The very first thing you must do before you draft is know your league rules. I shouldn't have to say this, you should instinctively want to know the ins and outs of your league's scoring system, lineup requirements, IR spots, waiver rules, etc. long before you start thinking about who to take. After that, you might think it's time to "plan" for your draft.
If by plan you mean go through a rank list of players and do a little research on guys you're not sure about, then knock yourself out. But if it's to glean whether you should "go Zero RB" or "wait on a QB," then you're just wasting your time. It's good to know all the different strategies, and even better to recognize which strategy you're going to go with based on how your first couple of picks are made.
But that's not the key to Fantasy draft nirvana. The biggest piece of wisdom I can impart on you is simple: Buy the dip. 1. When a player unexpectedly slides in your draft and you have the chance to get him, don't think twice about it.
When there's been bad news about a player before your draft -- an injury, an off-field incident, anything that makes him less popular in perception but not necessarily in reality. When that happens, don't be afraid to draft said player provided it's not something catastrophic and you're not taking him where he was before the injury/incident took place. Not all dips are created equal -- if it's getting an early rounder four spots past average draft position, or a mid-rounder 12 spots past average draft position, or if it's drafting a player with an injury tag when the news isn't bleak on his short-term future (meaning he'll be good for the majority of the season), it's a dip.
Taking advantage of these valuable dips should fuel your confidence in your roster building, not any specific strategy with a cutesy name. I'll take you through my mindset in each round for 2026 drafts. What I expect to happen, what you should expect to happen, and some players I'm targeting or avoiding based on the most up-to-date ADP as of late August.
Please remember this is for typical redraft one-QB leagues and not formats with exotic scoring. What to expect in half- and full-PPR: No more than five wide receivers, which means the majority of your league will take running backs first. This will especially be the case once you get toward the back half of Round 1 and the top four consensus wide receivers are long gone.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
