“Have a plan. Follow the plan, and you’ll be surprised how successful you can be. Most people don’t have a plan. That’s why it’s easy to beat most folks.” – Paul “Bear” Bryant, football coach, University of Alabama’s Crimson Tide.

We have arrived at the prime of fantasy football draft season, a heady time when we are thinking about how the draft will unfold, who we will target, and how we will make our championship team come together in real-time, pitted against a group of live minds. Preparation is important, but never to the point of rigidity. There will be unexpected picks ahead of you that cause a player you never considered to fall to your pick. You will see key players in your draft plan sniped a pick or two before you are on the clock. You need to be prepared, but you also have to be flexible. The best way to do that is to understand the alternatives for filling each starting slot on your team. When you make a pick, you affect your later picks' decision matrix. Sometimes the answer isn’t who you like better among your early targets when you are on the clock in the early rounds, but who you like better later at the positions you are neglecting when you make a pick. If you feel comfortable about later options, then it’s easy to kick a position down the road a few rounds. If you are staring at your last viable option to fill a starting spot, it’s probably better to avoid the pain of figuring out what to do later.

First, as always, know your scoring and lineups. If you only start two wide receivers and running backs with no flex positions, then tight end and quarterback become more important. If you can start seven WR/RB, quarterback and tight end are less important. Know which players/positions are helped and hurt by whether your league is nonPPR, .5 PPR, PPR, or tight end premium (1.5 PPR for tight ends). Know which quarterbacks are helped and hurt by bonuses for long scores or 300-yard games and whether your league gives more than 4 points for a passing score or 1 point for each 25 passing yards. Look at the average points per game at each position sorted in descending order and note which positions have the smallest and largest spans between #1 and the last starter based on league size times starting requirements to know where getting an elite option is most important (VBD drafting!) You get the point. Know the landscape before you get dropped in to conquer it.

Next, create a list of players that are your guys. Using ADP, you can have a reasonable expectation of who will be there in which rounds and you can start to piece together a plan that will give your lineup balance and upside and create possibilities for improvement on your bench. You should also have clarity on which players you value so much less than the hive mind that you can just cross them off of your list. Understand the if/then logic of your choices and how they ripple through the later rounds. Then clear your mind, get in the moment, and draft!

As always, fantasy football is a diversion, an escape where we get to call the shots. Do it your way and enjoy the peace of mind that comes with getting lost in a puzzle and forgetting the pressures of everyday life.

Cliff’s Notes

Overall: There will be multiple right answers at every position, and the right answers will change as the season unfolds. Have clarity on which players you like at each position in each section of your draft so you can piece together a roster of players you want no matter how your opponents draft.

QB: Quarterback is deep as always and you’ll probably like who you get at QB12 if you are the last to take a starter in a typical league. If you want to take someone before QB12, Jalen Hurts and Trey Lance offer the most bang for your buck. If you want to wait even longer than QB12 and go late round quarterback, there’s plenty of ways for that to work too. Have you considered playing in more Superflex/2QB leagues?

RB: The running back dead zone is alive! From around the 5th-10th round you should be able to find at least 2-3 names that you like to level off as a fantasy RB2, if not better! Take a running back you are highly confident in during the first three rounds to be your RB1 and then wait and throw a few darts in that 5th-10th range to see what you harvest in the early season.

WR: Wide receiver value is strong from the 2nd-5th round and you should plan on spending 2-3 picks in that range on the position in PPR leagues.

TE: The dropoff after the top five tight ends could be steep. With two of them falling to the 4th-5th round, you can afford to take one this year. If you don’t, it’s probably smart to pay for your favorite from the TE6-9 range instead being left out in the cold at the position.

K: Take one with your last pick that’s established in a good offense.

DEF: Take one with your next to last pick that has a good Week 1 matchup.

Quarterback

Again, knowing your scoring system is key here. In leagues with distance touchdown and 300+ yard game bonuses, or more than four points per pass touchdown, or efficiency scoring that takes points away for incompletions and awards points for completions, players like Russell Wilson, Aaron Rodgers, Tom Brady, and Matthew Stafford are closer to the top five, if not making it a top nine, allowing you to wait longer. In more typical leagues with four point pass touchdowns and point per 25 passing yards, the quarterback with a running dimension remain king.

