Fantasy football tiers have become a ubiquitous talking point in the fantasy football landscape. You’ll hear them mentioned in just about every podcast you listen to or article you read. They’re big and bright blue in the expert consensus rankings (ECR). But what exactly do these tiers mean, and how should you be using them to dominate your fantasy football drafts? That’s what this article is all about.
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Fantasy Football Tiers Primer
What is a Tier in Fantasy Football?
The first thing to know about tiers is that they don’t exist in a vacuum. Specifically, you will usually find tiers in a set of rankings or even replace traditional rankings. Some analysts may have their own specific definitions of tiers, but for the most part, the definition is simple: A tier is a group of players who have roughly interchangeable values.
This can be best understood with an example. According to ECR at the time of writing, the top three half-PPR receivers for 2025 are Ja’Marr Chase, Justin Jefferson and CeeDee Lamb, in that order. However, all three players are in the same tier, the first tier of receivers. This means that, according to a consensus of experts, these players are worth roughly the same amount. And they are all meaningfully more valuable than Puka Nacua, the first member of Tier 2, which consists of nine receivers. That’s all there is to it.
How to Use Tiers
Now that we’ve covered what tiers are, it’s time to break down all the ways you can use them to your advantage in fantasy drafts. As it turns out, tiers are an incredibly useful tool, so there are lots of them.
Know When It’s OK to Reach
One of the best ways to use tiers is to double-check when it is OK to go with your gut (or your heart) and reach for a player. If you have tier-based rankings that you trust, it’s usually not a good idea to cross a tier gap. On the other hand, it’s usually fine to pick any given player in a tier above any other player in that tier, even if the player you select is ranked lower.
For another example, let’s jump right back to ECR, but this time take a look at the quarterback rankings. Jalen Hurts is the QB4 in these rankings. But he’s in Tier 1, along with Josh Allen, Jayden Daniels and Lamar Jackson. That means you can take him as high as the first quarterback off the board without crossing over tiers, so it’s probably a fine decision. On the other hand, you probably shouldn’t take Joe Burrow, the consensus QB5, ahead of Hurts. Even though they are just one spot apart in positional rankings, that tier break is what matters.
Sticking to this rule of thumb also naturally illuminates another good fantasy football draft principle: You should be more comfortable reaching the deeper you get into a given draft. Every (or nearly every) tier-based ranking system will have relatively small tiers at the top and relatively large tiers in the later rounds.
This makes sense, as it’s easier to compare the top fantasy players to one another. Players available in later rounds have more uncertain profiles and ranges of outcomes, making them more interchangeable. If you want to make sure you get a Giants receiver on your team, it’s much better to reach for Wan’Dale Robinson (part of a 31-player tier in overall ECR) in the 13th round than Malik Nabers (part of a nine-player tier) in the first round.
Pick From the Bottom of Positional Tiers
Tier-based rankings can also be very helpful in informing you of when to target certain positions in your draft. In general, it’s always best to pick players from the bottom (or near the bottom) of position tiers, rather than the top. This allows you to maximize the value of every single pick.
Once again, the easiest way to understand this approach is through an example. Say you are on the clock in the early eighth round of a 12-team league. You’re feeling good at running back and receiver, so you want to grab a quarterback or a tight end. According to your ECR-based cheatsheet, the top signal-caller available is Kyler Murray, while the top tight end available is Evan Engram. You like both players and would be happy with either as your starter. You could simply take the top player in your overall rankings. However, your team will likely be better in the long run if you take into account where each player lands in their positional tiers.
Engram is the final player in Tier 2 of the consensus tight end rankings. Murray, on the other hand, is the first member of a very large Tier 3 in the consensus quarterback rankings. If you take Murray and Engram is selected before your next pick, you’ll be stuck selecting your TE1 from a not-so-appealing group of Tier 3 tight ends. But if you pass on Murray and take Engram, you’ve locked in a Tier 2 tight end and should still be able to also grab a solid Tier 2 quarterback within the next couple of rounds.
This approach can also be helpful in more complex scenarios, especially when you have two picks close together. Say you are picking 10th in a 12-team draft, so you have the 34th and 39th overall picks. The top players on your board when it is your pick at 34 overall are Alvin Kamara, Omarion Hampton, Marvin Harrison Jr. and Terry McLaurin, in no particular order. However, Kamara and Hampton are the last players in your cheat sheet’s third tier of running backs, while Harrison Jr. and McLaurin open up the fourth tier of receivers, which includes five other players who are still on the board.
If you select a receiver with your first of these two picks, there is a chance both Kamara and Hampton are selected on the turn, and you miss out on the third tier of backs. But if you pick one of the two backs, you are still guaranteed to get a Tier 4 receiver when you pick in the fourth round, even if it isn’t your favorite member of the group.
Of course, this strategy only works as long as you believe in your tiers. But if you do, you can extract a ton of free value by thinking this way throughout your draft. You can pass on Josh Allen in the second and grab Jalen Hurts, who is ranked in the same tier, at the end of the third. You can make sure to snag Tony Pollard as your RB3 when he is the last of the Tier 4 running backs remaining. Drafting from the bottom of positional tiers allows you to avoid overpaying for roughly equivalent players or falling prey to dangerous positional runs in your draft.
Target Tiers in Trades
So far, I’ve just talked about how to use tiers when you are on the clock. But tiers can also be helpful in leagues that allow draft pick trades. If you view a set of players as in the same tier, you can gain “free” value by trading down to the bottom of that tier. Alternatively, if you perceive a large tier drop just ahead of one of your picks, it’s probably worth seeing if you can pay a slight premium to jump up to the bottom of that tier.
A great example of this strategy can be found by looking back at this year’s rookie draft class for dynasty leagues. After Ashton Jeanty as the consensus 1.01, four players were competing to be the second-overall pick in Superflex drafts: Cam Ward, Omarion Hampton, Travis Hunter and Tetairoa McMillan.
In my mind, all four of these players were roughly interchangeable in value. So, wherever I had the second, third or fourth overall pick, I attempted to trade down to the 1.05. If a different manager in my league had fallen in love with any of those four players and was willing to part with a real asset to go get them, I was able to get something in return for moving down and still ending up with a player I viewed as roughly equivalent to whoever I would have selected at 1.02.
Of course, this strategy does work best at the beginning of drafts. By the time you get more than a few rounds into any given draft, a surprise pick or two will likely have completely disrupted your expectations of how the draft “should” go. I don’t recommend trading up to the 50th overall pick because you view a huge dropoff between the top 50 players and the 51st-best player. Chances are, one of your perceived top 50 players will fall to you anyway.
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Ted Chmyz is a fantasy football contributor for FantasyPros.com. Find him on Twitter and Bluesky @Tchmyz for more fantasy content or to ask questions.