“The Gambler”

One of the first pieces of advice anyone will tell you when joining a Fantasy Football League is that running backs are valuable and should be drafted early and often. On average most fantasy pools have close to 70-75% of the first 3 rounds dedicated to RB’s. Although the real strength of a fantasy team is built in the middle rounds, typically because everyone’s first three picks look fairly similar (RB, RB, QB or WR). Why not corner the market?

This strategy is called The Gambler, and for good reason. This strategy is not for people joining keeper a league, nor people that are conservative in nature, but if you’re patient enough you can dominate the draft board by swimming against the current. The idea behind this draft strategy is to help yourself to the top players of other categories after the first round. Your goal is to build a power attack through the air.

Depending on where you pick in the first round, your goal is to either draft a running back that you have little doubts about or the best wide receiver available. After which your immediate goal is to draft a top quarterback and two wide receivers (one if you took WR in the first round).

This is crazy talk for most Fantasy Football fans, but the fact of the matter is many people over value the running back position after the 1st round. The going consensus is that you need 2 or even 3 excellent RB’s to excel in Fantasy Leagues. =False

If you can corner the market and obtain the top QB and snag a couple elite WR’s, the second running back position can be filled anywhere, from a goal line powerback to a receiving halfback.

Drafting RB’s heavy early on usually leaves other areas of your team light or unequipped, typically because everyone is drafting in waves and around the 4th to 5th round. You see a complete flip in trends as now people address their glaring needs at Wide Receiver and Quarterback, panic sets in and players fly off the board. If you weren’t able to get your hands on a every down RB in the first round, but had a top WR, Drew Brees and then drafted yet another solid starting WR to your team, you would be able to cross off 3 major elements of your line-up. Remember the passing game is so much easier to predict and remains healthier than the Running Back position on average. As the rest of your draft has loaded up on RB’s (which history proves has a statistically high number of duds) now start selecting tier 2 WR’s and QB’s, you will have your pick of a high valued 4th round RB players that could likely be next years must-have 1st round running back studs.

Say what you want about depth at receiver in the league, but when you’re stuck with inconsistent weapons that let you down week after week you’ll wish you had drafted better. Remember there are 32 NFL teams; chances are you are going to get 2 starting Running Backs, and while people kill each other for RB’s early on you can quietly come away with a starting line up that will have little to no line-up guessing week after week. One of the best parts of this strategy is if you are successful in drafting a solid RB and the top Quarterback and two Receivers early on, you can then burn as many late round picks on sleeper running backs as you like, guilt free. Knowing you’re strong at all key positions, as opposed to trying to fill holes late in a pool, is always easier.

**The original article said to shoot for Chris Johnson in the late first round (around where he was going 8-9) draft Drew Bress and load up on the best WR’s.