I get it, late round quarterback is attractive because you can get 15-20 points off of the waiver wire. That was a more compelling argument when the top quarterbacks were in the 24-25 point per game range. Enter quarterbacks like Josh Allen, Justin Herbert, Lamar Jackson, Kyler Murray and Patrick Mahomes II who can score 30 points a game on average in typical scoring systems at their peaks and the game has changed. A 10 point per game advantage is the largest that any player at any position will give you over replacement value except Christian McCaffrey, who was the runaway #1 overall pick in previous years and will still go #1 in a lot of leagues this year even after he missed most of the last two seasons. The object of fantasy football is to score more points than your opponent and it sure seems like getting an elite fantasy quarterback is the shortest line between A and B to achieve that result. Who is the best target if you want an elite fantasy quarterback, but don’t want to pay the premium for Josh Allen? Jalen Hurts.

Hurts was rough as a passer last year and had a poor wide receiver group outside of DeVonta Smith. It was so bad that the team morphed into a run-first team mid-season. Hurts had one game with over 30 pass attempts from Week 8 on after having five in the first seven games before that. Since then, they made a huge trade for A.J. Brown bolster the passing game, a sign of a shift in philosophy. The Eagles don’t have a true goal line back, which allowed Hurts to score 10 touchdowns on the ground last year. If Hurts maintains that level of involvement as a runner in goal to go situations and improves incrementally as a passer - even if that improvement is only because he has a true #1 receiver now - then he should take a jump from the Joe Burrow/Matthew Stafford/Aaron Rodgers points per game level up to the Josh Allen level this year, but instead going at least a couple of rounds after Allen. None of five quarterbacks going before Hurts are bad picks at ADP, it’s just that Hurts offers the same ceiling and a similar floor for a cheaper price.

Target: Jalen Hurts
Round: 5-6

Trey Lance could be going closer to the QB12 range in typical home leagues, but in “plugged in” leagues, he is going as high as QB7 or QB8. Is he worth that? You bet. The last running quarterback in a Kyle Shanahan offense was Robert Griffin III III, and he was the #1 fantasy quarterback on a points per game basis with a very poor skill position group. Lance has George Kittle, Brandon Aiyuk, and Deebo Samuel. He might not be fantasy QB1 like Allen, but he can still be a league winner at ADP.

Target: Trey Lance
Round: 6-7-8

If you’re more conservative or just prefer taking a RB/WR/TE where Hurts is going, Wilson and Rodgers are both quality picks at ADP. Tom Brady is going slightly before Wilson and can be included in this group as long as you aren’t worried about his training camp absence or the Buccaneers' offensive line woes. Who knows how good Wilson can be in an organization that isn’t forcing him to row against the current of their run-first philosophy? Tim Patrick going down in the preseason lowers Wilson’s ceiling, but he was already underpriced before that happened. We all know how good Rodgers can be without Davante Adams, and it’s pretty good.

Target: Russell Wilson, Aaron Rodgers
Round: 7-8-9

You can wait until everyone has a quarterback in a 12-team league this year and still get Cousins or Carr. Cousins is the preferred option because there’s more optimism around his new offense and his offensive line is slightly to moderately less scary. In leagues that give bonuses for big games or more than four points per pass touchdown, the gap between them and the top 12 gets tighter.

Target: Kirk Cousins, Derek Carr
Round: 10-11-12

What if I wait and miss out on Carr and Cousins? (AKA the Deshaun Watson question)

It will be ok. Justin Fields and Trevor Lawrence could be suitable fantasy quarterbacks under new, competent coaching staffs. Jameis Winston has a lot better supporting cast than he had last year, and he was pretty good for fantasy last year with a low passing volume. Even Matt Ryan and Jared Goff have solid outlooks as reasonably safe high floor plays to begin the season while you make a plan to upgrade at quarterback eventually. This is also the optimal team build for a late-round pick on Deshaun Watson (if your fantasy GM code allows for it), although, with a bunch of cold weather games in a new offense with new teammates, Watson isn’t a lock to be the fantasy quarterback he was the last time we saw him. Here are my more in-depth thoughts on the fantasy implications of Watson’s suspension.

Do I need a QB2?

Take one of your favorites outside the Top 12 if the roster size allows. It accomplishes three things. First, it gives you injury insurance, bye week coverage, and covid insurance. Second, it denies one of your competitors who did not take a QB1 an option that could hit and allow them to get away with it. Third, if your late-round quarterback hits, you can trade your established commodity quarterback to help your team elsewhere.

