I had a family draft the other day and it came to my attention that my wife, like many other normal people, does not consume copious amounts of fantasy football content prior to even the most casual of fantasy league drafts. This lead to several questions mid-draft that went to a similar tune of “who should I draft in this round?”. Now I am a man of integrity, so I kept my mouth shut. There’s no way I’m being accused of collusion and tarnishing my good name as a fantasy football manager. After the draft was completed and some conversations were had, she mentioned that she would be more prepared if there was a simple step-by-step, round-by-round guide for people who don’t devote their lives to managing imaginary football teams.
To help out all of those new players out there, I’m here to share my thoughts on how to navigate a fantasy football draft.
[Related: No Stats, Just Vibes: Why the Patriots are Prime to be a Fantasy Football Nightmare]
Before we dive into the guide there are a few things that are worth mentioning. First and foremost, it is your team and you can do whatever you want with it. This is only a guide after all. If you think the guy who has sweet hair in their picture looks like a good fantasy player, go and grab that guy. You can always drop them later
Second, every draft is different. Sometimes you pick up a quarterback a little early than normal and that’s ok. There will be times where the running backs in a round aren’t as good, and you’ll have to pick up another wide receiver – that’s ok too. There are a lot of draft picks, so there’s no reason to stress out a certain pick. You’ll always get another chance later on to pick up the slack on your team.
Third, you will want a whole bunch of running backs and wide receivers. There will be several rounds in a row that you’ll need to pick up wide receivers and running backs. The reason being is that these are the positions that you have two starting spots on your roster that you’ll need to fill in. Of the 9 spots on your roster, 5 of them will be filled with an RB or WR. It’s important to have good starters and solid bench players in those positions.
Last note to remember – if you are really new to fantasy football, trust the “recommended player” option. Whatever app you use typically has a pre-set ranking of all the players available for drafting from best to worst. These rankings are based on season projections and a thing called “average draft position”. Rankings serve as a guide for those who don’t follow fantasy football closely, making it a perfect blueprint to follow when you’re in a pinch.
Alright enough of this introduction business – time for the guide!
Assuming that your league is a standard roster league, no super flex or double flex spot, you will have 9 starting spots and usually 7 bench spots. This will bring us to 16 rounds total in the draft. A good breakdown of your roster will go something like this –
Redundancy is important for the double-up positions as you never want to find yourself frantically searching for a replacement if something happens to one of your studs. This roster construction isn’t a hard and fast rule however. You can have a second quarterback and 5 WRs, or a second tight end and 5 RBs. It’s ok to be flexible in your roster since it’ll be changing throughout the year.
Potential Picks
RBs:
Christian McCaffrey, Austin Ekeler, Bijian Robinson, Nick Chubb
WRs:
Justin Jefferson, Ja’Marr Chase, Cooper Kupp, Tyreek Hill, Stefon Diggs, Ceedee Lamb
TEs:
Travis Kelce
In the first round of the draft, you’ll find the players that are projected to be the top performers this season. You will want to pick a running back or a wide receiver here. Make sure to take one of the top ranked players listed in your app. Any of the running backs (RBs) and wide receivers (WRs) in this round will be one of the highest scoring players on your team.
Travis Kelce is the outlier here, as he is not a WR or RB, but a TE. Your team will only need one tight end at a time, and Kelce is the best one around by a wide margin. If you are at the 8th, 9th, or later pick in the draft, you can feel confident picking Kelce here.
Potential Picks
RBs:
Derrick Henry, Saquon Barkely, Tony Pollard, Rhamondre Stevenson, Josh Jacobs
WRs:
Amon-Ra St. Brown, Davante Adams, Chris Olave, Garret Wilson, Jaylen Waddle, DK Metcalf, Devonta Smith
QBs:
Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen
The second round is much like the first where all of these players will have a year-long impact for fantasy. Because running backs and wide receivers are important, you’ll want to pick one or the other again here.
If you want to gain an advantage in a position, you can select one of the two top-quarterbacks in fantasy football – Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen. Both of these QBs are projected to have great seasons in both real football and fantasy football.
Potential Picks
RBs:
Jahmyr Gibbs, Najee Harris, Travis Etienne, Joe Mixon, Aaron Jones
WRs:
Deebo Samuel, Tee Higgins, Calvin Ridley, Amari Cooper, Keenan Allen
QBs:
Jalen Hurts
TEs:
Mark Andrews
That’s right, we are going back to the RB and WR well. I want to really iterate how important these two positions are. Getting them early in the draft gives you the best odds of having a player that does well all season. These are the players that are most likely to get the ball and score touchdowns.
