The Best 2024 Fantasy Football Draft Strategy (Picks 1, 2 & 3)

over more than 10 years of playing fantasy football and more than three dozen championships won I have personally found that every single year basically the two and the three spot are my absolute favorite places to pick in fantasy football drafts and it really does apply to beste ball and to read draft leagues as well we're going over the best draft strategy for picks one through three in fantasy football in 2024 and of course I'm giving away free FFN hats to anybody who goes down there drops like on the video is Subs subscribe to the channel and gives me their hottest take for 2024 so please go down there drop like on the video subscribe to the channel and give me your hottest take for 2024 fantasy football so the first thing that I want to explain here is we're going to go through ESPN and Underdog and what the strategy is for both platforms and types of fantasy football play but we're going to go through the differences between the two because it's very important to identify these differences here so when ESPN we're typically talking about a one quarterback two running back two wide receiver one tight end one or two flexx one defense and one kicker type of format So based on that format we really don't see much of a difference especially nowadays with the increased value of wide receivers there's not really a big slant towards running backs as much as they're used to be in traditional redraft leagues historically it's what we've seen and it still is that way to a point but it's not as slanted as usual where's on Underdog this is a best ball format and not only is it important to understand that best ball in particular you're trying to maximize ceiling at all costs here four is not really in the question when you're drafting on Underdog it's all about sealing here but the other big difference really the main difference here is that Underdog leagues are based on a three wide receiver format so one quarterback two running back three wide receiver one tight end and one Flex is going to be scoring you points on a weekly basis whether you like it or not so that automatically skews the number of wide receivers that are going as opposed to the running backs are taken off the board in Underdog drafts and that's highlighted by just looking at the draft boards right now when you look on ESPN there's nine wide receivers going in the first 24 picks and 10 running backs in the first 24 picks now let's look over at Underdog 17 wide receivers are going on Underdog the first 24 picks compared to seven running backs that's almost a 2 to1 ratio of wide receivers going in the first round compared to running backs so wide receivers are just way more valuable which means you just are better off getting a wide receiver at least at the very least within the first two rounds here Underdog is just simply different so when we're looking at ESPN ESPN in this particular range 1 through three my favorite draft strategy in this range is to go wide receiver running back and then quarterback your first three rounds of the draft and we'll go through exactly the values at those particular spots and the reason why I like this is because I think that you can maximize your total amount of fantasy points at each position in your particular range we'll get into the targets here in a minute but on underdog if we're looking at the one through three range on there the best two strategies that I have found in this range myself are going to be the following wide receiver wide receiver first two rounds quarterback round three wide receiver round four and tight end round five that has a 27.1% advancement rate to your fantasy football playoffs which almost doubles the amount that you actually start with before you end up drafting so that increases your chances by making it to the playoffs by two times now the other draft strategy that's really strong is wide receiver round one running back round two quarterback round three wide receiver again round four and tight end in round five that has a 24.8% chance of advancement to the playoffs and if you get to the semifinals 2% chance of getting the semi-finals that's a massive number right there and to get to the finals 0.1 1% 1 7% chance again that doesn't sound like a lot but we're literally talking about an underdog playing with hundreds of thousands of other drafters trying to go for a million dollars plus so there's a small percent chance you make it anyway but these are the strategies that maximize your chances so let's go ahead and dive right into the targets on ESPN in the first round so obviously your top three picks you got your pick of the litter right Christian mcaffrey CD lamb Tyreek killer your top three picks for me personally Christian mcaffry is number one I think that even with the injury that he's currently dealing with at the time of this filming it doesn't really add up to me to pick either of those wide receivers above above Christian mcaffry we just know the upside that he has is tremendous and as long as he's healthy for a full season he's going to be a great fantasy player now I prefer Tyreek Hill over cidd lamb for one reason one reason only because these guys are both Elite we're not splitting we're splitting hairs here because they're both elite players the reason I prefer Tyreek Hill Over CD lamb is because in Miami there is two wide receivers that have real play real big play ability that could take the top off of Defense Jaylen Wadd that wide receiver to in Miami is an elite wide receiver too in the NFL he can take the top off of Defense which means that defensive coordinators can't simply scheme so hard against Tyreek Hill and try to