My 2026 Fantasy Football Draft Strategy

♪ Ram back where you went ♪ (upbeat music) - Yo, what's going on? It's Friday, August 21st. I'm Jeff, this is the rent, and it's the day before one of the biggest fantasy football draft days of the year. You might even be drafting tonight. And a topic that I haven't really dove into on the podcast, have talked a bunch about it on my radio show and definitely a ton about it at ftnfantasy.com. Is my draft strategies, and I'm gonna use that plural because there's a couple different positions, use different strategies for different positions, but my draft strategies for regular read draft leagues in 2026. Strategies change over the years. They have to, because, well, the NFL changes, and we can't use the same thing. You can't draft the same way you did in 2003. It just isn't gonna work today. And honestly, I don't even think you can draft the same way as you did in 2025, or 2024, or any of the recent seasons. So every single year when we get past the NFL draft, my sole objective is to figure out what the board is gonna look like in the Graham scheme of things, not necessarily exactly the ADPs of players in the late August, but where are running backs and wide receivers clustering? Is there value at quarterback in certain pockets, same thing with tight end, and so on? So I take all of that and develop my strategy. Now this year, I decided to broaden things, and of course, at ftnfantasy.com, you can check out my process draft guide. So my process is not my draft strategy. Knowing strategies is only part of the process for me, so I break all of that down for you in the draft guide. You should check it out. If you want cheat sheets as well, if you have a draft, you might as well. ftnfantasy.com, new subscribers use draft 20 to get your discount. It's gonna go away today. So if you're hearing this on Friday, it'll go away after today, but it is a 15% discount. Why is it not 20? Because it was 20 last week, we had a one day flash sale, and a bunch of people were like, "Yo, I missed out on it." And I have a heart. So we brought it back, but at 15%. All right, so there you go, ftnfantasy.com. And again, yeah, my process draft guide, I have a whole process for preparing for a fantasy drafts. And this process is probably very different from how a lot of people prepare. And it's by design. You know, I noticed over the years that I would prepare by doing mock drafts and I'd studied cheat sheets or rankings until I was blue in the face. And then I'd show up on draft day and I'd get absolutely punched in the mouth, make knocked out, right? Terrible. And I would do the same thing that a lot of people do, sort of shoot from the hip, stare at that cheat sheet, try to make some picks. And then when it was all said and done, I'd stand in front of the board and say, "I hate my team." And I figured there had to be a better way of doing it. Now fortunately, I started doing this thing for a living. And even then in the early days, you know, 15 years ago of me doing this for a living, well, not that I was making any money 15 years ago, but trying to do so professionally, however, I don't know what you want to say, but anyway, I still was not that good at drafting. And it really didn't come together until like, you know, maybe a year or two after that, where I started to realize something very, very basic, strategies matter. And I really, you know, in like 2010, 2011 was like when I was first really fully engaged with the idea of value-based drafting and then really started to adopt those ideas. Strategies do matter, but it's not just about the strategies. The other thing that I see people do on draft day is when they're up, they sit and they stare at their board. They don't make the pick. They sit and stare at their board. And they look at names and I know, 'cause I've done this too, you look at names, you're scanning, you're searching, and eventually you're like, all right, fine, I'll just take this guy, right? Well, part of that is because there reach is a certain point in the draft where the players aren't as obvious anymore, right? It's like, yeah, you know what you need to know about Amin Rossi round or Bajon Robinson or Heck, like, you know, Josh Allen, the tight ends, Bowers, McBride, you know what you need to know about those dudes. But when we get into the middle and late rounds, you may not know everything that you need to know about those dudes. And it's not like how dare you not know that, sir, have you no decency? No, no, not at all. I get it, there's a lot of freaking players. But if you spend the time now and just kinda get the basic profile of those players, you're gonna be so much better off because you now won't be staring at names and not really having context for those names. But that really isn't strategy, that's preparation, right? My process is preparation for draft day. But a big part of the process is knowing strategies and I would say first and foremost, fundamentally, number one, if you don't really understand value-based drafting, you're putting yourself at a disadvantage. That doesn't mean you don't use it because in fact, I would, I would estimate in my homely drafts, it's somewhere in the range of 80 to 90% of those guys are using value-based drafting and most of them don't realize they are. But I know they are because they're using overall cheat sheets and overall cheat sheet is based on value over replacement calculations. So it's value-based. And so if you are one of those types of drafters, you're value-based drafting. Now, the key here though is really understanding what value means. Value doesn't mean scoring the most points, right? If we did, if we based value on scoring the most points, quarterbacks would be the entire first round 'cause quarterbacks tend to score the most points. It's not about how many points you score. It's about how many more points you score than whoever we could get off of waivers at that position. Go that player a replacement level player, right? And it's not a perfect science to figure out exactly who that replacement player is. You could look up the debates on where that cutoff is, but in the grand scheme of things still, that's how we determine value. So simply put, man, the top running back, Jemeer Gibbs is worth a lot more than the replacement level player than, say, Josh Allen is at quarterback. Because quarterback is deep this year. So that's sort of the key idea here. Now, I think every draft strategy has to start with that discussion. You probably should know about tier based drafting as well, which is, it was sort of like for a long time, it was either you were a value based draft or you were a tiers based draft or, but then we started to see things evolve beyond that. And I would say that one of the early ideas that eventually became sort of crystallizes a different name originally went by upside down drafting. Now, the idea here was, hey, everybody drafts running backs like crazy early in drafts. So what if we didn't do that, right? What if we went in a different direction and loaded up on wide receiver or potentially at tight end and quarterback to gain our advantage elsewhere and then try and make up ground at running back on everybody who drafted running back heavy early. Again, once called upside down drafting, but you probably know it a lot better as zero RB. Zero RB had a moment. Zero RB also had a supreme backlash back in 2018. No, 2016, I'm sorry, 2016 when it didn't work. And so, and there has been an ebb and flow of zero RB over the years. There's been a couple of years recently where I thought zero RB was the pathway. Definitely not last year, I went hero RB last year, but a couple of years it has been the pathway. Well, as I just noted, hero RB, which is a clever name, it's not a modification of zero RB. You can't modify zero RB. You are going to punt the position until the latter part of the middle rounds at running back. And hero RB, you're drafting a running back in one of the first two rounds. You're drafting a top shelf guy to start things off. And then you don't come back to the position until six or sometimes round seven, depending on what you're doing at like quarterback and tight end, but you're really loading up on wide receivers as well. The idea behind these strategies though, before I go any further, is that you're not worried about filling your starting lineup. You're worried about building a roster, or not even worried, you're building a darn roster. That's the idea. We don't give a crap about starting lineup because your starting lineup is going to change a bunch of times over the course of the season. If you have a robust roster, your starting lineup is always going to be good. That's the idea. Don't fill out starting lineup and then go and trickle your way straight on down through. So hero RB was an approach that I viewed as viable last year. Some people had a variation in its super hero RB, which is where you draft two running backs and like running back, running back, and then you fill in wide receiver, and then eventually you come back to running back, but it's pretty late, like round eight or so you're going to come back. I found that approach leaves me tooth in it, wide receiver, and I just don't like that approach. But I know some people who do prefer it, and that's kind of the beauty to fantasy football, is you can do what you prefer. There's no one right way to do any of this stuff. But I've found what works for me. I found what makes me comfortable each year, and then I go with it. When I lock that strategy in place, that is the strategy that I'm going to use. Now this year, I considered hero RB. but it didn't look like it worked. I am doing something different. I actually put a name to it, and you might know the name already if you follow my stuff, but if you haven't, you hadn't read everything over at ftnfantasy.com. I'll tell you the name, and I'll break down the strategy, and then we'll also talk about what I'm doing at running back and quarter back. We'll talk about all that right after this. And we're back, and yes, this year required a slightly different approach from last year. Why? Because I looked at the board, and it became very apparent very quickly that running back was going to fly off the board. Very, very rapidly this year. Not to the sense to create any panic or anything like that, because remember, if you're opponent drafts are running back and round one and two, they're very unlikely to do so in three. They're very likely to go to wide receiver or heck, maybe quarter back or maybe tight end, but they're likely to move away from the position. But we're seeing just a slight uptick in the first five rounds in terms of the amount of running backs who come off the board only slight, but enough that it is noticeable. And that was a key component here. So I looked at the idea of does hero rb work this year, because I knew right off the bat in today's NFL in 2026, I don't think zero is viable. I do think you need one of the top shelf running backs. And top shelf doesn't mean elite. It means one of these guys who is basically an rb1, and it, you know, you could say that's top 12, 13, 14, wherever you draw that line. For me, it could be 14 or 15. I don't really care about that part, because honestly, if you draft one or two in a 12 team lead, you're getting Jameer Gibbs or Bajan Robinson. So you're not worried about rb13 or 14. You're going to be drafted in a wide receiver in that range, right? So anyway, I digress. The point, I didn't see hero is that viable, because if you take, you come back to the position in round six, which