If you picked two RBs, maybe take a WR here. And if you have two WRs, maybe pick a RB. If you have one of each, you can pick one or the other.
Depending on your draft there could be some really elite player left to pick in this round, like Jalen Hurts and Mark Andrews. Hurts, a QB, can be a difference maker in that position. Andrews, a TE, is one of the few tight ends that could score more than Kelce.
Potential Picks
RBs:
Miles Sanders, Alvin Kamara, Breece Hall, Alexander Mattison, Dameon Pierce
WRs:
DeAndre Hopkins, DJ Moore
QBs:
Joe Burrow, Lamar Jackson, Justin Fields
In the fourth round you should think about filling out those first four positions for WRs and RBs. If you have two running backs and two wide receivers, you will have four of five of the most important positions locked in. The running backs that are available after this round won’t be as good as the ones you could draft here. Try and grab a running back here before the rest of the good ones are gone.
In this round you can also think about grabbing a quarterback. A great quarterback is just as good as your second wide out or running back. But be careful – taking a quarterback here does mean you are missing out on some of the last good running backs. You are making a trade off and thats the tricky part of fantasy football drafts.
Potential Picks
RBs:
Jonathon Taylor (VERY RISKY)
WRs:
Drake London, Christian Watson, Chris Godwin, Brandon Aiyuk, Terry McLaurin
TEs:
George Kittle, T.J. Hockenson, Darren Waller, Kyle Pitts
If you didn’t pick Travis Kelce or Mark Andrews, now is the time to start taking a peek at what TEs are left. Guys like George Kittle and T.J. Hockenson are solid TEs that will get you some serious points every few games. If he hasn’t been picked up, it’s a good idea to see if Darren Waller is still around as he can be a potential top-3 TE this year. Another option, Kyle Pitts, is an exciting player that had a down-year last year but is looking to bounce back in 2023.
If none of those guys call to you, it’s always safe to grab another wide receiver here. Sometimes they will fall a little bit later in the draft, depending on how other teams are looking.
Potential Picks
RBs:
David Montgomery, Cam Akers, J.K. Dobbins, James Conner, Javonte Williams, Dalvin Cook
WRs:
Marquise “Hollywood” Brown, Christian Kirk
QBs:
Trevor Lawrence, Justin Herbert
This is the “back up RB with potential” part of the draft. A lot of these running backs will be useful for you during your fantasy season, because they have a high chance at being used a ton during the NFL season. Back ups are just as important in fantasy as they are in real football, because when your starting running back goes down with an injury you want your back up to be just as good. Pick up a strong running back in this round.
There are a couple of great quarterback usually left around this time too. If you want a strong QB option, look to see if Trevor Lawrence of Justin Herbert are still around. If they aren’t it’s ok to wait a few rounds for a QB later.
Potential Picks
WRs:
Jordan Addison, Tyler Lockett, Michael Pittman, Diontae Johnson, Mike Williams, Mike Evans, George Pickens, Jaxon-Smith Njigba
TEs:
Evan Engram, Pat Freiermuth, Dallas Goedert
The funny thing about wide receivers is that there are usually a good chunk of them left in the draft at this point. NFL teams usually need two or three solid guys to help their offense run, which is great for us fantasy football players. This means that there are a couple of guys on each team that could be good for our fantasy team. In the 7th round these are usually your bench guys, but they can sometimes come in clutch later in the season if they prove to be great.
There are some good tight ends left here as well, so if you need one still it might be a good idea to grab one of the few remaining solid options now.
Potential Picks
RBs:
Samaje Perine, Brian Robinson Jr., AJ Dillion, Jamal Williams, Isiah Pacheco, Zach Charbonnet
Whew you made it through the first half of the draft! You have most of your starting roster set, and now it’s all about picking up solid bench players for your team. You want to look for potential upside with these players in the later rounds, meaning that these guys will be a bit more hit-or-miss than the early round selections.
Again, take a back up running back here.
Potential Picks
RBs:
Rashad Penny, Kahlil Herbert, Raheem Mostert, Damien Harris, Devin Singletary
WRs:
Jahan Dotson, Michael Thomas, Quentin Johnston, Gabe Davis, Brandin Cooks, Zay Flowers
The next few rounds here are the toughest of the draft. A lot of the players left here are all around the same value and all have similar potential upside during the football year. It can feel like splitting hairs to decide between different back up wide receivers and running backs, so don’t feel too much pressure when grabbing certain players.