throw double coverage or triple coverage at him all game they can't take him out of the game because Jaya wad could rip him up as well Dallas has no real wide receiver too is it going to be Brandon Cooks is it going to be Jaylen Tolbert we can have an argument but I think we're all in agreement week number two wide receiver so that's going to leave defensive coordinators to say to themselves as long as we don't let CD lamb beat us we're going to be fine and probably could win this game so there's going to be a concerted effort every single week double triple coverage on CD lamb every single week and that's going to take him out of games so I just think that tyre's big playability is going to be there more frequently than CD lambs will now let's look over at underdogs list right here same exact list of guys and I have them in the same exact order for the same exact reasons there's no difference between best ball and ESPN on that so let's move on to rounds two and three obviously when you're picking ranges 1 two and three you're going to be a at that turn in the rounds 2 to three so you have a good opportunity here to go ahead and take advantage of that draft strategy that I was just talking about on ESPN on ESPN we want to go ahead and draft running back here and then draft our quarterback now based on the draft board here when you look in this range there's not really any running backs in our range and what's important to remember here is that in every single Fantasy Draft there is a human element to this where somebody picking in front of you likes a player that is has an ADP behind your pick and reaches for a guy leaving a couple guys to fall in drafts it happens in every single Fantasy Draft ever existed that is just a active life in fantasy football so we're going to account for that human element by adding two more guys in front of the ADP that you are allocated now even when we do that there's no there's no running back in our range here so what we're going to have to do is we're going to reach on a running back here which is totally fine to do at that one one two or three turn because you're going to be going a long ways without picking again in the fourth round so the two guys that I want to reach for in this range are Devon Anan and James Cook Anan has the most upside in that range he has higher upside than cook but probably not as as high of a floor as James Cook does so if you prefer the safer guy with a good ceiling but not as high as the super high ceiling guy aan but with a lower floor then you might be better off going with James Cook but if you want to go for that ceiling go with Devon hent either way these are the two guys that I would want to get if I was going utilize this draft strategy which I plan on doing myself in a couple different leagues this year now the guys you want to go for in round three when you're looking at that quarterback format so we've got our wide receiver one locked up and our running back one running back one locked up Jaylen Herz Josh Allen Patrick Mahomes are all in this range Josh Allen Jaylen Herz Patrick Mahomes is the order I like it in Josh Allen simply because we know the rushing upsides there as we do with Jaylen Herz we just know that Josh Allen actually provides more passing upside than Jaylen Herz does sounds a little coward intuitive this year since he has no step on digs really a mystery at wide receiver one Josh Allen's going to make it happen I have no no lack of confidence in Josh Allen and if you want to pick Jaylen Herz it's really not that big of a deal to me I definitely prefer Josh Allen though and then Mahomes great consolation prize as well obviously Mahomes can be the quarterback one the only reason I prefer Allen and herdz over Mahomes is because Mahomes doesn't have have that rushing upside that's going to get you way more points in vantasy football that those other two guys have now let's say you didn't want to do that right you didn't want to do that type of draft strategy there's still good guys in this range Sam leaport if you want to go tight end here instead of going quarterback what if you want to go tight end Sam leaport in the third round pretty good pick Sam leapa should be the tight end one in ESPN and I've seen quite a bit doing drafts and mock drafts on ESPN Kelsey still the number one tight end in ESPN I disagree with it dudes in his mid-30s showed signs of decline last year so do you think he's all of a sudden going to turn that around I don't believe that and you shouldn't either based on history that does not happen so Sam laap pora coming off a legendary tight end rookie year that's the guy that you really want and again wide receivers here you go with Michael Pitman or Marvin Harrison Jr you're in good shape like you're in great shapee picking those guys I think that Pitman definitely has the cealing of a top 12 top 10 wide receiver and Marvin Harrison Jr absolutely has a top 10 ceiling as well now let's look over an underdog here they're going to apply that human element again to Underdog drafts add up a couple picks here and we're also going to apply that draft strategy so we will reach for a couple quarterbacks here as well again look at the strategy right here you want to go either wide receiver two or running back one in round two now in round two the guys that I really like in this range Devon hen again is front and center for me that's your guy right there in this ADP range I think he has the most upside if he's not there any of the four wide receivers between Jaylen wad Cooper cup Mike Evans and Devon Smith all present best play best ball upside these are all guys that have a pretty safe floor for all metrics but at the same time all