Last weekend DFF organized a 14 team redraft league comprised solely of DFF writers/editors as owners. In this piece, I will talk about how I prepared for the draft, got my strategy together, and actually navigated the live draft. Hopefully, this will give you some insight on not only the players I took but also the methods I used to prepare.Â
Draft Preparation
The first thing to do in any league is to know your league settings. Our league is 14 teams, 0.5 PPR for running back and wide receiver, 1.0 PPR for tight ends, 0.1 points per carry, and 0.5 points per rushing and receiving first downs. With this information, I compared the number of players at each position in the top 20, 40, 60, and 80 in standard 0.5 PPR scoring and in our DFF league scoring settings. I noticed the biggest changes were Kelce sneaking into the top 20 players (including QBs), the amount of running backs in the top 40 and 60 increased a lot, and the number of wide receivers decreased in every single grouping. This led me to place more value on the tight end and running back positions. In addition, the 0.1 point per carry makes high volume rushing QBs like Lamar Jackson even more valuable, so I will be targeting that archetype as well. Now that I know my scoring and how it affected the group of players as a whole I was ready to start doing some mocks.Â
Mock Drafting
Mock drafting is a fun and useful way to prepare for your league, but you cannot rely on ADP to match your league setting so you need to make some assumptions. For instance, this league is TE premium so the position should be drafted earlier than normal. With my earlier stated importance on TE in this draft, I want to target Travis Kelce or Darren Waller to secure an elite guy. With my draft slot being 1.06 I think my second-round pick will be too late to grab either Waller or Kelce there. So, I know that if I want to secure an elite tight end it will have to be with my 1.06 pick. In early mock drafts, I just try to get a feel for value pockets of certain positions. In other words, groups of players in a similar tier that will be available around my pick. This way even if my opponents load up on that position right before me I should still be able to get a guy I like.
General Strategy
Through my mocks and what positions I feel are important, I reached the conclusion that I should start my draft with Travis Kelce unless one of the top five running backs fall to me. Next, in the 2nd and 3rd rounds, I think my best bet is to stack RBs. This is because I value the position, I can get two guys I really like, and there are good WRs later I can grab. Next is when it gets harder. In the fourth round, I was sometimes getting Lamar Jackson as my pick but he did not always fall to me so I needed a plan for both scenarios. Fortunately, it was easy to make a plan because I love the WRs in this range but I also need one due to my first three rounds.
If Lamar fell I would take him, and if not I knew I could still get a good QB later and grab a WR here instead. My plan for the next few rounds now hinges on if I get Lamar in the fourth or not. If I got Lamar, I would go WR/WR/RB. If not, and I instead took a WR, I would follow with RB/WR/QB in the fifth, sixth, and seventh rounds. Based on mocks and ADP, I really felt I’d be able to get plenty of good WRs later in the draft so I was ok with only having two after the first seven rounds. My plan for the late rounds was to grab a backup tight end and quarterback when I felt one slipping, while also grabbing potential team WR1s to finalize my team. This strategy would hopefully leave me with a strong three-running back stable, an elite TE, a high-volume rushing QB, and a deep group of WRs with good weekly upside. Now, let’s see how the draft went.
Early Round Picks
My mocks made me feel comfortable not going RB in the first round so I did end up taking Kelce at 1.06 as the TE1. Then next round I stuck to my plan and selected Najee Harris at 2.09 as the RB15. Najee figures to see a lot of touches, receptions, and first downs in the Steelers’ offense. He should be a high-floor option with a good weekly TD upside to match. Then in the third, I selected Chris Carson at 3.06 as the RB19 to be my RB2. Carson got high usage both early in the season when the Seahawks were passing a lot and later in the season when using more run plays. Both of these running backs offer high weekly floors, should see a lot of first downs, and are in good offenses with great TD upside.Â
Mid Round Picks
Next, in the 4th round, Lamar Jackson goes with the pick right before me, but remember we prepared and made a plan. I don’t panic, and grab my top WR available Kenny Golladay at 4.09 as the WR19. Golladay figures to be the Giants’ new alpha WR in 2021. With Daniel Jones having a full offseason in the relatively new offense and Saquon Barkley back I expect a lot more from this Giants unit. Golladay should be a high-volume guy with good TD upside as well as a chain mover for those bonus first down points.Â
The 5th round is where I was almost tempted to break my strategy. Michael Thomas has been falling due to his recent injury news and was still available in the fifth round. However, I decided to pass for now and select my third running back, Javonte Williams. I selected Javonte at 5.06 as the RB25. Javonte has fantastic upside due to the fact that he could become the workhorse for the Denver Broncos this season, and early reports are even saying he could start the season that way. I value late-season games over early-season games because that is when people start getting serious and the playoffs happen. So if I can get a guy that will be a workhorse in the playoffs for less than workhorse prices I’m all in.Â
In the 6th round, I was faced with my old pal Michael Thomas again. Other WRs available included Robby Anderson, Mike Williams, Laviska Shenault, and Curtis Samuel. All of these guys are stuck in WR2 roles on their respective offenses, except Laviska. I was again forced to weigh the early-season games against the late-season games. I went with Michael Thomas at 6.09 as the WR35 to add to my squad. His upside of weekly WR1 overall was too high to pass up at this point in the draft, even if I am not expecting him to play until Week 7. If I can just manage an average record of 3-3 in the first six weeks I’ll be ok. Especially if Javonte is the workhorse by that point. I’ll have gotten a workhorse in the fifth round and a top-8 WR in the 6th round, adding these guys to my squad will make me a threat in the late season and the playoffs. Thomas also fits my plan of grabbing my WR and works well with my Javonte style strategy.Â
