An Expert’s Cheat Sheet to Dominating NFL.com Fantasy Football Drafts
August is drawing towards an end, meaning peak fantasy football season is (finally) upon us. The sheer number of available platforms to choose from to satiate the fantasy football bug remains abundant, giving players the ability to customize their fantasy football experience to their liking. NFL.com offers an excellent product to those who are seeking full point-per-reception (PPR) scoring. The settings for 10-team leagues on NFL.com require managers to start one quarterback (QB), two running backs (RB), two wide receivers (WR), one tight end (TE), one FLEX (RB/WR/TE), one defense/special teams (D/ST), and one kicker (K) each week.
2024 Draft Kit in One Place: Fantasy Football Rankings, Tools, and Draft Strategy
Before we get into the strategy for fantasy football leagues on NFL.com, it is first important to understand that the format requires managers to start a D/ST and K. These are historically two of the most variant positions when it comes to weekly scoring. This provides a unique opportunity to view these two positions as composite positions by streaming both weekly, instead emphasizing the more predictable positions on the roster. To do so, utilize metrics like game spreads, pressure rate differential between a defensive line and the opposing offensive line, turnover differential, and red zone touchdown rates. The strategies outlined below are current as of August 22, 2024, and will give you the best chances to dominate your NFL.com fantasy football leagues!
Avoid the Potential Landmines in Round 1
The first round is littered with the best of the best, the cream of the crop, the tier-one athletes. These players provide the best combination of weekly floor and ceiling, giving you bankable production regardless of matchup or situation. You simply start these players each week and move on. Although all players in the first round carry similar weekly ceilings (the outlier outcomes on the high side), there are some intricate distinctions between them regarding weekly floor (the outlier outcomes on the low side).
This deviation in weekly ranges of outcomes allows us to separate the truly elite weekly options from the ones that could lose you a matchup and provides a blueprint to follow when on the clock in the first round of fantasy drafts. Three running backs and four wide receivers stand above the rest in the first round for this composite range of outcomes, making Christian McCaffrey, Breece Hall, Bijan Robinson, CeeDee Lamb, Tyreek Hill, Justin Jefferson, and Amon-Ra St. Brown priority targets in the draft’s most important round.
Although Ja'Marr Chase, A.J. Brown, and Saquon Barkley maintain a high weekly ceiling, their respective weekly floors leave a lot to be desired for such an important part of the draft. That makes all three well worth passing on if any of the seven players previously mentioned are still on the board.
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