of them have big boom play Upside which is critical to maximize in best ball drafts especially at the end of the year now Brandon auk is kind of the floater because we don't know exactly where he's going to be as of the time of this filming you may be watching this he may be gone or he may be staying I think he's going to stay in San Francisco which is why I actually kind of like drafting Brandon nayuk on Underdog right now this dude went from like the wide receiver 12 a couple weeks ago all the way down to the wide receiver 17 so if he ends up staying in San Francisco which I believe he will because they have no incentive to trade the guy they're in win now mode they don't have to trade him he's going to end up being a great value in drafts because the ceiling is very high with him so if you want to draft him today on Underdog use the link in the comments and sign up with code FFN and when you deposit $10 they will give you $250 in free bonus cash to play around with they are literally throwing free money at you so you can go get in some more Underdog baseball drafts or even do some daily Pick hims as well so join Underdog today using Code FFN and then Malik neighbors and Devonte Adams not big fans of them this year Malik neighbors I like him better than Devonte Adams personally in a best ball format because I think there will be big playability with him Devonte Adams I just simply don't like the quarterback and he's at the age Cliff that I do not like to see with wide receivers love the player just think we're kind of at a bad time with Devonte Adams now but the guys that you want to get in the third round make sure to go out of your way to Target these guys Josh Allen Jaylen Hertz again for the same reasons as we did in ESPN these guys have great rushing upside which could absolutely raise a massive ceiling on your fantasy football team now let's go to rounds four and five again we're waiting quite a long time before we pick again in the fourth round on ESPN here's what we're looking at here at this point the wide receivers in this range are just simply better than the running backs in this range DJ Moore Devonte Smith Jaylen Wadd all great picks in the fourth round all of them are great picks all of them again have a pretty safe floor going to be at that wide receiver 15 wide receiver 18 type of floor but all three of these guys guys in my opinion top 12 ceilings in fantasy football for sure now whether or not they all hit is a question that we could definitely discuss but DJ Moore I think has the best shot at hitting that because I believe he'll be the team's number one Target in Chicago now we're looking at two great tight ends if you want to go ahead and grab a tight end here if you want to just go ahead grab a quarterback then tight end be my guest because the tight end options here are lead Trey McBride and George KD here George KD is definitely not my preferred one between George between himself and Trey McBride but they're both great picks here at the back of the fourth rounde in my opinion and again going to set yourself apart at a onesie position in fantasy football in 2024 and then we're looking at a couple other guys that I like Cooper cup and Kenneth Walker Cooper cup I like him better in a beste ball draft I think his volatility is really high this year I don't think his floor is too too safe but I do think his upside is pretty high which is why I do like him in a beste ball format but not as much in an ESPN format Kenneth Walker just really don't like the Zack shanet issue going to be sharing touches with Zack shanet for sure although definitely a very good player if you want to go ahead and grab your running back too here I just like some of the values later on in ESPN for a running back too and then if you didn't get your quarterback if you didn't get it in round three Anthony Richardson in round five is going to be a great option now let's look at Underdog here Underdog again we're applying that draft strategy five rounds DP here and going with a tight end is your priority in this particular range and you're in luck Trey McBride Mark Andrews da concade that's what you want to do that is what you want to do either one of those guys in this particular order that's what you want to do here in round four all of them have super high upside to be the tight end one tight end two tight end three in fantasy football this year if everything works out and again you want to take the shot on best ball so you better do it in this particular range with the end here again you didn't get quarterback don't be too upset Mahomes and Lamar Jackson are typically still available in this range based on ADP they're both great options in fantas football for obvious reasons and then the wide receivers here I I like T Higgins I've taken him plenty of times I think his upside high but again sort of the Cooper cup jayen W thing where his floor is not that high I don't think his floor is even as size Jaylen wles but I do think the upside is obviously very high if he stays healthy and Joe burough stays health healthy and then Christian Kirk and Terry mclen just not as excited to pick those guys in a best ball format I just don't think that either one of them has tremendous upside when we're talking about a fantasy points per game perspective they're both not really that high just based on the last couple years here so I would just kind of stay away with it especially when we're applying this draft strategy in a base ball format so let me know what you think of the draft strategy in the comments below and if you want to see the truth about the double hero running back strategy that you probably have not heard click on this video right here