A note for Superflex/2QB players

The top 12-15 quarterbacks fly off of the board in Superflex/2QB leagues. You should probably take your QB1 in the first or second round. If you have an early draft slot, it is almost imperative to take a quarterback first because you will likely still find a top 10-12 RB/WR/TE available at your second pick, but the top 10-12 quarterbacks should be gone. Typically in a Superflex/2QB draft, you can get RB/WR/TE a round or more later than their ADP in 1QB leagues. Alternatively, that makes taking a RB/WR/TE come with a penalty of taking them in the same round they usually go in if you take one in the first round. You can employ a strategy of waiting on your second quarterback and taking RB/WR/TE as long as you can until you feel forced to take your QB2 because the supply is drying up. Jameis Winston, Matt Ryan, and Jared Goff will be available after your top 50 or so RB/WR/TE are gone, so you won’t be assessed as big an opportunity cost when you take them as you would if you take an early QB2. Going quarterback in two of your first 3-4 picks can still work out, but you have to be almost flawless on your early RB/WR/TE picks if you don’t take your QB1 early.

Running Back

Your RB1 and You

Take your RB1 in the first round

If you draw a top 2 draft slot, you can lock in Jonathan Taylor or Christian McCaffrey. McCaffrey obviously has a higher weekly and season-long ceiling and none of his injuries are long term issues, but it’s also hard to ignore the brute fact of both of his last two seasons being ruined by injuries. Both are worthy of the #1 overall pick. In the mid first (assuming PPR scoring), Austin Ekeler had an abnormally high touchdown total last year, but he’s a main cog in a great offense, enough said. In the late first Dalvin Cook has a worrisome injury history, but his offense should be souped up and ready to show off his immense abilities. Derrick Henry and Najee Harris are also viable options in the back half of the first round, but the supporting offense around them might not be as fantasy friendly as Cook’s. If you take your running back in the first, you can ignore the position for at least next 3-4 rounds unless you have high confidence in the back you are taking as your RB2.

Target: Jonathan Taylor, Christian McCaffrey
Round: Early First

Target: Austin Ekeler
Round: Mid First

Target: Dalvin Cook
Round: Late First

Take your RB1 in the second round

The second round is rich with solid RB1 options. Saquon Barkley has proven top 3-5 running back upside and a competent coaching staff will be putting together the game plan this year. Joe Mixon is in a good, maybe great offense with an improved offensive line. Aaron Jones was Aaron Rodgers' favorite target when Davante Adams was out the last few years. Alvin Kamara will likely avoid a suspension and only Mark Ingram is between him and first round value. Javonte Williams is poised to take off in his second season. Leonard Fournette is still a main cog in the Bucs offense, which will be great for fantasy if offensive line doesn’t hold them back. If you like this list, consider going wide receiver or Travis Kelce first.

Target: Saquon Barkley, Joe Mixon
Round: Early Second

Target: Aaron Jones (assuming PPR), Alvin Kamara, Leonard Fournette, Javonte Williams
Round: Mid-Late Second

Take Your RB1 in Third Round

There are RB1 candidates still available in the third, but there are reasons they are there. You can set your watch by Nick Chubb’s efficiency and toughness running the ball, but he’ll probably have Jacoby Brissett as his quarterback for 11 games and share with Kareem Hunt. James Conner was a strong RB1 last year, but his durability problems are well known and it’s yet to be seen if Darrel Williams and Eno Benjamin will make this more of a committee than it was last year when Chase Edmonds was out. Ezekiel Elliott battled a knee injury most of last year and could return to form and produce like the solid-to-strong RB1 he was through five weeks last year. If you already have two WR1s or a WR1 and one of Kelce/Andrews in your back pocket, you can tolerate the risk that comes with this group as your RB1.

Target: Nick Chubb, James Conner, Ezekiel Elliott
Round: Third

Go Upside Down/Do the Opposite/Zero RB

This year has an unusual number of running backs with every-week starter ceilings in the mid-rounds (fifth or later). Many of them have only one if to get there:

Elijah Mitchell: If he stays healthy
A.J. Dillon: If he has a larger role in his third year (Note: ADP could be up on 1A designation)
Clyde Edwards-Helaire: If he stays healthy
Tony Pollard: If he has a larger role in his fourth year
Cordarrelle Patterson: If his passing game usage returns to 2021 first-half levels
Damien Harris: If he is still the primary goal line back
Rhamondre Stevenson: If he is the primary passing-down back
Devin Singletary: If he is still the lead back
Chase Edmonds: If he is the primary back
Rashaad Penny: If he can stay healthy
Dameon Pierce: If the Texans' running game improves
James Robinson: If he returns to form this year after a late December Achilles tear
Nyheim Hines: If the Colts make good on promises to use him more often and regularly

