been performing year in and out ideally. You want to aim for names that are proven and will get the volume. In mid to late-rounds you want to take some chances on upside and rookies. Balance is key. Playing too safe or playing to risky can hurt your fantasy football team.

Secondly, in balance I mean you need to make sure you have a good amount of depth to cover your postions. I have seen it time and time again where a player is hoarding too much of ONE position and then he has no depth at another positon. This is not a good fantasy football draft strategy at all. Make sure you have depth at all positions to accommodate for bye weeks, lack of performance and injuries.

BALANCE IS POWER! 

7. Have a backup plan for a backup plan

I live by the belt, suspenders and then the superglue theory. Meaning I always back myself up!

Imagine you’re in a draft and all of the players you wanted in round 3 have been taken. You’ve done over 1000 Fantasy mock drafts and you thought you had all your bases covered but all the players you wanted are taken in that round. What do you do?  Simple, you have a backup plan for a backup plan. In my 16 Round draft solution video training, I discuss which players to draft in each round, and I always make sure I have a TON of options to chose from no matter where I am in the draft.

A quick heads up tip here is that when in doubt and panic mode, draft the best available player for the position you MOST need to fill. So if you need a RB roster spot filled and you see a solid RB there pick him up. If you have made a list of players you have to have based on your research, work down that list. Now you may be reaching in some rounds, and that’s ok. I find leagues are NOT won by players in the first 1-3 rounds. Late round steals can sometimes be the league winners!

Cover yourself and always have a backup plan!

8. Be REALLY picky and use the “CUDDY” System

CUDDY System Works!

I created and trademarked a very simple drafting system you can run through your head before you draft any player for your roster. It’s called the “CUDDY” system. It is very easy to remember and I will tell you what it means and how to use it!

CUDDY stands for: Consistency, Upside, Durability, Depth and Youth. I make sure that any player on my team has at least 3/5 letter of the Cuddy draft system met. Yes I am picky, but you have to be in order to dominate your leagues! Let’s dive in a little deeper here:

Consistency, what do I mean? To put it simply, the player ideally must must up points year in year out, week in and week out and game in and game out. I am looking for a player that is super consistent and produces often and a lot.

Upside:  The player with the high ceiling and upside. I love the U in the CUDDY. The upside is what wins championships in fantasy football. The only problem here is that with upside comes with major risk. This takes us back to the balanced roster. You need players with both risk and safety on your team.

Durability: This really speaks for itself. I rarely draft injury prone players or players coming off an injury. I understand that injuries do happen and sometimes they are a fluke, but I stray away from injury-prone players and always aim to land durable and consistent players whenever I can.

Depth:  A very critical part of the CUDDY system. I see so many players drafting running backs that are backups and RB 2’s on the team. Mostly people draft these guys because the are well known or have a “name” I almost always tend to aim higher on the depth chart. I NEVER settle for someone who is or could be behind someone on the depth chart. I will even draft a player with less consistency that is WR one on their team, over a guy that is better known and is a WR 2 on his team. Always aim for the TOP of the depth chart and get the big volume and target guys. Like anything in life you have to be picky and never settle. Set your standards high all the time. This is your team and winning at fantasy football is what it’s all about.

Youth: Man do I love the youth. There are pros and cons to drafting young talent. I tend to stay away from rookie wide receivers and quarterbacks. I tend to gravitate towards rookie Rb’s mainly. The pros are clear, and the rookies are coming in are HUNGRY. They are hungry to succeed and hungry to leave their mark. The cons are that we don’t know what to expect and we don’t know how they will adapt to the speed of the NFL. If I see a young rookie Rb landing on a team where he will get the volume, I am sure to grab him as my Rb 3-4 on my team after I have already secured my proven workhorse backs. I also love youth becuase you are getting potential breakout talent before anyone else spots it. This is especially important in keeper leagues.

Implement the CUDDY and get the edge in your fantasy football draft. It works!

9. Don’t overpay for Defenses and Kickers.

I wait as long as humanly possible to draft either a defense or a kicker. To be honest most of the time I end up streaming both positions. This is probably the ONLY time I draft based on ADP. I usually just look at the best possible defense and kicker I can get based on last years statistics. Based on my experience and data, I find kicker to bemore consistent than defense. The offseason moves on teams defense and special teams can be drastic. You will not be getting the same team you got the year before for the most part.

That all being said, if I see 2 or 3 defenses coming off the board in later rounds I may be temtped to grab a top 5 defense based on last year. This is not real a deal-breaker. I find most leagues are getting away from defense and kickers all together. I find the volatility to be a pain at times.

On a side note, IDP player leagues are not something that interests me. I have played in leagues with these individual defensive players and I found it annoying. You spend all this time drafting your team and then all of a sudden the CB on your opponent’s team has the game of their lives. IDP players can be extremely volatile and boom or busty. I stay away from these leagues as they really rely on luck.

10. Stray away from the Consheepsus rankings!

If you follow the herd you will not win bottom line. BE THE LION AND NOT A SHEEP!

Every year the mainstream sheep analysts bring out the lists of rankings and tell you this is the ADP.  This makes me laugh becuase it’s literally last years top finishers, copy and pasted to this year. This lack of thinking was what propelled me to create my brand and offer people better advice that works. I know why the sheep do this though. They copy and paste fantasy football rankings,  because it’s easy and they play it safe. They don’t want to look bad but reaching on unproven players or players that underperformed the year before. The funny thing about all this is that they are terribly wrong every single year.

There is so much more to creating the current fantasy football rankings for the year. You can’t just copy and paste. You have to look at coaching changes, injuries, depth charts, draft results and so much more.

The ADP is just a guideline. Don’t be afraid to stray away from the mainstream and think outside the box. Sometimes you maybe reaching on players and taking some risks. People in the draft will laugh at the moment, but at the end of the year you will have the last laugh!

BE A FANTASY FOOTBALL LION!

Go out there and crush your leagues.

Now you have a really solid fantasy football draft stategy to help you win your league. Here are some additional tips to help you get the edge. I am all about giving you as many tools in your utility belt as I possibly can. Bonus tips inlcude:

• Have no fear and take some risks on some players
• Be confident
• Show up to your draft sober and focused
• Stay on top of the latest news
• Stay on top of the latest injuries
• You can get some solid breakout wide receivers and league winner later in the draft
• Watch the NFL draft. You need to be aware of the rookies coming in and how it affect the offense

Also, make sure you are subscribed to my #1 fantasy football podcast as we go year round!