Fantasy football rankings 2014: Top 150 overall

This year, it’s more complicated. In the SB Nation consensus rankings, only half of the top 10 are running backs. There are also three wide receivers, a tight end and a quarterback. On top of that, two of our seven writers don’t even want to pick running back first overall.

In short, 2014 draft strategies are far more interesting and diverse than their 2013 counterparts. RB/RB? QB/WR? I don’t know, TE/TE? Theoretically, they’re all on the table, and most of them have strong justifications.

Below, each ranker has given a bit of an explanation on early draft strategy. The first two rounds will ultimately dictate where your draft goes and what picks you make later. Come into your draft with an idea of what you want. And be ready to ditch that entirely. Because as much as we all have our strategies and plans, everyone else does too, and we can’t possibly hope to guess what theirs are. Be flexible. Your strategy isn’t handed down in stone tablets.

There are multiple ways to go about drafting your team in fantasy football, and after reading a variety of strategy articles throughout the offseason, I’m not sure I can definitively choose one as the best route to take. However, I have a few guidelines I’ll always follow when I pick my team.

1) Wait on quarterbacks

2) Keep bust rates and Value Based Drafting in mind

Statistics show running backs and wide receivers have high bust rates when you get toward the middle-to-late rounds of your drafts. You can’t just load up on running backs starting in Round 6 and expect someone to become a stud. It’s highly unlikely.

Value Based Drafting means you’re paying attention to how much a player is outscoring others at his position. There is a huge disparity between the top tight ends (Graham, Gronk, Thomas) and the rest of the position. If you get Graham, you’re likely winning your tight end matchup every week.

There’s a lot to keep an eye on. You don’t have to go RB-RB every time to start a draft, but you should address the position somewhat early. If you can start out your draft with one of the top running backs and a tight end like Thomas, you’re on your way to a solid team.

Basically, there’s no right way to draft. Know where you can find good value picks and remember which positions are scarcer. Do your homework and you should be on the right track.

There are a lot of good quarterbacks, and there is a stupid amount of good wide receivers. A lot of fantasy managers may actually end up finding out that they like their backup quarterback more than the person they drafted to be the starter, but the odds of finding a great running back after the first couple of rounds aren’t very good.

A savvy manager will draft a running back first, possibly second, and then even look to find a high-end backup and their handcuffs as soon as possible. The rest should fall into place.

There are plenty of right ways to draft a fantasy team, but there are even more wrong ways to do it.

To those mistaken owners who held their grudges, the best thing to keep in mind is that those who don’t learn from history are bound to repeat it. There’s a lot to be gained from the mistakes of others, but following a few simple guidelines can at least make your team competitive. Grabbing premier running backs early and quarterbacks in the mid-to-late rounds is a good place to start. Production from the wide receiver position isn’t difficult to find, and owners could do worse than wait to draft them.

This season, parody counters positional strategy. I’m not arguing against the method of knowing your targeted position beforehand, but I am arguing against the jumble of names that are being taken for the simple reason of filling a void. You might need that second starting RB, but why knight a meddling late-round guy when you could just add greater strength and depth elsewhere? This season, running back and wide receiver appear deeper than ever, and for that reason, I’m leaning toward the best overall player theory.

When I’m drafting, I usually stick to a plan of drafting the best player available within certain guidelines. I don’t like letting what others are doing influence my draft. If a position run starts to happen and it comes to my pick, I’m more than likely going to look at and pick what I already had in mind.

If I’m drafting early in a draft this year, I stick with the plan of RB-RB in the first couple of rounds, since it’s getting harder to find running backs who receive the majority of their teams’ carries/targets in the middle rounds who don’t have huge question marks. I don’t want to be stuck with doubts at the running back position. Having two backs who I can just plug in week after week takes away much of the deliberation time when it comes to setting a lineup.

If I’m drafting in the middle and late picks, I like to let the draft come to me and look for the best value. That may mean going RB-RB, RB-WR, RB-TE or even RB-QB. Much of it depends on the variables of the league setup: roster size, scoring rules, number of starters and flex/superflex spots, etc. I usually find that my first picks are the ones that require the most thought because what I’ll do later is based off of what I already have on my roster.

Nothing derails a fantasy team quite like injuries. Sure, we can’t identify which players are going to get hurt with a sense of certainty, but we can take some educated guesses. Secondly, championships are won by hitting home runs in the middle and late rounds of your drafts.

Those two reasons are why I tend to fall in love with drafting youth over experience. Younger guys are less likely to be hurt and the mystery factor gives them a higher upside than safer players with more than six years under their belt.