It’s pretty easy to pick 3-4 of these backs in the 5th-10th round range and then see how the chips fall. This list isn’t exhaustive - there are the Eagles' backs, the Commanders' backs, James Cook, and others who offer the ability to outproduce ADP and make this strategy work this year. You can also take some high injury upside backups and role-playing backs in the late rounds to hedge against your running back picks all busting early in the season. There are variations on this strategy - whether to take an early QB/TE to try to lock in top scoring at every position other at running back, or if your league can start as many four wide receivers, locking in four top receivers as the foundation of your team. If you’ve been wanting to try it but not bold enough to jump off of the cliff, this is the year.

My Favorites

Target: A.J. Dillon, Elijah Mitchell
Round: 5-6

Target: Clyde Edwards-Helaire
Round: 6-7

Target: Tony Pollard, Chase Edmonds
Round: 7-8

Target: Cordarrelle Patterson, Rashaad Penny
Round: 8-9

Target: Dameon Pierce, Nyheim Hines
Round: 9-10

Your second running back and you

Embrace the running back depth

I recommend only taking one running back in the first 4-5 rounds and employing the same shotgun approach for your RB2 that the Zero RB drafters will employ for their RB1 and RB2.

Take your RB2 in the first three rounds

There are good reasons to take two running backs early. A .5 PPR scoring system, high confidence in two backs going in the first three rounds, or feeling good about lots of later picks at tight end or wide receiver the same way we feel confident about later picks at running back. Just make sure you have clarity on those targets, as you’ll have ground to make up at wide receiver at a minimum. Don’t be afraid to take your favorite back from that 5th-10th round range group to deny an opponent who waited at running back an out and reinforce depth at the most fragile position in fantasy football

Running back bench - 11th round and later

No matter your approach, at least your third (and if you don’t take one in the first four rounds, your fourth too) running back should come from that rich 5th-10th round group. Your other running back bench spots are important. Here are two categories to stock your bench with:

High Weekly Floor PPR Backs

Ideal in: Deep leagues with thin waiver wires

Targets: Kenneth Gainwell, Michael Carter, J.D. McKissic
Deep League Targets: Ameer Abdullah, Travis Homer

Injury Upside Backups

Ideal in: Leagues with long benches

Targets: Ken Walker, Khalil Herbert, Jamaal Williams, Rachaad White
Deep League Targets: Jeff Wilson, DOnta Foreman, Joshua Kelley, Matt Breida, Boston Scott, Phillip Lindsay

Monitor Depth Chart Resolution for Clarity: Arizona (Eno Benjamin, Darrel Williams), Kansas City (Isiah Pacheco, Jerick McKinnon), Minnesota (Alexander Mattison, Kene Nwangwu, Ty Chandler), Buffalo (Zack Moss), San Francisco (Tyrion Davis-Price, Trey Sermon, Jordan Mason), Pittsburgh (Jaylen Warren, Benny Snell, Anthony McFarland), Tennessee (Dontrell Hilliard, Hassan Haskins, Julius Chestnut)

Wild Cards with Uncertain Roles

Ideal In: Deep short bench leagues where you want to move on quickly

Targets: Zack Moss, Sony Michel, Mike Davis

Wide Receiver

Taking your WR1 in the first round

The biggest debate here is whether Justin Jefferson or Cooper Kupp should be the first wide receiver off of the board. Jefferson will have Kupp’s role in Kevin O’Connell’s offense (except maybe in the red zone, where it could be Adam Thielen, more on that later), and his quarterback’s elbow feels good right now. Kupp was so far ahead of the pack last year, that it’s easy to justify taking him as high as #1 overall. Trust your gut in the moment of truth, both are worthy of top 3 picks in PPR leagues.

If you are picking in the back half of the first and want to go wide receiver, you might get JaMarr Chase around pick 7-8 (although Tee Higgins might be close to as productive with a discount), and will be choosing from Stefon Diggs, Davante Adams, and CeeDee Lamb in the 9-12 range. If you like the second-round running backs and you are worried about a 33-year-old Travis Kelce, wide receiver makes sense in the back half of the first.

