Fantasy football conventional wisdom says grab running backs early and often. And in many cases that’s true. Nobody is saying pass up LaDainian Tomlinson, Adrian Peterson, Brian Westbrook or Steven Jackson if you have one of the top four or five picks. But with the increasing propensity of the running back-by-committee and the humongous passing stats being put up by teams like New England and Indianapolis, that advice now comes with an asterisk.
Let fantasy drafts come to you. It’s no longer taboo to grab a top quarterback – Tom Brady or Peyton Manning – or the top ranked wide receiver in the latter half of round one. Paul Charchian, founder of the Web site Fanball.com, has long espoused a strategy he calls “Doing the opposite” and ever since I started being more purposeful in my own scouting and rankings I’ve had much more fantasy football success.
The truth is in most scoring systems Randy Moss had more points than any running back last season except Tomlinson and Braylon Edwards wasn’t far behind. If you had grabbed the combination of Terrell Owens and Reggie Wayne and then stolen Adrian Peterson in the third round you’d have been well on your way to a championship.
I’d been planning on writing a post like this for awhile. The folks at NFL.com sort of stole my thunder. But the fact remains – there’s more than one way to win a fantasy football championship. If you go RB, RB in the first two rounds you’re as likely to go bust as you are to go boom. Take a gander at this link and then adjust your draft lists accordingly. … and if you don’t, please invite me into your league so I can get a piece of that pot.
Cheers.
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Of course, when everyone takes this strategy, you still have to do the opposite, and revert back to original thinking of going RB early…
Yes, but then there will be running backs available that are actually worthy of being selected in the spot in which you would previously have “done the opposite”.
It’s all about letting the draft come to you.
See the draft, be the draft.
So, you should see who is still available and then pick the best? What a brilliant strategy.
Crazy, isn’t it?
Hey Smartypants,
If it’s no longer taboo to grab a Peyton Manning or a Tom Brady then why do they both have restraining orders against me?
Hey, thanks for citing my draft strategy! Much appreciated!
Really, the crux of the idea is to eschew runners in the first three rounds (with the exception being the AAA guys in the very first picks), and go with the relative safety of elite WRs and QBs. Then, take a slew of runners in the middle rounds, knowing that one or two of your sleepers will pan out.