With fantasy drafts happening all over the world over the next two weeks, one thing it’s important to consider is that your league-mates may not have done as much research as you did, and they might be heavily influenced by the in-draft rankings of whatever platform your league is hosted on. If you understand this, you can get a better idea of where players may go in your draft than just looking at ADP.

In this article, I’ve highlighted the players at each position that the ECR (expert consensus rankings) on FantasyPros is significantly higher or lower on than the in-draft PPR rankings on CBS.

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Top 10 Running Backs

The first that strikes you is Ezekiel Elliott‘s RB7 ranking. There seemed to be a near consensus in the fantasy community that the top four running backs were Todd Gurley, Le’Veon Bell, David Johnson, and Elliott, in whatever order, so this was a shocking find. Elliot managed to finish as an RB1 last season in only 10 games of play. If you take out the six weeks where he served his suspension, Elliott was the RB3 overall and was first in the league in both carries and rushing yards. With the departures of Dez Bryant and Jason Witten, the Cowboys will have to rely even more on their workhorse. Having Elliott in the top four running backs is a no-brainer to me.

When Jerick McKinnon was traded to the 49ers, many were excited about his potential as a feature back. Maybe none more so than CBS, who have him as a top 10 fantasy running back. While McKinnon is an elite athlete, he doesn’t measure like a workhorse. At 5’9”, 202 pounds, he’s on the small side of running backs, and he’s never had more than 159 carries in a season. In fact, in the two seasons he carried the ball 150+ times, he averaged career lows in yards per carry (3.8 and 3.4). McKinnon is currently recovering from a calf injury and Matt Breida also figures to get a significant amount of work, so a top 10 ranking feels a bit to aggressive to me.

Teammates in Timeshares

Many of the rankings discrepancies involve teammates who will likely be splitting touches, and we aren’t sure how evenly they’ll be split. Matt Nagy has many in the Chicago area excited about his up-tempo offense. CBS has Tarik Cohen 10 spots higher than the ECR and Jordan Howard four spots lower. Nagy has said that Cohen is being used all over the field and will be heavily featured in his offense, but it seems a stretch to say that two Bears running backs will finish in the top 21. Don’t forget that even though he doesn’t come with pass-catching upside, Jordan Howard is a high volume running back that was fifth in the NFL in carries and sixth in rushing yards.

The other main timeshare pair here is Derrick Henry and Dion Lewis. Both CBS and the ECR have Henry and Lewis ranked right next to each other, but the ECR is higher on the Titans’ offense and has them both ranked as RB2s. Since Mariota has been in the league, the Titans haven’t ranked higher than 16th in points or yards in any season, so I’m skeptical about them both finishing that high, but I agree with the ECR putting Lewis just above Henry in PPR scoring formats.

The most surprising ranking here for me is Tevin Coleman as the RB16. He did manage an RB20 finish in just 13 games in 2016, but that was a magical season where the Falcons finished second in points, fourth in yards and Matt Ryan was a legitimate MVP candidate. Coleman has increased his snap share every year alongside Devonta Freeman and there’s a lot to like about him, but I see him more as a low-end RB2 than a high-end one.

The “Starters”

Alex Collins, Marshawn Lynch, Jay Ajayi, and Marlon Mack are all supposed to be the starters on their teams, but their rankings are certainly not agreed upon. Collins won the starting job in Baltimore last year, but Kenneth Dixon, who was impressive in 2016 before missing the season last year, is right behind him. Collins will be on a tight leash. Out of this group, I agree with the ECR most on Marshawn Lynch. He returned to workhorse form in the second half of 2017 and was the RB12 overall from Week 12 on. He had the third-most carries and fourth-most yards in that span. Many are fading Ajayi because he absolutely bombed last year. He scored one touchdown the entire season and never received more than 15 carries in a game as an Eagle. Doug Pederson likes to roll with multiple backs, and the Eagles have multiple capable backs on the team, so I don’t see much upside for Ajayi. The Colts backfield is still unknown, but Mack has been the starter in the preseason. The Colts don’t look like they want to make him a workhorse, as they didn’t last year, and I expect the backfield to look a lot more like a committee with Jordan Wilkins and Nyheim Hines.

The Rookies

It’s more difficult to rank a player’s fantasy value when he hasn’t played a single NFL game yet, so It’s not surprising that Kerryon Johnson, Ronald Jones, and Rashaad Penny are all on this list. CBS ranks Kerryon Johnson as a top 24 running back but is significantly lower than the ECR on both Jones and Penny. Jones has struggled mightily in preseason, going 18 yards on 18 carries through three games. The Buccaneers aren’t going to give up on their second-round pick before the season even starts, but it looks like Peyton Barber will get a lot of the work at least early in the season. Before Penny even got hurt, Chris Carson was stealing the show in Seattle, and now that also looks like it will end up in a timeshare. Johnson has played well in the preseason, and I would be a lot more comfortable with his RB24 ranking by CBS if he wasn’t sharing the backfield with Legarrette Blount, Theo Riddick, and Ameer Abdullah. Johnson is the future, and he will have some big weeks in 2018 in Detroit, but I fear he won’t get enough consistent usage to finish as an RB2.

The Rest

Aside from James White‘s RB32 ranking by CBS, the rest of the running backs on the list are ranked outside the top 36 by both CBS and the ECR. Once the top 40 running backs are off the board, you’re trying to draft guys with the highest upside, because everyone is a risk at that point. The ECR has C.J. Anderson ranked as the RB44, nine spots ahead of CBS. This may change before the regular season as Carolina has made Christian McCaffrey look like a workhorse in preseason. He’s gotten the lion’s share of first-team carries, he’s gotten goal line carries, and he ripped off a 71-yard run in their second preseason game against Miami.

It appears the CBS rankings place a higher value on running backs expected to catch passes. Theo Riddick, Devontae Booker, Nyheim Hines, Darren Sproles, and Spencer Ware are all at least six spots higher in their rankings than the ECR. The ECR is higher, however, on Chris Carson, who has a chance to be the early-down work leader in Seattle over first-round pick Rashaad Penny.

If you’re playing in a CBS league, you need to be careful, because their wide receiver rankings are all over the place. of their top 70 wide receivers, 25 of them deviate from the ECR’s rankings by at least 10 spots above or below. Here are some of the highlights that you should pay attention to

The first area of their rankings that caused an eyebrow raise for me was that Alshon Jeffery, Sammy Watkins, and Allen Robinson were their WRs 39, 40, and 42. If Jeffery starts the season on the PUP list, I’ll understand this ranking a bit more, but he just started practicing with a helmet on and there’s no indication yet that he will definitely miss time. If healthy, he’s the X receiver for Carson Wentz with a high touchdown upside. Wentz and Nick Foles are both dealing with injuries, and I don’t believe Jeffery will be able to duplicate his 16% touchdown rate from last season, but it’s hard to imagine him falling outside the top 36 receivers. Sammy Watkins is coming off of a disastrous season where he only saw 70 targets, the lowest he’s seen when he’s played at least 13 games. The Chiefs signed him to a big three-year $48 million contract, which leads me to believe he’ll be a big part of their offense. Kareem Hunt, Tyreek Hill, and Travis Kelce will also be clamoring for targets in Kansas City so I understand the hesitation on Watkins, but WR40 is too much hate. Here’s where it really gets weird – Allen Robinson is 22 spots lower on CBS than he is in the ECR. Mitch Trubisky was on pace to throw 440 passes over a 16-game season. If he can bump that up to 490 in Matt Nagy’s offense (Alex Smith threw 505 passes last year), and Robinson can secure even a modest 21% target share, that already puts him over 100 targets. No wide receiver with 100+ targets finished worse than WR32 last season.

Just as CBS bumped up pass-catching running backs higher than the ECR, they’ve bumped up high-volume receivers like Jarvis Landry and Golden Tate. Landry averaged 142.5 targets per season in Miami, but he has more competition in Cleveland, and until Baker Mayfield takes over, he has a quarterback who’s never thrown more than 436 passes in a season. He’d need a 30% target share to get 142 targets, which might be tough with Josh Gordon, Duke Johnson, David Njoku, and Antonio Callaway around. Golden Tate has led the Lions in catches for four straight seasons, including two seasons with Calvin Johnson on the team, but he’s never finished higher than the WR11 overall. Ranking him there is ranking him at his ceiling, and that may be difficult to reach this year with a crowded backfield and an emerging Kenny Golladay.

The next issue I have is the way CBS ranks the Rams receivers. Many are afraid that Brandin Cooks will be Sammy Watkins 2.0, but Cooks has had the entire offseason to practice with the team and learn their playbook, and the Rams have already signed him to a five-year, $80 million deal. They are treating him like the guy they want their passing game to work through. Jared Goff is obviously a downgrade from Drew Brees and Tom Brady, but Cooks hasn’t finished worse than WR12 overall despite playing with crowded groups of receivers. Kupp and Woods will both see their numbers take a hit as the offense should run mainly through Gurley and Cooks and the defense will be rock solid.

There are a few more guys that are mentioning here. Pierre Garcon is ranked by CBS as a top 24 WR, but I don’t believe he’ll be the top receiver on his team. Jimmy Garoppolo fell in love with Marquise Goodwin in the last five games of 2017, and he finished as the WR8 in that span. Garcon may end up as the third option behind Goodwin and Jerick McKinnon.

Jamison Crowder is 23 spots higher in the ECR. Alex Smith makes smart, quick passes, which fits Crowder’s style of play very well. Crowder averaged 3.2 yards of separation according to NFL.com’s Next Gen Stats, which was almost a yard more than both Josh Doctson and Paul Richardson. Crowder will get open for Smith and he’ll be the possession receiver and go-to target.

