Shawn Siegele outlines the key tactics and the six crucial players to select if you begin your fantasy football draft with a slot-based disadvantage.
There is no safe place in a fantasy football draft. The 10 highest-drafted players of the last four years were all RBs. Seven of them posted win rates below 5.5%. Four of those were miniscule win rates below 2.5%.
But it’s also not difficult to draft with an early pick. We know that Christian McCaffrey’s upside is unmatched, that Alvin Kamara was his demigod sidekick, that Dalvin Cook is coming off of a monster season, and that playing Travis Kelce is like having an extra spot in your starting lineup. Even with the specter of elevated injury risk at the top, we want as much exposure to these players as possible.
It gets a little trickier once the stars are gone. History tells us that win rates drop below 7% if you’re drafting out of the back third of your draft. Fortunately, we have a trio of tools that also tell us how to fix this problem.
Last year I outlined a plan for dominating your league from a bad draft slot. Then Blair Andrews and I followed that plan to win an FFPC Main Event title and finish 31st overall. Today I’ll go over that plan, look at whether the evidence holds up for 2021, and break down the tactics and players you need to dominate this season.