It’s at this point where you want to check to see if the player you’re drafting is injured or not. If a player has a little “Q” or “QUES” next to their name, that means that the player currently has an injury that may affect their ability to play. Typically if you click on their name, it’ll give a little blurb on the player – including any news about their injury. Most players at this point will be able to make it back to the field in time for the start of the season, but injuries can be tricky.
Potential Picks
RBs:
De’von Achane, Roschon Johnson, Jerrick McKinnon, Elijiah Mitchell, Ezekiel Elliot, Tyler Allgier
In the 10th round of the draft, all of the starting NFL running backs are scooped up. This leaves us with just the second-stringers left on the board. Not all back up running backs are created equal, so we want to try and grab the ones that have a chance to score a touchdown once in a while. Some of these back ups also have a chance to be the main guy if the original starter was to miss some time during the season.
Potential Picks
WRs: Adam Thielen, Skyy Moore, Rashee Rice, Jakobi Meyers, Allen Lazard, Elijiah Moore
QBs:
Dak Prescott, Aaron Rodgers, Kirk Cousins, Tua Tugavailoa, Geno Smith, Anthony Richardson
Last call for relevant QBs!
Much like RBs, when you are this late in the draft there are a few quarterbacks that are left that you want on your fantasy team. These QBs are more focused on throwing the ball rather than running it, making their fantasy football ceiling relatively low. They could throw a whole bunch of touchdowns however, making them plenty usable for fantasy.
If you already have a QB, try and grab one of these WRs that could be left.
Potential Picks
TEs:
Chig Okonkwo, Dalton Shultz, Greg Dulcich, Dalton Kincaid, Cole Kmet
The 12th round is for tight ends. These are not the explosive play makers like Travis Kelce and Mark Andrews, but they will be starting for their respective teams – so that is worth something. These are less exciting options, but they can still find the endzone every so often to make themselves helpful for your fantasy roster.
Potential Picks
WRs: Darnell Mooney, Romeo Doubs, Rasheed Rashid, Jonathon Mingo, Rondale Moore, Nico Collins, Jalin Hyatt
This will most likely be your second to last positional pick, and this late in the draft the best potential upside guys are wide receivers. Receivers always have a chance to score that one long touchdown to save their fantasy day. In this round you’ll see a lot of rookies that have the talent to be something great, but won’t fully realize their potential until later in the year when they get fully integrated to the offense.
Wild card round! This will most likely be your last bench spot, so go with your gut. Does a second quarterback sound like a solid plan? Go for it! Maybe that one running back has a cool name? Select Tank Bigsby!
This could wind up being the first person you cut from your team after week 1, so there are little to no stakes in this pick.
One of the two last positions you’ll want to draft is the defense. The D/ST, defense and special teams, consists of an NFL team’s entire defense. Defenses score points by earning sacks, interceptions, fumbles and of course, touchdowns. We want to leave D/STs for late in the draft, because a defense is not always good every single week of the fantasy football year. There will be times a D/ST faces a really good offense which could potentially cause you to lose points.
More often than not you may find yourself needing a new D/ST every few weeks. Yes you could reach for a D/ST earlier in the draft, but you’re giving up a chance to get a solid bench player in exchange for a D/ST that may not score as many points. Personally I don’t think it’s worth grabbing the “best” D/ST in the 9th or 10th round as some may do, but again it’s your team.
You’ve probably been wondering – why haven’t we talked about picking up a kicker yet? Well the sad truth is a kicker isn’t really super important to fantasy football rosters. They are all a bit of the same. The general idea is that you want to grab a kicker on a good offense, but that doesn’t always pan out.
Why do we wait so long for a kicker? Because we having a solid list of wide outs and receivers gives you the best chance at having a high scoring roster. We can always pick up a kicker later on, because they all score about the same. Yes sometimes a kicker will score a bunch of points, but on average it’s all the same. The kicker on the Patriots is typically the same as the kicker on the Panthers. The running back on the Patriots is not equal to the running back on the Panthers for example.
Congratulations on completing your fantasy football draft! Having to maneuver round by round to try and craft the perfect recipe for a winning season is truly a rush.
Now that the draft is concluded, it is time for the worst part of the season: waiting for the NFL season to start. It may just be a few days but it feels like a lifetime. You want to see how your team performs and you really want to know if these guys are any good.
For now that’s the end of this guide. The next step is to prep for the regular season and all of its pitfalls and hurdles. Until then, good luck in the upcoming season!
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