Cam Newton showed in 2015 why you don’t need to take a QB early in fantasy drafts

We’ve all read articles, listened to podcasts, and viewed rankings in order to better prepare ourselves for upcoming drafts. Often times that’ll give you the thoughts of one, maybe two people (which is perfectly fine by the way), but we’re trying to make it easier to for everyone to get advice in one place. Naturally, we decided to reach out to our friends from across the fantasy industry to collect their thoughts on what they’d want fantasy owners to hear.

If you’re looking for a “things to do” or “things to avoid” before your draft, you’re in the right place. We’re combining the advice from ten fantasy experts with one single question in mind. What should fantasy owners avoid doing in their 2016 draft? It only makes sense that great minds think alike so don’t be surprised if you see a few similar thoughts below.

Test your draft strategy with our Free Draft Simulator

Q. Please give us one draft mistake you would caution fantasy owners from making in this year’s draft

“Don’t ever lock yourself into a particular strategy. You may want to go into your draft and take two or three wide receivers early, but by doing that, you’re eliminating any value presented to you. If your league has read up and done their research on why “Zero RB” works, let them do that, while you scoop up all of the workhorse running backs and leave them to fight over who gets the first waiver wire running back. If they are drafting the old school way of running backs early and often, grab those wide receivers. You don’t win a draft by going with the flow, you win it by zigging when everyone else is zagging. Get as many top tier players at their positions as possible, period.”
– Mike Tagliere (Pro Football Focus)

“I’d advise owners not to draft a quarterback early, but that’s pretty common advice these days. I’ll go one step further and warn against drafting a tight end early (i.e. Rob Gronkowski, Jordan Reed). It’s not that these players won’t return value at their current ADP, they very well may, but the depth at the position makes it unnecessary to draft a tight end early. Instead, target Coby Fleener, Delanie Walker or Travis Kelce in the 7th round, or perhaps Dwayne Allen in the 10th/11th.”
– John Paulsen (4for4.com)

“Don’t fall for the “rush” on any one position. Stick to value based drafting, and always take the best available player. Too many times fantasy owners will take a TE simply because they see them flying off the board, while leaving value at the WR or RB positions.”
– KJ (Fantasy Team Advice)

“Don’t spend an early draft pick on a quarterback. The value at such a deep position is mind-boggling. Currently, you can get the likes of Tom Brady, Carson Palmer, Drew Brees, Big Ben, Blake Bortles and Eli Manning in round 5 or far later. The fluidity of the position can’t be ignored, either. Perfect example: Cam Newton was drafted in round 10 on average last year and was fantasy football’s top passer. Search for value and draft two reliable passers, while investing your early picks on game changing talent at RB and WR.”
– Kevin Roberts (Breaking Football)

“Don’t marry yourself to any specific strategy or player you want before the draft starts. In the excitement of draft preparation, owners too often zero in on a certain way to draft or a subset of players to own at any cost. There’s no need to limit your options in that way because there’s no certainty in fantasy drafts. Instead, construct your draft prep in an effort to be ready for any possible scenario when you’re on the clock. Adaptability in the draft is your best route to scoring maximum value with each pick.”
– Greg Smith (TwoQBs)

“Don’t use outdated Fantasy Football magazines. A lot of those magazines are printed in June or even May. Meaning the articles and rankings are written in May or April, making them very outdated come time for your draft. They are good for general draft tips and strategies, but the mock drafts, rankings and even team previews can be thrown out due to not being able to account for injuries or depth chart changes.”
– Joe Bond (Fantasy Six Pack)

“The biggest mistake fantasy owners can make on draft day is rigidly sticking to a pre-draft strategy. Preparing for a draft or auction is vital, but very often, owners come up with a strategy, like “zero-RB or zero-WR” and follow through on it no matter what. If other owners in that draft are like-minded, that entire strategy can be flawed and lead to reaches, panicked selections, and poor values. By following through on a strategy that can easily be affected by others, you might miss the golden opportunity to recognize value at other positions, and build a better roster simply by capitalizing on you fellow owner’s mistakes. The best strategy is to be prepared, proactive, and flexible. Pay attention to what your league mates are doing, look ahead at your position tiers and values, and never “reach” on a player when a better value falls into your lap due to their mistakes.”
– Jody Smith (Gridiron Experts)

“Fantasy writers have lectured you ad nauseam not to draft quarterbacks in the early rounds. Some of you will do it anyway. Hey, we all have our bad habits. But if you’re going to step into that gopher hole because you’ve failed to comprehend just how high the baseline numbers for latter-round QBs have risen, then I beseech you not to compound that mistake by also drafting an early-round tight end. If you’ve filled your starting QB and TE positions in the first four rounds of your draft, you’ve put yourself well behind the curve at the critical WR and RB positions. Receivers and running backs are the oil and gasoline of your fantasy team. Quarterbacks and tight ends are the windshield washer fluid and AC coolant — they’re important, but you’re not going to be stranded if you let the levels get a little low.”
– Pat Fitzmaurice (The Football Girl)

“Don’t be inflexible on draft day. Some common questions I get this time of year include (1) “Should I draft a RB (or WR) in the first round?” and (2) “Should I start RB/RB (or WR/WR, or WR/RB, etc.) in my draft?” While it’s fine to go into a draft with a general strategy, fantasy owners should be flexible enough to adjust to what the draft gives you. As an example, like many other fantasy owners, I generally prefer to wait a long time before drafting my QB given the depth at the position. If an elite fantasy QB falls far enough that he becomes a value, however, I’m willing to capitalize on the opportunity even though it goes against my general strategy. Try to find value with each pick and you can win your league(s) regardless of the strategy you employ on draft day.”
– Kevin Hanson (EDSFootball)

“Please don’t go into any draft thinking that you need to follow any particular strategy, whether it’s Zero RB, Zero WR or Zero K (actually, that last one is a solid idea). The way to come away from a draft with the best team possible is to be prepared for it to unfold in any number of directions, and to be ready to pounce on whatever it gives you. Having said that, um, don’t expect to come away from a draft with anything close to the actual “best team possible” — that’s just the first step, and fantasy winners know that there is plenty of roster re-shaping left to do by grinding away at the waiver wire and working on trades.”
– Des Bieler (The Washington Post)

—

We’d like to thank all the experts for giving us their one draft mistake to avoid. For more fantasy advice, listen to our latest podcast below.

Subscribe: iTunes | Stitcher | SoundCloud | RSS