5 Things The Experts Do In Fantasy Football Drafts

Intro what's up guys Nick whan here from Roa wire in this video we're going to talk about five basic points to keep in mind to help you dominate your fantasy Don’t Overpay for QBs football drafts this season don't overpay for a quarterback and I'll issue a disclaimer here this is my personal opinion Josh Allen Jaylen Herz Lamar Jackson they were on Plenty of successful fantasy teams last season but in general given the depth of the quarterback position in the NFL right now you don't need to burn a high pick on a quarterback this especially applies to highly drafted quarterbacks who don't present a ton of rushing upside so we're talking guys like CJ stad Jordan love Joe burrow if you're taking CJ stad for example as the fifth quarterback off the board you take him at the end of the fourth round you essentially need CJ Stroud to have an all-time Elite passing season just to return that value and in terms of raw production stoud will likely outpace whichever wide receiver you could take with that pick I get that but it's not really about the raw fantasy points when we're talking about a fourth round pick keep in mind that in the vast majority of leagues you're only starting one quarterback whereas you may be starting two to three running backs or three to four receivers including your Flex Spot Not only do you need more starting receivers but there tends to be a steeper drop off in production as you get deeper into that receiver player pool having an elite quarterback of course it gives you an advantage especially if it's someone like Josh Allen who lapped the field at quarterback last season but it's all about opportunity cost what value are you leaving on the table to draft that early quarterback to me it's not worth sacrificing the chance to add an impact running back an impact receiver even one of the top tight ends in all of fantasy football to grab a quarterback when there are several viable fallback options available 60 80 even 100 picks later bottom line if you're taking an early quarterback make sure it's the one you think has a viable path to being the overall qb1 if you're taking the fifth QB off the board in round four and he tops out as maybe the qb4 then it's not worth the investment you're better off sacrificing two or three fantasy points per game and grabbing a a lesser but still very viable fantasy quarterback later in the draft you want to try to Mitigate Risk mitigate risk as much as you can throughout your fantasy drafts and this is easier said than done of course but if you take some risks in the early to mid rounds make sure you're doing what you can to insulate yourself from potential disaster so let's say you take a chance on Anthony Richardson or Caleb Williams or Jaden Daniels at quarterback if I do that I want to ensure I'm landing a steady veteran backup later in the draft in case of injury or just a straight up bus season which happens it can happen to any young unproven player if you take a high upside player with some injury or workload risk like Devon Anan in Miami you got to burn a second round pick on him if you do that consider pairing him with one of his teammates like Raheem moard or Jaylen Wright later in the draft that's what we call a handcuff if aan goes down you have yourself some protection right there mitigating risk it also applies to how you build out your roster throughout the draft if you're in a PPR league and you take a running back in round one you're likely going to want to hammer the receiver position over the next two to three rounds to ensure that you're not falling too far behind the pack and keep in mind in PPR leagues receivers tend to be much higher floor Flex options as well if you go heavy on receivers early on make sure you're addressing your running back room in the middle rounds but be cognizant of value and don't just blindly take a running back because you need to fill one of those starting spots running back production and health for that matter tends to be really volatile I'd rather grab a top tier tight end or the number one wide receiver and even a middling offense over a third or fourth tier running back keep in mind that last season players like James Cook and Kenneth Walker who could come off the board in round four even round three this season those guys provided virtually the same per week fantasy uction as Brian Robinson who goes four or five rounds later you certainly don't want to wait too long on running backs and end up with backs in a time share or guys who are on the decline but don't sacrifice value elsewhere just to fill a starting spot too early in the draft if you're enjoying this video please give us a like please subscribe to the roadwire fantasy football channel that helps us out immensely you can check out all of our content over at Roa wire.com Roa wire.com TR gets you free access Don’t Worship Rankings behind the pay wall do not tie yourself to default rankings or default ADP if you're in multiple leagues you play on multiple platforms you'll notice just how much ADP and default rankings vary from site to site and part of that difference is scoring and roster settings but some sites will meld together multiple League formats into one set of of composite EDP or composite rankings and those figures are likely to be completely different from how your league operates so I would suggest putting together your own rankings before the draft or use a custom rankings tool like ours over at Roa wire.com you put in your league settings you put in your roster settings it'll generate a custom set of rankings tailored to your specific league and while we're on this topic don't feel like you need to be a slave to ADP I'm not suggesting you jump ADP by 20 or 30 picks but if you're picking at say 35 overall and you really like a player but he typically goes in the early to mid 40s don't pass on him just because it's a minor reach maybe you'll get some people getting after you in the chat who cares if you've done the research and you're confident in it go get your guy fantasy football would not be any fun if everyone just went down the list and took the best player available if you like Amari Cooper over digs this season go right ahead take Amari Cooper over Stefan digs please wait until the final Wait to Draft Defense two rounds of your draft to address team defense team defense kicker these should be your final two picks in just about any draft and this may seem like an obvious one but believe me I do a lot of drafts I see plenty of defenses going outside those final two rounds later in drafts I want to take as many shots as I can on upside running backs upside receivers maybe build out a little bit of depth guys who yeah may end up cutting a couple weeks into the season but also players who have a conceivable Pathway to making an impact and we're talking about roll of the dice type of picks late in drafts but if you hit on one of those guys it's going to provide you significantly more value than burning that pick on a defense when it comes to defenses and kickers for that matter the upside it's pretty limited and it's often very much unpredictable week to week like the quarterback position you know the top defenses can give you an advantage over the field but there tends to be a ton of volatility with Team defenses week to week and most of it is matchup based on that note do not overly tether yourself to the highest ADP defenses your goal is to maximize that defense roster spot on a week toe basis and that means you have to be prepared to cut bait with the team defense on any given week which is part of the reason I want to limit my draft investment on that position you may like the Ravens defense for example they're one of the highest drafted defenses this season but four of Baltimore's first five games come against the Chiefs the Cowboys the bills and the Bengals are you really comfortable starting Baltimore through that entire stretch you got to take a look at to schedule you got to be ready to drop and pick up a defense based on which teams have the best matchups each week last season over the course of 18 weeks we saw 16 different defenses post the highest fantasy score in a given week the number one overall Fantasy Defense the Dallas Cowboys had six weeks last season in which it posted two or fewer fantasy points that's onethird of the entire year where you didn't really want to be starting the Cowboys just because you drafted a defense doesn't mean you have to stick with that defense