How to Build a Fantasy Football Cheat Sheet (2026)

If you spend all offseason researching sleepers, breakouts, and draft strategy but still enter your fantasy football draft with scattered notes and default rankings, you’re already behind your league mates. A fantasy football cheat sheet helps organize your rankings, targets, tiers, sleepers, and league settings into one streamlined draft board. According to FantasyPros analyst Andrew Erickson, the goal is simple: stop making panic picks and start drafting with a plan.

Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to build a fantasy football cheat sheet using the FantasyPros Cheat Sheet Creator, based entirely on Erickson’s walkthrough.

How to Build a Custom Fantasy Football Cheat Sheet for Your Draft

Let’s dive into how you can build a custom fantasy football cheat sheet to help you dominate your draft.

What Is a Fantasy Football Cheat Sheet?

A fantasy football cheat sheet is a customized draft board that combines:

Player rankings
League scoring settings
Roster requirements
Tiers
Sleepers and busts
Average Draft Position (ADP)
Personal draft notes

Instead of drafting from generic default rankings on ESPN or Yahoo, a cheat sheet gives you rankings tailored specifically to your league setup.

Erickson explains that your fantasy season is often “won or lost before Week 1 even kicks off,” which is why preparation matters so much.

Step 1: Sync Your Fantasy Football League

The first thing Erickson recommends is syncing your league to FantasyPros.

This is the foundation of building an effective cheat sheet because syncing automatically imports:

Scoring settings
Roster requirements
Superflex settings
Keeper rules
Salary cap settings
Draft format

Instead of manually entering all your league information, syncing allows the tool to instantly customize rankings to your exact format.

Why League Sync Matters

According to Erickson, synced leagues create a major advantage because the cheat sheet adapts specifically to your league rather than using generic rankings.

For example:

Superflex leagues prioritize quarterbacks correctly
Keeper league players are removed from the available player pool
Unique scoring systems adjust rankings automatically
Salary cap values become more accurate

Erickson specifically noted that syncing keeper leagues prevents managers from manually crossing off already-kept players during drafts.

Step 2: Create and Name Your Fantasy Football Cheat Sheet

After syncing your league, create a new cheat sheet.

Erickson recommends naming the cheat sheet after your league so it’s easy to identify if you play in multiple leagues.

Examples:

“Home League 2026”
“Superflex Dynasty”
“Auction League”
“Keeper League”

This becomes especially useful if you manage several formats simultaneously.

Step 3: Choose Your Fantasy Football Ranking Source

One of the most important parts of building a fantasy football cheat sheet is deciding what rankings power your board.

The FantasyPros Cheat Sheet Creator offers several ranking options, including:

Expert Consensus Rankings (ECR)

This is the default ranking system using rankings from more than 100 fantasy football experts. Erickson explains that ECR is free to use and works well for most standard leagues.

Custom Expert Rankings

Premium users can select rankings from specific analysts.

For example, Erickson mentions selecting his own rankings as the primary source for his cheat sheets.

Projection-Based Rankings

Projection rankings are especially useful for:

Superflex leagues
IDP leagues
Tight-end premium leagues
First-down scoring formats
Scott Fish Bowl-style scoring systems

Erickson emphasized that projection-based rankings help identify edges in unusual scoring systems where default platform rankings often fail.

Import Your Own Rankings

FantasyPros also allows users to upload their own rankings via Excel or spreadsheet import.

This is useful if:

You create personal rankings
You prefer another analyst’s rankings
You combine rankings from multiple sources

Step 4: Add Tiers to Your Cheat Sheet

One of Erickson’s biggest recommendations is organizing players into tiers.

Fantasy football tiers help you identify:

Position drop-offs
Value pockets
When to wait on a position
When a positional run is coming

Instead of focusing only on player rankings, tiers help you understand the difference between groups of players.

For example:

Tier 1 RBs
Tier 2 RBs
Mid-range WR2s
Late-round quarterback values

FantasyPros allows users to:

Import default tiers
Create custom tiers
Move players between tiers manually

Step 5: Tag Fantasy Football Sleepers, Targets, and Busts

One of the more unique cheat sheet features Erickson highlighted is the ability to add custom tags and emojis to players.

Popular tag ideas include:

Targets
Sleepers
Busts
Avoids
Breakouts
Handcuffs

Instead of writing long notes during a draft, tags allow you to quickly identify players you want to prioritize or avoid.

Erickson explained that this keeps your draft board clean while still helping you remember your strongest takes.

Step 6: Add Notes and ADP Data

FantasyPros cheat sheets also allow users to add:

Personal notes
Expert notes
Average Draft Position (ADP)
Expert Consensus Rankings (ECR)

Erickson specifically mentioned that seeing both ADP and ECR together helps identify value opportunities during drafts.

For example:

A player ranked significantly higher than ADP may be a value
A player with inflated ADP may be overpriced

This becomes especially helpful when trying to avoid reaching too early while still landing your favorite targets.

Step 7: Test Your Cheat Sheet in Mock Drafts

Once your cheat sheet is complete, Erickson recommends testing it inside the FantasyPros Mock Draft Simulator.

This allows you to:

Practice draft strategies
Learn player value ranges
Test roster builds
Understand positional runs
Identify where players are commonly drafted

Erickson describes the FantasyPros “tool trifecta” as:

Cheat Sheet Creator
Mock Draft Simulator
Draft Assistant

Each tool feeds into the next:

Build your rankings
Practice with mock drafts
Use the Draft Assistant during your live draft

Step 8: Use Your Cheat Sheet During Your Live Draft

The final step is actually bringing your cheat sheet into your real fantasy football draft.

According to Erickson, this prevents common draft mistakes like:

Panic picks
Forgetting sleepers
Drafting from outdated rankings
Ignoring positional value
Overreacting to draft runs

He also emphasized that synced leagues and Expert Sync rankings help ensure your rankings stay updated throughout draft season.

Best Fantasy Football Cheat Sheet Tips

Here are the biggest takeaways from Erickson’s walkthrough:

Sync Your League First

This is the most important step because it customizes everything to your format.

Use Tiers Instead of Raw Rankings

Tiers help you react during drafts instead of blindly following a list.

Customize for Your Scoring System

Projection-based rankings provide a major edge in unique formats.

Practice With Mock Drafts

Testing your cheat sheet helps identify weak spots before your real draft.

Add Personal Tags and Notes

Simple visual reminders help you stay organized under pressure.

Final Thoughts on Building a Fantasy Football Cheat Sheet

The best fantasy football cheat sheet isn’t just a rankings list — it’s a customized draft strategy built specifically for your league.

Andrew Erickson repeatedly emphasized that preparation creates an edge over league mates drafting from default rankings or outdated notes.

By syncing your league, customizing rankings, creating tiers, tagging targets, and practicing with mock drafts, you can enter draft day with a clear plan instead of scrambling when the clock starts ticking.

And as Erickson put it at the end of the walkthrough:

“If you ain’t cheating, you ain’t trying.”

Check out the full video for How to Build a Custom Fantasy Football Draft Cheat Sheet: