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The Re-Draft Roundtables Series
The Footballguys staff looks at various strategies to help you in redraft leagues.
Participating in a redraft league is a process that starts with the draft and hopefully ends with a championship. The Footballguys staff has answered several questions about various strategies to help you achieve your championship dreams. From the beginning to the end and everything in between, we've got you covered to give you the tools and knowledge needed to dominate your redraft league.
Which draft slot do you prefer for this season and why? Are there particular players or position groups that led you to this preference? Is there a particular draft slot that you would least like to draft from? Explain your thoughts.
JASON WOOD
As an industry, we put way too much focus on draft slots. First, most leagues don't give you control of your draft spot. Second, while it might help you figure out the first two or three players on your roster, everyone else's choices quickly make modeling the rest of your roster impossible. The better advice is to make sure you've done enough mock drafting and studying to know where the tiers are at each position and where the drop-offs are, so you can be comfortable maximizing your build regardless of who comes off the board and when.
SAM WAGMAN
I’m mostly looking for a slot in the Top 5 this season. If I had to pick exactly one, it’s probably Pick 2. The reasoning behind this boils down to me feeling that there are 5 ELITE fantasy options this season that combine upside and safety: Jonathan Taylor, Christian McCaffrey, Justin Jefferson, Cooper Kupp, and JaMarr Chase. Picking at 1.02 when you expect Taylor to go first about 90% of the time means you get four studs who are all safe. You can go for upside with McCaffrey or Chase, but you can look for stability with Jefferson or Kupp. At the same time, I don’t know if there is a spot in the Top 12 (assuming standard size) that I’m avoiding, given that the mix of players in that late first ADP range is pretty solid this year. You can still grab studs like Dalvin Cook or Joe Mixon in that late range and pick up another similarly rated player in the early second. Regarding post-first and second-round picks, everything goes downhill, and you must be prepared to think on the fly.
BEN CUMMINS
I prefer a top 6 draft pick. This guarantees me an elite player in Jonathan Taylor, Christian McCaffrey, Cooper Kupp, Justin Jefferson, JaMarr Chase, or Austin Ekeler. The second and third rounds where these slots pick remain strong, with many players I like, including Deebo Samuel, Tee Higgins, Javonte Williams, Saquon Barkley, Mike Williams, etc. I view picks 7-12 as relatively the same.
CRAIG LAKINS
A good way to look at this question is to figure out how many guys you consider to be in your top tier and working from the bottom of that tier. For example, if you consider five guys in the highest tier, picking from the 1.05 slot will get you the highest pick in Round 2. I'd like to walk away from the draft with an elite asset with almost zero question marks. This year that means I want the 1.03 spot. If I can begin my draft with whoever is left among Jonathan Taylor, Christian McCaffrey, and Cooper Kupp, I'll feel confident that I have a cornerstone to build upon.
Conversely, Pick 9 is where I'd like to draft from the least. If current ADP holds through the first eight picks, I'd be looking at Dalvin Cook at the top of my draft menu. I may be out on Cook too early, but he simply makes me nervous. Passing on him there would be tough because he can put up massive games, so I'd rather avoid that decision altogether.
ANDY HICKS
This is a year I would be happy with any draft slot. With five wide receivers in the first round on ADP, four more in the second, and Travis Kelce high, elite running backs are available in rounds two and three. If you grab Jonathan Taylor or Cooper Kupp high, you could have Mike Evans, Javonte Williams, Saquon Barkley, or Tyreek Hill on the way back. If you are at the end of the draft, the quality in taking two of Joe Mixon, Dalvin Cook, Stefon Diggs, or CeeDee Lamb gives you a strong start as well. It is very rare these days that a top two or three pick is the difference between winning or losing your draft. Depth and filling out a roster are more important than ever.
DAN HINDERY
Give me the earliest pick possible. 1.01 is ideal, but 1.02 is also great. You get to lock in an elite running back in the first round. Unless a wide receiver has an all-time great season (like Cooper Kupp last year), no player can match the massive edge an elite RB1 provides. The second reason an early pick is ideal in 2022 is how strong the options are at the top of the third round. You can land a player like Nick Chubb at 3.01 or 3.02 (in a 12-team league), who is a proven commodity locked into a big role in what should be a strong, run-heavy offense.
GARY DAVENPORT
This may sound trite, but what slot I draft from doesn't matter to me. The reality is that in most leagues, you get what you get. And every part of the round has its advantages and drawbacks. Draft at the top of Round 1, and you get an elite player to anchor your roster. Draft at the back, and you get two picks in the top 15. Draft in the middle, and there's no long wait in between selections. Where you draft isn't as important as who you draft.
With that said, I find myself liking the back of the round this year—pairing a Joe Mixon with a Stefon Diggs or Travis Kelce is a nice way to kick a draft off. The slots I'm usually least interested in are the middle—while you duck the long wait between picks, it generally means spending most of the draft reacting to what everyone else is doing rather than setting the tempo.
RYAN WEISSE
I prefer to draft from either end. One of the first three picks or one of the last three tends to fit my draft style. I like having two picks relatively close to one another. If I'm early, I want the best possible running backs, Taylor, McCaffrey, or Ekeler, this season, and I'll usually take two more backs at the 2/3 turn. If I'm late, I want an elite tight end and solid running back at the 1/2 turn, and then I typically alternate running back and wide receiver for the rest of the draft. When I'm stuck in the middle, at least early in the draft, I feel like I'm in no-mans land. The good running backs are gone, and it's too early to take my tight end.
CHAD PARSONS
I prefer to draft from the middle of the order throughout the draft. While no trading is allowed, this position is never far from being on the clock and can prevent being on the wrong side of positional runs. Also, I generally feel like being on a turn means reaching with one of the picks, as you must project out close to two dozen selections.
DAVE KLUGE
I want to pick within the top five and get one of Jonathan Taylor, Christian McCaffrey, Justin Jefferson, Cooper Kupp, or JaMarr Chase. After those five, there’s a significant tier drop, and they each have a chance of being this season’s overall fantasy points leader. With DAndre Swift, Aaron Jones, Saquon Barkley, and Leonard Fournette all going in the second round, the player values there seem relatively flat. But there’s typically a big tier falloff in the middle of the third round. While picking early in the first round has its benefits, it’s also the difference between getting A.J. Brown in the third as opposed to Marquise Brown. If I have a choice in this year’s draft, I want a pick between one and five.
ADAM HARSTAD
My preferred draft slot this year is the same as my preferred draft slot every year: Pick 6/7. The exceptions would be in a 10-team league (where I'd prefer Pick 5/6) or a 14-team league (where I'd prefer Pick 7/8).
Why? Because every year, my leaguemates decide they're much lower than consensus on several players, and when I'm drafting in the middle, I'm much more likely to be able to land those guys who fall well beyond their ADP.
I hate drafting from the turn for the same reason; it's too long between picks, so if a guy who's usually going in the third round is still sitting on the board in the fourth, he's likely to get snatched up before I get an opportunity to arrest his fall.
CHRISTIAN WILLIAMS
I always prefer to draft in the middle of drafts when given a choice, and this year is no exception. Often, when picking from the early or late areas of drafts, the need to project league-mate tendencies can be cumbersome. The 1.06-1.07 range allows for a selection within the top tier of a position. Depending on positional runs, it's not unfathomable that a roster ends up with two players within the respective top tiers. After that, I find it easier to project the shorter range of picks and start to look ahead as the draft progresses, thus giving me a better blueprint of how my draft will go as it's happening.
JEFF BELL
I want a top-six pick in Superflex that could grow to top seven if the settings favor Tom Brady. I want to walk out of the early draft knowing I have an elite player at quarterback. In one quarterback, I like the 1.05 to walk out with an elite player while positioning myself best to grab Travis Kelce, Mark Andrews, or a top wide receiver or running back sliding. I do not particularly care for the 1.02 due to the potential tier breaks in round two.
JUSTIN HOWE
I've never really been concerned with this - at least, with desiring/prioritizing specific slots. I've had great and terrible drafts from all over the order, and as Jason pointed out, it's not like any of us has much of a say in it. I slightly prefer picking at the end-of-round turn since I usually see more value in Players 12 & 13 than in Players 1 & 24. But it's not a slot for the faint-hearted. With such a gap between picks, you WILL have to take a few guys ahead of their ADPs. Also, when drafting this late in the first round, your roster construction will largely be decided for you. This year, for example, there will probably be more wide receiver value at 11 and 12 than running back, making it difficult for those drafters to load up efficiently at RB1 and RB2.