Target: Cooper Kupp, Justin Jefferson
Round: Top 3-4 overall

Targets: Stefon Diggs
Round: Late first

Taking your WR1 in the second round

CeeDee Lamb is an ideal second-round wide receiver, with top 3-5 overall upside, although he’s rarely there in the second half of the round. Other second-round receivers come with risk. Tyreek Hill (Mahomes to Tua), Deebo Samuel (Run game involvement?), Mike Evans (hamstring injury in camp) are the top candidates, but the nature of their range of outcomes may nudge you towards Mark Andrews or a running back. Going wide receiver in the first helps you remain more flexible in the second, unless you’re open to starting RB-RB.

Target: CeeDee Lamb
Round: Early second

Taking your WR1 in the third or fourth round

Starting Kelce/RB, RB/Andrews, or RB/RB with a later TE target is very viable this year (although an RB/RB start limits your ability to tap into the mid-round RB vein of gold). The third round features wide receivers who can easily finish in the top 6-8 at the position this year.

Slam Dunk Target: Tee Higgins
Round: Early 3rd

Safe 3rd Round Targets: Keenan Allen, Michael Pittman
Safe 3rd/4th Round Target: D.J. Moore

High Ceiling 3rd Round Target: A.J. Brown
High Ceiling 3rd/4th Round Targets: Courtland Sutton, Allen Robinson, Mike Williams

WR2 in second round

This isn’t a horrible idea, but the wide receiver quality in the 3rd-6th round is compelling enough to make it a less than preferred option.

WR2 in the 3rd/4th round

This is ideal because you can get a WR2 with WR1 upside, and you’ll have locked in at least one strong option elsewhere. The list above should help guide you through the choices.

WR2 in 5th/6th round

The 5th/6th round is a tough area to navigate because there is so much upside at RB/WR. It’s also where top quarterbacks go off of the board, and one of Darren Waller and George Kittle can fall there. There are a few receivers in this area that would be satisfactory WR2s (and outstanding WR3/Flexes)

High Ceiling Targets: Gabriel Davis, Darnell Mooney, Jerry Jeudy, Michael Thomas
High Floor Targets: Amon-Ra St. Brown, Brandin Cooks, Adam Thielen

These receivers fit in almost any draft plan. Davis, Mooney, and St. Brown are especially emphasized on my target list.

WR3/Flex in the 7th/8th round

Hopefully you have at least two wide receivers by Round 6. Ideally, you have three, or maybe even four and you can ignore wide receiver to stock up on quality discount running backs, or perhaps a QB/TE. There are still a couple of good targets in this range at wide receiver if your draft unfolds in a way that makes the position a priority.

High Ceiling Target: Allen Lazard
High Floor Target: Hunter Renfrow

What About DeAndre Hopkins?

Hopkins fits in draft plans in large field tournaments where you are trying to have the best team of hundreds or thousands instead of just 12ish teams. He’ll give you at worst a solid WR2 at a price that is around the seventh round. Yes, you won’t get anything in the first six weeks, but if you can hit on a pick for your flex (assuming only three wide receivers start and you took three in the first six picks) later, then you can hang while you are waiting for him to come back and give you a strong advantage. Home and local leagues, where it is easier to harvest value in the late rounds to cover Hopkins' absence, are all good to target Hopkins. In your league full of sharps, you might not want to spot them six weeks without your seventh-round pick, but it might be the best way to go big or go home. Bet on yourself and your ability to manage your team. Hopkins fits into aggressive optimistic draft plans, and that approach is often the best in fantasy leagues.

Upside Bench Picks

Wide receiver is strong enough in the first eight rounds that you should be able to concentrate on your high-confidence bench picks and allot picks to speculative running backs in the early bench pick range. Later on, the floodgates will open and ADP is not as reliable, so have a priority wide receiver or two to target in the 12th-14th rounds.

9th/10th/11th Round Targets: Robert Woods, Tyler Boyd, Russell Gage, Julio Jones

12th-14th Round Targets: Josh Palmer, K.J. Osborn, K.J. Hamler, D.J. Chark

15th Round and Later Targets: Nico Collins, Robbie Anderson, Van Jefferson, Isaiah McKenzie, Randall Cobb

Tight End

The landscape at tight end is similar to recent years, but there’s more depth to the picture than we have become accustomed to. Instead of a big three, there’s a big five, and TE6-10 offers more ability to hang with the top tier than the second tier usually provides. That should allow more flexibility in your draft plan, but that also makes it more difficult if you decide to punt the position because you might have fewer peers who are also dodging tiny lineup-destroying scores (although, on the plus side, you might have less competition on the waiver wire for potential emerging players at the position).