In the seventh round the plan continued in full motion, I grabbed a high-volume rushing QB in Jalen Hurts at 7.06 as the QB7. Jalen offers a great floor with his rushing production, the added 0.1 points per carry, and 0.5 points per rushing first down. Then when you add on what he was able to do as a passer I am very excited for his potential. He is a candidate to be the QB1 in fantasy this season, similar to a Lamar Jackson 2019 type of season. And in fantasy, we want those great rushing QBs. Unfortunately, this is where the draft started to go very far away from the mocks and I started having to think on the fly.Â
I had a large number of WRs I would be very happy with in the eighth round, sadly all of them were taken prior to my pick. This led me to reinforce my RB core for the early weeks while Javonte may still be splitting work. I chose David Johnson at 8.09 as the RB39. David Johnson was better than people think in 2020. His lowest point total was a 7 point outing vs a stingy Baltimore defense in which the Texans only scored 16 points. But, even with that game included DJ managed to average 16.1 PPR points with Duke Johnson stealing passing work just like Lindsay will do. I am still a believer in DJ and think he is a great RB3/4 to have on your rosters this year.Â
Now I was desperate for WR though and needed one in the ninth round. I was normally taking him in the 10th but since WRs have been going fast I jumped on Elijah Moore at pick 9.06 as the WR53 in the draft. Moore comes in with rookie teammate Zach Wilson to re-invigorate this Jets offense and will have every opportunity to be the Jets leader in targets and receptions. People are discounting the Jets offense because it is a huge unknown. New coaches, new players, new system, it could be bad, it could be good, or it could be average; no one knows for sure. But, these players are being priced assuming it is going to be bad. Even the first WR drafted on the team was Corey Davis as the WR48… If this offense is just average Moore will exceed ADP, but if it ends up being good Moore will smash.Â
Late Round Picks
My next two picks I will group together here. After selecting Thomas I knew I needed a plan to try and cover for his missed time somehow. So, I drafted Adam Trautman at 10.09 as TE15 and TreQuan Smith at 11.06 as WR66. These guys will both see much-increased workloads as the Saints try to make do without Thomas and I also need a guy to offer solid production those first six weeks. So I grabbed both to ensure I have whichever guy ends up getting the lion’s share of the targets. The rest of the picks ended up being pretty boring so I will just list them here.
- 12.09 Malcolm Brown RB56 – Brown is known to steal work and TDs from a starter, he is also the next guy in line to start if Gaskin gets hurt. Could be a nice last flex if I’m in a pinch and would be a great asset if Gaskin missed time.
- 13.06 Ravens D/ST1 – I wanted to secure the Ravens defense because their style of play is very favorable to defensive scoring in fantasy. They rush the QB a ton, limit opponents’ number of drives with their rushing attack, and are overall a very good unit. Plus their Week 1 matchup is against the Raiders and I love that for them.
- 14.09 Kirk Cousins QB20 – Wanted a backup QB and Cousins is as safe as they come. Top 12 QB in the last three seasons so he’s someone I can depend on if I need him.
- 15.06 Baker Mayfield QB22 and 16.09 Carson Wentz QB24. I didn’t plan for this but the other players in the draft had already pretty much cleared the player pool. So all that was left was team WR3/4s and strictly handcuff RBs. There’s little chance that any of these players see real value during the season and choosing between them is pure luck. So I decided to take starting QBs because I know these players will start and be usable no matter what. If this were not a 14 team league I would not have done this but the waivers will be smaller due to 27 QBs total being drafted. If a contender ends up losing a QB to injury or bye week I may be able to trade one of mine for a flex or top of bench player that is a win in my book.
- 17.09 Qadree Ollison RB73. Ollison is one of the backups I like to shoot for because of the age of Mike Davis and how he seemed to wear out towards the end of 2020. If anything happens to Davis, Ollison is an instant RB2 in this league.
- 18.06 Rodrigo Blankenship K10 Gotta grab a kicker with the last pick, any earlier is silly. Just pick whichever you think is on the best offense.
Conclusion/Recap
Alright, so that’s my draft. I am very pleased with my RB group which is led by two stud workhorses, supported by an eventual workhorse and a workhorse on a bad team. I like that I got a high rushing volume QB and paired him with a very safe QB. I love having the TE1 on my team and supported by a lot of people’s favorite sleeper TE. I am disappointed in my WRs, but I valued the position the least, and to be strong in every other area you need to be weak somewhere. If Moore plays well and Thomas comes back healthy I really like my chances.Â
Let’s finish this off with a quick look at the potential starting lineup for the playoffs. In a 14 team league, this could be a championship roster.
Four RBs that should see 20+ touches per game, target hog WR in Thomas, alpha WR1 in Golladay. Potential top 3-5 QB in Jalen Hurts, and the TE1 in Kelce. If I can get a decent start to the seasons and make the playoffs I sure like my odds. Be sure to check out the other team write-ups as well to see what strategies and tips they will offer to help you win your redraft leagues!
Wow, you read all the way through! Thank you, I really appreciate you using your time to enjoy my content. If you would like to talk to me about my article or ask me any generic dynasty or trade questions. You can find me on Twitter @ChrisMiles1017, DFF Draft Director. Shoot me a DM, they are always open. Come join the #DFFArmy where I provide #Dynasty, #Redraft, and #Analytics content, along with rankings for @DFF_Dynasty. Thank you so much!