CBS has Tyrell Williams, Courtland Sutton, Martavis Bryant, Antonio Callaway, Adam Humphries, Chester Rogers, and Travis Benjamin all at least 22 spots higher than the ECR. None of these wide receivers are higher than third on their respective depth charts except for maybe Bryant. However, they’ll all likely be taken in the area of the draft where you’re just throwing darts at sleepers anyways.

The one guy I do prefer CBS’s ranking over the ECR is Quincy Enunwa. Enunwa had a breakout season in 2016 and was poised to start 2018 atop the Jets’ depth chart before getting injured and missing the entire season. The Jets receiving corps is far from clear-cut, and Robby Anderson still may be facing legal trouble. It’s not too wild to imagine Enunwa emerging as Sam Darnold‘s favorite option.

Deshaun Watson was the most exciting player in the league last season over the six games he played. However, that is too small a sample size for me to catapult him to the No. 2 overall quarterback in fantasy. His high volatility and turnover issues make it impossible for me to rank him at his absolute ceiling.

Andrew Luck, on the other hand, is someone who time and time again has proven his worth when healthy. He’s never finished worse than QB8 in a healthy season and is third in yards per game since 2014. He’s looked fine so far through the preseason, and there certainly aren’t eight quarterbacks that I’d rather have than a healthy Luck.

Cam Newton is like a box of chocolates. You really never know what you’re going to get. In 2014 he finished as the QB17 and in 2016 he was the QB18. In his other five seasons, though, he finished as a top-four quarterback. With the weapons he now has in Carolina, I think he can be a stable week to week QB1, but I’m not willing to rank him as high as QB4 because his low floor is always hanging around.

Before last season, Alex Smith had never thrown more than 3,502 yards or 23 touchdowns in any season, and never finished higher than QB13 in fantasy. Tyreek Hill made him significantly more valuable in fantasy than he had ever been, but now he’s in Washington. I thought QB18 was slightly generous. QB10 is off the rails.

Matthew Stafford‘s lowest finish as a starter was QB15. He still has all the weapons he had last year, and there’s no reason to expect him to throw any less. He’s sixth in total pass attempts since 2010. QB15 is slightly disrespectful.

QB18 for Philip Rivers is even more disrespectful, but he’s underrated every year. He’s been QB14 or better for the past five years, and the Chargers are a better team than they have been in a while. He has one of the best wide receivers in football in Keenan Allen, and Mike Williams, the seventh-overall pick from 2017. Rivers hasn’t thrown less than 540 passes since 2009.

It might sound like a joke to say “Eli Manning is being underrated,” but with the weapons he has this year in Odell Beckham Jr (WR3), Sterling Shepard (WR45), Saquon Barkley (RB6), and Evan Engram (TE6), it’s hard to imagine all of them finishing where they’re being ranked and Manning somehow falling outside the top 20 quarterbacks.

Greg Olsen finished as the TE4 or better in three straight seasons before getting hurt last year. In those three years, he led all tight ends in targets, receptions, and yards. However, the Panthers have an extremely crowded group of pass catchers this season with Christian McCaffrey, DJ Moore, Curtis Samuel, and Devin Funchess, so Olsen may not be able to secure the 113 targets he’s averaged in healthy seasons with Cam Newton.

Jared Cook was a solid contributor in Oakland last season, but I’m not sure he deserves a spot in the TE1 conversation. He hasn’t coached in 10 years, but in Jon Gruden’s seven-year stint in Tampa Bay from 2002 to 2008, no tight end had more than 55 targets in a season.

Ben Watson had a magical season with Drew Brees in New Orleans in 2015. He caught 74 passes for 825 yards and six touchdowns and finished as the TE8 that season. He’s 37 now and Brees is 39, and he’ll have to compete with Michael Thomas, Cameron Meredith, Ted Ginn, and Alvin Kamara for targets. TE16 is a bit of a stretch.

On the official depth chart, Garrett Celek is listed as the first tight end and George Kittle the second. They’ll probably split snaps and also appear some on the field together, but his preseason injury isn’t helping his case. I was initially higher on Kittle, but TE17 seems like a safe ranking at the moment.

Hayden Hurst was the Ravens first-round pick. At 24 years old, many thought his age was a big issue since it generally takes a few years for a tight end to transition his game to the NFL level. Hurst may finish the season as the Ravens starter, but the tight end situation is still pretty murky there, and it’s not a situation I really want a piece of.

Vance McDonald is an attractive sleeper tight end if he can stay healthy. He’s listed as the Steelers starter but his Week 1 status is still up in the air. He’ll probably end up being a streamer you can grab when the matchup is right.

Expert Consensus Rankings vs. ESPN Pre-Draft Rankings
Expert Consensus Rankings vs. Yahoo! Pre-Draft Rankings

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Sam Schlesinger is a featured writer at FantasyPros. For more from Sam, check out his archive and follow him @avishai41.