Travis Kelce in the mid-late first

This is one of best angles at tight end this year. The 33-year-old comes with some risk, but there’s a good chance that he’ll set a career-high in targets and catches with Tyreek Hill gone. Who do you think Patrick Mahomes II will look for when the bullets are flying? The second-round running back and 3rd-6th round wide receiver groups make it easier to stomach this.

Mark Andrews in the second

Andrews was TE1 last year, but ADP rightfully assumes that he shouldn’t be expected to repeat that performance. He was much more productive with quarterbacks other than Lamar Jackson, but maybe the offense learned from that, making Andrews a Kelce-esque primary target.

Kyle Pitts in the third

I might have been a year early on Pitts. His situation has actually gotten worse, but if the game slows down for him in year two, it won’t matter, the same way it didn’t matter for Calvin Johnson. If you are set on Pitts as your strategy at tight end, I won’t talk you out of it.

George Kittle or Darren Waller in the 4th/5th

These tight ends thought of as elite fantasy options last year are falling out of the top three rounds in almost every draft. Waller won’t be the top target in the Raiders offense, but the middle of the field should open up with Davante Adams drawing more attention outside. Kittle will have an up-and-down scoring profile and a new quarterback, but we know he can take over games. If either fall to the fifth, it might be hard to pass unless you really like a tight end in the TE6-10 range, or the RB/WR there is irresistible.

The second tier of tight ends

There probably won’t be a player to jump from this tier to the elite like Mark Andrews did last year (arguably, he was really closer to the elite tier than second tier anyway), but they can do enough at a big discount from the top three and still material discount from Waller/Kittle to make them one of the right answers at tight end.

Dalton Schultz: Going 1-2 rounds after Waller/Kittle, will be a hit if he is the clear #2 target and handles having more attention with Amari Cooper gone and Michael Gallup likely to miss early weeks.

T.J. Hockenson: Going 2-3 rounds after Waller/Kittle, won’t be a focal point (that’s St. Brown), but in an improved offense, could have more scores and big plays.

Dallas Goedert: Going 2-3 rounds after Waller/Kittle, think of him as Kittle East at a discount, will have some huge games/plays, but may also have frequent floor games because of lower volume pass offense and quality wide receivers.

Dawson Knox: Going 3-4 rounds after Waller/Kittle, gets enough red zone looks from Josh Allen to ride out the floor games.

Zach Ertz: Going 3-4 rounds after Waller/Kittle, should lead the team in catches until DeAndre Hopkins comes back and fits well in a build with Hopkins that neglects tight end early.

What if you don’t get a Top 10 tight end?

Good luck! Again you will have less competition on the waiver wire, but you will also be at a disadvantage to open the season against almost every other team in your league. If you go this route, favorite targets include:

Cole Kmet: A volume play in a barren rebuilding offense
Pat Freiermuth: A short-range target in an offense that might not have a lot of downfield passing
David Njoku: Bet on talent, first time as true starter
Gerald Everett, Hayden Hurst, Tyler Higbee: Quarterback and offensive quality
Mo Alie-Cox: First time as a true starter, quarterback upgrade
Brevin Jordan: Unknown upside of youth, riffed with fellow rookie Davis Mills

Should I take a second tight end?

The quality and depth of tight end options and likelihood that many teams will be satisfied with their TE1, along with the somewhat bleaker picture from TE11 on makes this less advisable than it has been in recent years.

Kicker

Are leagues still using kicker in fantasy lineups? I’m willing to defend it, and not just because I cover the position for our team and training camp reports. Kicker as a reason that a matchup is won or lost is cruel, random, and senseless… and something that happens in the NFL most weeks.

Wait until the last round to take your kicker and get one of these underrated options:

Wil Lutz, NO
Chris Boswell, PIT
Nick Folk, NE
Jason Sanders, MIA
Jake Elliott, PHI
Robbie Gould, SF

Defense/Special Teams

Streaming is the best approach here (I write a weekly column highlighting the best streaming defenses each week called Rent-a-Defense), so we’re looking at Week 1 matchups and avoiding defenses that have a top 6 ADP, rendering them unlikely to be there in the next to last round.

Denver (at Seattle, Week 2 vs. Houston)
New Orleans (at Atlanta)
Baltimore (at New York Jets)
Jacksonville (at Washington)
Tennessee (at New York Giants

Happy drafting, all! I’ll keep updating this as the preseason unfolds and continue to share everything I am digesting and processing that is changing my approach to drafts for the rest of the preseason and right up until draft season ends when the actual season begins. Always feel free to hit me on Twitter (@SigmundBloom) if you have any specific questions!