is even slightly early, the running back crop in six is already pretty stinkin' light. And a lot of the guys who I view as do not draft at the position are also falling in this range of like six, seven, eight. And if they are do not draft for me, I'm a man of my word. I don't draft those guys. And they are on my ultimate draft board, by the way, at ftnfantasy.com. So I noticed something very interesting though. I don't hate the guys in six, and maybe even seven. But the guys in five were very appealing. And it doesn't mean specific guys. I'm talking about the caliber of the guy. You're, you're generally speaking, rb21, 22, 23, 24, somewhere in that range is what we're looking at in round five. That's an appealing range. You know, some years you can get that in six. I doubt you get it in seven in this era, but you know, some years you could get that in six, you can't do it this year, just because of the composition of the board. So I thought, okay, I like the idea of taking running back or wide receiver, whoever's top of my board in round one, then taking the other position in round two. So if I went running back in one, I'm going wide out into advice versus sticking to that, not looking at the other column, not worried about value, not worried about who's falling, just focused on building my roster. I still like wide receiver man in three and four. So I'm going running back or wide receiver, I'm going the opposite in two, then wide out wide out. But what if we swung back to running back earlier than how we do in hero rb? What if we came back in five? And I had this idea of like, well, what could we call it? And, and you know, I kept thinking about coming back, coming back, coming, well, boomerang, boomerang comes back. So the idea of boomerang rb was born. This is not a new idea. I didn't, I'm not the first person to go running back or wide out in round one and two wide out wide out running back. I'm not the first person to ever do that. I didn't create slice bread, but I did want to put a name to this idea to make it more, you know, tangible that we could wrap or head around. Now it doesn't end there though. And this is a running back and wide receiver strategy as you'll notice. When we come back to running back in five, we have to continue to attack because if we don't, we're going to leave ourselves too light. So in six running back in seven. Initially, I thought maybe we could dabble with wide out there. It looks like you have to go running back because of how thin things get. And your home leagues are going to be the same way. I'm telling you right now. Then it's wide out, wide out, wide out. So eight, nine and 10. So by the time we get to 10, we haven't even thought about tight end or quarterback and I'll get to it. I know this is a little crazy for some people, but we haven't even thought about them. But we're loaded up. We're loaded up. We have a foundation at running back and wide receiver in rounds one and two. We have high caliber probably three top 15 wideouts, if not three top 20 wideouts on a roster because of three and four. We come back with an upside running back in five, six and seven. Then swing for the fences and eight, nine and 10 at wide receiver. And you are talking dripping with upside. Now that's the end of the middle rounds. Beginning around the early rounds one through five, middle round six through 10, 11 plus of the late rounds. When I get to the late rounds, now I'm interested in quarterback. This is a great year for late round quarterback. In fact, I think shout out JJ Zacharyson. This is the best late round quarterback year I've ever seen. There's so much depth of the position and everybody kind of knows it now. So even in your home leagues, quarterbacks fall. And guess what? If you're going to say, well, you know, a lot of people start drafting a second quarterback before I even drive to first. Cool. Let him. You're still going to have value at the position. It's that deep this year. So at least in round 11, I'm finding myself usually looking at the position in like 13, but that's not a guarantee. I start to ponder these ideas in 11. And I'm doing the same thing at tight end. I know some people have asked, well, wouldn't I have a bigger advantage if I just went bit the bullet and grabbed Brock Bauer's or Tremac bride in the second? In theory, yes. In practice, ask the people who did that with Brock Bauer's last year. Because in practice, the challenge here is if he does not hit, not the Brock Bauer's isn't talented. There's no debate there. But if he gets hurt again or something like that, the value cost to your lineup is so or to your roster is so much more significant because it's a onesie position. If you drop Brock Bauer's there, even if you draft to tight end later, you're getting a streaming option, basically, right? You lose him. You're screwed, right? If you lose the running back you draft in the second round, it hurts, but you aren't screwed because you have other running backs. Same thing with drafting Josh Allen early. So instead of that, the strategy I used last year was punning the position to the late rounds. It worked like gang busters. Now, ultimately, Tyler Warren might have been in round nine or so, but my number one target last year, you get for free, Kyle Pitts. And it worked. Now, granted, no guarantees, but that's the pathway. Boomerang RB, late round quarter back, late round tight end. FTN fantasy.com is the website. Use promo code draft 20. Take advantage of it before it goes away tonight. If you have drafts this weekend, crush them, dominate them, mop the floor with those suckers. All right, I will be back on Monday and we'll recap all the preseason action for you. And keep following along with me on Twitter. Add Jeff Rackliffe. All right, I'll catch you on the flip. [Music]