I’m back with the final version of my 2017 Fantasy Football Draft Guide. Once again we are approaching the season long draft with a value based approach. Rather than ranking the players individually and leaving you to figure out how to make that work, I like to value players against their ADP (average draft position) and look for the best path to a successful draft within the confines of current ADP data. In the sheet posted below, you will see a current ADP list for the 2017 season. This data comes from Fantasy Football Calculator and includes ADP data from August 26th and 27th. It should mostly reflect the recent injuries to Julian Edelman and Spencer Ware. Within the list I highlight players I consider over or undervalued and include notes as to why.
MOCK DRAFTS
If you go into your fantasy draft without preparation you are probably not going to do very well. Even my draft notes aren’t enough to save you if you are completely unprepared. One of the cool things I discovered this season is a handy app called DRAFT. It’s basically a new take on DFS in that they do everything via a snake draft style format. That site has in season one-week contests just like all the other DFS sites. Those are cool because it is as “shark free” of a format as I’ve seen for a DFS product. This season they launched their “Best Ball” concept which is really awesome. In the past, I’ve spent hours and hours on Yahoo and other free season long host sites running mock drafts. Inevitably there are a few people that don’t give a shit and ruin the meaningless mocks by taking kickers in the 1st round and doing otherwise stupid things. It’s also somewhat boring to do large numbers of mock drafts which are of no real consequence. The DRAFT app puts a new twist on mock drafting with their “Best Ball” concept. Best ball is a form of season long fantasy football where you draft a complete team via snake draft and then you don’t do anything. The format automatically grabs the top scorers from your team based on the positions available (QB, RB, RB, WR, WR, WR, TE). There are no waivers and there is no roster management. You simply draft it and forget it. They have 10 and 12 team best ball leagues with entry fees as low as $3. They pay out the top two or three teams in each of these leagues and trust me when I tell you that the competition is soft. I like the fact that they have slow (8 hours between picks) and fast (30 seconds between picks) draft options available. As a bonus, the app pings you whenever it’s your turn to draft. The strategy for best ball drafts is to try and build a team that is as resilient to injury. That means thinking about contingencies at every spot. I like to grab RB’s that are easily and clearly cuff-able. Have enough players at each position to withstand a couple of injuries. Best Ball is generally a game of attrition. By midway through the season, a good number of the teams will be stuck with no scores from positions where they got riddled with injuries.
**Bonus – We are going to put together a week 1 DFS Army Freeroll with DFS Army swag prizes. DRAFT has agreed to throw in an additional $2 in cash for every DFS Army member that registers a new depositing account there via the link above! Lets get 500 people in there and a $1000 DFS Army week one FREEROLL going!
Initial Observations and Basic Rules of Thumb
Let’s start with the settings. For the purposes of this column and my notes, I always assume in my ADP list and notes that league settings being used are as follows:
12 Team League 1 point or 1/2 point PPR with at minimum the following positions: QB, WR, WR, WR, RB, RB, TE
This season is interesting in the shift back to stud RB’s at the top of the draft. Last season, taking WR’s high was all the rage. The pendulum has swung back in the opposite direction for good reason. There just aren’t that many 3 down workhorse backs in the league at this moment so getting one of the very few available ones is a priority. David Johnson is in a Tier all by himself this season. Leveon Bell is a close second. After those two, I’m targeting Melvin Gordon ideally later in the first round as my bellcow.
Don’t be a sucker – let someone else waste early draft picks on the QB position. Wait until all of your starting skill positions are filled and you have one or two bench players before taking a QB. The position is so deep, it’s almost like Defense or Kicker at this point.
The best way to prepare for your draft is to grab the DRAFT app, run out a bunch of best ball slow drafts, use the notes below and let them play out. After a few mocks, you start to get a feel for how your teams look when you go RB or WR heavy early. There is no better way to prep for your actual season long draft!
Finally, remember that these players are listed in order of their Average ADP in 12 team PPR and 1/2 Point PPR Drafts. The goal is to use this sheet to navigate the draft. Just because a player is in red and listed as overvalued does not mean you can’t draft them if they fall below the listed ADP.
THE GEEK’S COMPLETE 2017 FANTASY DRAFT CHEAT SHEET & NOTES – UPDATED ON 8/27
CLICK HERE TO VIEW THIS LIST IN GOOGLE SHEETS/PRINTABLE FORMAT